Early Pioneers

Andrew=s, Dorothea=s and Ignatius=s names were on the list.

    During the 1850's and 1860's the lumber industry in Canada was booming.  Many immigrants from European countries were lured by this, and the possibility of  establishing a new home in Canada.  Agents were hired to find people willing to settle on recently-cleared crown land. Over 120 families came, beginning in the 1860's. One group of Polish people, the people who settled near the village of Otter Lake, were the Kashubs of Cassubia. Cassubia is a wedge of land south and west of Gdansk and the AHook of Hell@ which juts into the Baltic Sea.

    Many settled the nine-mile Opeongo Trail which started at Farrell=s Landing on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River opposite Portage du Fort, Quebec. Polish immigrants realized that the land was not suitable for farming and left the Opeongo Trail. They crossed the Ottawa River and moved to the closest available land, which they found near the Picanoc River north of Otter Lake, Quebec. The land was not much better, but the Kashubs painstakingly cleared and planted the land in what is now called the Polish Hills.

    Andrew Lepak of Zalisia, (age 25), married Dorothea Zywicka, (age 26), January 25, 1866 in Brushy, Poland. Their first-born son, Ignatius, was born in Zalisia, Poland, on January 30, 1887. The original spelling of their name was later changed from Lepak to Lepack. Andrew, Dorothea and Ignatius sailed from Glasgow, April 21, 1887, when Ignatius was only 14 weeks old. The ship, S. S. Norwegian, made a stop at Liverpool, England on April 22, and then arrived in Quebec City and Montreal on May 5, 1887. There was a beginning total of 686 passengers on arrival. The master=s name was Robert Carruthers.

    Most of the people on the ship were British, but there was a section set aside for the Poles with a check mark and inscription (Poussian Poles Gneudsui Reupen Coy Assished and Reupmstu Spcl 9.30 Pubmay).  The inscription was written beside their names on a list. Andrew=s, Dorothea=s and Ignatius=s names were among those on the list.

    Andrew and Dorothea raised a family of eight children, and lived on the farm until their deaths. Their son, Joseph, and his wife Margaret then farmed the land until 1967 when they moved to Campbell=s Bay, Quebec.  Joseph=s son, Kenneth, later took over the farm. The farm was sold in 1992 to my husband and me, Jack and Deborah Gauthier. We are still the owners.

ANDREW LEPACK

    Andrew was a small short man with long whiskers. He was a gentle man with a mild temperament and was full of wit. He enjoyed having a drink or two with his friends and telling stories about his childhood in Poland. He could tell stories for hours to entertain the grandchildren. Every Christmas he would dress up a Santa Claus and deliver treats to the children in the area.

    His reason for choosing the place on top of the mountain was because it was always warmer and closer to heaven. This was one of his jokes. According to those who knew him he was well liked in the community. He often would make long trips by horse and buggy to Renfrew or Ottawa to visit relatives. It would take him close to a week sometimes to get there because the boundaries of farms were not clearly marked.

Grandpa Andrew used to make a trip to Renfrew once a year to visit relatives and used to stay at Simon and Mary Zavitski=s on Bank Street as they had sheds at the back of the house where he would keep his horse while he would visit the rest of the relatives.

--Joseph Libera

    Andrew was a fair and just man. He only wanted what was his and that was all. There was no fence between the two farms where he had bought land for his son Ignace. He had the surveyors survey the land to make sure there would be no dispute.

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DOROTHEA LEPACK

    According to the memoirs written in the family history book, her descendants speak of her as a small plump little lady who always carried a pocket of white peppermints. She enjoyed her grandchildren when they came to stay with her during holidays and on weekends. Sunday mornings they would return to the village when everyone went for Sunday mass.

    Maple syrup time was a particularly favorite time for Dorothea and the grandchildren. She looked after the boiling of the sap into syrup. She would stay the whole night at a little shack with the grandchildren, who would snuggle up with her because they were afraid of the dark and the woods outside.

    It was so cold during the winter. She would make the children wear a black ABubushka@, which is a Polish word for kerchief. They hated it and would take it off as soon as she was out of sight.

    Many friends and relatives used to come to the homestead to spend some of their summer holidays or to go on a fishing trip. She was a great cook because they returned year after year. She was also a good one to play tricks on people. During the hunting and fishing seasons, men would come to stay. They loved to play tricks on the children. Dorothea would help to get even. While the men were out she got the children to sew their shirts sleeves and pant legs together.

    There was a lot of work on the farm. Besides going to school, the children had plenty of chores to do. Planting in the garden, harvesting, raking hay, rounding cattle, picking berries, and helping with canning and preserving were just a few to mention.

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    Joseph was the second son of Andrew and Dorothea. He grew up helping his parents on the farm and working in the bush in the winter.

    Many tourists from Ottawa and the United States would spend their summers, weekends and holidays at the farm. They would come for hunting and fishing trips. Joseph would transport the men to the lakes in back of the farm, while their wives and children would stay at the house. Some of those tourists have returned to visit the homestead and have told us stories of their adventures. Some of them were only children when they stayed there. They said they were treated very well, and that Margaret was an excellent cook.

    We became very good friends with Francis, Alex, Frank, Mona and Ken the last remaining from Joseph=s family. They treated us like we were member of their family and enjoyed frequent visits to the farm. They told us many memoirs of their growing up at the homestead.

Picture on right:  Back, left to right::  Ales, Joseph Frank.     Centre, left to right::      August, Mona, Margaret, Francis and husband Victor Leach.  Front:  Kenneth

    Women made coats, pants and shoes out of deer hides. After soaking the hides for a few days the hair was loose enough to be scraped of, and then the hide was stretched and pulled until it was soft to work.  Wool from sheep was spun to make warm clothes for the winter.

    Early settlers made sauerkraut from cabbage. They chopped cabbage and layered it with salt in large wooden barrels.  The cabbage fermented in a warm place for about three weeks.  It stank up the whole house.  When finished, it was stored in a cold place to be used throughout the winter.  Sun-dried berries were stored all winter as well.

    Milk and cream was separated. The cream was made into butter and poured into molds. The cover of the molds had a floral pattern which left its imprint on the butter. The beautifully carved molds were stored in stone crocks. Eggs were also stored in stone crocks. Potatoes, carrots and other root vegetables were stored in a root cellar.

 

    I set the time of this picture back in the 1920's hoping thereby to assume Polish Christmas customs of the Old Country would be in fact substantially preserved, since Ukrainian Christmas customs were mostly intact in our own home in the West back in the 30's. But the Kaszuby Poles to who I showed the painting just after it was finished hardly recognized anything in it. I therefore had to assume that the granny in the picture, fresh from Poland on her children=s invitation, has inspired them to revive some Old Country culture. That=s her wagging her finger at her grandson impatient to get eating and reaching for an extra oplatek.