|
Home
|
|
No True Highlander
is ever ashamed of
being Highland.
You
have already read the short history
of the Clan. We are the descendents of a proud clan.
It is
well known history that the old ties of clan kinship were cruelly snapped by
the rigidly repressive Acts of 1746 and 1748, a determined attempt to
destroy the feudal power of the Highland chiefs by abolishing heritable
jurisdiction. The clan system, in the old familiar sense, was
shattered by these dramatic measures. The clansmen were forbidden to
wear the tartan or carry arms. The oppressed Highlanders silently
endured their wrongs. They brooded upon the loss of their ancient
heritage but were powerless to reclaim their privileges. Their pride
humbled, their hopes blasted, strangers almost, in the land of their birth,
the men of the glens and bens at last tore themselves from their ancestral
soil and sailed with their wives and families, across the broad Atlantic.
Between 1763 and 1775, not less than 20,000 Highlanders found refuge in
America.
Canada
received many of them in the new flood of immigration in the first part of
the 19th century and a new Celtic race sprang up to nourish their children
on the traditions which the pilgrims brought with them overseas.
Though exiled, "the children of the mist" still had a consuming love for the
homeland they had left behind them. Now that the pioneers have gone to
their rest, their sons and daughters still cast a longing look toward the
old clan country from which they drew their origin.
Although
the sons of Angus MacCuaig did not come to this country until well into the
middle of the 19th century, they still were pioneers and went. like
thousands of others, into the wilderness to make homes and today, all over
this Canadian land, are found the monuments of their toil and successes.
The magnificent homesteads in the shape of farms and princely dwellings
which adorn the landscape in all directions are the outcome of the toils of
past generations.
The
MacCuaigs
are certainly a sept of the MacLeods of Harris (Siel Tormod).
Tradition has it that one of the Macleod chieftains landed at that part of
Islay on which the village of Port Ellen is now built. His name was "Dubhag
MacLeod" (pure Gaelic). He settled in that part of Islay and was the
progenitor of the MacCuaig branch of the MacLeods, that is to say, the
MacDubhaigs or offspring of Dubhag. This name... MacDubhaigs
...through many generations and prevailing changes of colloquial speech, has
come to be pronounced and later written.. MacCuaig. The MacCuaigs were
generally found in that part of Islay which is now called the parish of "Oa".
some of them eventually emigrated to the neighbouring peninsula of Cantrye,
where a few families are still to be found. because records of of
descendents of these families is not recorded, it is difficult to trace the
genealogy from the chieftain who founded our sept to Angus
MacCuaig so for the
present we shall be obliged to content ourselves with the records of the
family since the time of their arrival in Canada. These four sons of
Angus MacCuaig assumed the name of MacLeod in this country because, in
purchasing land from the government, it was necessary to register it under
their proper surname.
The
sea voyage from Scotland in the early days when sailing vessels crossed the
Atlantic, was a trying experience. There were no such luxuries on
board as are now found in modern liners which almost appear to be floating
palaces. The passengers suffered great hardships. They were
crowded, obliged in many ships to cook their own meals and had to supply
their own provisions. There was relatively little privacy and the five
or six weeks time required to complete the crossing was long and tedious.
The new land must have been a welcome sight to the travelers.
Commencing
life in the backwoods a hundred years ago was no easy task. Clearing
land was hard work ,but in all honesty, not very much can be gotten even
today without it. Apart from the strenuous labour involved, there were
many dangers to face, none of which later generations have had to face.
Indians roamed the forests. Wild animals and reptiles were in
abundance. Wolves were perhaps their greatest immediate threat.
Settlements were often several miles apart and a stillness surrounded the
first homes of these pioneers, perhaps broken by the ripple of a nearby
stream or the gentle murmur of a spring that issued from the rocks near
them. To locate good water was essential and an immediate requirement.
The
young backwoodsman, by continual handling of the axe, would get his hands so
hardened and his arms so strong, that he could chop all day without
weariness. To chop an acre of this heavily timbered land meant six
days of hard work, to clear it off took three days more. two days
would be required to fence it and after that another day to sow and harrow
in the seed (and no tree stumps had been removed yet!). Every acre put
into crop cost two weeks of hard labour and this would be but the
commencement of a task that would take fifteen or twenty years on a farm of
one hundred acres.
Who
among us has not heard of the "barn raisings, quilting bees and corn husking
at which a whole community assembled and entered into the hard work and the
fun in a truly hole-hearted spirit? The pioneers were, as a rule, men
and women of sterling mental and moral qualities and they brought to the
arduous work of settlement, a vigour and enterprise of which the present
results of Canadian progress, are, indeed, a most eloquent testimony.
|
