Auchmar

The closet inside one of the large 4 corner bedrooms.

This is on the southwest end of the home; the fireplace has been removed.

Photo - LP

A Quiet Daughter

Unlike some of her siblings, Evelyn left behind fewer records.

But what survives paints a picture of a deeply thoughtful, intelligent young woman.

Her mother wrote:

“Her mind was so wonderfully stored… she had always an apt quotation of some kind or another for every occasion.”

Even in illness, that sharpness remained.

🍁Happy Canada Day!🍁

Canada is 159 years old today!

Sir John A and Isaac were very close friends. Sir John would stay at Auchmar often and even had a certain bedroom he would stay in. Now my imagination goes wild just thinking about those conversations Isaac and John would have together in private in that smoking room regarding the Confederation of Canada.

"July 1, 1867, was a sunny day right across the country. At midnight of June 30th, the order was given to let the bells loose, and the church towers across Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick rang out. In all of the major centres, the Queen's proclamation was read out, followed by parades and celebrations. A 101-gun salute also shook the area around Ottawa in honour of the occasion."

Now, let's skip forward to July 1st, 1927. We know that Elsie moved out of Auchmar and over to the Bellevue Mansion, which she renamed "The Lilacs." This mansion sat right along the west mountain brow, and while they lived there, Little D wrote about an event she remembers watching.

“A gracious lawn stretched from the front door to the edge of the mountain with a flagpole right at the edge. While we were there, there was a very special July first celebration – for some reason, it had had to be postponed, and that year they had all the bells and whistles – and we had the perfect place to watch – not only the fireworks all over the city, but the Strongman Road below us had been closed off for the Civic display.

As well as the usual rockets, etc., they lit different colours of Railway flares. Very impressive. Another different memory was standing at that same place on a Sunday evening and listening to the bells from some Carillon in the city, playing hymns. A song we were learning in school at that time was so appropriate: “Those evening bells – those evening bells, how sweet the song their ringing bells.”

Photo 2 - Reading the Proclamation of Confederation in Kingston, Ontario, on July 1, 1867.
Photo 3 - William A. Chatfield - Hamilton celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation from June 29th to July 4th, 1927

Wed, Jun 29, 1927

The Hamilton Spectator
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada •
Page 38

GRACIOUS HOSTESS OF LONG AGO

MRS. ISAAC BUCHANAN

Wife of the Hon. Isaac Buchanan, of Auchmar House, who was one of the most estimable and prominent women of Confederation days.