Cantley 1889 Articles
The following article first appeared in The Echo of Cantley Volume 34 no 8, March 2023. This article is made available for the enjoyment of others with the express permission of the Echo of Cantley.
Cantley’s Women Pioneers – 1847
Mary Holmes
During the 1830s and 1840s in Cantley, after the arrival of the Blackburn’s in 1829, when other “pioneer” women were arriving with their husbands and children, life was very hard, to say the least. Imagine Cantley with no roads, no houses, no schools, no churches, no stores, no mills, no electricity, and certainly no hospitals nearby. It was a long time before community life started to improve. In the meantime, basic survival depended on a great deal of physical and mental strength.
I will highlight two of those “pioneer” women, from my family tree.
Catherine (Ketty) Timlin O’Boyle Holmes, born circa 1825 in or near Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, left in 1847, the worst year of the Great Hunger, with her husband, Francis O’Boyle and at least one child. We believe they were accompanied by Ketty’s sister and family. Tragically Ketty’s entire family perished during the dangerous voyage. By the time her ship reached Grosse Ile Quarantine Station 22-year-old Ketty was alone. With the help of a local Catholic priest in Quebec City, Ketty made her way to Montreal and eventually Kingston. There she joined a group of fellow immigrants who were walking to Ottawa. In Ottawa she obtained a job as maid in the household of Nicholas Sparks.
Through friends in Cantley, Ketty met her future husband, William Holmes, also from Co. Mayo. They married in 1848 in Chelsea’s St. Stephen’s church. William had obtained a grant of 100 acres in Wilson’s Corners and there they settled to carve a life out of the wilderness. Together they raised a family of five sons and four daughters on a farm that remains in the family. Sadness did not end for Ketty. She was predeceased by William and two of their sons, one age 29, the other age 8.
Ketty was a woman of her time. She spoke “Irish” as did most of her neighbours. They all eventually had to learn English but the “Irish” was not forgotten. One of my aunts reminisced that, as a young girl, she heard the old people speaking “Irish” to each other when meeting at St. Elizabeth’s church. Ketty never returned to Ireland although she corresponded with her Timlin relatives. Upon reading of a death in the family, she would “keen” (vocal lament) as was her custom. She smoked a clay pipe which was a common practice among both Irish men and women.
Ketty lived long enough to be counted in the 1911 Census and long enough to leave a lasting impression on her Cantley descendants.
Another of my female ancestors who had to step up and persevere was Margaret Henighan Holmes, also from Co. Mayo. She came to Canada in 1847 with her husband, five sons and daughter, age 12. Her husband (uncle of Ketty’s husband William) presumably died at Grosse-Ile so Margaret also arrived in Cantley as a widow. Her young daughter died in September 1847 and is buried in St. Stephen’s cemetery in Chelsea. With the help of her eldest son, 21-year-old Patrick, and her four teenage sons, Margaret went on to found her own branch of the Holmes family in Cantley. Patrick stayed on the family farm and it remained in the family for two more generations after him.
Thanks to the strength of these pioneer women, we live here today as proud members of the great Irish diaspora.
There are many more stories to be told about the courageous men and women who settled Cantley during its first 134 years and earlier. Cantley 1889 would like to collect these stories for our on-line archives and future Echo articles. Please send yours to info.cantley1889@gmail.com
