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LOT HISTORIES
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Alexander Lamont Concession 2- Front Lot 6
In contrast to the
Winer family who came early and stayed late, even to the present day, the
Lamont family who also came early, sent their second and third generations
into the wider world. The Lamonts are significant because these generations
left evidence of their warm memories of the Township that had given them their
start. In 1933, Thomas H. Lamont, in his late 70s, wrote of Puslinch from his
home in Manitoba.. Luckily, this account has been preserved in the addition to
the McPhatter Letters (published by the PHS and available from them at small
charge).
Thomas writes
that in the spring of 1831 his grandfather Alexander Lamont, his grandmother
and their five sons left their
home in Kerry Kowl, Argyleshire and set off for Canada, a sea voyage of 89
days. Once here, they took a boat
to Hamilton and walked 30 miles to the homestead on the south half of lot 6 in
the second concession on the shores of Little Lake in Puslinch Township. There
they built a log house, planted potatoes and relied on the venison of the
forest and the fish in the Lake for their sustenance. A year later, the
McAllister family joined them and spent their first winter with the Lamonts.
The Family in
the Puslinch Years ALEXANDER,
born in the 1770s or 80s, died about 1850. The name of his wife is not known
but she died soon after their arrival about 1834/35. SONS 1)JOHN
married and left the area 2)ALEXANDER,
Jr, remained unmarried. He became a tax assessor for his district. 3)PETER,
b. March 6, 1806, married MARGARET Hewitt
on Jan. 2, 1854 and stayed on the homestead. He played the bagpipes. 4)WILLIAM,
b. about 1814, married and
settled on the south half of lot 5. He played the fiddle. In 1855, he sold out
to Peter and left the area. 5)JOSEPH,
b. 1816, died in 1833.
CHILDREN OF
PETER & MARGARET 1)THOMAS
H., b. June 22, 1856, moved to Manitoba in 1880
Source Information:
2)EMMA,
b. Nov.3, 1859, married George Gregor of Morriston and moved to Manitoba 3)ALEXANDER
3rd, b. Feb. 10, 1861, married Harriet Martin (a) and moved to
Manitoba in 1888. #011718-84 (Waterloo Co): Alexander LAMONT, 22, farmer, Puslinch twp., same, s/o Pater & Margaret, married Hattie MARTIN, 22, Elma twp., Hespeler, d/o James & Caroline, witn: Nathan ELLIS of Puslinch & Hattie HENRY of Minto, 10 Oct 1883 at Hespeler
Tragedy struck the Lamonts in 1833 when Joseph was drowned in Puslinch
Lake while duck-hunting. Alexander Jr., on shore, made a valiant but futile
attempt to save him. Joseph and his grief-stricken mother, who died soon
after, were buried “in a little hillock about one hundred yards from the
northeast shore of the Little Lake.”
Both Peter and William
were master carpenters and their skills contributed to the development of the
area. They worked on Ferry’s Flour Mill in Galt, Doon Mills, the first
school in their district, and on Ellis Chapel where their handiwork can be
seen today. As important to the general welfare, their music enlivened many
gatherings.
By 1841 the
Lamonts had cleared 50 of their hundred acres and owned
two horses, four oxen, three cows and three young cattle. During this
decade both William and Alexander were active helping neighbors establish land
titles. The 1851 Census shows William and his wife Margaret and children,
Rachel, Joseph, William and a new Alexander
Peter is listed as a carpenter.
Old Alexander
must have died before 1852 for several documents in the Township Papers show
Peter striving to to prove his right of inheritance to the homestead.. In
1861, Peter, 56, lived with wife Margaret 44 and their children Thomas 6 and
Emily 3. Peter was still alive in 1871, age 64 but brother William had sold
his lot in 1855 and had moved on. By the 1880s, Peter’s sons, too, were
ready to go. Thomas H. went west as a school teacher in that year, and in
1888 Alex and his wife and Peter’s widow left the community. Their neighbors
gave them parting gifts of a “handsome tobacco case”, “a beautiful set
of cutlery” and “a fine collection of books” How wrenching the move
might have been is suggested by Alex’s letter published in the Mercury on
March 27: No
more is heard of these Lamonts until Thomas records his memoir in 1933.
There were, however,
other Lamonts in the Township. That they were related to Alexander and his
family is possible but unproved. In 1832, a Duncan Lamont located on the south
half of lot 22 in the second concession and lived there until at least 1840.
In 1851 records, Elizabeth Lamont, 46 and a widow, farmed with her five
children, one of whom was named Duncan. There was also a 64- year- old midwife
named Margaret Lamont. In 1871, Elizabeth, 79 and daughter Jane were living in
Puslinch. Finally, the Methodist Notices state that a
Mrs. Janet Lamont, 74 and Argyleshire native, died in 1851 leaving a
sister and a son. A tangle
typical of historical investigation-> Elizabeth, b. 1792
Janet, b.
1777
Margaret, b.
1787
Elizabeth, b.
1805
_________________________________________________________________ NOTE:
In the 1930's and 40s,
the Lamont name appeared in the Township again in the form of three parentless
young people, Kitty, Donny and an
elder brother. While they may have had no connection with the earlier Lamonts,
they did marry into one of the oldest Puslinch families, the Leslies. Kitty
and Winston Churchill “Archie” MacDonald, a descendant of Squire Leslie,
ran the Puslinch Post Office and store until they closed.. Donny married Ruth
Greer, daughter of Leslie Greer who was also descended from the Squire. Donny
joined the Navy in 1942 and “served on a Corvette the whole war. For this he
should have been decorated. Very small, fast too. . . (Corvettes were)
apparently terribly crowded and very rough, and were usually in the thick of
things.”
Puslinch has
been served well by the Lamonts in two centuries.
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