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Life in Canada
Life in Canada
by Thomas Conant, Author of “Upper Canada Sketches.” Toronto William Briggs 1903 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand nine hundred and three, by Thomas Conant , at the Department of Agriculture. “ If a book comes from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and author’s craft are of small account to that. ” ...
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Preface.
Preface.
In the following pages will be found some contributions towards the history of Canada and of the manners and customs of its inhabitants during the hundred years beginning October 5th, 1792. On that date my ancestor, Roger Conant, a graduate of Yale University, and a Massachusetts landowner, set foot on Canadian soil as a United Empire Loyalist. From him and from his descendants—handed down from father to son—there have come to me certain historical particulars which I regard as a trust and which
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LIFE IN CANADA. CHAPTER I.
LIFE IN CANADA. CHAPTER I.
Roger Conant—His position in Massachusetts—Remained in the United States two years without being molested—Atrocities committed by “Butler’s Rangers”—Comes to Upper Canada—Received by Governor Simcoe—Takes up land at Darlington—Becomes a fur trader—His life as a settler—Other members of the Conant family. The author’s great-grandfather, Roger Conant, was born at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on June 22nd, 1748. He was a direct descendant (sixth generation) from Roger Conant the Pilgrim, and founder
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
Colonel Talbot—His slanderous utterances with regard to Canadians—The beaver—Salmon in Canadian streams—U. E. Loyalists have to take the oath of allegiance—Titles of land in Canada—Clergy Reserve lands—University of Toronto lands—Canada Company lands. Thomas Talbot , to whom the Government gave—presumably for settlement—518,000 acres near London, Ont., began to reside on the tract soon after the emigrant whose fortunes we are following arrived in Upper Canada, in 1792. Talbot had previously been
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
The War of 1812—Canadian feeling with regard to it—Intolerance of the Family Compact—Roger Conant arrested and fined—March of defenders to York—Roger Conant hides his specie—A song about the war—Indian robbers foiled—The siege of Detroit—American prisoners sent to Quebec—Feeding them on the way—Attempt on the life of Colonel Scott of the U. S. army—Funeral of Brock—American forces appear off York—Blowing up of the fort—Burning of the Don bridge—Peace at last. In twenty years from the time Govern
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
Wolves in Upper Canada—Adventure of Thomas Conant—A grabbing land-surveyor—Canadian graveyards beside the lake—Millerism in Upper Canada—Mormonism. Turning to ordinary affairs, we find that at this date our Government helped the settler to exterminate wolves by paying a bounty of about $6 for each wolf head produced before a magistrate. In reference to these ferocious animals, once so plentiful in Canada, an anecdote of the author’s grandfather will be found both interesting and instructive, giv
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
Abolition of slavery in Canada—Log-houses, their fireplaces and cooking apparatus—Difficulty experienced by settlers in obtaining money—Grants to U. E. Loyalists—First grist mill—Indians—Use of whiskey—Belief in witchcraft—Buffalo in Ontario. Among the doings of the first parliament of Upper Canada there is none on which we can look back with greater satisfaction than the abolition of slavery in this country. Persons who have not looked closely into our early history may be almost disposed to ex
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
A manufactory of base coin in the Province of Quebec—A clever penman—Incident at a trial—The gang of forgers broken up—“Stump-tail money”—Calves or land?—Ashbridge’s hotel, Toronto—Attempted robbery by Indians—The shooting of an Indian dog and the consequences. I referred in the last chapter to the Spanish milled dollars in which military services were paid for. Mexican dollars were also in vogue, and a few years previous to the American War of 1812, some enterprising New England counterfeiters,
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
The Canadian Revolution of 1837-38—Causes that led to it—Searching of Daniel Conant’s house—Tyrannous misrule of the Family Compact—A fugitive farmer—A visitor from the United States in danger—Daniel Conant a large vessel owner—Assists seventy patriots to escape—Linus Wilson Miller—His trial and sentence—State prisoners sent to Van Diemen’s Land. That uprising of 1837-38 in Canada is now generally termed the Canadian Revolution. Most worthily does it deserve to be called a revolution , for the p
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
Building a dock at Whitby—Daniel Conant becomes security—Water communication—Some of the old steamboats—Captain Kerr—His commanding methods—Captain Schofield—Crossing the Atlantic—Trials of emigrants—Death of a Scotch emigrant. Daniel Conant , as a vessel owner on Lake Ontario for many years, felt keenly the great need for proper harbors and docks for loading and unloading his vessels. Up to the close of the Revolution of 1837-38 he had, when near home, made use of Whitby harbor, which was four
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
Maple sugar making—The Indian method—“Sugaring-off”—The toothsome “wax”—A yearly season of pleasure. One of the familiar proceedings of the days of early spring in the long ago time, when the pioneers were busy with clearing the primeval forests of Ontario, was the maple sugar making. In our oldest settled parts of Ontario this is, of course, among the things that have been, simply because most of the maples have been ruthlessly slaughtered. On our good lands in Ontario the cleared fields pay be
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
Winter in Ontario—Flax-working in the old time—Social gatherings—The churches are centres of attraction—Winter marriages—Common schools—Wintry aspect of Lake Ontario. Our fathers spent their winter evenings and days of winter storms in working at the flax. It was the universal custom for each householder in our fathers’ time to raise a piece of flax, and, during the enforced housing of the winter, it was broken, scutched and spun around the big cavernous open fire. The distaff in those days was
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
The coming of spring—Fishing by torch-light—Sudden beauty of the springtime—Seeding—Foul weeds—Hospitality of Ontario farmers. The reign of winter on the lake shore, with its hummocks of broken ice, seems longer than it really is. Those who observe it day by day are glad when March comes, with its lengthening days and its presage of spring. Soon we have a few days’ sunshine, and perhaps a warm pervasive rain. The change thus made is scarcely credible to those who have not seen it. In a few hours
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
Ontario in June—Snake fences—Road-work—Alsike clover fields—A natural grazing country—Barley and marrowfat peas—Ontario in July—Barley in full head—Ontario is a garden—Lake Ontario surpasses Lake Geneva or Lake Leman—Summer delights—Fair complexions of the people—Approach of the autumnal season—Luxuriant orchards. Driving through Ontario in June, the eye continually dwells upon a sea of green, with scarcely any interlude of rock, swamp or broken land. It is simply a succession of well-cultivated
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
Some natural history notes—Our feathered pets—“The poor Canada bird”—The Canadian mocking-bird—The black squirrel—The red squirrel—The katydid and cricket—A rural graveyard—The whip-poor-will—The golden plover—The large Canada owl—The crows’ congress—The heron—The water-hen. If one would see our feathered pets in all their abundant numbers and luxuriant beauty nowadays in Ontario, he must get away from the towns and villages and centres of dense population. At various times I have explored porti
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
Lake Ontario—Weather observations with regard to it—Area and depth—No underground passage for its waters—Daily horizon of the author—A sunrise described—Telegraph poles an eye-sore—The pleasing exceeds the ugly. Realizing the fact that the greater part of beautiful Lake Ontario belongs to us, and, likewise, that the most densely populated portion of our province is about its borders, a few facts and observations will, I think, be acceptable to most Canadians. My remarks are founded mainly upon m
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
Getting hold of an Ontario farm—How a man without a capital may succeed—Superiority of farming to a mechanical trade—A man with $10,000 can have more enjoyment in Ontario than anywhere else—Comparison with other countries—Small amount of waste land in Ontario—The help of the farmer’s wife—“Where are your peasants?”—Independence of the Ontario farmer—Complaints of emigrants unfounded—An example of success. It was far more difficult for our early settlers in Ontario to pay for their lands by their
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
Unfinished character of many things on this continent—Old Country roads—Differing aspects of farms—Moving from the old log-house to the palatial residence—Landlord and tenant should make their own bargains—Depletion of timber reserves. In America everything is begun, and but few things finished. Persons from the Old World tell us this, and there is a great deal of truth in it. Driving on Ontario roads one sees a good farm-house, surrounded by trees and fences, all nicely kept, when perhaps the v
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
Book farmers and their ways—Some Englishmen lack adaptiveness—Doctoring sick sheep by the book—Failures in farming—Young Englishmen sent out to try life in Canada—The sporting farmer—The hunting farmer—The country school-teacher. Book farmers come to us now and again. These are usually persons from Britain, possessing some means, but not sufficient to make them gentlemen at home. They have had no particular knowledge of farming at home, but since farming is supposed to be so easy a matter in Can
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Horse-dealing transactions—A typical horse-deal—“Splitting the difference”—The horse-trading conscience—A gathering at a funeral—Another type of farmer—The sordid life that drives the boys away. There are some few persons in every community who have always a weather-eye open for a likely horse which they may see passing by. These men are usually free-handed, and know how to match horses and train them nicely, that they may drive quietly and travel evenly and slowly, so as to be desirable carriag
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
City and country life compared—No aristocracy in Canada—Long winter evenings—Social evenings—The bashful swain—Popular literature of the day—A comfortable winter day at home—Young farmers who have inherited property—Difficulty of obtaining female help—Farmers trying town life—Universality of the love of country life—Bismarck—Theocritus—Cato—Hesiod—Homer—Changes in town values—A speculation in lard. Your city dweller turns away from a life in the country on account of society. Granted that we in
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
Instances of success in Ontario—A thrifty wood-chopper turns cattle dealer—Possesses land and money—Two brothers from Ireland; their mercantile success—The record of thirty years—Another instance—A travelling dealer turns farmer—Instance of a thriving Scotsman—The way to meet trouble—The fate of Shylocks and their descendants. To show the possibilities to be accomplished in Ontario, I purpose to cite some instances coming under my own observation of Ontarians who have succeeded. I take the groun
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CHAPTER XXI.
CHAPTER XXI.
Manitoba and Ontario compared—Some instances from real life—Ontario compared with Michigan—With Germany—“Canada as a Winter Resort”—Inexpediency of ice-palaces and the like—Untruthful to represent this as a land of winter—Grant Allen’s strictures on Canada refuted—Lavish use of food by Ontario people—The delightful climate of Ontario. When the Manitoba fever broke out a good many persons in this locality, and some of my own tenants among the number, became uneasy and thought of emigrating. Some
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CHAPTER XXII.
CHAPTER XXII.
Criticisms by foreign authors—How Canada is regarded in other countries—Passports—“Only a Colonist”—Virchow’s unwelcome inference—Canadians are too modest—Imperfect guide-books—A reciprocity treaty wanted. In my readings from time to time I come across many remarks by foreign and other authors, that I feel are belittling to our country. If we only took to the self-laudation practised by our Yankee neighbors, such arguments, or, rather, want of arguments—but rather noises—would at least make us b
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CHAPTER XXIII.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Few positions for young Canadians of ambition—American consulships—Bayard Taylor—S. S. Cox—Canadian High Commissioner—Desirability of men of elevated life—Necessity for developing a Canadian national spirit. It has occurred to many of our young Canadians that there are very few positions attainable to us as Canadians really worth striving for. We are so peculiarly situated, that we seem to be in a large measure debarred from obtaining positions which would ordinarily fall to the lot of those att
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CHAPTER XXIV.
CHAPTER XXIV.
A retrospect—Canada’s heroes—The places of their deeds should be marked—Canada a young sleeping giant—Abundance of our resources—Pulpwood for the world—Nickel—History of our early days will be valued. No one can look back over the years covered by this volume of reminiscences and observations of Canadian history and life without being struck by the changes that have already taken place, and also by the great possibilities of the future. At the close of the American Revolution of 1776 there were
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