Dedicated to the Tennants and Grawbargers who settled the Ottawa Valley in the 1850's.
The Grawbargers sailed to New Amsterdam (New York) in 1710 or so on the "Elizabeth". Some of their family members (Andrew Grawbarger) migrated northward as loyalists to the British Crown in the late 1700s or early 1800s.
The Tennants sailed to Canada in June 1820 on the "Commerce" out of Greenock Scotland and Dublin Ireland . They originally settled in Lanark Township in Lanark County Ontario and subsequently spread throughout Canada and the USA.
Meeting up in the Wilberforce Township area (near Killaloe) in the 1850s the Tennants and Grawbargers became fast friends and intermarried quite extensively.
Moving northwest into the Petawawa area together in the 1870s they founded the "Tennant Settlement" on what is now part of the Petawawa Military Base. Being bought out by the Military in 1906 some moved into nearby Chalk River while others made the trek to the Restoule/Golden Valley area and others rode the rails to Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.
Their story of hard toil and heavy burdens marked them as they set down roots and pioneered the Lanark area in the early 1800s. Finding strength in each other and through their fantastic familial relationships as their descendants married other pioneers, the Tennants and their extensive families spread out from Lanark to explore whole new homesteads and occupations.
Thomas Tennant and Ann Hill would be proud of the varied and broad legacy of their descendants. Their heart-wrenching decision to sail to a new world would in a few short decades after their death, ultimately be rewarded with their progeny weaving themselves into and becoming a part of the very essence of Canada.
Their never ending spirit lead their descendants to become explorers, clergy and pastors, shanty-men, hunters, trappers, doctors, farmers, scientists, administrators, lawyers, railroaders, soldiers, writers, educators, paramedics, morticians, elected officials, police officers, firefighters, sports enthusiasts and entrepreneurs of the day.
In the 1861 Census Thomas Tennant (1835-1909) and Andrew Grawbarger (1835-1907) were neighbours in Wilberforce Township. Thomas had moved there with his father from Lanark County and Andrew came with his father from Westmeath Township and previously from Dundas County. Andrew Grawbarger Sr. was born in the United States.
Thomas and his wife (Andrews sister) Mary Ann Grawbarger (1837-1911)( in the photo on the right ) lived on 100 acres on Concession 25 lot 17.
Andrew (in photo below) and his wife Sarah Jane Tennant (1837-1882) who was sister to Thomas lived on 100 acres as well on Concession 25 lot 9 in Wilberforce Township
Thomas and Mary Ann had 10 children - 7 boys and 3 girls. Andrew and Sarah Jane had 12 children - 10 boys and 2 girls.
Edward Tennant (Thomas' brother) married Sarah Ann Grawbarger (b. Nov. 7, 1847). Robert Tennant (born on the Twelth of July 1846) married Elizabeth Grawbarger (Sarah and Mary Ann's sister).
Four Grawbargers married four Tennants and thus the Tennant/Grawbarger Journey started.
Tom Tennant (1834-1909) m. Mary Ann Grawbarger (1837-1911)
Edward Tennant (1846-1916) m. Sarah Ann Grawbarger (1843-1935)
Robert Tennant (1839-1921) m. Elizabeth Grawbarger (1847-1913)
Sarah Jane Tennant (1837-1876) m. Andrew Grawbarger Jr. (1835-1907)
As of the 1871 Census data Andrew Grawbarger Jr. and his wife Sarah Jane Tennant had moved to Petawawa Township, Renfrew County, to what would become to be known as the Tennant Settlement (damn Tennants stole the name of the settlement from the Grawbargers!). In 1871, after Andrew and Sarah Jane had moved to Petawawa Township, Richard Tennant and Jane Cardiff and their sons Thomas (and his wife Mary Ann Grawbarger), George, Edward and Robert were still living in Wilberforce Township in Renfrew County.
This c. 1890 photo is of a cousin of mine - Roger McLeod - with a team of young moose hitched to his wagon. Roger was the last lighthouse keeper at the McQuestion Point Lighthouse on the Ottawa River near Chalk River Ontario.
This is a wedding photo of Alfred MacDonald and Mary Grawbarger supplied by Perry MacDonald of Chalk River Ontario.
Alfred and Mary were married on October 31, 1900 in Chalk River. For their wedding meal they had "chicken stew".
Alfred was born in the Lake Dore Ontario area in 1867 and died in Chalk River on March 21, 1959. Mary was born April 27, 1884 in the Tennant Settlement near Chalk River. She was the daughter of Thomas Grawbarger and Sarah Jane Tennant. One set of her grandparents were Thomas Tennant (1834-1909) and Mary Ann Grawbarger (1837-1911). Mary died on October 6, 1961 in Chalk River Ontario.
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This is a photo taken on Wednesday June 30, 1948 in the side yard of Kenneth Cuthbert in Chalk River. This was the wedding day of Margaret Elaine Cuthbert (Ken's daughter) and Thomas George Tennant.
The gentleman on the left is Alfred MacDonald - Margaret Elaine's maternal grandfather. The man on the right is George Cardiff Tennant.
Thomas Tennant and his wife Anne Hill and their children emigrated to Upper Canada in 1820. Thomas and his family left their Aghade home on April 12th 1820 and made their way to Dublin. On April 18th 1820 Thomas made the purchase for the ticket for the sailing ship passage to the "New World". Robert Dawson Tennant included a copy of the receipt for his passge in his book "Carlow to Lanark". The receipt details that it was for passage to Quebec for Thomas Tennant, his wife and family of nine children, a daughter in law and "one man servant".
The grand sum of 39 pounds was paid for the passage on the ship "Commerce" which sailed out of Greenock Scotland with 402 passengers on June 21, 1820.
According to the newspaper Quebec Mercury of 1820 the Tennant family's ship landed at Montreal, Quebec on August 5, 1820. http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/ships/ships1820.html
According to the narrative in Robert Dawson Tennant's book, the new Tennant immigrants would have travelled by wagon to Lachine Quebec where they prepared to go upstream on the St. Lawrence River to Prescott (Fort Wellington)- a duration of five days.
The women stayed in Prescott while the men travelled once again by wagon to the Perth area. From Perth they walked up the blazed trail or precursor of the "Pakenham Road" to their chosen lots on what would become the 10th line of Lanark. Officially Thomas settled on "Crown reserve Lot No. 8 on the tenth concession of Lanark Township".
As confirmed in information from the first draft of the "Carlow to Lanark- An Irish Family History" written by Robert Dawson Tennant and provided by Colin Chalmers Tennant (nephew of Robert Dawson Tennant) the "Man Servant" referred to in the receipt for passage was actually Betty Neal. She met and married a British Army soldier, William Wilson, while staying in Prescott in 1820 with the Tennants and returned to England with him when he retired from his duties in Upper Canada.
George Cardiff Tennant
George Tennant, son of Thomas and Mary Ann and grandson of Richard Tennant and Jane Cardiff, was renowned for his ability to apply the "Tennant Cancer Cure" to those he came across who had skin cancer. My dad and mom recount many times they heard and saw cancers being cured by George. Many of his "patients" were locals in the Chalk River and Pembroke area. George also cured several Railroaders as they travelled through Chalk River on the CPR line. George's son Wesley Tennant of Chalk River also had the cure and applied it up until just a few decades ago. My dad Thomas George Tennant has the ingredients for the "cure" but not the amounts required and thus for all intents and purposes it has been lost with time and modern medicine rules and regs.
Here is an excerpt from the Perth Courier of 1899:
Perth Courier, June 2, 1899
John Dunlop of Pembroke Township, we regret to hear, is troubled with a cancer in the lower hip. Mr. Dunlop is about 83 years of age but apart from the cancer is in excellent health. Mr. Tennant of Chalk River who, a couple weeks ago, treated Charles Cornwith so successfully for the same condition, came down on Monday and hopes to effect a cure in Mr. Dunlop's case in a short time.
Here is another quote from the Coppsville/Clarkesville website:
Chalk River is not without it's folk heroes and legendary sons. The Tennant family, prominent even today in the area, deserves special mention. It seems that Mr George Tennant Sr. , now deceased, had an uncanny ability to prescribe herbal cures for a variety of ailments. Mr Tennant's abilities were certainly well appreciated, considering that Doctors were few and far 
between in those days. Mr Dick Tennant, George's brother, performed many pioneer veterinary services for the areas sick animals. His sister-in-law, Mrs Andy Tennant who acted as midwife, delivered many of today's (1979) village residents. The Tennants and the services of this family were undoubtedly greatly appreciated by the early settlers of the area.
In the photo above we have from left to right:
George McKay, George Cardiff Tennant, Unkown, Richard (Dick) Tennant and William Cuthbert - CPR Yard Chalk River ON.Interestingly in August of 2010 while visiting family and doing some genealogical research out in Egerton Alberta at the Egerton Cemetery my wife Jeannie and I met up with some long lost cousins. They too were in the wee town of Egerton cemetery conducting family research. What are the chances of two families that live 3000 kilometeres apart and unbeknownst to each other would pick the same time and day to visit the same cemetery to search for the same gravesites? Well the stars were aligned that day as Jeannie and I met up with Hugh Tennant (son of Robert Gordon Ttennant and Sara Symington), his sister Isabelle West (nee Tennant) and their neice Lynn Currier (daughter of Colleen Tennant) and Lynn's step father Carl. Egerton Cemetery - August 2010
After introducing ourselves and a very brief enquiry as to whether or not they had ever heard about the Tennant cancer cure, Lynn and Isabelle recounted almost verbatim the detailed descriptions that my Mom and Dad and grandparents would tell of the Tennant cancer cure. It seems that the Tennants carried their not so secret cancer cure with them from the Wilberforce Township/Chalk River/Tennant Settlement area all the way out west to Alberta. Some of the details that Isabelle and Lynn recounted included the painful manner in which the cure slowly killed the cancer just under the skin, how it looked like a large spider with its tendrils and the hole or depression that it would leave after dying and falling off the body. They also mentioned how you had to let the cancer die completely and not to pick at it or remove part of it until it had all died before peeling it out of the hole in the skin. A healing poultice would then be placed over the area until it "haired up and healed over". My Mom and Dad both explain in detail how the never ending pain kept those under the cure from getting any proper sleep for the 2-3 weeks it took the cancer to die.
The Parish of Aghade.
Thomas Tennant and Judith Butler most likely worshipped at the Aghade church (Church of Ireland - Part of a five point charge today) as they and some of their relatives are buried there. While Thomas and Judith's graves have not been found a vertical tombstone can be found secured in place with the inscription telling of the death of Richard Tennant (son of Thomas and Judith) on December 3, 1772 and burial in 1775 of a 6 month old baby boy -Thomas Tennant- son of Robert. See the following link for more details about the gravestone at Agahde Church. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tennant/aghadegravepage2.htm
The name of the Aghade parish is not of ecclesiastical origin though it is of great and celebrated antiquity as we read from what is known as 'The Book of Ballymote'. There it is told how Eochaidh, the son of Enna Cennsealach, killed the poet Niall of the Nine Hostages. The High-King pursued him into Leinster, laid waste the province and forced the Leinstermen to surrender Eochaidh to him. He then carried off his prisoners to 'Ath Fadhat' on the banks of the Slaney and there he left him with a chain around his neck secured to a stone. As Niall retreated northward, nine of his champions returned to put an end to Eochaidh. When the latter saw them coming the 'legend' has it that he put forth all his strength, gave a sudden jerk by which he broke the chain and seizing an iron bar to which it was secured, attacked and slew his champions. Encouraged by this feat the Leinstermen rallied, attacked Niall's army, defeated it and pursued it as far as Tullow slaughtering the retreating troops all the way.
In modern times, human bones and skeletons as well as mangled pieces of swords and other military equipment have been dug up from Aghade to Tullow. Nothing can be more certain that a bloody conflict took place here at a remote period. Christian origins of Aghade and All Saints.In the fifth century Saint Iserninus, Saint Patrick's nephew, resided in and was buried at Aghade. It is argued that Iserninus in close consultation with St. Patrick founded the church here.From the 'The Carlow O.S. Letters' we learn that an abbey for nuns of the Order of St. Augustine was founded by Dermot McMorogh, King of Leinster, in 1151. He appointed it to be a sub abbey of the nunnery of St. Mary de Hoggis in Dublin. It appears that in the reign of Henry V! (1422 - 1461) 60 acres of land in Ardristian as well as the rectory of Aghade belonged to this Abbey or rather to the head house of that order in Dublin city. The present day church occupies the same site of the former convent.
Quoting from the O.S. letters we read 'There is now no vistage or remembrance of the abbey now at Aghade but there are a blessed (holy) well, without a name, and a very old baptismal font near the present church which is sufficient indication of a religious establishment of other character having formally occupied the same situation'.
In bygone days, bound by the fetters of superstition, very few people went to a funeral in Aghade graveyard without paying a visit to the well and taking a drink from it as the water was believed to have curative properties. The church hall was the parochial National School until its closure in 1967. In addition to the church and Tennant Gravestone and Church hall pictures here other pictures of the Aghade "All Saints" church can be found at the link below.http://www.ballonvillage.com/Aghade%20church.htm
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