John McDonnell (1792-1865) & Margaret Harrower (1799-1883)

John McDonnell and his wife Margaret Harrower were Canadian pioneers from Scotland. As I mentioned in my description of the trip I made to their homestead in Lanark county, Ontario, they have been researched extensively by other descendants and I do not wish to replicate what they have written here. Instead, my description of the body of knowledge built around this family will be written in my own narrative that follows.

Both John and Margaret were originally highlanders, born in Invernesshire, Scotland. I have blogged about their history there which is worth reading. Margaret was born on August 8th to a what would have been called a well-bred family in Boleskine Parish. Her parents were James Harrower and Ann Tulloch. In 1818, the year that John and Margaret married, they made the decision to come to Canada, possibly following other McDonnells as there were many living there.  At first they landed in Lochiel township in Glengarry county, which would have been a comfortable early introduction to Canadian life. Lochiel was a Scotch settlement, and the McDonnells would have likely known other townspeople from their mother country. They had their first 5 children in this town and lived there for 8 years before moving into the Ottawa valley. The couple was originally Roman Catholic, but changed their religion sometime in Glengarry county to become Presbyterians. There is a family story told by Barbara Jean (McDonnell) Crawford and retold by Gary Darby that they left the Catholic church because of an argument with the priest over a pig.  This may or may not be true, but is a fun idea to imagine the hot-headed, stubborn man John must have been.

My mother enters the private McDonnell burial grounds, 2005.

In North Sherbrooke township, John was awarded 100 acres of land which became the McDonnell homestead. Another 7 children were born at this site. Fellow researcher Gary Darby has found 3,224 descendants of this couple which is only a drop in the bucket. The large number doesn’t surprise me as the family who now owns the original McDonnell property has had many visitors to the family burial site on their land (left).

The land was poor, as is indicated in a petition to the government for an additional land grant. It describes his lot (Lot 12, Concession 4) as being rocky with a large swamp on it: unsuitable for farming and supporting a very large family. Twice (1841, 1843)John begged the government to grant him and his family an adjoining empty lot (Lot 3, Concession 11 in Palmerston). In 1850 he was finally given the additional lot in a crown land patent which would have been farmed by sons James and Donald.

The original lot is where both John and Margaret are buried along with others who are left unmarked. It was believed that the couple had 18 children altogether, although only 12 survived into adulthood. It may be that the six babies who did not survive are also buried with the couple. There is some evidence of this, because the ground itself has small mounded forms all around the two graves. It is an eerie sight.

Despite the 200 acres of McDonnell land, many of their 12 children moved away from the original property. Only 5 of the children remained in Lanark county, while 4 moved to Lambton, Ontario where an uncle lived, and one child went to Minnestoa.

Their first child, Elizabeth Hannah (1819-1888) & husband John were married in Perth and stayed in Palmerston where they had 11 children. They are buried at Crawford cemetery, and my mother and I made a point of looking for their grave there (left).

The second child of the family, Ann Calvert (1824-1894) and her Irish-born husband David were also married in Perth and then moved to Warwick, in Lambton county, Ontario where they had 5 children.Their son William Calvert was a Liberal member of parliament.

The 3rd child, son James McDonnell (1823-abt. 1843) stayed in Lanark county but died in his twenties having never married.

The fourth child, Margaret Bryce (1825-1895) married her Scottish-born husband, Jack, in Port Huron, Michigan and they also moved to Lambton. The couple had 8 children who moved across the continent in many directions. After Jack passed away Margaret moved to Manitoba where a son lived and it is there that she died and is buried.

The fifth McDonnell child, daughter Catherine Smith (1826-1917) married her husband Thomas in Perth and then, as other siblings had done, moved to Lambton county. They lived in Sarnia later in life as neighbours to their niece Margaret Ann Hannah and to their nephew John Bird. They had 14 children together producing many descendants.

The sixth child, Hannah McDougall (1828-1910) married her husband Allan in Lanark and they had 10 children together. One exciting historical tidbit is that they originally owned a farm where Robertsville was later built by the Bethleham Steel Company. Eventually they moved out to Wilbur where Allan worked as a mining foreman.

The 7th child of John & Margaret was Donald McDonell (1829-1915) who married Ellen Hannah in Lanark. Family historians have told of their move all the way out to Polk, Minnesota in 1881 where they organized the Bethel Church schoolhouse. The very pious couple had 11 children prior to their move southward.

The 8th child in the McDonnell family was my great x 3 grandfather, John McDonnell Jr. (1832-1897) who stayed in Palmerston with his wife Alice and their large family where he continued to farm.

The 9th child, Isabella Harrower (1834-1910) moved to Lambton as many of her older siblings had. This is where she married her husband Andrew who was from the area. They had 7 children there.

The 10th child, Charlotte Hannah (1835-1887) married her husband William in Lanark and they stayed in Palmerston. They, like the other McDonnells, had a large family of 11 children. I visited their large headstone in Crawford cemetery which is inscribed on all four sides with the names of Charlotte, William and infant children.

Mary Sergeant (1838-1893), the 11th child in her family, married husband George at Knox Presbyterian church in McDonalds Corners.  They stayed in Lanark county where they had 7 children.

The youngest child of John and Margaret was Victoria Clement (1840-1892) married her husband Simon in Perth. They also stayed on the homestead in North Sherbrooke and had 6 children.