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All Bush and Water, Mrs. Jas. Pritchard Says
Wife of Alcove Pioneer Did Not Like Country at First

From George H. Wilson's column "Old Time Stuff" in the Evening Citizen, 10 August 1929, and reprinted in The Low Down to Hull and Back, a local Gatineau Valley paper, a few years back in the column "Echoes from the Past with Pat Evans," entitled More on the Pioneering Pritchards of Alcove.

It is told by Mrs. J. C. Chamberlain [Chamberlin] of Wakefield that when Mrs. James Pritchard, wife of the Alcove pioneer, settled in her new home, she sat down and had a good cry. "There is nothing but bush and water here," she lamented.

    But soon the fit of homesickness passed and Mrs. Pritchard settled down bravely to help her husband and their five (actually six) sons and three daughters make a home for themselves in the new land.

    Mrs. Chamberlain says that the whole Pritchard family went on foot from Chelsea to Alcove, as there was no regular road past Chelsea at the time, in the forties (more likely thirties). The family walked carrying all the family goods they could.

     The family broke their journey at the east end of Wakefield where a daughter Mary, Mrs. Joseph Irwin, was already located. It was, in fact, on the advice of Mrs. Irwin that the Pritchards came to this country.

Mrs. Chamberlin was the granddaughter of Judith and daughter of Ann [Pritchard] and Thomas Stevenson; she died in 1933. Assuming the trip from Chelsea was in 1834, Judith would have been 46 years of age, and James about 51. It is not known how many children accompanied them. James Jr. apparently came to Canada some time later, according to his grandson George Pritchard, and had gone to Wales before coming to Canada. (Some linkage may have been maintained with Welsh relatives, or he could have been escaping the Irish potato famine of the 1840s.) Thomas Pritchard is shown in the 1901 census as coming to Canada in 1845, although some of his children were born in Canada before then.

Carriages From Old Homestead Recall Bygone Era in Gatineau

By Gladys Blair

Ottawa Journal, November 17, 1962

The once-elegant Pritchard carriages and sleigh were a familiar sight in the Gatineau Hills long ago. They are now being housed by the National Museum of Canada and will be a part of the planned Transportation Museum which is expected to be built and ready as a Centennial feature. These reminders of an era past have been stored for years in a barn on the Pritchard property at Alcove, Que.

    Harold Pfeiffer is custodian of the Museum collection. He says the vehicles are more than 100 years old and when they are restored will be a valuable addition to the Museum's interesting parade of Canadians.

    The largest carriage, known as a Victoria was the "social vehicle" used by the Pritchards for formal occasions. It is upholstered in green, has a collapsible top and imposing coachman's seat.

    The smaller carriage boasts the intriguing name of "coupe rock-away". It is a dashing affair with hansom cab lines with two front seats and one large back one. Its upholstery is brown serge edged in black patent leather. It is a closed carriage with a step and door on either side. The sleigh - such as your Grandmother used in her romantic day, dressed in her beaver bonnet, muff and fur-trimmed mantle - is charming. It has beautiful hand-wrought iron runners and small silver medallions on either side of the doors.

    The Pritchards came to Canada from Northern Ireland in 1834 although they were originally Welsh and the name was Ap Richard. They had a land grant which, at that time, included all of Alcove extending back to the hills behind the present village. They cleared the land and established a general store. Another branch of the family went farther up the Gatineau to Kazabazua and Low and became farmers.

    James Pritchard and his wife, Judith Ferguson, were the first settlers in Alcove. The second generation to live in the Pritchard Homestead were the Andrew Pritchards. Mrs. Pritchard was Mary Edey from Aylmer and is said to have ridden on horseback several times a year all the way from Alcove across the Gatineau Hills to attend church in Aylmer.

    It was Mary Pritchard who donated the land for the Methodist Church in 1889, and it is still a landmark in Alcove. The Pritchards were Presbyterians and it came as a great surprise to them when they discovered the new church was Methodist supported handsomely by Mary Pritchard.

    The next generation started the long list of Doctors bearing the name Pritchard. Dr. James Pritchard, beloved throughout the entire Gatineau Valley, was a remarkable man. He was an enormous fellow who could eat a whole chicken at a sitting. He was a sports enthusiast, sponsoring baseball teams in Summer, and hockey teams in Winter. The Pritchard family home housed and entertained these visiting teams overnight and weekends. The open house hospitality of the Homestead was known far and wide and stories about "the Doc" are numerous. His bills were often collected in wheat and flour, deer, partridge, beef, pork, lamb and various other commodities.

    Dr. James Pritchard had four sons: Ruggles and Dr. Jack, both deceased; Andrew L. and Bill; and a daughter, Mary, now Mrs. J. I. Thompson, of Ottawa, who is the present owner of the old Pritchard homestead at Alcove. Doctors abound in the family and well-known names like the Stevensons and Geggies of Wakefield are related, as are the Mackinnons [MacKinnons], Kenneys and Davies of Ottawa. The late Dr. Andrew Davis [Davies] and his son Dr. Fred Davies, of the Ottawa Football Club, are also descendants.

    The Pritchard Clan, now enormous, meets for family reunions yearly. There is a burying ground at the rear of the Pritchard home in Alcove and provisions are being made to both restore and maintain this historic cemetery.

The Homestead

By Gladys Blair

Ottawa Journal, April 4, 1970

The words of the poet Edgar Albert Guest, "It takes a heap o'livin in a house t'make it home," could be applied to the lovely old Pritchard house in Alcove. A heap o'livin indeed has gone into this gracious, white clapboard country house facing the Gatineau River since the first Pritchard, James, and his wife Judith Ferguson, arrived from Ireland as settlers in 1834 to take up their land grant.

     The Pritchard property originally ran back to the Masham Township line and included all of the present village of Alcove. Even today Pritchard descendants have farms reaching far back from the river.

     The Pritchards were originally Welsh and their name was Ap Richard in the old days. They migrated to the Parish of Curran in the County of Cork (sic) and eventually came to Canada.

     The Homestead was no doubt the second house as land had to be cleared and a house of this size would take some time to build and time was something the early settlers didn't have when they first arrived.

     James Pritchard established a general store and the story of Alcove, then called North Wakefield, began. The second generation to live in the house were the Andrew Pritchards. Mrs. Pritchard had been Mary Edey (whose mother was a Wright) of Aylmer and is said to have ridden on horseback several times a year all the way from Alcove across the Gatineau Hills to attend church in Aylmer.

     It was Mary Pritchard who donated the land for the Methodist Church in 1889, which is still a landmark in Alcove. As the Pritchards were staunch Presbyterians this caused some consternation in the family.

     The Andrew Pritchards moved to Kazabazua about 1860 and Andrew built a sawmill, flour and grist-mill. Then the most famous and certainly the most beloved, Dr. James Pritchard, took over the family home.

     Dr. Pritchard has since become a Gatineau legend and stories of the "Doc" are not only numerous but fascinating.

     He was an enormous fellow who could eat a whole chicken at a sitting and aside from his busy practice which covered a wide area, he was a sports enthusiast, sponsoring baseball teams in summer and hockey groups in winter. The Homestead played host to these visiting athletes and often housed and fed them overnight and weekends.

     The "open house" hospitality was known far and wide and no traveller, needy or troubled supplicant was ever turned from the Pritchard door.

     Dr. Pritchard and his wife had five sons and one daughter, Mary, now Mrs. J. I. Thompson of Ottawa and present owner of the Homestead.

     It is curious how this family occurred in cycles. First the two eldest sons, Ruggles and Dr. Jack, both deceased, were born two years apart. After a lapse of seven years Andrew and Ted arrived again two years apart with Ted only surviving for about two years. After another seven years Mary and Bill were born, again two years apart.

     Doctors abound in the family connection and well-known names like the Stevensons and Geggies of Wakefield are related as are the MacKinnons, Kenneys and Davies of Ottawa. The late Dr. Andrew Davies and his son, the present Dr. Fred Davies of the Ottawa Rough Riders, are also descendants.

     The Pritchard clan, now widespread and expansive throughout Canada and the United States, meet for family reunions yearly.

     The old Pritchard cemetery on the hill at the rear of the Homestead is maintained by the family.

     The house, of 1840 vintage is one of many memories, clearly experienced from he moment you enter the front door. The door itself is most interesting being similar to the Thompson-Cole-Rochester house on the Richmond Road. The treatment both inside and out of the curved mouldings over the entrance, the semi-circular "fan" transom and matching sidelights are almost identical, and the story is current that the same builder worked on both houses. The drawing room and sitting room doors opening from either side of the large hallway downstairs, have hand-painted graining simulating birds'-eye maple, the skirting boards are deep and the S-form newel post are all very typical of the period.

     The large room behind the drawing room was the doctor's office. There was a big dining room and, at the rear, a king-size kitchen. The floor boards in the later are in alternative strips, one of pine and one of oak. Set in the back staircase which curves upward is the old boot-box. The window panes throughout are of bubble glass with a variety of lacey patterns.

     Over the kitchen wing upstairs are three rooms and a bathroom, used originally as servants' quarters. The main part of the house has a master bedroom and nursery connecting, two other bedrooms, one of which was occupied by the children's tutor in the early days; and, at the front, a suite comprising of two extremely large rooms with a library in between which has the eye-catching window over the entrance doorway.

     The homestead still is a mecca for visitors in the summertime and Mary Pritchard Thompson says it is not unusual to seat from 20 to 30 guests on weekends. Long harvest tables are moved out-of-doors for this type of entertaining.

     It is nostalgic and extremely pleasant to know this type of hospitality still exists and the true spirit of pioneer life is alive in this sleepy corner of the ancient Gatineau Hills.

Dr. James Pritchard lived there until his death with the flue in 1918. His wife and family returned to Toronto, and the house has never since been occupied year-round.

Quid Pro Quo in Health Service

Dr. James Pritchard, who died in 1918, was widely known and respected throughout the Gatineau Valley. Medicine was his passion; legend has it that he neither collected a bill nor paid one. The following Citizen column, written by Geoff Johnson in 1973 following the death of Fred Pritchard, illustrates that this was not strictly the case.

Fred Pritchard, who was in his 80s when he died recently, could have shown us a thing or two about keeping down the spiraling cost of health care.

    Fred was farming at Alcove - then called North Wakefield - nearly half a century ago when an accident with a saw cost him three fingers on one hand. His doctor's bill, dated Sept. 19, 1916, and unearthed by executors of his estate, was for $25 - a sizable sum in those days.

    The doctor, whose name also happened to be Pritchard, charged him $12 for treating and dressing the hand, $10 for the assistance of one Dr. A. P. Davis [Andrew Pritchard Davies], and $3 for bandages. Fred countered with an account for seven cords of wood at $14, 183 pounds of oats at $2.75, threshing at $2, cutting hay at $3, drawing hay at $2.25 and sawing wood at $3. That added up to $27. The doctor duly paid Fred his $2, and both sides went their way satisfied.      

The Development of a Community in Lower Canada - Wakefield

Judith Geggie

Published by the Historical Society of the Gatineau in their annual publication "Up the Gatineau", Volume 2, 1976. It arose from an essay contest for high school students sponsored by the Society. In 1973 Judith Geggie was the prize winner with this article.

This is a description of the development of the district of Wakefield, a small village in Lower Canada, situated near what is now Ottawa. However, it is true, in part, of the development and population of a fair amount of eastern Canada. It exemplifies the sudden wave of settlers that broke over rural Upper and Lower Canada in the 1800's. In these areas, we see one or two farming families settling down to clear and plant acres of virgin land, then others grasping the opportunities offered and rapidly moving into the area. As the need arises, skilled tradesmen arrive to serve the people of the growing community, and, alarmed by the pressures of a greater population, the original families make haste to purchase the land they live on, to protect themselves. From here on the development and population of land constantly expands.

     Probably the first settler in the district was Thomas Stevenson who arrived from County Antrim in Northern Ireland in 1830. He settled on land that was described in 1853 as "the south half of Lot number 7 in the 3rd Range of the Township of Wakefield."  He paid £25/4/2 for 100 acres although in the 1842 Census returns he declares having cleared only 18 acres for cultivation. That year he produced 50 bushels of wheat, 100 bushels of oats and 200 bushels of potatoes and he owned 7 cows, 1 horse and 5 pigs.

     The Pritchards, also from Northern Ireland, followed the Stevensons in about 1834, although James Pritchard did not actually buy his land until 1845. In 1842 from the 40 acres that he had cleared he obtained 22 bushels of wheat, 500 bushels of oats and 200 bushels of potatoes. Eight head of cattle, 2 horses, 5 pigs and 5 sheep constituted his stock and that year he produced 13 pounds of wool.

     The first mill of the area was established by a Scot from Roxburghshire, Mr. William Fairbairn who came to the valley at the same time as the Pritchards, 1834. In a letter dated May 2, 1838, to "His Excellency Sir John Colborn, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's Forces in the Provencesses of Lower and Upper Canada," Mr. Fairbairn said that, "As the place we settled is a place destitute of mills" and "as your petitioner is of the millwright trade, and viewing a mill stand convenient to me on unsurveyed land," he thought it proper to acquaint the Governor of his plan and ask his permission to go on with it. In 1844 Fairbairn's grist mill was sold to James MacLaren, father of the man who, in 1900, founded the present firm of the James MacLaren Co., Ltd. at Buckingham, Quebec.

     The first census in Wakefield Township was taken in 1842 and it was comprised of a list of inhabited dwellings, the number of people in them, the name of the head of the house and reports on the land in use, the livestock and the produce. Of the 37 families listed only 12 were property owners and so entitled to vote. All were listed as farmers except Charles Lowe who was a lumber merchant. The total population was 262, and the countries of origin were as follows: