There aren’t too many things that evolved from the government’s fixation on lockdowns that were on the positive side of the ledger. However, I’d count the Glengarry Pioneer Museum’s introduction of online auctions as one of them. And starting today, Wednesday, July 7th at noon you’ll be able to participate in another one. The museum is kicking off a two-week online auction fundraiser that will feature many local craftspeople and businesses. I’ve only glanced at photos of a few of the items, but what I’ve seen looks very enticing. I’m told the full range of items on the auction block includes artwork, woodworking, ironwork, textiles and jewelry. As well, services such as golf, massage therapy, knife sharpening and a photography shoot will be up for grabs.
The auction will close at noon on Wednesday, July 21st. The winning bidders will immediately be contacted with details on when they can pick up their goods from the museum, or alternatively, arrange for shipment. To check out the auction, visit the museum’s web site at GlengarryPioneerMuseum.ca and click on the “Auction” tab at the top of the page. Please support this dual-purpose initiative that’s designed to promote local shopping and support the museum. Thank you.
Family connections
A gossamer-like interconnectedness is an integral part of life in Glengarry. It lies like an invisible spider’s web across the County, a network of family connections that stretch back many, many generations. These links are invisible to both recent newcomers and those from away who, from happenstance or conscious choice, have limited connections with the Glengarry community. Nevertheless, they are real. And even a rudimentary knowledge of them, however limited, can contribute to a sense of belonging.
A concrete example of this occurred just a few weeks ago when Jennifer Black from the Glengarry Pioneer Museum took one of her summer assistants, Grant Craig, to visit our old friend Ken McEwen. As a summer project, Grant, a fourth-year journalism student at Carleton, is working on expanding the museum’s collection of oral histories from this region. They were at Ken’s home in Blackburn Hamlet to document his early life on the family farm… lot 35, Kenyon concession 7.
It was during the casual introductions that preface any meeting like this that Ken, when he heard Grant’s family name, gave a slight tug on one of these threads. Wondering if his young interviewer was related to the Craigs Ken knew in the late 30s and early 40s, he asked if Grant’s family had roots in Glen Walter on the St. Lawrence River. Grant was a little shaky on his antecedents, but asked if one of the Glen Walter Craigs had lost an arm. Ken answered yes, Leslie, one of Robert and Annie Craig’s seven children. Ken’s family connection with the Craigs was that his father’s aunt Jane McGregor (née Ferguson) was Mrs. Robert Craig’s sister, whose maiden name was also Ferguson.
As Ken reported to me — after the crew from the Dunvegan museum had packed up and left — it was a, “Long shot, and quite a coincidence that Jennifer’s summer assistant should be a descendant of people I knew from my childhood.” As I said, the connections are everywhere.
The Front of Glengarry
Since both Ken and Grant have ties to the Glen Walter Craigs, I think it’s worth taking a quick look at this interesting Glengarry family. Born in Glen Walter to John and Mary Craig, Robert J. Craig did very well as a railroad contractor. He started with the Canadian Pacific Railway at Fort William and then applied the skills he’d learned to railway building in other countries, including the United States, Jamaica, Mexico and Cuba. He returned to Canada in 1902 to work on rail links across Ontario and Quebec. One of the last lines he constructed was a track that ran by Hawkesbury and L’Orginal into Ottawa, the concrete piers of which, Ken McEwen tells me still stand just south of old highway 17 where the line crossed Green’s Creek. In 1914, Robert Craig retired to his home and farm in Glen Walter. This was a time when the area from Lancaster to Glen Walter was referred to as the ‘Front of Glengarry,’ a label that Ken says has “faded away with the passing of my parent’s generation.”
It wasn’t until 1936 or 37 that Ken and his mother visited Annie Craig and her husband in Glen Walter for a few days. For a young boy from the backwoods of Glengarry, the Craig estate was an otherworldly experience. The now elderly couple lived in an impressive three-story home on the St. Lawrence River with maids’ quarters on the third floor. As Ken remembers the stately home, “the living room had the first fireplace I ever saw. It was made of fancy shinny brick. And there was a pull cord by the fireplace which summoned the maid from the kitchen by ringing a bell high on the kitchen wall.”
The Craig estate was also the hub of an extremely prosperous farming operation. Robert J. owned several large farms in the Glen Walter region, including the one that contained the ruins of the famous Glengarry House. The official history of the Cornwall Cheese and Butter Board notes that the Craig “residence and barns are among the finest on the Cornwall East Front… and are lighted by electricity from a local power plant.” What really impressed Ken was that a high lattice fence discreetly screened the barn and farmyard. He also marvelled that Mr. Craig had a “bee house” for handling the output of his many beehives.
When Ken and his mom stayed in Glen Walter, a large sanatorium was being built to cope with the pandemic that gripped Canada from 1900 to the 1960s. One article in the Saturday Night magazine claimed that “during the first five years of World War II, 36,000 Canadians died of TB, while 38,000 Canadians were killed by enemy action.” The Craigs donated five and a half acres of prime land right on the river for the building of the sanatorium complex. The historic structure still proudly overlooks the St. Lawrence, but today is home to an Islamic Institute.
In conclusion, I should note that journalism student Grant Craig from the museum in Dunvegan finally learned the story behind the “one-armed man” he had faintly heard of on his family tree. His name was Leslie Craig, son of Robert and Anne. He lost his arm when his sleeve caught in a power take-off of a tractor, which twisted it off at the shoulder. The Craigs of that day must have been made of tougher stuff than I am. Legend has it that Leslie picked up his severed arm and walked back to the farmyard.
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