Early Settlement 13

first agricultural society was formed in 1827.15 In 1831, a branch Agricul- tural Society was formed at a meeting at St. Margaret’s in Lot 44 with representatives from Lots 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46. Purebred animals were imported from England and new varieties of seed, grain and roots brought in to improve Island farming.

Scottish names predominate in the first slate of officers of the new St. Margaret’s Agricultural Society: President, Alex McDonald; Vice-President, Dan Brennan; Secretary-Treasurer, John MacEachern and Committee members: Lot 43, John McIntosh; Lot 44, John McDonald; Lot 45, Donald llG/IéAulay; Lot 46, John McIsaac and Lot 42, John McDonald and Simon

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Scottish Settlers:

Scottish settlers moved in to farm the land to the north of the Island as early as 1772. That year five families who came out on the Alexander: John McCormack, Donald McCormack, Roderick McDonald, Roderick McIntosh - and Angus McIntyre settled at Naufrage in Lot 43 to the west of Lot 44. Six families: Hector McDonald, John McPhee, Donald McPhee, Neil McPhee and Archibald McPhee in 1778 and Allan McDonald in 1802 settled at Big Pond in Lot 45 to the east of Lot 44.

Relatives of these early settlers and others moved into Lot 44. In 1803 they built their first, small, log church near the shore at the mouth of Bear River.17 They called it St. Margaret’s after the good Queen of Scotland who had such a great Christian influence on her subjects in the Middle Ages.

The Scottish population to the north increased rapidly. Roderick Mc- Donald’s childhood sweetheart, Ellen McDonald (no relation) came out shortly after he was established. She landed at Tracadie and walked around the shore to Naufrage to join him. Roderick and Ellen had five girls and four boys and sixty grandchildren in all. It is said that over half, if not all, of the parislh of St. Margaret’s is descended or connected in some way with this fami y.18

Irish Settlers:

The history of the Irish settlers in and around Souris River is yet to be written, a difficult task when records are so scarce. It is known, however, that emigrant ships leaving Great Britain for the Colonies often called in at the harbour of Waterford, Waterford County on the south east coast of Ireland to pick up passengers. So it is probably no coincidence that many of the Irish families that came to Souris East and West were from counties adjoining: Kilkenny, Tipperary, Wexford and Cork.

The following came from county Tipperary: Edward Kickham, John Kickham, James Mullally, John Sullivan; from Kilkenny: Edward Grinsell and Patrick Cantwell to Souris Line Road and Richard Hayes; from Wex- ford: James Burris; from Waterford: Thomas Stone; from Cork: Jeremiah McCarthy; from Monaghan: Michael McWade; and from Kerry on the west coast of Ireland Mathias C. Halleran. These names have been taken, either from biographies in Prince Edward Island Past and Present” or from information on tombstones. The list is just a very small proportion of the number of Irish who came to the area.

The log house, built by the late John Doyle’s great, great, grandfather was torn down in 1967. Patrick Doyle was one of the first non Acadian settlers to