Village Squire, 1980-07, Page 21new deer skin mitts and moccasins. In the
summer it was baskets of berries and wild
fruit.
BEST HUNGERS
In the Indian's band there was a young
woman, a daughter of the chief and the
wife of one of the best hunters. They had
ane son who along with his mother was a
great favourite of the Chief. The Indian
woman and Jane Mallough were about the
same age and the Mallough's son, Joseph
was about the age as the Indian boy. As
they lived close, these two boys played
together and became good friends as did
their mothers.
Jane said the only way she could
communicate with her friend, the Indian
woman, was by signs, but the boys seemed
to understand each other perfectly. In the
winter months there was little for a man to
do on a pioneer farm, and as they did not
have much to sell to bring in money to buy
supplies, William Mallough went to Gode-
rich to work on a new dock that was being
built at the harbour, while the ice was
strong enough to carry the men and
material.
He would leave early Monday morning
and walk in (about 12 miles) and return
Saturday night, bringing home the week's
house clean like any wild young squaw
should, but that did not succeed. The poker
was soon taken from her. Jane and her
friend had their backs to the wall and the
men were between them and the door.
It was then that the Indian woman spoke
quickly to her son in the Indian language
that the visitors did not understand. The
lad took one look at his mother, then
dodged past the men and took off like a
jack -rabbit. The squaw looked quite pleas-
ed and made signs to Jane that things
would soon be well again. The men started
to look things over and were getting ready
to move in and making plans for the night
that did not look good for the ladies, but
things got no further for them, as the Old
Chief, the squaw's husband, and her
brother came in with the boy following.
The Indians each had a large knife and a
tomahawk on their belts.
The Chief pointed to the men's throats,
then to the knives and made signs of
drawing the knives across their throats; he
then pointed to the door and said "Go, or
else we start to work." The visitors left
quickly. In fact, the three tried to get
through the door way at once. Some of the
Indians either stayed or were close by all
day, until William came home. William
that the settlers stopped for lodging and
rest for their animals before continuing
their journey further north. This was no
doubt Dungannon's beginning.
William and Jame Mallough had a
family of eleven and lived to celebrate their
diamond wedding anniversary in 1903.
This farm remained in the hands of
Mallough descendants until 1971, when
there were no direct heirs to take over the
farm.
DUNGANNON TODAY
In the 1940's and 1950's there were very
few children in Dungannon, the hamlet
comprised mostly of widows and spinsters
Today the decline is over and an upward
trend in population is taking place once
more. The children of the village wait in
various corners for the school buses which
take them to Brookside Public School,
Kingsbridge R.C. Separate School, and
Goderich District Collegiate Institute.
New homes have been built as well as
the dial exchange office of Huron and
Kinloss Municipal Telephone System. The
West Wawanosh Mutual Fire Insurance
Co. in February, 1980 decided to remain
and build a new modern office on the
corner where an old hotel has stood for
over 125 years.
--a newspaper, and a radio station --
supplies. While he was away. Jane looked
after the cow and oxen, a few hens and
pigs. In the evenings her friend, the Indian
woman, with her son would come over, and
while Jane knitted, - the Indian woman
sewed moccasins, and the boys played on
the floor, while the mothers talked by
signs.
One particular mild evening, the fire-
place was smoking and the door was left
open to let the smoke out and the light from
the fire and the candles attracted three
men who were on their way to the north.
They wanted a place to spend the night
inside instead of camping out in the bush.
Jane told them that as the cabin had only
one room and one bed, a table, and some
benches, and her husband was away and
would not be back until Saturday night, she
could not help them. The men said that was
fine as her husband was away they would
stay with her and the good looking young
squaw.
Jane being a real Irish woman and not
long out from Old Ireland lashed out with a
tongue lashing that only an Irish woman
could, but it did not move the men. The
Indian woman decided the situation was
getting serious and picked up the iron '
poker from the fire -place, and tried to
thanked the Chief for what he had done
and gave him some presents. The Chief
said that was good, and he was much
pleased to be of help to his friends, and
were not his daughter and his favourite
grandson threatened by these sons of
snakes and spawn of the devil and he
thought it would be no harm to get three
scalps and their oxen would make good
beef for his people!
THINGS OF THE PAST
It took the Malloughs some time to
convince the Indians that scalping people
and burning buildings and stealing cattle
was a thing of the past and would only
bring the soldiers and trouble for them.
Not many years after this, the Indians, the
first citizens of Dungannon, gathered up
their belongings and bade farewell to their
friends the Malloughs and departed.
William Mallough took out a registered
plan in 1856 and subdivided the north-east
corner of his farm into lots. Likewise
William MacMath had a similar plan made
on his farm across the road in West
Wawanosh Township. It is these lots on
which the shops and homes were built
which now comprise the village proper.
William Mallough built a log hotel and
barn on the corner of his farm. It was here
HISTORY BOOK TO BE PUBLISHED
When researching for the Women's
Institute History Book entitled "From
Bush Trails to Present Tales" (a 400 page
written and pictorial history of Dungannon,
Port Albert and all surrounding area, to be
published for Dungannon's 125th birthday,
August 1,2,3,4, 1980) we were amazed at
the first title land owners of our district.
Roman Catholics lived next door to
Protestants and so on down the conces-
sions. It seemed as though religious
barriers were gone by the way. Survival in
the primeval forest was uppermost- in the
minds of the early settlers. No doubt this
was instilled upon their families too for
friendliness and neighbourliness were the
key words, and out of this came the
threshing bees, the woodcutting bees,
quilting bees, etc. Our great-grandparents
left behind famine, hardship, serfdom
and the bombings, burnings and kil lings
which have plagued Ireland for so many
years.
We, the descendants who live in this
country now, can certainly thank the 'boat
people' of the 1840's and 1850's for our
peaceful way of life in the New Ireland of
Huron County (Belfast, Dungannon,
Donnybrook, etc.)
VILLAGE SOUIRE/JULY 1980 PG. 19