John Hammond - From Scotland to Canada
(Information and extracts from “Beyond Rogues Harbour” by Don Baron)
Glasgow to Canada
John Hammond (b. 1825) was the first born son of James and Betty Hammond, emmigrants from Ireland. James was a weaver born and raised in the ravages of the early 1800 depression in Glasgow. He married Betty Keading in 1822, and sons, John and George, were born in Glasgow. About 1834, James's family followed followed his sister Margaret Alexander to Canada.
The trip across the Atlantic was an eleven week ordeal, but 10 year-old John had a wonderful time. The family was dropped off in Quebec and they made their way to Fitzroy Harbour on the Upper Canada (Ontario) side of the Ottawa River where two more brothers for John were born. Later, they moved across the river to take land in what was then Bristol adjacent to Clarendon and Onslow.
The four Hammond sons grew up in Onslow and, led by John, began to clear and break the land. The family raised a few cattle and pigs and poultry and killed them for the family table. The family preserved pork in brine for summer use. In 1851, John, married Irish-born Liza McKinney in 1851.
With son John’s marriage, the adventurous James began to look critically at the family’s situation again. Sons George and Edward wanted to farm. William, with his education, was to be a teacher. James felt that the Onslow soil was too sandy to sustain large crops. Plus Onslow consisted of a narrow strip of land bound on one side by the Gatineau Hills and on the other side by the Ottawa River.
Seventeen years earlier, when James’ younger brother Edward had sailed from Glasgow to Canada before him, he had gone directly west to Upper Canada to get land as a settler at what would become Listowel in Elma Township in Perth County. The area had not been opened up yet. But a few others including Betty’s Keading relatives had also gone there. In 1854 John's parents, James and Betty, received a letter from Edward saying land was coming on the market. That seemed an ideal place to establish a family, so his mother father and three brothers left John and his growing family in Onslow in 1856 and made their way to Elma.
Prosperous in the Ottawa Valley
Like his father, John continued his weaving while continuing to farm in Bristol. He and Liza raised seven children:
In 1860, John felt that the Bristol farm was too remote and purchased 105 acres closer to the Ottawa River near Quyon with better access to roads, schools and hospitals. He paid $60 to the Crown Land Agency, promising another $40 in October. Three years later, John paid off the full $141.75 and got the deed to the place.
Seven years later, the 1871 census left no doubt that the industrious John was expanding his weavung business. He had $100 fixed capital and $50 floating capital invested, and worked in it six months of the year. He paid one female employee $56 in wages, used $40 worth of cotton $120 worth of wool as raw materials, and produced 660 yards of flannel cloth, grossing $396.
Meanwhile in Hammond, John's younger brothers worked to establish the family and grew up and married. In 1864, Edward married Sarah Steele who was the daughter of Sarah Anne McKinney, the sister of John Hammond’s wife Liza. After the wedding in Elma, the Hammond family returned to Onslow for a visit. During that visit a picture was taken of James and Betty and John and his four brothers.
In 1873, John and a few others set out to raise money and materials to build thier own Methodist church building.
When John decided he needed more land, he rented 100 adjacent acres of land for $40 per year, on a two year lease from Nancy Louisa Wright, grand-daughter of the legendary Philemon Wright. In 1891, John purchased the 100 acres for $800.
In 1898, John and Liza began to arrange the farm's succession. Both farms were willed to Robert, on the condition that younger bvrother Willaim could chose to buy part of the farm from him for $200, or if he left Robert would pay him $800 in installments.
William had no intention of staying on the farm.. At age 16 in 1883, he set out on a life of adventure that never seemed to end. He first travelled to Oregon to work in the lumber camps. Six years later, he made his first trip to the British Columbia gold fields. Before long, he travelled to Cuba to organize a citrus farm, but he couldn't stand the heat so he returned. In 1898, he heeded the call of the gold once more, joining the Klondike gold rush. As an inventer, he designed, manufactuer, and sold shelves for stoves aross Canana. When caulking compounds first came on the market, he travelled the Ottawa valley , selling this new service of caulking around window frames.
In 1900, Liza made her will, and in the legalese of the day, "Dame Elizabeth McKinny"' bequeathed son Robert all her property and "to lodge with him and provide with board, clothing, etc, Margaret Kietings, ... my adopted daughter during her lifetime." John Hammond died in 1904, at 84 years of age, and Liza in 1907, at 76 years of age.