A number of weeks ago, I visited that jewel in our county’s historical crown: the Glengarry County Archives. My goal this time was to dip my toe in the ‘Ewan Ross’ collection of documents (research files, index cards and correspondence) that he used in the preparation of the definitive history of Glengarry County he co-authored with Dr. Royce MacGillivray in 1979.
For those readers unfamiliar with this meticulous part-time historian, Ewan Clark Ross (1922-1987) was born on a farm near Martintown. He moved to Goderich on Lake Huron in 1939 and served in the army during the Second World War. Following the end of hostilities, he returned to Huron County and worked as a farmer, mechanic and welder. However, at the end of the day, he put on his scholar’s hat and devoted the majority of his spare time to researching Glengarry’s history.
The Ross ‘fonds’, as collections like this are known to archivists, occupies almost 36 feet of shelf space in our local archive. In addition to paper records and audio recordings, the collection contains over 5,000 photos Ross took of events, places and people in his quest to document Glengarry. I wanted to look at a ten-page backgrounder on our hamlet entitled “The Story of Dunvegan.” While the paper is undated, a reference in the text to 1985 suggests Ross wrote it just two years before he died.
“The village of Dunvegan, built on lots 24 and 25 in the 8th and 9th of Kenyon, has one unique feature. The village grew up around a church. The same might be said of St. Elmo, but the site of St. Elmo was never formally surveyed into village lots and streets while Dunvegan was. In fact, Dunvegan is one of the four formal villages in Kenyon, sharing this distinction with Apple Hill, Greenfield and Maxville. It was not destined to grow into a self-governing municipality as did Maxville, or even a police village as did Apple Hill, but it has the classic grid layout of a Roman Army camp with its Decumanus Major and Decumanus Minor – main streets crossing at right angles. In Dunvegan, the east-west street is officially named Main Street and the north-south one is Church Street. There are also 3 ‘back streets’, and numbered village lots. On the map, the nucleus was there for a large town to grow on.”
I only wish the man who did the original survey in 1877, James P. Wells of Vankleek Hill, had stuck around for a few more days and surveyed the south side of Main Street and the north side, west of the church, as well. It would have made wading through the land registry records a whole lot easier if all the lots in town had been numbered.
Ross, goes on the explain why he believes Dunvegan failed to live up to its potential, “… nature and man combined to limit Dunvegan’s growth. There was no source of water-power nearby with which to run a mill, and when railways were built none came to Dunvegan. The age of motor cars and Provincial Highways was no kinder; they too ‘passed by on the other side’ of Dunvegan.”
As he observes, by 1985, “it is not possible to buy a litre of gasoline nor a loaf of bread in Dunvegan, all that can be done is for a man to get his hair cut on two afternoons a week, go to church on Sunday, or visit the museum when it is open.” And, if you’re looking for a quick trim, even the barbershop closed in 1994. Worse still, our post office — the attestation of village worthiness we had held since 1862 — went dark in November of 2012.
So we return to our roots; a community centred about a church and a graveyard. And perhaps that is as it should be. With an endless cavalcade of couriers bringing the wonders of China to our doorsteps, who needs stores? And with a growing number of high-speed wireless options streaming work, education, entertainment and even medical assistance to our screens, who needs to ever leave the house?
Going like hot cakes
The isolation and stress of Covid have had a huge impact on the mental health of Canadians from three to ninety-four. And the farming community is no exception. A recent study has shown that: 35% of farmers struggle with clinical depression; 45% report high levels of stress; and 58% deal with anxiety. Historically, though, mental health is a taboo subject in the agricultural sector. Yet there’s never been a greater need to discuss it openly.
So, if you know of a family that might benefit from a little help, I’ve just learned of free four-hour workshop developed by the Ontario Veterinary College called “In the Know.”
Farmers are busy. That’s why the College distilled the critical information on mental health into a single, myth-busting, four-hour virtual workshop that will fit the tightest farm schedule. And it’s not just for farmers and their families. It’s for anyone in the agricultural industry.
In this region, the Canadian Mental Health Association has been trained to deliver the workshop — in both official languages. Their plan was to offer it once in English on January 19th, 2022 from 10 am – 2 pm… and once in French on January 27th, 2022 from 10 am – 2 pm. However, the workshop is filling up so fast, it looks like they’ll have to offer more sessions on other dates.
If you are interested, I recommend you register as soon as you can. I’d give you a web link, but they don’t work very well in a newspaper. So, just go to the CMHA web site (cmha-east.on.ca) and click on the “Events” tab.
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