Helene (†)
Seem To Come Back To Life In The Ancient Streets Of The Same Name, Whilst
Frontenac, Iberville, Piedmont, Are Brought To One's Recollection, In The
Modern Thoroughfares.
The old Scotch pilot, Abraham Martin, (who according
to the Jesuits' Journal, might have been a bit of a
Scamp, although
a church chorister, but who does not appear to have been tried for his
peccadiloes,) owned a domain of thirty-two acres of land in St. John's
suburbs, which were bounded towards the north, by the hill which now bears
his name (La Cote d'Abraham.)
Mythology has exacted a tribute on a strip of ground in the St. Louis
suburbs. The chief of the pagan Olympus boasts of his lane, "Jupiter
street," so called after a celebrated inn, Jupiter's Inn, on account of a
full sized statue of the master of Olympus which stood formerly over the
main entrance. In the beginning of the century, a mineral spring, of
wondrous virtue, attracted to this neighbourhood, those of our bon
vivants whose livers were out of order. Its efficacy is now a thing of
the past!
That dear old street, - St. George street formerly, - now called after the
first settler of the Upper Town in 1617, Louis Hebert, by the erection
of the lofty Medical College and Laval University, for us has been shorn
of its name - its sunshine - its glory, since the home [47] of our youth, at
the east end, has passed into strange hands. It is now Hebert street, by
order of the City council.
Opposite to the antique and still stately dwelling, lately owned by Jos.
Shehyn, M.P.P., is a house formerly tenanted by Mr. J. Dyke. In the
beginning of this century it was occupied by an old countryman,
remarkable, if not for deep scientific attainments, at least for shrewd
common sense and great success in life - Mr. P. Paterson, the proprietor of
the extensive mills at Montmorency - now owned by the estate of the late
George Benson Hall, his son-in-law.
Peter Paterson, about 1790, left Whitby, England, to seek his fortune in
Canada. His skill as a ship builder - his integrity of character and
business habits, pointed him out as a fit agent - later on as a partner in
a wealthy Baltic firm of London merchants who still have representatives
in the colony. At the time of Napoleon's continental blockade, the English
Government, seeing that the Baltic was closed for the supply of timber for
the navy, gave out a large contract to Messrs. Henry and John Usborne - of
London - for masts and oak. Usborne & Co., employed Mr. P. Paterson to
dress and ship this timber. A timber limit license, of portentous import,
authorizing the cutting of oak and masts for the navy in all British North
America, was issued. Under authority of this license, Mr. Paterson partly
denuded the shores of Lake Champlain as well as the Thousand Islands, of
their fine oak. Mr. Paterson was the first to float oak in rafts to
Quebec.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 80 of 451
Words from 41676 to 42179
of 236821
