The Skelly family were part of the many Irish migrants who left Ireland to escape poverty in the early 19th century. The tragic circumstances of the rural Irish – like those who began to settle in St. Colomban in the 1820’s and the promise of a better life in the States or the colonies gave hope to the Irish people. Despite the many difficulties and potential tragedies that lay ahead, storms, disease (cholera) and dysentery, they boarded the ship in quest for a better life. 

In Montreal about 1817, a member of the Gentlemen of St. Sulpice, Father Richard Jackson noticed the presence of the Irish at Notre-Dame de Bonsecours Church. He was an assistant at the Church at the time and quite astute to their needs. Not only did he open a school for the children of these Irish migrants in the Recollect Convent, Father Jackson offered these immigrants the opportunity to carve out a farming community in the Seigneurie of Lake of Two Mountains, which, like the island of Montreal, was held by the Sulpician Order. As early as 1819, a first group of Irish settlers, along with a few Scots and some French Canadians, settled on a Rivière du Nord concession. Two years later, in 1821, four Irishmen were allocated lots in the midst of the dense forest of the lower Laurentians. They were Hugh O’Reilly (spelled Hughes Reilly in the Quebec records), Andrew Cowan and John Mullin. They were the first Europeans to settle in what would soon become the Parish of St. Colomban. Four years later in 1825, a second wave of settlers, mainly from the South East of Ireland, began to arrive under the aegis of another Sulpician, Father Patrick Phelan from Ballyragget, Kilkenny. Until his departure for Upper Canada in 1842, Father Phelan was responsible for the Irish communities of both St. Colomban and Montreal.

Father Phelan was assigned to look after the many impoverished Irish people within the parish. It was he and Father Jackson who had encouraged the many Irish families with farming backgrounds to move to St. Colomban in the hopes of rebuilding their lives. By means of the Society of the Gentlemen of St. Sulpice, lots of about 150 acres each was offered. The Skelly and O’Rourke families took advantage of this offer, no doubt preferring the rough but independent life of a farmer and settler to that of an urban labourer. The Reilly (O’Reilly), Murphy, Cowan, Mullin and the other migrants who arrived had to build their homesteads in a vastly forested area using the forest for material and the tools given to them by the Sulpicians. The story passed down from Claude Bourguignon’s great grandfather, James Murphy, a carpenter from Cork, was that he along with these early settlers faced extremely difficult conditions given the climate and the rugged natural surroundings that amounted to an untamed wilderness. In the beginning, the settlers took turns keeping watch at night, rifle at the ready, to protect themselves from the wolves. 

The first homes built were modest and were known as shanties. The Skelly family were listed in the first government census taken in 1825 and like most of the homes, the building was described as a ‘shanty’. The population indicated that there were 253 individuals living in St. Colomban. Irish settlers like the Skelly family in rural Quebec had similar priorities. The first, was to build a rough shelter and begin clearing the land on which they would grow their potatoes and other crops. The next priority was to make sure they had a place to worship and the means to provide their children with a basic education. By 1825, the Irish group in Ste-Scholastique parish was sufficiently important that John Ryan was named a church warden. At that time, the future pariah of St. Colomban was still withing the territory of Ste-Scholastique. But that would soon change. In February of 1830, a public meeting was held in Edward Elliott’s home to decide on the location for a chapel which would serve the growing Irish Catholic population in the area. A simple wooden structure was built in 1831 on Mary Phelan’s (Father Patrick Phelan’s sister) land and a parcel of Edward Elliott’s farm became the cemetery. In 1835, St. Colomban acquired its autonomy from Ste-Scholastique and held its first meetings as a self- sustaining Parish with it own registry of baptisms, marriages and burials – in which Father Denis McReavy recorded the first entries in 1836.

Three Skelly brothers Michael, Edward and James Garrett, left Mullingar, Westmeath Ireland in 1825. In 1826, they acquired their lots, Michael acquired lot 150, Edward lot 149 and James Garret lot 148. They built one home on lot 150 and all lived together until the other homes could be built. Michael acquired an additional lot, 105 in 1826 and later sold it to William Barret in 1832. There was a massive rock situated to the left of the entrance to the farm and it was fondly named, ‘The Rock. It earmarked the Skelly homestead and most family pictures were taken at, ‘The Rock’.

Circumstances changed during the first year on the farm. During that year, James Garret would pass title of his lot to Michael in 1826 and return to Ireland.

The remaining Skelly’s managed to cultivate six acres of land by 1831. Their primary produce was corn. Meanwhile, space was getting tight inside the house. At this time, Michael and his wife Elizabeth Carey had 8 children all under the age of 14,  Michael’s brother Edward and his wife Catherine Carey (Elizabeth’s sister) were living there with their own children, but by 1834 decided it was time to move on and relocated first to Montreal and then to New York, where they remained until their deaths.

Michael and his wife Elizabeth were the only Skelly family to remain in St-Colomban. Tragedy struck the family in 1843 when Elizabeth died in childbirth. She was only 36 years old. She is buried in the St.-Colomban cemetery. Her newborn infant, Elizabeth survived and must have been placed with another family as there were no records for her after her birth. Another daughter, Bridget was sent to live with Michael’s brother Edward and his wife Catherine in New York.

In the years after Edward and James Garrett left, Michael managed to cultivate over eighty acres of land. According to the 1851 census, his crops included potatoes, hay, buckwheat, oats and wood. In terms of livestock he kept hens, sheep, cows, one heifer and pigs. The household included Michael sr., widowed (he never remarried after Elizabeth died), Owen, Patrick, Michael Jr., Catherine and Ann.

Michael passed the farm along to his son Michael who was married to Judith O’Brien and were working on the farm at this time. By 1861 Michael Jr. and Judith had six children.

Note:

Saint Columban spelling changed to St-Colomban

Sources: 

THE IRISH SETTLEMENT OF ST. COLUMBAN, Brother Jerome Hart, September 30, 1955

SHAMROCKS IN THE LAURENTIANS, Thomas Edward Kennedy, written about 1970

SAINT-COLOMBAN-Une épopée irlandaise au piémont des Laurentides, Édition revue et augmentee, Claude Bourguignon

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)