Cossar Farm, Receiving Home and Distributing Centre for Scotch Lads
Dr. George Carter Cossar
The farm which was situated inNew Brunswick, near Lower Gagetown
From the Library and Archives Canada
From the Library and Archives Canada
George Carter Cossar
Photo Credit: New Brunswick Museum
Cambridge University-educated and Glasgow-born, George Carter Cossar, spent time working in his chosen field of civil and mining engineering in Peru. There he introduced Canadian wheat, corn and cattle to help the poor help themselves.
George Cossar opened a home for boys at 173 High Street in Glasgow in conjunction with the Church of Scotland’s Committee on Social Work followed by a farm for boys near Stirling in Scotland. In 1910 he purchased a 600 acre farm near Lower Gagetown, New Brunswick with the idea of bringing poor Irish and Scottish boys from Glasgow to Canada. The Cossar Farm Receiving Home and Distribution Centre for Scotch boys had orchards and livestock on the property. Eventually, two neighboring farms were purchased totaling 1,000 acres.
The first group of boys arrived in 1911. Cossar assisted emigration for the boys from his own personal funds, until 1922. Up to that time, the boys were to pay him back, Cossar found that very difficult to collect. A new agreement was drawn up with the Empire Settlement Act.
Cossar also acted as an agent for the British Immigration and Colonisation Association. Around 1924 BICA boys were being sent to Gagetown. Some of the BICA boys were impoverished children, but many came from affluent families.
George Cossar opened a home for boys at 173 High Street in Glasgow in conjunction with the Church of Scotland’s Committee on Social Work followed by a farm for boys near Stirling in Scotland. In 1910 he purchased a 600 acre farm near Lower Gagetown, New Brunswick with the idea of bringing poor Irish and Scottish boys from Glasgow to Canada. The Cossar Farm Receiving Home and Distribution Centre for Scotch boys had orchards and livestock on the property. Eventually, two neighboring farms were purchased totaling 1,000 acres.
The first group of boys arrived in 1911. Cossar assisted emigration for the boys from his own personal funds, until 1922. Up to that time, the boys were to pay him back, Cossar found that very difficult to collect. A new agreement was drawn up with the Empire Settlement Act.
Cossar also acted as an agent for the British Immigration and Colonisation Association. Around 1924 BICA boys were being sent to Gagetown. Some of the BICA boys were impoverished children, but many came from affluent families.
On Cossar’s own suggestion — New Brunswick made the Gagetown Farm responsible for processing all the province’s assisted juvenile immigrants. It became the Provincial Training Centre for the reception, distribution and placement in New Brunswick of all boys recruited in the United Kingdom under assisted passage agreements. Cossar was from then on required to bring out 100 boys per year under his own steam, as well as receive those sent by other organizations.
Source: www.britishhomechild.com - no sources listed on web site.
Source: www.britishhomechild.com - no sources listed on web site.
The Leader-Post (Regina, Saskatchewan) 9 August 1929, p. 19.
This appears to be the party of 22 boys that arrived aboard the Athenia on July 21, 1929 headed to the Cossar Farm in Lower Gagetown, New Brunswick.
Samuel Adamson, 17 William Scott Barr, 16 Elijah Catchpole, 16 David Chirnside, 14 William Davidson, 15 James Halley, 15 Samuel Hardie, 16 William Harper, 16 James Hogg, 16 Alexander Irvine, 16 Angus McBain, 15 Thomas Reid, 14 Walter Robertson, 15 William Gibb Russell 17 William Russell, 16 Alexander Scott, 16 William Shannon, 16 Edward Shires, 17 Cornelius Sneddon, 17 Robert Sneddon, 14 John Wilson, 15 John Yates, 18
Source: Andrea Harris
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Near Drowning of Cossar Boys - Hector Hogg and David Bell - as they skated home to the farm on the Saint John River with the mail.
Unbelievable that the last sentence states: “Although the mail was lost, there was some consolation in the fact that it contained no Christmas mail.” ...oh, and that the two young men didn’t die?!?!? “Scots Boys Go Through Ice; Rescued by Young Canadian” The Globe [Toronto, Ont] 31 Dec 1932, p. 2. Hector Hogg: http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t15423/495?r=0&s=1 David Bell: http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t15420/1685?r=0&s=1 Source Andrea Harris |
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Sunday Post - Sunday 23 October 1927
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Indenture agreement form from Cossar Farms c1927
source: Immigration Program : Headquarters central registry files : C-7831
source: Immigration Program : Headquarters central registry files : C-7831
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