Ottawa History Hub

In this episode, we explore the Great Hunger of Ireland, not as a simple crop failure but as a devastating social and economic catastrophe shaped by poverty, colonial policies, and inequality. As potato blight ravaged Ireland in the 1840s, millions faced starvation, eviction, or exile, despite food continuing to leave the country. We follow the journey of Irish refugees aboard overcrowded “coffin ships” to Canada, examine quarantine stations like Grosse Île, and trace how survivors helped sha...

What happened after the rebellions of 1837-38? We’ll look at the creation of the Province of Canada and the attempt to unite Upper and Lower Canada under one government. We'll reference the Durham Report, debates over representation and responsible government, and the political alliances that shaped the new province. Along the way, we’ll see how these changes affected Bytown and set the stage for the political system that would eventually lead to Confederation.

Hamnett Pinhey, an English businessman who came to the Ottawa Valley hoping to recreate the life of a country gentleman on a large rural estate founded his settlement at Horaceville. His political career, and his strong conservative views, give a backdrop to what life looked like for the region’s wealthy landowners. Through Pinhey’s story, the episode highlights a different vision of the Ottawa area, one rooted in rural estates rather than the growing town of Bytown.

Hamnett Pinhey, an English businessman who came to the Ottawa Valley hoping to recreate the life of a country gentleman on a large rural estate founded his settlement at Horaceville. His political career, and his strong conservative views, give a backdrop to what life looked like for the region’s wealthy landowners. Through Pinhey’s story, the episode highlights a different vision of the Ottawa area, one rooted in rural estates rather than the growing town of Bytown.

This episode looks at the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837 and the growing frustration with the colonial government that led to it. We meet Louis-Joseph Papineau and the Patriote movement as political disputes turned into armed resistance. Along the way, we’ll learn about the key battles of Saint-Denis, Saint-Charles, and Saint-Eustache, the roles played by both rebel and Crown forces, and the failed follow-up uprising in 1838. Although little of the action happened in Bytown itself, the rebell...

This episode explores the history of slavery in Upper Canada and the long, gradual process that led to its abolition across the British Empire. It introduces some of the Black individuals connected to the Ottawa Valley, examines the legal and social realities of slavery in Canada, and traces key anti-slavery reforms from the 1790s to 1834. The episode also reflects on how this history is remembered today through local place names, monuments, and public memory.

This episode explores the history of slavery in Upper Canada and the long, gradual process that led to its abolition across the British Empire. It introduces some of the Black individuals connected to the Ottawa Valley, examines the legal and social realities of slavery in Canada, and traces key anti-slavery reforms from the 1790s to 1834. The episode also reflects on how this history is remembered today through local place names, monuments, and public memory.

This episode explores how the global cholera pandemic of 1832-1837 spread to Bytown, exposing the town’s poor sanitation and limited medical knowledge. We look at local outbreaks, quarantine efforts, the role of Dr. A.J. Christie and the Board of Health, and the impact on Lowertown’s immigrant communities. The story highlights how contaminated water, overcrowding, and inadequate public health infrastructure fueled disease, while early sanitation measures helped reduce its spread.

In this episode of the Ottawa History Hub Podcast we explore the life and legend of Big Joe Mufferaw, born Joseph Favre dit Montferrand in 1805. A real historical figure, Montferrand became renowned in 19th‑century Montreal and the Ottawa Valley for his immense strength, boxing prowess, and role as a defender of French Canadians during the lumber era. Over time, his exploits were heavily mythologized, blending fact with folklore. The episode distinguishes between the documented man and the ex...

The episode examines the rise of the Shiners, an Irish-dominated criminal gang led by Peter Aylin Following the completion of the Rideau Canal in 1832, thousands of unemployed Irish labourers were left desperate for work. Aylin exploited this situation by hiring Irish lumbermen and forging a tight group called the Shiners. Aylin and his followers eventually extended their influence into civic institutions through intimidation and election rigging, culminating in attempted murder ...

This episode explores the life and impact of Bradish Billings, one of the most influential early settlers in the Ottawa region and namesake of Billings Bridge. After an early failure as a lumberman, Billings married Lamira Dow and moved to what would become Junction Gore. Junction Gore’s economy transformed when construction began on the Rideau Canal in 1826, providing local farmers with a lucrative cash market. To better access Bytown, the community—largely thanks to Billings’ in...

In early Bytown, public safety emerged long before formal civic institutions. Responsibility for order initially fell to Lt. Col. John By, overseeing canal construction. His sappers acted as de facto police and firefighters, reflecting a time when military, police, and fire duties overlapped and professional forces were rare. Bytown had only one constable in 1827, and even major cities had yet to adopt modern policing.

Nicholas Sparks was an Irish immigrant who became one of Bytown’s leading citizen. Leveraging connections with the Wrights, Sparks was the richest man in Bytown throughout the life of the settlement. He married into the Wright family, feuded with John By and the Ordnance department, built political alliances with John A. MacDonald, and single-handedly created a high society for the frontier town on the Ottawa River.

The episode examines the fur trade’s continued role in the early 19th‑century Ottawa Valley. Though dominated by lumber, the region still relied on furs as a seasonal income source for settlers and Indigenous hunters. After the fall of New France, the Hudson Bay Company held a monopoly, challenged by the North West Company until their forced 1821 merger. Bytown’s rise during the Rideau Canal project created a new hub for independent and Indigenous traders. American traders, bringing cash and ...

We’ve been using terms like Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican, Protestant and Methodist so far, and in this episode we break down those terms to discuss what the different religious groups of early Bytown were and how they interacted with one another.

This episode walks through Bytown in its first decade. Starting in Wrightstown, we cross the Union Bridge to Richmond Landing, then into Upper Bytown, the military precinct, Lowertown, New Edinburgh, and Janeville, looking at the early town as it first developed.

Thomas MacKay was a Scottish mason, industrialist, politician, and founder of New Edinburgh, among other things. He helped to build the Rideau Canal and invested his earnings in transforming Bytown from a work camp into a town. The significance of his legacy rivals that of his old boss, John By.

Timberrrrrrrr! Lumber was the first industry in the Ottawa area after the fur trade and agriculture. How the different trees were used and brought to port was an integral part of the development of Bytown as a town, without which the Rideau Canal labour camp would have simply dispersed on at the project's conclusion.

George Ramsay, the ninth Earl of Dalhousie and former Governor General of the Canadas played an important role in the development of Ottawa, by patronising John By, feuding with John LeBreton, and making space for turning the Bytown camp into a proper settlement.

In this episode, we review a diary of a traveller from Bytown going on a trip south to Kingston, through the Rideau Valley. Along the way, he and his companions meet some of the characters who call the area home.

The land of the Rideau River and the Ottawa once belonged exclusively to the Algonquin, though several other Anishinaabe traders would travel through the area as well. But a price was paid for the land, and it was opened for white settlement. Now, who bought and who sold the land, and for how much, represents the details in which the Devil might hide. For more details about the two treaties that governed the Rideau Purchase, click here.

The Rideau Waterway runs more than 200 kms from Lake Ontario to the Ottawa River, bypassing the Saint Laurence River, and allowing the British to access the Great Lakes without the dangers posed by the River’s chokepoint. This UNESCO site contains 47 locks at 24 stations, and was a marvel of the age. Learn more about it here.

There are few if any individuals who have had a greater impact on the settlement that would become Ottawa than Lt. Col. John By. This episode is a biography of the English engineer who is credited with the creation of the Rideau Canal and of Bytown, the seed that germinated into Ottawa. While his life ended in isolation and disgrace, history remembers him much more fondly.

In this episode, we conclude the war part of the War of 1812, setting up the diminished status of the Indigenous allies, despite their heroic participation in the war, and establishing the justification for the Rideau Canal.

The War of 1812 was a central event in the foundation of the Canadas. It also served to settle the American War of Independence and bring a political norm to North America that there were two distinct countries, rather than Free and Occupied sections.

Philemon Wright was the founder of Hull, the first settlement in the Ottawa area that could be called "urban". Migrating from Massachusetts in the winter of 1800, he and his family migrated the shoals of the Lower Canada and Upper Canada bureaucracies, as well as crown agents and Algonquin neighbours.

In this episode, we look at the circle of settlement closing in around what would become Ottawa. In the south by Loyalists, and from the east by way of Montreal.

The Constitution of 1791 divided the great province of Quebec in two. Upriver was the creation of Upper Canada, and downriver was the new province of Lower Canada. There were new systems of governance and voting, that would influence the way the south shore of the Ottawa River would grow, in comparison to the path chosen on the north shore.

The Crown was selling land and giving it away throughout the late 1700s, and some hearty settlers went beyond the Saint Laurence and Great Lakes, north of Kingston and west of Montreal. Roger Stevens becomes the first settler in what would become Ottawa city limits.

United Empire Loyalists were on the move. To England, to Florida and the Caribbean, but also northward to the Loyalist colonies of Nova Scotia and Quebec. They were to come in such numbers that two new provinces would end up being invented just to administer them! Ontario would begin its trek to eventually become the centre for the British presence in the Americas.

So... About 1776 and all that... We've all heard about the American Revolution, but what did that mean for those who didn't think it was such a great idea at the time? Loyalist people and Loyalist colonies had different experiences than those celebrated by our Yankee neighbours on the 4th of July. The American Revolution created a refugee crisis that we'll be looking at for the next couple of episodes.

This episode looks at the Quebec Act and the political administration of Peak Quebec, and why it became known as one of the "Intolerable Acts" that justified the American Revolutionary War.

This episode looks at the relationship between the Crown, the French subjects, the Anglo-American subjects, and the Indigenous nations of the newly expanded British holdings in North America

Season 2 continues the introduction to the world into which Ottawa would be born. This starts with the shift from French to English Imperialism, and the Crown finds itself in the middle of relations between Indigenous nations and American Rebels, and then gradual settlement of eastern Ontario until the roots of Bytown take permanent hold.

So far, New France has been at the heart of our narrative, but that came to an end with the Seven-Years War. This episode discusses the war, the 1759 Fall of Quebec, and the 1763 Treaty of Paris that brought Nouvelle France to an end and closes the first part of the narrative.

Also known as the French-Iroquois Wars, the Beaver Wars were fought across the Great-Lakes region and created a refugee crisis, spread plagues and reformed alliances from 1609-1701. The future of the European-North American alliance system was recast and this marks a catastrophic decimation of the Indigenous population.

Also known as the French-Iroquois Wars, the Beaver Wars were fought across the Great-Lakes region and created a refugee crisis, spread plagues and reformed alliances from 1609-1701. The future of the European-North American alliance system was recast and this marks a catastrophic decimation of the Indigenous population.

Alongside the Coureurs de Bois, the merchants and artisans of the colony, and the soldiers, missionaries were another important pillar of New France. Recollect Missionaries accompanied many traders and explorers, and they recorded much of what they witnessed, leaving some of the best eye-witness accounts of life in the period.

Samuel de Champlain was the famed military man, explorer extraordinaire, founder of Quebec City, and governor of New France in all but official title. He navigated the Ottawa River, and was the first European to chronicle the experience, naming the Rideau River, Chaudière Falls, and putting the site on paper for the first time.

Etienne Brule was the first coureur de bois, an independent fur trader operating in the Saint Laurence Basin. He travelled up the Ottawa River in 1610, learnt to speak several Indigenous languages to communicate with Algonquin, Huron-Wendat, and Odawa. He lived most of his life in the Great Lakes region, working as a fur trader, diplomat, adventurer, explorer and mercenary.

This episode introduces the Algonquin, an Anishinaabe people who've inhabited the Ottawa area for more than two thousand years. It includes elements of their language (Anishinaabemowin), religion (Midewiwin), and relationships with other Anishinaabe people (Ojibwe,Montagnais-Innu, and Odawa), as well as allied or rival Iroquoian peoples (Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat).

Before Ottawa was Ottawa, it was a forest, and before it was a forest, it was under 80m of water as an extension of the Atlantic Ocean. Whales, seals, walrus and other marine animals called it home. This is what Ottawa was like 115,000 years ago. The Champlain Sea stretched across the Saint Laurence and Ottawa River Valleys, before the glaciers melted and the seabed rose to the surface.

This is the introduction to the Ottawa History Hub Podcast. I introduce the city and give some of the planned structure to the podcast going forward.