From the archives: Wolfred Nelson: from jailed Patriote to mayor

This story was first published on Nov. 7, 1992, in the Montreal Gazette.
IN THE LAST WEEK of February 1854, Wolfred Nelson was elected mayor of Montreal – not bad for a man who, 17 years earlier, was desperately scrabbling through the frozen Eastern Townships backwoods, the militia hot on his tail.
Nelson had been a wanted man because he was a leader of the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837. He faced a charge of high treason; conviction could mean a public hanging in Montreal.
The rebellion g