MacDonald House Museum
A look at one community's efforts to preserve their heritage
Introduction
This paper is intended as an accompaniment to "MacDonald House, East Lake Ainslie; An Architectural Study" which was written for Prof. Richard MacKinnon's Vernacular Architecture class in March 2006 by this author. That paper is available at the Beaton Institute at Cape Breton University as well as in the files of the Lake Ainslie Historical Society. "An Architectural Study" makes brief mention of the social history of the MacDonald House in the context of how the physical structure of the building was used and adapted by the family over the 130 years during which it was inhabited. This paper will focus on the social history of the MacDonald family and their role in East Lake Ainslie's history as well as the use of the MacDonald house and property as a museum and the role of the museum in current East Lake Ainslie history.
Background
East Lake Ainslie is located in Inverness County, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It was first settled by Scottish immigrants beginning in the early 1800's. Among these pioneer settlers was Alexander (the Weaver) MacDonald, his wife Mary (nee MacLean) and their children. The MacDonald's settled on a 200 acre property approximately 3 miles from the north end of the lake on the eastern shoreline in 1823 (Lake Ainslie Historical Society, Promotional brochure 1980's). In the 1850's (actual date unknown) the family constructed a new home which still stands today. The MacDonald's became the first merchants on the area and also had the first Post Office. Over the years six generations of MacDonald's have lived on the property settled by Alexander.
In the late 1970's the last inhabitant of the house (Jessie MacDonald) moved out. Around the same time local community members and family members of the MacDonald's began to think about what they could do to honour the pioneers and preserve their way of life. The Great Grandson of Alexander MacDonald, Charles N MacDonald, offered the home of his birth to the community group for use as a museum. The loose collection of people interested in their local history formally formed the Lake Ainslie Historical Society in 1977. Shortly thereafter the house, barn and a few acres of land were deeded to the Lake Ainslie Historical Society (Lake Ainslie Historical Society). The museum has operated every summer since 1978 and has provided employment for numerous students in the area.
I spent eight summers working for the Lake Ainslie Historical Society at MacDonald house, first as a tour guide, researcher and labourer, later as Administrator for 3 years. This experience fostered my desire to continue working in the tourism industry and gave me an innate understanding of the history, not only of the house and family, but also of the Lake Ainslie Historical Society and its work. Due to my experience at the museum, and my continued involvement with the Lake Ainslie Historical Society much of the information contained in this paper from comes from tacit knowledge acquired over the course of my association with the museum and Lake Ainslie Historical Society. Any information from outside, or published, sources is cited. I am indebted to the Lake Ainslie Historical Society for allowing me the opportunity to borrow relevant files from storage on site for the winter to facilitate my research.
The family life at MacDonald House and their role in Lake Ainslie's history
Like many other settlers to Lake Ainslie, the MacDonald's would have had much to learn and do during their first few years here. Shelter would have been the first thing on their minds. Many families constructed one room log homes and later replaced these with wood-frame homes. This is likely what the MacDonald's did. The house that currently stands on the property was constructed in the 1850's by Charles MacDonald, one of the sons of Alexander and Mary. This house has four rooms on the main floor, and 4 bedrooms with a large central hallway on the second floor.
Charles remained in this home for the rest of his life and passed it on to his son Dan C and his family. Dan C and his wife Jessie raised three girls and one son, Charlie, in this home and remained there into the late 1970's. Charlie built his own home for himself and wife (also a Jessie) on the shoreline of his father's property and became sole owner of the family land when his parents died. Charlie and Jessie raised one son Charles who married Ann (nee Campbell) and for a time resided in a mini-home on the family land. Charles and Ann's children represent the sixth generation of MacDonald's to live on this farm in the last 180 years.
At some point in the 1850's Charles became the first merchant in the Lake Ainslie area. His store was located below his home on the family land. A register from the store is currently housed at the Beaton Institute in Sydney. The foundation of the store is still visible, but local people have no recollection of the store still standing. There is very little in the way of documentation of the store other then the register. Charles' brother Donald married the Hon. William McKeen's daughter and moved to Mabou where he also was a merchant.
Charles served as the Post Master for East Lake Ainslie from 1867 until his death in 1897 (Lake Ainslie Historical Society, MacDonald House Brief History). Charles wife Hannah took over the role of Post Master until 1925 when her son Dan C. took over. The Post Office remained in the MacDonald home until the current rural Route delivery system was implemented in the 1950's. The post office played a vital role in community life. Not only was it the place to go to get the mail, but it became a source of local information and gatherings. The mail arrived twice a week and it was always an event. The Post Office was nothing like ones we see in today's life. The mail was stored and sorted in the family dining room on a small desk in the corner. The door to the dining room had a small sliding hatch where the Post Master could pass mail to patrons. However, local history tells us that this was not the way the Macdonald's post office operated.
The MacDonald's post office was much more informal then the structure of the space would imply. Many of the patrons to the Post Office would come in the back door on mail day without waiting for an invitation to come in. They would sit on the bench (day-bed) in the kitchen and chat with the MacDonald's and perhaps have a cup of tea and a biscuit. It became more about the visit then about the mail in some ways. Locals would meet up with each other in the kitchen at MacDonald house, share stories and catch up on which farmers' sheep had lambed or whether the lake had frozen or thawed, or whose crops were ready to harvest. It is possible that many of the shared work gatherings, for harvesting, wool-spinning or barn building, were planned in the MacDonald's kitchen. Most everyone in the area was there on a weekly basis and this may have been the best way to spread word around before the advent of telephones.
There is one story that I would like to relate that I feel shows quite a bit about the importance of getting the mail, and how important work was to local farmers. A family of MacKinnon's lived on a farm half a mile north of the MacDonald's. One of the girls in this MacKinnon family told me this story one summer while I was working at MacDonald House. She remembers that once when she was approximately 5 or 6 years old her entire family was out in the fields planting the summer's potato crop. The sky looked as though it would rain soon, and her father was anxious to get the whole field planted before that would happen. He was also very anxious to get to the post office to get a letter that he knew was coming. Instead of going himself to the post office or sending one of his older children who were needed in the field he sent his 6 year old daughter. He put her up on one of his horses, a trusted and calm horse. The horse was so used to going for the mail that the girl's father was able to lead the horse through the gate and tell it to go for the mail. The horse carried this six year old girl all the way to the back door of the MacDonald house where she hollered for someone's attention. Dan C MacDonald was Postmaster at this time, and he came out to the back door to see what the fuss was all about. He was quite shocked apparently to see this young girl alone on the horse. She asked for the mail and received it. Then she had to ask Dan C to tell the horse to go home as she was unable to use the reigns to guide it back. She made it home safely with the important letter (no one remembers what the letter might have been), and the potatoes got planted before the rain came.
Another factor comes into play when looking at the MacDonald house as a gathering place for neighbours… Dan C played the fiddle quite well. The house was often the site of parties and ceilidh's. People would come on Saturday nights to the front room at the house to dance, hear the fiddle and socialize. There were many other people who played instruments as well but the fiddle was by far the most common.
In terms of the overall importance of the McDonald house and the MacDonald family to Lake Ainslie's heritage one need only look at the fact that the house and some of it's contents were deemed important enough by community members that they decided to transform it into a museum designed to preserve the memory of the people places and things important to Lake Ainslie residents.
MacDonald House as a monument to local heritage
In 1978 the dream of many residents of Lake Ainslie came to life. The home of the Dan C. and Mary Jessie MacDonald was deeded to the Lake Ainslie historical Society for use as a museum. The Lake Ainslie Historical Society comprised a group of community members who "were interested in preserving, in a manner as authentically as is possible, the names, dates, and all historical data relating to the pioneers of this area" (Lake Ainslie Historical Society, promotional brochure, date unknown). It took a few years to bring everything together; the official opening of the MacDonald House Museum was celebrated on August 18th, 1984 however the museum had been entertaining guests prior to the Official Opening (Lake Ainslie Historical Society, Official Opening Program transcript). The crowd gathered to celebrate this momentous occasion was addressed by such people as local historian and founding Lake Ainslie Historical Society member Peter MacMillan, descendant of the original MacDonald settlers Charles N MacDonald, Reverend Donald Sutherland, Past President of the Federation of Nova Scotian Heritage James O St.Clair, the Minister of Recreation, Fitness and Culture the Honourable Billy Joe MacLean, MLA for Inverness North the Honourable John Archie MacKenzie, the Honourable Senator Allan J MacEachen, and member of the Lake Ainslie Historical Society Chris Campbell. Also in attendance was Mrs Jessie Cameron, daughter of Charles MacDonald who at that time was in her one hundredth year.
Charles N MacDonald's remarks on the day of the official opening gave a brief history of the family and their life and work. He also spoke of the house as a center for many activities and expressed his desire to see that tradition continue. James O St.Clair, who had consulted with the Lake Ainslie Historical Society members throughout the previous few years spoke of the many 'firsts' that have and occurred at this house, the first store, the first post office and "the first official opening of building which is designated as a heritage house" in Inverness County (Lake Ainslie Historical Society, Official Opening Program transcript). The County of Inverness designated two properties as being a Heritage Property that year, the Smyth house in Port hood and the MacDonald house. He spoke also of the effort put forth by the membership of the Lake Ainslie Historical Society in terms of gathering and collecting oral and written history and of their commitment to educating themselves by attending seminars offered by the Federation of Nova Scotia Heritage.
MLA John Archie MacKenzie's remarks reflected his own memories of the hospitable nature of the MacDonald family during his trips to the area as a child. He also spoke a few words to Mrs Jessie Cameron in Gaelic but unfortunately the transcribers did not translate these words. John Archie is well known for his commitment to preserving the language of many of our ancestors at Lake Ainslie. Minster Billy Joe MacLean expressed thanks to the dedicated volunteers who put so much work into the project and, his pleasure in being able to work with many such groups throughout the province. Senator MacEachen had been a Member of Parliament for the area for many, many years, and his comments reflected his deep interest in the history of the pioneer settlers and his desire to gather and collect letters written between Scottish immigrants and their friends and relatives who did not make the move to the new world. He told of a tradition among many immigrants leaving the Isle of Mull in Scotland of placing stones on the shores as they left Scotland as a sign of affection for their country. This created a great pile of stones which became known as a "cairn of tears". The tradition of building stone monuments is still seen in Lake Ainslie; one can be found at MacDonald house in honour of all pioneer settlers at and another that is located less then a mile away is in memory of a MacKinnon family.
Over the years of preparing the property for opening twenty-five students and 18 adults were given seasonal jobs thanks to the support of government grants and other sources of funding. The museum continues to provide jobs to students within the area each summer, though not to the extent that was available in the early 1980's. It has also served as a venue for cultural activities such as the first Inverness County Arts Festival held in July 1985 featuring artisans, crafters, writers, singers, musicians and a play by the local Hillsborough Players (Inverness County Council for the Arts, Promotional Brochure). Other events organized by the Lake Ainslie Historical Society as fundraisers over the years have included weekly card-plays, Barn-dances, Heritage Festivals, re-enactments of A Day in the Life of a One-Room School, and several reunions for local groups and families.
In 1984 the Lake Ainslie Historical Society was successful in moving a school building from Twin Rock Valley to the museum site. The one day move took months of planning. The Glenmore School was raised onto a flatbed and driven about three miles to its current home. It must have been nerve-wracking for on-lookers to see a building of that size and age slowly riding along the highway and then up the steep driveway to the museum. The schoolhouse has become a vital part of the interpretation of the history of Lake Ainslie as there was a vast appreciation for education among local residents.
In recent years the membership of the Lake Ainslie Historical Society has become a much smaller group than that which it was in the early days. Many of the individuals who belong to the Lake Ainslie Historical Society also belong to other community groups such as the volunteer firefighter and ladies auxiliary, church groups, the Lake Ainslie Marathon Society, the Council of Nova Scotian Archives, Presbytery, or the Lake Ainslie Development Association. The people at East Lake have a sense of collectivism and neighbourliness that leads them to serve with many of these different groups. East Lake Ainslie has not seen much in the way of new families moving into the area lately, so the people who volunteer for each of these groups have not seen much in the way of 'new blood' to assist or replace them. As time goes on some of the individuals (if not all) feel 'burnt out' and decide to stop participating in as many community groups and organizations. Slowly over the last 10 years the numbers of people who remain active members of the Lake Ainslie Historical Society year round have dwindled to less than a quarter of the size of the group in the early 1980's.
The core of the group at this time includes a handful of different family lines, MacDonald's, Campbell's and MacLean's with a number of other people being around in the summer months when they come to their summer homes. The names of those who are summer residents and actively participate during the summer include families such as Heidts, Young's, Campbell's among others. These summer residents tend to be descendants of the Lake Ainslie pioneers, and feel the same need to preserve to memories and history of their ancestors just as those of us who have stayed do.
Over the years MacDonald House has been host for many large gatherings of families and friends. There have been "One Room school Reunions" for each of the four one room schools that existed along East Lake as well as a reunion for the Scotsville school. Many families also held reunions at MacDonald House Museum including MacDonald's MacMillan's, MacDougall's and Campbell's. Some of these were organized by the family members who merely used the museum as a host space, but the Campbell reunion and all the school reunions were organized by the Lake Ainslie Historical Society membership. The number of man-hours involved for the volunteers was huge, but they all felt it was worth it once the time came for the guests to arrive.
There are over 60 community groups, museums and heritage organizations in Cape Breton listed on the Nova Scotia Museum's website ranging from the large federally funded Louisbourg Historic site to the small local groups like the Whycocomagh and Area Historical Society who have no museum building yet, but are still able to gather together and share local stories. There is also the advocacy organization for Cape Breton historical groups, museums and archives which is known as the Iona Connection. The Iona connection meets regularly to look at issues affecting the island's heritage industry as a whole.
Conclusions
The sheer number of museums and heritage groups on Cape Breton Island speaks to the importance of preserving history and links to the past to many dedicated Cape Bretoners. This prolific attention to historical preservation in Cape Breton demonstrates our innate desire to remember and honour those who have gone before us. The MacDonald House has been a gathering place for the people of Lake Ainslie since at least the 1850's and it continues to serve as a gathering place today. The fact that the membership of the Lake Ainslie Historical Society continue to give of their time and energy means that the MacDonald House Museum will be a place for hospitality and learning for years to come. The County of Inverness has always been very supportive of the Lake Ainslie Historical Society efforts, and in that regard presented the membership with a 'Friends of Heritage Award' in May 1985.
References
Inverness County Council of the Arts. Promotional Brochure. 1985
Lake Ainslie Historical Society. "MacDonald House". Promotional material. Date unknown.
Lake Ainslie Historical Society. "MacDonald House". Brief History. Date unknown
Lake Ainslie Historical Society. Ephemera Files. Lake Ainslie Historical Society Documents No. 4. Various dates and authors.
Lake Ainslie Historical Society. Ephemera Files. MacDonald House No. 9. Various dates and authors.
Nova Scotia Museum. Website. Accesses April 18th 2006.
Registry of Deeds. Port Hood. Deed books and Grant books. January 2006.
St.Clair, James. Consultant with Lake Ainslie Historical Society, local historian. Personal Interview. February 2006.
