Pioneers No Longer - Glimpses of the Past with Karen Webster
December 12, 1879
West Wawanosh Township
Huron County
Dearest Sister Rebecca,
Thank you for communicating to me about the passing of our dear mother, Sarah Ritchie Findlay. She lived to a great age of 77 and I am so sorry that she was unable to visit us here in Ontario as she had so wished to do.
You asked for a description of our life here and I will try to paint a picture of it for you. At first we were living in a great dark forest with only trails to follow to get to the nearest neighbours’ homes or settlements. How things have changed in the 25 years we have been here!
Each year, Robert has cleared away the trees by cutting them down and burning them to create fields to grow our crops of wheat, hay, mangles and potatoes. With the help of our sons, Robbie, now 31, and 19-years old twins James and John, Robert has been able to clear 80 acres. With our hard work, we are now able to own our farm free and clear of debt. We still have 20 acres of bush at the back of our property, as do most of our neighbours, and from this plot we have firewood, some lumber to sell and, sweetest of all, maple trees to tap each spring for maple syrup. Rebecca, you would love this treat, I am sure.
The log house that we lived in when we first settled here is now our summer kitchen and we live in a two-storey frame house that the McWhinney brothers built for us three years ago.
Robbie is a fine young man who looks so much like his father. He is now married to Charlotte and they live only two miles away so that he and Robert are able to work together on both of their farms. Our Mary taught school at Manchester for several years and when she wasn’t married by age 25 we were worried about her. But then, she met a young widower, father of two of her students. Unfortunately, his first wife had died in childbirth and he was left to raise little Maggie and Tess on his own. I must admit that Robert and I had reservations about the union, but all is well. They are living south of Manchester near our Sprung cousins and in March are to welcome a baby to their home.
Tillie is our third child, such a sweet girl but she has had trouble with book learning. I am sure she will be a comfort to Robert and me in our old age. Our Martha is turning 22 this year. She took a course at the Clinton Model School and, like her sister Mary, is a teacher, but in Goderich, where she boards with a nice family by the name of McLaren.
Our twins are quite the pair of handsome, strong young men and they have no shortage of social activities to attend.
Becky, your namesake, is now 17. Being our youngest, one might call her slightly precocious, but she is a good girl and is the first of our family to want to attend university. She attends the collegiate in Goderich and boards at the same place as Martha. A young lad by the name of Angus seems to find his way to our farm quite often. I wonder why?
This summer, our vegetable garden was quite prolific and we have a great quantity of carrots, beets, rutabaga, squash and potatoes in our root cellar. We also have rows of jars of pickles and all kinds of preserves to tide us through the winter. We now have a fine orchard and are growing Early Joe, St. Lawrence and Harvest apples. As well, there are some pear and cherry trees. A neighbour, Mr. McPhee, has a fine vineyard and he has given me some cuttings to try and grow our own grapes. In addition, we have plenty of rhubarb plants and red and black currant bushes. I feel we are quite self-sufficient these days, not like the first few years when we were here. Life was so hard back then.
There was some excitement in the county in the early spring when the Belden Company came to produce a book called a Historical Atlas of Huron County. As you may remember, our municipality was once called Wawanosh. As more people came into the area to settle, the population had grown to the point that Wawanosh was divided into sections called East and West. This change took place in 1867 when our country of Canada was formed by an act of parliament in Britain. This new atlas has maps of all the townships, towns and villages in Huron County complete with the names of the landowners. There are historical write-ups as well.
A team of “sketchers” went to all corners of Huron to record buildings and likenesses of several people. Unfortunately, the sketches that are in the atlas are only of those who paid to be subscribers of the publication. Thus, our family and property are not included. I did, however, manage to save up the extravagant price of $10 to by a copy of the atlas. Perhaps it will be a keepsake for the family in years to come.
One local person who did have his house and buildings included was Mr. Charles Girvin from the Nile area. He has been our reeve since 1857 and last year was named the warden of the whole county.
Well, Rebecca, another Christmas is approaching when we are not together. I was so glad to hear that you and David are planning to come to Canada to live next year. We look forward to you finding some land close to us.
Merry Christmas, dearest sister,
Love, Nancy
(A letter from a fictitious settler family with references to real people and events.)