Your Smile for Today:

"It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value."

~ Arthur C. Clarke, British Science Fiction writer (1917 - 2008)

Earth Hour ~ Today's Question

The Neat Little Bookshop wants to know:

1. What did you do during Earth Hour?
2. Did Earth Hour change your thinking? Do you have plans for Earth Day on April 22?

Next time you are in the bookshop, please sign our guest book and tell us your thoughts.

Photo: by Vavoom Photography

Earth Hour

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

Your Smile for Today:

"The best thinking has been done in solitude.
The worst has been done in turmoil."

~ Thomas Edison, (1847 - 1931) American inventor

Precious Solitude, Ruth Fishel, Adams Media Corp., 1999

Photo: by Lorna, Parrothead Cove, Lake Erie

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.

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.