Driven by Bismarck's wars and by economic hardship, hundreds of people left eastern Germany between 1858 and 1890 to settle in Canada. The Canadian government started in the late 1850s to open up Renfew County in the Ottawa Valley by building a colonization route -- the Opeongo Road. The efforts of Canadian Immigration officials and the spur of harsh economic conditions at home led this wave of German immigrants to settle, with high hopes, in the newly opened region.
Succeeding generations of German farmers who had to cope with the poor soil of Renfrew County complained of an 'annual harvest of stones.' None the less they built a community, erecting the buildings and fashioning the articles of daily use they needed. The houses, barns, schools, and churches, the clothing and blankets, and the furniture they produced are documented extensively for the first time in this book.
Brenda Lee-Whiting has interviewed descendants of many of the settlers, explored attics and barns, scoured auction sales, visited cemeteries, and read original letters and diaries throughout Renfrew County to obtain a vivid picture of the original community. She recounts the life-stories of furniture-makers and explains the designs and provence of their cradles, beds, tables, and cupboards, many of which now lie neglected and forgotten. She describes how the settlers cleared and cultivated the land, assesses the fruitful adaptation of Canadian housing styles of German domestic requirements, and examines the equipment and techniques used to furnish homes and to sow and reap crops -- harvests of flax and vegetables, as well as stones.
Using the objects made by the settlers and the stories told by them and their descendants, Lee-Whiting brings to life the culture of a people transplanted to a region that challenged them to the utmost, a challenge they met with resilience and resourcefulness.

BRENDA LEE-WHITING has been studying the German settlement in Renfrew County for more than twenty years. She is a resident of Deep River Ontario.

Brenda Lee-Whiting's profile page