Muiemore
© Copyright John A Ross and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

William MacKay and Helen MacKay were sub-tenants on Muiemore farm,  a desolate barren in the far northwest corner of the Parish of Clyne. They were near neighbours of a Sutherland family that lived across the river at Luib Bhig and who eventually settled near Earltown Lake.

We have no information to suggest that this couple ever left Clyne  however four of their children found their way to West Earltown around 1821.  They settled on the back portion of land granted to Jacob Heinzelbach, (Kisslepaugh),  who was an early settler on the Corktown Road.   Son Hector cleared a homestead on the headwaters of Baillie Brook.

Within a year of arrival, Hector’s sister Catherine married their neighbour and likely benefactor,  Jacob Heinzelbach.   Jacob was a German who had fought in the European Wars.  He settled on the road between Kavanagh’s Mills and Nuttby and was one of the small Roman Catholic community that became known as Corktown.   Catherine and Jacob had several children including Stewart Kisspelpaugh who was a well known and comical merchant in Tatamagouche.   Presumably after Jacob’s death in the early 1850’s,  Catherine moved with her daughter Jane Carter, (Mrs. George Carter of Truro), to Carterville, Montana.   She would have been among the first settlers of the ranch lands in the foothills of Central Montana.  Carterville is no longer on the map and is part of the community of Wolf Creek.   Her son, William Kisselpaugh, was also a rancher in that area.

Elizabeth,  another sister, ended up in Truro as a domestic where she met and married William Birrell of Onslow.  In their later years they lived on Queen Street, Truro,  on a property they called Brora House.  (Brora being the town nearest to Elizabeth’s birthplace).

The third sister, Anne, never married and remained on the home farm with her brother Hector.

Hector married Jane Sutherland who was born in Clyne in 1807.  She came to Caribou, Pictou County,  with her parents Robert and Annie.   No doubt this Sutherland family were known to the MacKays in the old country.  Jane likely came to West Earltown area with her brother William Caribou Sutherland  when he settled at The Falls.  This couple had five children but only one,  Ellen, married.   She married neighbour William MacKay “MacComish”.   Hector died in 1842, age 42 and is buried in Murray Cemetery.

The last of this family to inhabit the old homestead was Hector and Jane’s son,  Billy Hector.

Approximate location: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=zWuNe7Aar9m4.koojtFIfGYyE