The following historical account was written by Jammes TOLTON (1839-19280)
My first visit to the County of Bruce was in Feb. or March of the winter of 1855. A family by hte name of Egerton had come out from England a few years before that date and lived in a rented house a short distance from my father's home in the Township of Guelph. The head of the family was a shoemaker, he and his assistant, named Hobbs, did most of shoemaking and cobbling for the neighborhood. They had bought a farm in the Tp. of Derby in the County of Grey which was just then settling up and mostly in bush at that time. During the winter of 1855 they arranged to move to this bush farm they had bought, and engaged through our father, teams to transport themand their belongings to their new home. Thomas Tolton, a cousinn of mone, and myself were the teamsters. The family consisted of Eger ton and his wife, two daughters and the assistant. I was then just past sixteen years of age , my cousin was two or three years older. We proceeded by way of what was known as the Garafraxa Road or the Road to Owen Sound, going through Fergus, Arhur, Mount Forest, Durham, Chatsworth, leaving this road about four miles before getting into Owen Sound. We arrived at our destination on a Saturday night at a settler's home adjacent to the Egerton's new farm, named Barber. After unloading our loads, on the next morning we proceeded to Port Elgin with the intention of visiting two brothers named Goble, of my stepmother. At that date Port Elgin was just commencing as a town, settlers mostly being descendants of the Pennsylvsania Dutch from the County of Waterloo. At that time the Goderich Road was not opened up, nor was the Elora and Saugeen Road in the County of Bruce. at that time a man named John Stafford had recently built a frame house and a fairly commodious stable and had opened up what was then called a Tavern, and he had some beaver meadow hay in his barn. My cousin and I left our teams with this man and walked through the bush to hte Gobles who lived two or three miles further down the shore of Lake Huron.
The next winter, a neighbour named Andrew Dryden moved my Uncle Joshua Tolton's household goods to the Tp. of Derby, the same Tp. to which the Egerton's had gone the winter before. A cousin of mine, John Worsfold, accompanied us for an outing. I remember it was a cold stormy time during this trip. One day we were only able to mkae Durham from Mount Forest, a distance of only sixteen miles.After getting toDerby and unloading my Uncle's goos on his new farm my cousin went on again to Port Elgin to visit the Gobles. The gooderich Raod at that time was opened up and we were able to drive to the Gobles.
In the winter of 1857 I again went to Port Elgin to take a new cooking stove and a few other household goods for Iden Goble. This time I went by way of the Elora and Sugeen Road which was then opened up from Guelph to Southampton. I remember on that trip of passing the River's farm and seeing the frame barn on Flach's hill which had recently been erected aand the only one that was seen in that part of the Countruy. I also remember I was amazed at the depth of the snowfrom that on by Dunkeld and until I reached Paisley, where I had to remain for the night at Roe's Tavern.
I little thought at the time I was passing so near to what was to be my future home, for at that time my thoughts were if I ever went to the County of Bruce to make a home it would be in the vicinity of Port Elgin. By way of digession, Iden Goble was a bachelor, and some unique methods of his own in cooking. At that time in my life I was fond of fish and his prepared methods of smoking and cooking Lake Huron herring appealed to my taste.
Sometime about 1857, John Parkinson and his family, who had been farming in the Township of Eramosa sold out and moved to the State of Iowa and bought land near a small town named Lyons, on the Mississippi River. Having read some of the letters he wrote to his friends in Eramose made me think I would like to see the prairie country of the United States. At that time we knew comparatively nothing of the vastness and fertility of our Canadian North West. So to gratify this desire in June of 1860, being then just the age of twenty-one, in company with a neighbour's son named George Lash, we started to gratify this ambition. We first took the train for Niagra Falls, and spent the first day at this one of the Wonders of the World.At that time the City on the American side was quite small and the town on the Canadian side was almost nil. I remember that we took in the Falls, went down under them,went down along the rapids, andsaw the Whirlpool. I also remembber that the Bus and Hotel runners were numerously in evidence as well as many other grafters. We stayed at the Falls for the night and the next morning took what was then the Great Western Train for Detroit. The journey was without any particular event, but I did notice great stretches of the country seemed to be quite new and noticed at many stations large quantities of saw logs and other timbers, and it seems to me now it was principally oak and elm timber. Arriving at Windsor we crossed over the River on a ferry. It was in the evening the sun was near setting, and I had my first sensation of being what is called being turned around. I could not but think the sun was setting in the east.
We remained over night in Detroit and the next morning took the Detroit and Chicago train for Chicago. Of course this road took us nearly all the way through the Southern part of the State of Michigan. So far as I could judge from the train it seemed to be a very fine farming country, particularly around a town named Kalamazoo. The distance between Detroit and Chicago is over two hundred miles. We arrived in Chicago in the evening and remained overnight at a hotelnear the Railway station. This was before the Chicago Fire and the City was small compared to what it is now. Our destination was Richard Hornby's who was an Uncle of my comrade Geo. Lush, and who resided within three miles of a small Station named Sheffield on the Chicago and Rock Island R.R. We took train next morning and arrived at Sheffield in the early afternoon. On our way we travelled through the prairies that I have heard a great deal about. I recollect that evening I had my first sensation of home-sickness. I may have had slight attacks of it at some other times since then. The Hornby family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Hornby, four sons and five daughters. The eldest son and daughter were older than I, some about my agre and some younger. I remember this was June 1860. Just before war was declared between the Northern Free States and the Southern Slave States, and the first gun was fired if I remember aright, the seventh or eighth of July of that year at Charleston in South Carolina. At that time corn and wheat were the principal crops in that part of the state. I worked for farmers during the harvest and from one farmer received $1.75 per day ingold, which at that time I thought to be high wages. After war was declared business of all kinds collapsed, andd ten cents a bushel for corn could not be got. Soon the country was in a turmoil; the young men volunteered, and the oldest Hornby son volunteered among others. Hornby owning a threshing outfit left myself and a young man named Moon to operate it which we did during the fall so long as thresing could be got. After the threshing was ended, George Lush went to Davenport in Iowa at that time a thriving small city, from there we drove up along the Mississsippi River to a small city named Lyons. the John Parkinson Family lived near this town or farms, and also some timber land on the flats of the river which they were intending to be made into firewood. Geo. Lush and I did the cutting, and the sons tealed the wood into Lyons. In the spring I returned to the Hornbys in Illinois, my friend Lush renaining at the Parkinsons.
The American Civil War was now on in earnest; volunteering had been going on freely, but the summer of 1861 the Government proposed to draft men. This announcement seemed to frighten Lush,and during the summer he and one of the Parkinson sons named Obadiah, returned to Eramosa. I remaine din the neighbourhood of the Hornby's in Illinois mostly during that summer and fall. The State of Kansas was beginning to be settled aup at that ime and there being considerable talk in Illinois about the possibilities and productiveness of this new State, two other men of my acquaintance determined to go and see for ourselves this new Eldorado. One of the men named Sapp had a nice team of horses. We decided to go in that way, a covered light wagon and these horses. We travelled through the Central West of Illinois and at that time, and I do not know that I have changed my mind since, saw some of the most beautiful farms lands I had ever seen, particularly Kiwi County! We crossed the Mississippi River on a ferry at the City of Burlington in the State of Iowa. We proceeded on through the Sout eastern part of the State for some distance until we neared the State line of Misouri, a beautiful country and excellent farm lands. As we neared the State of Missouri we were being told by those we mwt and conversed with on our travels of the dangers that we were likely to meet with if we continued our journey. It was stated that there were numbers of irresponsible armed men roaming about the borders of Missouri and Kansas, and having also the sanction of the Southern Confederate States, were plundering and sometimes killing those that offered resistance, those that were in sympathy with the Northern States. We were told we would likely have to give up our team of horses and the firearms in our possession. As we proceeded on our journey there rumours getting more persistent, we held a Council of War and decided to return to Illinois. Thus ended our expedition.
After returning I worked for the farmers in the neighbourhood of the Hornbys, during the harvest, ans as soon as the thressing season opened up started in again with George Hornby and his brother Frank. George had been during the summer invalided home from the seat of War down in hte state of Tennessee. After the thresing season was over in the late fall George Hornby and I started out on a trapping expedition. Owing to the war or some other causes furs were commanding high prices; - muskrats, 50 cts. Mink, $2.00 to $4.00. However we made no success of any account, but we did see quite a lot of the north west part of Iowa, travelled up as far as Spirit Lake on the Stae Line of Iowa and Minnesota, and from there proceeded west into Rock County, hte north west county in the State. At that time it was not settled. From Spirit Lake we travelled Westward forty miles of more and did not see a single house. When we arrived at our destination the banks of Rock River, a fair sized stream, circumstances were such it was deemed advisable to return. Indications were that fur game was fairly plentiful. Geese and ducks were innumerable. There is a saying that "There is a turn in hte tide of human affairs if taken at the flood, that if not taken advantage of never returns". I have sometimes that I might have done worse than have taken up some of the fine prairie land we travelled over that time. At one of the times I was visiting in the Canadian West I met two farmers from this part of Iowa who bought land in Alberta and they told me that the farms in Rock County and adjoining counties were selling at upwards of $100 per acre. On my return to Illnois I stopped for a few weeks at a new Railroad Town, the Marchalltown, which I believe has grown to be quite a fine City in good and fertile ag. district. While there, I built quite a lot of board fence for a man in the town who owned a farm near to the town. However I returned to the Hornbys in early June and from there started o my return journey to my old home in Eramosa. I went by rail to Chicago, took a steamboat and came to Sarnia by the Lakes Michigan and Huron, being away two years sight seeing and on the whole having a pleasant time. I remained on my father's farm during the summer. About a year and a half previous to my return from the United States my father had purchased a block of land of about 370 acres in the Tp. of Brant in the County of Bruce, at that time a comparitively new country, settlers having been in for ten years or perhaps a little longer, nearly all or all of the land suitable for farm purposes was located by a settler and nearly all the farm lots had a small clearing and a log house, and barn and stables. The township of Brant was heavily timbered mainly by maple, beech, elm and some hemlock, with cedar and some pine in the swamps and alomg the Saugeen River, which flows across the south part of the Tp. and down the West side. The land bought by my father was intended to be divided between my brother John and my self, was no exception as far as timber was concerned, to the pther parts of the Township. It was covered mainly by the finest maples I have seen anywhere, only odd trees of elm and basswood. If that timber was standing today with existing conditions, it would be a veritable gold mine. My brother John had been in Brant in the winter of 1861 and 1862, and made his selection of the land and had chopped down 14 acres and in the spring returned home to his father's farm.
Sometime during September of the fall of 1862, my brother John and I came up to this land, and let a contract to do what is called underbrushing, or in other words, cutting and piling all the small trees six inches and under. I arranged to have twenty acres thus prepared for the final cutting down, the brush to be logged and burny. These twenty acres ran the full width of Lot A. Con. 2 S. D. R., which was to be my future home. This was my first step to make a home for myself. I may say just here that my brother and I on this and several other occasions walked up to this land from Eramosa. After making the arrangements for the underbrushing, I went on to Port Elgin to visit the Gobles and my brother returned to Eramosa. I returned from Port Elgin taking a steamboat to Goderich and from thence by rail to Guelph; on this trip I had my first and only experience of sea-sickness. I was as the saying goes, "good and sick". It is a terrible depressing feeling. I have heard the sensation thus described -- First you feel as though you were going to die, and then you are afraid you won't die. S little before Christmas of the winter of 1862 in company with a young man named Ninian Ireland, who had come out from Kircaldy in Scotland a few months previous and had been engaged with his father in the hardware business in that town; after his arrival in Canada he started to work with our neighbour Mr. Jos. Parkinson, (who became my future Father-in-law) to learn Canadian farming. Among other branches of Art, he thought he would like tolearn to chop down the primeval forest, so came with me and stayed on the job like a "brick" until the Spring. I think we were both glad to get back to Eramosa; as the usual thing in those times we walked the whole distance. Shortly after this Ninian Ireland went to Baltimore in Maryland in the United States to visit an Uncle who owned a hardware store and I have never seen him since. Before leaving our chpping operations, I had let the contract to log and burn the 20 acres we had cut down, and the 14 acres my brother had cut down the previous winter, to be completed in time to be sown with fall wheat in the fall. I might say here that while at work we boarded with our neighbours, John Flach and Mr.Burnham.
After the harvest was completed at my father's. my brother and I again went up to Brant and arranged to put in crop on the land we had got cleared twenty-four acres, - the fourteen on my brother's lot and ten acres on my lot. After getting the crop put in and making arrangements for cedar rails to fence the land cleared, we returned to Eramosa. In the days of clearing the land not only in Brandt but Eramosa and mostly all timbered lands, there was always enough elm and basswood and other timber suitable to make rails to fence the parts cleared, but not so with our land; as I have already said, the timber was nearly all maple and beech but mostly maple. As soon as the sleighing commenced the next winter my brother and I started buying and teaming grain, mostly wheat, in Clifford, then a small village about 48 miles north of Guelph. We wanted to make a little money to continue making improvements on our bush farms in Brant. My brother stayed in Clifford and did tHe buying and selling and I teamed all winter to Guelph, my father letting me have one OF [the] teams and sleigh for this purpose. We made a little money, but not as much as we should have done considering the hard ans strenuous work that it entailed. My average load of wheat was 90 bushels. This was some few years before the Railroad was built from Guelph to Southampton. During the summer months we built two granaries, one on each to store grain in. In the spring I had sown the other ten acres of the twenty that had been cleared with spring wheat, and fenced not pnly my 20 acres but also the 14 acres of my brother's. We had a fair crop of first class quality and a fair yield. This crop was mainly teamed to Kincardine at $1.25 per bushel at that time thought to be a very good priceas for some years previous it had been selling at a much less price. It seemed fortunate that we were able to get a good price for our first crop and incidentally pulling us on the way of getting along with improving our farms. This encouraged us to clear more land and to this end we had twenty-six acrews chopped down the coming winter, and raised a log house 24 x 30, on my brother's land, and had it roofed and finished up the next summer, and made fit to live in. That fall I went to St. Catherines and bought 1000 apple trees and a few pear trees and teamed them from Guelph to Brant. In the spring we planted a small orchard on each of our farms, and sold hte balance of the trees to some of the neighbours and others.
During the year of 1865, the County Council of Bruce had determined to enter into a gravel Road system to benefit the whole and about 150 miles of the then leading roads were selected to be made into permanent gravel roads. The contracts for these roads were advertised and tenders called for in hte fall. My brother John, myself and a Sctochman named Donal Morrison, a man who had some experience in building these kinds of roads, tendered for some portions of these roads. Our tneder was not accpted. It was my opinion at that time it had been arranged before hand who were to receive these contracts, be that as it may be - the result was that Messrs. Danny, Sproat of Southampton, and some others got the contracts for the Southern part of the County. Reid and Walker of Kincardine the Western part of the County; Paul Ross of the then village of Moscow, the Sourthern roads, and William Hall and David Moore of Walkerton the eastern sections. As I have said we did not get a contract in the first letting, but we did get a sub-contract from Messrs. Danny and Sproat of Southampton to build five miles of the Elora and Saugeen Road commencing at the line between the Township of Elderslie and continued on a mile and a quarter past thte village of Burgoyne, and ten miles through the Tp. of Bruce, a portion of the Goderich and Saugeen Road. During the summer of 1866 we prosecuted the work but did not get it completed that season, but finished it up in the next year of 1867. We made a little money but not as much as we should to pay us for our time and the responsibility.
During the winter of 1865 we had twenty-six acres of bush chopped down, fifteen acres on my part and eleven on John's. Ten acres of my fifteen and the eleven of John's was seeded to fall wheat inthe fall, the other five acres was sown with spring wheat in thte springof 1866 and hte thirty-four acres that had been in crop the previous season was sown to oats and spring wheat. That year we again had a good crop, but exceedingly wet harvest, being almost impossible to get our grain saved and to make matters worse, not having a barn to store the grain it had to be stacked which made it much more difficult; often could not get a stack finished before rain would come. However, we got the crop harvested and soon as possible threshed. Being so much wet weather some of the grain was somewhat damp. In the threshing, I kept this as much as possible by itself and sold two hundred bushels to the thresher, Mr. Thos. Wallace, for $1.20 per bushel in the granary. For some of that crop I got $1.75 per bushel by teaming it to a mill near Guelph.
On the 27th Dec. of 1866 I was married to Miss Bessie Parkinson, a daughter of hte nearest neighbour to my father, a girl I had known all my life, went to school with her, played together when children and associated with her in the social gatherings of the neighbourhood, and have lived happily together during our long married life. In January of 1867 we moved our few belongings to the Tp. of Brant to our farm which was to be our home for so long. Perhaps I should say here that we moved into the house we had built on my brother John's part of the farm, and lived there until three of our children were born. In the winter of 1867 and 1868 we made preparations and let the contract to Robt. Gibson to build a frame bank barn 56x84 feet on my brother's farm. Henry Wilhelm and his brother Jacob built the stone basement. The little money we made on our Road contracts financially assisted in the building of this barn. The gravel raod system was now completed which gave most of the people accommodation to the then markets for produce. The County was now nearly all taken up by settlers and a goodly portion of each farm was cleared of timber and under cultivation. At this thime it was beginning to be felt that we needed railroads to connect us with the markets of not only of our part of Ontario but the outside world generally.
We had two schemes presented to the County, one that was called a narrow guage (that is - three feet 0 inches in width between rails, a road to run from Toronto to Owen Sound with a branch running into Walkerton. The other was an extension of what was then the Great Western (which afterwards merged with the Grand Trunk.) This road would connect all the east side of Bruce County with Guelph and Hamilton at that time Great WEstern was built to Guelph, a branch from the Main line from Galt to Guelph. The municipalities north of Guelph had voted liberal bonuses to extend this road to Clifford, the northerly limit of the County. This proposed line was then called the Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway, a proposed broad guage five feet six inches in width. The County Council of Bruce agreed to submit a By-law to be voted on by the people proposing to give a bonus of $200,000 to this road on conditions that it be built and extended from Clifford to Southampton by way of Walkerton. If I remember aright this By-law was voted on the second day of November 1869, and was carried with a good majority. The fall of 1869 the snow came in the early part of October by the 15th it was at least a foot and a half deep - at that time the potatoes and turnips were still in the ground. On the second of November the snow was nearly all gone. I remember drawing voters along the South Line into the polling booth in Walkerton with a wagon. The next day I took up potatoes and managed to get enough to meet our needs for the rest of the winter. the snow again came and remained until spring, and the potatoes that were not taken ip remained in the ground until then. We had about half an acre out all winter when taken up in the spring they were in good condition. A good many of the turnips remained in the ground until the snow went away. Mr. rivers took his crop up shovelling thte snow from the rows.
In 1870 we started to make a home for ourselves on our own farm. During the summer we had a brick house built, 22 ft, 31 ft., one storey and a half in height. Did not move into this house until the fall of 1871. The front of the house was built in 1879, a two storey brick 26x40. A man named Longbottom did the brick and stone work. R. E. Traux, the carpenter work, and Jos. Traux and an Englishman named the plastering. In the summer of 1874 we built a barn 56x90 feet.
Just here I would like to stop and go back a few years in order to mention a few reminiscences of my early days in Brant Tp. During the first winter I was in Brant I first met Mr. Jas. Fisk whom I was associated with from that time until his death.
In September of 1864 my brother John walked from Eramosa to Brant in order to put in some fall wheat and other work on our land. During that fall there was election for the Saugeen Division for the Legislative Council of Ontario. As we were coming up we arived at Rees' Tavern for dinner. While there D. L. McPherson, who afterwards became an Hon., and his party came to the tavern and of course we had an introduction. In that election I saw the most open vote buying I have ever seen. It was done openly and generally. McPherson apparently had plenty of money and was elected. At this time the selection of a County Town for Bruce had not been made, but was being considered by the Provisional County Council, and the people of the County. The Council not being able to make a selection it was decided to take a vote of the ratepayers and shortly after we had arrived at what was to be our future home in September a vote was taken and went on the day of the poll to Walkerton, then quite a nice sized village to vote, when we went into the booth we saw Mr. C. W. Stovel sitting at a table acting as a scrutineer. This was the first time I saw Mr. Stovel in Bruce County, but had some acquaintance with him as a pump maker and repairer on my father's farm while Mr. Stovel and his father carried on a pump works in Guelph. Mr. Stovel and I continued to be fast friends until his death. I may mention here that the vote taken at this time was not decisive, a number of places were voted on. None had a majority of the total vote cast, although Walkerton had the third largest vote, Kincardine and Paisley each receiving more votes. This vexed question was settled in 1865 by the County Council selecting Walkerton. The fall of 1869 and during the summer there were exciting times in Bruce. The campaign was on in earnest over the two rival schemes for railway communication for the County. The Wellington, Grey and Bruce scheme was represented by Adam Brown who was many years Postmaster of Hamiltion. McGivern, who was the President of the Company and Thos. White and many local orators on the West side of the County, - might mention Jas. C. Eckford, Jas. Rowand and Jno. S. Tolton. The narrow guage scheme was boomed by Mr. Laidlaw and others from Toronto. I well remember a notable banquet after the By-Law for $200,000 was carried the banquet was held at the Hartley House, Walkerton. During the winter 1869 a long winter, and much snow, the apple trees we had planted in the spring 1866 and were growing nicely, were nearly all girdled completely around from a foot to two teet in length and of course ruined.
In 1871 I made my first attempt at Municipal politics by being a candidate for Township Councillor. We had a very heavy snow storm about the time of the election and the roads were blocked in many places. At some of the polls they recorded voted on the next day. Of course these were struck off. I was defeated. In 1872 i was again a candidate and was elected. Served two years as a Councilman and was elected Deputy Reeve which position I held for two years, and in 1876 Iwas a candidate for the reeveship but was defeated by Jas. Brocelbank. I remained out of the council for about a year and a half, when one of the then councillors became insolvent and had to vacate his seat and I was elected to fill his unexpired term. In this by-election I was opposed by Mr. Jno. McCallum. In our own polling division No. 1 there were 92 votes polled and 90 of them were in my favour. In 1878 and 1879 I was again elected Dy. Reeve of the Tp. and in 1880 I was elected Reeve of the Tp. by Acclamation, and was elected by acclamation for seven succeeding years. The eighth year my neighbour opposed me but I was elected with something like 130 of a majority. The next year Mr. Jas. Brocelbank opposed me but I was elected with a good majority. The next year I was opposed by S. A. King, a merchant at Eden Gove. This year there was two weeks between nomination and election days. This was the most strenuous municipal election of my municipal career. I had incurred the displeasure of Mr. M. McNamara who at that time was owner of the Bruce Herald, over the County printing and he was actively against me through the Herald and on the public platform, as I held public meetings every night of the second week, and Mr. McN. attended them. I also had the liquor interests against me. I was elected with a substantial majority. In 1881 I retired from the Council, and continued to stay out from that on. In 1896 I was a candidate for East Bruce for the House of Commons. A farmers' organization known as the Patrons of Industry was at that time taking quite a prominent place not only in matters pertaining to the farmers' interests [but also in] public affairs, in the Province of Ontario. And in the Federal election of 1896 many of the the constituencies had Patrons Candidates, and I was their candidate for East Bruce against Mr. Henry Gargill, the then sitting member. I was defeated by something like 160 against me. I have always thought this defeat was one of the best things that happened to me during my public life.
|
