March 7, 2005:

Thanks to Allen Craig who is researching the families and geography of
Concession 2, O.F., Gloucester Township:

Hi Al,
 
I found the Allen papers I had. The following is pulled together from various sources.
... Al Craig

 
Early Deveopment of Concession II, Ottawa Front, Gloucester Township
 
Conc. II lies between Ogilvie and Innes roads and stretches from St Laurent 
to the Cumberland line.
There were 7 Families in Conc. II in 1834 according  to the assessment rolls 
for that year. Three of these are accounted for.  The Phair family was on lot 26, 
Craig on Lot 24, and Allen on the west half of Lot 23.  The best information I 
have now is that the Moxley family were sharing  Lot 24. This is not confirmed. 
Neither have I found firm locations for these families: Coombes, Armstrong or Johnston.
 
These earliest settlers were probably all confined to the lots lying to the west 
of Greens Creek, or to the Blackburn area.  The creek must have formed a significant 
natural barrier at the time with very steep unstable banks and the land to the east 
of it  for several miles was  the worst sort for road building or much else muck and 
clay. My information is that it was not until 1878 that a serious attempt was made 
to link the east half of Conc II, (i.e. Blackburn),  with the west by way of what 
is now Innes Rd. Until then everything east of the creek accessed Ottawa via 
Bearbrook and Montreal roads.
 
 It seems cetain that the first road into Conc.II was a forced road running from 
 Cummings Bridge along the high ground to Innes. Present day remnants are 
 Montgomery in Vanier and the Cyrville Rd. The general line of this between MacArthur 
 and St Laurent shows up as abandonned on Beldens 1879 map. This route makes sense 
 as being both the shortest and the one with the easiest grades and the fewest swampy 
 areas or creeks to cross. Once you got off the flood plain at Cummings it would 
 have been all high ground until you got to about what is now Donald St. and then 
 it would have started up again at Ogilvie. No other route would have be as easy. 
 I do not know if this was purposefully cut as a  settllement road or if it developed 
 'naturally' for the above reasons or if it was cut for some other reason 
 (timber or aggregate for the canal perhaps); I do know that those three early 
 settlers built along Cyrville Rd not on the front or back concessions
 
The documents I have show that Richard Allen purchased the west half of Lot 23 for 
40 pounds in 1833 from the county sherrif who had seized it in 1832, the original 
grantee was Anne Dawe (or Dow or Howe the ms. I have is badly blotted)  According 
to the 1881 census Richard Allen was born in England and about 21 years old in 1833. 
He routinely mortgaged the farm every few years only to pay it off and then repeat 
the cycle. After his death his wife Elizabeth continued this practise and also 
sold off small pieces especially in the north half after the railroad line cut off 
a section in the 1890s.
 
William Phair was born in Ireland in 1799 according to the 1881 census. By that 
time, he had sold off most of the farm,  the west half to William Ogilvie about 
1842 and the south 50 acres to his son Robert Phair in 1863. Another son Thomas 
inherited the north 50 on William Phairs death in 1883.
 
It is very difficult to get a real sense of the land today, so much of it has been 
changed by the constuction of Highway 417, for instance when I was a boy the stetch 
from the split to Cyrville Rd. was actually the highest part of the Conc west of Blair; 
now look at it.
Progess eh!!
 
I hope this is of interest 
Regards
 
... Al Craig