Amherst Island Heritage House Tour September 27, 2014

Amherst Island was settled during the Loyalist Period and has pretty much remained unchanged since, so quite unique to those interested in Loyalist history, besides, its an island.

The ferry leaves on the half hour and can be most efficiently reached as follows...

West on 401 to exit 593 west of Kingston (Wilton Road)
Then south to Highway 33 (Loyalist Parkway)
Then a right turn (West) to the ferry dock

The return ferry fair is $9.00.

Don Galna U.E.
Col. Edward Jessup Branch

Images from Col By Day in Ottawa Aug. 6, 2012

Alice M Hughes, RIP

Ottawa Branch lost one of its longest serving members recently when Alice M Hughes passed away int Merrickville on July 29^th at the age of 92.

Alice recorded and donated to Ottawa Branch many cemeteries from the Merrickville area as well as a number of Lanark County cemeteries and there is a film of her cemeteries at LAC. She knew much about the history of families living in the greater Merrickville area and was regarded as the local historian for these reasons. Alice maintained a life-long interest in the history of the Merrickville area. The Ottawa Branch library contains thirteen publications written by Alice.

At one time she was secretary of the Leeds & Grenville Branch of OGS.  Their library holds many of her transcriptions of the cemeteries in Grenville County, which she recorded before anyone else got involved in that work.  The Grenville County Historical Society and the Lanark County Genealogical Society were also recipients of her efforts.

Alice was responsible, if not the chief motivator, for finding the location of the Merrickville Brick Yard, located just west of the Hughes homestead on the south side of the road to Jasper, from which came much of the characteristically shaped red brick that was used to build many of the old houses in Merrickville.  A small billboard sign was mounted on the site some 25 years ago.

Alice was a prolific writer of all things genealogy. She was a charter member of the Lanark County Genealogical Society and will be greatly missed. When she was well over 80, she and her daughter wrote `Dear Old Golden Rule Days, a History of the One Room Schools of Wolford Township ( Grenville County )’ and LCGS used it as a basis for their Archives Lanark series on the Lanark County Rural Schools.

Alice Hughes was certainly a marvellous genealogist and historian.  In 2008, she received the Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Lifetime Achievement from Lieutenant Governor David Onley at a ceremony in Toronto.

Thank you, Alice, for all that you have done for our hobby and our history.

Ontario Timeline June 19 to 25

June 19
1791  The Constitutional Act, which provided the basis of government for Upper and Lower Canada during the next half century received Royal assent.
1793  The Upper Canada legislature passed an act prohibiting the importation of slaves into the colony, the first to do so in the British Empire.

June 20
1826  Nicholas Sparks, one of the founding fathers of Ottawa, purchased - for 95 pounds - 200 acres of farmland in the heart of the present capital in the area now bounded by Wellington, Rideau, Waller, Laurier and Bronson.
1830  William Canniff, physician, author and historian of Upper Canada, was born in Thurlow, Hastings County.
1857  Sir Adam Beck, founder of Ontario Hydro, was born in Baden, Ontario.
1877  The first commercial telephone service in Canada began operation in Hamilton, Ontario.

June 21
1856  The Montreal Company installed a submarine telegraph cable between Prescott, Ontario and Ogdensburg, New York.

June 22
1792  Founding at Adolphustown of Upper Canada's first Methodist Church.
1901  The first public memorial erected in Ontario to honour a Canadian woman was a small bust of Laura Secord, unveiled in the Lundy's Lane Battlefield Cemetery in Niagara Falls.

June 23
1611  The English navigator Henry Hudson fell victim to a mutiny after his vessel Discovery left Rupert Bay. Hudson and seven others were set adrift in a boat and never seen again.
1919  The Gillies Brothers mill at Braeside on the Ottawa River was destroyed by fire.

June 24
1918 First Canadian airmail flight took place between Montreal and Toronto with a refueling stop at Kingston. Pilot was Captain B.A. Peck in a JN4 Curtis aircraft.

June 25
1891  The first horseless streetcars rumbled through Ottawa in a five-tram cavalcade.
1976  Toronto's CN Tower formally opened.