Armchair Ancestry  - From The Comfort of My Recliner
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • David John's 1878 Flood Run
  • Herseys' Kingston, Ontario Circa 1880
  • Daniel Hersey 1797–1879 Tree
  • Nova Orbis Tabula
    • Nova Orbis Americas Detail
    • Nova Orbis Tethered Oxen Detail
    • Nova Orbis Wheat Harvest Detail
  • The Thomas Herse Maps
    • Chatelain's 1719 Carte Tres Curieuse de La Mer Du Sud
    • Mariage des Canadiens
    • Canadian Burial
    • America Siue India Nova
  • Thomas Herse Frontier Links Page One
  • Thomas Herse Frontier Links Page Two
  • John James Audubon
    • Bulgier Beasts
    • Smaller Critters
    • Avian Audubon

70 Acres Wood or Wild

9/15/2015

0 Comments

 
In Was January 12, 1852. William Powles, enumerator,  did not carry the official forms with him - he would save the writing and listing details for the comfort of his warm two-storey modern frame abode in neighboring Fenelon Falls.  There was no way his frozen fingers would do justice to penmanship out here.  The wood pencil was frozen to his fingers and he could barely fumble the facts onto his ripping and soaked paper... 
Through the Woods
Being meticulous, he preferred to keep the final draft of his work for better surroundings and his personal metal nib pen.  The pencil contraption would have to do for the moment.  He was frozen, knackered, and near to fed up.  But he was determined to do his job correctly.  This was important work.  He needed to know who was living out  in these remote woods, how they fared, and how they lived.

The potholed paths of these farthest of farms in this most Northern County were hard on his horse and hard on his back.  At least he did not have to travel the more remote jurisdictions of Longford and Digby.  Verulam and Fenelon  were challenging enough.  

Old Farmer
The closest neighbor had told William that Thomas Herse lived on the edge of Lake Sturgeon. 

"How do I find him?" William asked the farmer.  
"Jus be affer de bothaar." 
"What...path...may that be?" 
"S'Domas  - be Domas by name.  Do i'a follow, yer be affer bogger Herse."


One hour later, through mud, ice, and thick black spruce and sugar maple, he came to the place.  The was no other way to describe it.  Shanty.  William made a note under acreage:  Seventy Acres of land under  Wood or Wild.



Shanty

Just a few explanations.  William Powles, from Fenelon Falls, was the enumerator  in Fenelon and Victoria Counties for  the 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.  His name was easy to find on the records  and finding where he was from was also relatively easy.  Powles was meticulous in his penmanship and copious details of the land, the farms, the people, their struggles - writing many details on the edges of his forms. 
This 1851 census actually was taken in January of 1852.  It was late - perhaps because of the difficulties of navigating the back woods of Canada.  There was a Thomas Herse in Victoria County, married to Mary Ann Herse, who lived in a shanty working a small farm amongst 70 Acres Wood or Wild
. And there now is, coincidentally, a Thomas Drive skirting the present Verulam Park. The Connection was pure conjecture. Please feel free to give me suggestions concerning Canadian-Irish accents of the 1850's.

Images with thanks from:
Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Winter Evening  by John MacFarlan 

Old Farmer
by A.B. Frost, 1887 from the Norman Rockwell Museum

Shanty on Lake Chaudière by Nathaniel Parker Willis from William Henry Bartlett's The Project Gutenberg EBook of Canadian Scenery, Volume II



0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Right now - I'm just Ella Rebecca...

    Archives

    March 2018
    July 2017
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly