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The Abenakis
The Abenakis were the first people to consider Megantic County as their territorial homeland. They are one of the nine nations of the Algonkian peoples. They were referred to as "Abenaquois" by the French and "Abenaki" by the English. They were an eastern tribe concentrated in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Algonquins in general were nomadic by nature, with the exception of the Abenaki who tended to settle in an area and were more agricultural and semi-nomadic. They had grown corn in New England centuries before the Europeans arrived. They were also hunters and fishers on a seasonal basis. They preferred river valleys in mountainous areas, similar to that of northern New England.
The Abenaki had an influence on the early French in New England, teaching them about snowshoes, hunting, traveling in Abenaki moccasins and canoes. They learned Abenaki horticultural practices, borrowed Abenaki words, sought out Abenaki healers and sometimes spent much of their lives in Abenaki country. Abenaki communities of New England came to include French missionaries, New England captives and those who simply preferred Abenaki society to life in colonial New England or New France. Foreigners who were adopted by or stayed with the Abenaki added an English and French strain to Abenaki society and to the Abenaki gene pool. Some of those who returned to English and French settlements retained strong attachments to Abenaki culture and Abenaki parents continued to visit their adopted "children".
With the British conquest of Quebec in 1759, the Abenaki lost their French Canadian allies. Both the British and Americans pressured the Abenaki to fight for their respective sides during the Revolutionary War. The Abenaki were somewhat confused by this war of English against English, as they were more accustomed to wars between the British and French. The same applied during the War of 1812. The Abenaki of New England fought for the Americans and those in Quebec generally sided with the British.
In the 1790's, one of the Eastern Township surveyors was Jesse Pennoyer. He was accompanied by Captain Francis Annance, an Abenaki. Perhaps Francis Annance was influential in the naming of Megantic County at that time. Megantic is derived from the Abenaki word Namasokantic, meaning "place where there are fish".
As the English were settling deeper into the County, the Abenaki were losing land for hunting and fishing. By 1800, the Abenaki were suffering from want of food as most stories about encounters with them in Megantic County seem to centre around them begging for food from the settlers. They were sometimes driven to revenge and desperation, as they saw their hunting and fishing lands once again overrun with land-hungry Brits, or when they were denied food by a settler family.
In 1829 when the Arran Scots arrived in Inverness Township, a Becancour Abenaki camp of wigwams existed at the glen at the northern end of Lake Joseph. The Scots camped here for several months before they were assigned individual lots. Stories have been passed down to the effect that the Indians gave them fish to eat. For some time after 1829, an Indian Chief and several of his tribe continued to hunt and trap on Lake Joseph, setting their wigwams up near the glen, and selling fish and baskets to the settlers. It seems that there was also a seasonal Abenaki wigwam village near Lysander Falls on the Range 10-11 of Inverness. This area was a natural extension of their reserve at Wolinak at the head of the Becancour River, which they followed upstream, portaging at Lysander Falls and following the river through Lake Joseph, William and Trout to hunt, fish and to trade furs with Hall in Ireland Township, at which point the river petered out.
With the steady British settlement of Megantic County from 1827-1839, the Abenaki gradually retreated into the few unsettled areas remaining around Little Lake St-Francis and Lake Aylmer in the Township of Coleraine, Megantic County. Some Abenakis, the most famous being Peter Mountain, remained in Inverness Township, and maintained a good relationship with the Scots. Peter Mountain lived on the 2nd Range of Inverness, in the middle of what was an extension of the Arran Scot settlement. According to the census of 1861, he is listed as: born in Lower Canada, age 80 years, married but widowed, Roman Catholic, illiterate and a "Botanic doctor". It is possible that he was serving as an herbalist to the Arran Scots of the area, who had become accustomed to the kindness of the Abenaki people from when the Scots arrived at their camp in 1829. He is buried at Boutelles Cemetery in Inverness Township, as are a few other Abenakis.
Reference
Gwen Rawlings Barry, A HISTORY OF MEGANTIC COUNTY, Downhomers of Quebec's Eastern Townships, Evans Books, 1999, pp. 26-27-30-32.
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