An early family name in Southampton is Longe. Métis fur traders, the Longe family, beginning with Joseph Longe Sr. and Joseph Longe Jr., began arriving at the mouth of the Saugeen River after the merging of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company in the 1820s. Joseph Jr. and his wife settled in Hay Township, Huron County, but still came seasonally to the Saugeen. Their children, Joseph, Angelique (Annie) and Edward, all settled in Southampton, then known as Saugeen.
This beaded belt is one of two that were created by Joseph Longe for his daughter, Mary Henriette during the 1880s. Joseph was born in Goderich in 1843, and married Mary Causley in Port Elgin in 1873. Living in Southampton, Joseph was a cooper and a fisherman. He died at age 46, in 1900.
Other items within the Museum’s collection come from this early family, such as cooper’s stoop planes. These planes belonged to Edward, who like his brother Joseph, was a cooper and fisherman, as well as a boat builder.
Angelique, better known as Aunt Annie, born in 1844, is considered to be one of the first settler children born in Saugeen. She lived in the house her parents built in the 1840s that doubled as an early trading post all her life. Today the house is designated a local heritage site and is still owned by descendants of the Longe family. Found within the collection is a ladies’ fan, that belonged to Annie.
