Canada in the early 19th century was a magnet for young,
ambitious immigrants. One of these was young Joseph Merrill
Currier from Vermont. He came north in 1837 at the young age of
17, and stayed to make a fortune in the lumber trade. In 1853,
he brought his young family to the village of New Edinburgh on
the Rideau River, where he rented a lumber mill at the Rideau
Falls. By 1855, Joseph and Christina Currier had four children
and were thriving as part of the business elite of Ottawa. Then
tragedy struck. That year, three of the children died, followed
(an inconsolable three years later) by their mother. In the next
few years, Currier tried his hand at politics — provincial and
national — and he married again. His young wife died in an
industrial accident within two months of the wedding. In 1868,
he took a third wife, Hannah Wright, the granddaughter of
pioneers. Joseph built a house as a wedding gift to his wife,
setting it near the forests and water that had made his fortune.
As an omen that his personal