By Sheila O’Kane

 

By the early 1820s Irish families were settling on land along the north side of the Tetagouche¹ River, five to ten kilometres northwest of the village of St Peters (now known as Bathurst in Gloucester County).

“Kinsale” and nearby “Youghal” Beach and the community of New “Bandon” – are also all community names in County Cork, Ireland. This suggests that some of the new settlers were from that same area of southeast Ireland.

The change of name from “Kinsale” to “North Tetagouche” is reported to have been the result of an administrative action on the part of Her Majesty’s Royal Mail (or whatever name Canada Post went by in years past). “North Tetagouche” suited their post office placement and mail delivery route needs… and so North Tetagouche it became.

In 1866, Kinsale Settlement was a farming community with 35 families and in 1871 it had a population of 200, but by 1898 it had been reduced to a population of 150²

From the original land grant map³ the following surnames were found east to west along the road. The current spelling is used first and variations on the name spelling is in brackets and if the families are still found in the area they are in bold:

Connelly, Kirby, Dempsey, Kelly (Kelley), Cowig, Alexander, McKernin, George (Gorge), Haggerty (Hagarty), Driscoll, Murphy, Maloney (Malouny), Collins, Calnan (Culnane, Calhlan, Calman, Calahan, Calden, Celnan), Power, Gain, O’Kane (Kean, Kane), Reardon (Riordan), Stack, Knight, Ferguson, Hall, Hays, Brennan, Canty, Sumner, Boyle, Dorane (Doren, Doran), James, Wood, Baldwin, Allison, Stevens, McNair, deBlois, Fergusson, McNutt, Hart, and Elhatton.

Here they are again in alphabetical order:

Alexander, Allison, Baldwin, Boyle, Brennan, (Culnane, Calhlan, Calman, Calahan, Calden, Celnan), Canty, Collins, Connelly, Cowig, deBlois, Dempsey, Dorane (Doren, Doran), Driscoll, Elhatton, Ferguson, Gain, George, Haggerty (Hagarty), Hall, Hart, Hays, James, Kelly (Kelley), Kirby, Knight, Maloney (Malouny) McNair, McNutt, Murphy, O’Kane (Kean, Kane), Power, Reardon (Riordan), Stack, Stevens, Sumner, and Wood.

Subsequent censuses include the following names (alternative name-spellings are in brackets):

Brown, Carter, Coughlan, Eghlan, Fitzpatrick, Ford, Hadley, Haley, Hicks, Howard, Keough (Koughs), Morrison, Radcliffe, Roherty (Roehathy), Shannon and Ward.

The remaining families are now just beginning to gather community genealogical information. A community works project a few years ago collected a few stories from some of the elders in the community and the work is ongoing. Here are a few of the interesting stories.

William Boyle, originally from Cork, first landed in Pennsylvania, USA. He probably came here because he had a relative (Edward Boyle?) already in this area. His great-grandchildren are still living here.⁴

James Brennan came from Ireland. When he arrived dockside for passage to British North America, the Captain of the ship refused passage to his toddler daughter. So Brennan returned home with the child to get his ‘gear’. He returned with a butter-churn and was allowed passage. The Captain didn’t know that inside the churn was the toddler he had refused. His descendants still live in the area and his daughter Mary (of the butter-churn) married and her descendants live in Balmoral, near Dalhousie, in Restigouche County.⁵

Timothy O’Kane was reported to be a teacher in Ireland and one of his sons (my grandfather) was a fiddler of some renown in this area.

John Culnane (present day spelled Calnan) came from Kinsale, County Cork. Mr Culnane (Calnan) was a Justice of the Peace for the area, and for a number of years, his house served as the local post office. His great-grandchildren still live in the area. The family has the original letter of reference from the “Sovereign of Kinsale dated 22 April, 1823. It says:

 

Sadly the John Calnan house is now gone from the region. It was believed to be the oldest structure in the community and until 2006 was still inhabited by Gregory Calnan (John’s grandson) and his family. Regrettably, the new property owners bulldozed this building into the ground.

There are still a number of houses standing in the area and are entered here in order of age:

Henry Hall/Patrick Power family home:
This house is over one hundred and fifty years old and is still a working farm. It is currently owned and operated by Margie and Peter deGraaff.

John and Elizabeth (Lordon) Power family home:
The log home burned the same day the couple’s first son was born – The ‘new’ house was then built and later expanded – it is over one hundred years old. Renovated and restored, it is still inhabited by descendants of John and Elizabeth Power.

Timothy Riorden home:

Built around 1857, this is still a hobby farm and owned and operated by Jimmy Boyle, a descendant of Timothy Riorden.

Jack and Mary (O’Kane) Murphy family home:

Built around the turn of the century, this was still inhabited by a grandson of Jack and Mary Murphy until 2006, at which time it was sold to a family from the province of Québec.

Patrick and Nelly (O’Connell) O’Kane home:
Built around 1913 by the teenage/adult sons, for their mother, it is currently uninhabited and is suffering the ravages of unrelenting break and enters.

Patrick Brennan home.

Mike Murphy home.

 

This project is ongoing and will be added to from time to time. I still would like to write on notable people from the area – including Monsignor Varrily and Father John Knight as well as the major bridges, grist and saw mills and legendary animals (horses) bred in the area. Also, more work is ongoing on the first families to leave the community and where they went from here.

 

---