"In the early days of this district, bees* were common, as the pioneers were rather inexperienced. When they came to the new country, the work that faced them was so unusual compared to what they were used to at home. Most were factory workers. With the bush and starvation on one side and their wives and young families on the other, they buckled right in to the task ahead of them and relying on each other they learned many things. Things that we of this generation have long ago forgotten if we ever knew them.
"Think of this country as it was around 1840 as a dense bush -- no roads, no cleared land, then think of it as it was about 1890. We wonder how men did so much in fifty short years. Roads had to be chopped out and fixed. That was it. They were just chopped out and of necessity followed the course of least resistance and so were bad for many years until a township road system put roads along surveyed lines."
Exerpts from writings of John A. Turnbull (1890 - 1975), third generation rural Seneca Twp., Haldimand County.
Tomorrow: *Stumping Bees, gatherings of neighbours
