Perretton stretches through the countryside surrounding the Roads 12 and 21, on the south shoreline of Lower Allumette Lake, a widening of the Ottawa River upstream from Westmeath Village. The Y in the road from Pembroke directs travelers either continues on to Beachburg (County Rd. 21), or swings left at Chaffey’s Corners to follow the river towards the Village of Westmeath (County Rd. 12).
Perretton, as a separate settlement, is becoming a part of history and the old institutions that drew the farm families together have closed. The original store at Chaffey’s Corners is long gone. Both the red brick school; “Moore’s School” – S. S. No. 1, Westmeath, and the original Methodist church, later Grace United Church which closed in 2009, situated a little further along Rd. 21 just south of the school, have found new uses. The first school made of logs was at the Westmeath-Beachburg Roads junction which is the northern end of the early Stoqua Portage used by the Indians when coming overland from Muskrat Lake to the Ottawa River.
The big red brick house on the Kenny farm today, was once used as a stopping place for people to stay overnight on their way through to rest the horses and break the trip.
The name Perretton is from the surname of an early school teacher by the name of Perrett who lived on the Zion Line.
Perretton’s first settler was William Moore Sr. and family, who moved to the Westmeath Front of Upper Canada (North Front A Section) in 1836, and was granted over 1,000 acres of Crown Lands for service in the war of 1812-1814. The name Moore lives on in many descendents and at the wide sands of Moore’s Beach.
“William Moore, born in Belfast, Ireland and his wife, formerly Miss Margaret Bowes, of Glasgow, Scotland, emigrated to Canada, living for a short time with relatives at Carleton Place.
In 1836 he was granted approximately 1600 acres of Crown Lands for services during the war years. The land was in Westmeath Township in the District of Bathurst, Upper Canada. They came by boat up the Ottawa River to the Lower Allumette Lake of land at what is now known as Chaffey’s Corners or the community of Perretton.
Through time he sold part of his acreage to other pioneers but he always retained that land along the river. Building a temporary dwelling on Lot 24 they lived there for the next decade before purchasing Lot 20, also N.F.A. in October 1846.”
–Laurentian View Tweedsmuir
In William E. Logan’s “1845 Survey of the Upper Ottawa Valley”, an entry appears of his visit to the Moore homestead:
Saturday 6 September 1845: “Sunshine broke out after a few showers & we visited one or two points on the way up, particularly Mr. Moore’s clearing, where there was a report of black lead, there is a little & we got a sample, but it would notbe worth working.
“Mr. [William] Moore is a Scotch man, no doubt. In his house was an old woman & a younger one no doubt his wife & the other one his or her mother. The old woman was reading a newspaper by which I found an attempt has been made to plunder some Chinese traders on the way home & that the Great Britain has got across the Atlantic in 14 days.
“Above Moore’s we touched at one or two more points & then reached the Allumette Rapids. The fall in these is about 12 feet.