From Maine to Montreal,
Circa 1827 – Part II

by Tom Seymour

In 1827 Joseph Lamson left Wayne, Maine, west of Augusta, on horseback. He traveled north over the unpaved roads and trails through the mountains of western Maine into Quebec. He recorded what he saw and experienced, and whom he met along the way, in a diary which has been condensed for this series.

Having arrived at the village of St. Marie on the banks of the Chaudiere River, Joseph Lamson, a traveler from Maine, took time to inspect the style and architecture of houses and barns. The village stretched out about one mile along the riverside. The houses were mostly one story, but some were “long and capacious.” A Catholic church with three steeples dominated the landscape. The Canadian government made its presence known in the form of a customs house, where Lamson was obliged to pay a duty of 10 percent on his horse, “…a most outrageous exaction upon travelers.”

Thatched Roofs

Lamson took particular note of the barns, with their thatched roofs: “Their barns are very long and low, and the roofs are covered with thatch, which is done in this manner. Across the rafters, which are sometimes made of square timber, and sometimes of round, are fastened with withes a number of small round poles, placed from twelve to eighteen inches distant from each other. To these poles the straw is attached, and secured by means of withes.

“It is laid on, as near as I could judge, from four to eight inches in thickness, in the form of shingling. The lower or but-ends only, being exposed to the weather; and the withes are completely protected, by the successive layings of straw, which the rain cannot penetrate. A laying of straw is bent over the ridge, one half on either side. This thatch is very durable. I have seen it as black as the covering of an old, unpainted building, with a thick, green moss upon it in many places; and yet, it was sound and whole, while the barn it covered was old, decayed, and just ready to tumble to the ground.”

Of interest, too, were the Canadian highways. According to Lamson, “In Canada, no cattle are allowed to go at large in the highway; in consequence of which, they, in many places, cultivate the greater part of the road. I have seen long patches of potatoes, and narrow fields of grass growing on either side of the path, upon the banks of the Chaudiere without the protection of a fence, or danger of injury.”

The people, too, were interesting: “The French Canadians are remarkably social and very hospitable to strangers; and they appear to be perfectly contented and happy. Whenever a stranger happens amongst them, he is welcomed with every demonstration of respect, and pleasure at his arrival; the fiddler is sent for, the neighbors are called, and a party is immediately made for his entertainment. And while he continues with them, he is treated with every attention they can bestow upon him.”

Lamson made it a point to describe Canadian May-Day celebrations: “The Canadians keep the festival of May-day; but very differently from the mode practiced in England. Men are the chief actors. An officer of the militia is selected whom they would honor; before his house a May-pole, as tall as our liberty-poles, is erected, handsomely painted, and a small flag or weathercock placed at its top. Then they have a frolic, and partake of a treat provided by the officer honored, and the ceremony ends. Every year the pole is taken down, and repainted, and the same ceremony is performed.”

In Quebec

From St. Marie, Lamson rode a distance of 30 miles to Point Levi, which he described as a small succession of villages of three or four miles extent, with one of the villages built on the bank of the St. Lawrence, on a narrow strip of ground opposite Quebec.” Upon first viewing Quebec from this vantage point, Lamson remarked: “My first view of this celebrated city from Point Levi, gave me a sensation of pleasure amounting almost to enthusiasm. The prospect from this village is one of the most beautiful, and magnificent imaginable. The city was in full view before me. There was an air of grandeur in its dark, its lofty, and perpendicular precipices, crowned with towers and steeples, walls and fortifications, castles and palaces…of majesty in the broad expanse of the St. Lawrence…”

Lamson left his horse at Point Levi and took a steam-powered ferry across to Quebec. One of the first sights to attract his attention was a young man, “…dressed in a red short coat, with a small, green, erect collar, and green cuffs, trimmed, together with the button holes, in military style, with white braids…a dark tartan plaid fastened round his waist, sitting close before, but hanging in large folds behind, and reaching nearly to the knees…a loose piece of the same pending gracefully from the shoulder behind…stockings of cotton cloth, plaided in diamond figures with bright red and white, brought half way up the leg, and tied with red quality with a knot outside…a large black cap, full of long plumes, hanging on the right side and front, and a white erect feather on the opposite side, secured by means of a small cockade; with a wide band of red and white plaid, and a black morocco strap drawn under his chin…a sort of small, white shaggy apron, half as large as that of a free mason, made of goat’s hair, with a row of red and white tassels at the bottom, and lined in such a manner as to be used as a pocket…cotton epaulettes on his shoulders…The latter marked in black on the sleeve of the left arm and his knees were bare. I at first supposed him to be a young Indian chief, but seeing several more in the same costume the next morning, I soon began to suspect, what I afterwards found to be true, that they were Highland soldiers, a regiment of whom are quartered here. I soon after saw the whole regiment paraded. They marched out of their quarters with a fine band of music playing; and among which the sound of the bagpipe was readily distinguished.”

For a side trip, Lamson one day decided to visit the falls of the Chaudiere: “I crossed the St. Lawrence about 9 o’ clock in the morning, on an excursion to the falls of the Chaudiere. In crossing, an accident happened to some of the machinery of the boat, which stopped its progress, and we drifted some distance down the river, until it was repaired, when we soon reached the wharf in safety, against the tide and a strong wind.”

From there, Lamson took his horse and rode to the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Chaudiere rivers. Then, following a path cut out of the rock, came near the falls, where he hired a Canadian as a guide.

Lamson wished to view the falls from the lowest possible point, so the guide led him down a barely discernable path down the steepest possible escarpment. At one point, Lamson became disoriented and thought he would fall into the river. He finally summoned courage to retrace his steps and later tried it again, since the guide assured him that it was possible to find an even lower elevation vantage point than that where Lamson was stricken with fright.

Plains of Abraham

After another day viewing another set of falls, the Falls of Montmorenci, Lamson made his way back to Quebec through the village of Beauport. Here, he gives a surprising clue as to the early use of the “Macadamizing process.” John L. MacAdam, the inventor of the process, had only died seven years prior to Lamson’s trip: “The road through Beauport is very rough, and in rainy seasons, it is very muddy. They are beginning to Macadamise in many places on the road, as well as on others in the vicinity of Quebec.”

During this ride, Lamson commented upon the gardens of the Canadians. The most remarkable aspect of these were large beds of onions. Lamson said, “…they raise large quantities of them, and use them in their soups.” It is likely that what Lamson was seeing were commercial truck gardens, meant to supply the markets of Quebec.

On August 10, Lamson ventured out on the Plains of Abraham and followed a road to the field where English and French forces under Wolfe and Montcalm, respectively, both lost their lives in battle. After that, Lamson went to the Lower Town, and went out on the street at the foot of Cape Diamond where, in 1775, “…Montgomery fell in an unsuccessful attack upon Quebec. He sought the place where the great general fell, but was unable to find it. Later, the master of the steamboat on which he was riding pointed out the spot as they passed by on the river. Lamson’s mention of the action in 1775 makes no mention of the traitor Benedict Arnold, which was typical of nineteenth-century narratives. Still, it was Arnold who led the expedition to Quebec and was wounded in the leg when the city was stormed. The loss of Arnold as much as the loss of Montgomery was responsible for the American defeat of 1775.

To be continued…