DID YOU KNOW?
Local history and heritage compiled by historian Bud Trivett
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Posted 2 months ago
DOCTORS BEATON REMEMBERED
Some time ago, we noted, in this column, the arrival of settlers by the name of Beaton in the Jarratt area of Oro-Medonte in the very early days of settlement, when the area was heavily populated with Gaelic-speaking Scottish settlers. They came from the Island of Islay, off the coast of Scotland, where their family had been the hereditary physicians to the Laird and people for centuries.
"The position of medical doctor was inherited through primogenitor (the eldest son), though younger brothers and cousins could be included in the training. Potential Beaton physicians were sent out to be trained... for a period of several years..." They also "learned to read and write in Gaelic and Latin" and had extensive libraries, Natasha Kuran of the University of Guelph notes in her review of John Bannerman's bookThe Beatons, A Medical Kindred in the Classical Gaelic Tradition, published inScottish Tradition,published by The Canadian Association for Scottish Studies, Vol. 25, 2005.
Bannerman's book traces the genealogy of the Beaton family, and its various subdivisions, up until the 18th century. They go by the name of MacBeth, as we mentioned in our earlier column, but also by Mac Beatha, Mac Beatthad, Mac Beatadh, Macleay, Mac Veagh, McVey, Beda, Betonus, Beaton, and Bethune, which he distinguishes from the French family of Bethunes. It is interesting to note that the next generation of Beatons living here in Canada ran true to their heritage and went into the practice of medicine, as did the Bethune family of Gravenhurst, who gained such great notoriety as a surgeon with Mao's armies in China.
Bannerman traces the family's emigration to Scotland from Ireland in the 14th century, Natisha tells us. It comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that migrations, which were usually from east to west, were also at times west to east. Those early centuries were the times when Norsemen seeking land moved into Ireland and took control.
SCOTTISH FESTIVALS AND GAMES
Ever since 1977, the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 34, has hosted the annual Orillia Scottish Festival, honouring a different clan each year. The Scottish heritage is celebrated by games and festivals in a number of places across Canada. On Cape Breton Island, where the majority of the population is of Scottish extraction, annual Highland Games are a natural.
In 1946, the Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games was fostered by Alex Robertson to flame the dying embers of Scottish tradition in the Town of Fergus. Though the 1833 settlers of Fergus were Lowland Scots, not Highlanders, and despite the fact that Scottish Highland Games only commenced in Scotland during the reign of Queen Victoria in 1846, Robertson's efforts were crowned with success and the Fergus Highland Games continue to prosper to this day. Of course, the population of Lowland Scots in Fergus had been reinforced over the years by the arrival of successive waves of Highlanders from Stornway and elsewhere, not all of whom moved on to other centres.
Like Orillia, the early Scottish settlers brought with them their games, perhaps most notably, curling. Fergus has been a home to curlers since 1834. Their curling club is home to rocks dating from 1834 and 1836 and they also display a championship medal dated 1834, when Orillia's clubs were still playing on the lake ice.
Orillia's annual Scottish Festival, which brings 10,000 to 12,000 to Couchiching Park is quite different from the Fergus Games. There, sports activities are at the centre with pipes and banners added. Our festival is centered on the band and colour party each clan brings to the festival. Each year, about 20 bands and more than a dozen colour parties compete for top honours before the judges at Couchiching Park, creating a colourful pageant as well as a musical treat for the adoring spectators who flock to the park.
Both the pipers and the drummers are judged in band competition as well as the pipe band as a unit, the kettle drums of pipe bands being a unique and essential component of marching pipe bands. The kettle drummer is required to play virtually continually on parade, maintaining a very demanding beat. Other activities during the festival include dancing, fiddling and singing with such local artists as fiddler Rudy Meaks and singer Tom Leadbetter, both performing in the park and at the legion. The events include an outstanding parade down the main street as well as a tattoo by the massed bands in Couchiching Beach Park. The entertainment at the park, as on the parade route through town, is free. Support for this outstanding event is entirely voluntary. Legion members and volunteers sell buttons advertising the event and the clan being honoured, for people to wear. Quite a number make generous donations in support and many purchasing a button will place a $5 or $10 bill in the can and take a single $2 button.
CANADIAN CHARTERED BANKS
When first banks were established in Canada, they followed the corporate form of American charter devised by the American Andrew Hamilton, rather than the form of United Kingdom banks. It comes as a bit of a surprise, therefore, to find our entire banking system being commended internationally for its stable and responsible actions, which resulted in Canada suffering a milder recession and coming out of it rather more quickly, insofar as enterprises not completely tied into the American manufacturing market (i. e. auto) were concerned. The answer is in "good government," the rules under which the banks are required to operate and the entire set-up of the Bank of Canada. Bankers may want to take note of the extent to which our recovery is being led by enterprises employing relatively small numbers of persons, while the giants still stumble around waiting for "big contracts," still laying off their able employees.
