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Who was Margaret Cook?

Iva Marguerite Fern Neill was born in Stanbridge East in 1897. She had red hair and green eyes. Her parents were United Empire Loyalists who came up from Massachussetts. Her mother, Elzina Bull, was a Quaker and her father’s name was Henry Neill. It is interesting to note that one of the main character’s name in the book is Dennis O’Neill.

Mrs Cook taught in Lachute at the Academy around 1918-1920. She then taught at Macdonald College, now John Abbott, possibly where she met her husband George Cook

She wrote a monthly column for the Lachute Watchman for about ten years in the 1960s  titled Sketches of Sunny Acres in the Summer and Exile from Sunny Acres in the winter. Sunny Acres was the name of the farm she bought on Scott Road. She bought the Walter Scott Farm from George Deacon in 1941.

She was buried in the Lakefield cemetery in 1975. The tombstone was taken from her property on Scott Road and polished in Lachute. It sits on the highest point of land behind Holy Trinity Church, overlooking the graves of the families that inspired her novel…

“Land Possessed”:  a novel of historical fiction

The book’s story unfolds between October 1869 and November 1870. The setting is between the beautiful fields of the Glen in Wentworth, onto Shrewsbury and James Lake (Barron Lake) to the west, Lake Anne to the north and Lakefield to the south.

The book contains many detailed accounts of the pioneer way of life: potash making, alcohol brewing, trips to Lachute, Montreal, childbirth, etc. There are no cars, no telephone no electricity. The roads are not plowed in winter. People get around mostly by foot. Horses in the Glen were a novelty. It took three days to walk to Montreal!

Her book describes a love story between 16 year old Norah Burke, Protestant, and Dennis O’Neill, Catholic. But Mordred Mullins, a Protestant is also in love with Norah. This love triangle leads of course to tragedy.

Margaret Cook was able to recreate the religious and cultural milieu of the time. By spending all her summers on her farm at Sunny Acres, she was able to meet the descendants of the pioneer families who settled here in the early to mid 1800s  and listen to their stories. The entire district was Irish protestant and there was an Orange Lodge in Shrewsbury. July 12th was a day to celebrate the victory of William of Orange (Protestant) over the Catholic people of Ireland in 1690. Some of the older men of the gore were also members of the British militia that crushed the Patriotes uprising in Saint-Eustache in 1837.

According to Margaret Cook’s daughter and other longtime residents, the story is true but the names and locations have been changed. The book was published by Giles Publishing in Lachute in 1969. It is 200 pages long and is divided into 24 chapters.