The McGregor Family Record - John McGregor

     Researching the “Old Parochial Records of Scotland” I found the marriage of John McGregor of Culdaremore and Christian McFarlane of Inchgarth, 6 April 1822.  Both farms are in the Fortingall area.  Unfortunately the microfilm record did not list the parents’ names.  Also in the microfilm, was the birth of Joseph, son of John McGregor & Christian McPharlane of Culdaremore, 1 January 1828. The birth record for John that I was recently received from David in Scotland confirmed that John was from Culdaremore.  The McGregor name is very common in this area but fortunately the McFarlance name is not, I could only find one McFarlane family.  I feel quite certain that this marriage is our John & Christina.

      The following is Jessie’s hand written note about her family:

      In the year 1833, John McGregor, with his four sons, Gregor, Joseph, Alexander, and John, his wife Christina McFarlane, along with her sister Margaret, immigrated from Breadalbane, Perthshire, Scotland and landed in the township of Esquesing (Ontario) at the home of John’s sister, Mrs. McIntosh.  After staying there a short time they moved to Lot 20 on the 4^th line and 5^th concession of the Township of Caledon in the County of Peel, Province of Ontario, on the 17^th day of September 1833, at which place they resided for the remainder of their days.  After years of incessant toil, they built a comfortable home out of the forest. 

 

    Through Jessie’s letter collection we are given a glimpse of the hospitality and kindness of John & Christina McGregor (Jessie’s parents).

     January 2, 1905 How often I recall my first visit to Caledon.  Was I not sad when the normal session came to a close and the students nearly all started to their homes and I had no home to go to.  I was 500 miles away from all the acquaintances I knew without money to travel…Then they brought me to your house…I think frequently of the door that was opened for me in your hospitable home.  The light was left on the outside that I might come in at pleasure…Your Mother, (Christina McFarlane) dear good woman, how kind and encouragingly she used to speak to me.  How I was fitted out with socks, mitts and even undergarments. 

     When I first came you had not moved out of the old house.  The new was finished but the paint was not considered dry enough to occupy it.  It was sometime before the folks moved in – I think your father and mother had lived so long in the old house and had so valiantly fought life’s battle under its roof that their attachment was so strong it was hard to leave a spot that had come endeared to them by a thousand associations.  I think we young people moved in sometime before they did.  We boarded in the old house and slept in the new. (An old family friend, Rev. John Simpson Ross - Fort Bragg, California)

       Christina McGregor calling card (not sure what “M” stands for, possibly McFaralane)

       
     “Life’s battles” – what an expressive comment about the pioneer life our family experienced.  What hardships they must have endured to give their family a better life in Canada.  The Rockside area of Ontario, where the McGregor farm was located was heavily forested and very rocky.   "Stones and boulders at grade, rock outcrops and lack of soil cover all characterized most of the properties on which the pioneers came to settle. For many this was not so different from the rough terrain of Scotland. However, the combination of the rough nature of the landscape and, initially, the lack of frontier skills on the part of the immigrants, made settlement very difficult."
     As documented by Robert Crichton in his memoir, many of the Scottish settlers were completely unfamiliar with the use of the axe, the basic tool of pioneer survival.  Land clearing, firewood chopping and house building were dependent on its skilled use.

      There was a large number of sugar maple stands in the area and in Jessie’s all too brief memoir her “earliest recollection was being carried pick-a-pack by one of her brothers out to the sugar bush where they boiled down the sap into maple sugar”.

   

           

            

 A faded stone marks the resting place of John and Christina McGregor.  They are buried in the Alton Cemetery in Caledon.  “In Memory of John McGregor who died Dec 20, 1869 aged 79 years  His wife Christina died June 18, 1888 aged 92 yrs.  Natives of Fortingal, Perthshire, Scotland”