By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, November 14, 2016
Let the rivers fill, let the hills rejoice.” – Leonard Cohen.
In 1820, long before the Ottawa river was dammed, an ex-British merchant who had fought against Napolean was travelling along this stretch of the river looking for a place to settle down. Upon leaving the army, Hamnett Pinhey, an upwardly mobile man who had run a King’s messenger service during the war, had asked a Lord if he might be rewarded, and was offered 200 acres in the Canadian colony. The chance to be a big frog in a sparsely populated pool appealed to him and so he found himself here. Messengers now make considerable less.
http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/jenkins-a-fine-day-on-the-ottawa-river-near-pinheys-point