M A C V A Y S I A

Of all the characters Papa has told me about, the one I find the most interesting is Hughie MacLeod. Not Papa’s younger brother, but his uncle. His real name was John Hugh MacLeod. Everyone called him Hughie; sometimes people called him ‘the dummy’.

Hughie was born in September 1907, the seventh son of Angus and Jessie MacLeod, and the tenth of their 13 children. He was deaf and mute, which is how he got his nickname. It sounds somewhat cruel, and even Papa sometimes calls him ‘the dummy’. But Papa is quick to point out that, despite the nickname, Hughie MacLeod was no dummy.

Hughie couldn’t hear, nor could he speak; nor did he ever go to school. But he was smart, and could read lips in both English and Gaelic. He also had an amazing ability to put animals at ease. He could walk right up to a deer and pet it; blue jays would eat out of his hand. The family’s old horse was considered hard to work with, but she would always go to Hughie and do whatever he asked. The others would whip her, but not Hughie. One day the family’s old Pontiac wouldn’t go, so Hughie’s brother Ronald hooked the horse up to it and made her pull the car. Hughie, who was about 30 years old, cried like a baby, big fat tears rolling down his cheeks.

Hughie’s abilities seemed to more than make up for his disabilities. He knew the woods around Upper South West Mabou better than anyone. One day he led Papa and his brother into the woods behind their grandparents’ house and they walked for what seemed like miles and miles until the boys were sure they were lost. But then before they knew it they came out right at their uncle Dan’s house, quite a distance away. Hughie also seemed to be able to ‘hear’ things somehow, in spite of his deafness. Papa remembers sitting outside his grandparents’ house on evenings when his uncle Ronald (who despite being one of the youngest children was the man of the house because everyone else was either dead or away) was out. When Ronald was walking along those country roads at night he would bang rocks together, to keep bears away. Back at the house, Hughie would tap Papa on the shoulder and point down the road; sure enough, a few minutes later, Ronald would emerge from the darkness. Ronald told the boys that somehow, Hughie always knew when he was coming home. He heard him, somehow.

According to Papa, Hughie was as strong as a bull. There was a rock everyone said no one except his late brother Duncan could lift, but Hughie lifted it with ease. Occasionally, in spite of his gentle nature, Hughie would use that strength to assert himself. Ronald was going to shoot a big owl out of a tree one evening but Hughie ripped the rifle from his hands. Then there was the time one of the MacGillivray boys was teasing Hughie, calling him a stupid dummy, making fun of him. Hughie picked him up and slammed him through a window; the stunned MacGillivray lad found himself on the ground outside, surrounded by not only glass but also the entire window casing.

That wasn’t the only time Hughie did damage to the MacLeod house. One day when the MacLeod boys were all loaded drunk off a fresh batch of moonshine, they put Hughie behind the wheel of a car and laughed as he drove around in circles. The laughter only stopped when the car hit the house, though knowing the MacLeods there was probably some laughter after that as well.

Except for a couple of very brief stays in Antigonish and Port Hood near the end of his life, Hughie never left the Glencoe area. His tale is interesting but also sad, especially since he was destined to bear silent witness to the end of the MacLeods of Upper South West Mabou.

But that’s a story for another day.

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Chronicles of Duncan MacLeod is a series of posts on my MacLeod ancestors. Some are based on my research but most are stories told to me by my grandfather, Duncan MacLeod. Here are the other posts in the series:

The Swans of Eigg
The Gardener’s Crossing
The Kilt
Crooked-Neck MacLean
One Eye, Two Guns, Three Tunes & Twenty-five Cents
Hold Fast
Up Over the Mountain
Black Bears & Blueberries
The House Down the Road
The Blind Man’s Biscuits
Down by the Brook
The Still