North Gower Township, Carleton County, Upper Canada
January 24, 2008:
We already have many pioneer families who settled in North Gower Township on our web site.
They can be found by searching for the word "Gower", without the quotes, on our main web
page at http://www.bytown.net. Or, as usual, you can search by surname.
Bytown or Bust will be expanding to include all of the townships between Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada and Kingston, Ontario. The new townships will be those which front on both sides
of the Rideau River / Rideau Canal system in the 1800's.
One pioneer family in North Gower Township came from County Wexford, Ireland
in the 1820's and, after a brief time in Beckwith Township, moved to North Gower,
to a farm just south of the village of Wellington, today known as Kars.
To see a map of North Gower Township in 1879, see Belden's Atlas (digital version).
The farm of William Willis and Esther Leach and their neighbours
can be seen on the map below:
January 26, 2008:
I just spotted John Hanahan on the North Gower map.
Hanrahan searchers should consider this spelling and search in North Gower Ontario.
I've seen many spelling variations of this name.
... Alexa Pritchard
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As far as I can tell, there was no Catholic Church in North Gower Township in the
1800's. The few Catholic families (Hanrahan, Goodall, etc.) attended church at either
St. Philip's in Richmond or St. Patrick's at Fallowfield (Nepean Township). Recently
I've been going through the Drouin records at ancestry.ca for St. Brigid's Church
on the River Road in Osgoode Township. This church was built c. 1870, and with the
"new bridge" across the River at Wellington (see map) and the new church, many folks
began going to St. Brigid's.
A prominent French Canadian family in North Gower at that time was the Laplante family
who were godparents and witnesses for many of the local Irish Catholic families.
... Al
March 14, 2008:
North Gower United Church
Photo taken on March 13, 2008, a year of several record snowfalls
April 1, 2008:
Map of the Village of North Gower, Ontario in 1879
(see Church location on map following)
Source: McGill University Digital Maps
Names on map: James Trimble, Andrew Trimble, William Trimble, Thomas Craig, John Wright,
Lewis Cayes / Cayis, J. Murphy, T. Mills, O'Laughlan, William Pettapiece, Cryderman,
James Craig, Donahue, Alexander Callender, David Barrows.
April 8, 2008:
Irish Emigration from the North Gower, Ontario, Canada area to Howard County, Iowa
Thanks to Lynn Logue for the following:
From "The History of Assumption Parish, " Cresco, State of Iowa, USA:
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church dates from the year 1858, making
it the oldest Catholic Church in Howard County. Four pioneer Catholic Families from
North Gore [sic], Canada moved to the area about that time. Their names were: Ryan,
Welsh, Hannegan / Hannigan, and Christmas. Masses were celebrated in their homes by missionary
priests from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, USA, and by Father Clement Lowrey, pastor
of the Catholic Church in Decorah. When neither was available the four families boarded
a wagon and drove to Spillville, 20 miles away to attend Mass. The original four
families were soon joined by another twelve families named: Long, Schaefer, Mullen,
Sweet, Carroll, Donahue, Glass, Ploff (Plouffe?), Logue, Conry, Barnes, and Reynolds.
Together they built the first church and established a cemetery at Vernon Springs in
1863 and 1664.
... Lynn Logue
June 19, 2008:
CARSONBY Village
The village of Carsonby is located between Manotick and North Gower village. Leslie Grauer
is researching her Carson ancestors after whom Carsonby was named:
Map Source: Belden's 1879 Historical Atlas of Carleton County
Names for search engine: Moffitt / Moffatt Craig Nixon
Kennedy Carson Clark Bradley Goodall
Hi Al and John,
Al, you are a historical keener, for sure! Getting out there.... Thank you
for your venue (your excellent website) to share my research findings. I
hope that you enjoyed the drive to the location of my gggrandparents'
homestead. ... nice time of year to venture into the countryside around
Ottawa! It IS a small world, but one with a VERY large history of
inter-twined early Eastern Ontario families. I think that starting a new
Carsonby page would be a fine idea, hopefully linked to North Gower data, if
possible, as some people who lived there early were EASTMANs (I think they
were there first), CRAIGs, ORRs, MCEWANs, MONTGOMERYs, MOFFATTs etc.(see
1852 census) and identified with North Gower Twp. vs. Carsonby, per se.
Some of these other families have earlier roots in the Upper Ottawa Valley,
the U.S. and the Cornwall area as loyalists and settled there before the
CARSONs. Carsonby was settled mostly in the 1830's, although land grants
were distributed, but many not "improved" earlier, so were sold. I am
fairly sure that my gggrandparents, Eliza Carson and Thomas Craig held land
on the corners near the sign that you have filmed!, if one compares the lots
and maps and census records across times. The Rideau Archives in North
Gower sells (at least they did in 2003/4), a book written by a descendent of
the Carsons. This book is also online at http://www.nosracines.ca/ and has
photos of my family and some others from the area. The senior Gloucester
CARSONs are also mentioned in Robert Gourlay's 1896 book, also online,
around p.105-111, as I recal (online)l. Personally, I have sooo much data
about the descendents that I have not yet found the time to verify and enter
it all into my database, but I do have the data from other sources!
In 1852 at least, children Robert, James, Charles and Eliza (m. Thomas
CRAIG) CARSON lived in/near Carsonby. They probably received the town
namesake by their numbers, local names for locales or connections, as some
relatives (CRAIG) were reeves. Other siblings settled in Finch Twp.,
Stormont County and Cumberland, south and east of Ottawa, as well in the US.
All were born in Ireland (most likely County Tyrone) and immigrated with
their parents and other siblings to Gloucester circa 1829 - 1834. Their
parents were John CARSON and Mary CUMMINGS. My research suggests that
Mary's brother or her close relative was Charles CUMMINGs of Cummings Island
in Ottawa, as Charles appears to have resided with his "brother-in-law" ???
(having no land, but enumerated with them) when he first immigrated in the
mid 1830's). Both "brothers-in-law" initially were settled in "The Gore" of
Gloucester in the mid-30's, but then John purchased the Montreal & Carson
Road quarry / farm property and Charles bought "the Island" before 1840. Many
roads in Gloucester (in Ottawa suburbs east of today's St. Laurent shopping
Centre up to the Carson Grove neighbourhood) are named for the Carsons and
Cummings relatives, Borthwick, Carson and Ogilvie Roads being among these.
When I took my children for bike rides and ground-hog watching on/near
Carson Road in the 1970/80s, I had no clue that I was walking on my ggggrand
parents' land! How amazing is this!!!! Neither did I pay attention to the
origins of the road names we drove on them going about our lives as a busy
family. After all, I and my parents were born in western Canada and I had
only vague inklings of my Ontario roots at that time. Who would have known
that my very own grandparents were married there, in CARSONBY, even though
they both resided in Alberta in 1891, had I not researched this?
In another e-mail, I can link you to my SMIRLE and COWLEY ancestors (who also have
roads and records in Ottawa [near Richmond Road etc.] and links to the
Carsonby families.
... Leslie
July 1, 2008:
Happy Canada Day !!
The 1879 map above shows the village of Kars (Wellington). Just south of Kars, on the Rideau
River, are several farms belonging to the Lindsay family. The following photograph, taken in 1914, from
Lindsay's Wharf, shows the family of Ephraim Lindsay. Mr. Lindsay built this boat and named it
the "Kars". It's an amazing example of the contemporary boat-building skills of persons
who lived along the Rideau Canal System. Important boat building businesses opened
up in Manotick, Smiths Falls and Portland. In 1958 we bought a 14 foot wood plank / lapstrake
boat built by the Mason Company in Smiths Falls. It was called a dory. A few years later, I
bought a real fast hydroplane for $200.00 from the Dowsett boat builders in Portland.
I was underage and my parents were not impressed about it, all summer. Was it fun, though!
Photo Source (below):On a Sunday Afternoon -- Classic Boats on the Rideau Canal, page 35
July 11, 2008:
The following is an excerpt from an article by Mr. Alec Ball. The article appears
in the current (June 2008) edition of the Newsletter of the Osgoode Township Historical
Society and Museum. The Wellington Bridge, also known as the Lorne Bridge crossed the
Rideau River from the town of Kars / Wellington to Osgoode Township. In 1961 this
bridge was replaced by a new one, built about a mile towards downstream towards Ottawa.
Surnames for search engine: Marquis de Lorne, Duke of Argyle, Adam Easton, George L. Dickinson,
J. R. Craig, Charles Lindsay, William Kerr, Robert Easton, Sir John A. McDonald, James Cullen,
John Rochester, A.J. Baker, John Craig, James Mills, John Reeve.
The contractor was Thomas Bingham, son of Samuel Bingham (sometime mayor of Ottawa). The
first bridge master was Stephen Martin and he was succeeded by McKenzie Eastman.
E-mail Alexa Pritchard, Lynn Logue, Leslie Grauer and Al Lewis
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