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FOREWORD

E ’en in Prince Edward’s distant hame, Her sons remember whence they came, And zealous for their Mither’s fame From year to year; Kindle the Caledonian Flame Wi ’ muckle cheer. John LePage‘

More than two hundred years have passed since the arrival, in the early 17705, of the first Scot settlers on the shores of Prince Edward Island. These people, and their countrymen who emigrated after them, left a troubled, albeit beloved homeland for a new life in a barely civilized colony, with little to aid them in their venture but the support of one another.

A strong bond of kinship had characterized the Highland Scotsz for centuries, sustaining their continued attachment to Scotland. It was this bond, this clannishness that would, with each succeeding generation of Scots born on the Island, maintain a strong affinity with the “homeland.” Even the longstanding Highland/Lowland clash would fade as men and women from both regions learned to accept one another as Scots and to offer assistance when they could.

To ensure the survival of a Scottish fellowship on the Island, a formal society was, in time, established. For the first years, the Scots were largely concerned with clearing and working their lands, building their communities, and gathering in celebration of particular holidays like New Year’s and the anniversary of their patron saint, Andrew. In 1837, almost seventy years after the first wave of emigration, the Highland Society of Prince Edward Island was formed, modelled after the original Highland Society in London, England. In 1864, the organization adopted a new policy, a more formal constitution, and a new name — the Caledonian Club of Prince Edward Island.

This book deals primarily with the growth of a formal Scottish society on the Island, originating in the first part of the nineteenth century when the loyal “Sons of Saint Andrew” met to toast their patron and their past, and culminating in the early years of the twentieth century with the development of the Caledonian Club as a valuable contribution to Island social life. The early period is the most rigorously documented; it comprises the golden years of club activity when Scottish sentiment and perhaps the need for the organization was greatest.