The Nicholsons and McLeods came to Canada in 1841 and 1838  respectively, arriving in the same state as many future immigrants, speaking neither English nor French, in this case Gaelic, and with nothing but the shirt (or lady's nightgown) on their back. They had been cleared from the land. Another wave of Lewisman arrived in 1851.

They arrived at Port St. Arthur Quebec, some of the poorest settlers ever to set foot on Canadian soil. Some walked, some road in carts, to Sherbrooke and then to Lingwick where they cut trails through the forest and burned wood for potash to make a living. (This latter account written by Edith Nicholson.)

Were it not for either the St. Andrew's Society or the native people (depending on which version you believe) they all would have died their first winter.

These particular  Lewisman came to Canada reluctantly -some being carried onto the boats.  Others had emigrated earlier, before their situation had become so dire, and had arrived with meagre possessions. (Hmm. My husband won't budge from where he was born, like his mom; by eldest son is backpacking around North America, and aims for South America, like the restless Lewisman. Two kinds of Lewis genes.)

The Nicholsons and Mcleods came from the westernmost point of Scotland, Uig Carnish on the Isle of Lewis. The Nicolsons (original spelling) were originally from Skye. There's a picture of the Uig on the top of the homepage. Edith brought it from Scotland in 1932 after a visit there. It appears to be a barren but beautiful place, so different from the 'wilds' of Quebec with our extremes of weather.

The Isle of Lewis, home to the largest standing stone grouping in the UK after Stonehenge, was settled by Norseman and Celts and the Celtic traditions died hard in those remote parts. To illustrate how ancient the civilizations are, in 1831 some 700  year-old Norse chess pieces were found buried in Uig.

Lewisman were a superstitious lot. Margaret and Edith, 'new women' to the core, still put great store on their dreams. "I was dreaming last night…" was a common phrase for Margaret, who believed dreams could be premonitions.

(Coincidentally,  Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams had been published in 1900 and between 1908 and 1913 Freud published many famous papers. His theories though would not have been widely known at that time -despite the mention of his name in the  1997 movie Titanic.  Later on, however, Margaret cut out newspaper items about the subconscious mind.)

Visit www.hebrides.ca if you want to learn more about this subject.

Crayon Drawing of John McLeod, who came to Canada in 1838 at age 27. I found it in my mother in law's basement, with three others, depicting his mom and siblings. My husband and I framed it and put it in the living room. These crayon pictures, photos that were enlarged and embellished with charcoal artistry, were a common artform in Victorian times. My son thinks John looks like Abraham Lincoln, no coincidence, considering the date, around 1860. Norman, for that matter, looked like Mark Twain. John has a slight palsy on one side of his face, so does my husband! John married Sarah McLean, for whom there was no crayon portrait and I know why. I have the daguerreotype (tintype?) from which this portrait was made, and she's in it but her image isn't clear. John died shortly after this portrait, Sarah in 1912. I have a portrait of Sarah at 90 plus. Read the letters to learn all about it.