The Barretts of Bedford Township

Jeff Green | Feb 17, 2016

Family Day was created as a kind of sanity day for Ontarians, an excuse to have a day off in February, the month that needed a day off the most but did not have one.

When it was created, the other option under consideration was to call it Heritage Day, and even though Family Day won out, the events that have sprung up over the years in Central and South Frontenac have always had a heritage feel to them.

The Frontenac Heritage Festival, a Central Frontenac-based event, was originally held later in the month but moved to the Family Day Weekend three years ago.

In South Frontenac, Family Day events at the Frontenac Arena included horse-draw wagon rides, snow-shoeing, an outdoor open fire-pit, skating, games and prizes, all events that could have been held 100 or 150 years ago at winter gatherings in the region.

In preparing articles for the Frontenac County 150th anniversary in 2015, a book was loaned to the Frontenac News as the potential basis for an article, and while we did not get to it last year, we thought it fitting to run the article this week

The Barretts of Bedford Township

In many ways, Michael Barrett epitomized Canada in the 19th Century. He was born in 1801, somewhere in Ireland and by 1851 he was settled on a farm located in between White and Potspoon Lakes, on or near what is now known as the Westport Road. There is a large pond, Barrett's Pond, which at that time was surrounded by the Barrett farm.

The records are a bit sketchy, but it appears Michael Barrett arrived in Kingston with his first wife in the 1840s or before. His first wife may have been Eleanora Casey, as a Michael Barrett and Eleanora Casey are listed as baptismal sponsors in the parish records of St. Patrick's Church in Railton from February 17th, 1844. There is no other record of his first wife's name, although they had four sons.

It is known that Michael Barrett married his second wife, Ann Maloney, in 1846 or 1847. According to family lore, both of them came from Ireland and had been widowed, and Ann had two children with her first husband, whose last name was Madden. Ann was 20 years younger than Michael. They had their first of eight children together in 1847.

It is not likely that all of their children lived together at any point, but the “one storey log house” in which the family was living on the 100 acre farm, according to the 1861 census, must have been pretty crowded.

The 100 acre farm, Lot 2, Concession 3 Bedford, had 4 acres of spring wheat, 2 acres of rye, 1 acre of peas, 3 acres of oats, 3 acres of buck wheat, 2 acres of Indian corn and 7 acres of pasture land. The rest of the land was made up of hay fields, and mostly wooded or wild areas.

In addition to farming, with which the whole family would have helped, Michael Barrett was also a “Path Master” for Bedford township. Path Masters in those days were people who ensured that local land owners put in their days of roadwork, which were required as part of local taxation. The Path Master also made sure that the work done was the right work for the roads and that it was done correctly.

Michael Barrett held this role in the community even though the census indicates that neither he, nor his wife Ann, could read or write.

The Barretts farmed at that location, eventually doubling the size of the farm to 200 acres, until they were elderly. In 1884, the farm was sold to two of their sons, William and James, for $1,000 each.

Michael Barrett died on March 24, 1892, and was buried at the nearby Sacred Heart Cemetery. The cause of death is listed as 'old age'. Ann Barrett died less than a year later, on February 7, 1893. She may have died because of a fall.

The lives and deaths of Michael and Ann Barrett take up only 14 pages of the 235-page book “We are the Barretts of Bedford Township” but it is really the foundation for the painstakingly researched, well illustrated book, which covers the genealogical record of all or most of the descendants of both of them. It also paints a pretty good picture of the way farming families intermingled and settled in the area; the way others migrated to Kingston, Napanee and other parts of Ontario and northern United States. It also chronicles tragic deaths due to illness, accident or war.

One of those tragic deaths was that of Anthony Barrett, the youngest son of Michael and Ann. According to family stories, when Anthony told his mother he was going to take a job on a log drive on the Napanee River for Rathbun's Lumber, Ann said “'Anthony don't go out on those log drives – you'll come back in a wooden box' and that's exactly what happened.” The accident reportedly took place while Anthony was running a raft on Depot Creek, north of the Bellrock mill, in late May or early June of 1880. He was 18. Log drives continued on Depot Creek each spring until 1905. A song was written about Anthony's death called “'Twas on the Napanee – the Ballad of Anthony Barrett”. The music has not survived but several verses of the lyrics have. Here are some of them.

“Come all ye tender parents/ a tale of woe I'll tell/ Of a brave and comely youth/ in Bedford he did dwell.

His parents doted on him/ he was their youngest son/ but now alas, he has gone from them/ his youthful days are done.

It was on the Napanee/ while rafting saw logs down/ he fell into the water there/ and there, alas, was drowned.

The day they brought this young man home/ it would grieve your heart full sore/ to see his old, aged father/ his old gray locks he tore.

Likewise his old, aged mother/ in anguish wept and cried/ as if her poor, dear heart would break/ since her darling boy had died.

The neighbours all, both young and old/ this young man did adore/ and well they might: they lost a friend/ whom they will see no more.”

In 2009, one of the Barrett descendants came across Anthony's headstone in the Sacred Heart Cemetery. The headstone was broken in two and was sinking into the ground. James T. Barrett and James Edward Madden, great great nephews of Anthony Barrett, took it upon themselves to repair and restore the headstone. The inscription etched into the base of the headstone reads “A mother's hope, a father's joy/ deaths hand here laid low/ God came and took our darling/ to his command we bow”.

The gradual decline of the farming communities is also a feature, as the permanent resident population of the township peaked in the 1880s and then began a long decline that continues to the present day. As farms were passed on from generation to generation and eventually sold off, in many cases, another economic driver is seen to be replacing the farming economy of Bedford Township. Farms were often bordered by lakes, White Lake and Potspoon Lake among them. And where there was once a large family farm there are often five or 10 cottage lots. The old farms, many of them with only foundations where houses and barns were, are either hay fields or even derelict fields that are slowly going back to forest.

Where there are now homes and homesteads separated by hundred of metres and rural lands that are partially cultivated or wild, in the late 19th Century there were mines, sawmills, villages, and post offices.

All that is left of Glendower Village is the Bedford Hall, and another village, Sangster, had disappeared without a trace. Other villages, such as Fermoy and Burridge, are now just collections of houses, but at one time each of them were known for some form of industry, be it a sawmill or two, a large cheese factory, or a mine.

Over 120 years after the death of Michael and Ann Barrett, the book, which was published in 2012 by James J. Barrett of Chelmsford, Ontario, is able to bring the past to life. The family names in the book, Madden and Hickey and Barrett, Noonan and Gibson alike, are still found on mailboxes on the roads in the area af Westport, White Lake and Buck Bay roads. Although they have scattered to the four winds, the Barretts are still present in Bedford Township.

The Bedford Historical Society is hosting an open house at the Bedford Hall on Saturday, Feb. 20 from 10am-3pm and all are welcome. For more information call Lois Webster at 613-375-6332