36 SCRAPS OF LOCAL HISTORY. 



PAPER FROM WM. WYSE. 



I left Scotland with my father on the 6th of April, 1834, being 

 then only 16 months old, and arrived in Douglastown on the 12th 

 of May. The ship we came in was the Wm. Dawson. We went 

 TO my uncle's, who lived in Douglastown at that time, and that 

 village was one of the principal places of business on the river. 

 The principal export was timber for the British market, but 

 about five years later they commenced to ship deals in large 

 quantities, especially at Blackville on the South West branch of 

 the river. Gilmour & Rankin built a water mill at the sitrO 

 where the Domiiiion Pulp Mill now stands. It was built of stone 

 said to have been brought oat from Sootland. (On the bank of 

 the river where it stood there are miles of beautiful freestone, 

 and one of the wings of the Parliament Buildings at Ottawa was 

 built of it. The walls of this mill were incorporated into part of 

 the present Dominion Pulp Mill. — J. B.) My father built a 

 bakery at Douglastown, but only stayed there one year, after 

 which he moved to Chatham and opened a hotel on the site where 

 the J. B. Snowball Co. store now stands, baving n bakery in the 

 basement. He continued in this business till 1840, and then built 

 a new house in Duke st., the one where Mrs. Dr. McDonald now 

 lives, having also a bakery attached, where he lived up to the 

 time of his death, 1891. He and his wife lie buried in St. Andrew's 

 Church burying ground. 



In 1836 a steam sawmill was bnilt on the Chatham side of the 

 river, which was called the Cunard mill, with five gangs, but the 

 engineer made a miscalculation, because, when they started it, 

 they found thej^ had not steam enough to drive them, and three 

 gangs had to be removed before ordinary work could be done with 

 them, and even then it was considered a big diiy's work when 

 thirty to thirty-five thousand feet of deals was sawn and piled on 

 the wharf. I often watched operations in this mill between 1837 

 and 1848, or the time of Cunard's failure. This was the way they 

 worked it. Every log was rolled to the bed, which was just of 

 such a length, and the ends were sawed off by a long cross- cut or 

 breast saw, the blocks dropping through holes in the floor to be 

 carted away for firewood, as is done to-day with the refuse. The 

 Cunards were doing an immense business in Chatham. This mill 

 was burnt down in 1867. Just east of her was the shipyard, 



