Glengarry County

{{Use Canadian English|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox settlement | name = Glengarry County | native_name = | settlement_type = | image_skyline = | image_alt = | image_caption = | image_flag = | flag_alt = | image_seal = | seal_alt = | image_shield = | shield_alt = | nickname = | motto = | image_map = Glengarry.png | map_alt = | map_caption = Glengarry located within Ontario | pushpin_map = | pushpin_label_position = | pushpin_map_alt = | pushpin_map_caption = | coordinates = | coor_pinpoint = | coordinates_footnotes = | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = [[Canada]] | subdivision_type1 = [[Provinces and territories of Canada|Province]] | subdivision_name1 = [[Ontario]] | subdivision_type2 = | subdivision_name2 = | subdivision_type3 = | subdivision_name3 = | established_title = | established_date = 1784 | founder = | seat_type = | seat = | government_footnotes = | leader_party = | leader_title = | leader_name = | unit_pref = Metric   | area_footnotes = | area_urban_footnotes =  | area_rural_footnotes =  | area_metro_footnotes =  | area_magnitude =  | area_note = | area_water_percent = | area_rank = | area_blank1_title = | area_blank2_title =  | area_total_km2 = | area_land_km2 = | area_water_km2 = | area_urban_km2 = | area_rural_km2 = | area_metro_km2 = | area_blank1_km2 = | area_blank2_km2 =  | area_total_ha = | area_land_ha = | area_water_ha = | area_urban_ha = | area_rural_ha = | area_metro_ha = | area_blank1_ha = | area_blank2_ha = | length_km = | width_km = | dimensions_footnotes = | elevation_footnotes = | elevation_m = | population_footnotes = | population_total = | population_as_of = | population_density_km2 = auto | population_demonym = | population_note = | timezone1 = | utc_offset1 = | timezone1_DST = | utc_offset1_DST = | postal_code_type = | postal_code = | area_code_type = | area_code = | iso_code = | website =  | footnotes = }}

'''Glengarry County''', an area covering {{convert|288688|acre|km2|0}}, is a county in the province of [[Ontario]], [[Canada]]. It is inhabited by the descendants of 18th and early 19th-century [[Scottish Gaels|Scottish Highland]] pioneer settlers from [[Lochaber]], was historically a {{lang|gd|[[Gàidhealtachd]]}} community, and [[Canadian Gaelic]] [[language revival]] efforts are currently{{when|date=October 2025}} taking place there. Glengarry County consists of the townships of [[North Glengarry, Ontario|North Glengarry]] and [[South Glengarry, Ontario|South Glengarry]]. It borders the [[Saint Lawrence River]] to the south, the county of Stormont and City of Cornwall to the west, the province of Quebec to the east, and the United Counties of Prescott-Russell to the north.

==History== Glengarry was founded in 1784 by Gaelic-speaking [[United Empire Loyalists]], mainly from [[Clan MacDonell of Glengarry|Clan Donald]], whose defeat in the [[American Revolution]] had [[Expulsion of the Loyalists|caused them]] to become [[refugee]]s from the [[Mohawk Valley]] in [[upstate New York]], [[North Carolina]], and, despite the fact that most Scottish Gaels in that Colony chose to be [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots]], from [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Newton |first1=Michael Steven |title=We're Indians Sure Enough: The Legacy of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States |date=2001 |publisher=Saorsa Media |oclc=51936872}} Pages 164-165.</ref> [[His Majesty's Government]], as represented by the [[Governor General of Canada|Governor General of British North America]], [[Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester]], hoped the new migrants would help settle and develop the area, which first became known as [[Upper Canada]] and later as [[Ontario]]. The Crown accordingly issued land grants and helped with supplies during the first winter, in lieu of financial compensation for their confiscated properties in [[United States]].

Other veterans of the [[British armed forces]] during later wars received land instead of pay for their salaries, particularly the [[Glengarry Fencibles]], a [[Scottish regiment]] organized by Roman Catholic [[military chaplain]] [[Alexander Macdonell (bishop of Kingston)|Alexander Macdonnell]], who followed the regiment's soldiers and their families to the county and later became the first [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston (Canada)|Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston]]. The county was named after [[Clan MacDonald of Glengarry]], where Bishop MacDonell and many of the soldiers of the regiment had also come from.

[[File:Bethune-Thompson House NHS.jpg|thumb|Rev. John Bethune House, [[South Glengarry]].]] The Presbyterian [[Gaels]] of the settlement, on the other hand, were looked after in early years, by Loyalist refugee Rev. [[John Bethune (Canadian minister)|John Bethune]], formerly the minister of the Gaelic-speaking [[Barbecue, North Carolina|Barbeque Presbyterian Church]] in [[Harnett County, North Carolina]]. Even so, the unlikely friendship between the Presbyterian minister and the Catholic Bishop remains legendary today.

Following an 1814 visit to the settlement, Dr. D. MacPherson wrote, "You might travel over the whole of the County and by far the greater part of [[Stormont County|Stormont]], without hearing anything spoken except [[Canadian Gaelic|the good Gaelic]]. Every family, even of the lowest order, has a landed property of 200 acres... However poor the family (but indeed there are none that can be called so) they kill a [[beef cattle|bullock]] for the winter consumption; the farm or estate supplies them with abundance of [[butter]], cheese, etc., etc. Their houses are small but comfortable, having a ground floor and garret, with regular chimney and glass windows. The appearance of the people is at all times respectable, but I was delighted at seeing them [[Tridentine Mass|at church]] on a Sunday; the men clothed in good English cloth, and many of the women wore the [[tartan|Highland plaid]]."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blundell |first1=Frederick Odo |title=The Catholic Highlands of Scotland. Volume II: The Western Highlands and Islands |date=1909–1917 |publisher=Sands & Co |location=Edinburgh |url=https://archive.org/details/catholichighland02blunuoft}} pp. 186.</ref>

Understandingly, this prosperity in contrast with the escalation of widespread poverty in the [[Highlands and Islands]] caused by [[rackrenting]] landlords, the [[Highland Clearances]], and the [[Highland Potato Famine]], meant that Glengarry County long remained a magnet for new immigration from the [[Gàidhealtachd]]. The distinctive [[Canadian Gaelic]] dialect once spoken pervasively throughout the County has also contributed much to both [[Scottish Gaelic literature]] and [[Scottish traditional music]]. For example, poet [[Anna NicGillìosa]] (1759-1847) emigrated from [[Morar]] to [[Upper Canada]] in 1786 and eventually settled in [[South Glengarry]], and a Gaelic song-poem in praise of her new home there survives. Following her death there in 1847, NicGillìosa was buried beside the (now ruined) St Raphael's Roman Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Sumner |editor1-first=Natasha |editor2-last=Doyle |editor2-first=Aidan |title=North American Gaels: Speech, Story, and Song in the Diaspora |date=2020 |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's University Press]] |isbn=978-0-2280-0517-9|pages=14–16}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Newton |first1=Michael Steven |date=2015 |title={{lang|gd|Seanchaidh na Coille|italic=no}} / Memory-Keeper of the Forest: Anthology of Scottish Gaelic Literature of Canada |publisher=Cape Breton University Press |isbn=978-1-77206-016-4}} pp. 129-132, 522-523.</ref>

[[File:Ruins of St. Raphael's Church, South Glengarry, Ontario.jpg|thumb|right|Ruins of St. Raphael Church, [[South Glengarry]]]] One visitor during early settlement later recalled, "Anyone who ever saw the [[reaping]] bees by moonlight was likely never to forget it; a singer would come, [[sickle]] in hand, follow the bent form of the racing reapers (women and men) leading the solo part of a song which they, or their forbears, had learned in the Highlands, while the workers kept up time with great glee and good time... Although the young men did not handle the needle at [[quilting]] bees, they generally put in an appearance in the evening when the girls had accomplished that feat, but at [[fulling]] bees both sexes participated and the fulling could not be properly carried on without [[Waulking song|the songs]] to regulate the time for the beating of the cloth with hands and feet."{{sfn|Newton|2015|p=24}}

Over time, however, railway expansion into the region, economic downturns, and the [[Anglicisation]] policy in the Canadian school system took their toll. It also did not help that, similarly to Gaelic-speaking politicians in other parts of Canada, political leaders from Glengarry tended to side with pro-English language policies and routinely chose to deliberately antagonise [[French Canadian]] language activists, rather than joining forces to fight for their mutual [[linguistic rights]].{{sfn|Newton|2015|pp=371-387}} Furthermore, soldiers from Glengarry County were deployed against the [[Upper Canada rebellion]] of 1837 and the [[Patriot War]] of 1838, which resulted in a letter of thanks from the Governor General.{{sfn|Newton|2015|p=108}}

In 1879, a visitor from Scotland enthusiastically declared that the [[Invergarry|Glengarry]] dialect of Scottish Gaelic was better preserved, "with the most perfect accent, and with scarcely any, if any, admixture of English", in Glengarry County and in [[Cornwall, Ontario]] than in [[Lochaber]] itself.{{sfn|Newton|2015|p=373}}

In 1884, however, one Glengarry writer lamented, "During the lifetime of the first immigrants the Gaelic language was much in use, so much so that knowledge of it was considered a necessary qualification for the Presbyterian pulpit. The common school, however, has brought the new generation to use the English tongue, and a Gaelic sermon is seldom heard, though in some isolated areas is in some measure of use."{{sfn|Newton|2015|p=385}}

By the same decade, Glengarry County had also become a major center for outward migration, especially to the [[United States]], "In proportion to size of territory and population, the district has sent more [[lumberjack|lumbermen]] to [[Michigan]] forests, more [[homesteading|settlers]] to [[Minnesota]] prairies, more hands to assist and direct the construction of railways, than any other on [[North America|the American continent]]... effective reference may be made to the settlement in [[Dakota Territory|Dakota]], where a new Glengarry is springing up."{{sfn|Newton|2001|p=168}}

The [[Glengarry Highland Games]] were first celebrated in 1948. They have been held annually since, during the weekend before the first Monday in August. These Games are one of the largest of their kind outside [[Scotland]], attracting visitors from all over the world. The original territory of Glengarry also included [[Prescott County, Ontario|Prescott County]], which became a separate county in 1800.{{Citation needed|reason=There are multiple facts in this paragraph that each need to be supported with a Reliable Source.|date=October 2018}}

Glengarry united with [[Stormont County, Ontario|Stormont]] and [[Dundas County, Ontario|Dundas]] in 1850 to form the [[Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry County, Ontario|United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry]].

[[Canadian Gaelic]] (i.e. [[Canadian Scottish Gaelic]]) used to be the main [[community language]] spoken throughout the region.<ref>{{cite book |last1=MacDonell |first1=J. A. (John Alexander) |title=Sketches Illustrating the Early Settlement and History of Glengarry in Canada... |date=1893 |publisher=Wm. Foster, Brown & Co. |location=Montreal |url=https://archive.org/details/sketchesglenngar00macduoft}}</ref> Though the number of speakers has steadily decreased over time and the last "fluent" speaker of the Glengarry County Gaelic dialect died in 2001,<ref>{{cite web |last=McDonald |first=Rod |year=2001 |title=Alec McDonald |url=http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/mcdonald_alec.htm |work=Electric Scotland |access-date=2006-04-26 }}</ref> those working towards a local Gaelic [[language revival]] have formed classes for [[heritage language learning]] throughout Glengarry.<ref>{{cite web |last=McDonald |first=Rod |year=2001 |title=Alec McDonald |url=http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/mcdonald_alec.htm |work=Electric Scotland |access-date=2006-04-26 }}</ref>

==Historic townships==

Glengarry was originally divided east and west into Charlottenburgh and Lancaster townships, and then eventually divided into four townships. It has since been divided into North and South Glengarry. * [[Charlottenburgh Township, Ontario|Charlottenburgh]] – now in [[South Glengarry, Ontario|South Glengarry Township]], it was named in honour of [[Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz|Queen Charlotte]]. * [[Kenyon Township, Ontario|Kenyon]] – now in [[North Glengarry, Ontario|North Glengarry Township]]. Kenyon Township was taken from Charlottenburg Township in 1798, and was named from the English Chief Justice [[Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon]] * [[Lancaster Township, Ontario|Lancaster]] – now in South Glengarry Township. Surveyed in 1784, it was first settled in 1785. * [[Lochiel Township, Ontario|Lochiel]] – now in North Glengarry. Lochiel Township separated from Lancaster Township on November 24, 1818. Lochiel was named after the chief of the [[Clan Cameron]]. This clan had many representatives among the veteran settlers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Middleton |first1=Jesse Edgar |last2=Landon |first2=Fred |title=The Province of Ontario — A History 1615-1927 |date=1927 |publisher=The Dominion Publishing Company Limited |url=https://archive.org/details/provinceofontari0003unse/page/n7/mode/2up}}{{Page needed|date=December 2025}}</ref>

==See also== * [[List of Ontario census divisions]] * [[List of townships in Ontario]] * [[Canadian Gaelic]]

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * Edited by Fleming, Rae (1994), ''The Lochaber Emigrants to Glengarry'', Natural Heritage / Natural History, Inc. [[Toronto]].

==External links== * [http://www.glengarrycountyarchives.ca/ Glengarry County Archives], official website * [http://www.southglengarry.com/ Township of South Glengarry] * [http://www.northglengarry.ca/ Township of North Glengarry] * [http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/glengarry.htm Glengarry County Map (1879)]

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[[Category:Canadian Gaelic]] [[Category:Former counties in Ontario]] [[Category:United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry|*]] [[Category:Scottish-Canadian culture in Ontario]]