This generation of McGregors lived most of their life in the Douglas area. The move from Beckwith was a major change in their lives. Moving themselves with four small children and all their worldly belongings, likely by horses and wagon, a distance of some eighty miles was no small feat.
Although the farm in Douglas had been previously settled and some crude buildings erected, very little land was cleared. The first year’s crop was a patch of potatoes planted near the eighth line on some land cleared by mistake by the Morrows next door. The Groves family most likely provided support and possibly accommodations for the family, especially in the winter when John was away in the lumber camp.
John McGregor with the help of his family worked hard and eventually prospered, by the 1871 agricultural census indicated John had -
Church records and school records indicate that John was involved in community activities.
In 1869, the winter of the deep snow, Sarah Priscilla their youngest child age nine years died. She was the first burial in the family plot in the Douglas Public Cemetery. By 1875 they were able to construct the main part of the present house. It was a well built frame structure, with four bedrooms upstairs and two large rooms downstairs, plus a half cellar. This would have been quite a change from the shanty.
In 1877 their oldest daughter Kate gave birth to a son Allan Weston McGregor who stayed at the farm and was brought up mainly by his grandparents. Charles Traveller McGregor settled on one of the neighbouring farms. This was a fairly brief farming career because he left to spend about twenty years in California due to an accused indiscretion with a neighbour's daughter.
Our grandfather Peter stayed on the home farm married Eliza Jane Bowland from Eganville in 1885. The home was divided, John and Ruth lived in the west side of the building, Peter and Eliza Jane lived in the east. Allan McGregor remained with his grand parents on the farm during his early years. His mother Kate married John Kerr and lived in the village. Allan told a story of one of his youthful activities, he borrowed his grandmother’s small ironing board and slid down the front stairs in the old farmhouse. He bumped his head when he came to a stop at the bottom, but this was a minor discomfort compared to the spanking he received from his grandmother on his other extremity.
John lived eighty-one years and died in 1903. Ruth lived one year longer and died in 1904 at the age eighty-eight years. They are buried in the family plot in the Douglas Cemetery.
NOTE: About the turn of the century, the spelling of "MCGREGOR" changed to "MacGregor". It appears the Beckwith McGregors stayed with "Mc" but the Douglas McGregor's used "Mac". In Scottish genealogy there are many different spellings of MacGregor.
Catherine C. McGregor was known in her younger years as Kate was the oldest child of John and Ruth McGregor and was born in Beckwith Township in 1854. She moved with her family to Douglas in 1861. She grew up on the farm, attended school in the village and took an interest in farm activities.
In her early twenties she was romantically attached to William Boland, brother of Townley Boland and son of Abraham and Anne Gillespie Boland. William and Townley ran a stagecoach from Cobden to Eganville. The horses ran away on William and he was killed. It was about that time that Catherine gave birth to her son Allan. Some of the ancestors felt that Allan MacGregor might have been the son of William Boland.
Kate and Allan remained on the farm for a few years and Allan became a great favourite of his grand parents and his Uncle Peter and Aunt Eliza Jane. When the papers were drawn up transferring the farm from John to Peter both Allan and his mother were provided for. Peter MacGregor must "maintain, clothe and educate the son of Kate McGregor until he attains the age of sixteen years".
In the late 1880’s Catherine McGregor married John Kerr, of Ottawa and they had a store in the village. They lived in the house occupied in more recent years by Charles and Geraldine Lynch. Not much is known about John Kerr’s business interests, however they appeared to be quite successful. He was secretary-treasurer of the school board for many years and on numerous occasions he had to lend the board money so they could meet their commitments. Kate Kerr was famous for her cow, which she kept in a small building behind the house and provided the house with fresh milk. George Walsh remembered that each fall, he and his father took down a load of hay and stored it in the loft of the building. He mentioned an incident, where they were passing the hay up to the loft, to John and he in turn was passing it back to Kate who was piling it at the back. John accidentally jabbed Kate with his fork. She said," John you jabbed me", and he replied, "Put a little turpentine on it Katie it will be all right".
Also Harold Breen recalled when John and Kate went away for a few days, his mother had to milk the cow. In order that the cow did not make strange, Mrs. Breen had to wear Kate’s hat and coat.
Allan MacGregor lived with his grandparents after his mother’s marriage. He received a good education, graduating from the University of Toronto in dentistry in 1900. He set up a successful dental practice on John Street, which lasted over forty years until his death in 1942.
John Kerr and Catherine are buried in Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa.
Peter MacGregor was born in Beckwith December 5,1855. He was the second child and the oldest son of John McGregor and Ruth Traveller. We are told he was baptized in the Knox Presbyterian Church at Black’s Corners but no records have been found for that church. He came to Douglas with his family when he was six years old. Being the oldest son he did his share of work on the farm and since he eventually took over the farm from his father he must have enjoyed farming. Census records show Peter being a Presbyterian all his life, in spite of the fact that his parents shifted religious affiliations from time to time. Church records show him as being active in the Zion Presbyterian and later the Zion United church in Douglas most of his life.
In Eganville on July 19 1885 he married Eliza Jane Bowland, the daughter of William Bowland and Jane James. The same year Peter purchased the farm from his father. The agreement drawn up at that time is still in our possession. It basically provided the west half of the house for John and Ruth and any necessary care in their old age, also to clothe and educate Allan MacGregor and a payment to Kate. As previously mentioned Peter and Eliza Jane lived in the east half of the house and their family of eventually six children.
Peter was quite interested in local politics. In the 1880’s and 1890’s he served on the local school board. A few years later this got him involved in some litigation resulting from the dividing of the money left over from the old school (S.S.# 1) to the two new school sections, one being the new public school (S.S.# 7) and the other being the separate school (St. Michael’s). About the turn of the century he was elected to the county council, representing a large area including Bromley Township. In those days the reeves of the townships did not go to county council.
He expanded the farming operations and as time went on the old original log buildings were added to, with a large frame barn and a sixty foot long horse stable and machine shed. He purchased another 100 acres of land, mostly bush and some pasture in 1890; this provided fire wood and lumber for his building projects. A large two-story addition (kitchen) was added to the house, this was very necessary because by 1900 Peter and Eliza Jane had six children plus the old people be bringing the total to ten. There was always some hired help needed from time to time, which had to be accommodated as well.
Peter and Eliza Jane educated their family very well by the standards of that time. All the family finished elementary school in Douglas and went to Renfrew Collegiate by train, leaving each day about 8 A.M. and returning in the early evening. One son became a doctor and two daughters became teachers and one daughter became a nurse.
On March 18, 1929 Eliza Jane died from the effects of diabetes. In my early days Mrs. Barr, our next door neighbour, told me what a fine women my grandmother was and what I missed by not having an opportunity to know her. On March 31,1936 Peter passed away, mostly the results of old age. The snow was very deep that year and a group of men shovelled our lane to allow the hearse to come in. The snow banks were so high it was not possible to see the hearse. I did know my grandfather although I was only four when he died. I believe the story is told that I used to "borrow" his pipe and his cane from time to time. On one occasion he shocked my mother by purchasing me a pipe so I would leave his alone.
Both Peter and Eliza Jane are buried in the Douglas Public Cemetery.
Charles MacGregor was born in Beckwith Township in 1858.He was the youngest son of John and Ruth MacGregor and moved to Douglas with his family in 1861. He attended school in Douglas and grew up as part of the community. His youthful years seemed to be quite normal for the 1860’s. My father Roy MacGregor passed down a story, about Uncle Charlie. It was winter or early spring and Charlie was exploring the lower part of the farm. The creek that flowed through the lower fields had a beaver dam on it and it held back considerable water. Charlie spied a fox with a partridge in his mouth coming across the ice of the beaver pond. He hid behind a large elm tree and waited for the fox to come close. He then jumped out and startled the fox so much it dropped the bird. His mother cooked the partridge for his dinner.
As a young man in his early twenties Charlie established himself on a neighbouring farm, in recent years occupied by the Agnew family. He did fairly well on the farm possessing a team of horses and a modest herd of livestock.
In the early 1880’s Charles MacGregor encountered a problem that changed his life drastically. He was accused of being the father of a child born out of wedlock to a Costello girl, the daughter of one of his neighbours. Charlie proclaimed his innocence and refused to make any financial arrangements for the support of the child. Pressure was brought to bear in the case by the local priest and finally the situation came to a head when Charlie was arrested and taken to jail in Pembroke. Shortly after his arrest and before his trial he was consulting with his lawyer in an open area of the prison. He felt that his chances of being convicted were pretty good, so he decided to break out of jail.
He made good his escape, through the jail kitchen and managed to scale the wall to reach the street. Not knowing which direction Douglas was, he asked a passing teamster where the Eganville road was located. He was invited to hop on the wagon and was driven to the outskirts of Pembroke. At this point he felt that a chase might be organized, so he thanked the teamster and ran off across the fields. He ran until dark and it started to rain, eventually he found himself in the Micksburg country. Being wet and hungry he decided to call on a local farmer. He also decided to tell the truth about his situation. It turned out the farmer knew the MacGregor family at Douglas and did not turn him in. They sent word to Douglas and his father John came up under cover of darkness and took him from Micksburg to a McLaren farm on the Barr line where he hid out for the summer in a hayloft.
The fall of 1886 the K and P Railway was completed as far as Calabogie and Charlie was transported from the Barr line to Calabogie, where he took a train to Kingston. From Kingston he went across to Watertown and he sent for his fiancée, and cousin Marietta Traveller from Ottawa. They were married in Watertown and left for California. Their years in San Jose, California were quite prosperous, which I believe were in book sales. During his time in California he was able to settle the problem in Pembroke financially.
In the fall of 1902 Charles and Marietta returned home. My father told of the large delegation that went to the railway station to meet them. Another interesting antidote that was passed down was that Charlie’s father John was doting by this time. He would look at Charlie and say, "Are you the Charlie that skipped". An interesting newspaper clipping in Eliza Jane’s scrap book from a San Jose paper dated Jan. 17,1903 gives an account of their trip home.
Marietta, who was known as Aunt Mary died in 1922 after they returned to Ottawa and was buried in one of the Traveller family plots. Charlie became a market gardener on Carling avenue (near Churchill) with about five acres of land which he called "MacGregor’s Roost". Charles married very briefly an old girlfriend from Admaston. Their marriage did not work out. Charles was cared for in his old age, in Ottawa, in his own house by a lady, her husband and son who lived with him. He made at least one visit to the farm in Douglas in his later years and was a very keen euchre player.
In 1952 Charles passed away at the age of 96 years and is buried in the Beechwood cemetery in Ottawa
Sarah was the youngest child of John and Ruth, born on the farm in Beckwith in April of 1860. She moved with the family to Douglas in 1861. No doubt she had to live in the shanty for those early years and survive the harsh life style.
On May 3, 1869 Sarah Priscilla passed away, she is buried in the Douglas Public Cemetery in the old MacGregor plot.
