of COVEY HILL
Hemmingford Township
Quebec Canada
Châteauguay Valley Pioneers
"....a community distinct from every other in the
province of Quebec. With the Eastern Townships, with which they are often
erroneously classed, the English-speaking settlements of the district of
Beauharnois have no affinity. The first settlers of the Eastern Townships were
Americans, and between the customs, speech, and habits of their descendants and
those of the people who live to the south of them there is no material
difference, but they who dwell by the Chateaugay and its tributaries are of Old
Country stock, and in character, ways of life, and speech present nearly as
striking a contrast to the Americans, who are divided from them by an imaginary
boundary-line, as they do to the French Canadians who are found scattered among
them and who hem them in to the north and east."
Robert Sellar, in "The
History of the County of Huntingdon
and of the Seigniories of Châteauguay & Beauharnois" 1888.
I have & own one lot of land in the township of Hemmingford and moved in to it the 18th day of April 1797, in Lot No 32, 1st con. I have built a house and barn, and outhouses, has no bearing orchard & between 60 and 70 acres under improvement. I have complied with the requirements of Government. Praying His Excellency and the Honorable Council to take into consideration and to be graciously pleased to grant my family the lots of land I am entitled to by His Majesty's __ [?? (word faded away/washed out)]. And your petitioner will ever __ [? pray ; praise ; ? (smudged ink)].
James O'NeillMy family consists of 3 males & 2 females. Hugh, Thomas, and William O'Neill.
Wm O'Neill -- My father James O'Neill was a native of Limerick and was educated with a view to enter the ministry of the Church of England. Why that intention was abandoned I do not know, but he came to America before the Revolution and married in Pennsylvania either an Irish woman or of Irish parents. He served on the British side in the Revolution and was at one battle at least. When he left, he came to Canada and lived some time at Odelltown and at Montreal. Receiving a grant of 200 acres in Havelock from the Government he moved to it. [Patent reads Lot 32, and is dated 18th March 1799]. It must have been in the Spring of '99 that he moved with his family to the Hill. 3 of us have been born in it, and I am the youngest - 77. His shanty was built opposite Capt. Barr's and he had a small house behind for his workshop, for he had learned to be a blacksmith. Hamilton was my first teacher. He has a small house back of James McDiamid's lot and taught us in young Tom Stafford's house. Palmer Stafford moved to John Hamilton's lot and died there. Wm Brisbin built the first church and schoolhouse. It was a block log house and stone where the Union church now is. That would be about 60 years ago. Brisbin was a Methodist, but any minister was free to preach in it, and Free Will Baptists and Presbyterians also came, all from the other side of the Line. Wild beasts were very plenty. I have heard my father say the only time he was really frightened by them was one evening when returning from Champlain with a bushel of flour on his back a band of wolves rushed past in the bush very near him when he was close to his home. The Brisbins came from Pennsylvania. There were 2 brothers. James lived in Lake Champlain; his wife and my mother were sisters. Wm Brisbin came to the Hill a few years after my father. John Terry now lives on his lot. The Staffords came after my father and so did Green on Sam Barr's lot, and was succeeded by Jordon. Gray was on Geo Hamilton's lot before Stevenson. Gray was Irish and was the 1st settler from the Old Country, No he was first in Sherrington. The first time I went to the city was when I was 13 years old. I went in company with my brother Henry and my stepmother. The potash was on a sled. Our first half was at John McNaughton's, an American, who lived in the Beechridge, where we renewed the runners of our sled, having brot with us an auger and ax. My stepmother made a good deal of butter and she sent it to the city on horseback, a tub in either end of a bay, slung across the beast. One time she had 3 tubs, and to balance the odd one, stones were put in the other two of the bay. She rode one home and I the other. In coming back we found a freshet had swept away the bridge across the English river. Dairo Goodwin, who then lived on the Lambi place, heard us, and took our goods across a hemlock tree that had been felled and ourselves, and swam the horse across. The fire in 1825 did no damage on the hill, but I remember distinctly that the lungs of a beast we killed soon after for our winter provision were black from inhaling the smoke(!) Provisions were often scarce with us, paticularly in the Spring and before harvest. My stepmother in making a Johnny cake (only water and meal) would cut it into equal portions, and each got there share and no more. One time we had only bran bread and ate along with them some turnips than had been frozen in the cellar. We used to fry wild leeks and cut greens to help out our diet. My stepmother both spun and weaved, for she had a loom, and made each us of us a woollen suit for winter and a linen one for summer, for we raised flax. Our clothes were generally pants and shirt, with a blouse sometimes. In summer we always went barefoot. My stepmother's name was Smith, and she came from Hemmingford. My father went seldom from home, he did not care for business and left the management to his wife. He was a good scholar and when the neighbors had any writing to do, they came to him. He always did work in his line, but I am afraid got little pay for many years. He did not make potash for a living while after settling, probably from difficulty in sending to Montreal. James Silfillan came soon after my father. James Allen now lives on his place. Sam Covey came, I think, the year before my father and his shanty stood near -- a little east of -- where Chas McDiarmid's house is. The road, or rather track, went north from his home passed Silfillans and turned West at Stockwell's. -- Colsen now uses it. -- My father was buried in the graveyard at the Union church, which is the oldest in this section. My turn was called to leave home during the war, but my father did not leave home. The shanties were roofed with bark, stripped off in the Spring, when it comes freely. Covey was a short and very tough man. He lived by hunting and trapping, and stayed several years on the Hill. The 28/12/82 Stafford came in, a good while after us. [McDiamid's lot is 33.]
Headquarters, Boston27 August, 1775
This is to certify that the bearer James O'Neill, having voluntarily engaged to serve in His Majesty's Royal Regiment of Highland Emigrants, raised and established for the just cause of quelling and suppressing the unnatural and unhappy civil war in America, agreeable to His Majesty's most gracious intentions, signified by the Earl of Dartmouth, Secy of State for America, and with the consent and approbation of his Excellency the Commander-in-Cheif, that such emigrants from North Briton, as well as other loyal subjects, should be considered in the most favourable light, and at the conclusion of the unhappy civil (for which period only they are obliged to serve) shall be entitled to 200 acres of vacant or forfeited land, together with 50 acres more in addition for every head the family may consist of, the whole to be surveyed and patented gratis without any expense to the said grantees. And for his spirited loyalty when peace and due order is established in the islands and continent of North America, shall be entitled to a final discharge from said regiment and from His Majesty's Military service.
Given under my hand and seal, time and place, as first above mentionedJohn Small MajorR R H Emigrants
* 1883 date of William O'Neill's written entry is an approximation based on his stated age of 77 and his April 1806 birth date as listed in Hemmingford, Quebec Cemetery Records.
Luke DeWolf -- I am a cabinet maker. In 1835 I was employed at Champlain, and like every body else there, sympathized with the Rebels. One morning they came to me to carry a message to Dr Côté, who had left the night before with a small force, to the effect that the British had wind of his movements and that Col Scriver was advancing with a strong body to meet him. I got on horseback and rode as hard as I could, but it was nearly IV before I reached the invading force. I had hardly given my message when the Volunteers came in sight. Instead of withdrawing his men to a swamp in their rear and giving them shelter, Côté let them stand in the rain
Photocopies of cited "Notes" purchased April 2003 from:
These handwritten notes are on ledger pages, or have been written in a ledger book; each page is separated into two columns; page number is written in righthand column, top of page.
© 2003 Carol L. Tallman Jones
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