Real Talk!

Traveling east on Highway 515 in the Ottawa Valley leads to an intersection with Highway 512. Heading north takes you to a village of past-greatness, Brudenell, which once boasted three hotels, a race track, blacksmith shops, and the Costello store which provided winter supplies to the loggers heading into the lumber camps, and ran a tab for their families.

THE COSTELLO HOTEL

About 200 people populated Brudenell in its heyday in the latter-years of the 1800s, there were also daily stage services to Eganville, Rockingham and Combermere.

Originally known as "Brudenell Corners" or "Payette Corners" (after Madame Desiree Payette's busy hotel, Brudenell village and township were named about 1857. The name commemorates James Thomas Brudenell (the 7th Earl of Cardigan), the leader of a cavalry charge which took place during the Seige of Sebastopol, a port on the Black Sea, during the Crimean War. Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade", published in 1854 immortalized the event.

(above, The Earl of Cardigan, variously described as "vain","contentious", "foppish", a "notorious rake" "unusually stupid," and "an ass".)

The "corners" was dropped in 1859, when Charles Hirsh opened the first post office.

James Costello and later Hugh (Cooey) Costello ran a hotel and store from the Brudenell house. James Costello acquired the nickname Black Jim. He was known as a tough, shrewd businessman who allowed the loggers credit so that their families could draw supplies from his store while the wage earners were in the lumber camps.

Men settled their accounts at the Costello store in spring when they returned from the winter camps with their pay. It seems that there was seldom much cash left over once the bills were paid. One of Black Jim's accomplishments was bringing by ox-team and wagon a Heintzman grand piano to Brudenell for his wife. Since he did not know there was a method of disassembling the piano, he removed one wall of the house in order to place it in its intended location.

Costello's hotel burned in 1886 but was quickly rebuilt and expanded. It soon became known for its gambling and "sins of a far worse nature".

ANOTHER BRUDENELL SHOP

This was the busiest, most active community on the Opeongo Line. Originally called Brudenell Corners, but the decline of Brudenell occurred in 1893 with the defeat of John A. MacDonald and Laurier rerouted rail services through Killaloe, instead of the Opeongo Line. Business and lumbering activities were negatively affected, sending Brudenell into decline and toward it's notoriety as the "sin-bin" of the Opeongo.

In the 1930s mobster Al Capone built a log cabin situated on the Letterkenny Road.

The name of "Gorman Lake" on the Letterkenny Rd can be traced to members of the O’Gorman family who migrated from County Clare to Canada in the years 1829 to 1840, settling in this part of the Ottawa Valley.

LAKE GORMAN- BRUDENELL TWP, RENFREW COUNTY

Of particular note is botanist Martin W. Gorman, the son of Peter and Mary Gorman, was born on a nearby farm in Renfrew County, on November 23, 1853. Gorman became a leading authority on the flora of the Northwest, especially trees and is credited with discovering at least ten species new to science.

A very special property consisting of 1003 acres, formerly the much envied Coyne Family Farm (likely that of William Coyne born 1837 and died August 5, 1898 at Brudenell), is for sale. It has 3300' of shoreline on beautiful Lake Gorman. Part of the acreage may be seen at the far right in the photo of Lake Gorman (above).

The property has a number of smaller lakes, ponds and streams, throughout. Part of the property is wildly forested, some has plantation pines and some, more open, the former fields- now overgrown. There are old, forest roads and trails throughout the property.

Hydro is available at the edge of the property, a pole remains near the clearing where there was once the old homestead. The only cabin on the property sits at the quiet edge of "Stone Dam Lake". It is a tidy one-bedroom.

ENTRY TO CABIN ON STONE DAM LAKE

Township regulations allow for many uses at this location. It would be a fantastic, potentially self-sustaining retreat... it could be developed into a spectacular waterfront community... it is not far from schools and amenities, yet it is absolutely teeming with wildlife.

Details of this property may be seen at www.realtor.ca using MLS #719054 or #471901901508650 it is currently offered at $1,250,000 (Canadian)