Woodstock, Ont. 1848
From "The Church The Gaels Built" by W. Stewart Lavell. Excerpt from pg. 4, "Beginnings".
Our thanks to Allan J. Gillies for sending this in...
Just how many Gaelic Scots were in Woodstock at the time is difficult
to know, but in 1848 a large group of them came to the community as
emigrants - many of them not knowing a word of English. We are indebted
to Miss Isabelle McLaren, secretary of Knox Church as this is being
written, for an interesting account of the arrival of one such group.
It is attributed to one D. McPherson and reads as follows:
"One
fine morning in the spring of 1848 many families of emigrants from
South Uist (an island off the coast of Scotland) were driven upon the
Green. This spot of land was the five acres bounded on the south by
Dundas Street, on the north by Hunter Street, on the east by Graham
Street and on the west by Light Street. It sloped upwards toward the
old Court House and was covered with thick green sod, with a dirty,
stagnant pool of water at the south end.
"Eight or ten wagons
were unloading human beings - old men and old women, children of all
ages, with literally nothing save the clothes on their backs - nothing
to eat and no money with which to buy food - faces and hands dirty and
their hair a mass of tangles - their clothes smelling strongly of ship
tar. Many of them men wore jackets of navy blue with breeks to match,
and bonnets, either Glengarry, Balmoral or Tam O'Shanter. The women
wore the regulation blue-black short fishing skirt and a blouse. Many
of them were bare footed, bare headed, or perhaps a shawl thrown over
their heads. Only one woman wore a mutch.
"Theses people had to
put up with the poorest accommodation aboard ship - the same on land,
hustled and bustled through from the sea to whatever part of the country
the emigration officer thought fit to send them. No person offered
them water, soap or towels, and they had not the wherewith to buy the
necessities of life nor enough knowledge of English to demand them. The
emigration agents did not take the trouble to inform the municipalities
that emigrants were coming. Newspapers were scarce and dear.
"These people were bundled off the wagons on the cold, frosty grass with
loud and eargrating oaths and curses. People of the village turned out
and looked on with a sort of dazed astonishment in their eyes. The
authorities took no action, but such men as Angus Campbell, John
Sutherland, Peter McLeod, James Barclay, William McKay (stone cutter),
Elder George Gunn and his three sons (Lauchlan, James and Hugh), John
Maxwell (printer), Donald MacPherson, an Elder in the Kirk, and others
just as good and true, formed themselves into an emergency committee and
went up to the Green.
"At the first word of Gaelic spoken the
men came forth with their bonnets in their left hand, their right hand
outstretched for the friendly grasp. Most of the women were sitting with
their heads in their hands, suffering from hunger and terrible
loneliness, but when they heard the Gaelic salutation "Peace be Here"
(in Gaelic a loose translation is "sith dhuibh"), they sprang to their
feet, and fairly covered the hands of their new friends with kisses.
Highland people do not deal much with kisses but when they do, their own
soul is stirred up with loving thankfulness.
"Soon bread,
potatoes, milk, butter, teapots of hot tea and hot soup were carried to
them and the men built fires while others gleaned from others their
prospects.
"......The authorities had still taken no action and
the day wore on. Donald McPherson Campbell & Peter McLeod called on
John Greig and asked him for the key to Auld Kirk. John gave it up and
the doors were thrown wide pen and the new friends put these people
there for the night. Citizens came to Angus Campbell and gave him money
to buy food for the morrow."
The account concludes that some
of these people were put in shanties on farms in W. Zorra, others built
shanties on vacant lots on Winniet Street or wherever they could squat.
But it adds that many never learned to speak English and felt
themselves in a strange land.
