Andrew Leamy


Andrew Leamy was a pioneer industrialist and community leader in Wright's Town, Lower Canada, which became Hull, Quebec and is now incorporated into the City of Gatineau in the National Capital Region of Canada.
Andrew Leamy was the son of Michael Leamy and Margaret Marshall, who emigrated to Bytown with Andrew, his two brothers James and Michael and his two sisters Catherine and Anne in the 1820-1830 time frame.

His Life

The name Andrew Leamy is as commonly associated with the commercial and industrial development of the City of Hull as is the name of Philemon Wright. Like most of the other illustrious names of that pioneer era - names like Nicholas Sparks and J.R. Booth - Andrew Leamy began his business life as an employee of the Old Squire Wright, in 1830, living and working on Wright's Columbia Farm and learning his future trade as a lumber baron. Andrew also worked for Peter Aylen, taking his rafts to Quebec City.
In 1833, his close ties with the Wright family - and Nicholas Sparks no doubt - led to his eventual marriage to Philemon Wright Jr.'s daughter, Erexina, who had become Nicholas Spark's adopted daughter after Wright Jr.'s death.
In 1835, after a few years of frugality and good economy in Wright's employ, Leamy had saved enough to purchase 200 hectares of land from Philemon Wright - land that included Wright's original 'Gatteno Farm'. In 1853, Leamy began his own enterprise as a lumberman by building a mill on the south shore of Columbia Pond, as it was first named, and the lake became known as Leamy Lake thereafter. Leamy dug a canal to connect the lake to the Gatineau River to facilitate the transportation of logs to his sawmill. The mill, which was the second steam-powered mill in the region - one of only two - was entirely destroyed when a boiler exploded, killing one of Leamy's sons. It was never rebuilt.
Andrew Leamy was a devout Catholic and, in the tradition of the Wright family, gave much of his time to the social and cultural development of the small developing village of Wright's Town. According to the Drouin records of Notre-Dame Parish, he was a popular best man at weddings of his workers and godfather for many families. He worked hand-in-hand with Père Reboul to achieve the emancipation of school governance for the county. The result was the creation of the county's first independent School Commission in 1866, of which he was elected the first President.

Leamy Lake, Leamy Road and the Leamy Farm

Leamy's farm was the original 'Gatteno' Farm, the first farm Philemon Wright created when he arrived in the area in 1800. Leamy's farm contained several buildings of which one, right in front of his large home, was a stable for his prized race horses. The farm, located on the north side of Leamy's lake between the lake and the Gatineau River had a long road that led from the river all the way to the intersection of Columbia Road and Brigham's Road. The road exists to this day even though a good part is blocked to traffic, but it now ends at Carrière Blvd. At some unknown time, when people no longer were living on it, the Leamy Road's name became listed by the city as Chemin du Lac-Leamy and then was changed, once again in 2010 to rue Atawe, despite many objections from citizens. The Leamy road was identified in all city directories up until the middle 1950s when the Leamy home itself was moved from its foundation to parts unknown in Hull. Today the lake, the park and the very popular Casino du Lac-Leamy still carry his name.
The foundations of his home became buried over time and were the subject of an archaeological dig in 2006, commissioned by the National Capital Commission. What was found was a significant structure, quite remarkable in its construction because of the substantial width of the stone walls.
A log building that was still standing in 1884 on Leamy's farm was probably the first home Philemon Wright built on the banks of the Gatineau River when he first arrived in the area in 1800. The Wright family called that home "The Wigwam". It was the conclusion of another archeological dig at that site that the foundations of that house dated from the early 19th century. Leamy family oral history describes the Leamy home as occupying the spot where Philemon's home was situated, presumably Wright's 2nd home on the "Gatteno" Farm.The location was reburied for preservation and protection and the NCC has plans for future commemoration of the site.

His Character

From Andrew Leamy's obituary in the Citizen, April 1868:
Anson A. Gard, author and historian, wrote this about Andrew Leamy:
John Lowrey Gourlay wrote:
In 1874, William Pittman Lett, Ottawa's first City Clerk, in his epic poem "Recollections of Bytown and Its Old Inhabitants" writes:
William Lett's poem makes reference to Leamy's participation in one event where Leamy participated in a brawl instigated by Peter Aylen in Bytown in 1837.
In 1845, in an incident reported in both the Kingston Chronicle & Gazette and then in the Bytown Gazette, it is reported that as a result of fight with Andrew Leamy over a paddle, a "fine, young Highlander" by the name of McCrae loses his life on February 23. More details are not given but there is no further report of charges laid over the matter. There is little doubt that Andrew Leamy learned to use his fists in his early days in the timber camps and like so many other fights involving lumbermen, the result could lead to tragedy.

His Death

On the dark & stormy night of April 21, 1868, one year after Canada was born, Andrew Leamy was last seen heading home on the old Leamy Road. But he never made it home alive. He was mortally injured in what appeared to be a nasty carriage accident. He was found the next morning, bleeding heavily from his head and with severely bruised ribs. To his family, and everyone else, it appeared that Leamy had suffered the same tragic fate that his late father-in-law, Philemon Wright Jr. had, when he also was thrown from his carriage when it overturned, and died some 47 years earlier.
Leamy had a whole stable full of spirited racehorses and days after, it was said by a friend that Leamy had hitched up one of the most spirited among them, that very afternoon.
Leamy did not linger long. He died that day. The family mourned & then, the community moved on. Only, it appears that long after anyone still wondered what happened that night, a "falling out" between a husband & his wife made the mystery about Leamy's death finally solved, 10 years later. In an article that first appeared in the Toronto Globe on August 15, 1878 and reprinted in the New York Times four days later, it was learned that a Henry Maxwell, a labourer who had been in Leamy's employ, and his unnamed brother-in-law were arrested for the murder and robbery of Andrew Leamy.
Leamy's murder occurred exactly two weeks to the day after the assassination of his good friend and fellow Irishman, Thomas D'Arcy McGee. Andrew Leamy's grandson, Andrew D'Arcy McReady, was named after his godfather, Thomas D'Arcy McGee.
Andrew Leamy is buried in a piece of land that he had donated to the Church for the purpose of creating Notre Dame Cemetery in Gatineau, Quebec. His resting place can be found in a rear portion that overlooks the lake that today still bears his name. At his feet lie the remains of a young man named George Smyth. The stone that marks his grave is inscribed with the words:
Philemon Wright's lumbermen happened to be on the banks of the Ottawa River opposite the Rideau Falls, when the young man's body was found. He had the young man's remains buried in a beautiful, quiet corner of his property. Wright must have either known who he was or found out later. In any event, a stone was engraved with the above inscription. Today, we know that George Smyth was the youngest son of Lieutenant Thomas Smyth, esq, the man who gave his name to Smiths Falls on the Rideau River.