Chapter XIII
CONTENTS—Indians traveled by foot or by canoe—Secreting canoes— Primeval scenes—Hunting expeditions—War path—In 1812—Brock—A night at Myers’ Creek—Important arrival—The North West Company—Their canoes—Route—Grand Portage—The Voyageurs—The Batteaux—Size— Ascending the rapids—Lachine—A dry dock—Loyalists by batteaux— Durham boats—Difficulties—In 1788, time from Lachine to Fredericksburgh—Waiting for batteaux—Extracts from a journal, travelling in 1811—From Kingston to Montreal—The expenses—The Schenectady boats—Trade between Albany and Cataraqui—The Durham boat—Duncan—Description of flat-bottomed boat by “Murray”— Statement of Finkle—Trading—Batteaux in 1812—Rate of traveling—The change in fifty years—Time from Albany to Bay Quinté—Instances— Loyalists traveling in winter—Route—Willsbury wilderness—Tarrying at Cornwall—The “French Train”—Traveling along north shore of Ontario—Indian path—Horseback—Individual owners of batteaux—Around Bay Quinté—The last regular batteaux—In 1819—“Lines” from magazine.
TRAVELING BY CANOE.
Having pointed out the several general routes by which the aborigines and the first Europeans in America, were wont to traverse the country from the seaboard to the far west, and indicated more particularly the smaller paths of the Indians around the Bay Quinté and Lake Ontario, we purpose glancing at the means by which they made their way through the wilderness.
The Native had but two modes of transporting himself from place to place; namely, by foot and by the canoe. He was trained to make long expeditions upon the war-path, or after prey. When his course lay along a water way, he employed his birch canoe. This being light, he could easily ascend rapids, and when necessary, lift it from the water, and placing it, bottom upward, upon his head, carry it around the falls, or over a portage with the greatest facility. When upon the chase, or about to attack a foe, the canoe was so carefully secreted, that the passing traveler would never detect its whereabouts. The French and English at the first followed this Indian mode of traveling. From the graphic descriptions which are given to us by the early writers of this Indian mode of traveling in America, ere the sound of the axe had broken upon the clear northern air, and while nature presented an unbroken garment of green, it is not difficult to imagine that scenes of Indian canoe traveling were in the extreme picturesque. It is not necessary to go beyond the Bay Quinté, to find a place where all the natural beauty was combined with the rude usages of the aboriginal inhabitant, to create a picture of rare interest and attraction. In those primeval times there was no regular passage made between one part of the country and another. The Indian in his light canoe glided along here and there, as his fancy led him, or the probability of obtaining fish or game dictated. At certain seasons of the year there was a general movement, as they started off on their hunting expeditions; and at other times the warriors alone set out, when only intent upon surprising the hated foe. On these occasions one canoe would silently and swiftly follow in the wake of the other, until the place of debarkation was reached. For a long time the birch canoe was the only mode of traveling, and when the French came with their batteaux, the canoe continued for a long time the principal means of transit. Even so late as the war of 1812, canoes were employed, and many of the gallant ones who fought and conquered the conceited and unscrupulous Yankee invader, found their way to the front by the swift birch bark. Company after company of Red Coats were to be seen plying the trim paddle as the canoe sped on its way. We have it on good authority that Major General Brock, at the reception of the intelligence, that the United States had declared war against Great Britain, set out from Lower Canada in a birch canoe, and with a companion and their boatman, journeyed all the way to York, followed by a regiment of soldiers. Incidents of this passage are yet related by the living. He reached Belleville, or as it was then called Myers’ Creek, late one night, after having been traveling for some time without rest. With his companion, he went ashore and sought a place to sleep. They entered the public house of Captain Mc——, and after examining a room, decided to sleep there the night. But the host, hearing an unusual noise, rushed into the room demanding who was there. The General’s companion, with the quickness, and in language somewhat characteristic of the army of that time, told him he would kick him to h—ll in a minute. Captain Mc—— somewhat disconcerted at the threat and tone of authority walked out, and meeting the boatman, ask him who the parties were. Upon being informed, he rushed away in a state of great alarm, not daring to shew himself again to the General. The house is still standing.
The following notice is from the Kingston Gazette.
“YORK, April 29, 1815.”
“On Sunday evening last arrived in this town from Burlington, in a birch canoe, Lieutenant General Sir George Murray Knight,” &c., &c.
BATTEAUX—SCHENECTADY BOATS—DURHAM BOATS.
Gourley, speaking of Lachine, says that “from Lachine the canoes employed by the North West Company in the fur trade take their departure. Of all the numerous contrivances for transporting heavy burthens by water, these vessels are perhaps the most extraordinary: scarcely anything can be conceived so inadequate from the slightness of their construction, to the purpose they are applied to, and to contend against the impetuous torrent of the many rapids that must be passed through in the course of a voyage. They seldom exceed thirty feet in length, and six in breadth, diminishing to a sharp point at each end, without distinction of head or stern; the frame is composed of small pieces of some very light wood; it is then covered with the bark of the birch tree, cut into convenient slips, that are rarely more than the eighth of an inch in thickness; these are sewed together with threads made from the twisted fibres of the roots of a particular tree, and strengthened where necessary by narrow strips of the same materials applied on the inside; the joints in the fragile planking are made water-tight, by being covered with a species of gum that adheres very firmly, and becomes perfectly hard. No ironwork of any description, not even nails, are employed in building these slender vessels, which, when complete, weigh only about five hundred weight each. On being prepared for the voyage, they receive their lading, that for the convenience of carrying across the portages is made up in packages of about three-quarters of a hundred weight each, and amounts altogether to five tons, or a little more, including provisions, and other necessaries for the men, of whom from eight to ten are employed to each canoe; they usually set out in brigades like the batteaux, and in the course of a summer, upwards of fifty of these vessels are thus dispatched. They proceed up the Grand, or Ottawa River, so far as the south-west branch, by which, and a chain of small lakes, they reach Lake Nippissing; through it, and down the French River into Lake Huron; along its northern coast, up the narrows of St. Mary, into Lake Superior, and then, by its northern side, to the Grand Portage, a distance of about 1,100 miles from the place of departure. The difficulties encountered in this voyage are not easily conceived; the great number of rapids in the rivers, the different portages from lake to lake, which vary from a few yards to three miles or more in length, where the canoes must be unladen, and with their contents carried to the next water, occasion a succession of labors and fatigues of which but a poor estimation can be formed by judging it from the ordinary occupations of other laboring classes. From the Grand Portage, that is nine miles across, a continuation of the same toils takes place in bark canoes of an inferior size, through the chain of lakes and streams that run from the height of land westward to the Lake of the Woods, Lake Winnipeg, and onwards to more distant establishments of the company in the remote regions of the north-west country. The men are robust, hardy, and resolute, capable of enduring great extremes of fatigues and privation for a long time, with a patience almost inexhaustible. In the large lakes they are frequently daring enough to cross the deep bays, often a distance of several leagues, in their canoes, to avoid lengthening the route by coasting them; yet, notwithstanding all the risks and hardships attending their employment, they prefer it to every other, and are very seldom induced to relinquish it in favor of any more settled occupation. The few dollars they receive as the compensation for so many privations and dangers, are in general, dissipated with a most careless indifference to future wants, and when at an end, they very contentedly renew the same series of toils to obtain a fresh supply.”
“The batteaux,” says Ex-Sheriff Sherwood, “by which the refugees emigrated, were principally built at Lachine, nine miles from Montreal. They were calculated to carry four or five families, with about two tons weight. Twelve boats constituted a brigade, and each brigade had a conductor, with five men in each boat, one of which steered. The duty of the conductor was to give directions for the safe management of the boats, to keep them together; and when they came to a rapid they left a portion of the boats with one man in charge. The boats ascending were doubly manned, and drawn by a rope fastened at the bow of the boat, leaving four men in the boat with setting poles, thus the men walked along the side of the river, sometimes in the water, or on the edge of the bank, as circumstances occurred. If the tops of trees or brush were in the way they would have to stop and cut them away. Having reached the head of the rapid the boats were left with a man, and the others went back for others,” and so they continued until all the rapids were mounted. Lachine was the starting place, a place of some twenty dwelling houses. Here Mr. Grant had a dry dock for batteaux.
It was by these batteaux, that the refugees, and their families, as well as the soldiers and their families passed from the shores of Lake Champlain, from Sorel, and the St. Lawrence, where they had temporally lived, to the Upper Province. It was also by these, or the Skenectady, or the Durham boat, that the pioneers made their transit from Oswego.
Thus it will be seen that to gain the northern shore of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, was a task of no easy nature, and the steps by which they came were taken literally inch by inch, and were attended with labor hard and venturesome. Records are not wanting of the severe hardships endured by families on their way to their wooded lands. Supplied with limited comforts, perhaps only the actual necessaries of life, they advanced slowly by day along dangerous rapids, and at night rested under the blue sky. But our fathers and mothers were made of stern stuff, and all was borne with a noble heroism.
This toilsome mode of traveling continued for many a year. John Ferguson, writing in 1788, from Fredericksburgh to a friend in Lower Canada, Lachine, says of his journey, “after a most tedious and fatiguing journey I arrived here—nineteen days on the way—horrid roads— sometimes for whole days up to the waist in water or mire.” But the average time required to ascend the rapids with a brigade was from ten to twelve days, and three or four to descend.
One can hardly conceive of the toilsome hours formerly spent in passing from Kingston, or the seventh and eighth townships of the bay to Montreal, and back. Before setting out, the traveler would make elaborate preparations for a journey of several weeks. There was no regular traffic, and only an occasional batteaux, laden with simple articles of merchandise, would start for the head waters of the bay. Individuals would often wait, sometimes a long time, for these opportunities, and then would work their passage, by taking a hand at the oars. Even up to the present century, it was the custom.
The following is a most interesting instance of batteaux traveling which has been placed in our hands by the Rev. Mr. Miles. It gives one an excellent idea of traveling at the beginning of the present century. “I left Kingston on the 6th of April, 1811, but as the traveling then was not as it is now, I did not arrive in Montreal till the 15th. I will just copy verbatim, the journal I kept on my passage. Durham boats were scarce on the Canada side at that time, but it was thought if I could get to the American shore, I would find one on its way to Montreal. Well, I found a man in Kingston, just from Grindstone Island, who had brought up some shingles and tar to sell, and he told me if I could get to Briton’s Point, several miles down the river from Cape Vincent, and to which place he would take me, that he thought I would find a Durham boat there, and the following is my journal on that route.
“Grindstone Island, April 11th, 1811.—Left Kingston yesterday, April 6th, at 3 p.m., in an open skiff, with R. Watson, a clerk in Dr. Jonas Abbott’s store, and two hands belonging to the skiff—head wind—rowed hard till about eight in the evening, when having blistered both hands, and being very much fatigued, we drew our skiff on shore, and camped on the shore of Long Island, about five miles above Grindstone Island—wind strong from the north—very cold and without victuals or fire—feet wet— slept some, walked some, and by daybreak was somewhat chilled. Strong head wind. Stuck close to our dear lodgings till about eight, when the wind abated, and we stuck to our oars till about eleven o’clock, when we made Grindstone Island, weary, and very hungry—eat a hearty dish of “sapon” and milk—rested about an hour—set off for Briton’s tavern on the American shore, where we arrived about 4 p.m., the water being entirely calm. Had not been on shore ten minutes, as good luck would have it, before we engaged a passage for Cornwall in a Durham boat, and a breeze coming up directly from the south, our American boats immediately hoisted sail and proceeded about thirty miles, when the wind changed, and we put into a bay on Grenadier Island, about nine in the evening—eat some supper at a house owned by Mr. Baxter—spread a sail upon the floor, and seven boatmen and four passengers camped down before the fire. In the morning I felt my bones as though they had been lying on the soft side of a hard rough floor. April 8, head wind still. Wished myself either at Kingston or Montreal. April 9, still a head wind. Must take it as it comes. Reading and writing the order of the day. At 7 p.m., hoisted sail. At one a.m., arrived at a house on the Canada shore, and slept on the floor till daylight. April 10, left for Ogdensburg, where we arrived at 3 p.m. Found an old acquaintance and passed the afternoon quite agreeably. April 11, had a good night’s rest. Still a head wind. Found the printing office and composed types the greater part of the day. April 12, still a head wind. April 13, left Ogdensburg and arrived at Cornwall. April 14, left Cornwall and arrived at M’Gee’s, Lake St. Francis. April 15, left M’Gee’s and arrived at Montreal about 8 p.m. Traveling expenses from Kingston to Montreal $9.75.”
With the later coming refugees was introduced another kind of flat bottomed boat. It was generally small and rigged with an ungainly sail. It was generally built at the Town of Schenectady, and hence the name. Schenectady is a German word, and means pine barren. Families about to come to Canada would build one or more to meet their requirements. There was never a large number of this particular kind of boat. Those that were to be seen, were upon the bay.
With the opening up of trade between Albany and Upper Canada, was introduced still another kind of vessel, which was adapted to the use of merchants, engaged in the carrying trade. One of the earliest traffickers from the Mohawk River to the lakes by the Durham boats was Duncan, of Augusta, who was, as will be seen, one of the first Legislative Councillors of Upper Canada. He finally removed to Schenectady. It is said that he introduced the trade between the Mohawk and Buffalo which led to the construction of the Erie Canal.
A writer, speaking of the boats used by the Canadians, says, the largest boats used by the Canadian boatmen is called the Durham boat, “used here and in the rapids of the Mohawk. It is long, shallow, and nearly flat bottomed. The chief instrument of steerage is a pole ten feet long, shod with iron, and crossed at short intervals with small bars of wood like the feet of a ladder; the men place themselves at the bow, two on each side, thrust their poles into the channel, and grasping successively the wooden bars, work their way toward the stern, thus pushing on the vessel in that direction.” (Murray).
Mr. Finkle remarks that “the first mode of conveyance for travelers from Montreal to Kingston, after the settlement of Upper Canada, was by Canadian batteaux laden with merchandize (at this time there was no separate conveyance).” The return cargo consisted of barrels of flour, peas, potash, north-west packs of furs, &c.; the men and conductors employed in this business were Lower Canadians. This mode of conveyance continued without interruption until 1809, when the Durham boats came from the Mohawk River and embarked in the carrying trade only between Montreal and Kingston. Being of commodious size, far above the batteaux, they materially interfered with them and lessened the trade by the batteaux. The men who managed the Durham boats came with them from the Mohawk River, these boats were entirely manned by men from that country.
The flat bottomed boat continued in use until some time after the war of 1812. Until the canal along the St. Lawrence was constructed it was the only way by which merchandize could be transported to the Upper Province through the rapids of the St. Lawrence. After the establishment of York as the capital of Upper Canada, there sprung up naturally, a trade between Kingston and the “muddy” capital, and regular batteaux communication was, after a little, established. Once a week the solitary boat left Kingston, and slowly made its way by oars, up the bay to the Carrying Place over which it was hauled by Asa Weller, a tavern keeper, upon low wheels or trucks drawn by oxen, and then continued its way along the shore of Ontario, to its destination. These boats carried not only merchandize but passengers. Beside the regular batteaux there were occasionally others, owned by small merchants and pedlars. It was by the flat bottomed boat and canoe that many of the troops ascended to the head of the lake in 1812, and by which many of the 1000 prisoners taken at Detroit were conveyed to Quebec. The rate of speed of the batteaux or Durham boat, as well as the Skenectady boat, can be approximated from the statement of “A traveller,” writing in 1835. He says, “the line of boats which start from Albany to Skenectady, on their way to Upper Canada, go two-and-a-half miles an hour, taking in stoppages—charging one-and-a-half cents per mile, including board.” This mode of traveling is preferred by large families and prudent settlers.
The conveniences of traveling then, as well as the time required, are so widely different from what we are accustomed to in this day, that we have to pause and wonder at the change which even fifty and sixty years have wrought. Even after Upper Canada had become somewhat settled, it was a momentous matter for a family to set out from the Hudson for Cataraqui, or the Bay Quinté, as they generally called the settlement in those days. For instance, Mr. Lambert, of Sophiasburgh, who came in 1802, was six weeks on the way between Albany and the bay, coming by the Mohawk and Oswego Rivers, and crossing from “Gravelly Point” to “Isle Tanti.” We will give another instance:—Nicholas L., came from New Jersey with seven sons and two daughters. It took a month to come. Having reached Schenectady they waited to build a batteaux. This completed, they stored away provisions to last them until Cataraqui was reached. They also brought with them iron kettles, with which to make maple sugar, and “a churn full of honey.” Mr. L., being a fanning mill maker, he brought also a quantity of wire gauze. At Oswego, the fort there being still held by the British, they were strictly questioned as to the use intended to be made of the kettles and gauze. Satisfaction being given on this point, the family continued their tedious journey along the shore toward Kingston. Barely escaping being wrecked off Stony Island, they at last reached the north shore. Three days more of weary rowing up the bay, and Hay Bay was reached, where they settled.
The loyalists not alone came in summer, by batteaux or the Schenectady boat; but likewise in winter. They generally followed, as near as possible, some one of the routes taken in summer. To undertake to traverse a wilderness with no road, and guided only by rivers and creeks, or blazed trees, was no common thing. Several families would sometimes join together to form a train of sleighs. They would carry with them their bedding, clothes, and the necessary provisions. We have received interesting accounts of winter journeyings from Albany along the Hudson, across to the Black River country, and to the St. Lawrence. Sometimes the train would follow the “military road” along by Champlain, St. George, and as far as Plattsburgh, and then turn north to the St. Lawrence, by what was then called the Willsbury wilderness, and “Chataguee” woods. At the beginning of the present century there was but one tavern through all that vast forest, and this of the poorest character. Indeed it is said that while provision might be procured for the horses, none could be had for man. Those who thus entered Canada in winter found it necessary to stay at Cornwall until spring. Two or more of the men would walk along the St. Lawrence to the bay Quinté, and, at the opening of navigation, having borrowed a batteaux descend to Cornwall for the women, children, and articles brought with them. Often, indeed generally unacquainted with the use of the boat, the passage up and down the river was tedious and toilsome. While the families and sleighs were transported in the batteaux the horses were taken along the shore by the larger boys, if such there were among them. The “French train” was occasionally employed in their winter travels. It consisted of a long rude sleigh with several horses driven tandem style, this allowed the passage among the trees to be made more easily.
Many very interesting reminiscences are known of traveling along the bay by the pioneers. A few are adduced.
TRAVELING TO YORK AND QUEENSTON.
Travelers from Montreal to the west would come by a batteaux, or Durham boat, to Kingston. Those who had business further west, says Finkle, “were conveyed to Henry Finkle’s in Ernest town, where they commonly stopped a few days. Thence they made their journey on horse back. A white man conducted them to the River Trent, where resided Colonel Bleecker who was at the head, and had control of all the Mississauga Indians, and commanded the entire country from the Trent to Toronto. At this place the traveler was furnished with a fresh horse and an Indian guide to conduct him through an unsettled country, the road being little better than a common Indian path, with all its windings. The road continued in this state until about the year 1798. Sometimes the traveler continued his way around the head of the lake on horse back to Queenston, where resided Judge Hamilton.
During the time the surveyors were laying out the townships of the bay, batteaux occasionally passed up and down, supplying the staff with their requirements, or perhaps with some one looking for a good tract of land.
In 1790 a batteaux was owned by Mr. Lambert, of the eighth township, and Mr. Ferguson, writing from Kingston to Mr. Bell, wished him to borrow it, to come to Kingston.
Among the first to use batteaux as a mode of traffic, was Captain Myers. He sailed one up and down the bay to carry, not only his own freight, but for the accommodation of others. He frequently went to Kingston, and now and then to Montreal, the mode pursued, was to charge for freight down, and then give the passenger a free passage back. This was followed for many years, with great profit. The Captain was accustomed to make the journey as pleasant as possible to the passengers. He always kept his grog in his “caboose,” and would deal it out to all. There was no doubt much of jollity and pleasant yarn-spinning, during the long passages upon the tranquil waters of the bay. Captain Myers subsequently owned a schooner.”
A letter written 11th November, 1790, by John Ferguson, to Wm. Bell, of Sidney, says, “As I suppose Mr. Lounsbury’s boat is idle, I would be glad that you would endeavour to borrow or hire it and Sherrard’s son and come down to the third township.”
When persons had gone down the bay, and were expected to return upon a certain night, there would often be a fire kindled on the shore to guide them homeward. In dark nights this was really necessary. Many were the expedients resorted to make short cuts. The feat of swimming horses over the bay was now and then resorted to by the Wallbridges after they settled in Ameliasburgh. Wishing to go to Kingston, they would go down to the point where the bay is narrow, and swim the horses across to Ox Point, and then ride to Kingston by a bridle path. It would now and then happen at a late period, that a traveler passing to his place of settlement would have a lumber waggon. This would be ferried across the bay by placing it across two log canoes. Referring to swimming the bay by a horse, a colored man, yet living within the neighbourhood of Belleville, remembers when a boy, to have been put upon a horse, and then to have obeyed orders to swim him across the bay. This occurred near Belleville.
Long after steamboats were started on the bay, the batteaux continued to ply between Belleville and Montreal. The last to sail these was Fanning and John Covert. In 1830, Fanning arrived at Montreal from Belleville so early as to present his bills of laden upon the first of April. The following business notice cannot fail to be interesting:
“The subscribers having established a line of Durham Boats from this place, propose forwarding from the different ports of the lake to that of Montreal, on the following terms, viz.:
“From York, Niagara, Queenston, and the head of the lake, for each barrel of Flour delivered at the Port of Montreal, 5s. and 6d.
“From Kingston, to the Port of Montreal, for each barrel of Flour, 4s. and 6d.
“From York, Niagara, Queenston, and the head of the lake, for each barrel of Potash delivered at the Port of Montreal, 12s. and 6d.
“From Kingston to the Port of Montreal, for each barrel of Potash, 10s.
“From York, Niagara, Queenston, and the head of the lake, for each barrel of Pork delivered at the Port of Montreal, 8s. and 3d.
“From Kingston to the Port of Montreal, for each barrel of Pork, 6s. and 9d.
“Merchandize will be transported by the same means from Lachine to Kingston, at the rate of 5s. per cwt.
“An elegant Passage Boat will also leave Kingston every tenth day for Montreal, which will be fitted up in the most commodious manner and prevent any delay to passengers leaving the upper part of the lake in the Steam Boat Frontenac, it having been built for the purpose of leaving this place immediately after her arrival.
“These arrangements will take effect at the opening of the navigation, and be continued during the season.
“THOMAS MARKLAND. “PETER SMITH. “LAWRENCE HERKIMER. “JOHN KERBY. “WILLIAM MITCHELL.
“Kingston, February, 1819.”
Respecting the Canadian Batteaux, the following is from the Boston Weekly Magazine of an old date.
“Lines written while at anchor in Kingston Harbour, Lake Ontario, on hearing from several Canadian boats entering from the St. Lawrence—their usual songs.
Hark! o’er the lakes unruffled wave, A distant solemn chant is sped; Is it some requiem at the grave? Some last kind honor to the dead? ‘Tis silent all—again begin; It is the wearied boatman’s lay, That hails alike the rising sun, And his last soft departing ray.
Forth from yon island’s dusky side, The train of batteaux now appear, And onward as they slowly glide, More loud their chorus greets the ear. But, ah! the charm that distance gave, When first in solemn sounds their song Crept slowly o’er the limpid wave, Is lost in notes full loud and strong.
Row, brothers row, with songs of joy, For now in view a port appears; No rapids here our course annoy, No hidden rocks excite our fears, Be this sweet night to slumber given, And when the morning lights the wave We’ll give our matin songs to heav’n, Our course to bless, our lives to save.”
Chapter XIV
CONTENTS—The first Vessel—The French—La Salle—The Griffon—Vessels in 1770—During the Rebellion—Building at Carleton Island—Captain Andrews—The Ontario—Col. Burton—Loss of the Ontario—The Sheehans— Hills—Givins’—Murney’s Point—Schooner ‘Speedy’—Mohawk—Mississauga— Duke of Kent—Capt. Bouchette—Paxton—McKenzie—Richardson—Earle Steele—Fortiche—The Governor Simcoe—Sloop ‘Elizabeth’—First vessel built at York—Collins’ Report upon Navigating the Lakes—Navy in Upper Canada, 1795—Rochfoucault—Capt. Bouchette—Officers’ Pay— York, the centre of the Naval Force—Gun Boats—The Loss of the “Speedy”—Reckoner—Dr. Strachan—Solicitor-Gen. Gray—Canada took the lead in building Vessels—First Canadian Merchant Vessel—The York—A Schooner on runners around the Falls—Sending Coals to Newcastle— Upon Bay Quinté—The Outskirts of Civilization—“The Prince Edward” built of Red Cedar—in 1812—Schooner “Mary Ann”—1817—Capt. Matthews.
THE FIRST SAILING VESSELS.
The first vessels, with sails, which navigated the waters of the lakes, were built by the French, to pursue their discoveries, and to carry on the fur trade. The first sailing vessel launched upon the Lakes, was built by LaSalle. He, with Father Hennepin and Chevalier de Tonti, set sail from Cataraqui, on the 18th November, 1678, for the mouth of the Niagara river, having on board his bark goods, and material for building a brigantine on Lake Erie. During the winter the vessel was commenced, six miles above the Falls, and was launched by the middle of summer, amid great display and ceremony. The vessel was named “Griffon,” according to Garneau; but Father Hennepin says “Cataraqui.” “She was a kind of brigantine, not unlike a Dutch galliot, with a broad elevated bow and stern, very flat in the bottom; she looked much larger than she really was. She was of sixty tons burden. With the aid of tow-lines and sails the Niagara river was, with difficulty, ascended; and on the 7th August, 1679, the first vessel that ever sat upon the lakes, entered Lake Erie.” The end of this vessel was a sad one. (See Introduction).
We are indebted to the Detroit Tribune for the following interesting statements:
“In 1766 four vessels plied upon Lake Erie. These were the “Gladwin,” “Lady Charlotte,” “Victory,” and “Boston.”
“The two latter laid up in the fall near Navy Island, above Niagara Falls, and one of them was burned accidentally, November 30, of the same year. A vessel called the “Brunswick,” owned and commanded by Captain Alexander Grant, made her appearance on the lakes during the year 1767, and was lost some time during the season following. Captain Grant was the Commodore of the lakes for two or three years. In 1769 Sterling and Porteous built a vessel at Detroit, called the “Enterprise,” Richard Cornwall, of New York, being the carpenter. The boatmen, who went from Schenectady with the rigging and stores for this vessel to Detroit, were to have each £20, and ten gallons of rum. They were seventy days on Lake Erie, and two of the number perished from hunger, and their bodies were kept to decoy eagles and ravens. They returned to New York in February, 1760, by way of Pittsburgh, then called Fort Pitt.
“In May, 1770, a vessel of seventy tons burthen was launched at Niagara, called the “Charity.” The same year the Duke of Gloucester, Secretary Townsend, Samuel Tutchet, Henry Baxter, and four others, formed a company for mining copper on Lake Superior. In December they built at Point Aux Pins, a barge, and laid the keel for a sloop of forty tons burthen. Of the success of this enterprise we are not informed. Subsequent to the above period very little was accomplished in the construction of craft for lake navigation, and the few that came into commission were used solely as traders, as were in fact, all those previously named. A short time after, 1770, batteaux from Montreal and Quebec, employed by the Hudson’s Bay Fur Company, made their annual tours westward, gathering large quantities of furs, and returning homeward in the fall. It has been stated that the first vessel built on Lake Ontario was in 1749, but this, we have reason to believe, is not correct.”
During the Revolutionary War, the British Government built at Carleton Island, a few vessels to carry troops and provisions from place to place along the Lake, from Carleton Island to Niagara. The first Commissioner at the Dock Yard was Commodore James Andrews, Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. The “Ontario,” a war vessel of considerable importance, carrying 22 guns, was built at Carleton Island. This vessel was commanded by Capt. Andrews. Some time between 1780 and 1783, as the “Ontario” was proceeding from Niagara to Oswego with a detachment of the King’s Own regiment, commanded by Colonel Burton, with other officers, a storm arose at night, and the vessel was lost with all on board. Col. John Clark, in his memoirs, whose father belonged to the 8th regiment, says this event happened in 1780 or ‘81, in which belief he is supported by Mr. Sheehan, a descendant of Capt. Andrews: but other authority has it that the event took place in 1783. At all events, the occurrence produced a melancholy effect, which long remained in the minds of those acquainted with the circumstances. Captain Andrews left a widow, a son, and two daughters. The son returned to Scotland, the daughters married and settled in Canada. The Sheehans, Hills, and Givins are descendants of Captain Andrews’ daughters, whose husbands had been in the army.
After the settlement of Kingston, the Government built vessels at Murney’s Point, and at Navy Point. Among the first built here was the Schooner “Speedy,” and also the “Mohawk” and “Mississauga,” and “Duke of Kent.” Among the first commanders of vessels, most of whom were of the Royal Navy, were Capt. Bouchette, Capt. Paxton, Capt. McKenzie, Capt. Richardson, Capt. Earle, Capt. Steele and Capt. Fortiche.
“The first vessel built for trade upon Lake Ontario,” that is after Upper Canada was settled, “may have been the ‘Governor Simcoe,’ for the North West Company; after she was worn out and laid up, Judge Cartwright, who was agent for the Company at Kingston, built another for that Company, and one for himself, both built at the same time, side by side, on Mississauga Point, at the mouth of Cataraqui Creek. Both were launched on the same day; the one for the Company named “Governor Simcoe,” and the other “Sloop Elizabeth.” These were built during my stay with Judge Cartwright, in 1808.
“The first, and only vessel for many years, built at York, was a small schooner about forty-five tons. Built by two brothers named Kendrick.”— (Finkle.)
The survey made by Deputy Surveyor-General Collins, at the request of Lord Dorchester, in 1788, included an examination of the lakes and harbors from Kingston to Michilmicinac. In reference to the lakes and vessels, the Surveyor says:—“Vessels sailing on these waters being seldom for any length of time out of sight of land, the navigation must be considered chiefly as pilotage, to which the use of good natural charts is essential and therefore much wanted. Gales of wind, or squalls, rise suddenly upon the lakes, and from the confined state of the waters, or want of sea-room, (as it is called), vessels may in some degree be considered as upon a lee shore, and this seems to point out the necessity for their being built on such a construction as will best enable them to work to windward. Schooners should, perhaps, have the preference, as being rather safer than sloops, they should be from 80 to 100 tons burthen on Lake Ontario, and 50 tons burthen on Lakes Erie and Huron; but if not intended to communicate between these two lakes, they may then be the same size as on Lake Ontario; and if this system is approved there can be no necessity to deviate from it unless an enemy should build vessels of greater magnitude or force; but as the intent of bringing any such forward, at least the building of them can never remain a secret, there may be always time to counteract such a design by preparing to meet them at least on equal terms. It does not seem advisable, nor do I know any reason to continue the practice of building vessels flat bottomed, or to have very little draft of water, they are always unsafe, and many of the accidents which have happened on the lakes, have perhaps, in some degree been owing to that construction. On the contrary, if they are built on proper principles for burthen as well as sailing they will be safer, and will find sufficient depth of water proportioned to any tonnage which can be requisite for them upon these lakes.”
Respecting the navy in Upper Canada, Rochfoucault writes in 1795: “The Royal Navy is not very formidable in this place; six vessels compose the whole naval force, two of which are small gun-boats, which we saw at Niagara, and which are stationed at York.” Two small schooners of twelve guns, viz., the “Onondaga,” in which we took our passage, and the “Mohawk,” which is just finished; a small yacht of eighty tons, mounting six guns as the two schooners, which has lately been taken into dock to be repaired, form the rest of it. All these vessels are built of timber fresh cut down, and not seasoned, and for this reason last never longer than six or eight years. To preserve them, even to this time, requires a thorough repair; they must be heaved down and caulked, which costs at least from one thousand, to one thousand two hundred guineas. This is an enormous price, and yet it is not so high as on Lake Erie, whither all sorts of naval stores must be sent from Kingston, and where the price of labor is still higher. The timbers of the Mississauga, which was built three years ago, are almost all rotten. It is so easy to make provision for ship-timber for many years to come, as this would require merely the felling of it, and that too at no great distance from the place where it is to be used, that it is difficult to account for this precaution not having been adopted. Two gun-boats, which are destined by Governor Simcoe to serve only in time of war, are at present on the stocks; but the carpenters who work at them are but eight in number. The extent of the dilapidations and embezzlements, committed at so great a distance from the mother country, may be easily conceived. In the course of last winter a judicial enquiry into a charge of this nature was instituted at Kingston. The Commissioner of the navy and the principal ship-wright, it was asserted, had clearly colluded against the King’s interest; but interest and protection are as powerful in the new world as in the old: for both the Commissioner and ship-wright continue in their places.
“Captain Bouchette commands the naval force on Lake Ontario, and is at the head of all the marine establishments, yet without the least power in money matters. This gentleman possesses the confidence both of Lord Dorchester and Governor Simcoe; he is a Canadian by birth, but entered the British service when Canada fell into the power of England.
“While Arnold and Montgomery were besieging Quebec, Lord Dorchester, disguised as a Canadian, stole on board his ship into that city, on which occasion he displayed much activity, intrepidity, and courage. It is not at all a matter of surprise that Lord Dorchester should bear in mind this eminent service. By all accounts he is altogether incorruptible, and an officer who treats his inferiors with great mildness and justice.
“In regard to the pay of the Royal Marine force on Lake Ontario, a captain has ten shillings a day, a lieutenant six, and a second lieutenant three shillings and sixpence. The seamen’s wages are eight dollars per month. The masters of merchantmen have twenty-five dollars, and the sailors from nine to ten dollars a month.
“Commander Bouchette is among those, who most strenuously oppose the project of moving to York, the central point of the force on the lake; but his family reside at Kingston, and his lands are situated near that place. Such reasons are frequently of sufficient weight to determine political opinions.”
Again, says the same writer, “Governor Simcoe intends to make York the centre of the naval force on Lake Ontario. Only four gunboats are at present on this lake, two of which are constantly employed in transporting merchandise; the other two, which alone are fit to carry troops and guns, and have oars and sails, are lying under shelter until an occasion occurs to convert them to their intended purpose. It is the Governor’s intention to build ten smaller gunboats on Lake Ontario, and ten on Lake Erie. The ship carpenters, who construct them, reside in the United States, and return home every winter.”
“On the 7th October, 1807, Mr. Justice Cochrane, Mr. Gray, the Solicitor General, and Mr. Agnus McDonald, embarked at York, with several other passengers in the Speedy, a government schooner, commanded by Captain Paxton, for the purpose of going to Newcastle where the Assizes were to be held on the 10th. The vessel was seen a few miles from her destined port on the evening of the 8th. The wind commenced to blow, and the schooner was never heard of more. There were pieces picked up on the opposite shore. Mr. Cochrane was young in years, but not in piety.” The above is extracted from the Kingston Gazette, written by “Reckoner,” which was the name under which Dr. Strachan contributed to that paper. Colonel Clark, of Dalhousie, says “I recollect the loss of the Speedy,” and he remarks of Solicitor General Gray, that he was “a noble character, noted for his sympathy on behalf of abolishing slavery.” He says that there were upwards of twenty passengers; among them he mentions Jacob Herkimer, a merchant of York.
It will be seen that Canada took the lead in building the early vessels upon the lakes. The first American ship that navigated Lake Erie, was purchased from the British in 1796. She was called the Detroit. The first vessel built by the Americans, for the lakes, was constructed in 1797. The first Canadian merchant vessel built upon Lake Ontario, was by Francis Crooks, brother of the Hon. James Crooks. It was built to the east of the present United States fort, at the mouth of the Niagara river, in 1792, and was called the “York.” She was wrecked at Genesee river. In 1800 a schooner of about 75 or 100 tons, was brought to Clifton, and during the winter of 1801 she crossed by the portage road on immense runners to Queenston, where she again found her native element in the Niagara river. She was, in 1804, lost in bringing a cargo to Niagara, with all on board.—(Clark.)
It is a curious fact that in the American war of 1812, the British “Admiralty sent out the frame work, blocks, &c., of the Psyche frigate, which could have been procured on the spot in the tenth of the time and a twentieth part of the expense. At the same time there was furnished to each ship of war on Lake Ontario, a full supply of water casks, with an apparatus for distilling sea water,” forgetting the fact that the waters of the lake were of the purest quality.
Directing our attention to the waters of the bay Quinté, it is found that until after 1812, but few sailing vessels entered the upper waters, although found east of Picton Bay. Strange as it may appear at the present day, there was a time when the head of Picton Bay, or Hay Bay, was regarded as the head of the bay, and the very outskirts of civilization, while going up the Long Reach, to the Mohawk tract was looked upon like going to the Red River at the present day. The settlers above were too few, and their requirements too limited for a sailing vessel to ascend, unless occasionally to the Napanee mills. But as time passed, sloops and schooners, as well as batteaux found employment along the western townships.
In the first year of the present century, there was built in the township of Marysburgh, a short distance west of the Stone mills, a schooner of some celebrity. It was built by Captain Murney, father of the late Hon. Edward Murney, of Belleville. Captain Murney came to Kingston in 1797, at the solicitation of Mr. Joseph Forsyth. It was constructed for himself, and was made altogether of red cedar, a kind of wood formerly very plentiful along the bay, and which possesses a most agreeable odor, and is extremely durable. The vessel was named the Prince Edward. John Clark, of Dalhousie, says of this vessel, that he was on board the following year of her building, and that she was a “staunch good ship, with an able captain.” Her size was sufficient to allow 700 barrels of flour to be stowed beneath her hatches. She ran upon Lake Ontario for many years, and made for her owner a small fortune. She was in good condition in 1812, and was employed by government as an armed vessel. A schooner called Prince Edward, probably the same, Captain Young, was the first vessel to land at the pier when erected at Wellington.
The Kingston Gazette, April 12, 1817, says: “On Thursday, 20th inst. at three o’clock p.m., arrived at Ernesttown, in the Bay of Quinté, the schooner Mary Ann, Captain J. Mosier, in twenty hours from York, and at this port yesterday afternoon with fourteen passengers, of whom eleven were members of the Provincial Parliament. This is the seventh voyage this vessel has made this season, to the great credit of her master. The Mary Ann sailed again in about half an hour for the Bay Quinté.”
One of the early vessels upon the bay was commanded by Matthews, father of the rebel of 1836, who was executed.
DIVISION III. THE LOYALISTS AS PIONEERS—THE ORIGINAL SURVEY.
Chapter XV
CONTENTS—Major Gen. Holland—Surveying on Atlantic Coast—An adherent of the Crown—Removal to Montreal—Death—Major Holland—Information from “Maple Leaves”—Holland Farm—Taché—First Canadian Poem—Head Quarters of Gen. Montgomery—Hospitality—Duke of Kent—Spencer Grange—Holland Tree—Graves—Epitaphs—Surveyor Washington—County Surveyor—Surveyors after the War—First Survey in Upper Canada— Commenced in 1781—The Mode pursued—Information in Crown Lands Department—The Nine Townships upon the St. Lawrence—At the close of the War—Non-Professional Surveyors—Thomas Sherwood—Assisting to Settle—Surveying around the Bay Quinté—Bongard—Deputy-Surveyor Collins—First Survey at Frontenac—Town Reserve—Size of Township— Mistakes—Kotte—Tuffy—Capt. Grass—Capt. Murney—Surveying in Winter— Planting Posts—Result—Litigation—Losing Land—A Newspaper Letter— Magistrates—Landholders—Their Sons’ Lawyers—Alleged Filching— Speculators at Seat of Government—Grave Charges—Width of Lots—Mode of Surveying—Number of Concessions—Cross Roads—Surveyors Orders— Numbering the Lots—Surveying around the Bay—The ten Townships— Their Lands—The Surveying Party—A Singer—Statement of Gourlay.
THE FIRST SURVEYS IN UPPER CANADA.
Among those who distinguished themselves at Louisburg and on the Plains of Abraham under General Wolfe, was Major Samuel Holland. Sabine says, he was “Surveyor-General of the Colonies north of Virginia.” In 1773 he announced his intention to make Perth Amboy, near Jersey, his head-quarters, and wrote to a gentleman there to inquire for houses to accommodate himself and his assistants. He then completed the surveys as far west as Boston. Proposed in 1774 to get round Cape Cod, and to New London, and said it would be at best six years before he should be able to finish his labors. In 1775, he wrote Lord Dartmouth that he was ready to run the line between Massachusetts and New York. By a communication laid before the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in July, 1775, it appears that he had loaned to Alex. Shepard, Jun., who was also a surveyor, a plan or survey of Maine, which Shepard disliked to return, fearing that it might be used in a manner prejudicial to the Whig cause, as Holland was an adherent of the Crown, and then in New Jersey. Congress recommended to Shepard to retain Holland’s plan. Major Holland went to Lower Canada, where he resumed his duties of Surveyor-General, in which capacity he served nearly fifty years. He died in 1801, and at the time of his decease he was a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils.
It was under Surveyor Holland that the first surveys were made upon the banks of the St. Lawrence and the Bay of Quinté. Major Holland was a gentleman of education, and known for his social and amiable qualities. We are indebted to the author of “Maple Leaves,” J. M. LeMoine, Esq., for information respecting Surveyor Holland. Extending from the brow of St. Foy heights along St. Louis Road at Quebec, was a piece of land of 200 acres which was known as the Holland Farm. This farm had belonged to a rich merchant of Quebec, Mon. Jean Taché, who wrote the first Canadian Poem, “Tableau de la Mer.” He was the ancestor of the late Sir E. Taché. About the year 1740 he built upon an eminence a high peaked structure, which, during the seige of Quebec, was the head quarters of Gen. Montgomery. This place was bought by Gen. Holland in 1780, who lived there in affluence for many years, subsequent to the close of the war, 1783. The elite of Quebec were wont to resort here to enjoy his hospitality, and in 1791, he entertained Edward, afterward Duke of Kent, the father of our Queen. This place is now known as Spencer Grange; but the old building has long since been removed to be replaced by the present well-known mansion. From the St. Foy Road may be seen a fir tree known as the Holland Tree. Under that tree are several graves, which some years ago were inclosed with a substantial stone wall, with an iron gate. But now only the foundation remains. Two of the graves had neat marble slabs, with the names of Samuel Holland senior, and Samuel Holland, junior. “Here rest Major Surveyor Holland, and his son, who was killed in a duel at Montreal, by Major Ward of the 60th Regiment,” by a shot from one of a brace of pistols presented to Major Holland by Gen. Wolfe. This farm is now in possession of the military authorities.
At the time of the rebellion the land of the thirteen Colonies was, in many cases, still unsurveyed, or so imperfectly laid out that frequent demands were made for the professional surveyor. In the very nature of things pertaining to the settlement of America, there was a general demand for surveyors. The country was constantly being opened up. Some of the most prominent men of the day had been surveyors. Gen. Washington commenced life as a country surveyor. In the war, both on the rebel and British sides, were to be found professional surveyors engaged in fighting. Consequently when the war terminated, there was no lack of surveyors to carry on the work of surveying the wilderness of Upper Canada. We have seen that Major Holland held the position of Surveyor-General, and there was duly appointed a certain number of deputies and assistants.
Even while the war was in progress, steps seem to have been taken to furnish the refugee Loyalists with new homes, upon the land still lying in a state of nature. The land in Lower Canada being in the main held by the French Canadians, it was deemed expedient to lay out along the shores of the upper waters a range of lots for their use. In pursuance of this, the first survey of land was made by order of Gen. Clarke, Acting Governor, or Military Commander, in 1781. Naturally the survey would commence at the extreme western point of French settlement. This was on the north bank of Lake St. Francis, at the cove west of Pointe au Bodet, in the limit between the Township of Lancaster, and the seigniory of New Longueil.
We have reason to believe that the surveyor at first laid out only a single range of lots fronting upon the river. In the first place a front line was established. This seems to have been done along the breadth of several proposed townships. In doing this it was desirable to have as little broken front as possible, while at the same time the frontage of each lot remained unbroken by coves of the river or bay. We are informed by the Crown Land Department that in some townships there could, in recent days, be found no posts to indicate the front line, while the side lines in the second concession were sufficiently marked.
The original surveyor along the St. Lawrence evidently did not extend his operations above Elizabethtown, which was called the ninth township, being the ninth laid out from New Longueil. This is apparent from the fact that while Elizabethtown was settled in 1781, the next township above, that of Yonge, was not settled until two years later. The quality of the land thence to Kingston was not such as would prove useful to the poor settler, and therefore was allowed for a time to remain unsurveyed. Hence it came that Cataraqui was the commencement of a second series of townships distinguished by numbers only. These two distinct ranges of townships, one upon the St. Lawrence numbering nine, and one upon the Bay numbering ten, were, when necessary, distinguished apart by the designation, the “first,” “second,” or “third” Township “upon the St. Lawrence,” or “upon the Bay of Quinté,” as the case might be.
It is impossible to say how far the work of surveying had progressed from Lake St. Francis westward, before the close of the war; it is very probable, however, that only a base line had been run, and some temporary mark placed to indicate the corners of each township. Such, indeed, is shown to be the case by the statement of Sheriff Sherwood, who says that his father Thomas Sherwood, who had been a subaltern in the 84th Reg., and who actually located on the first lot in the first concession of Elizabethtown, “was often called upon to run the side lines of the lots” for the settlers as they came one after another, and “to shew them their land.” Mr. Sherwood was not a professional surveyor, but “he had the instruments and practically knew well how to use them, and he was ever ready to give his assistance and instructions to the new comers.”
SURVEYING AROUND BAY QUINTÉ.
In the year 1783, Major Holland, Surveyor-General of Canada, received instructions from Sir Frederick Haldimand, Governor of the Province of Quebec, to proceed on duty to Western Canada. Prior to this, we have observed, there had been commenced a range of lots laid out at the easternmost limits of what now forms Canada West, to the extent of nine townships. Yet evidence is wanting that this range had been completed at the period stated. Holland set out with a sufficient staff of assistants and attachés, to simultaneously lay out several of the proposed townships along the St. Lawrence, and the Bay of Quinté. The party passed up the St. Lawrence, ascending the rapids in a brigade of batteaux manned by French boatmen. Surveyor Holland had, as his personal attendant, —— Bongard, who had been in the artillery under General Reidezel, of the Foreign Legion. From the son of this person, now living in Marysburgh, valuable information has been obtained, much of which has been substantiated by legal documents, published in connection with the law report of the trial respecting the Murney estate and the town of Kingston. Mr. Bongard says that Holland, as he passed up, detailed a deputy to each of the townships, stopping first at Oswegotchie, opposite Prescott, and that he passed up as far as the fourth township upon Bay Quinté, where he pitched his tent, and where he continued to hold his head-quarters, receiving the reports of the various Deputy-Surveyors as they were from time to time brought in. While it seems most probable that Holland came to the Upper Province in 1783, it is possible that he remained in Lower Canada until the spring of 1784, having deputed Surveyor Collins to commence a survey westward from the fort at Frontenac; or perhaps he visited that place with Collins whom he left to carry on the work during this first year.
Whether Surveyor-General Holland visited Fort Frontenac in the year 1783, or not, it was Deputy-Surveyor John Collins who made the first survey of the first township, and of the original town plot of Kingston. According to the sworn testimony of Gilbert Orser, who assisted Collins, in the year 1783, as well as others, the township was surveyed first, and the town plot afterward; although it appears that Holland’s instructions were, first “to lay out proper reservations for the town and fort, and then to proceed and lay out the township, six miles square.” The lots were to contain each 200 acres, to be 25 in number, each range. Mr. Collins placed a monument, it is averred, “at the south-east angle of lot 25, from which a line was run northerly the whole depth of the Township, six miles, where another stone monument was placed, making a line of blazed trees throughout.” From this, it would seem, he continued to survey the township, leaving the land for the town, which he, no doubt, thought extensive enough, to be laid out into town lots, and leaving 40 feet of land, which was to form a road between the town and township. Respecting this line and lot 25, there has been a great deal of litigation. As nearly as the facts can be gathered, the following statement may be regarded as correct:
After Collins had completed the survey of the township, and had even made his returns, to the effect that it contained 25 lots, of 200 acres, he was importuned, or ‘induced by the Commanding Officer at Fort Frontenac,’ to make lot 25 contain only 100 acres, that more ground might thereby be had for the proposed town. More than this, it seems that there was some mistake in the said eastern side line, so as to subsequently limit lot 25 to even less than 100 acres. And, Capt. Michael Grass, when he took possession of this lot, in 1784, found that this line was inaccurately run. Deputy-Surveyor Kotte was requested to examine it; and finding there was an error, made representations to Government, who sent persons to correct it. One Deputy-Surveyor Tuffy was directed to re-survey the line, and he gave more land to lot 25. However, there was yet some error, which was a source of great trouble. Capt. Michael Grass sold this lot to Capt. Murney, who, subsequently finding it did not contain the amount of land which the patent assumed, applied legally for his rights.
The surveying party, among whom were some of those who subsequently settled in the township, and who must have belonged to Capt. Grass’ company of refugees, returned to Sorel, where they spent the winter. At least this is the testimony of one of the grand-children of Capt. Grass. But if the surveying party did, this winter of 1783–4, retire from their work to Lower Canada, it appears unlikely they did the following winter. Indeed there are indications that surveying went on during the winter. In laying out the Townships, special attention was given to make the lots front squarely upon the Bay. In the winter the base line could be more closely run by the water edge upon the ice, than in summer, through the woods. We are informed, at the Crown Lands Department, that in some townships no posts or other marks had at first been found in the re-survey, although such were to be found in the 2nd concession. The inference was, that the posts planted in winter by the water, had, in the spring or summer been washed away, in the course of time. This, as may be supposed, led in time to great confusion, and no little litigation. For many years there was much trouble to establish the land marks all along the front; and cases are not wanting where it has been charged that fraudulent removals of posts were made. The straightforward settler, while engaged in his daily and yearly round of toil, thought not of the side lines of his farm, fully believing that a survey had been definitely fixed by marks that could not be altered, and too often when plenty and comfort had come, he was startled to find some one claiming some of his cleared or uncleared land. Although conscious that such and such were the boundaries of the land granted to him, it was not so easy to prove that such was the case. The annoyances of these direct and indirect attempts to disinherit, may easily be imagined. In this connection, the following letter may be given as exemplifying the feelings, if not the facts—perhaps both—which belonged to those days. It appeared in the Kingston Gazette in 1816, over the signature “A.”
“SIR,—The situation of the old settlers in the Province of Upper Canada, is truly deplorable. These people settled in the wilds of Canada, then the Province of Quebec, under the surveys made by the acting Surveyor-General. Landmarks being established for the guidance of their improvements: no deeds were given them until the Parliament of Great Britain altered the Quebec bill, arranged a new constitution, similar to that they had lost during the rebellion, in the Province of New York, from whence they chiefly came to settle at Frontenac, now Kingston. After cultivating the country agreeably to those surveys for twenty years or more, deeds are issued to cover those lots, drawn and cultivated as above mentioned. The Surveyor-General, David William Smith, Speaker of the House of Assembly, knowing that these deeds were filled up by guess, the survey never having been made complete, wisely provided an Act of the Legislature to prevent the deeds from moving the old land-marks. This Act provides that when thirty freeholders apply to the Magistrates in session they shall make an assessment and collect the money to enable the Surveyor-General to erect monuments, in order to preserve their ancient land-marks and boundaries. What is the reason that this Act has not been complied with? Are the Magistrates all landholders and their sons Lawyers?
“An order from the Governor has lain in the Surveyor-General’s office ever since the year 1801 for monuments to be erected in the Township of Kingston, agreeable to the intention of that Act. Why will not the Magistrates do their duty? The consequence is, that the licensed Surveyor, John Ryder, is running new lines every day, and moving the land-marks of the old settlers. People who have come into the country from the States, marry into a family, and obtain a lot of wild land, get John Ryder to move the land-marks, and instead of a wild lot, take by force a fine house and barn and orchard, and a well cultured farm, and turn the old Tory, (as he is called) out of his house, and all his labor for thirty years.
“These old settlers have suffered all that men could suffer; first in a seven years’ rebellion in the revolutionized colonies; then came to a remote wilderness, some hundred miles from any inhabitant—not a road, not a cow, or an ox, or a horse to assist them; no bread during the winter, they wintered first at Cataraqui. A little pease and pork was all they could get until the ice gave way in the spring of 1785.
“The King, as an acknowledgment and mark of his approbation for the loyalty and sufferings of his faithful subjects, ordered lands to be granted them free from expense, and marked each man’s name with the letters U. E., with a grant annexed to each child as it became of age, of two hundred acres of the waste lands of the crown.
“Now these children cannot get these lands agreeably to the intention of Government. They must sell their right to a set of speculators that hover round the seat of Government, or never get located. Or if they should have the fortune to get a location ticket, it is situated on rocks, and lakes, and barren lands, where they are worth nothing at all; the good lots being marked by the Surveyors, and located by those U. E. rights they have so purchased.
“Now, Sir, was I a scholar, I might draw you a much better description of this wickedness. But I have lived to see thirteen colonies, now States of America, severed from the British empire by the mal-administration of justice in the civil government of those colonies; the people’s minds were soured to that degree that a few designing men overthrew the Government.”
“After the conquest of Canada, the king ordered a thousand acres of land to be granted to each man. The land was granted; but the people to whom it was granted were deprived by a set of speculators, from ever getting a foot, unless they became tenants to those who, in a manner, had robbed them of their rights.”
While the lots were generally made twenty chains in width, a few of the first townships were but nineteen, and consequently of greater depth to make the 200 acres, and the concessions were proportionally wider.
The base line being established, a second one, parallel thereto, was made at a distance generally of a mile and a quarter, allowance being made in addition, for a road. It is more than likely that in many townships the second line, or concession, was not immediately run out. The settlers could not easily traverse even a mile of woods, and for a time accommodation was made only at the front. But within a year, in most townships, the second row of lots had been surveyed and partially occupied. At the front line was always an allowance for a road of sixty feet, as well as at the second line for one of forty feet. The range of lots between the front and the second lines as well as between the second and third, and so on, was called a Concession, a term derived from the French, having reference to their mode of conferring land in the Lower Province, and peculiar to this country. Each concession was divided into lots of 200 acres each, the dividing lines being at right angles with the concession lines, and a quarter of a mile distant from each other. At intervals of two or three miles, a strip of forty feet between two lots was left, for a cross road. In Ameliasburgh it seems that this was neglected. The number of concessions depended on circumstances. Along the St. Lawrence, they numbered to even fifteen or sixteen. Along the bay they were seven and eight. Adolphustown has only four. The irregular course of the Bay Quinté, and the fronting of the townships upon its waters, gave rise to great irregularity in the interior lots, and produced a large number of Gores. This may be noticed more especially in Sophiasburgh, and indeed throughout all of Prince Edward district.
Respecting the provision made for cross roads, Alex. Aitkins, who was Deputy Surveyor of Midland district for many years, says under date, 1797, in respect to the township of Sophiasburgh, “Mr. Kotte’s orders 1785, were from Deputy Surveyor General, Mr. Collins, who was then at Kingston, to lay off cross roads between every six lots as he had done in the eastern part of the province, from township number one, now Charlotteburgh, to township number eight Elizabethtown, and, of no doubt, they would be found at the waters’ edge on the Bay Quinté.”
By looking at the township maps of the bay, it will be seen that the lots of the first three townships, are numbered from west to east, while as we have seen, the townships were numbered from east to west. It is inferred from this fact that the surveyor conducted his survey along the front, planting posts to mark the division of lots, and leaving allowance for roads, but did not complete the concessions until the breadth of the townships had been determined, when it was done from west to east, the lots being numbered accordingly.
The surveyor continued to chain the front, upon the north shore of the bay, until he reached the turn in the bay at the western point of Adolphustown. This portion of territory was divided into four townships.
The surveyor then crossed the bay and proceeded from the Upper Gap, to lay out lots in an irregular manner upon the water, along the bay and the lake to, and around Smith’s Bay, and along Black Creek; also upon the east shore of Picton Bay. This constituted the fifth township. Following the bay shore of Prince Edward peninsula from Picton Bay, along the High Shore and around Green Point, another, the sixth township, was laid out; the lots always fronting on the bay. Still following the bay, the seventh township was created, the western boundary of which brought the surveyor to the head of the bay, or Carrying Place.
Turning eastward along the north shore of the bay, the eighth township was laid out. Likewise, the ninth township, which brought the surveyor to a tract of land which had been reserved for, and given to the faithful Mohawk Indians. Passing by the present township of Tyendinaga, still another township was laid out fronting upon the Mohawk Bay, and Napanee River. This constituted the tenth township, Richmond. Thus the surveyors had made a complete circuit of the bay. These townships were, for many a day, designated by the numeral prefix; even yet may be found gray haired individuals who speak of them in no other way. Subsequently, however, these townships had given to them respectively, the royal names of Kingston, Ernest town, Fredericksburgh, Adolphustown, Marysburgh, Ameliasburgh, Sophiasburgh; and the noble ones of Sidney, Thurlow, and Richmond.
There would at the present time, be nothing so interesting to the settlers of the bay, than to read a diary of the events connected with the original survey. Surveying the wilderness is weary work at any time; but when the persons who take part in striking the lines and fixing the boundaries, have constantly in mind that when their survey is completed, they cannot return to civilization and the comforts of a home, but that they have to remain to become citizens of the forest, they must experience many a heart pang. Yet there seems to have been a lightheartedness with most of them. The camp fire at night witnessed many pleasant hours of jovial pass-time. Singing, storytelling, wiled away agreeably many an hour. Accompanying Collins’ surveying party, was one Purdy, who gained no little renown as a capital singer.
We will close our remarks upon the original survey by giving the statement of Gourlay. He says that “such was the haste to get land surveyed and given away, that ignorant and careless men were employed to measure it out, and such a mess did they make of their land measuring, that one of the present surveyors informed me that in running new lines over a great extent of the province, he found spare room for a whole township in the midst of those laid out at an early period. It may readily be conceived, upon consideration of this fact, what blundering has been committed, and what mistakes stand for correction.”
Chapter XVI
CONTENTS—The term Concession—First Concession of Land in Canada—The Carignan Regiment—Seigniories—Disproportion of the sexes—Females sent from France—Their appearance—Settling them—Marriage allowance—The last seigniory—New Longeuil—Seigniory at Frontenac— Grants to Refugees—Officers and men—Scale of granting—Free of expense—Squatting—Disbanded soldiers—Remote regions—A wise and beneficent policy—Impostors—Very young officers—Wholesale granting of land—Republicans coming over—Covetous—False pretensions— Government had to discriminate—Rules and regulations—Family lands— Bounty—Certificates—Selling claims—Rear concessions—Transfer of location ticket—Land board—Tardiness in obtaining titles to real estate—Transfer by bond—Jobbing—Sir Wm. Pullency—Washington—Giving lands to favorites—Reserves—Evil results—The Family Compact— Extract from Playter—Extract from Lord Durham—From Gourlay— Recompense to Loyalists—Rations—Mode of drawing land—Land Agent— Broken front—Traitor Arnold—Tyendinaga.
CONCESSION OF LANDS TO THE FRENCH.
It has been stated that the term concession, as well as the system of granting land to disbanded soldiers, was derived from the French. The first concession of lands to soldiers took place in 1665, to the Carignan Regiment, a name derived from a Prince of the house of Savoy, which came to New France with the first Viceroy. It was a distinguished corps in the French Infantry, having won renown on many a bloody field, and carried death to many an Iroquois Indian. The Indians having sought peace from the French, leave was granted to this regiment to permanently settle in the New World. Titles to land was conferred according to rank, and as well, sums of money to assist in the clearing of land. “The officers, who were mostly noblesse obtained seigniories with their late soldiers for vassals.” The settlement of this body of men increased the disproportion between the males and females in Canada. The home government considerately took steps to remedy this abnormal state of things and despatched “several hundred from old France.” They “consisted of tall, short, fair, brown, fat and lean.” These females were offered to such of the men as had means to support a wife. In a few days they were all disposed of. The Governor-General then distributed to the newly married ones “oxen, cows, hogs, fowls, salted beef,” as well as money.— (Smith.)
The original grants of land by the French Government under the feudal system, was into seigniories. These were subdivided into parishes, “whose extents were exactly defined by De Vandreuil and Bigon, September 1721.” For these grants of seignioral tenure, certain acts of fealty were to be performed, pursuant to the custom of Paris. After the British supremacy, grants of land were still made by government in Lower Canada. The last seigniory was conferred by the French in April, 1734, to Chevalier de Longeuil, and is known as New Longeuil. It constitutes the western boundary of the Lower Province.
CONCESSION OF LANDS TO THE LOYALISTS.
We have elsewhere seen that the first person, other than the natives, to possess land in Upper Canada, was De la Salle, the discoverer of the Mississippi River, to whom was granted a seigniory at Cataraqui, of four leagues, including the fort, and the islands in front of the four leagues of territory. Wolfe, Gage and Amherst Islands.
At the close of the war in 1783, it was determined by government to confer grants of land to the refugee loyalists in Canada, on the same scale to officers and men as had been done after the conquest of Canada, 1763, with the exception that all loyalists under the rank of subaltern were to receive 200 acres. The grants to the disbanded soldiers and loyalists, were to be made free of every expense.
In some of the townships, the settlers were squatting along the St. Lawrence and Bay Quinté, until late in the summer and fall of 1784, waiting to know the location of their lots. This might easily be, as although the forest had been surveyed, the lots had not been numbered. So, although the refugee soldier had his location ticket for a certain lot, it was often a long tedious time before he could know its precise situation.
The front part of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth townships upon the bay were definitely disposed of to disbanded soldiers and refugees, formed into companies. But the lands, then considered more remote, as along the north shore of Hay Bay, in the third and fourth towns; in some parts of the fifth; and more particularly along the shores of the western extremity of the bay, were at the service of any one who might venture to settle. It was considered quite in the remote part of the earth. Even the head of Picton Bay was considered a place which would hardly be settled. The result was, that many of the choice lots were taken up in the eighth and ninth towns, before they were surveyed.
The policy pursued by the British Government, in recognizing the services of those who served in the British army against the rebels, and in recompensing the losses sustained by those who adhered to the British Crown in America, was most wise and beneficent. There were a few deserving ones in suffering circumstances, who failed to get the bounty so wisely granted. This sometimes was the result of the individual’s own neglect, in not advancing his claims; sometimes the fault of an agent who, too intent in getting for himself, forget those entrusted to his care. While a small number thus remained without justice, there were on the other hand, a large number who succeeded unworthily in obtaining grants. It is no cause for wonder, that out of the large number who composed the U. E. Loyalists, there would be found a certain number who would not hesitate to so represent, or misrepresent their case, that an undue reward would be accorded. Finding the government on the giving hand, they scrupled not to take advantage of its parental kindness. In later days we have seen the United States, when in the throes of a great civil war, bleeding at every point of the body politic, by the unprincipled contractors and others, who the most loudly proclaimed their patriotism. In 1783, when a rebellion had proved successful, and so had become a revolution, and the nation, from which a branch had been struck off, was most anxious to repay those who had preferred loyalty to personal aggrandizement, we may not wonder that there were some willing to take all they could get.
It is also related that certain officers of the regiments were in the habit of putting each of their children, however young, upon the strength of the regiment, with the view of securing him land, and hence arose an expression the “Major won’t take his pap,” and “half pay officers never die,” as the officer placed on half pay when a year old, would long enjoy it. But it will be often found that this mode was adopted by those in authority, as the most convenient to confer favors upon the chief officers, although a very ridiculous one.
For many a year no strict rules for discrimination, were observed in the granting of lands in Canada, and the petitions which literally crowded upon the government, were, in the main, promptly complied with. The time came, however, when more care had to be observed, for not a few of those who had actually rebelled, or had sympathized with the rebels, finding less advantages from republicanism than had been promised, and with chagrin, learning that those, whose homesteads and lands they had assisted to confiscate, had wrought out new homes upon land, conferred by a government more liberal, and of a nobler mind than the parvenu government, which had erected a new flag upon American soil, looked now with longing, covetous eyes toward the northern country, which those they had persecuted, had converted from a wilderness to comfortable homes. The trials of the first settlement had been overcome. The occasional visit of a Canadian pioneer to his old home in the States, where he told the pleasing tale of success, notwithstanding their cruelty, caused some to envy their hard earned comforts, and even led some who had been the worst of rebels, to set out for Canada with a view of asserting their loyalty and, thereby of procuring lands. Not a few of such unworthy ones succeeded for a time in procuring lands. It therefore became necessary, on the part of the government, to exact the most searching examination of parties petitioning for land. No reference is here made to those who came into the province in response to the invitation proclaimed by Governor Simcoe; but to those who entered under false colors, prior to the time of Upper Canada being set apart from Lower Canada.
Extracts from the Rules and Regulations for the conduct of the Land Office Department, dated Council Chamber, 17th February, 1789, for the guidance of the Land Boards.
“4th. The safety and propriety of admitting the petitioner to become an inhabitant of this Province being well ascertained to the satisfaction of the Board, they shall administer to every such person the oaths of fidelity and allegiance directed by law; after which the Board shall give every such petitioner a certificate to the Surveyor General or any person authorized to act as an Agent or Deputy Surveyor for the district within the trust of that Board, expressing the ground of the petitioner’s admission, and such Agent or Deputy Surveyor shall, within two days after the presentment of the certificate, assign the petitioner a single lot of about two hundred acres, describing the same with due certainty and accuracy under his signature. But the said certificate shall, nevertheless, have no effect if the petitioner shall not enter upon the location, and begin the improvement and cultivation thereof within one year from the date of such assignment, or if the petitioner shall have had lands assigned to him before that time in any other part of the Province.
“7th. The respective Boards shall, on petition from the Loyalists already settled in the Upper Districts for the allotment of lands under the instructions to the Deputy Surveyor General of the 2nd of June, 1787, or under prior or other orders for assigning portions to their families, examine into the grounds of such requests and claims, and being well satisfied of the justice thereof, they shall grant certificates for such further qualities of lands as the said instructions and orders may warrant to the acting Surveyors of their Districts respectively, to be by them made effectual in the manner before mentioned, but to be void, nevertheless, if prior to the passing the grant in form, it shall appear to the Government that such additional locations have been obtained by fraud, and that of these the Boards transmit to the office of the Governor’s Secretary, and to each others, like reports and lists as hereinbefore, as to the other locations directed.
“8th. And to prevent individuals from monopolizing such spots as contain mines, minerals, fossils, and conveniences for mills, and other similar advantages of a common and public nature, to the prejudice of the general interest of the settler, the Surveyor-General and his Agents or Deputy Surveyors in the different districts, shall confine themselves in the location to be made by them upon certificates of the respective Boards, to such lands only as are fit for the common purpose of husbandry; and they shall reserve all other spots aforementioned, together with all such as may be fit and useful for ports and harbours, or works of defence, or such as contain valuable timber for ships, building or other purposes, conveniently situated for water carriage, in the hands of the Crown, and they shall, without delay, give all particular information to the Governor or Commander-in-Chief for the time being, of all such spots as are hereinbefore directed to be reserved to the Crown, that order may be taken respecting the same. And the more effectually to prevent abuses and to put individuals on their guard in this respect, any certificate of location given contrary to the true intent and meaning of this regulation is hereby declared to be null and void, and a special order of the Governor and Council made necessary to pledge the faith of Government for granting of any such spots as are directed to be reserved.
FAMILY LANDS AND ADDITIONAL BOUNTY.
“Certificate of the Board appointed by His Excellency the Governor, for the District of ——, in the Province of Quebec, under the rules and regulations for the conduct of the Land Office Department.
“Dated, Council Chamber, Quebec, 17th February, 1789.
“The bearer ——, having on the —— day of ——, preferred to the Board a Petition addressed to His Excellency the Governor in Council, for a grant of —— acres of land in the Township of —— in the District of — —. We have examined into his character and pretentions, and find that he has received —— acres of land in the Township of ——, in the District of ——, and that he settled on and has improved the same, and that he is entitled to a further assignment of —— acres, —— in conformity to the seventh articles of the rules and regulations aforementioned.
“Given at the Board at this —— day of ——, one thousand seven hundred and ——.
“To ——
“Acting Surveyor for the District of ——.
CERTIFICATE OF THE ACTING SURVEYOR.
“I assign to the bearer —— the lot No. —— in the Township of ——, in the District of ——, containing —— acres, —— chains, which lands he is hereby authorized to occupy and improve, and having improved the same, he shall receive the same grant thereof, to him and his heirs or devisee in due form on such terms as it shall please His Majesty to ordain, and all persons are desired to take notice that this assignment and all others of a similar nature are not transferable, by purchase, donation or otherwise, on any pretence whatever, except by an act under the signature of the Board for the District in which the lands are situated, which is to be endorsed upon this Certificate.
“Given at ——, this —— day of ——, one thousand seven hundred and ——.
“To ——
“Acting Surveyor for the District of ——.”
But there were many a one who drew land, and never even saw it. It was quickly, thoughtlessly sometimes, sold for little or nothing. Sometimes for a quart of rum. The right jolly old soldier would take no thought of the morrow. A few did not retain their lands, because they were of little value for agricultural purposes; but the majority because they were situated in that remote region in the 4th or 5th concession of the third town, or away up in the 2nd concession of sixth town, or a long way up in the eighth town. Rear concessions of even the first and second townships were looked upon doubtingly, as to whether the land was worth having. Often the land would not be looked after. It not unfrequently was the case that settlers upon the front who had drawn land also in the rear townships, disposed of the latter, not from any indifference as to its future value, but to obtain the immediate necessaries of life, as articles of clothing, or stock, or perhaps food, or seed grain, and now and then in later days to pay taxes. The certificates of the children, entitling them to land when of age, were often disposed of. Even officers found it convenient, or necessary to sell rear land to new comers, for ready money.
Thus it came to pass that a good many never took possession of the land which a prudent Government had granted them. The statement has been made that persons holding prominent positions at the time, and possessed of prudent forethought, as to the value which would in the future attach to certain lots, stood ready not only to accept offers to sell, but to induce the ignorant and careless to dispose of their claims. Consequently when patents were issued, several persons became patentees of large tracts of land, which had been drawn by individual Loyalists, whose names never appeared in the Crown Land Office. The transfer of a certificate or “location ticket,” consisted in the seller writing his name upon the back of the ticket. Occasionally a ticket would exchange hands several times, so that at last when it was presented to obtain the deed, it was difficult to determine who was the owner. The power to thus transfer the certificates, was allowed for several years. But in time Government discovered the abuses which had arisen out of it, and decided that all patents should, thenceforward, be in the name of the person who originally drew the land. Not unfrequently these certificates were lost. The losers, upon claiming land, could not establish their rights; but Government, to meet this misfortune, created a Land Board for each Township, whose duty it was to examine and determine the claims of all who presented them.
The following extract of a letter will explain itself:
“For the Kingston Gazette, June 1st, 1816.”
“It has long been a subject of deep regret in the minds of judicious persons, that the inhabitants of this Province should be so neglectful as they are in securing their titles of real estate. When the country was first settled, the grants of land from the crown, on account of the existing state of the Province, could not be immediately issued. The settlers, however, drew their lots and went into possession of them, receiving only tickets, or certificates, as the evidence of their right to them. In the meantime, exchanges and sales were made by transfers of the possession with bonds for conveyances when the deeds should be obtained from the Crown Office.
“This practice of transferring land by way of bond, being thus introduced, was continued by force of usage, after the cause of its introduction was removed. In too many instances it is still continued, although, by the death of the parties, and the consequent descent of estates to heirs under age, and other intervening privations, many disappointments, failures, and defects of title, are already experienced; and the evil consequences are becoming still more serious, as lands rise in value, become more settled and divided among assignees, devisees, &c. In a few years this custom, more prevalent perhaps in this Province, than elsewhere, will prove a fruitful source of litigation, unless the practice should be discontinued.”
In connection with free grants of land, and a certain degree of indifference as to the value, there must necessarily arise more or less speculation or land-jobbing.
Sir William Pullency has been called the first land-jobber in Canada. In 1791, he bought up 1,500,000, at one shilling per acre, and soon after sold 700,000 at an average of eight shillings per acre. But land-jobbing is not peculiar to Canada, nor has its practice militated against the public character of eminent men, either here or abroad. General Washington was not only a Surveyor, but an extensive land-jobber, and thereby increased immensely his private fortune.
We have seen elsewhere, that a few private individuals were wont to buy the location tickets of all who desired to part with them, or whom they could induce to sell. In this way a few individuals came to own large quantities of land, even from the first. Afterward, there was often conferred by the authorities, quantities of land upon those connected with influential persons, or upon favorites. Subsequently the mode of reserving Crown and Clergy lands increased the evil. And it was an evil, a serious drawback; not alone that, but favorites procured land without any particular claim or right. The land thus held in reserve, being distributed among the settled lots in the several townships, was waste land, and a barrier to advancement. Each settler had to clear a road across his lot; but the Government lots, and those held by non-residents, remained without any road across them, except such paths as the absolute requirements of the settlers had caused them to make. In this way, the interests of the inhabitants were much retarded, and the welfare of the Province seriously damaged. The existence of the Family Compact prevented the removal of this evil, for many a year, while favorites enjoyed choice advantages. In 1817, “The House of Assembly in Upper Canada took into consideration the state of the Province, and among other topics, the injury arising from the reserve lands of the Crown and the Clergy.” In laying out the townships in later years, “The Government reserved in the first concession, the 5th, 15th, and 20th lots; and the Clergy the 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 22nd. In the second concession, the Crown reserved the 4th, 11th, 21st, and 23rd; and the Clergy, the 2nd, 9th, and 16th. And thus in every two concessions, the Crown would have three lots in one, and four in the other, or seven in all; and the Clergy the same; or 14 lots reserved in every 48, or nearly one-third of the land in each concession, and in each township. The object of the reservation was to increase the value of such land by the improvements of the settlers around it. The object was selfish, as the reserve lands injured all those who did them good. It was difficulty enough to clear up the forests; but to leave so many lots in this forest state, was a difficulty added by the Crown. To have one-third of a concession uncleared and uncultivated, was an injury to the two-thirds cleared and cultivated. Large patches of forest, interspersed with cultivated land, obstructs the water courses, the air, and the light; nurtured wild animals and vermin destructive to crops and domestic creatures around a farm house; and especially, are injurious to roads running through them, by preventing the wind and the sun from drying the moisture. Besides, no taxes were paid by these wild lots for any public improvements; only from cultivated lands. The Assembly, however, were cut short in their work of complaint, by being suddenly prorogued by the Governor, whose Council was entirely against such an investigation. Here was the beginning of the Clergy Reserve agitation in the Provincial Parliament, which continued for many years.”—(Playter.)
In this connection, the following extract from a report of Lord Durham, will be found interesting:
“By official returns which accompany this report, it appears that, out of about 17,000,000 acres comprised within the surveyed districts of Upper Canada, less than 1,600,000 acres are yet unappropriated, and this amount includes 450,000 acres the reserve for roads, leaving less than 1,200,000 acres open to grant, and of this remnant 500,000 acres are required to satisfy claims for grants founded on pledges by the Government. In the opinion of Mr. Radenhurst, the really acting Surveyor-General, the remaining 700,000 consist for the most, part of land inferior in position or quality. It may almost be said, therefore, that the whole of the public lands in Upper Canada have been alienated by the Government. In Lower Canada, out of 6,169,963 acres in the surveyed townships, nearly 4,000,000 acres have been granted or sold; and there are unsatisfied but indisputable claims for grants to the amount of about 500,000. In Nova Scotia nearly 6,000,000 acres of land have been granted, and in the opinion of the Surveyor-General, only about one-eighth of the land which remains to the Crown, or 300,000 acres is available for the purposes of settlement. The whole of Prince Edward’s Island, about 1,400,000 acres, was alienated in one day. In New Brunswick 4,400,000 acres have been granted or sold, leaving to the Crown about 11,000,000, of which 5,500,000 are considered fit for immediate settlement.
“Of the lands granted in Upper and Lower Canada, upwards of 3,000,000 acres consist of ‘Clergy Reserves,’ being for the most part lots of 200 acres each, scattered at regular intervals over the whole face of the townships, and remaining, with few exceptions, entirely wild to this day. The evils produced by the system of reserving land for the Clergy have become notorious, even in this country; and a common opinion I believe prevails here, not only that the system has been abandoned, but that measures of remedy have been adopted. This opinion is incorrect in both points. In respect of every new township in both Provinces reserves are still made for the Clergy, just as before; and the Act of the Imperial Parliament which permits the sale of the Clergy Reserves, applies to only one-fourth of the quantity The select committee of the House of Commons on the civil government of Canada reported in 1828, that “these reserved lands, as they are at present distributed over the country, retard more than any other circumstance the growth of the colony, lying as they do in detached portions of each township, and intervening between the occupations of actual settlers, who have no means of cutting roads through the woods and morasses, which thus separate them from their neighbours. This description is perfectly applicable to the present state of things. In no perceptible degree has the evil been remedied.
“The system of Clergy Reserves was established by the act of 1791, commonly called the Constitutional Act, which directed that, in respect of all grants made by the Crown, a quantity equal to one-seventh of the land so granted should be reserved for the clergy. A quantity equal to one-seventh of all grants would be one-eighth of each township, or of all the public land. Instead of this proportion, the practice has been, ever since the act passed, and in the clearest violation of its provisions, to set apart for the clergy in Upper Canada a seventh of all the land, which is a quantity equal to a sixth of the land granted. There have been appropriated for this purpose 300,000 acres, which legally, it is manifest, belong to the public. And of the amount for which Clergy Reserves have been sold in that Province, namely, £317,000 (of which about £100,000 have been already received and invested in the English funds,) the sum of about £45,000 should belong to the public.
“In Lower Canada, the same violation of the law has taken place, with this difference—that upon every sale of Crown and Clergy Reserves, a fresh reserve for the Clergy has been made, equal to one-fifth of such reserves. The result has been the appropriation for the clergy of 673,567 acres, instead of 446,000, being an excess of 227,559 acres, or half as much again as they ought to have received. The Lower Canada fund already produced by sales amounts to £50,000, of which, therefore, a third, or about £16,000, belong to the public. If, without any reform of this abuse, the whole of the unsold Clergy Reserves in both Provinces should fetch the average price at which such lands have hitherto sold, the public would be wronged to the amount of about £280,000; and the reform of this abuse will produce a certain and almost immediate gain to the public of £60,000. In referring, for further explanation of this subject, to a paper in the appendix which has been drawn up by Mr. Hanson, a member of the commission of inquiry which I appointed for the colonies. I am desirous of stating my own conviction that the clergy have had no part in this great misappropriation of the public property, but that it has arisen entirely from heedless misconception, or some other error, of the civil government of both Provinces.”
“The great objection to reserves for the clergy is, that those for whom the land is set apart never have attempted, and never could successfully attempt, to cultivate or settle the property, and that, by special appropriation, so much land is withheld from settlers, and kept in a state of waste, to the serious injury of all settlers in its neighborhood. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that this is the only practice by which such injury has been, and still is, inflicted on actual settlers. In the two Canadas, especially, the practice of rewarding, or attempting to reward, public services by grants of public land, has produced, and is still producing, a degree of injury to actual settlers which it is difficult to conceive without having witnessed it. The very principle of such grants is bad, inasmuch as, under any circumstances, they must lead to an amount of appropriation beyond the wants of the community, and greatly beyond the proprietor’s means of cultivation and settlement. In both the Canadas, not only has this principle been pursued with reckless profusion, but the local executive governments have managed, by violating or evading the instructions which they received from the Secretary of State, to add incalculably to the mischiefs that would have arisen at all events.
“In Upper Canada, 3,200,000 acres have been granted to “U. E. Loyalists,” being refugees from the United States, who settled in the province before 1787, and their children; 730,000 acres to Militia men; 450,000 acres to discharged Soldiers and Sailors; 225,000 acres to Magistrates and Barristers; 136,000 acres to Executive Councillors, and their families; 50,000 acres to five Legislative Councillors, and their families; 36,900 acres to Clergymen, as private property; 264,000 to persons contracting to make surveys; 92,526 acres to officers of the Army and Navy; 500,000 acres for the endowment of schools; 48,520 acres to Colonel Talbot; 12,000 acres to heirs of General Brock, and 12,000 acres to Dr. Mountain, a former Bishop of Quebec; making altogether, with the Clergy Reserves, nearly half of all the surveyed land in the province. In Lower Canada, exclusively of grants to refugee loyalists, as to the amount of which the Crown Lands’ Department could furnish me with no information, 450,000 acres having been granted to Militiamen, to Executive Councillors 72,000 acres, to Governor Milne, about 48,000 acres, to Mr. Cushing and another, upwards of 100,000 acres (as a reward for giving information in a case of high treason), to officers and soldiers 200,000 acres, and to “leaders of townships” 1,457,209 acres, making altogether, with the Clergy Reserves, rather more than half of the surveyed lands originally at the disposal of the Crown.
“In Upper Canada, a very small proportion (perhaps less than a tenth) of all the land thus granted, has been even occupied by settlers, much less reclaimed and cultivated. In Lower Canada, with the exception of a few townships bordering on the American frontier, which have been comparatively well settled, in despite of the proprietors, by American squatters, it may be said that nineteen-twentieths of these grants are still unsettled, and in a perfectly wild state.
“No other result could have been expected in the case of those classes of grantees whose station would preclude them from settling in the wilderness, and whose means would enable them to avoid exertion for giving immediate value to their grants; and unfortunately, the land which was intended for persons of a poorer order, who might be expected to improve it by their labor, has, for the most part, fallen into the hands of land-jobbers of the class just mentioned, who have never thought of settling in person, and who retain the land in its present wild state, speculating upon its acquiring a value at some distant day, when the demand for land shall have increased through the increase of population.
“In Upper Canada,” says Mr. Bolton, himself a great speculator and holder of wild land, “the plan of granting large tracts of land to gentlemen who have neither the muscular strength to go into the wilderness, nor perhaps, the pecuniary means to improve their grants, has been the means of a large part of the country remaining in a state of wilderness. The system of granting land to the children of U. E. Loyalists has not been productive of the benefits expected from it. A very small proportion of the land granted to them has been occupied or improved. A great proportion of such grants were to unmarried females, who very readily disposed of them for a small consideration, frequently from £2 to £5 for a grant of 200 acres. The grants made to young men were also frequently sold for a very small consideration; they generally had parents with whom they lived, and were therefore not disposed to move to their grants of lands, but preferred remaining with their families. I do not think one-tenth of the lands granted to U. E. Loyalists has been occupied by the persons to whom they were granted, and in a great proportion of cases not occupied at all.” Mr. Randenhurst says, “the general price of these grants was from a gallon of rum up to perhaps £6, so that while millions of acres were granted in this way, the settlement of the Province was not advanced, nor the advantage of the grantee secured in the manner that we may suppose to have been contemplated by government.” He also mentions amongst extensive purchasers of these grants, Mr. Hamilton, a member of the Legislative Council, who bought about 100,000 acres. Chief Justices Emslie and Powell, and Solicitor General Gray, who purchased from 20,800 to 50,000 acres; and states that several members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, as well as of the House of Assembly, were “very large purchasers.”
“In Lower Canada, the grants to “Leaders and Associates” were made by an evasion of instructions which deserve a particular description.
“By instructions to the Local Executive immediately after the passing of the Constitutional Act, it was directed that “because great inconveniences had theretofore arisen in many of the colonies in America, from the granting excessive quantities of land to particular persons who have never cultivated or settled the same, and have thereby prevented others more industrious, from improving such lands; in order, therefore, to prevent the like inconveniences in future, no farm-lot should be granted to any person being master or mistress of a family in any township to be laid out which should contain more than 200 acres.” The instructions then invest the governor with a discretionary power to grant additional quantities in certain cases, not exceeding 1,000 acres. According to these instructions 200 acres should have been the general amount, 1,200 the maximum, in special cases to be granted to any individual. The greater part, however, of the land (1,457,200 acres) was granted, in fact, to individuals at the rate of from 10,000 to 50,000 to each person. The evasion of the regulations was managed as follows: A petition, signed by from 10 to 40 or 50 persons, was presented to the Executive Council, praying for a grant of 1,200 acres to each person, and promising to settle the land so applied for. Such petitions were, I am informed, always granted, the Council being perfectly aware that, under a previous agreement between the applicants (of which the form was prepared by the then Attorney General, and sold publicly by the law stationers of Quebec), five-sixths of the land was to be conveyed to one of them, termed leader, by whose means the grant was obtained. In most cases the leader obtained the most of the land which had been nominally applied for by fifty persons.”
Upon this subject we further give as worthy of attention, although we will not endorse all that is said, the remarks made by Mr. Robert Gourlay in his “Statistical Account.” He says, “when we look back into the history of old countries, and observe how landed property was first established; how it was seized upon, pulled about, given away, and divided in all sorts of ways, shapes, and quantities; how it was bequeathed, burdened, entailed, and leased in a hundred forms; when we consider how dark were the days of antiquity,—how grossly ignorant and savage were our remote forefathers, we cannot be so much surprised at finding ourselves heirs to confusion; and, that, in these old countries, entanglement continues to be the order of the day. But when civilized men were quietly and peaceably to enter into the occupancy of a new region, where all could be adjusted by the square and compass; and when order, from the beginning, could have prevented for ever all possibility of doubt, and dispute, and disturbance; how deplorable is it to know, that in less than a life-time, even the simplest affairs should get into confusion! and so it is already in Upper Canada, to a lamentable degree. Boundaries of land are doubtful and disputed: deeds have been mislaid, lost, unfounded, forged: they have been passed again and again in review before commissioners: they have been blotted and blurred: they have got into the repositories of attornies and pettifogging lawyers; while courts of justice are every day adding doubt to doubt, delay to delay, and confusion to confusion; with costs, charges, cheating.
“Things are not yet beyond the reach of amendment, even in the old settlements. In the new, what a glorious task it is to devise plans for lasting peace and prosperity!—to arrange in such a way, as to bar out a world of turmoil in times to come!
“The present very unprofitable and comfortless condition of Upper Canada must be traced back to the first operations of Simcoe. With all his honesty, and energy, and zeal for settling the Province, he had really no sound views on the subject, and he was infinitely too lavish in disposing of the land—infinitely too much hurried in all his proceedings. In giving away land to individuals, no doubt, he thought he would give these individuals an interest in the improvement of the country,—an inducement to settle in it, and draw to it settlers; but he did not consider the character and condition of most of his favorites; many of them officers in the army, whose habits did not accord with business, and less still with solitude and the wilderness; whose hearts were in England, and whose wishes were intent on retirement thither. Most of them did retire from Upper Canada, and considering, as was really the case, their land grants of little value, forgot and neglected them. This was attended with many bad consequences. Their lands became bars to improvement; as owners they were not known; could not be heard of; could not be applied to, or consulted with, about any measure for public advantage. Their promises under the Governor’s hand, their land board certificates, their deeds, were flung about and neglected. But mischief greater than all this, arose, is, and will be, from the badness of surveys. Such was the haste to get land given away, that ignorant and careless men were employed to measure it out, and such a mess did they make of their land-measuring, that one of the present surveyors informed me, that in running new lines over a great extent of the Province, he found spare room for a whole township in the midst of those laid out at an early period. It may readily be conceived, upon consideration of this fact, what blundering has been committed, and what mistakes stand for correction. Boundary lines in the wilderness are marked by blazing, as it is called, that is, chopping off with an axe, a little bark from such trees as stand nearest to the line. Careless surveyors can readily be supposed to depart wide of the truth with this blazing: their measuring chains cannot run very straight, and their compass needles, where these are called in aid, may be greatly diverted from the right direction by ferruginous substances in the neighbourhood, as spoken of. In short, numerous mistakes and errors of survey have been made and discovered: much dispute has arisen therefrom; and I have been told infinite mischief is still in store. It occurred to me, while in Canada, and it was one of the objects which, had a commission come home, I meant to have pressed on the notice of government, that a complete new survey and map of the Province should be executed; and at the same time a book, after the manner of Doomsday-book, written out and published, setting forth all the original grants, and describing briefly but surely all property both public and private. I would yet most seriously recommend such to be set about. It might be expensive now, but would assuredly save, in time to come, a pound for every penny of its cost.”
We have seen elsewhere that, in the terms of peace made at Paris when hostilities ceased, justice was not done to the American Loyalists. But subsequently, when their claims became known to the British public, there was uttered no uncertain sound, upon the floor of Parliament, respecting the duty resting upon England towards the devoted but distressed loyalists who had laid all upon the altar of patriotism; and to the honor of England be said, every step was now taken to provide some recompense for the United Empire Loyalists. It is true, the old homes with their comforts and associations could not be restored; the wilderness was to be their home, a quiet conscience their comfort, and their associations those of the pioneer for many a day. But, what could be done, was done by the Crown to render their circumstances tolerable. Extensive grants of land were granted, not alone to the disbanded soldier according to rank, but to every one who had become a refugee. Three years supply of rations were allowed to all, as well as clothing; and certain implements were furnished with which to clear the land and prepare it for agriculture. The scale of granting lands was, to a field officer 5000 acres, captain 3000, subaltern 2000, private 200. The loyalists were ranked, with the disbanded soldiers, according to their losses, and services rendered, having taken the usual oath of allegiance; and all obtained their grants free of every expense. In 1798, complaints having been made to the Imperial Government respecting the profuse manner of granting lands, royal instructions were given to Gen. Hunter to limit the allowance to a quantity from 200 to 1,200. The grants of land when large, were not to be in blocks; but few secured more than 200 acres upon the front townships. The original mode of granting lands, at least to the soldiers, was by lot. The process was simple. The number of each lot, to be granted in each concession, was written on a separate piece of paper, and all were placed in a hat and well shaken, when each one to receive land, drew a piece of paper from the hat. The number upon the paper was the number of his lot. He then received a printed location ticket. In drawing lots, no one felt any particular anxiety. They were yet unacquainted with the country, they had not seen the land, and one number was as likely to prove as valuable as another.
It would seem that the Surveyor acted as Land Agent. Having surveyed the lots, he prepared the ballot, and arranged the time and place for the settlers to draw. It was no doubt this original mode of drawing by lottery, which gave the provincial term drawing land. We have the testimony of Ex-Sheriff Sherwood, that the Surveyor discharged this office. He recollects “Esquire Collins;” he was at his father’s house, and his father assisted in the matter of drawing with those who had assembled for the purpose. The Surveyor had a plan by him, and as each drew his lot, his name was written immediately upon the map. Many of the plans, with names upon them, may be seen in the Crown Land Department. Some of the settlers upon the front acquired much more land than others by reason of the “broken front.” It often happened that the base line, running from one cove of the Bay to another, left between it and the water a large strip of land. This “broken front” belonged to the adjacent 200 acres, so that often the fortunate party possessed even 50 or 100 acres extra.
One of the noted individuals to whom land was granted in Upper Canada, was Arnold the Traitor. 18,000 acres was given him, and £10,000.
The tract of land now constituting the Township of Tyendinaga, having been purchased from the Mississaugas, was deeded to the Mohawks. The deed bears the date of 1804. The land is granted to “the chiefs, warriors, people, women of the Six Nations.” The chief, at the time they settled, was Capt. John Deserontyon.
Chapter XVII
CONTENTS—Lines—Western Settlement, 1783—Population—Settlement upon St. Lawrence and Bay—Number, 1784—Proclamation to Loyalists— Society disturbed—Two kinds of Loyalists—St. Lawrence and Bay favorable for Settlement—Government Provisions—State of the Loyalists—Serving out Rations—Clothes—Utensils for clearing and farming—The Axe—Furniture—Attacking a last enemy—Tents—Waiting for their Lots—“Bees”—Size of dwellings—Mode of building—Exchanging work—Bedsteads—Clearing—Fireing trees—Ignorance of Pioneer Life— Disposing of the Wood—No beast of burden—Logging—Determination—All Settlers on a common ground—Additional Refugees—Advance—Simcoe’s Proclamation, 1792—Conditions of Grants—The Response—Later Settlers—Questionable Loyalists—Yankees longing for Canada—Loyalty in 1812.
THE SETTLEMENT OF UPPER CANADA.
“CANADA.”
BY ALEXANDER M’LACHLAN.
Land of mighty lake and forest! Where the winter’s locks are hoarest; Where the summer’s leaf is greenest; And the winter’s bite the keenest; Where the autumn’s leaf is searest. And her parting smile the dearest; Where the tempest rushes forth, From his caverns of the north, With the lightnings of his wrath. Sweeping forests from his path; Where the cataract stupendous Lifteth up her voice tremendous; Where uncultivated nature Rears her pines of giant stature; Sows her jagged hemlocks o’er, Thick as bristles on the boar; Plants the stately elm and oak Firmly in the iron rock; Where the crane her course is steering, And the eagle is careering, Where the gentle deer are bounding, And the woodman’s axe resounding; Land of mighty lake and river, To our hearts thou’rt dear forever! Thou art not a land of story; Thou art not a land of glory; No tradition, tale, nor song, To thine ancient woods belong; No long line of bards and sages Looking to us down the ages; No old heroes sweeping by, In their warlike panoply; Yet heroic deeds are done, Where no battle’s lost or won— In the cottage, in the woods, In the lonely solitudes— Pledges of affection given, That will be redeemed in heaven.
In 1783, when a regular survey and settlement of Western Canada commenced, the inhabitants of the Lower Province extended westward, only a few miles above Coteau du lac, upon the St. Lawrence, at Lake St. Francis; but not a house was built within several miles of the division line of the two Provinces, which is above Montreal, about 40 miles, on the north shore. On the south side there was the Fort of Oswegotchie. Besides the squatters around the military posts at Carleton Island, Oswego, and Niagara, there were a few inhabitants at Detroit and Sandwich, of French origin, where a settlement had sprung up in 1750.
The entire population of all Canada at this time, has been estimated at 120,000, including both the French and English. Although refugees had squatted here and there upon the frontier, near to the several military posts, it was not until 1784 that the land, now surveyed into lots, was actually bestowed upon the Loyalists; yet it was mainly disbanded soldiers that received their “location tickets” in the year 1784. The grants were made to the corps under Jessup, upon the St. Lawrence, and under Rogers upon the Bay; and to Butler’s Rangers at Niagara, at the same time, or very nearly. During the same season, a settlement was made upon the Niagara frontier and at Amherstburgh, by the Loyalists who had found refuge at the contiguous Forts. It is supposed that the number who became settlers this year, 1784, in Upper Canada was about 10,000. Thus the Province of Upper Canada was planted; thus the Refugees and disbanded soldiers found themselves pioneers in the wilds of Canada. Was it for this they had adhered to the Crown—had taken up arms—had sacrificed their all?
At the close of hostilities, a proclamation was issued to the Loyalists, to rendezvous at Sacket’s Harbour, or Carleton Island, Oswego, Niagara, and Isle aux Mois, the principal military posts upon the frontier.
The tempest of war which had swept across the American Continent, severing thirteen Colonies from the parent trunk, had roughly disturbed the elements of society. It resulted that the cessation of hostilities left a turbulent ocean, which required time to compose itself. There were Loyalists who would not live under a flag alien to Britain. There were those whose circumstances would have induced them to abide the evil that had overtaken them in the dismemberment of the British Empire; but the fierce passions of the successful rebels rendered a peaceful or safe existence of the Loyalists among them impossible. Driven they were, away from their old homes. There were those who had been double minded, or without choice, ready to go with the successful party. Such wandered here and there looking for the best opportunity to secure self aggrandisement. It is of the first two classes we speak.
Forced by cruel circumstances, to become pioneers in a wilderness, there could not be found in America, a more favourable place whereupon to settle than along the banks of the St. Lawrence, and around the irregular shores of Bay Quinté, with its many indentations. They had to convert the wood-covered land into homes. The trees had to be felled, and the land prepared for grain, and the fruit of the soil to be obtained for sustenance within three years, when Government provisions would be discontinued. It can readily be understood that a water communication to and from the central points of settlement, as well as access to fishing waters, was most desirable. The smooth waters of the upper St. Lawrence and the Bay Quinté constituted a highway of the most valuable kind, for the only mode of travel was by the canoe, or flat-bottomed batteau, which was supplied by the Government in limited numbers; and in winter by rudely constructed hand-sleighs, along the icy shores.
THE FIRST SETTLERS.
The settlers of Upper Canada, up to 1790, may be divided into those who were forced away from the States by persecution, during and after the war; the disbanded troops; and a nobler class, who left the States, being unwilling to live under other than British rule.
To what extent were these pioneers fitted and prepared to enter upon the truly formidable work of creating homes, and to secure the necessaries of life for their families. But few of them possessed ought of worldly goods, nearly all were depending upon the bounty of Government. In the first place, they were supplied with rations; which consisted of flour, pork, and a limited quantity of beef, a very little butter, and as little salt. We find in Rev. Mr. Carroll’s “Past and Present” that “their mode of serving out rations was rather peculiar.” “Their plan was, to prevent the appearance of partiality, for the one who acted as Commissary, either to turn his back, take one of the articles, and say, ‘who will have this?’ or else the provisions were weighed, or assorted, and put into heaps, when the Commissary went around with a hat, and received into it something which he would again recognize, as a button, a knife, &c.; after which he took the articles out of the hat, as they came uppermost, and placed one on each of the piles in rotation. Every person then claimed the parcel on which he found the article which he had thrown into the hat.”
They were also supplied with “clothes for three years, or until they were able to provide these articles for themselves. They consisted of coarse cloth for trowsers and Indian blankets for coats, and of shoes; beside, each received a quantity of seed grain to sow upon the newly cleared land, with certain implements of husbandry. To each was allotted an axe, a hoe, and a spade; a plough, and one cow, were allotted to two families; a whip and cross-cut saw to every fourth family; and, even boats were provided for their use, and placed at convenient points;” and “that nothing might seem to be wanting, on the part of the Government, even portable corn mills, consisting of steel plates, turned by hand like a coffee-mill, were distributed among the settlers.” We have learned they were also supplied with nails, hand-saws and other materials for building. To every five families were given a “set of tools,” such as chisels and augers, of various sizes, and drawing-knives; also pick-axes, and sickles for reaping. But, unfortunately, many of these implements were of inferior quality. The axe, with which the burden of the work was to be done, was unlike the light implement now in use, it was but a short-handled ship axe, intended for quite a different use than chopping trees and clearing land. Notwithstanding, these various implements, thoughtfully provided by Government, how greatly must they have come short in meeting the varied wants of the settler, in his isolated clearing, far separated from places whereat things necessary could be procured. However, the old soldier, with his camp experience, was enabled by the aid of his tools, to make homely and rude articles of domestic use. And, in farming, he constructed a rough, but serviceable plow, and harrow, and made handles for his scythe.
Thus provisioned and clothed, and thus armed with implements of industry, the old soldiers advanced to the attack of a last enemy, the wild woods. Unlike any previous warfare, was this lifetime struggle. With location ticket in hand, they filed into the batteaux to ascend the rapids. A certain number of batteaux joined together, generally about twenty or twenty-five, formed a brigade, which was placed under the command of a suitable officer; if not one who had in previous days, led them against the foe. It is quite impossible to conceive of the emotions which found a place in the breasts of the old veterans as they journeyed along wearily from day to day, each one bringing them nearer to the spot on which the tent was to be pitched for the last time. Eagerly, no doubt, they scanned the thickly wooded shores as they passed along. Curiously they examined the small settlement, clustering around Cataraqui. And, it cannot be doubted, when they entered the waters of the lovely Bay Quinté, the beauty of the scene created a feeling of joy and reconciliation to their lot, in being thus cast upon a spot so rich in natural beauty. These disbanded soldiers, at least each family, had a canvass tent capable of accommodating, in a certain way, from eight to ten persons. These were pitched upon the shore, at first in groups, until each person had learned the situation of his lot, when he immediately removed thereto. But there were by no means enough tents to give cover to all, and many had only the friendly trees for protection. The first steps taken were to clear a small space of trees, and erect a place of habitation. We have seen what were the implements he had to work with—the materials he must use to subdue the forest tree standing before him.
Here, at the very threshold of Upper Canadian history, was initiated the “institution” of “bees.” “Each with his axe on his shoulder, turned out to help the other,” in erecting a log shanty. Small and unpretending indeed, were these humble tenements first built along the shores of the bay. The size of each depended upon the number to occupy it. None were larger than twenty by fifteen feet; and an old man tells me that his father, who was a carpenter, built one fifteen feet long and ten feet broad, with a slanting roof seven or eight feet in height. The back-woodsman’s shanty, which may yet be seen in the outskirts of our country, is the counterpart of those which were first built; but perhaps many of our readers may never have seen one. “Round logs,” (generally of basswood,) “roughly notched together at the corners, and piled one above another, to the height of seven or eight feet, constituted the walls. Openings for a door, and one small window” (always beside the door) “designed for four lights of glass, 7 × 9, were cut out,” (Government had supplied them with a little glass and putty); “the spaces between the logs were chinked with small splinters, and carefully plastered outside and inside, with clay for mortar. Smooth straight poles were laid lengthways of the building, on the walls, to serve as supports of the roof. This was composed ‘of strips of elm bark, four feet in length, by two or three feet in width, in layers, overlapping each other, and fastened to the poles by withs.’” (The roof was some times of black oak, or swamp oak, bark,) “with a sufficient slope to the back, this formed a roof which was proof against wind and weather. An ample hearth, made of flat stones, was then laid out, and a fire back of field stone or small boulders, rudely built, was carried up as high as the walls. Above this the chimney was formed of round poles, notched together and plastered with mud. The floor was of the same materials as the walls, only that the logs were split in two, and flattened so as to make a tolerably even surface. As no boards were to be had to make a door, until they could be sawn out by the whip saw, a blanket suspended from the inside for some time took its place. By and by four little pains of glass, were stuck into a rough sash, and then the shanty was complete.”—(Croil.)
Furniture for the house was made by the old soldier; this was generally of the roughest kind. They had the fashion of exchanging work, as well as of having bees. Some of them had been mechanics in other days. A carpenter was a valuable acquisition, and while others would assist him to do his heavy work, he would in return do those little nicer jobs by which the household comforts would be increased. No chests of drawers were required; benches were made of split basswood, upon which to sit, and tables were manufactured in the same style. The bedstead was constructed at the end of the cabin, by taking poles of suitable size and inserting the ends between the logs which formed the walls on either side. These would be placed, before the cracks were filled in and plastered.
CLEARING THE LAND.
A log hut constructed, wherein to live; and such plain rough articles of furniture as were really necessary provided, the next thing was to clear the land, thickly covered with large trees and tangled brush. Many a swing of the unhandy axe had to be made ere the trees could be felled, and disposed of; and the ground made ready for the grain or root.
A few years later, and the settler would, in the dry summer season, fire the woods, so as to kill the trees. By the next year they would have become dry, so that by setting fire again they would burn down. In this way much labor was saved. But sometimes the fire would prove unmanageable and threaten to destroy the little house and log barn, as well as crops. Another mode of destroying the large trees, was to girdle them—that is, to cut through the bark all around the tree, whereby it was killed, so that the following year it would likewise burn down.
A portion of the disbanded troops, as well as other loyalists, had been bred to agricultural pursuits; and some of them, at least those who had not been very long in arms, could the more readily adapt themselves to their new circumstances, and resume their early occupation. The axe of the woodsman was soon swung as vigorously along the shores of the well wooded river and bay, as it had been in the forests years before, in the backwoods of New England.
It is no ordinary undertaking for one to enter the primeval forest, to cut down the tough grained trees, whose boughs have long met the first beams of the rising sun, and swayed in the tempest wind; to clear away the thick underbrush, which impedes the step at every turn; to clear out a tangled cedar swamp, no matter how hardy may be the axeman—how well accustomed to the use of the implement. With the best mode of proceeding, with an axe of excellent make, and keen edge; and, combined with which, let every other circumstance be favorable; yet, it requires a determined will, an iron frame and supple muscle, to undertake and carry out the successful clearing of a farm. But, the refugees and disbanded soldiers, who formed the pioneers of Upper Canada, enjoyed not even ordinary advantages. Many of the old soldiers had not the slightest knowledge of the duties of pioneer life, while others had but an imperfect idea. Some scarcely knew how to fell a tree. Hardy and determined they were; but they possessed not the implements requisite to clear off the solid trees. We have seen that the axe furnished by government was large and clumsy, and could be swung only with difficulty and great labor, being nothing more than the ship axe then in use. Slow and wearisome indeed, must have been the progress made by the unaccustomed woodsman in the work of clearing, and of preparing the logs for his hut, while he had, as on-lookers, too often a feeble wife and hungry children.
The ordinary course of clearing land is pretty well known. At the present day the autumn and winter is the usual time, when the wood is cut in sleigh lengths for home use, or made into cord wood for the market. The brush is piled up into huge heaps, and in the following season, when sufficiently dry, is burned up. Now, wood, except in the remote parts, is very valuable, and for those who can part with it, it brings a good income. But then, when the land was everywhere covered with wood, the only thought was how to get rid of it. The great green trees, after being cut down, had to lie until they had dried, or be cut into pieces and removed. Time was necessary for the first. To accomplish the second, involved labor with the unwieldy axe; and there were at first, no beast of burden to haul the heavy logs. The arm of the pioneer was the only motor power, and the trees had to be cut in short lengths, that they might be carried. To overcome the more heavy work connected with this, the settlers would have logging bees from place to place, and by united strength subdue the otherwise obstinate forces. Mainly, the trees were burned; the limbs and smaller portion first, and subsequently the large trunk. The fire would consume all that was flammable, leaving great black logs all over the ground. Then came “logging,” that is, piling these black and half burned pieces into heaps, where, after a longer time of drying, they might be consumed. A second, perhaps a third time the pieces would have to be collected into “log heaps,” until finally burned to ashes. It was by such means, that slowly the forest along the St. Lawrence, and surrounding the Bay Quinté, as well in the adjacent townships melted away before the daily work of the aggressive settler. Although deprived of all those comforts, which most of them had enjoyed in early life in the Hudson, and Mohawk valleys, and fruitful fields of Pennsylvania, they toiled on determined to conquer—to make new homes; and, for their children at least, to secure comforts. They rose early, and toiled on all day, whether long or short, until night cast its solemn pall over their rude quiet homes. The small clearing of a few acres gradually widened, the sound of the axe was heard ringing all the day, and the crash of the falling tree sent the startled wild beast to the deeper recesses of the wild wood. The toilers were not all from the same social rank, but now in the main, all found a common level; the land allotted to the half pay officers was as thickly covered with wood. A few possessed limited means, and were able to engage a help, to do some of the work, but in a short time it was the same with all; men of education, and who held high positions, rightly held the belief that it was an honor to be a refugee farmer.
At the close of the war a considerable number of the refugees found safety in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. But a certain number, not finding such prospects as they had hoped, resolved to try Canada. Consequently, for five or six years after the peace, this class continued slowly to flow, to swell the number of inhabitants of Upper Canada. Some of them tarried, or remained in Lower Canada; but the majority ascended the Bay Quinté, and settled the new townships at the head of the bay; not a few would remain for a year or two in the townships already settled, working farms on shares, or living out, until the future home was selected. A good many of the first settlers in the sixth, seventh, and eight townships, had previously lived for a while in the fourth township.
The advance of the settlements was along the bay, from Kingston township and Ernest town, westward along both sides. When the settlers in the first, second, third and fourth townships, had, to a certain extent overcome the pioneers’ first difficulties, those in the sixth, seventh, eight and ninth, were yet undergoing mostly all the same hardships and trials. Far removed from Kingston, they could, with difficulty, procure necessities, and consequently endured greater privation, and experienced severer hardships; but in time these settlers also overcome, and ended their days in comparative comfort.
Gen. Simcoe, after he became the first Governor of Upper Canada in 1792, held the opinion that there remained in the States a large number of Loyalists, and conceived the idea of affording them an inducement to again come under British rule, as they were British in heart. He, by proclamation, invited them to free grants of the rich land of Upper Canada, in the following words:
“A PROCLAMATION, to such as are desirous to settle on lands of the Crown, in the Province of UPPER CANADA, BY HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN GRAVES SIMCOE, ESQUIRE, Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the said Province, and Colonel commanding His Majesty’s Forces, &c., &c. Be it known to all concerned that His Majesty, both by his royal commission and instructions to the Governor, and in his absence, to the Lieutenant-Governor of the said Province of Upper Canada, gives authority or command to grant the lands of the Crown in the same by patent under the great seal thereof. I do accordingly make known the terms of grant and settlement to be:” &c.
Without introducing the somewhat lengthy terms given under the heads, it is sufficient to say that they were most liberal; in the meanwhile reserving what was necessary to maintain the rights previously granted to Loyalist settlers. No lot was to be granted of more than 200 acres, except such as the Governor might otherwise desire, but no one was to receive a quantity exceeding 1000 acres. Every one had to make it appear that he, or she was in a condition to cultivate and improve the land, and “beside taking the usual oaths, subscribe a declaration, viz: I, A. B. do promise and declare that I will maintain and defend to the utmost of my power, the authority of the king in his parliament as the supreme legislature of this province.” These grants were free excepting the fees of office, “in passing the patent and recording the same.” The proclamation was dated 7th February, 1792, Thomas Talbot, acting Secretary.
It was obligatory on settlers to clear five acres of land, to build a house, and to open a road across the front of his land, a quarter of a mile.
Whether Simcoe was right in his opinion, that many loyalists remained in the States, ready to avail themselves of a judicious opportunity of becoming citizens of British territory, may be questioned; that there were some, cannot be doubted. Not a few responded to his invitation, and entered the new province. The recall of Simcoe led to the abrogation of the terms specified in the aforementioned proclamation, and some of the new comers were doomed to disappointment. As may naturally be supposed, these later comers were not altogether regarded with favor by the first settlers, who now regarded themselves as lords of the soil. The old staunch loyalists were disposed to look upon them as Yankees, who came only to get the land. And it seems that such was often the case. We have the impartial statement of Rochefoucault, that there were some who “falsely profess an attachment to the British monarch, and curse the Government of the Union for the mere purpose of getting possession of lands.” Even at this early day, they set about taking possession of Canada! Indeed, it was a cause of grievance in Walford township, Johnstown district, that persons from the States entered the country, petitioned for land, took the necessary oaths—perjured themselves, and having obtained possession of the land resold it, pocketed the money, and left to build up the glorious Union.
But, while so much has to be said of some Americans, who took land in Canada for mercenary motives, and committed fraud, it is pleasing to say likewise, that a large number of settlers from the States, who came in between 1794 and 1812, became worthy and loyal subjects of the Crown. How far all of them were at first Britons in heart, may be questioned. But the fact that the first settlers regarded them with doubtful eye, and often charged them with being Yankees, led many, for very peace-sake, to display their loyalty. But at last, when the war of 1812 broke out, they exhibited unmistakeable attachment to the British Crown. To their honor be it said, they were as active in defending their homes as any class. The number who deserted from Canada, was quite insignificant. As would be expected, the war of 1812 arrested the stream of emigration from the States. The Government of Canada thereafter discountenanced it, and instead, made some efforts to draw British European emigrants.
DIVISION IV. THE FIRST YEARS OF UPPER CANADA.
Chapter XVIII
CONTENTS—Father Picquet—Provision of Forts in Upper Canada just before Conquest—Frontenac—Milk—Brandy—Toronto—The Several Forts— Detroit—British Garrisons—Grasping Rebels—Efforts to Starve out Loyalists in Canada—Worse Treated than the Acadians—Efforts to Secure Fur Trade—The Frontier Forts—Americans Conduct to Indians— Result—Conduct of British Government—Rations for Three Years— Grinding by Hand—“Hominy Blocks”—“Plumping Mill”—The Women—Soldier Farmers—The Hessians—Suffering—The “Scarce Year”—Charge against the Commissariat Officers—Famine—Cry for Bread—Instances of Suffering—Starving Children—No Salt—Fish—Game—Eating Young Grain— Begging Bran—A Common Sorrow—Providential Escapes—Eating Buds and Leaves—Deaths—Primitive Fishing—Catching Salmon—Going 125 miles to mill—Disconsolate Families—1789—Partial Relief—First Beef Slaughtered in Upper Canada—First Log Barn—A Bee, what they Ate and Drank—Tea Introduced—Statements of Sheriff Sherwood—Roger Bates—John Parrott—Col. Clark—Squirrelly Swimming Niagara—Maple Sugar—How it was made—Women assisting—Made Dishes of Food—Pumpkin Loaf—Extract from Rochefoucault—1795—Quality of Grain Raised— Quinté Bay—Cultivation—Corn Exported—The Grain Dealers—Price of Flour—Pork—Profits of the Merchants.
MODE OF PROCURING FOOD.
We have seen with what spirit and determination the loyalists engaged in the duties pertaining to pioneer life; how they became domiciled in the wilderness and adapted themselves to their new and trying situation. Thus, was laid the foundation of the Province of Upper Canada, now Ontario. Upon this foundation was to be erected the superstructure. Let us proceed to examine the circumstances of the first years of Upper Canadian life. And first with respect to food.
Father Picquet visited the Bay and Lake Ontario, from La Présentation— Ogdensburgh, the year of the Conquest. He speaks of his visit to Fort Frontenac, and remarks, “The bread and milk there, were bad; they had not even brandy there to staunch a wound.” By which we learn that the French garrison had a cow, although she gave indifferent milk; and that even brandy for medicinal purposes could not be had. The missionary proceeded to Fort Toronto which was situated upon Lake Simcoe, no doubt ascending by the bay Quinté and Trent. Here he found “good bread and good wine” and “everything requisite for trade” with the Indians. The cession of Canada to the British by the French had been followed by a withdrawal of troops from many of the forts, around which had clustered a few hamlets, specks of civilization in a vast wilderness, and in most places things had lapsed into their primal state. And, when rebellion broke out in the Colonies of Britain, there were but a few posts whereat were stationed any soldiers, or where clustered the white settlers. There were a few French living at Detroit, and at Michilmicinac, and to the north-east of Lake Huron. We have seen that during the war, refugees found safety at the several military posts. The military rations were served out to these loyal men in the same proportion as to the soldiers, and when the war closed the garrisons continued to dispense the necessaries of life to the settlers upon the north shores of the lake, and St. Lawrence.
For ten years, after the terms of peace was signed between England and the Independent States, the forts of Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, and Michilmicinac, with the garrison on Carleton Island, remained in the possession of the British troops. To this the grasping Americans warmly took exceptions. Although it would have been next to impossible to supply these places with provisions for troops of their own, they nevertheless wished to dispossess the Royal troops; we learn that the object was to starve out the refugees who had found shelter upon the borders, and who would be depending for years to these forts, for the very necessaries of life. In this, their cruelty exceeded that practised towards the Acadians. Having driven away the loyalists and dispossessed them at home, they would have followed them to their new wilderness home, there to cut off their supplies and leave them to perish. They wished to obtain possession of the forts not only to glut their vengeful feeling against the tories, but to secure the traffic carried on with the Indians. Dreams of aggrandizement floated through their avaricious minds. It was regarded an excellent stroke of policy to turn the current of the fur trade from the St. Lawrence, and starve out by degrees the refugees, and the French who would have none of their “Liberty.” Hence their desire to get possession of the frontier forts. But it was destined that this valuable traffic should never come into the hands of the United States; or rather it should be said, the Americans had determined to pursue a course which would completely alienate the Indian tribes from them. Under such circumstances no possession of the forts could have turned the trade from its natural channel by the St. Lawrence, across the continent to New York.
The British Government never desired to stint the loyal refugees and the disbanded soldiers. At the close of hostilities it was determined that both alike, with their families, should receive while traveling, and for a period of three years, such rations as are allowed daily to the private soldier. And the Commissariat Department was instructed to make the necessary provision to have transported to each township by batteau, what should be requisite. Dépôts were established, in addition to the different garrisons, in each township, to which some prominent and trusted refugee of their number, generally a half pay officer, was appointed as Commissary, and at which ample provisions of the specified kind, as well as certain implements, it was ordered should be stored, to be dealt out with regularity and fairness to each family, according to the number of children. In some of the townships two batteaux were provided to bring the provisions from Montreal. Besides the food thus obtained, they were often enabled to freely supply themselves with game of different kinds. The greatest trouble of all was to get the grain supplied to them, ground into flour. According to Carroll and Croil, the townships upon the St. Lawrence, were supplied with steel mills for grinding grain; but no word of such indifferent convenience for the settlers of the Bay, has by us been received; the settlers had to get the grain crushed as best they could. Various modes were adopted to do this; but in all cases the work was done by hand. Sometimes the grain was crushed with an axe upon a flat stone. Many prepared a wooden mortar, by cutting a block, of suitable length, about four feet, out of the trunk of a large tree, oak or maple. Sometimes it was the stump of a tree. In this a cavity was formed, generally by heating a piece of iron, and placing it upon the end. In some quarters, a cannon ball from the Garrison was used. By placing this, red hot, upon the wood, a hollow of sufficient depth could be made. These mortars, sometimes called “Hominy Blocks” and sometimes “Plumping Mill,” varied in size; sometimes holding only a few quarts, sometimes a bushel, or even more. The pestle or pounder, was made of the hardest wood, six or eight feet long, and eight inches in diameter at the bottom end; the top sufficiently small to be spanned by the hand. The pestle was sometimes called the stamper; and the stump or block, with the pestle, was called the stump-mortar. Generally, it was by the unaided hand that the grinding was done; but after a time a sweep pole was arranged, similar to a well pole, and a hard weighty substance being attached to the pole, much less strength was required to crush the grain; at the same time a larger quantity could be at once done. The work was generally done by two men. The grain thus pounded was generally Indian Corn, and occasionally wild rice. To crush wheat required much more labor, and a small mortar. The bran was separated from the flour by a horse-hair sieve, one of which generally served a whole community, as they were possessed only by a few. This rude method continued for many years, especially in those townships remote from the flouring mills. Frequently, an individual would possess a large mortar, that would be used by a whole neighborhood. Mr. Diamond, of Belleville, a native of Fredericksburg, remembers when a boy, to have accompanied his father “to mill.” The mill was one of these larger mortars which would contain a bushel of grain when being ground, but which would hold, even measure, two bushels. The grain was crushed by a sweep with a weight attached, of ten or twelve pounds.
But grinding grain in this rude manner, was very frequently done by the women; and was but one of the difficulties attending the production of meal. It was a hard task to prepare for use the corn supplied by Government; but when that supply was cut off, and the settler had but his own raising, it became much worse. Elsewhere we have seen the difficult process by which seed was planted, and the fruit of the soil reaped, and then thrashed. It had been thought by the Government that three years would suffice to give the settler ample time to reap sufficient grain for their sustenance. In most cases, industry and a right application of labor, enabled the farmer to accomplish what was expected of him. But the habits which some of the soldiers had acquired during the war, were highly detrimental to regular industry. When the three years’ supplies were discontinued, many found themselves unprepared to meet the requirements of their new condition. It is said that some of them entertained the belief that “Old George,” as they familiarly called the King, would continue to feed them, for an indefinite period of time, upon the bread of idleness. The Hessians, who had settled in the fifth township, who had no idea of pioneer life, were great sufferers, and it is stated that some actually died of starvation. Again, there was a considerable class who had not had time to prepare the land, and reap the fruit of the soil, prior to the supplies being stopped; or who could not procure seed grain. These were likewise placed in the most distressing circumstances. The fearful suffering experienced in consequence will be mentioned under the head of the “Scarce Year.”
Notwithstanding, that Government supplied the settlers with provisions for three years, and also with spring wheat, peas, corn, and potatoes for seed, and took steps to furnish them, first with one mill at Kingston, and then a second one at Napanee, at the expiration of the three years, there were many unprepared. The mills were almost deserted, and the hearts of the people were faint because there was no grain to grind, and famine began to rest upon the struggling settlers, especially along the Bay Quinté. It has already been said that with some of the disbanded soldiers, there was some degree of negligence, or, a want of due exertion to obtain home-raised grain before the Government supplies were discontinued; also, that there was a certain number, who came with their families two or three years after the first settlement, who were not entitled to get Government rations, and who had not had time to clear the land. Many of these brought provisions with them, but the long distances traveled by them through a wilderness, allowed no large quantity of stores to be transported. And within a few months, or a year their store of food was exhausted. But the greatest evil of all it is averred, was the failure on the part of the Commissary Department to bring up from Lower Canada, the supplies which were required by those yet in the service, and who rightly looked to that source for the bread of life. And, it has been alleged that some who had charge of military stores forgot this public duty, in their anxiety to secure abundant supplies for their own families. And a spirit of cupidity has been laid to the charge of one or two for retaining for private use the bread for which so many were famishing. At this remote period it is impossible to arrive at positive conclusions relative to the matter. We can only examine the circumstances, and judge whether such a thing was likely. Of course the Commissary officers, whose duty it had been to distribute food in the several townships, would not be likely to disburse with a hand so liberal, that they should themselves become destitute; yet the fact that such had food, while others had none, would naturally create an erroneous impression. But the famine was not limited to the Bay region; although, being remote from Montreal, it was here the distress was most grievously felt. Throughout Lower Canada the pinch of famine was keenly experienced. Even there, in places, corn-meal was meted out by the spoonful, wheat flour was unknown, while millet seed was ground for a substitute. Still more, the opinion is given, that the accusation against certain parties is contrary to the spirit which pervaded the refugee settlers at that time. That they had laid up stores, and looked indifferently upon the general suffering, is contrary to the known character of the parties accused. In after days, as at the present time, there were aroused petty jealousies, as one individual exceeded another in prosperity. Family jars sometimes rise to feuds, and false surmises grow into untruthful legends.
The period of famine is even yet remembered by a few, whose memory reaches back to the immediately succeeding years, and the descendants of the sufferers, speak of that time with peculiar feelings, imbibed from their parents; and many are the touching stories even yet related of this sad first page in the history of Upper Canada, when from Lower Canada to the outskirts of the settlement was heard the cry for bread! bread! bread!
The year of the famine is spoken of sometimes as the “scarce year,” sometimes as the “hungry year,” or the “hard summer.” The extreme distress seems to have commenced in the year 1787. With some, it lasted a part of a year, with others a year, and with others upwards of a year. The height of the distress was during the spring and early summer of 1788. But plenty to all, did not come till the summer of 1789. The writer has in his possession accounts of many instances of extreme suffering, during the famine, and for years after, through the ten townships. A few will here be given, as briefly as may be possible.
One, who settled in the Sixth Township, (who was subsequently a Member of Parliament for twenty years,) with wife and children, endured great suffering. Their flour being exhausted he sent money to Quebec for some more flour, but his money was sent back; there was none to be had. The wife tried as an experiment to make bread out of some wheat bran, which was bought at a dollar a bushel. She failed to make bread, but it was eaten as a stir-about. Upon this, with Indian Cabbage, or “Cale,” “a plant with a large leaf,” also wild potatoes or ground-nuts, the family lived for many a week. In the spring they procured some potatoes to plant, but the potatoe eye alone was planted, the other portion being reserved for food. One of the daughters, in her extreme hunger digged up for days, some of the potatoe rind and ate it. One day, her father caught her at it, and seized hold of her arm to punish her, for forgetting the requirements of the future, but he found her arms so emaciated that his heart melted in pity for the starving child. Others used to eat a plant called butternut, and another pig-weed. Children would steal out at night with stolen potatoes, and roast them at the burning log heap, and consider them a great treat. One individual has left the record that she used to allay the pangs of hunger by eating a little salt. But the majority of the settlers had no salt, and game and fish, when it could be caught, was eaten without that condiment. Even at a later date, salt was a scarce and dear article as the following will show: “Sydney, 20th November, 1792—Received from Mr. John Ferguson, one barrel of salt, for which I am to pay nine dollars.” (Signed), John German. Often when fish or game was caught, it was forthwith roasted, without waiting to go home to have it dressed. As spring advanced, and the buds of the trees began to swell, they were gathered and eaten. Roots were digged out of the ground; the bark of certain trees were stripped off and consumed as food. One family lived for a fortnight on beech leaves. Everything that was supposed to be capable of alleviating the pangs of hunger, whether it yielded nutriment or not, was unhesitatingly used; and in the fifth township some were killed by eating poisonous roots. Beef bones were, in one neighbourhood, not only boiled again and again, but actually carried from house to house, to give a little taste to boiled bran, until there remained no taste in the boiling water. In the fourth township, upon the sunny side of a hill, was an early field of grain, and to this they came, from far and near, to eat the milk-like heads of grain, so soon as they had sufficiently grown, which were boiled and eaten. The daughter of the man who owned the field, and gladly gave to all, still remains with us; then, she was in the freshness of girlhood; now, she is in the autumn of a green old age, nearly a hundred. She remembers to have seen them cutting the young succulent grain, to use her own words “as thick as stumps.” This young grain was a common dish, all along the Bay, until it became ripe. One family lived several months solely on boiled oats. One day, a man came to the door of a house in Adolphustown, with a bag, and a piece of “calamink,” to exchange for flour. But the flour was low, and the future doubtful, and none could be spared. The man turned away with tears of anguish rolling down his face. The kind woman gave him a few pounds of flour; he begged to be allowed to add some bran lying on the floor, which was permitted, and he went his way.
There were, scattered through the settlements, a few who never were entirely out of provisions, but who had procured some from Lower Canada, or Oswego. Many of these, even at the risk of future want, would give away, day after day, to those who came to their door, often a long distance, seeking for the very bread of life. A piece of bread was often the only thing to give; but thus, many a life was saved. These poor unfortunates, would offer various articles in exchange for flour or food. Even their lands—all they had, were offered for a few pounds of flour. But, with a few execrable exceptions, the last loaf was divided; and when flour was sold, it was at a fair valuation. A common sorrow knit them together in fraternal relationship. The names of some are handed down, who employed others to work all day for their board, and would give nothing for their famishing ones at home. One of them also, sold eight bushels of potatoes for a valuable cow. In some instances, families living remotely, forsook their houses and sought for food at Kingston. One family in Thurlow, set out for Kingston, following the bay shore on foot. Their only food was bran, which, being mixed with water, was cooked by the way, by heating flat stones and baking thereupon. As before stated, the settlers of the fifth township suffered fearfully, and it is stated, that some of them actually died. Mr. Parrott says, that he has heard it stated that persons starved to death. And the extraordinary statement is found in the M.S. of the late Mr. Merritt, that one old couple, too old to help themselves, and left alone, were preserved providentially from starvation, by pigeons, which would occasionally come and allow themselves to be caught. The fact is stated by others, that pigeons were at times, during the first years of settling, very plentiful, and were always exceedingly tame. Another person remarks, that although there was generally plenty of pigeons, wild fowl, fish and partridge, yet, they seemed to keep away when most wanted.
One family, four in number, subsisted on the small quantity of milk given by a young cow, with leeks, buds of trees, and often leaves were added to the milk. A barrel of bran served a good purpose for baking a kind of cake, which made a change on special occasions. At one time, Reed, of Thurlow, offered a three year old horse for 50 lbs of flour. This family would, at one time actually have starved to death, had not a deer been miraculously shot. They often carried grain, a little, it is true, to the Napanee mills, following the river, and bay shores. And when they had no grain, articles of domestic use were taken to exchange for flour and meal. A woman used to carry a bushel and a half of wheat ten miles to the Napanee mills, and then carry the flour back.
Ex-Sheriff Ruttan says of his father’s family, with whom his uncle lived, “We had the luxury of a cow which the family brought with them, and had it not been for this domestic boon, all would have perished in the year of scarcity. The crops had failed the year before, and the winter that followed, was most inclement and severe. The snow was unusually deep, so that the deer became an easy prey to their rapacious enemies, the wolves, who fattened on their destruction, whilst men were perishing for want. Five individuals, in different places, were found dead, and one poor woman also, with a live infant at her breast; which was cared for and protected.” “Two negroes were sent to Albany for corn, who brought four bushels. This, with the milk of the cow dealt out day by day in limited quantity, kept them alive till harvest.” “The soldiers’ rations were reduced to one biscuit a day.” Referring to other days after the famine he says: “Fish was plentiful”—the “fishing tackle was on a primitive plan; something similar to the Indians, who fixed the bait on part of the back bone of the pike, which would catch these finny tribe quite as expeditiously as the best Limerick hook; but our supply was from spearing by torchlight, which has been practiced by the Indian from time immemorial; from whom we obtained a vast deal of practical knowledge.”
Roger Bates, near Cobourg, speaking of the first years of Upper Canada, says that his grandfather’s family, living in Prince Edward for a while, “adopted many ingenious contrivances of the Indians for procuring food. Not the least simple and handy was a crotched pole, with which they secured salmon in any quantity, the creeks being full of them.” He removed to the township of Clarke, where he was the first white settler, and for six months saw no white person. “For a long time he had to go to Kingston, 125 miles, with his wheat to be ground. They had no other conveyance than batteaux; the journey would sometimes occupy five or six weeks. Of an evening they put in at some creek, and obtained their salmon with ease, using a forked stick, which passed over the fish’s back and held it fast. Sometimes they were so long gone for grist, in consequence of bad weather, that the women would collect together and have a good cry, thinking the batteaux had foundered. If their food ran short, they had a dog that would, when told, hunt a deer and drive it into the water, so that the young boys could shoot it.”
The summer of 1789 brought relief to most of the settlers,—the heaviest of the weight of woe was removed. But, for nearly a decade, they enjoyed but few comforts, and were often without the necessaries of life. The days of the toiling pioneers were numbering up rapidly, yet the wants of all were not relieved. Those whose industry had enabled them to sow a quantity of grain reaped a goodly reward. The soil was very fruitful, and subsequently for two and three years, repeated crops were raised from a single sowing. But flour alone, although necessary to sustain life, could hardly satisfy the cravings of hunger with those who had been accustomed to a different mode of living. It was a long way to Montreal or Albany, from which to transport by hand, everything required, even when it could be had, and the settler had something to exchange for such articles; beside the journey of several weeks. Game, occasionally to be had, was not available at all seasons, nor at all times; although running wild, ammunition was scarce, and some had none. We have stated that Government gave to every five families a musket and forty-eight rounds of ammunition, with some powder and shot, also some twine to make fishing nets. Beef, mutton, &c., were unknown for many a day. Strangely enough, a circumstantial account of the first beef slaughtered along the Bay, probably in Upper Canada, is supplied by one who, now in her 90th year, bears a distinct recollection of the event. It was at Adolphustown. A few settlers had imported oxen, to use in clearing the land. One of a yoke, was killed by the falling of a tree. The remaining animal, now useless, was purchased by a farmer upon the Front, who converted it into beef. With the hospitality characteristic of the times, the neighbors were invited to a grand entertainment; and the neighborhood, be it remembered, extended for thirty or forty miles. A treat it was, this taste of an article of diet, long unknown.
The same person tells of the occasion when the first log barn was raised in Adolphustown, it was during the scarce period. The “bee” which was called, had to be entertained, in some way. But there were no provisions. The old lady, then a girl, saw her mother for weeks previous carefully putting away the eggs, which a few hens had contributed to their comfort; upon the morning of the barn raising, they were brought forth and found to amount to a pailful, well heaped. The most of the better-to-do settlers always had rum, which was a far different article from that sold now-a-days. With rum and eggs well beaten, and mixed with all the milk that could be kept sweet from the last few milkings, this, which was both food and drink was distributed to the members of the bee, during the time of raising the barn.
Tea, now considered an indispensable luxury by every family, was quite beyond the reach of all, for a long time; because of its scarcity and high price. Persons are yet living who remember when tea was first brought into family use. Various substitutes for tea were used, among these were hemlock and sassafras; there was also a plant gathered called by them the tea plant.
Sheriff Sherwood, in his most valuable memoirs, specially prepared for the writer, remarks, “Many incidents and occurrences took place during the early settlement which would, perhaps, at a future day be thought incredible. I recollect seeing pigeons flying in such numbers that they almost darkened the sky, and so low often as to be knocked down with poles; I saw, where a near neighbor killed thirty at one shot; I almost saw the shot, and saw the pigeons after they were shot.” Ducks were so thick that when rising from a marsh “they made a noise like the roar of heavy thunder.” “While many difficulties were encountered, yet we realized many advantages, we were always supplied with venison, partridge, and pigeon, and fish in abundance, no taxes to pay and plenty of wood at our doors. Although deprived of many kinds of fruit, we had the natural production of the country, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries, and lots of red plums, and cranberries in the various marshes all about the country, and I can assure you that pumpkin and cranberries make an excellent substitute for apple pie.” Mr. Sherwood refers to their dog “Tipler,” which was invaluable, in various ways, in assisting to procure the food. He also speaks of “Providential” assistance. “After the first year we raised wheat and Indian corn sufficient for the year’s supply for the family; but then we had no grist mill to grind it; we made out to get on with the Indian corn very well by pounding it in the mortar, and made what we called samp, which made coarse bread, and what the Dutch called sup-pawn; but let me tell you how we made our mortar. We cut a log off a large tree, say two-and-a half feet through and about six feet long, which we planted firm in the ground, about four feet deep, then carefully burnt the centre of the top and scraped it out clean, which gave us a large mortar. We generally selected an iron-wood tree, from six to eight inches through, took the bark off clean, made the handle to it of suitable length, this was our pestle; and many a time have I pounded with it till the sweat ran down merrily. But this pounding would not do for the wheat, and the Government seeing the difficulty, built a mill back of Kingston, where the inhabitants, for fifteen miles below Brockville had to get their grinding done. In our neighborhood they got on very well in summer, by joining two wooden canoes together. Three persons would unite, to carry each a grist in their canoes, and would perform the journey in about a week. But in winter this could not be done. After a few years, however, when some had obtained horses, then a kind Providence furnished a road on the ice for some years until a road was made passable for sleighs by land. And it has not been practicable, indeed I may say possible, for horses with loaded sleighs to go on the ice from Brockville to Kingston, fifty years past.”
Roger Bates says that “the woods were filled with deer, bears, wolves, martins, squirrels, and rabbits.” No doubt, at first, before fire-arms were feared by them, they were plentiful and very tame. Even wild geese, it would seem, were often easily shot. But powder and shot were expensive, and unless good execution could be made, the charge was reserved. Mr. Sherwood gives a trustworthy account of the shooting of thirty pigeons at one shot; and another account is furnished, of Jacob Parliament, of Sophiasburgh, who killed and wounded at a single shot, four wild geese and five ducks. These wild fowl not only afforded luxurious and nutritious diet, but their feathers were saved, and in time pillows and even beds were thus made. Mr. John Parrott, of Ernest Town, descendant of Col. Jas. Parrott, says, “there were bears, wolves, and deer in great abundance, and there were lynx, wild cats, beavers and foxes in every directions; also martins, minks and weasels beyond calculation.” In this connection, we may record a fact related by Col. Clark, respecting the migration of squirrels in the early part of the present century across the Niagara river, from the States. He says, “an immense immigration of squirrels took place, and so numerous were they that the people stood with sticks to destroy them, as they landed on the British shore, which by many was considered a breach of good faith on the part of John Bull, who is always ready to grant an asylum to fugitives of whatever nation they may belong to.”
MAPLE SUGAR.
“Soon the blue-birds and the bees O’er the stubble will be winging; So ‘tis time to tap the trees And to set the axe a-ringing;
Time to set the hut to rights, Where the girls and boys together Tend the furnace fire o’nights In the rough and rainy weather;
Time to hew and shape the trough, And to punch the spile so hollow. For the snow is thawing off And the sugar-thaw must follow.
Oh, the gladdest time of year Is the merry sugar-making, When the swallows first appear And the sleepy buds are waking!”
In the great wilderness were to be had, a few comforts and luxuries. Sugar is not only a luxury, but is really a necessary article of food. The properties of the sap of the maple was understood by the Indians, and the French soon availed themselves of the means of making sugar. To the present day, the French Canadians make it in considerable quantities. At first, the settlers of Upper Canada did not generally engage in making it; but, after a time a larger number did. The maple, the monarch of the Canadian forest, whose leaf is the emblem of our country, was a kind benefactor. In the spring, in the first days of genial sunshine, active operations for sugar making were commenced. Through the deep snow, the farmer and his sons would trudge, from tree to tree, to tap them upon their sunny side. The “spile” would be inserted to conduct the precious fluid into the trough of bass-wood, which had been fashioned during the long winter evenings. A boiling place would be arranged, with a long pole for a crane, upon which would be strung the largest kettles that could be procured. At night, the sap would be gathered from the troughs, a toilsome job, and put into barrels. In the morning a curling smoke would rise from amidst the thick woods, and the dry wood would crackle cheerily under the row of kettles, all the sunny spring day; and night would show a rich dark syrup, collected in one smaller kettle, for the more careful work of being converted into sugar. Frequently the fire would be attended by the women; and the men would come to gather the sap in the evening. In this way many a family would be provided with abundant sugar, at all events it had to serve them for the year, as they felt unable to purchase from the merchant. In another place, we have related how a few made a considerable quantity of sugar and sold it all, to pay for a farm, doing without themselves.
The absence of various articles of food, led the thoughtful housewife to invent new made dishes. The nature of these would depend in part upon the articles of food most abundant, and upon the habits peculiar to their ancestry, whether English, Dutch or some other. The great desire was, to make a common article as tasty as possible. And at harvest time, as well as at bees, the faithful wife would endeavour to prepare something extra to regale the tired ones. There was, for instance, the “pumpkin loaf,” a common dish. It consisted of pumpkin and corn meal made into a small loaf, and eaten with butter. Another dish which seems to have been derived from the Dutch, was Pot Pie, which was always, and is even yet in many places, made to feed the hands at bees and raisings, and even was generally made to grace the board on a wedding occasion. We cannot give the space, if we felt prepared to speak, of the several made dishes commonly in use among the older Canadians of Upper Canada. Many of them are truly excellent in taste and nutritious in quality. They are often similar to, or very like the dishes in the New England and Midland States.
This subject will be concluded by giving a few extracts from Rochefoucault who wrote of what he saw and learned in Canada in 1795, and who may be regarded as quite correct.
He says, “It is asserted” (by Simcoe) “that all Canada, produces not the necessary corn for the consumption of its inhabitants, the troops are supplied with flour from London, and with salt meat from Ireland.” But Simcoe then thought that Canada was capable not alone of feeding her inhabitants, but of becoming the granary of England, and receiving commodities in Exchange. Speaking of Forty Mile Creek, he says: “Before it empties itself into the lake, it turns a grist mill and two saw mills, which belong to a Mr. Green, a loyalist of Jersey, who, six or seven years ago, settled in this part of Upper Canada.” “Land newly cleared yields here, the first year, twenty bushels of corn. They plough the land after it has produced three or four crops, but not very deep. The price of flour is twenty-two shillings per hundred weight, that of wheat from seven to eight shillings per bushel. Laborers are scarce, and are paid at the rate of six shillings a day. Wheat is generally sown throughout all Upper Canada, but other sorts of grain are also cultivated.” “Mr Green grinds the corn for all the military posts in Upper Canada.”
Approaching Kingston by water he remarks that “on the left is Quinté Bay, the banks of which are said to be cultivated up to a considerable extent. The eye dwells with pleasure once more on cultivated ground. The country looks pleasant. The houses lie closer than in any of the new settled parts of Upper Canada which we have hitherto traversed. The variegated verdure of the cornfields embellishes and enriches the prospect, charms the eye, and enchants the mind.”
“This district not only produces the corn requisite for its own consumption, but also exports yearly about 3 or 4000 bushels. This grain, which, in winter, is conveyed down the river on sledges, is bought by the merchants, who engage, on the arrival of the ships from Europe, to pay its amount in such merchandise as the sellers may require. The merchants buy this grain for government, which pays for it in ready money, according to the market price at Montreal. The agent of government causes part to be ground into flour, which he sends to the different ports in Upper Canada, where it is wanted; and the surplus he sends to England. The price of flour in Kingston is at present (12th July, 1795) six dollars per barrel. The district of Kingston supplied, last year, the other parts of Canada with large quantities of pease, the culture of which, introduced but two years ago, proves very productive and successful. In the course of last year, 1000 barrels of salt pork, of 208 pounds each, were sent from Kingston to Quebec; its price was eighteen dollars per barrel. The whole trade is carried on by merchants, whose profits are the more considerable, as they fix the price of the provisions which they receive from Europe, and sell without the least competition.” Indeed, the profits of the dealers must have been immense. They sold to the military authorities at a rate which would remunerate them when the provisions came from England; and when the farmers of Canada began to raise grain to sell, they bought it, or exchanged merchandise for it, upon which they fixed the price, and continued to sell the flour at the same price to the military authorities.
Chapter XIX
CONTENTS—Kingston Mills—Action of Government—The Millwright— Situation of the first Mill—Why Selected—The Machinery—Put up by Loyalists—No Toll—Only Mill for three years—Going to Mill, 1784— The Napanee Mill—Commenced 1785—Robert Clarke—An old Book— “Appenea” Falls—Price of certain articles—What Rum cost, and was used for—The Mill opened 1787—Sergt.-Major Clarke in charge—Indian Corn—Small Toll—Surveyor Collins in charge—Becomes the Property of R. Cartwright, 1792—Rebuilt—Origin of Napanee—Price of Butter, 1788—Mills at Four Mile Creek, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, and Grand River—Mills on the St. Lawrence—The Stone Mills—Van Alstine—Lake of the Mountain—1796—Natural Beauty, versus Utility—The Mill—Van Alstine’s Death—Wind Mill—Myer’s Mill—Mill at Consecon.
THE FIRST FLOURING MILLS.
Government was not an indifferent spectator of the difficulty spoken of as to the grinding of grain—the procuring of flour, and at an early day, ordered means to meet the requirements of the pioneers. We have the certain statement of John C. Clark, of Ernest town, now dead, written ten years ago, that his father, Robert Clark, who was a millwright, “was employed by Government, in 1782–3, to erect the Kingston Mills preparatory to the settlement of the Loyalists in that section of Upper Canada.” The place selected for erecting the mill, was upon the Cataraqui River, seven miles north of the Fort, now the entrance of the Rideau Canal, where are situated the first locks of that artificial water way. When in a state of nature, the place must have been strikingly beautiful; it is so at the present time, when the achievements of art give variety of attraction. This situation, selected for the first flouring mill, was central to the population strung along the banks of the St. Lawrence, and Bay Quinté. Everything required for the construction of the mill, was furnished by Government, such as the mill stones, and the machinery. The rougher work, the walls of the building, was done by men detailed for the purpose, from the company of soldiers. The structure consisted of logs, or timber roughly squared, and was erected, as well as the mill house, by the combined efforts of the soldier settlers, collected for the purpose. All the settlers had their grists ground without paying toll. The original building was standing as late as 1836.
For nearly three years, the Cataraqui Mill was the only one in Central Canada. The settlers came from Cornwall in the east, and the most remote settlement up the Bay. At the present day, when railroads and swiftly running steamers assist so materially to annihilate space as it were, and bring distant places into close relationship, it would be regarded a matter of no little trouble and inconvenience, to carry grain from Cornwall on the one hand, and Sidney on the other, to Kingston, and wait to have it ground into flour; but how infinitely greater the difficulty, when a trackless woods covered the intervening spaces, when the only mode of carrying anything was upon the back, or in a canoe, or batteaux, or upon a raft, in summer; and upon a hand-sleigh in winter, drawn through deep snow, following the windings of the shore along many a dismal mile.
The increasing population around the Bay, caused the authorities to seek a proper site for a second mill. The Napanee River, with its natural falls, offered an advantageous place upon which to erect a second mill for the settlers, upon the Bay. We have been fortunate, through the kindness of Mr. P. Clark, of Collinsby, in being permitted to examine an account book kept by Robert Clark, the millwright, of both the Kingston and Napanee mills. By this, we learn that in the year 1785, Robert Clark, who had completed the Kingston Mill, removed to the second township, and, according to instructions received from Government, proceeded to construct a mill upon the Napanee River, at the site of the natural falls. In the absence of the full particulars relating to the building of the Napanee Mills, the following cannot fail to be of interest. In the account book aforementioned, the following references to the building of the mill, are found recorded:
“An accompt of articles bought for the use of the works, November 8.” “To 4 Augers of different size, from Mr. Phillips, carpenters at Catariqui, 13s, 8d. To 3 quires of Writing Paper, 5s. December 6, To 20 lbs. of Nails, £1; December 22, To 6 Whip Saw Files, 3s. 9d.” Omitting some items, and coming to March 23, 1786, we find “For Raising the Saw Mill,” “2 gallons and 3 pints of Rum, 17s. 6d.” “April 20th, To 1 quart of Rum, 2s.” On the “25th May, To 4 gallons and 1 quart of Rum, for Raising the Grist Mill, at 7s. 6d.” The “26th, To 1 quart of Rum for the People at work in the water at the Dam.” By this we learn the day upon which the Napanee mill was erected. On the 20th July, Government is again charged with “3 pints of Rum for raising the fender-post,” &c. On the 27th, a pint was again required, but for what special purpose is not mentioned. In December, 1786, we find “To making Bolt Cloth 15s.” “To Clearing one acre and three-quarters of Land for a mill, at seven dollars per acre, £3.” And we find that the iron or smith work for the mill was done by David Palmer and Conly. From the fact that the bolting cloth was not made until December, 1786, we may infer that the mill did not commence operations until the beginning of 1787. The mill was a great boon to the inhabitants around the Bay Quinté, not only because they had a shorter distance to travel, but the amount of work pressing upon the Kingston mill, made it very uncertain as to the time one would have to wait, to get his gristing done. Consequently many came from the Lower Bay, and the dwellers upon the South Bay in Marysburg, who followed the shores around Indian Point and up the Bay Quinté. To those living in Thurlow, Sidney, and at the Carrying Place, the mill was a great blessing.
The father of the late Col. John Clark, of Port Dalhousie, who had been Sergeant Major in the 8th Regiment, and who had, from 1777, been clerk and naval storekeeper at Carleton Island, removed to within three miles of Napanee, the same year the mill was built, to take charge of the works, in addition to his other duties. John Clark, who was then a small boy, says in his memoirs; the grain principally brought to be ground, was Indian corn; but as the clearances increased, wheat became more plentiful. He also speaks of the great industry which characterized the settlers. “A small toll was exacted to pay for the daily expenses of the mill, but this was a mere trifle, considering the advantages the settlers derived from loss of time in proceeding to Kingston.” From this we infer that no toll was demanded at the Kingston mill. “When my father,” continues Col. Clark, “was ordered to Niagara, the mill was delivered up to surveyor Collins, under whose directions it was continued in operation for many years, and then the mill site became the property of the Hon. R. Cartwright of Kingston.” But, we find the statement elsewhere made that the land was originally granted to Captain McDonald of Marysburg, who sold it to Cartwright.
Robert Clark, in his account book, says, “Commenced work for Mr. Cartwright at the Napanee mills, the 28th August, 1792.” This was probably the time when Cartwright became the owner. In the same year, reference is made to timber, for the “new mill,” by which we learn that Mr. Cartwright found it desirable to rebuild. The iron work for the new mill came to £14.
By the book, from which we have made extracts, we see that the name is spelled in different ways, the first being Appenea. For many years the name was spelled Apanee. It has been said that it was an Indian name, signifying flour, and was given by the Mississaugas, from the existence of the flouring mill. Napanee may signify flour, in the Indian language, but the inference drawn cannot be correct, as we find the name Appenea Falls given to the place in 1785, before the mill was commenced.
Cartwright having rebuilt the mill put in one run of stone at first, shortly after two, and then three. Robert Clark was the millwright, and one Profect was in charge of the works. The mill seems to have been constructed with some care, and Gourlay says, in 1817, that the Napanee mill is the best in the Province. The old account book from which we have gleaned, gives the price at which certain articles were vended. Thus, we learn that in June, 1787, and July 1788, butter sold at Napanee for 1s. per pound.
Some time after the erection of the Kingston and Napanee mills, others were erected in other parts of the Province; one at Four Mile Creek, one at the Niagara Falls, one at Fort Erie, another at the Mohawk Village, Grand River; and still later, one at Twelve Mile Creek. “In the year 1788, the first grist mill in Dundas was built by Messrs. Coons and Shaver in Matilda. It contained but one run of stone, and had a saw mill attached. It stood about a mile above the present village of Iroquois. It could grind 100 bushels of wheat per day, and turned out good flour. Soon after, another mill was built on a much larger scale, by John Munroe, also in Matilda, which had three run of stone.” There was also a gang of saws. The machinery was driven by the St. Lawrence waters. At a still later period VanAlstine’s mill was erected, at the Lake on the Mountain.
The events connected with Captain, afterwards Major VanAlstine, as a settler, are recorded in the settlement of Adolphustown. Directly opposite the rich and sloping land on the north shore, on which he settled, is a high prominent hill, which stands boldly up against the bay. This “mountain” is famous on account of the lake upon its summit, a particular account of which is given elsewhere. It is referred to here in a practical sense. While, upon the hill-top is the work of nature, presented in a striking manner; at its feet is the work of man, which, particularly in the past, was of no little consequence to the well-being of the settlers of the Bay. About the year 1796, the third flouring mill of the bay was erected at this place by VanAlstine, to whom had been granted a large tract of land. The surplus waters of the lake, in primeval days, made their escape over the cliff, falling into the bay, and forming, it must have been at times, a beautiful cascade. But, if Captain VanAlstine had a taste for the beautiful in nature, he also had a just appreciation of the wants of the people, and he proceeded to utilize the falling water. A canal was cut down the mountain side, to form a channel for the water to descend, and at the bottom was erected a mill, the machinery of which was to be propelled by the descending stream. From that day to this the work of grinding has been carried on. However beautiful the lake above, and delightful the prospect, they cannot exceed in interest the foundation of this mill. Imagination would almost give words to the sound of the mill, which so peacefully clicks the daily round of work. The down-rushing waters by the artificial channel would seem to utter reminiscences of the past—regrets that they may no longer tumble headlong over the hill-side to form a lovely cascade; but the water-witch has been driven away by the spirit of utilitarianism. This conspicuous hill has often been the point of hope, the goal to which the farmer turned his little bark, containing, it is true, but a few bushels of grain, yet so precious, and about which the hungry ones in the little log house, thought so frequently, with bodies long accustomed to suffer for the want of enough to eat. And, often this mountain stood up as a guide to the settler, as he trudged along wearily through the thick snow with a bag or two of grain upon a hand-sleigh. Although not the very first mill, it dates back to the last century.
The Kingston Gazette of the 16th April, 1811, contains an advertisement, signed by the executors of the deceased Major VanAlstine’s will, namely, George W. Myers, Cornelius VanAlstine, and Thomas Dorland, in which it is stated that the mill contains two run of stone, one superfine and two common bolts.
A windmill was built at a somewhat early period, by Sergeant Howell, nearly opposite the Upper Gap, in Fredericksburgh. It was sold to one Russell, who was an Engineer in Kingston, in the war of 1812. The windmill was never much used, if at all.
About the beginning of the century, 1802, Capt. Myers built a flouring mill upon the Moira. (See Thurlow.) It seems to have been a good mill, for persons came a long distance to get grinding done. For instance: Isaiah Tubs, who lived at West Lake, would come, carrying a bag of grain upon his back.
In the year 1804, Mr. Wilkins says, a gristing mill was built at Consecon, to the south of the Carrying Place. Consecon is an Indian name, from Con-Cou, a pickerel.
Chapter XX
CONTENTS—Clothing—Domestic and Farming Implements—Style of Dress eighty years ago—Clothing of the Refugees—Disbanded Soldiers—No Fresh Supply—Indian Garments of Skin—Deerskin Pants—Petticoats—Bed Coverings—Cultivating Flax—Sheep—Home-made Clothes—Rude Implements—Fulling—French Mode—Lindsay Woolsey—The Spinning-wheel— Industry—Young men Selecting Wives—Bees—Marriage Portion—Every Farmer his own Tanner and Shoemaker—Fashions—How odd hours were spent—Home-made Shoes—What Blankets were made of—Primitive Bedstead—Nakedness—Bridal Apparel—No Saddles—Kingston and Newark— Little Money—Bartering—Merchants from Albany—Unable to buy—Credit with Merchants—The Results—Itinerant Mechanics—Americans—Become Canadians—An old Stone-mason—Wooden Dishes—Making Spoons—Other Hardships—Indians Friendly—Effects of Alcohol upon the Mississaugas—Groundless Panic—Drunken Indians—Women, defending Themselves—An erroneous Statement about Indian Massacre in “Dominion Monthly Magazine”—Statement of an Old Settler, Sherwood— Wild Beasts—Few Fire-arms—Narrow Escapes—Depredations at Night— Destroying Stock—An Act of Parliament—“A Traveller’s” Statement— The Day of Small Things—Settlers Contented—The Extent of their Ambition—Reward of Industry—Population in 1808—Importations—Money— The Youth.
CLOTHING—FURNITURE—DOMESTIC AND FARMING IMPLEMENTS.
The style of clothing worn by the refugees and disbanded soldiers was such as prevailed eighty years ago in England. A certain difference, no doubt, existed between the English and the Colonists, yet mainly the style was the same. Among the first settlers upon the bay were those who had fetched with them, and wore, at least occasionally, garments of fashionable cut and appointments. Tight knee-breeches and silver buckles would decorate the bodies of some, who had in other days mixed in the fashionable throng, perhaps luxuriated in the gay city of New York, where the presence of British soldiers always gave life and gaiety. Indeed some of the inhabitants had been commissioned officers in the regular army. Dr. Dougall, who had been in the navy, and who had settled in the sixth Township, is remembered as a wearer of “tights” and silver buckles. Also, Major VanAlstine wore this elegant attire, and the M’Leans, of Kingston. Those who left their homes hurriedly during the course of the war, and fled to Lower Canada and the several British Forts, brought only what was upon their backs. Those who came more leisurely might have a little more; but the distance to travel on foot would deter from undertaking to bring more than supplies of food. The disbanded soldiers had no more than what belongs to a soldier’s kit, and no doubt the close of the war left many of them with well worn garments. A few years of exposure to the wear and tear of pioneer life would quite destroy the best supplied wardrobe, however carefully husbanded, or ingeniously mended by the anxious wife. To replace the clothing was far from an easy matter to the settlers, many of whom had no money, certainly no time for a long journey to Montreal or Albany. After a few years, Kingston became a place of trade, but the supply of clothing was scant and dear, placing it beyond the reach of mostly all. The result was that the vast majority of the inhabitants had to look to the production of their lands wherewith to cover the nakedness of their families. Those living up the bay continued to want for clothing for a longer time, being unable to exchange with the merchants of Kingston, until peddlers began to visit the more remote settlers.
The faded garments, patched until the original material could no longer be distinguished, ultimately succumbed to the effects of time and labor.
The Indians, who as a general thing were friendly and kind, when they visited the settlement, gave to the settlers the idea of manufacturing garments out of deer skin. They, now and then exchanged skins for articles the settlers could part with, and taught them how to prepare the fresh pelt so as to make it pliable. The process consisted in removing the hair and then working the hide by hand with the brains of some animal, until it was soft and white. Trowsers made of this material were not only comfortable for winter, but very durable. A gentleman who recently died in Sophiasburgh at an advanced age, remembered to have worn a pair for twelve years, being repaired occasionally, and at the end they were sold for two dollars and-a-half. Petticoats for women were often made of the same material. Roger Bates says “My grandmother made all sorts of useful dresses with these skins, which were most comfortable for a country life, and for going through the bush, could not be torn by the branches.” Also, moccasins were procured from the buckskin, and some had enough deer-skin to make covering for beds. But deer-skin was not sufficiently abundant to give covering to all, such as it was; and, certain clothing was required, for which it was unfit. Thus left to their own resources, the settlers commenced at an early period to cultivate flax, and as soon as possible to procure sheep. For many years almost every family made their various garments, for both sexes, of the coarse linen made from the flax, and cloth from wool raised at home and carded by hand. Preparing the flax for weaving, as well as spinning were done by hand, with inferior implements rudely made. But in later years, occasionally spinning wheels and looms were brought in by settlers. There were no fulling mills to complete the fabric. Even the mode adopted then, in Lower Canada, was not practised, which was as follows: A meeting of young folks, similar to a bee, was held from house to house, at which both sexes took part. The cloth to be fulled was placed in large tubs, and bare-legged youths would step in and with much amusement dance the fulling done. In Upper Canada, both high and low were glad to be able to don the home-made linen, and the linsey-woolsey petticoat.
* * * * *
“The growth of flax was much attended to as soon as lands were cleared and put in order.” “Then spinning-wheels were all the go, and home-made linen, the pride of all families, manufactured substantial articles that would last a lifetime.” The young men of industry would look for the spinning-wheel and loom before selecting a wife. “A young farmer would often be astonished to find on his marriage that his fair partner had got a good supply of linen for her marriage portion. I have known as much as sixty yards spun and manufactured at one bee or gathering.”— Clark.
When the skins of sheep, and of calves and beef become available, every farmer became his own tanner, and dressed his leather; and then his own shoemaker. Fashions did not change, except as the continued practice of making for an increasing family, gave the maker ability to make something more like a boot than a moccasin. Rainy days, and the nights, were spent in doing such kind of work, not by candle light, but by the hearth fire. It was at the same time that an axe-helve, a wooden plow, a reaping cradle, a wooden fork, &c., were made. But many a child, whose grand-children are now occupying positions of wealth and influence, stayed in the log cabin the winter through, because he had nothing with which to protect his feet from the snow. The writer’s father was not a shoemaker by trade; but he remembers when a boy to have worn shoes made by him. They were not conspicuous for their beauty, but it was thought by the wearer they would last forever; within his recollection there was not a shoemaker in Thurlow.
* * * * *
Much ingenuity was displayed in making clothes and blankets. What was called the “Kearsy” blanket was made at an early date; the writer has seen the first one said to have been manufactured in Upper Canada, certainly the first on the Bay Quinté. It is yet in use and belongs to one, nearly one hundred years of age, who is the daughter of the maker, whom we remember to have seen when a boy, who, although then in the sear and yellow leaf, was as tall and erect as if untold hardships had not crowned her life. Within fifteen miles of Belleville, across the Bay, was a log cabin, the occupants of which had for their first blanket, one made out of hair, picked out of the tanner’s vat, and a hemp-like weed growing in the yard. The hair was first cleaned by whipping it; then it was carded and worked up with the hemp, and then spun. It was afterward doubled and twisted, and finally woven into a blanket. The individual whose wife did this, and whose descendants are among the most wealthy farmers, bought his farm for a horse. For many a day, they had no furniture, not even a chair, and the bedstead was made out of two poles, driven between the logs of the shanty; and basswood bark was twisted so as to bind them substantially together. Clean straw upon this, was really the only thing they had in the house. And so it was with very many, the exceptions being, some half pay officers, who had brought a table, or a chest of drawers. In 1790, the brother of an individual, holding an important post in Kingston, was near the head of the bay, staying at a house in a state of nakedness; in which condition his brother writes, “he must remain until I am able to go up.” “I have agreed to put him to trial with a carpenter to learn the trade,” he must therefore have been a large boy.
It was not until the close of the last century, that wearing articles, other than those made out of flax and wool, were to be obtained. A calico dress was a decided luxury. The petticoat, and short gown of linen, was more common. A long chintz dress to go to meeting, was the height of many a damsel’s ambition, or a grogran dress and short petticoat. As years passed away, and a grown up daughter was about to be married, efforts would be made to array the bride in fitting costume. Often a dress, worn by the mother in other days, amid other scenes, which had been laid carefully away, was brought forth to light, and made by suitable alterations to do renewed service, although the white had assumed a yellow cast, and had lost its lustre.
As late as 1816, a farmer owning land in Sidney, and who died rich, made in winter a journey to Kingston with flour, wearing nothing on his feet, but a pair of shoes, and who had his trowsers strapped down to keep his ankles warm. Leg boots took too much leather. It was many years before a bridle and saddle were known, and then, but a few possessed such a convenience. Bare-back, or on a deer skin was the primitive mode.
After the erection of Upper Canada into a separate province, both Kingston and Newark, where there were always troops, and where articles of clothing were to be purchased from a few, who had gone into the mercantile business, exhibited a degree of comfort and even gaiety in dress.
At the first there was but little money in circulation. But few of the refugees, or disbanded soldiers had any when they entered the wilderness. The government were constantly paying a certain sum to the troops at Kingston and Newark, and likewise to the retired half pay officers. The few who could command money, were placed in a position of greater comfort, as soon as articles of provisions and merchandise, were brought to the new settlement. Mainly, however, trading was carried on by exchanging one commodity for another. Probably the first articles for trade, was the ticket for grants of land in the back concessions, often parted with so cheaply. The settlers required clothing, grain for sowing, and stock; these wants in time, led to trade, two kinds of which were introduced. One carried on by merchants established at Kingston, the other by pedlars, Yankee pedlars, who would come from Albany with their pack in a canoe or small batteau, and who plied their calling along the bay shore from clearing to clearing. Both the merchant at Kingston, who waited for his customers to come to him, and the pedlar who sought customers, asked for their wares, only grain or any other produce. But wheat was desired above all others. It was an event of no little interest to the back woodsman’s family, when the pedlar’s canoe or batteau came along, and halted before the log house, by the shore. And, even when their circumstances would not permit them to buy, it was a luxury to have a look at the things, which were so temptingly displayed. The toil-worn farmer, with well patched trowsers, would turn with an inward sigh from the piece of cloth, which although so much wanted, could not be got. The wife looked longingly at those little things, which would just suit baby. The grown up daughters gazed wistfully, but hopelessly at the bright calico prints, more valuable, in their eyes than the choicest silks are to their descendants to day. But a calico dress was a thing not enjoyed, but by few, until it was bought for the wedding dress. Frequently some articles of family use was exchanged for goods, which were deemed of more use. The trade of merchants at Kingston steadily increased; but not a cash business. A credit system was initiated and carried on. Goods would be purchased with an engagement to pay in wheat or potatoes, or something else, at a certain time. Here and there along the bay were Indian fur traders. They, also, began to exchange with the settlers. While this was a great convenience, and gave immediate comfort to many a family, it, at the same time, led to serious results with many. Disappointed in the return of crops, or in some other way, the payment could not be made. Promissory notes were given at interest; and, after a few years, suing and seizing of stock was the result. Sometimes even the farm went to satisfy the creditor. Unfortunately, there are too many such cases in the records of the settlers of the bay. Not alone did pedlars come from the States, to pick up the fruit of the industry, of those they had driven away; but there were itinerant Yankee mechanics who would occasionally come along, looking for a job. Carpenters, Masons, &c., after a few years, found much to do. We would not speak disparagingly of these Americans, because they served a good turn in erecting buildings, as houses, barns, &c. They also introduced many valuable articles of husbandry and domestic use. And finally, many of them forsook their republican government, and permanently settled under the King, and became the best of subjects. Even in the first decade of the present century, mechanics would go up and down the bay seeking work. For instance, there was one Travers, a stone mason, who found employment along the bay, and even up the lake. Of this we are informed by one of his apprentices who is now upwards of eighty years old. (We make place in our Review to state that John W. Maybee, referred to, aged 88, died 7th February, 1869.)
A hundred things enter into the list of what constitutes home comforts. But spare, indeed, were the articles to be found upon the kitchen shelves. Plain enough, was the spread table, at which the family gathered morning, noon, and night. Many had but one or two dishes, often of wood, rudely made out of basswood; and spoons of the same material. Knives and forks in many families were unknown. A few families had brought a very limited number of articles for eating, relics of other days, but these were exceedingly scarce. The wooden spoon was the most common table article with which to carry food to the mouth. By and by the pedlar brought pewter spoons, and once in a while the settler procured pewter and moulds and made spoons for himself.
VARIOUS HARDSHIPS.
Apart from the suffering arising from want of food, and clothing to wear, and furniture to make the house comfortable, there were others of more or less magnitude. It would naturally be expected that one of the first dangers in entering a wilderness, would be from the Indians, whose territory was being occupied. But in the main this evil was not added to their other distress. The considerate and just policy pursued by the British Government, left the Indians no cause of complaint, and they did not at any time assume an hostile attitude toward the infant colony. But that curse of the human race,—baneful curse to the Indians, alcohol, came with the white man; and, too often, the unscrupulous trader, and merchant would, not only sell the fire water to them, but rely upon its intoxicating qualities, to consummate more excellent bargains for furs. The evil thus inflicted upon the Indian, returned in some cases, upon innocent pioneers. The Indians under the influence of liquor are particularly savage and ungovernable; prone to exhibit their wild nature. Thirsting for the liquor, they would sometimes enter dwellings, when they knew the men were absent, and endeavour to intimidate the women to give them rum. A few instances of alarm and actual danger, come to us, among the bay settlers. At one time particularly, there arose a wide spread alarm, (long remembered as the “Indian alarms,”) that the Indians were, upon some fixed night, when the men were away to Kingston mills, going to massacre the settlers. This arose from some remarks, let fall by a half drunken Indian. A few of the settlers, did actually leave their homes, and sought protection in a more thickly settled locality, while active steps were taken to defend their homes against the Indians. Mrs. Dempsey, of seventh township, gathered up what she could, and with her children crossed in a canoe to the eighth township. On another occasion, when her husband was absent, several half drunken Indians came to the house, and one stepping up to where she sat, trembling with fear, and with her little ones nestling close to her, drew his knife, and cutting a piece from the palm of his hand, held the bleeding wound before her face, crying out “look, look, Indian no fraid.” Then he brandished his knife in the most menacing manner. She hearing the sound of a passing team, got up and slowly walked backwards to the door, looking the savage bravely in the eye all the time. Her husband had opportunely arrived, in time to save his family, which he did by a free use of the horse-whip. On another occasion, Mrs. D. saved her life and the children from drunken Indians, by rushing up a ladder with them, into the garret, which could only be reached by a small opening through the ceiling, and then hauling the ladder up. The Indians endeavoured to assist each other up, and through the entrance, but she having a knife succeeded by cutting their fingers, when they attempted to get up, in keeping them back. These hostile attempts were exceptions, and always the result of intoxication.
Since writing the above, an article has been published in the Dominion Monthly Magazine, in which it is stated that a family of settlers were massacred by the Indians upon the banks of the St. Lawrence in 1795. This statement is at variance with facts known to us, and with the testimony of one who cannot be mistaken. His statement is as follows:
BROCKVILLE, 13th April, 1868.
MY DEAR SIR,—
I am in receipt of your note of this date, adverting to the statement of the massacre of a family in Upper Canada, by the Indians in 1795. I noticed the same statement in some paper I have lately read, and at the time I thought it to be a mistake in the date, or an entire fabrication. I am not aware of the least hostility shewn by the Indians to any of the U. E. Loyalists since 1784, eleven years previous to date stated, and I do not believe a syllable of it.
Yours truly,
ADIEL SHERWOOD.
Although the native Indians did not, as a general thing, alarm the settler, there were wild beasts that did. For years the wolf, and the bear, and other ferocious animals were a source of terror and suffering. These animals, unaccustomed to the sight of man, were at first exceedingly tame. The settlers had but few fire-arms, and ammunition was very scarce; and the beasts knew no terror of them. They would even by day, come to the very door of the cabin, ready to seize the little child, or the scanty stock of poultry, pigs, or sheep, or calves, or salted provisions which had been left exposed, government stores, &c. And at night they made the most hideous and incessant howls, until morning. Many instances of their rapacity in robbing the scanty yard of the settlers, and of hair breadth escapes of individuals from wolves and bears, are mentioned. The destruction of stock by the wolf especially, caused the government of Canada, at an early date, (1793,) to legislate, with a view of gradually exterminating them; and an act was passed, granting a premium of four dollars to every one who should bring a wolf’s head to the proper officer; and two dollars for a bear’s. It was withdrawn with regard to bears, in 1796. “A traveller,” writing in 1835, remarks that in Kingston, resided a person who privately bred wolves to obtain the reward. But whether such an enterprising citizen did actually live in the good old town the writer saith not. Instances of narrow escapes from the wild beasts are still remembered; for instance, Lewis Daly, of Ernest town, was suddenly attacked by a bear within a mile of home. He sprung up a small tree, which bending over, he was in momentary danger of being reached. His cries brought help.
In those early days, the settler, looked not for great things; schooled by the hardships of civil war, and inured to want, and half starvation, they asked not for riches. Enough to eat, and to be warmly clad, and housed from the winter’s cold, was the great point to which they stretched their longing hopes. Plenty in the future for the little ones, and for themselves, when they had grown old, was the single purpose of their toilsome life. A descendant of a first settler upon the front of Sidney, tells of his grandmother whom he had heard say, that her great ambition at first, was to raise vegetables, onions and other useful articles in her garden bed; to have poultry then, about her. After years she got the fowls; but a mink, in a single night killed them all. Then, again, they had got a breeding sow, and one morning a bear walked out of the woods, and with one hug destroyed all their hopes of future porkers.
Gradually, as years passed away, comforts began to reward the patient and industrious pioneers; acre after acre was brought under cultivation. The log house received an addition, a little stock was procured, and the future brightened up before them, and by the year 1808, the settlements in Upper Canada were increasing in number, and spreading in every direction. “The frontier of the country was fast filling up. Persons were taking up land several miles from the water’s edge. Some had ventured to take up land in the second tier of townships, in the midst of the wilderness, and many miles from any habitation. The population was now increased to about 70,000 souls. The importations was chiefly liquors and groceries, which by the St. Lawrence and the United States, brought a revenue of nearly £7,000. The bulk of the inhabitants manufactured and wore their own clothing. The way of trade was mostly by barter, as gold and silver were scarce, and there were no banks to issue paper currency. Intemperance was very prevalent, and schools were scarce. The youth were too fond of foolish amusements.”—(Playter.)
Chapter XXI
CONTENTS—Sweat of the Brow—No Beast of Burden—No Stock—Except by a Few—Horses and Oxen—From Lower Canada—York State—Later comers, brought some—No Fodder—First Stock in Adolphustown—Incidents—Cock and Hen—“Tipler”—Cattle Driving—First Cow in Thurlow—First House in Marysburgh—The First Oxen—No Market for Butter and Cheese— Sheep—Rev. Mr. Stuart, as an Agriculturist—Horses at Napanee—An offer for a Yoke of Steers.
INTRODUCTION OF STOCK AND BEASTS OF BURDEN.
We have seen that the refugees and disbanded soldiers who entered Canada, brought but a limited number of implements, and those of an imperfect nature. The most of them had no means of lessening labor, no beasts of burden. All the work had to be done by the sturdy arm, and by the sweat of the brow. For years, mostly all alike thus labored, and for many years the increasing number continued to toil, being unable to procure beasts of burden, or any stock. The distance to go for them was too far, and the way too difficult to be undertaken easily. But, a greater difficulty, an insurmountable reason was that they had not the means to purchase, until years of struggling had extracted from the ground, covered with stumps, produce to exchange for the much required help, in the form of beasts of burden. Some of the half-pay officers, and other persons, favored by those holding some situations in the government, were enabled to get beasts of burden at first, or within a year or two. There were a few old soldiers who had a little money, received at being discharged; and again, some sold their location tickets of a portion of their land, and thereby were enabled to make purchase of cows or oxen.
For beasts of burden, they, as a general thing, preferred oxen in preference to horses, to work among the stumps with. Both oxen and horses were brought from Lower Canada and York State. The later comers, especially, fetched with them horses, oxen and cows from the latter place.
A few of the very first settlers, perhaps, brought one or more cows. We find it stated that the disbanded soldiers had a cow allotted to every two families; these must have been procured at Lower Canada, perhaps a few by way of Oswego, where were stationed some troops. Sheriff Ruttan, speaking of the famine, says: “We had the luxury of a cow which the family brought with them.” Thomas Goldsmith came in 1786, and drove a lot of cattle to the Bay: but he could not get enough for them to eat and they, starved to death, excepting one heifer and a yoke of oxen. The Petersons, who settled in the Fourth Town in 1785, and cleared a small lot of land, went “the following year to Montreal and brought up some horses and three cows, which comprised the principal stock then in the Township.”
After a few years, when the settlers had become somewhat established, steps were taken more generally, to procure stock, so necessary to give ordinary comfort to their families; while those who now entered the country brought cows with them. Although the cows and oxen were procured occasionally from Lower Canada; the most of them were obtained from the States; but the horses were in the main at first, brought from Lower Canada. Many incidents attending the long and devious journey through the wilderness, are still told. Thomas Goldsmith, before mentioned, who settled in Prince Edward, came into Canada by way of the Mohawk, Wood Creek, Oneida Lake, and Oswego river, thence to Cataraqui. He undertook to drive some cattle through the woods to Cape Vincent, piloted by a friendly Indian, to swim them across the St. Lawrence. In this journey he suffered almost every privation—hunger, fatigue, exposure. Resting one night in the ordinary manner, with his head slightly raised, upon the root of a tree, with no other covering than the tree’s branches, and sleeping very soundly, after a day’s walking, he became benumbed from exposure, and knew not of the rapidly descending rain, which had actually covered his body when he awoke. Yet this man lived to be ninety years old. Driving cattle through the woods was no easy matter, and dogs were often employed for that purpose. Ex-Sheriff Sherwood, in his valuable memorandum, relates an incident which throws light upon those primitive days. After remarking how well he recollects the pleasure, he and an elder brother experienced from a present made them of a cock and hen, no common luxuries then, and with what care they watched over them, he says: “let me tell you the tragic story of our little ‘Tipler,’ she had become famed for driving cattle, and we thought much of her. Two persons, one named Urehart, from the Bay Quinté, and the other Booth, started to go through the woods to Fort Stanwix for cattle, and prevailed upon my father to let them take poor little ‘Tipler.’ We saw them safe across the river; but, sad to say, neither the men nor Tipler were ever heard of after.”
John Ferguson, writing from Sidney, in July 1791, says that he cannot get horses for the farm until winter.
In the summer of 1787, Elisha Miller and Col. Richey brought from Saratoga County several cattle and horses. They were driven by way of Black River, and swam the St. Lawrence at Gananoque.
The Reeds, who settled in Thurlow, in 1789, had a cow, which afforded the principal means of sustenance. This, with basswood leaves and other greens, constituted their food for many a day.
Mr. Harrison, now living in Marysburgh, tells of the first horse “below the rock.” It was brought, and owned by Colonel McDonald. This, and another were the only ones for many years. Afterward, oxen were brought in, as well as cows, by drovers from Lower Canada.
Rochfoucault says, 1795: “The cattle are not subject to contagious distempers; they are numerous, without being remarkably fine. The finest oxen are procured from Connecticut, at the price of seventy or eighty dollars a yoke. Cows are brought, either from the State of New York, and these are the finest; or from Lower Canada; the former costs twenty, and the latter fifteen dollars. These are small in size, but, in the opinion of the farmers, better milch cows, and are, for this reason, preferred. There are no fine bulls in the country; and the generality of farmers are not sensible of the advantages to be derived from cattle of a fine breed. In the summer, the cattle are turned into the woods; in winter, that is, six months together, they are fed on dry fodder. There is no ready market at which a farmer can sell that part of his cheese and butter which is not wanted for the use of the family. Of cheese and butter, therefore, no more is made than the family need for their own consumption.” “Sheep are more numerous here than in any part of the United States, which we have hitherto traversed. They are either procured from Lower Canada or the State of New York, and cost three dollars a head. They thrive in this country, but are high-legged, and of a very indifferent shape. Coarse wool, when cleaned, costs two shillings a pound.”
The above information was derived, the writer says, from Mr. Stuart, the Curate of Kingston, “who cultivates, himself, seventy acres of land, a part of 2,000 acres which had been granted him as a Loyalist. Without being a very skilful farmer, he is perfectly acquainted with the details of agriculture.” These statements refer no doubt, to the settlements of the Bay. There is reference to horses, by Col. Clarke, whose father, living at the Napanee Mills in 1788, had two favorite horses, Jolly and Bonny.
In an old account book, now before us, for which we are indebted to Mr. P. C. Clarke, of Collinsby, and which belonged to his grandfather, Robert Clarke, who built the Napanee Mills, we find the following entry.
“Appenea Falls, 23rd November, 1785.
“Acct. of work for Adam Bower with his horses. Dec. 3, To day’s work, do., &c. He continued to work for sixty-two days with his horses.”
The following supplies valuable information:
“Appanne Mills, 3rd Aug. 1788.
“Messrs. Collins and Frobisher, Dr.” &c. (They must have been agents for the Government).
“Aug. 21st. To David Bradshaw, one day with his oxen, 6s. June 11. To Samuel Browson, Jun’r., 2 days work with two yoke of oxen, at 10s. March 28th. To 11½ days, Adam Arehart, with a span of horses, at 6s.
“1789. Oct. 1. To Asa Richard; 9 days work with a pair of horses and a woman, at 9s.”
There is a memorandum in Robert Clarke’s book, as follows: “Mr. Joseph Crane got at Canada” (it will be remembered that the first settlers spoke of the Lower Province as Canada) “a bay horse six years old. A brown mare four years old. Second Township, 13th March, 1787.”
The Dempsey’s drove in, 100 miles, some cattle in 1789 to Ameliasburgh. He was offered 200 acres of land for a yoke of four-year-old steers, which offer he refused. At another time he was offered 100 acres for a cow.