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Since getting back from
the Fergus games I've had numerous emails and a number asked me why I
didn't take pictures of various things that went on at the Genealogy
tent. Well... as I didn't get a media kit I just wasn't aware that
these things were going on <sigh>. I think this just goes to show that
it's even more important that the directors of the event make their
media kit much more widely available and not to be silly about just
giving it go out to accredited media folk. There were certainly
stories I'd have covered if I'd been told about them. Mind you
I've always said that marketing people have forgotten how to communicate
with the general public and this is yet another example of poor
communication.
I understand quite a few
folk were looking for me at the Clan Ross and Clan MacIntyre tents so
sorry if I missed you. When I went to the Clan Ross tent Doug and
Pat were on the parade ground and I kept missing them during the
afternoon. I did visit the Clan MacIntyre tent a few times as well and
they told me that folk had visited them looking for me. I did in
fact spent the whole afternoon in the clan village taking pictures and
talking to folk and am certainly sorry if I missed you at the event.
Bob MacIntyre asked me if
I would help look after the Clan MacIntyre tent next year and I may just
do that so folk can find me next time :-)
I did take a couple of
pictures of John Campbell who has looked after the clan village for some
35 years and Allen Nickels sent me in a picture of his presentation and
a few words about it...
Don't know if you were told or
invited to the Genealogy tent for the farewell presentation to John K.
Campbell, Chairman of the Avenue of the Clans. John is stepping down as
the Chairman of the clans after 35 years and all the clan members were
invited to stop by and wish him all the best. We were all given a dram
of whiskey to salute him and it was a nice send off. The presentation
was done shortly before the dinner took place. About 50 to 60 people
stayed for the dinner.
Certainly if anyone else
wants to send in some pictures I'd be happy to post them up here :-)
And here is a picture of the Clan Ross
Thanks to
John F Ferguson, President, CFSNA for sending in the following...
Group Photo of the Fergusson Clan taken at
their Banquet
The following speech was transcribed from
the notes of The Honorable Ralph Ferguson, P.C. presented to me
following his presentation of “A Toast to Canada” at the AGM banquet
held in Guelph, ON, Canada August 12, 2005. S. B. Ferguson
A Toast
To Canada
Clan
Ferguson of North America Annual Meeting in the Ramada Inn, Guelph,
Ontario. August 12/05.
In view
of the fact that most of us will be attending the Highland games in
Fergus tomorrow, I feel that it is only fitting that I say a few words
about Adam Ferguson who first came to Canada in 1831 from near
Perthshire, Scotland. He came to Canada on behalf of the Highland
Society of Scotland to look over this new land.
He was
a lawyer, a farmer and a businessman, who was a man of considerable
means and decided that the New World would be the best place for his
family to live.
Having
lost his first wife in 1824, he remarried in 1833 and although he was 50
years old, they sailed for Canada with his family.
They
left Liverpool on July 31st, 1833 and arrived in New York on
August 27th, then went by barge up the Erie Canal to Newark,
crossed the Niagara River and proceeded north to Waterdown, and in his
own words found a suitable place for an abode.
From
there he and a James Webster headed north to Guelph and then to what is
now Fergus and took up 7000 acres of land in the area, noting that this
land to the north appeared to be of better quality that that around
Guelph.
He
founded the Town of Fergus, constructed a mill, and various store
buildings that are still in use today. 1834 saw great activity in
Fergus: a grist mill, a saw mill, a school, a church and a distillery
were built. The streets were opened and by the end of the year a hardy
group of Scotsmen were calling Fergus their home.
He also
hired Charles Allen to build a home on the escarpment overlooking what
is Hamilton Harbor. This was a very elegant home and is still in
excellent condition today. He called it Woodhill, named after the
Ferguson home on the estate near Perthshire, Scotland.
Adam
Ferguson Senior devoted himself to agriculture and became a highly
regarded breeder of livestock, crops and other sectors of agriculture.
His son
Adam Johnson Ferguson Blair, (he took his mothers name in order to
inherit her estate in Scotland) entered the political arena and was
elected to the legislature assembly and to Parliament. He worked very
closely with George Brown, Sir John A. MacDonald, our first Prime
Minister, and Alexander MacKenzie, to bring about a United Canada. They
were successful.
In the
words of Lord Monk who was Governor General at that time, “Without the
untiring efforts of George Brown and his followers, the Concept of
Confederation would not have been feasible.”
Adam
Johnson Ferguson Blair was appointed as President of the Privy Council
for the new Dominion of Canada. But he died in December 1867 shortly
after that 1st session of Parliament.
Peter
MacArthur a highly respected author wrote about those early pioneers:
“They came to a wilderness and built a nation!”
On the
cover of the book The Great Scots by Matthew Shaw it reads, “How
the Scots Created Canada.” Adam Ferguson was one of those Scots.
Several of our early explorers such as MacKenzie, Thompson and Fraser
and the heads of several of our companies at the time were also Scots.
Shaw points out that thanks to the education system in Scotland’s
universities (education was available to all) we had the ability
to learn, unlike for example the universities that existed in England
where you had to belong to the aristocracy to be admitted. That system
still exists in Canada today and has served us well.
Without
men like Adam Ferguson, his family and his peers we would not have this
great country we have today.
With
apologies to our guests from the south and those of other ancestry, it
is no wonder that we have been recently proclaimed, second only
Australia, as the best country in the world to live and invest. Clan
Members I ask you to raise and drink a Toast to Canada.
N.B. 8
of the 10 Fathers of Confederation in 1867, were of Scottish descent!
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