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“This is written in the sincere hope that those who follow may know something of the trials and the tribulations, the hopes and the fears, and indeed the successes of the pioneers. Above all their courage.”

This is how Wyman MacKechnie introduces the story of how things were in the early days of the Ottawa Valley. Born on September 13, 1896, he used his own antecedents, who settled in the Pontiac and Renfrew counties, as his subject. MacKechnie left no stone unturned in his search for authentic detail. While he invented the dialogue that brings his account vividly to life, everything else is documentary.

The author drew the title of the book from a poem about pioneer life. He made a point of opening the last chapter with the following:

“When we in this generation think in the context of ‘What men they were . . . who bore themselves by day and night like builders of a nation . . .’ we include the women in that generalization. For it was they, even more than the men, who suffered the brunt of loneliness and privation in those pioneer days. . . . who sacrificed the most as they forsook home and friends in relatively comfortable surroundings to follow their men across the sea.”

Besides being an award-winning breeder of dairy cows at his Bonnieshade Farm at Wyman, Quebec, and President of the Ayrshire Association of Canada, Wyman MacKechnie was also a public speaker and television interviewer, and played a part in local government as town councillor and county warden.

Details:
Author: S. Wyman MacKechnie
Format: Paperback
Region: Pontiac, Outaouais (Québec)
ISBN: 978-1-897508-76-3
Pages: 257