Saturday, October 15, 2022

Violence Of Bytown

I start today where I left off in the Bytown Museum. An axe of the 19th century and branding irons for marking timber are seen here.


Another icon of the 19th century in what was Bytown and what would become Ottawa was a woman whose influence remains today. Sister Elisabeth Bruyere led a company of nuns from Montreal to Bytown. She set to work establishing a school, hospital, orphanage, and other institutions. Her order of nuns is still active today, with their convent alongside the chronic care hospital that bears her name.


The Great Fire of 1900 would bring largely to an end the timber era, wrecking havoc on both sides of the Ottawa River before it finally was brought to an end.


These items speak to that time- a tea cup, a pitcher embedded with glass, and what's left of a billiard ball.


For much of its early decades, Bytown had a reputation as a rough place to live in, with violence a way of life. The Stony Monday Riots was one such example.


But even in normal times, with a population consisting of a rough sort of people, you were going to have trouble. A display case features panels and artifacts about how dangerous the town really was.


By 1855, Bytown would be incorporated as a city- with a new name, taking on the name of the river it overlooked.


A set of three display cases, side by side, shows the development over time. This first one features things as it looked at the end of the Rideau Canal building project. At lower right, at the heart of a square, is the only building to appear in all three dioramas- Notre Dame, though it started out as St. Jacques.


Here they all are, side by side. In the middle is the city as it looked upon incorporation in 1855. In the foreground, how it appeared in 1918. Things change.

 

32 comments:

  1. I will never understand the concept of nuns etc. Why, what for? Bad childhood?
    I understand some have no ambitions but so many?
    Interesting fact about the name-change of your capital-city! Thank you!

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  2. That's where the name Ottawa comes from.

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  3. Of course nuns ! They are the most vicious females existing in the world (of course not all) poor children. Have you heard of the nuns in Ireland they killed thousands of babies because their mothers were not married ! and what happened in the orphanages ..... so many children died.

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  4. Great header but not the best of time to live in as showed by the Bytown museum.

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  5. History has proven, time and again, that nuns are vicious, mean, sadistic misfits hiding behind a cloak of religiosity, thereby acquiring both immunity and respectability. A pox on all of them, including that arch hypocrite Mother Teresa.

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  6. ...in the Adirondacks lumber camp began is close around 1900 too. Lumbering was a tough business.

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  7. Hello,
    Great exhibit. I went to parochial school and have met some mean scary nuns. Have a great weekend.

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  8. This is such a fascinating series, William. Thank you.

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  9. @Iris: it's outside my cultural background.

    @italiafinlandia: it's quite a long history.

    @Gattina: nuns aren't popular on this post.

    @sc: it was a rough time.

    @David: definitely not popular.

    @Tom: it really was.

    @Marie: if they wanted.

    @Eileen: they were not part of the picture as I grew up.

    @Jeanie: you're welcome.

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  10. Fascinating history expecially the change of name:)

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  11. The city is laid out on such a grid. It looks so very organized in that last shot.

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  12. I think many developing towns had a pattern of lawlessness.

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  13. That axe is pretty wicked looking.

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  14. Nice exhibit, William. I'm not a fan of nuns, had some mean ones in school but there were some nice ones too.

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  15. I like the last two photos, it's always interesting to see the patterns.

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  16. Bless the nuns for their insight, seems not many like them however not all nuns would have been evil people (I am not religious) there are good and bad people in all walks of life!
    I like the final two pictures showing the changes of the area.

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    1. I'm not religious either, but my limited experience with nuns has been positive.

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  17. wow! Header photo is beautiful! ~ great historical post too ~

    Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  18. Very interesting and so much history!

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  19. interesting. as always i enjoy learning. thank you kindly for sharing with us, William. ( ;

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  20. Things were really violent back in the day. Have you read any of the Whisky and Wickedness books? They tell tales!

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    1. I've read some of the material about the city back then. What a place it was.

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