The Last Laird of MacNab: An Episode in the Settlement of MacNab Township, Upper Canada
History
The Last Laird of MacNab: An Episode in the Settlement of MacNab Township, Upper Canada
MacNab, Archibald, 1778?-1860
Both parties had temporarily ceased from hostilities. There was a
cessation of arms--a slight truce--awaiting the action of the
Government. Lord Durham had gone to England. Sir John Colborne was
installed as Governor-General. Foiled in his efforts to get his patent,
either upon the lands of his settlers, or upon any other lands at
present, the McNab was concocting fresh schemes to aggrandize himself
and to punish his refractory followers. Arnprior had been abandoned by
Simpson, Mittleberger & Gould. The latter, for his share of the
broken-down company, took possession of the _George Buchanan_ steamboat,
and ran her regularly from the head of the Chats to the Cheneaux. The
grist-mill at Arnprior had gone out of repair, and as no one was at that
place to look after the property, it was fast falling into decay. The
mills were regularly plundered. They had been assigned to the
Middletons, in Liverpool. Everything bore the aspect of ruin and
desolation. By degrees the gearing of both mills disappeared, and also
the boarding and frame of the grist-mill was gradually being carried
off, and only a skeleton remained. Mr. Minor Hillard took possession of
Tom Landon's vacated tavern, without question or molestation; and he
alone was the only person living at Arnprior, and who pretended to take
some kind of surveillance of the place. Its ancient glory was gone. The
buildings were in ruins, and by sheer neglect were fast hastening to
decay. The people in the township were, however, notwithstanding all
their discouragements, slightly advancing in the onward march of
progress. A minister had been sent for to Scotland, and in response to
their repeated applications, the Foreign Mission Board sent out the Rev.
Alex. Mann, who took the three congregations of Fitzroy, McNab and
Pakenham, and preached tri-weekly in each station. The settlers now
prepared to build a church. After much consultation, a site was fixed
upon the lot of Mrs. James Stewart, on the 2nd concession, and
subscription lists were sent through the townships of McNab and Horton
to raise funds. In the interim, large barns of some of the settlers in
Canaan during the summer, and the dwelling-houses in winter, were
improvised for the purpose of temporary worship. The logs for the new
church were got out during the ensuing winter, and it was completed in
1840. The building is still used as a place of worship for the
Presbyterians of the Kirk in McNab. It is clap-boarded, painted,
well-seated, and a comfortable house of worship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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