• About McNab/Braeside
  • History
  • Links
• Maps
  • Business Map
  • Road Map
  • Area Map
• Shopping and Services
• Dining and Accomodations
• Things to Do
  • Historical Points of Interest
  • Waba Cottage
  • Beaches and Boat Launches
  • Parks and Rinks
• Contact Us
  • Become a Member
  • Contact
  • Business Listings
•  

History of McNab/Braeside

The Township of McNab/Braeside, the largest township in Renfrew County, is located just west of Ottawa in the Ottawa Valley. The eastern area of the Township is about 30min from the Corel Centre. McNab/Braeside is fronted by the Ottawa River, crossed by the Madawaska River and has access to White Lake. (quoted from Renfrew County Website) The township was formed on January 1, 1998 when the Village of Braeside amalgamated with McNab Township.

For further details about the Township, please visit the Township's official website at: www.mcnabbraeside.com

Some history and settlement details for McNab Township

1. Ojibwa/Ottawa/Algonquin summer camps along the Ottawa & Madawaska Rivers.
2. Voyageur routes/camps, North West Company/Hudson Bay Trading Posts (none located in McNab/Braeside) but move afoot to have Ottawa declared a “Heritage River”.
3. Loggers Alexander McDonnell and Matthew Barr. There were other loggers active in the township but these are two that actually settled here, early on. Settlement by loggers continued right through the century.
4. McNab – “Niagara” Settlement. These are the original group of settlers brought out from Scotland by McNab in 1825 on the “Niagara”.
5. McNab – Other Settlers. These are additional settlers that arrived between 1828 and 1841 when McNab left the township. They are a mixture of immigrants that he met in Montreal and people moving in for new land from other townships like Beckwith.
6. German Settlement. A number of German families arrived in the 1870s to settle Clay Valley and Clay Bank areas on either side of the Madawaska.

• The last laird of MacNab: an episode in the settlement of MacNab Township, Upper Canada by Alexander Fraser, Published 1899, 1974
• MacNab: the last laird by Roland Wild, Published 1938
• McNab, the Township by Peter D.K Hessel, Published 1988The Kinsman, by Percival J. Cooney, Published 1997
• McNab by David Mulholland, Published 2006
• The Original Emigrants to McNab Township, Upper Canada - 1825, by Garnet McDiarmid in "Scottish Generalogy, Vol. xxviii, Published 1981
• Burnstown Remembered: The Heritage of an Ontario Village in the Canadian Mosaic by Margaret Robertson, Published 1988.
• Burnstown United Church, 1849-1999 by Irene Robillard, Published 1999