Cantley 1889 Articles
The following article first appeared in The Echo of Cantley Volume 28 no 4, October 2016. This article is made available for the enjoyment of others with the express permission of the Echo of Cantley.
An Irish Son Finds the Wright Place via Cantley - Part 2
by Susan Derby
See Part 1.
The Irish pioneers had incredible strength and determination and faced many hardships in the 1860's. The first winter in Wright, James Darby carried a 100 lb. bag of flour from the main road, now Highway 105, through the snow and over the hills and forest. Once a year, every spring, James went to Ottawa to buy groceries and to the Wakefield Mill to get cloth for the coming year. James and his eldest son, Samuel, were on the first train to cross the Royal Alexandra Bridge to the new Union Station. It was a dangerous life too. James had four fingers cut off on his right hand using a press on the farm.
James' sister, Catherine Thompson, and her husband, Richard, of Cantley, operated a sawmill in Wright for a period of time on Lot 15, Range 7 where there is still a bush lot and a stream of spring water. Eventually they returned to Cantley. According to National Archives records, Hugh, twin of Catherine, was granted Lot 15, Range 7, on August 16, 1873. This provided access to land suitable for a sawmill for his twin sister and her husband, demonstrating the closeness of the twins.
Their mother was Mrs. Joseph (Elizabeth) Darby. She sold her farm in Cantley to Mr. Edward Haycock, who had built the East and West Blocks of the Ottawa Parliament Buildings, and who was attempting to establish an iron mine using the iron deposits discovered in the area. Hugh looked after his mother until she died. As main heir in his mother's Last Will and Testament, Elizabeth Darby instructed Hugh to ensure that Mr. Haycock paid the $5,000 he owed for the land.
The lot to the north of this, lot 16, was purchased by our great-grandfather James Sr., on May 28, 1878. Both lots eventually went to our grandfather James Jr. and then our father, George, and his brother, Earl. My sister Sandra and I still have the farmhouse which is on lot 16, but the oldest building on the property is a log barn built on lot 15.
James was a man of God and a community person. His family attended St. John's in the Wilderness, Aylwin, where his parents and three siblings are buried, and his family was among the first families of St. James Wright Anglican Church. James donated a portion of his land to build a school on his property, Bingham # 2 where many of his grandchildren attended. It operated from 1886 to the 1950s. Many of James' descendants also participated in municipal politics, including my father, George, who was Mayor of Wright in the 1970's.
The family has recently added a brass plaque to the gravestone from St. John's in the Wilderness. It includes the two original Derby's, Joseph and Elizabeth Holmes, and their son Hugh. The river of life continues to flow, the past into the present and onwards to the future.James was a man of God and a community person. His family attended St. John's in the Wilderness, Aylwin, where his parents and three siblings are buried, and his family was among the first families of St. James Wright Anglican Church. James donated a portion of his land to build a school on his property, Bingham # 2 where many of his grandchildren attended. It operated from 1886 to the 1950s. Many of James' descendants also participated in municipal politics, including my father, George, who was Mayor of Wright in the 1970's.
For additional reading on the descendants of Catherine and Richard Thompson, see the Cantley 1889 article in the August 2013 edition of the Echo of Cantley which is available on either the website of Cantley 1889 or of the Echo of Cantley.
We thank Susan Derby for sharing her family story with us and encourage other families with a Cantley connection to do the same.
Cantley 1889 is a volunteer organization founded in 2010 whose goals are to discover, catalogue, protect and promote Cantley's heritage.