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The McPhatter Letters (The recollections of the
first generation of settlers in recollections gathered by Mr.
Matthew McPhatter.) 1897. |
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Please note that the
complete McPhatter letters are available in book form from the Puslinch
Historical Society. |
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An Introduction to
Introductions This introduction, the first
of three introductions, and the least significant of three, purposes only to
confirm the quality of what is to follow. The second introduction, by
Anna McCormick Finally, in an introduction
that is well within the realm of perfection, Matthew McPhatter, in a humble
and self effacing manner, belying the worth of the historical gem that he had
fashioned, addresses, with most affectionate reverence, the object of his
work, to preserve the memories of the very first pioneers and therewith, a
record of the remarkable courage and labour that had built the author’s now
familiar and beloved home, the “grand old” Township of Puslinch. The letters themselves
provide a most genuine history, demonstrating the uniqueness of that which
each of us considers as important from the past, and it is as a composite
wherein the strength of the letters lies, for taken as a whole, the impact of
the letters far exceeds that of its individual parts. For those who seek a tangible past, the
McPhatter letters are not far from it. |
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Introduction
to “The McPhatter Letters” by Anna
This
collection of “letters” originated in 1897 when Matthew McPhatter interviewed
many older people in the township and recorded their memories as individual
“letters”. In some instances he
requested written letters from former residents. The
“interview letters” frequently have a change of person, or narrator, in the
first paragraph. Thus, a letter may
begin: “The subject of this sketch was born in...... in the year ... and came
to These
letters were given by Matthew McPhatter to the school teacher, Alexander
McIntyre for safe keeping when Matthew left the community. Alexander McIntyre also moved away, to
Niagara-on the-Lake, taking the material with him. In
the late 1930’s or early 1940’s, John W. Gilchrist, first cousin of Alexander
McIntyre, became the caretaker for Colonel J. B. MacLean’s Museum at
Crieff. J. W. Gilchrist wrote to
McIntyre’s sister requesting that the letters be sent to him at the
Museum. She complied with the request. It appears that J. W. Gilchrist made a few
additions, e.g. McCaig, McFarlane. It
also appears that A. McIntyre edited the letters; in a few cases it has been
necessary to use that version. The When
the Annals of Puslinch were being prepared in 1950, the editor, William A.
McCormick, retrieved the letters; their contents were in part used in the
Annals, and the originals remained in Mr. McCormick’s possession. By inheritance, they have come into my
safe-keeping. Having
read and re-read their contents, I have come to recognize the value of the
information contained in this collection. Consequently
I have taken the time to commit them to word processor and print because the
original pencil-written pages are becoming faint. They remain almost totally unedited. Some of the information is incorrect;
indeed, there is the occasional inconsistency in a few letters. The writer (interviewer McPhatter)
apparently had his own views of valuable content, commenting that space would
not permit more material. |
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The McPhatter Letters compiled and introduced by
Mr. Matthew McPhatter. 1897. |
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Introduction Many
of the inhabitants of Puslinch have on several occasions desired me to write
a history of the township. I have not
undertaken this task because I thought that I could do it better than any
other person; indeed, it would have pleased me if some one of the many in the
township who are much more competent than I had undertaken the task - but as
no one else seemed inclined to take it up and the old settlers are fast
passing away, so that it is now or never, and had it been done ten years ago
much information might have been obtained that is now lost, I did my best to
get as correct a history as possible and I now dedicate it to the people of
my native township. Hoping
that all the imperfections in the work will be overlooked and that in the future
it may form the basis of a more extended history of our grand old township. Puslinch,
September 1897. The
editor, Matthew
McPhatter. |
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At
your request, I give you a few reminiscences of the past 36 years in Puslinch
when I settled here in 1861. Many
changes have taken place. My
old neighbours are nearly all gone:
Major Heath, Colonel Saunders, and others who were my nearest
neighbours. The former was about the only magistrate in our section in these
days and people went to him from all quarters to get his advice and get their
disputes settled. Major Heath came
from Nottingham Mr.
Stirton was my neighbour for years and a very kind and obliging neighbour he
was. I voted for him the first vote I
ever gave without asking whether he was Grit or Tory, knowing him to be an
honest man. Mr.
James Glennie succeeded him and he was a very good neighbour. He, Mr. P. Mahon and myself were the first
to organize the Puslinch Farmers Club and we saved hundreds of dollars for
the members by purchasing our implements, seeds etc. at wholesale prices. In those days, farming was a paying
business and we could afford to live on the fat of the land. I have got as much as $1.45 bushel for
barley and got a cheque from the late John Stewart for $112 for one
load. Mr.
Buchanan is another of my neighbours and a very old settler, having come
there in early days. He lived in one
of the first houses built in Puslinch, some 60 years ago, by the
McPhatters. He now owns over 200
acres of first class land and he and his sons are considered amongst the best
farmers in the Township. Mr.
Sorby succeeded Col. Saunders and he has joined the great majority; a better
neighbour could not be. His two sons
are now the leading horse breeders of the province, especially in Clydesdales
and Hackneys. They also have some the
best pedigreed Ayrshire cattle and Another
very old resident still alive in my neighbourhood is Mr. Robert Porter, now
in his 80th year, who has bred some fine horses in his day. Mr. James Laurie is another horse breeder of
note in that section, breeding some first class carriage horses. He was made
a Justice of the Peace some few years ago; was first President of the Central
Exhibition, 25 years ago, and has been twice since. James
Anderson. (known as the Laird of Puslinch) |
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Begerow The
late Fredrick Begerow Esq. was born in The
youngest son, August, is well known in Puslinch and Galt and he can remember
the early days around the At
one time there were five hotels on the lake, four along the shores and one on
the big island, that covers in extent about five acres of land, and besides,
there are the other three islands of less extent. Mr. Arnold kept the hotel on the
island. Alex Parks, Mrs. Pembroke,
Thomas France and Fredrick Begerow kept hotels on the shores. Some
parts of the lake are about twenty-five feet deep and the water in the Little
Lake, close by, is supposed to be fifty feet deep; curious to say, the Little
Lake has no outlet or inlet except a channel dug from the Little There
have not been many accidents on the Again,
on 14th Oct. 1895, Robert
Lamb was out on the lake shooting ducks, and he and Alex Patrick had some
ducks and were in the act of shooting, when the boat capsized, and he sank
and never recovered and was found about two hours afterwards. August Begerow, Killean District. |
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Borthwick The
subject of this sketch is a very old resident of Puslinch, being born in the Having
cleared the farm where they now live, In
those early days, we hauled our flour from Galt on our backs, which we did
for many years after we came to Puslinch.
We were making maple sugar and maple molasses in those days, and we
would make money on selling maple sugar and later we made cheese to
sell. In
moving here, we came by what is now called Galt but then was known as an
Indian settlement. Shades Road was
north of here, about a mile north of our farm. Mr.
Borthwick died in the year 1866, being a very intelligent man, and belonging
to the Freemasons. The
Indians were plentiful in the early days in these parts. They had a wigwam
nearby. They were in the habit of
visiting our shanty asking for food and sometimes they would pull the turnips
out of the turnip patch, roast and eat them. The
wolves were very destructive in those days and would kill the calves and
lambs in the neighbourhood. Hunting for
the cows in those days was a trying job. Sometimes I would go down to the
Second Concession, as far as Willie Blue’s farm, to find them, 5 miles
through the bush. Mrs.
Charles (Silomie) Borthwick. |
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Brown The
subject of this sketch was born in They
were first finishing the Among
my sons are Solomon, Barney, George, William and Charles. Solomon and William are butchers, and
Barney keeps hotel at Bernhart Brown, Morriston. |
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Callfas I
was born in Trees,
which would be worth considerable money now, were hewn down and burned or
sold for almost nothing. Instead of
the farming implements of today, the hoe was our plough and the sickle was
our reaper. The
wolves stationed themselves on a hill near by and kept up howling until the
light was put out; then they would pace around the shanty in flocks. In broad daylight, bears came looking
through the windows and took pigs out of the pen. We bought one cow and father traded a rifle
which he brought from Sugar
making became the rage, and many days and nights we worked in the woods
gathering sap and boiling maple syrup and sugar. My sisters used to carry baskets of eggs
and maple sugar on their heads eight miles to a store. We used to go forty miles for apples. Our nearest market was Indians
used to camp near here and in return for milk, potatoes, and such like, kept
us supplied with venison, and they were faithful friends indeed; when I ate
venison, how I could run. In fact, I
couldn’t walk and four hours sleep did me more good than eight hours now. We
used to go to Our
shanty gave way to a somewhat larger log house in which we lived until 1855,
when we built the stone house in which we now live. Charles Callfas Morriston. |
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Carter John
Carter, the subject of this sketch was born in Wiltshire, England, in 1813,
and came to At
that time, there came from England and settled on the plains, the Carters,
Thomas Arkell, John Iles, Charles Willoughby, Henry Haines, James Hewer, Henry
Decker, John Hewer, Thomas Petty, Lewis King, Joseph Bell, Henry Dory, James
Wilson, John Haines, Henry Thatcher, Jesse Cooke, Henry Bright, and the Terry
family that kept a beer shop near where the English Church now stands. These were the names of the first English
families that settled on the Plains and they were the first pioneers. As
well, there was a settlement to the south of the Plains, of Irish families,
by the names of Lynch, Hanlon, Mulroney, Mooney, Fitzmorris, Burns, McNulty
and James Hamilton, who kept the hotel on the On
the east and south was the Scotch settlement.
Their names were Hume, Cook, Green, Scott, Beattie, Johnson, Murray
and Orme. These were the early
settlers in the Arkell district ─ also Duncan Stewart and Duncan
McFarlane. John
Carter Arkell
District. |
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Cassin The
subject of this sketch was born in I
spent all my young days in the wilderness and spent my schooldays in the
first school that was built in Puslinch which was built on The
origin of the name Puslinch: Cassie
and I are led to believe that at a house raising, and in pushing up the logs,
one John P. Lynch was not working as well as they thought he should be and
they were calling out for Lynch to push upon the log that was going to be set
on the building, so the word and name Pushlinch. After that, In
our arriving in Hamilton we started for and intended, with an oxen team, to
settle in what is known later as Pilkington Township, but travelling through
the bush was a consideration and as my father and mother, brothers and sisters
were on our way up from Hamilton, the roads were very bad. We stopped at James Flynn’s tavern or what
was known later as the McMeekin and still later as the Ingram Hotel, on Lot
18 on the Brock Road, and we stopped over night, being very tired, and our ox
team being done out. Well, we bought
the farm where we have lived ever since; where we built and cleared the
land. My
father died in 1850 and my mother in 1862.
I, being the youngest of the boys, stayed on the home farm. My brother, Robert had lived on I
can remember the first township meeting held in Puslinch was held at Flynn’s
tavern in the year 1833 and James Henry was chairman. The “chair” was a big hemlock stump
opposite the tavern door. Making laws
pertaining to the affairs of the township, I find that there has not been any
record of this meeting kept. The We
would make maple sugar in those days and would trade with stores at 3 cents a
pound. The first store in Aberfoyle was kept and owned by John McFarlane,
father of the late Duncan McFarlane. I
can remember when the Indians would camp in the district and I have seen as
many as 65 deer laying dead in their camp, on their return from a hunting
tour and we would trade a loaf of bread for a whole carcass of deer after the
hide was taken. The Indian wigwams
were very large, that I can remember.
Where the hole in the centre ______, built of poles and shingled with
hemlock brush, and the fire in the center of the wigwam. The squaws and the young Indians would keep
plenty of dry wood on hand, from dry sticks or dry timber got through the
bush. When night would come the
Indians, squaws, and young Indians would sit around the fire and they would
smoke tobacco and sumac. They would
cut and dry the wild sumac and would smoke it in their pipes when their
tobacco would run short. I have often
seen them hang their papoose (young Indian child) on a limb of a tree facing
the south, in the fall of the year when the child would be strapped or tied
to a board on its back, tied on with slippery elm or dog wood bark, tied
around the feet and the arms, and the little ones would hang there and kick,
squeal, and crow for hours at a time.
I could relate many such incidents but space will not allow; but these
were the happiest days in my life while young and amongst the Indians and
wild beasts in the forest in Puslinch in the early days. Martin Cassin, Aberfoyle. |
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Caufield
or Caulfield Patrick
Caufield was born in |
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John
Clark came to Puslinch in 1833. His
son, Angus, was one of the four that came out in 1832. The family consisted of 7 sons, Angus,
Robert, Duncan, Donald, John, Peter, and Malcolm, and 3 daughters, Christina,
Janet and Mary. They took up 600 acres
from the crown, lots 29 & 30 on the 8th, and 33, 34, 27, 28 on the
9th. John
Clark was considered the patriarch of Badenoch settlement and was for years
the leading farmer in Puslinch, raising many horses and cattle. Shortly after
the family was located, he bought a pair of steers in Flamborough, but that
first night the wolves killed and devoured them. Malcolm
remained on the homestead. Robert
Clark’s sons have four farms in one block.
John and Hugh married two daughters of Alex McLean. It can readily be inferred from the
numerous and early settlement of the Badenoch. |
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Cober Nicholas
Cober, the subject of this sketch was born on But
to return to the early days: the first
year of arriving in Puslinch he cleared 12 acres of land, it being all bush
at this time. We built a hut and my
wife and myself logged and chopped all the farm with exception of 10
acres. For neighbours at this time we
had Jacob Cober in At
these times wolves, deer, and bears were numerous and I have seen many of
them shot by hunters by the name of David Berriner, David Gilchrist, David
Ellis and Abe Gingrich. Logging bees
and log barn and houses were the rule of the day and Mr. Cober has many
incidents to relate and always had a grog boss at all gatherings of these
sorts and very rarely seen men the worse of liquor. We
had six of a family. Four are yet
alive: 2 boys married and one daughter.
Noah, the eldest son now lives in Maryborough Township, is saw-milling
and farming. The daughter, Margaret, married John Goudy in Mr.
Cober is a member of the N.
P. Cober |
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Collins Mrs.
Thomas Collins was born in King's County, She
married Mr. Collins in 1842 and they have occupied Mrs.
Collins has 10 children, all living at the time of writing. |
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Cook The
subject of this sketch was born near Howich, His
brother, William, had the contract of building all of the Mrs.
Cook has been dead for 14 years and left a family of 8 boys and girls. Mr. Cook is now in his 80th year. Walter
Cook. |
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Decker The
subject of this sketch was born in the state of I
have spent all my life in Puslinch and am the oldest settler alive in this
part of the township and he has seen the forest cleared and improved, logged,
fenced, and improved with buildings, roads, concessions, and accommodations
in living by what we had in the earlier days.
We built one of the first log houses in this district that is still
used as a dwelling, near Arkell village, owned now by Peter Petty. I
married Susan Iles 48 years ago and have a family of 5 girls and one son in On
our first coming out to Puslinch we had for neighbours, Mr. F. W. Stone who
came from New York at the same time as me, Mr. Thos Arkell, James Carter and
his family, Charles Willoughby, and Thomas King and family, and Peter Hume
and family. We had sociable people to
live with and would do anything to help each other in any way to make
everything easier. The
first yoke of oxen we had in company with the late F. W. Stone and we worked
them together for 3 years; then we were able to get a yoke of oxen each. Thomas King owned the first horses in this
section. One was a black mare and the
other was a sorrel horse. Later on, Mr. King owned the first threshing
machine (open cylinder) in the district. William
Henry Decker Arkell. |
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The
subject of this sketch was born in the city of Cork, Ireland in the year 1820
and came to Puslinch in 1844 and taught school in Puslinch, at the Downey
School, called after himself and this district has been known as the Downey
School section ever since, and he taught school in Puslinch for 24 years
continually, being the Public School teacher in Puslinch. Sometimes he had as many as 80 scholars and
an average of about 60 scholars. Mr.
Downey some time ago retired and came to He
had a first class certificate and at that time there was only one other in
the Mr.
Downey had a family of three daughters and three sons. One of his sons, Joseph P. is editor of the
Patrick
Downey, Late
School-teacher at the |
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Doyle Patrick
O’Neil Doyle, with his wife and three children, emigrated from Borris in the
county of Carlow, Ireland in April 1830 and was one of the first settlers in
the Township of Puslinch on Lot 13, 4th Concession, now called Borris. Here he remained until his death in
1848. The
late P. O’Neil Doyle took a great interest in public office, was one of the
first councillors of the township and always voted reform, travelling as far
as Dundas to cast his vote. His two
oldest sons, John and James lived for some years in the township and were
elected councillors at different times.
James Doyle took an active part in the McLee scheme of colonizing in
1854 and the settlement of a large colony in Hastings County, near the
present Maynooth. He lived there
until 1865 when he went to the Michael
P. Doyle, youngest son of Patrick O’Neil Doyle now owns the old homestead and
has added 400 acres more to it. His
third daughter, Ellen, joined the Loretto Convent in |
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Eagle Elijah
Eagle was born in Except
for some small spots here and there, where the settlers were making clearings,
Puslinch was all bush when he arrived.
Once a deer was chased by some wolves into the lake. The ice was thin and the deer broke
through, but managed to escape with a broken horn. Some boys among whom I was, followed the
deer out through McKellar's bush onto McMaster's where the There
were several families of Indians living near our place in lodges, hunting and
fishing and making baskets. |
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Eagle James
Eagle was born in His
mother, Annie Eagle, was the first school teacher in the Dickie
Settlement. She taught school at the
farm house while Mr. Eagle and the boys were logging and clearing the
land. The scholars were the Fyfe, Chaseman,
Ransom, McAllister, and Lamont children.
When the section for school purposes was formed, the teacher would
teach for two weeks in each house until the whole section was visited. Then a schoolhouse was built on the Dickie
estate on Mr.
Eagle’s house was also where preaching was held, when Mr. Nichol held
services according to the rites of the On
this Lot 7, a shop was opened where the wood work for the ploughs of the Fishing
and hunting were great sport. Mr.
Eagle remembers Alex Parkes and himself spearing 40 big black bass in one
evening on Mr.
Eagle has a family of 6, three sons and three daughters. Mrs. Eagle’s maiden name was Martin, giving
rise to many humorous allusions, when it was said that an eagle ran away with
a martin. For
a number of years, Mr. Eagle has lived in Hespeler where he has been prominent
in the Council and in the |
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Ellis Thomas
Ellis was born in They
came to Puslinch in 1839 and settled on Thomas
was elected to the District Council in 1848 and 1849; to the The
family members have all been soldiers.
The eldest son, David, was studying medicine at |
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Falconbridge Mr.
Falconbridge was born in The
family came to this country in the year 1820, or thereabouts, when the
subject of this sketch was only 9 years old.
His father had a large family and he only had the advantages of two
winter sessions at school; consequently he had to carve out his own fortune
and educate himself besides. Very
early in the history of the township and when only a few settlers were here,
his father, while out on a prospecting tour, came to Guelph when there were
only two or three houses there, then came down into Puslinch as far as where
the Hamilton Hotel stands and remained there all night, if not longer. Very few settlers were in this township at
that time; there were no roads, only paths through the bush. Mr.
Falconbridge Jr. was in the general store business at At
the time that the Shortly
after he arrived here, the inhabitants felt the lack of postal facilities to
communicate with their friends and therefore a meeting of the residents was
called and the result was a petition to the Postmaster General, asking the
government to establish a post office here and to appoint Mr. Falconbridge as
Postmaster. The government complied
with their request and opened an office here and put Mr. Falconbridge in
charge as Postmaster in the fall of 1851.
The
office was named, after considerable discussion, Aberfoyle, after a place in On
the retirement of the late John Hammersley Senior from the office of
Treasurer of the Corporation of Puslinch in June 1856, Mr. Falconbridge was
appointed to fill that position, without any solicitation on his part. He retired from office in favour of his
son, Blair, in the year 1888. He
was of a retiring disposition and preferred home life to public life;
consequently he never took any very active part in politics. His sympathies were with the Liberals,
however, and he always supported them. |
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Donald
Ferguson, for many years Postmaster and storekeeper at Killean, was born in
Invernesshire, in 1832. He came to Puslinch
in 1851 and engaged in store-keeping, first on the Donald
was for a long time superintendent of the construction of roads in certain
districts in Muskoka and spent his summers at his work there. He died in the year 1891, leaving a wife
and large family. Lewis
Ferguson, a younger brother of Donald’s, was also long a well-known resident
of Puslinch. He had been employed for
2 years in |
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The
subject of this sketch was well known in Puslinch as Postmaster at Killean
Post Office for many years. He was
born in Invernesshire and came to Puslinch in the early days. He saw that there was not much chance at
home for a poor boy and so he set out from Scotland and sailed from Liverpool
to New York and made one of the fastest trips across the ocean up to that
time, having completed the trip in 21 days and that was looked upon in those
days as something phenomenal. Arriving
in N.Y., he took a position with J. S. Stewart & Co. of I
followed the grocery and dry goods business all my life. Being the youngest son of six, I had to
paddle my own canoe all my life time, since I was 10 years old. Lewis Ferguson. |
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Fleming The
subject of this sketch was born in Midlothian, I
married, in 1852, Jane Cockburn, sister of Hugh Cockburn, and had a family of
2 sons and 3 daughters. My wife died
in the year 1861. My mother died in
1835, leaving me and my two brothers and one half sister to hunt out a living
for ourselves in a new country. I
worked for John McFarlane on the 2nd Concession for some time and can
remember being water boss at logging bees.
The ox teamsters at this bee were John McDiarmid, who is still alive
and is now 95 years old, the late Donald Munroe, George Taylor and Matthew
McPhatter, John Marshall, Peter Dimond, Hector Smith, Donald Ferguson, Peter
Robison, Malcolm, Peter, and Alex McNaughton, and I was water boss and Peter
McNaughton Senior was grog boss. John
McFarlane was a tailor by trade and went out making clothes for all the
settlers, and would go out to Guelph Township and make clothes for the
Laidlaw, Elliott, McCorkindale, and Cleghorn families, and others. I
can remember well the first murder committed in Puslinch in the month of
March, when Buntin stabbed Allen. That
took place at Flynn’s Tavern on the I
can remember the first settlers in Badenoch settlement, Donald McLean, Peter
Grant, and Alex McBean, and they built a shanty on Malcolm
Clark had the first frame barn in Badenoch and it was framed by a
Frenchman. His name was Zip Parttoe
and he died in a shanty with old age on Matthew Elliott’s farm. The
first female child was Jane Elizabeth Nichol, eldest sister of Col. Nichol,
who is now at the time of writing 61 years.
Both of the first born in Badenoch are still alive and good for many
more years. The
first horse that was owned in the Badenoch settlement was owned by Peter
Idington. Alex
Fleming. |
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Fraser Alex
Fraser, 2nd Concession, of Puslinch, was born in Lochbroom, Rosshire and
sailed from Stranraer in the Island of Bute in 1838 and came directly to the
Township of Puslinch and arrived in Quebec in October and settled on the 1st
Concession of Puslinch on Lot 29, and in 1840 moved to Lot 17 on the 2nd
Concession, Puslinch where he lived and married Kate Black in the year 1857. Kate
was born in Argyleshire, Mr.
Fraser has seen some of the early and hard times in Puslinch and helped to
build all the first houses and barns in this section of Puslinch, when it
took two days to come from Hamilton with his loads of wheat for grist and
they had to carry their flour on their backs from the Brock Road, about 4
miles and about 20 miles from Dundas, and 25 miles from Hamilton. The Oxen
were worth from $50 - $60.; cows were worth from $10 - $12.; horses - there
were none in Puslinch; wheat was worth 50 to 60 cents; oats were 12 1/2 cents
in trade; potatoes were 25 cents in the field. For
neighbours, I had Donald McCaig and family on Lot 17 on the 2nd Concession,
and Hector Smith on Lot 18 on the 1st
concession, and Donald McShannoch, on In
those days, the people were very cheerful and would go out to a house or barn
log raising on a Monday morning and keep on going to house or barn raisings
every day till Saturday of that week and keep it up for a month at a time, in
the month of March every year, and a dance every night. No violin music, but the Irish or Scotch
Pipes. Whisky Kilrae and good,
too. Then,
logging bees began about the first of June and would continue on till the
frost would come in the fall of the year. Sometimes 10 and 12 yokes of oxen
in one field with 4 men and a driver with every yoke of oxen, and could log
ten acres and even more in a day. Then
a dance at night. Lots of whisky on
the field with a grog boss and a man carrying water to the men at work at the
bee. The
women at that time had to cook with the old fashioned bake kettle with red
hot coals of fire above and coals below and I can tell you we had good bread
and cooked the meats in a tin oven in the fire place. In
those days, there was only one store in the city of The
The
McKenzie Rebellion time, leaving the district to join the rebels at |
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Fyfe Mrs.
Fyfe was born in Tyrone County, Ireland, in 1830. Her parents emigrated to Mr.
and Mrs. Fyfe were married in 1852 and started life together on the farm that
is still the homestead. The only
neighbour they had in 1834 was the late Neil Holm, who occupied Once,
her father and mother coming home at night from Betsy McGinnis’ wedding, lost
track of the blazes and could not find their way. They had to stay in the bush all
night. When daylight came they found
close by the remains of a deer newly killed by wolves. |
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Gilchrist The
subject of this sketch was born in Kintyre, Argyleshire, Scotland, in 1824,
and arrived with his father, the late John Gilchrist, his mother, brothers,
William, Archie, Malcolm, and Anne, Duncan, myself, Mary, Peter and Kate. We
sailed from Then,
as the time went on, each one of the sons settled on farms, all in the John
Gilchrist. |
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Hammersley The
subject of this is the oldest first male child born in the My
father arrived in the township from England in April 1832 and the first work
he did was to chop and log and clear the land in the city of Guelph, where
the J. P. Williamson, the Golden Lyon, and where Bell’s Piano and Organ
Factories are now and where the J. B. Armstrong Factory now stands, and all
those streets, McDonald St. and Market Square, and where the Royal Hotel and
where the Grand Trunk Railway Station now stands. My father cleared this land for Mr.
Sandiland, the banker, who died about 35 years ago. He
then came to Puslinch in the next September, onto He
was the first He
was also Captain of the Militia at the time of the McKenzie Rebellion and his
company went to Peter
McBeath was the first constable in Puslinch; the first reeve was John
Cockburn; John Black was the first township assessor; Richard Ellis was the
first township collector. Then later,
Mr. Ellis was assessor and collector till the year 1849. Now
for an incident: the first fight in
Puslinch between the Irish and the Scotch.
It happened at Flynn’s Tavern when Big John Thomson, Matthew
McPhatter, Angus McKellar, Little John Thomson, John McPherson, Neil Thomson,
and many others from the 1st Concession were in the hotel drinking, and
having a lively time. There were also
among them all the McLeans and Hannings and the Clarks from Badenoch. When the Scotch boys gave some offence to
the Irish boys and Thomas Armstrong went up to James Hamilton’s hotel on the
Brock Road and out north to the Irish settlement and called out all the
settlement and brought them along down to Flynn’s Tavern. Among them were Armstrongs, Lynchs, Clears,
Eustaces, and the Readys, Kinsellas and others, and they went at it with
shillelaghs, sticks, and hand to hand and in every shape they could get at
each other and kept it up from 3 o’clock in the afternoon and kept it up all
night till midnight and they tore the house almost to pieces. The bar was torn down, everything left in
pieces. This was the first Irish and
Scotch fight in Puslinch. The
first settler in Puslinch was a Welshman, name unknown, who settled on William
Graham built the first sawmill in Puslinch on John
Hammersley, Aberfoyle. |
|
Hanlon The
subject of this sketch was born in In
1833, he took up Lots 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16 on the 6th Concession of Puslinch,
it being clergy reserve at that time and he was to pay at the rate of
seventeen shillings and six pence per acre for the land upon conditions of
actual settlement at that time. Peter
Robertson was commissioner of Crown lands and his first payment was made on
the 5th of February 1833 and he was one of the first actual settlers in
Puslinch. He
lived on the estate, cleared and improved and paid for the properties, raised
a family of 3 sons and 4 daughters, James, Patrick, John, Catherine, Margaret,
Mary & Sarah. All the daughters
are alive, but Mr. Hanlon himself died in 1882, and his son James died in
1873. Patrick owns the homestead, an
immense property with good buildings and well improved fields, and John lives
on Lot 3 on the 7th concession, also a well improved farm, just 3
miles from Guelph, almost adjoining the model farm. The
late Felix Hanlon was one of the earliest settlers and could relate many
incidents of the earliest days in the bush and how he, when carrying flour
home from Guelph, the wolves overtook him in the bush and treed him up a tree
and kept him there till the next morning, leaving the flour at the bottom of
the tree, and the wolves trampled and destroyed the flour so that it was of
no more use. Being of a cheerful disposition,
he often would relate to his family the romantic history of the earliest days
in Puslinch. Late
Felix Hanlon. |
|
Iles The
late John Iles, one of the pioneers of the Township of Puslinch, emigrated from
England in the year 1836 and came over the stormy Atlantic in the ship called
the “Caledonia”, by way of Quebec, and was nine weeks wrestling with wind and
waves, and came up the St. Lawrence, drawn up the rapids by horses that were
guided by a man with a large knife, to cut the rope and let us run back in
case the horses became overpowered. We
landed at Hamilton on May the first, the same year, and arrived on Puslinch
Plains on the 3rd day of same month, all well; we lived in a house on the
Town plot of Farnham Plains the first year and then moved onto a farm of Mr.
John Arkell, of three hundred acres, now known as the Haines farm, which had
quite a large clearing for those days. This
was about the time of McKenzie’s Rebellion, when some people were not
satisfied with the government or what was called the Family Compact and so
made a great fuss. We stayed on the
above farm for three years. Father was
not called out to shoot anyone. I
suppose he, being a good Tory and a loyal subject of Her Majesty, was allowed
to stay at home and protect his family.
I
remember two or three things that happened in those days. One was a man dressed in soldier’s clothes,
with a red coat, of course, came to our house. Father and mother were away and we
children, having heard that soldiers, some of them, wore red coats and killed
people, we all got frightened, ran away and hid ourselves when we saw the man
coming and left the house unprotected; of course, life is sweet. Another,
also happened when Pa and Ma were away.
A near neighbour of ours came, he said to keep us children company
during the evening, and he got us to hunt up the whisky jar. So he took a little drop at times and sang
songs and told stories, so we enjoyed a very pleasant evening; of course, whisky
was cheap and good in those days - 25 cents a gallon. Another
was on the 2nd of June, 1839.
When it was thought necessary to make all men soldiers, the militia of
Puslinch was called out and was put through a process of training on Farnham
Common (without guns). It was a grand
field day, I assure you, and they had plenty of liquor on the grounds and
some person or persons were kind enough to give the writer liquor. I got drunk and dizzy at the age of five
years and the world seemed to be turning round with me but I did not know at
that time that it did go round. Father
had taken up another farm of two hundred acres in the same neighbourhood,
near what is called Arkell Post office, and cleared some ten acres and put up
a good log house. He moved onto this
farm in the spring of 1840. The land
was very good, strong and heavy, with very heavy timber, mostly maple and
beech, many of them two feet and one half in diameter. The land is a little rolling but not steep,
has a very fine appearance, and is said to be the best farm in the Well,
there was at this time, my father and my mother and a family of seven growing
up, four girls and three boys, and we got along comparatively well, with lots
of hard work. Pa was a good hand to
keep us boys at work and did a fair share himself. Chopping in winter, logging bees in summer
was the order of the day in those times, with plenty of whisky. In the course of time, things changed. There was not much more chopping and
logging to do and the stumps were getting pretty well rotted out of the first
cleared fields. On hardwood timbered
land, the stumps would get pretty well rotted out in ten years and then the
fields could be ploughed and worked much easier. Pa was considered to be a
first class farmer. He
went back to The
first break in father’s family was when our oldest sister was married to Mr.
Thomas Carter in 1847. After two more
years, our next oldest sister married Mr. W. H. Decker in 1849. Those were the two oldest of the
family. Then fortune skipped two, of
course, boys are mostly slow; and the third daughter was married to Mr. Wm.
Caufield in 1854 and moved to the |
|
Kennedy William
(Crocan) Kennedy came out with the Clark, Grant, and Lauchlan,
the oldest son, is still living (1898) at the advanced age of 94 years, and
has been from the beginning an elder in Duff’s Church. He has a family of 6, three sons and three
daughters. |
|
Henry
A. Kirkland Jr., of Union Ontario, eldest son of Henry Kirkland Sr., writes,
with regard to the matter of our family’s history in connection with
Puslinch, I do not remember exact dates.
We arrived in Father’s
farm or lot was then all woods. As
soon as he could put up a log house and have a little clearing around same,
we moved into it (which was that fall).
We had to go to I
went to David
Stirton lived for many years on the adjoining farm to father’s, and would
likely know, as he and father were very intimate friends, and I have no doubt
that he could give more particulars, as he took an active part in public
affairs for many years. H.
A. Kirkland, per
his son WMK, druggist, Galt. |
|
Laird The
subject of this sketch was born in the north of Ireland, near Londonderry,
and came to Puslinch in the year 1830, and took the land where he now lives,
ever since that time, and has not been a month away from the farm, Lots no. 9
and 10 on the 7th Concession. This
farm is one of the first farms that was bought from the Crown Lands Office in
the Township of Puslinch and my father took up 200 acres and paid $2.00 per
acre on conditions of actual settlement, and the writer saw the location
tickets for the land in which Mr. Laird has been the possessor ever since the
first of October 1830. At that time,
Peter Robinson was Commissioner of Crown lands and R. C. Thornhill was the
agent, and in Elora, Andrew Geddes was the District Agent. At
this time, the My
brother, Our
first neighbours after we came here were George Patterson, Joseph Lynch,
Patrick Carroll, and William Carroll and they took their land up from the
Crown on the November 20th, 1828. They
were one year after Humphrey Loveradge, the Welshman, who was the first
settler in Puslinch and built the first shanty in the township and lived on
Lot 13 on the 7th Concession, where he lived for three years when he died on
that lot, and he was the first settler and the first death in the
township. This man took up this farm
before the township was surveyed. About
the Shades Road, it was in the early days and we had no roads and we had
either to go to It
has been very interesting to have an interview with and hear many histories to
tell about wolves killing the young cattle, the cows, and the sheep, and the
bears would kill the pigs and he came very near being killed by a bear and
tells of how he lived with the Indians in the bush and speaks very well of
how the Indians used him and can remember seeing a wolverine or panther in
the bush and of how he met the panther in the bush and how he and his brother
went out to hunt the panther that was howling in the bush and he can remember
of being lost in the bush when the Indians were sent out after and found him
near McCrae’s Corners. I
can remember many reminiscences of early days at logging bees. One logging bee, I was at Richard Hewitt’s
farm, where D. Sorbey lives now, and there were about 30 yokes of oxen there
at this bee and we had it all staked out and we logged about 30 acres that
day and when night came we had a dance on the green grass and we had jolly
times, these days, and I can remember the stump of the first tree that was
cut in Guelph on April 17th 1827 and after years when I can remember this
same stump was made use of with a sun dial on it and we often went to see the
sundial to know the time of day. James
Laird. |
|
Little Robert
Little was born in Mr.
Little Senior took up Lot 9, adjacent, 200 acres, and bought it from a land
agent in Robert’s
first school days were spent on the 6th Concession at Mr.
Little was married in 1862, when he bought the farm that he now
occupies. In 1875, he built a cheese
factory with a capacity of 1000 lbs. a day, and four years later added a
butter department. This was the first
cheese factory in the |
|
Lynch Michael
Lynch was born in the County of Carlow, Their
first neighbours were the families of Doyle, Ready, Lynch, Hanlon, Caulfield,
Tobin, McGinnis, The
spade was used instead of the plough.
The ground was covered by being scratched with brush, and their reaper
was the hook. The crop was carried on
backs to the stack and thrashed with a flail.
Ned
Gilmore had the first yoke of oxen in the district. Patrick Allan had the first mare; he bought
her near Collingwood. She had a foal
two years in succession and then disappeared, lost, strayed, or stolen. Six months after, she arrived at her old
owners, safe and sound, near Collingwood.
Mr.
Lynch was married in the year 1845 and has a large family of sons and
daughters. |
|
John
Marshall Senior was born in Scotland in 1807 and came to Puslinch in 1830 and
lived on the 2nd Concession, where he married and raised a family of 7
children, four sons and three daughters: John and Alex, in Michigan, Neil, in
Waterloo, and Archibald, on the homestead on the Brock Road, and Mrs.
McLaren, Mrs. Ferguson, of Killean, and Mrs. Livergood, in Waterloo. John
Marshall Senior died in 1880. |
|
Meldrum The
Scotch Presbyterians of Badenoch Settlement, yearning for the religious
privileges of their old home, decided to send to Mr.
Meldrum was born in Abernethy, Morayshire in 1806. After completing his education at “When
death’s dark stream I’ll ferry o’er to
all this surely shall come, In
heaven itself I’ll ask no more Than
just a Having
no church, the old school-house on His
charge at first also included Nassagaweya, but after a year, the West
Puslinch people being desirous of having a preaching station in their
neighbourhood, he withdrew from Nassagaweya and thence forward ministered to
the congregations of East and West Puslinch preaching in Gaelic and English
in both places and going to the west every third Sunday. The West church was then in the
neighbourhood of Killean and the Badenoch people regularly attended the
services there, walking the eight miles, while the people of Killean were
often seen at the church on the Brock Road.
The Mr.
Meldrum, desirous of having his relatives in Canada, took up land, Lot 33 in
8th Concession, fronting the Brock Road, in the hope that his father would
come out and settle on it. But owing
to the death of his mother about this time, the family decided to remain in On
Christmas day 1846, he married Anne, the youngest daughter of his host, his
friend, the Reverend David Allen of North East Hope officiating. He then built a house on the land he had
previously located and resided there as long as he remained in Puslinch. As
was customary for ministers in those days, he and Dr. Smellie, of Fergus, at
different times went on mission tours to the sparsely settled districts farther
north, laying the foundations of the Presbyterian Church in those
sections. After fifteen years service
in Puslinch, he removed to the vicinity of Upon
retiring he came back to the old homestead in Puslinch where he resided until
his death in November 1889. |
|
Moran James
Moran was born in Carlow in the south of Ireland in 1823 and came to Puslinch
in 1842 along with my father, mother, brothers and sisters and settled in
Puslinch on the farm where I now live, Lot 16 on the 3rd
Concession. At that time, all this district was all forest in its wild
state. I
have three brothers, Patrick, Thomas and William all living in Puslinch,
except Thomas, who lives in Glenelg.
My sisters are all living in We
belong to the Roman Catholic Church and live in the James
Moran. |
|
Morlock The
subject of this sketch was born in When
we came here to Puslinch there was only one settler between here and where In
these earlier days, the Indians were very numerous in this part of
Puslinch. They had a camp built of
poles stuck up on end and then covered over with hemlock brush and built so
that there would be a hole left on top to let the smoke out. Sometimes, in summer time, they would have
their fireplace out opposite their camps, and I have often seen them roasting
their venison on the fire with wooden sticks made like a fork with a long
handle on it. They would roast the one
side of the venison, then cut the part out that was roasted, and then place
back in the fire the chunk that remained and roast it again and so on till
they would have it all roasted. Deer
in those days were very numerous and the Indians would kill a great many of
them and we never were scarce of meat, as the Indians would trade a carcass
of deer for bread and vegetables or anything that they needed at the
time. At
this time, of course, bears and wolves were numerous and there was a hunter
who lived here, his name was Rife, who made a living at hunting, and he would
go out and hunt when the wolves were only young with his dogs and rifle and
he would take the young ones.
Sometimes he would get a great many in one nest. I remember one nest that he found and he got
nine young wolves, and sometimes he would get the old wolves at the same
time. At
that time, the little streams or spring creeks were near full of trout. Speckled trout were so easily got that my
brother, William, and I would go out fishing and in a short time we would
have all the trout that we could carry home.
Mr.
Morlock has many incidents to relate of early days. One time he relates that Mr. William
Leslie, being in Galt on business and on his way home from Galt, night
overtook him, and there being no roads, only blazes here and there through
the bush, he got lost and the wolves overtook him and he climbed a tree and
had to remain there over night and when daylight came he got home safe, as
the wolves disappeared when daylight came.
I
can remember the first young cattle my father owned. They were killed by the wolves and in
hunting for them we found the remains of one of them and my father and Mr.
John Wise went out to watch the carcass and shoot the wolves on their return
for another feed. All of a sudden they
saw about 25 wolves and they were so afraid of them, being so numerous, that
they quietly took to their heels for home and never fired a shot at them. My
father owned the first plough in Puslinch.
It was made like a shovel, only of heavier iron and hammered out. Then he made a beam out of wood, round, of
course, and made the handles or stilts out of poles out of the bush, and
finished in this way, we used it for some years. The first wagon, my father bought two wagon
wheels, which he bought below My
father owned one of the first yokes of oxen in this district, and my father and
Charles Calfas had the first horses.
Mr. Calfas owned one and my father owned the other, and we would work
them together when we wanted a double team.
I
have 128 acres of land now and well improved, in good shape, stone house and
bank barns and well fenced. In the
early days, my father and all the other settlers were very poor. My own father, when he arrived out here,
had only a cooking kettle that he carried on his head, and in money, he had
only a six pence and when the little sack of flour we had, got done, he went
through the bush to where Preston now stands, and a man there, named Mr.
Erbe, owned a gristmill and my father bought flour from him on credit, and
could not pay for the flour when the time came due to pay for it, and it was
two years before he paid for the flour in these early days. I
was the second son and Chris Calfas and myself were kept looking after the
cattle, and not having any clearing, we would leave home every morning, Chris
and myself, with all the cattle and we would stay in the bush all day with
the cattle, and when evening would come we would drive the cattle home and in
this way we had many experiences in the wild bush in Puslinch. When deer, bears, and wolves were so
numerous, often I can remember meeting the old bears and their cubs on the
cattle paths in the bush, but was never attacked by bears as I would leave
the path and let Bruin have the path all to herself and her cubs. As
the years went by, we went into maple sugar making. We would tap the trees by cutting a notch
on the south side of the maple tree and make a spile of split pine
timber. Using a spile made of iron,
made sharp and in a circle, we drove it into the tree below the notch where
we tapped and then we drove the wooden spile into the place where we cut with
the iron spile, and in this way we could convey the maple sap out into
troughs, chopped out of pine and black ash wood, and made to hold about one
bucket of sap. Then we would boil it
in large boilers, made for that purpose, and boil the sap down till it came
to a syrup. Then we would change it
into another boiler and skim the syrup in a skimmer and put it into another
boiler and boil it down until it came to sugar. At the last, we had pans that we used to
let it cool, and when it became hard maple sugar, we would sell it and trade
with the grocers and get our groceries, et cetera. Chris
Morlock, Morriston. |
|
Morrison R.
B. Morrison, merchant, Morriston, was born in He
came to The
He
still maintains the Post Office, to which he was appointed by the Honourable
Malcolm Cameron, and subsequently by Hon. Robert Spence. He has been a commissioner in the High
Court of Justice since May 1858, being appointed by the late A
fire in July 1860 was the means of his building the Brock Block on the south
side of the R.
B. Morrison. |
|
Munro The
late John Munro was a native of Rosshire As
he had a brother-in-law then living in Galt, and one of its principle
merchants, he came on to that town, sailing up the St. Lawrence and round by
Ottawa to Kingston, then across Lake Ontario to Hamilton, where he engaged a
team to bring himself and family to Galt.
No railroads existed then.
After spending a few weeks in Galt, he rented a farm in the When
his lease of the farm expired, he paid a visit to Puslinch. Here he met with a number of his
countrymen, and feeling so much at home amongst them, he concluded to purchase
a farm. After looking about for a
short time, he bought He,
with his wife and family, endured many hardships at first, clearing the land
and tilling the soil. He would often
speak of the hardships, privations, and struggles of those days, and also of
the kindness and friendship of his neighbours. One
occasion, when coming down from Wilmot by way of Mr.
Munro left four of a family, two sons and two daughters. One of the sons, and a daughter are living
on the old homestead. Another son is
Principal of the Mr.
Munro was a member of the Presbyterian church and in politics, a staunch
Reformer. “Life
is but a little dream, a vapour, which appeareth for a little time and then
vanisheth away.” written
by his son 12th
March 1897. |
|
McAlister Archibald
McAlister was born in Puslinch early in 1834 and is one of the first of the children
of Puslinch. He has always lived on
the farm where he was born. He often
played with the Indian children, he speaking Gaelic, they, Indian. He attended school at Dickie’s. Among his schoolmates were Robert, James,
Joseph, and Harriet Little, and Thomas and Kate Barrett. When
the crust was on the snow the wolves would chase the deer and easily catch
them. Mr.
McAlister is a familiar figure in the west of Puslinch where he has thrashed
grain every season for 33 years. Once,
the pigs strayed away in the fall of the year and were lost in the bush till
spring. They lived all winter on
beechnuts and came back in good condition. |
|
McBeath The
subject of this sketch is the oldest living settler in the We
sailed from Greenoch and sailed on the sail ship called “Carthur”, under
Capt. Smith. At the same time, my
father, grandfather, sister, and aunt came.
My grandfather was then 70 years old and lived to be 90 years. My grandmother died the same week;
grandfather died on Monday and grandmother on Thursday of the same week in
the year 1851. We
arrived in There
we took up the home where we have ever since lived for 67 years. We bought it from the Crown in The
My
father then went and worked on the In
traveling through the forest in those days at night, I often, when very dark,
would catch the oxen by their tails so as not to lose my way and sometimes we
would have a torchlight made of cedar bark hammered down and made in shape
for carrying. One time I and another boy
got lost in the forest. It was
in the fall of the year and we were very much afraid that we would have to
lie out in the bush at night. But we
got out at last, near where Logging
bees, and house and barn raisings were the rule of the days and we lived
together very happily and cheerfully.
It was in 1831 that the first part of Puslinch was surveyed and David
Gibson surveyed all the township. His
home was on Mr.
McBeath’s memory is so clear that he can remember every incident that took
place in the early days in Puslinch, although he is now 79 years old. When the writer came to interview him about
the history of his early life, he was on the roof of his sheep house
shovelling off the snow, up about 20 or 25 feet from the ground. He says: I have a good farm of 240 acres in
good condition, well improved, with good houses and barns on them and all
other improvements. Mr.
McBeath has retired some six years ago.
His mother died in 1891. His
oldest son is on the homestead. One
son, Peter, is a carpenter in I
knew Shades Road and it joins the And
about the McKenzie Rebellion: I was
living in Puslinch and what I was going to say about the clergy reserve was
that the English Church wanted to lease the Clergy Reserve land to the
settlers and the English Church would then receive the rent and benefit and
this was the principal reason that caused the McKenzie rebellion. The English church wanted one seventh of
the profits of the land. Malcolm
McBeath |
|
McCaig Hector
McCaig was born in Nova Scotia in 1830 on Hallow Eve night, was the son of
Donald McCaig; he married Mary McKenzie in 1852. She died in 1874, age 40. He came to Puslinch with his father and
brothers Alexander, Malcolm and six sisters.
All my sisters and brothers are alive yet, but my brother Alexander
and one sister and my father and mother.
We
arrived in Puslinch 60 years ago when it was all new and I have seen all the
early days of Puslinch. The first
settlers on the 3rd Concession were Hector Smith, William Blue, the McCormick
and McKay families, John and Alex Wilkinson, and John S. McLeakin. On the 2nd Concession were Peter Robinson,
John Martin, Neil Wilkinson, Alex Black, and about four years after, my
uncle, James McCaig, came and settled on Lot 18 with his family. The
eldest son of James, Donald, was Inspector of Schools in Algoma district and
is author of a book of poems. Hector
McCaig, the subject of this sketch, has also been a successful farmer, going
into mixed farming and has been, from the early days, one of the best judges
and breeders of horses in the County of Wellington. |
|
McCormick William
McCormick is one of the old pioneers in Puslinch. He was born in Argyleshire, Scotland in
1806, October 15th, and was educated in Scotland and can remember of the
Battle of Waterloo and, at that time, he can remember being then a little boy
and how the little ones would say to each other that the French were coming
and they would be very much afraid in those days in Kintyre,
Argyleshire. It
was the Gaelic language that we were taught, and I knew all the shorter
Catechism in the English language and did not understand one word of it. The teachers would teach both the English
and the Gaelic at the same time in the schools, so that really the Gaelic
language was my first language. I
married in I
took up Mr.
McCormick is still a healthy man at age of 91 years. William
McCormick. |
|
McDiarmid The
subject of this sketch is the oldest man in Puslinch township. He was born in Perthshire in the year 1803 and
came to Puslinch in the year 1833, coming to Puslinch when it was all forest,
and he has seen all the early days in Puslinch. He
married when he was 30 years old, Margaret Stewart, in Scotland, and left for
America with his wife a few weeks after, coming by New York, staying there a
short time and then coming up to Niagara, to Hamilton, and to Puslinch,
through the bush. His
wife died in 1880, being 83 years old when she died. She died leaving a family of five sons and
one daughter married, Mrs. Donald McKenzie, of John
McDiarmid is the oldest man alive in Puslinch at this time and may live for
some years to come, he having all his faculties except his hearing, which is
a little dull. And last year, he, at
the general election, voted for Mr. Innes, the Reform candidate for John
McDiarmid. |
|
McDonald Allan
McDonald, the subject of this sketch was born in Invernesshire Then
my brothers took up 400 acres near Linderman’s Mills, where Forbes Mills now
stands, and we logged and cleared all that land, built houses and barns and
lived there until 1872. I retired and
moved to Morriston and have lived here ever since. In the early days we had such hardships to
contend with that if we were not of good material we never could have stood
it. I
married Jessie McLean in 1854 but had no family. Mr.
McDonald has been a true reformer and was one of Mr. Stirton’s best
supporters in all his campaigns in Allan
McDonald, Morriston. |
|
McFarlane John
McFarlane came to Three
children survived: Mrs. James Harvey,
Duncan, and John. |
|
McIntyre Evan
McIntyre was born in Invernesshire, Scotland in the year 1758, the youngest
member of a large family. He married
Christina Grant and until they emigrated, they occupied a farm in Glenfeshie,
Invernesshire. The family consisted of
five sons and four daughters. In
1841, Alexander came to There
was a family of nine: Mary (Mrs.
Watson), Margaret (Mrs. Clark), Bella (Mrs. Bell), Janet (Mrs. Archibald
Gilchrist), John, Donald, Alexander, William and Peter. We all came to Puslinch, except Mrs. Bell,
who remained in |
|
McKellar Mrs.
Angus McKellar of Killean was born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland in 1821 and
came to Puslinch with her father, the late Walter Bone, in 1835 and in 1840
married Angus McKellar. When Killean and
district was near all forest, we settled on Lot 7 on the 1st Concession where
we have lived ever since and raised a family of 5 daughters and six sons, who
have homes in different parts of the USA and Ontario. I
am one of the very first settlers that is left. Not one other is left to remember the early
days on the 1st Concession and the trials that the first settlers had to
bear, carrying our flour on our backs from Galt. Our
neighbours were Archibald Ramsay, Neil Thomson, Neil Currie, Archibald
McMaster, Alex Ramsay, and Norman Ramsay.
I
can remember when the old log school was built and the contract was let to
one William Lamont, and in size, it was 28 x 36 feet, one door and five
windows with rough boards for seats and desks. The trustees were A. McMaster, Angus
McKellar, and Matthew McPhatter, and the first teacher was Neil Currie. Wolves,
bears, and deer were numerous in those days around Puslinch and Mill Creek
and the wolves were very destructive sometimes. Mrs.
Angus McKellar, Killean. |
|
McLarty Donald
McLarty was born on the estate of the Duke of Argyle, in Argyleshire, and
left the highlands of Scotland in 1836, being then 4 years old, along with
his parents and one sister, and sailed on the sail boat “Cursier”, arriving
in Quebec. The time in sailing was 4
weeks and 3 days, arriving in Mr.
McLarty was educated in the town of Galt, having as his teacher Mr. John
Gowenlock, and later on, he had Mr. Fyett.
Mr.
McLarty is one of the older residents in the township, has lived on the 1st
Concession for over 52 years, and has seen a great many ups and downs. He married Miss Mary Coy, daughter of
Nathan Coy, of Mr.
McLarty can remember of the McKenzie Rebellion and can remember of his
father, the late Dougald McLarty, and John McLarty being on sentry duty when
17 prisoners were taken. |
|
Donald
McLean, the eldest son of Peter McLean, was one of the four pioneers that came
out from Badenoch, Inverness, in 1832 to Puslinch, to procure land for the
folks at home. He took up lots for
himself, his brother Alexander, John, and for his father, which last was the
homestead. The next year, the
remaining members of the family emigrated.
There were four sisters who afterwards became Mrs. Fraser, Mrs. Grant,
Mrs. Hanning and Mrs. Meldrum. There were also two younger brothers Peter and
George. Peter
is now on the homestead farm. He was
for some time Deputy Reeve of Puslinch. Peter McLean Sr. died in 1852. He was a good old man, of quiet, retiring
habits. The McLeans are numerous and
influential in Alexander
McLean married Christina Cameron and had a family of 10 children, 4 sons and
6 daughters. Alexander was fond of
hunting deer and bear in the early days when game was plentiful. He is now living in Morriston. |
|
McLennan John
McLennan remembered the early days when Dougald McLarty moved onto the farm in
the bush on Lot 8 on the 1st Concession, opposite where now stands the In
moving out he had a wagon, called at that time the high carryall, that took
two yokes of oxen to haul. The wheels
were cut out of the end of a pine log and were about ten inches across the
tire. All the wagon was made of wood,
for no iron was to be got at this time.
When moving out, they were on the road near the Forbes Mills Dam, and
on the load of moving, he had a barrel of herring and two or three jars of whisky. The whole business rolled down the hill
toward the dam. It
being Saturday evening, he went on home and left the herring barrel and the
jars of whisky behind. The next
morning: John Thomson, Angus McKellar,
and Neil McCormick were helping to move and at the spot where the upsetting
took place, they had stayed, with the herring barrel and the jars of whisky
till the next morning (Sunday Morning).
Here, Dougald McLarty returned to see what had become of part of his
load of effects. He found that the
herring barrel was near empty and the jars of whisky were just about
exhausted. The fun was immense for all
concerned. John
McLennan, Killean
District. |
|
McMillan John
McMillan was born in Argyleshire in the year 1830 and came to Puslinch when
he was only 16 years old, when Puslinch was in a wild state and logging bees
were all the rage and Whiskey Kilrae, and we would often have a fight before
noon and two in the afternoon, and then we would be on very friendly terms
after. I
had to work very hard all my life, from the time I came to Puslinch until the
present time ─ chopping cord wood, digging wells, and all such hard
work was what I followed for my occupation and I know what it is to earn a
living by the sweat of my brow and have seen all the early days in Puslinch. I
lived on Lots 5 & 6 on the 1st Concession, west of where Killean now is,
and I had for neighbours Angus McKellar, Black Alex McColl, Dougald McLarty,
Archibald McMaster, Neil McCormick, John Clark, Archibald Ramsay and his
sons, Alex and Norman, John Blair and Charles Blair, Jackson Wilkinson and
his sons, Donald, John, Duncan, and Alex, Big John Thompson and Little John
Thompson, Laughlin McMillan, Donald Currie, Donald McTaggart, Andrew Gibson
of Gibson’s Saw Mills, Matthew McPhatter, Thomas Paddock and sons, Elder Neil
McPhatter, Peter Gilchrist, and Malcolm Gilchrist. In those days, George Page kept a Public
Tavern House and general store at Killean and Killean was our headquarters at
this time. The
first sawmill built in Puslinch was built on John
McMillan. |
|
McNaughton The
subject of this sketch, Malcolm McNaughton, was born in Perthshire, six miles
from Stirling, in 1819, and I got my education in Scotland and we sailed from
Greenock on an American Sail vessel and we were 31 days on the sea. That was counted a very fast trip at that
time. We
landed in At
that time I can remember all the settlers in the township: McBeath, Winer, Wise, Stout, Croft,
Hammersley, and a Welshman whose name I cannot remember, but I believe that
he was the very first settler in Puslinch.
I can remember him very well on account of my father sending me to his
place to buy potatoes and we paid 50 cents a bushel and had to carry them 5
miles on our backs home through the forest.
The
first yoke of oxen my father bought from James Mulroney. They were young steers and the first time
we yoked them they stuck their tails over their backs and made through the
bush. In
those early days, deer, bears, and wolves were very numerous and I can
remember many incidents of deer hunting and I can remember shooting two deer
with one shot. My father brought a
good shot gun, twist barrel, and he sent me out one afternoon, not thinking of
me as a boy of between eleven and twelve years old. I went out near the swamp and I saw a deer
looking straight at me and I aimed the gun and fired straight at his
breast. The bullet cut the point of
his heart as we saw after skinning him, this being the first deer that I
killed. Later on, I was hunting and
there were three deer and two of them stood side by side, like a yoke of oxen
together. When I fired, I shot the
first one through the horns, and the other one through the heart. In
those days, there were a great many pheasants and sometimes I would get a
number of them, and wild ducks were numerous and I would kill lots of them,
and wild pigeons, why, the sky would be black with them flying in the air,
and out in the Badenoch Settlement they had a rookery where they used to
hatch. I also did some bear hunting
and wolf hunting, and I have something to say about the way we chopped,
logged and cleared the land in the early days. In
the fall of the year, we would go through and cut the underbrush and pile it
up in good shape. Then, in the winter,
we would commence and cut the biggest trees first. Then, we would notch the smaller timbers,
fell them on top of the big timbers, so that it saved us so much hard work
when the fire came into it. We cut the
trees in lengths about 20 or 25 feet long so that the oxen could haul them
easier. When logging, we would make
the log heaps so that they would burn well, and after we would brand them,
fire them, and get the land ready for wheat.
We
would rake the leaves and chips together in heaps and burn them and would sow
the wheat on them, without ever ploughing.
Then we would harrow the land, with a home made drag made the shape of
a capital “A” with wooden teeth, as there were no blacksmiths here at that
time. I have often had 40 bushels per
acre on this land, the first crops.
When out clearing for others, we got about $4.00 per acre and about
$12 or $14 per acre for chopping, logging, and leaving it ready for the first
crop. In
the year 1846, I married Janet Stirton, sister of David Stirton, ex MPP, and
had a family of seven sons and four daughters. My eldest daughter died young. The second married Chris McBeath and the
third married Angus Stewart and lives in Manitoba, as do three of my sons,
and Daniel lives on the 2nd Concession, and two sons and one daughter at home
on the homestead. I
have come through a great deal of hardship in my days and have seen Puslinch
cleared from a wild forest to a prosperous and well settled country with all
the fine homes you see nowadays. Malcolm
McNaughton, Morriston
P.O. |
|
McPhatter Matthew
McPhatter, son of Neil McPhatter and Grace McKinnon, was born at Killean,
Argyleshire, Scotland, February 7th, 1814.
In May 1831, Mr. McPhatter, with his father and his three younger
brothers, came by Greenock and Liverpool to The
family came to Little In
March 1832, the family moved from Little York to Lots 14 and 15, 1st
Concession, Puslinch and for two years the nearest neighbours were A.
McKellar and D. McKellar, Lot 2, Gore of Puslinch and John McColl, Lot 7,
Concession 10, Beverly Township which was 4 miles away. A house, very well built, on The
first preaching done was by a missionary who would go from house to house and
speak the gospel. However, in a few
years a church was organized near Morriston on the The
name Puslinch was given to this township in 1830 through Mr. David Gibson,
the government surveyor and Mr. Lynch, living there about The
city of Matthew McPhatter. |
|
McPherson John
McPherson was born in Badenoch, Invernesshire, Scotland in the year 1812 and
spent all of his school days in that shire and was the second son of late
Donald McPherson who emigrated to Puslinch from Scotland, in 1840, with six
sons and four daughters and settled on Lot 27 on the 1st Concession,
Puslinch. Mr. McPherson is one of the
most intelligent farmers in the township, with a family of 6 sons and 2
daughters, all doing well in different parts of Canada and the United
States: Duncan, in Michigan; Donald on
his farm on the 4th Concession, is a Puslinch Township councillor; Angus on
the 2nd Concession of Puslinch, and Alex on the homestead; James and John in
California; the daughters married, the eldest to Kenneth McLennan of Galt and
the youngest is married to Donald McCaig, of the 2nd Concession, Puslinch. Mr.
McPherson sailed from Scotland, via He
and his parents arrived in Mr.
McPherson is now in his 85th year and is hale and hearty yet. John
McPherson Crieff. |
|
Paddock John
Paddock was born in Shropshire, England, in 1823, and was the second son of
the late Thomas Paddock, who in 1833 came to Puslinch with his family of 4
sons and 2 daughters. The names of the
sons were George, John, Thomas, and Richard and the daughters were Maria, who
married Henry Bond in Beverly, and Jane, the youngest of the family. Only John and George are alive now. In
the earlier days, Mr. Thomas Paddock took up from the Crown about 600 acres
of good land on the 1st and 2nd Concessions, near Killean, and since then has
improved the properties in clearing and fencing, building and ditching, so
that now they are beautiful properties. Mr.
John and Richard Paddock were the most successful breeders of horses in the |
|
Reid Hugh
Reid was born in the village of Bonny Bridge, Parish of Deney, in the County
of He
left A
good many new settlers came into Puslinch that fall, amongst them Alexander
McKay, who settled on the next lot to my brother and afterwards bought him
out. We spent that fall and winter
with my brother, assisting to clear land and built a new house and
stable. There was no snow that winter
except about six inches during the last week in January. He
hired with John Marshall the first of April 1842 and stayed there twenty
months. The snow came on that winter
on the 2nd of November and did not go away till the 10th of May 1843. It kept gaining all winter till the first
of March when it snowed steady for three days and nights, when not a fence or
stump was to be seen . We went to I
hired with John Linderman for the winter to work in the sawmill, and in April
1844, I rented the farm and sawmill of Evard Farret, deceased, and in the
fall, I married the widow and have lived on the property ever since. I carried on the lumber business for 8
years but quit for want of water. We
had seven children, two sons and five daughters. Two daughters are dead. The rest are scattered over In
1845, he joined the In
the spring of 1882, he rented his farm and retired from business. He has had poor health for the past five
years, but he still takes pleasure in driving a good fast horse and drives
out as often as health and weather permits. |
|
Ross Mr.
William Ross is native of the In
1851, he married Isabella Dunbar. They
have 4 children now living. Three
sons, John, Hugh, and James now occupy farms in the township. The homestead is His
earlier neighbours were Peter Gilchrist on Lot 10, James McMaster on |
|
Scott Mr.
James Scott was born in Selkirkshire, Scotland in October 1823 and got my
education there and came to Puslinch in the spring of 1838 and have cleared
and improved the farm, Lot #6 on the 10th Concession, and I have seen all the
early life in this part of Puslinch. I
got married in March 1844 and have a large family of 13, nine boys and four
girls. My wife, Elizabeth Johnston,
who was the first child that was born around Arkell, was rocked in a sap
trough. At that time, there was a great wolf hunt in this section of
Puslinch. The settlers turned out with
pitch forks, scythes and some had guns, and after that hunt, wolves were not
troublesome. After that, the bears
were still troublesome, killing the settler's pigs et cetera. J.
Scott |
|
Scott John
Scott, of Killean, was born in Blackcraig, Perthshire, Scotland and came to
Puslinch in 1857 and settled on Lot 14, on the 1st Concession, near Killean, and
has been one of the most prosperous farmers in the township, having a farm
that contains 600 acres . Being
a shepherd, and brought up among the heather, after coming to Puslinch, I
went into mixed farming and can say that I have made a success of it. I went into sheep breeding and raising
cattle for beef, and also butter making, which have all been profitable. In days gone by, I have been able to keep
the wolf from the door and have never been at a loss on sheep and cattle
breeding since I came to Puslinch. John
Scott, Killean. |
|
Scott William
Scott was born in Howick, Scotland, in 1812 and, with his wife, came to Mr.
Scott bought Lot 10 from Donald McInnes, who was afterwards a wholesale
merchant of Mr.
Scott had a family of 10 children, 7 sons and 3 daughters. The daughters married Andrew McBean, Robert
Jamieson, and John Jamieson. William
is living in Dumfries; Andrew on Lot 12, Gore; Adam in Arizona; John on
Manitoulin Island; James on Lot 11, Gore; and Walter died in 1893. Mr. & Mrs. Scott died in 1896. |
|
Stewart Peter
Stewart was born in St. Fillians, Perthshire, Scotland, in 1822 and arrived in
Canada in 1834, and arrived in Puslinch the same year, and bought this farm
from a man named James Burnside, and has lived here ever since, and have now
200 acres of land, all in good order and a well stocked farm. He
can remember many of the old time reminiscences of earlier days. On the way out from the old country, with
five brothers and five sisters, the husband of one of his sisters died in We
could not get a house to live in on account of the cholera. We stayed in Early
days in the bush, I have started out with my oxen on Monday morning and did
not return till Saturday night, being at a logging bee down on the 1st
Concession and the Gore every day in the week. At one logging bee, when whisky was
plentiful and good, Charles Borthwick was grog boss and I was driving a
neighbour’s oxen, and they were very heavy and lazy, and I got tired driving
them, and in the afternoon, I gave each ox a bottle of whisky. I had the liveliest team in the field and
the oxen, I am glad to say, belonged to Kenneth McKenzie, an old Puslinch
neighbour, now of However,
I must here say that, in those days, the neighbours were so good to each
other, and would be happy to have to eat a scone made of flour and water, and
we would have some wild gooseberries, stewed, and maple sugar with potatoes,
venison, (deer meat) and sometimes bear meat. We were very happy. Another
time, we had a shanty to live in without any door but an old country blanket
hung over, when the bear came and got among the pigs and took one of
them. I took a fire brand and gave
chase, overtook the bear and struck him across the head, but he would not let
loose of the pig. The dog, a large,
heavy one, made an attack on the bear.
Still he would not let loose, but he took the pig to the hill in the
bush and had a good meal out of it and left what he could not eat under a
turned up maple tree. Many
other histories I can relate of hunting bears and deer. One evening, we caught a good sized cub,
killed him and took his pelt off. When
the old bear came along, we had all we could do to keep her away; the roar of
her was terrible. She was looking for
her cub and came when we were all in bed. In
those days, there were no Concessions and roads made, but trails and blazes
on the trees, so that we could see, and I can well remember Shade’s Road
through Puslinch. It followed on near
the Another
incident of early days was hauling whisky to I
have raised a family of 9 children, 4 girls and 5 boys, all at home but 2,
who are in Peter
Stewart |
|
Stirton The
name “Puslinch” was given to the township by Lady Colbourne, wife of Sir John
Colbourne, who was, at the time of the survey of the township, Governor of Mr.
Galt, the founder of Guelph, being very anxious to have a more direct way to
the Lake Ontario than around by Galt, induced the government to have a survey
of a direct road through the wilderness, to meet another survey through the
Flamboroughs. David Gibson, a housing
surveyor, was instructed by the Surveyor General to have this done at once on
April 9th, 1828. Mr. Gibson started at
the The
contract for cutting and clearing the portion of the road that was within
Puslinch was let to Absalom Shade, of Galt, who had been one of the Guelph
contractors, and was one of the most pushing and enterprising men in
Canada. As soon as the road was fit,
even for foot passengers, it was frequented by dozens of emigrants in search
of land. The
first person who moved into Puslinch was a Mr. Lewurtch, but others had their
land located and the first instalment paid before him. Lot 9, Rear of the 7th Concession was owned
by McPherson, and better known as the Carter farm, was the first. This There
appears to be a vacuum of 6 years after the first settlement before we have
any authentic record of municipal organization, but on January 4th, 1836, we
have a report, in full, of a meeting of the residents of the township, held
at the inn so long known as the headquarters or place of public meetings,
known at this time as Flynn’s Hotel, Mr. McMeekin purchasing the property
some four years later, and we may here state that this place was for many
years later the general rendezvous for all public gatherings. It was well situated on the leading road of
the township, nearly central as regards distance from all parts. The
many amusing scenes enacted here would make some of the richest treats that
the humorist could desire. Town
Meeting day was the holiday of the year and was always largely attended. Every bush-whacker was expected to air his
grievances and councillors and pathmasters were subjected to a full share of
criticism and abuse. A thought-out
defence or explanation was simply useless and “grin and bear it” was the
wisest course. The meetings were held
in the old frame barn. The floor was
literally packed; the standing chairman was Mr. John Cockburn. He took his stand on the swing beam with
his secretary, Alex Smith, at his elbow.
The elevated position of the pair gave, them an immense advantage over
the crowd. Although one of the
fairest of men, he knew it was no earthly use to delay and wait and listen to
this or the other interruption with 50 odd pathmasters and fence viewers,
pound-keepers, assessor, and collector to appoint, besides going through the
township by-laws, fixing the height of lawful fences and regulating the rules
of what animals should go at large. It
often happened to be a severe cold day.
Then, it was no wonder that business went with a rush. The
following may be given as a specimen:
"Who is to be appointed in John Smith’s place?" “Put him in again”, says one. “No, No”
comes from several parties –“He’s no fair - he winna work himself and he’s no
particular about the hours”; but while this discussion is going on John
Smith’s name is down by the active secretary, and when declared to the
meeting, a howl of disgust goes up.
And then an adjournment to the bar is proposed by the disgruntled
anti-Smithites, and so the meeting goes on. At
the meeting of 1836, three gentlemen were appointed to a Board of
Commissioners. These men were Thomas
Todd, John Linderman, and Patrick Doyle and Charles Armstrong, Township
Clerk. The following year Patrick
Doyle was replaced by James Stirton and John Hammersley was appointed clerk. 1838
was the last year of the commissioners.
The following year, 1839, the name or title by which the three gentlemen
elected were called was “Town Warden”.
Their names were James Stirton, John MacFarlane and John Roach. In 1842, the new Municipal Law came in
force. William Leslie and Alexander
Nicoll were chosen to represent the Township of Puslinch in the District
Council in the Gore District, and although the township boundary was within a
little more than a mile of the County town of Wellington, yet those gentlemen
had to go to Hamilton to represent their township and had to continue doing
so until 1846, when Puslinch was joined to Wellington. In looking over the period of the
Commissioners and Wardens there is little to say in its praise. Local
self government, which was so long contended for by the people, was doled out
by dribbles for fear that they would hurt themselves on “suckling republics”,
as they were called by the ultra conservatives. They gave way bit by bit. The appointment of Wardens was made by the
Government Assize Body, of intelligent and practical members, not appointed
by the Crown. Chairmen and clerks had
also to be appointed by the government out of three names sent to them. In
1849, the first Township Council, which deserved the name, was elected - five
gentlemen were elected representing the different portions of the township. They
were Messrs. Cockburn and Ellis (the old members) and Leslie, Stirton, and
McRobbie. This Council, at their first
meeting, appointed John Cockburn and Thomas Ellis to represent the township
in the County Council. The work of
this practical body of men soon became manifest in the rapid improvement of
the roads in the township. Although
the general character of the township with regards to construction of gravel
roads was most difficult, yet by consistent and persistent effort on the part
of the Council, with the assistance of the people, the naturally rough roads
eventually became comparatively a credit to the country at large. The
people of Puslinch deserve great credit for their indomitable energy in
overcoming the natural difficulties of their position. Unlike many others, their township received
no help from any outside source to the making of roads. Neither the Government or the County
Council gave any assistance, but for the fact that the Brock Road was the
outlet for the county, and must be kept in a fair state of repair, Puslinch
would have been left severely alone as far as roads went. The construction of the The
Township was divided into five wards for a number of years. This did away with the old style of town
meetings, much to the regret of the fun loving portion of the community, but
they had a very good substitute in the unusual agricultural shows. These gatherings were attended by immense
gatherings and the dinner held in the evening gave an opportunity for the
exhibitors to air their eloquence, telling how they cultivated the monster
turnips and other roots, showing in numerous cases how the ridiculous and the
sublime could be jumbled together. Take
the following as an illustration: The
first speaker (who had taken some prizes for pigs) “Mr. President, ha’ pity
that man who could not appreciate that lovely black sow or that beautiful
white pig that I showed today”. Of
course, love and beauty in pigs was too much for the excited audience. The orator had to cave in and up jumped his
next neighbour and delivered himself as follows: “Mr. President: I can’t
follow my neighbour and his excessive concern over the swinish multitude, but
I will take this enlightened audience with me to the company of Sir Isaac
Newton, the discoverer of the Law of Gravitation, but I could if they do so.”
But this was too much. This
must suffice as a sample of after dinner oratory, and so the night went on
with song and chatter and the Puslinch annual holiday was spent. But
the great improvement in the modes of farming was soon manifest throughout
the township, and the Annual Ploughing Match, the elder child of the show,
was a great means of improvement in farming operations. It introduced an improved style of plough
and the implements, and we may here say that the seed sown in this time has
borne good fruit, even to the present day, when we may see the position to
which Puslinch has advanced as a leading agricultural township. In
1833, one of the most important events took place in connection with the
farming interests that up to that time had happened in With
common care and prudence, the venture would have been a great success, but
unfortunately for the enterprise, as far as the importer was concerned, it
was a failure. But if Mr. Wingfield
lost his money, by his own folly, the |
|
Winer John
Winer, the subject of this sketch, is the oldest settler that the writer has
come across in Puslinch township. He
says that his father, mother, brothers, and sisters came here to Puslinch
from the state of I
started on the old homestead of 107 acres, where I live, which I helped to
clear and improve on, till now we have a very comfortable house on Lot 33 on
the 7th Concession on the Brock Road.
When we first came here to Puslinch, we had no accommodations, no
shanty, no clearings and the first home I had in Puslinch was in a tree. We lived in the shade of this tree for some
time until we got up a shanty, and the nearest neighbour we had was the first
settler on record, who built up towards Guelph or where Guelph now is, and we
called him “Welshman”. He was the
first man to settle in Puslinch. He
had a son and a daughter, and when he died, shortly after, his son and
daughter left the district and we never heard of them anymore. So that I can say that “Welshman” was the
first settler and his was the first death in Puslinch. My
father, Paul Winer, and the family left When
we arrived in April 1830, we commenced to hew out a home for ourselves out of
the forest. At this time, where the
Brock Road now is, it was newly underbrushed, and from Dundas we had to
follow the marks on the trees and the Indians were the only company we had,
there being many of them in the forest then.
I have seen deer run through the bush like big flocks of sheep and
very often chased closely by a pack of wolves. In
those days, we had very hard times. We
lived very skimpily, there being no fruit or nuts of any kind growing wild
before the timber was cut, that we could eat, and the first flour we got was
at Crooks Mills at Crooks Hollow and the other food we would have, venison,
and we made out till we got pork and beef and other foods that came
after. I
married 47 years ago, Leni Moatz, and have a family of 10, 6 boys and 4
girls. John
Winer, Morriston. |
|
Improvements
in Implements by 1897. For
many years the implements used on the farms were primitive in design and rude
in construction, but well adapted for the work that they had to perform. Settlers coming from When
the oxen became despised as aids on the farm and horses came into general
use, Wilkinson Ploughs and the Goudy Ploughs were introduced. Blacksmiths began to vie with each other in
turning out the lightest, most wide-spreading, and most serviceable
implements. The cradle displaced the
hook, while lighter wagons and more comfortable sleighs took the place of the
cumbrous vehicles that had done duty in pioneer days. No longer were the sleighs shod with strips
of bark and the spring pole wagon seat was supplanted by one supported on the
elastic steel. Then
the days of machinery dawned. The
first reaper was the Galt reaper, manufactured by Luitz & Co. and was
brought into Puslinch in 1866. It was
a combined reaper and mower. The
reaper part was known as the self dropper and had to be drawn at a trot to
make to make it work at all satisfactorily, especially when the grain was a
little damp. So exhausting was this
work on the horses that two teams had be kept in the field for needful
changes. Self rakers came next and
after them came the self-binders, about 1882.
The latter performed its work at first with wire, but afterward with
twine. William Scott, Matthew
McPhatter, Richard Bond, and Richard Paddock were the first to purchase the
combined reaper-mower. The
eight-horse power thrashing machine, “The Spike” or “Buzzard” followed the
flail, but if it did not thoroughly separate the grain from the straw and
chaff, the newer thrashing machine took its place about 1851. William Stewart, now in Victoria,
Australia, brought the first ten horse power and separator, a Hamilton make,
into the township of Puslinch and later Adam Young, the venerable thrasher,
brought another separator and ten horsepower into Puslinch. Later still, in 1882, he introduced the
steam engine, a Even
the sowing is not now performed by hand, broadcast and drill machines being
employed for the purpose. Tillage is
no longer confined to the old single plough and the harrow is an addition to
innumerable improved forms of implements.
Both of these we have, the Gang Plough and the Spring tooth
cultivator, in great variety, which largely answers the purpose of both the
plough and harrow. Spades,
shovels, hoes, manure forks, and hayforks, as we have them today are fully
fifty percent lighter than those we used in the early days. and the same may
be said regarding almost every other farm implement in which steel has taken
the place of iron. Hand tools, like
these just mentioned, must ever retain a place on the farm, although they are
not now employed to anything like the extent of their old time
applications. Modern devices have
largely displaced them all, except on the very small plots of ground, and
every year decreases the amount of labour formerly done with such tools. The best illustration of such devices may
be found in the present day method of loading and unloading hay by means of
the hay fork, slings and horsepower, which is used to carry the material to
the most distant part of the mow.
Also, roots are no longer chopped with a hand knife, but the turnip
puller does the work completely. In
the dairy, too, it would astonish our grandmothers if they could have but a
peek or two at the way things are managed.
That is, where there is a dairy, but on many farms the departure has
become most modest in its proportions, and equally so, its aims for the milk,
which, when not sent to a joint stock Company’s Creamery or Cheese Factory,
is usually made into butter to supply Guelph, Hespeler, Galt, and Hamilton
Markets. The
vast improvement that has taken place in implements has enabled the farmer to
dispense with the employment of so many extra hands, as were formerly
required during busy seasons, and has not only rendered it necessary for him
to provide special accommodation for the housing of his machines, but has
laid upon him the obligation to become, in considerable measure, a mechanic. |
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Hunters
and Shooters in Puslinch In
the early days, when game was plentiful, David King, on the Plains, was one
of the principal cracksmen and shooting deer was his hobby. He made a special study of deer and bear
hunting. John McQuillan and his
brothers, William and Thomas, also were hunters. The Reeves brothers, Mark, Luke, and John,
were the principal shots in Puslinch for many years, and held the highest
record for deer hunting for many years.
John
McQuillan can relate many incidents of deer hunting. One morning, he and his brother, William,
shot two fine deer before seven o’clock in the morning. It was in 1853, and we had been hunting the
day previous and had chased two deer into the cedar swamp on Mill Creek on |
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