Skye Pioneers and The Island

Norman MacLeod, one of the 1829 settlers, died in Uigg in 1837, aged 75. His wife was Margaret, daughter of Donald Macphee of Skye. His parents were, Neil MacLeod and his wife Sophia Nicholson.

Mr. and Mrs. MacLeod were accompanied to P.E.I. by their children, Samuel, Roderick, John, Murdoch, Mrs. Angus Macdonald, Mrs. James Macdonald, Mrs. Cameron and Neil, who lived in Vernon River.

I. SAMUEL taught school in Pinette and Flat River. There he married Margaret Currie, who had emigrated to that district with her family from Mull, Scotland. From 1840 to 1870 he was minister of the Baptist Churches in Uigg and Belfast. He died on August 23, 1881, aged 85. His wife died on February 27, 1902, aged 95. Their children were:
1. NORMAN, d. July 1928, aged 91, married, with issue: Hammond, Samuel, George R. (McGill), Asst. City Engineer. Montreal, married Margaret Furness, with issue; James D. (B.A. Acadia), minister, married, with issue;
2. MALCOLM, d. April 29, 1903, aged 64, married Esther Robertson, East Point, d. Sept. 12, 1923, aged 73, with issue:
a. SAMUEL, on the old homestead, married Miss Vaniderstine, with issue, among others, Florence;
b. ELLA;
c. ALEXANDER R. (B.A. McGill), Rhodes scholar, barrister-at-law, Vancouver, married, with issue;
d. MARGARET;
e. DUNCAN, married with issue;
f. HADDON SPURGEON (Guelph Agr. Col.);
3. JAMES (McGill), M.D., Charlottetown, married Margaret Alma Gates, d. 1927, with issue, among others, Dr. MacLeod, Moose jaw;
4. DUNCAN (B.A. McGill), barrister-at-law, Charlottetown, unmarried;
5. SARAH, wife of William MacLeod, Bridgetown, Dundas, with issue;
6. MARY, unmarried;
II. RODERICK, d. June, 1888, aged 85. His wife Catherine, d. Dec. 2, 1882, aged 75. Among their issue were:
1. MALCOLM, K.C., for two generations the leader of the bar, and the outstanding man on the Island;
2. JOHN, unmarried;
3. ANN, d. March 4, 1905, aged 58, wife of Alexander Martin, M.P., Valleyfield, b. March 14, 1842, d. April 13, 1921, with issue: Albert J. (Dal. Cornell), C. E. Montague, Belle, wife of H. W. H. Knott, barrister, Montreal;
4. KATHERINE, died 1929, unmarried.
III. JOHN, married Rachel, daughter of Donald Gordon. She died January 11, 1915, aged almost 98. Without issue;
IV. (BIG) MURDOCH was born in Skye in 1815, and died July 29, 1889. On October 6, 1837, he married Margaret Gunn in Miramichi, N.B. She died August 26, 1916, aged one hundred all but two or three months. They had several children. Of these John Murdoch, one of the most successful farmers on P.E.I., lives on the old homestead. He was born April 20, 1848. He married his cousin, a daughter of "Little" Roderick MacLeod of Uigg Rear, sister of the late judge Neil MacLeod, of Summerside. Their son and only child, Otis, with his wife Evelyn MacLeod and children, live with them. Another son of Big Murdoch is William MacLeod, a well-known resident of Bridgetown, Dundas, P.E.I.

James Macdonald, d. Sept. 12, 1883, aged 90. His son Donald, married Margaret, daughter of Donald Gordon. Their son, Donald Gordon Macdonald, of Vancouver, the well-known Baptist minister, was 86 in February, 1929. His brother, Capt. Malcolm, of Georgetown, was father of Mrs. Richardson, wife of the late H. A. Richardson, General Manager of the Bank of Nova Scotia.

The MacHamish MacLeods who at one time lived on Farm 10, now part of John MacLeod's farm, were notable for their great size. Their average height was about six feet two inches. James was six feet five, Roderick six feet four, Alexander six feet two, Christy, Mary and another sister were all about six feet. They moved to the U.S.A. in the eighties.

Alexander MacLean, miller, Montague River, who came from Skye in 1829, died December 10, 1878, aged 80. His wife Margaret Macdonald d. April 13, 1899, aged 68. Their daughter Catherine, wife of John Macqueen, died when about 96.

On the triangular parcel of land near the Baptist Church lived Alexander Nicholson. One of his sons was Rev. Alexander B. Nicholson (b. 1845) for many years professor of Classics at Queen's University, Kingston. Another son, John, was a banker, in Ellis, Kansas.

In Orwell lives Mrs. Samuel Jardine, daughter of the faithful Frederick Augustus Kidson, [Son of Samuel Augustus Kidson, of Hereford, England.] for many years minister of the Baptist churches at Uigg and Belfast, died South Maitland, N.S., July 3, 1912, aged 83. Edith one of her seven daughters lives with her.

Norman Murdoch MacLeod of Uigg, later of Orwell River, and his wife, who was Miss MacLean of Portage, Belfast, moved to Charlottetown where in partnership with J. D. MacLeod he carried on an extensive grocery business. His daughter Mary (d. Sept. 1929), after graduating in music in Paris, France, married Dr. Macdonald, Calgary. Marion is wife of Dr. G. F. Dewar, Charlottetown, Maud is widow of Dr. Stuart Carruthers, Catherine lives in Charlottetown. Murdoch, Sidney and Milton live in Alberta.

Peter Gordon of Uigg, brother of Rachel and Margaret Gordon, was father of J. A. Gordon, M.A., D.D. (b. June 24, 1844), the distinguished and eloquent Baptist minister, now of Montreal, who was the centennial orator at Uigg, 1929. The latter is father of: Alva H. Gordon, one of the leading physicians of Montreal; Peter W. of Hamilton; Herbert of Ottawa, and John P., who, with Samuel MacLeod, owns the well known dry goods firm. Moore and MacLeod, Charlottetown.

The said Samuel MacLeod is great-grandson of Alexander MacLeod (Allistair Taillear), who, with his family including Murdoch, emigrated from Raasay, Scotland, in 1821, where they had gone a few years earlier from Skye. They bought the four-hundred-acre farm extending easterly from Orwell bridge along the Kinross road, paying therefor £195 currency. Descendants still own half of this farm. Donald, son of Murdoch, and father of Samuel, built a stone house on it and to this day the family is known as Stonehouse.

Murdo Raasay, as he was generally known, was a remarkable man. Before leaving Scotland he married a Miss Martin, a connection of the Orwell Cove Martins. Her brother Samuel was one of the first teachers in Orwell. Murdo used to spend much time on the commanding height beside the Kinross road on his estate. Here with artist's eye, he loved to scan the panorama spread before him. Looking westerly there was unfolded to his view a scene of matchless charm and beauty. At his feet the Orwell river gently hurrying on its ever widening way to join the distant sea. On the left the wooded hill, with here and there a clearing flecked with daisies, fell gently from imposing height to the water's edge beneath. On his right heavily timbered low lands, patched with settlers clearances, stretched far away northward.

The little mound still visible on the hill-top marks the final resting place of one who would not be parted from the place he loved so well even in death.