Today, lights will go out all over the world to raise awareness of the urgency of global conservation of energy and resources. A WWF* initiative, we are encouraged to turn out our lights between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.
In 1837, pioneer Anne Langton relied on supplies ~ including candles ~ from England. By 1840, according to her journal, she was making her own candles.
"Tuesday, March 10. I got my candle-making over today and now I have only to fill the moulds a few times and I shall have made up my half-cask of tallow. Ten dippings made very respectable candles today, where as what I was obliged to make in summer after four-and-twenty were most miserable pig-tails."
From the journal of Anne Langton, 1840. A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada, Irwin Publishing, Toronto, Canada, 1950.
Note: A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada, blog-post March 23.
*World Wildlife Federation
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Caledonia Along the Grand River
Well-known author, columnist, Barbara Martindale, has been documenting the history of Caledonia and surrounding area in books and in articles. The former publisher of the Grand River Sachem, continues to write a weekly column in the Sachem, "For What It's Worth." Actively involved in many organizations in her community, including the Chamber of Commerce and the BIA, Barbara still found time to be Member Services Director of the Canadian Community Newspapers Association. She was a member of the Media Club of Canada (founded originally as the Canadian Women's Press Club). She is recognized nationally within the Canadian print media.
Barbara Martindale will be in The Neat Little Bookshop on Thursday, March 25 at 1:30 p.m. Everyone welcome. Thursday afternoons are designated for discussions with fascinating personalities.
Caledonia Along the Grand River, published by Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc., Toronto, Ontario, 1995
A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada
Open Anne Langton's journals at any page and imagine life in Canada in the 1800s:
"I am not a backwoodswoman yet in this, that I cannot feel easy when near the end of my stores. John thought my anxiety very laboured when I saw the bottom of my candle box. Here they have been so accustomed at times to be without things, that they take matters over and above easily. There is a very good store at the Falls, that is as good or better than any in Peterboro, but the difficulty of getting up goods makes the supply uncertain, and you are not to be surprised when told that the tea and rice are still on Lake Ontario, and that there are only three candles left. What should you think of a few pounds of tea coming at the bottom of a sack (without paper) and a few rusty nails at the other end of it?"
Langton Letter, 1837. The Journals of Anne Langdon, edited by H. H. Langton, 1950 Irwin Publishing Inc.
Photo: Black Creek Village, Kingston, by Lorna. Click on photo for larger image.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Early Settlement along the Grand River
Only the keen eye of title-searcher, Penny Plunket-Dmyterko, while doing research in the Haldimand County Museum, Cayuga, brought to light a missing document that the Land Registry Office believed to be lost.
During early Canadian land-settlement, thousands of acres were being mapped and planned. The maps would be registered and filed for future reference. It is not difficult to imagine that during the early 1800s when the only populated site was York (modern-day Toronto) a map might remain in the possession of an individual or individuals.
For well over a hundred years, a land tract on the Grand River in Haldimand County was subdivided and changed ownership many times without the advantage of the original plan. Thousands of dollars were spent over the decades re-surveying each time property changed hands.
This tract of 3,190 acres was originally conveyed to Warner Nelles from the Crown in 1836. Nelles had it surveyed, subdivided and conveyed in large parcels to friends and offspring. The 1844 map or plan was never filed in the Land Registry Office.
The recent discovery of an 1859 copy of the map is an exciting highlight in Penny Plunket's research.
During early Canadian land-settlement, thousands of acres were being mapped and planned. The maps would be registered and filed for future reference. It is not difficult to imagine that during the early 1800s when the only populated site was York (modern-day Toronto) a map might remain in the possession of an individual or individuals.
For well over a hundred years, a land tract on the Grand River in Haldimand County was subdivided and changed ownership many times without the advantage of the original plan. Thousands of dollars were spent over the decades re-surveying each time property changed hands.
This tract of 3,190 acres was originally conveyed to Warner Nelles from the Crown in 1836. Nelles had it surveyed, subdivided and conveyed in large parcels to friends and offspring. The 1844 map or plan was never filed in the Land Registry Office.
The recent discovery of an 1859 copy of the map is an exciting highlight in Penny Plunket's research.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Survey of Warner Nelles Tract
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Title searcher, Penny Plunket Dmyterko, describing the 1844 Warner Nelles Tract to the York Grand River Historical Society. Conveyed from the Crown in 1836, the Warner Nelles Tract was then surveyed and sold off in parcels.
Tomorrow: The strange story of the historic map that was missing for generations.
Photo: Courtesy Neil Dring, The Grand River Sachem, Caledonia, Ontario.
(The Village of York is located between Caledonia and Cayuga ~ on the Grand River)
Clearing the Land ~ Pioneer Haldimand
Dense bush or forest was all the pioneers in Haldimand had to work with when they arrived. John A. Turnbull describes a stump fence that defined his Grandfather's farm property-line.
"I remember one fence made of the biggest pines I ever saw. Some of the roots stood in the air all of twelve feet and were fully as wide. The underside was cut off close to the stump so it rested flat on the ground. It stayed there without much repair for all of seventy or eighty years.
"I know little about stumping but a green stump of some of the large trees must have presented a problem to those old country men who for the most part were factory employees before coming to the new country. Bees ~ gatherings of neighbours working together ~ were common.
"The stumping machines were of a three-legged variety. The legs made of pine trees. The lower end rested on a large slide made from half a log fitted to the foot of the pole or leg. The top end of the three legs was capped with a large cast iron header through which a large screw -- probably three inches in diameter -- and a large hardwood pole which reached the ground outside the legs was mounted. Men dug the hard earth away from the roots. A horse hitched to the end of the pole circled the stumper thus raising and pulling the stump."
John A. Turnbull (1890 - 1975) third generation Seneca Twp., Haldimand
"I remember one fence made of the biggest pines I ever saw. Some of the roots stood in the air all of twelve feet and were fully as wide. The underside was cut off close to the stump so it rested flat on the ground. It stayed there without much repair for all of seventy or eighty years.
"I know little about stumping but a green stump of some of the large trees must have presented a problem to those old country men who for the most part were factory employees before coming to the new country. Bees ~ gatherings of neighbours working together ~ were common.
"The stumping machines were of a three-legged variety. The legs made of pine trees. The lower end rested on a large slide made from half a log fitted to the foot of the pole or leg. The top end of the three legs was capped with a large cast iron header through which a large screw -- probably three inches in diameter -- and a large hardwood pole which reached the ground outside the legs was mounted. Men dug the hard earth away from the roots. A horse hitched to the end of the pole circled the stumper thus raising and pulling the stump."
John A. Turnbull (1890 - 1975) third generation Seneca Twp., Haldimand
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