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Under Wood Or Wild...

9/29/2015

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It was the lines of the 1851 agricultural schedule that drew me in to the life of Thomas Herse. I knew this Thomas Herse was not the Thomas Albert Hersey of my research. But these statistics were foreign, fascinating, and compelling. The data were irresistibly absorbing, captivating, spellbinding, mesmerizing. Each line painted a Eureka of mid 19th century farm life. I studied the entries and thought, "...but, where was the woman?"

The stains on the old paper blurred and shifted into forms. Out of the schedule lines and markings emerged new and slowly changing colors - little bumps of cream bulged into bales - discolorations of red-browns and greens grew legs and branches. Out of the unfolding fuzzy blotches of gray and brown blinked pairs of glaring red eyes, peering through the emerging bushes and trees. Odd squares raised between the words "oxen", "pigs", "cow" and "calf", corralling them into sectioned spaces. The census dashes for male / and female / grew little legs and arms. These stick figures, dawned in the yards of cotton and flannel, picked up their tools, pulled their shanty out of the earth, and began to work the barrel containing the cream. The dot above the word "blacksmith" grew glowing red, dropped into a stone pit and spewed fire onto the tongs and the pots of maple sap.
Picture

Thomas Herse was a new tenant on 180 acres, 70 of them under Wood or Wild. And, in the opinion of the census enumerator, the land was overpriced for lack of good roads. Oh, but Thomas Herse was canny. He was not going to survive solely on his farm. He took pride in being a blacksmith, his trade in Ireland just five years prior. And he had enough acreage to use for 'lumbering'; but that would be a future enterprise. By staying safely within the local staples of potatoes, peas, oats and wheat he was determined to give the farm a go. And he had Mary Ann.
Thomas had an instinct - he knew this land was not over farmed (it had never been farmed) and he sensed that the time was right in this part of the world for a booming farm economy. He was speculating accurately that the economic pit of the early 1800s in this area was over. Besides, there were larger townships in which to use his smithy talents if the farm failed. His brother Alfred had a farm nearer Kingston. There had been bad luck for those farmers last season. Over farming. Hail Storm.
Picture
Aside farming, he could do smithy work in fair weather. His hearth, a stone furnace beyond the pig pen, was set in a safe enough locale. He didn't dare set up the work near the shanty. Mary Ann wouldn't tolerate the heat, the smell, or the danger. It was great hard work but they had cleared the space, selected the best stones, and erected a simple forge sufficiently deep for heat. And he owned adequate bellows and tools. He had been told about the deposits of coal and iron ore in the area for those willing to mine or barter. It was a clever side enterprise. He was able to provide basic farrier duties and metal working for much of the rural folk in Victoria County. Perhaps next season he could put up a proper semi-enclosed forge. But Mary Ann wanted her log hall-and-parlour first. The shanty was a bit…rough.

In harsh weather when there was no farming to be done Thomas made his way to the new foundry in Peterborough to work as an extra hand, leaving Mary Anne to tend to the winter chores alone. They had no children; each had succumbed to boat fever (typhus) on the ocean journey. He seemed able to suppress the feelings over their deaths. And he seemed able to suppress any concerns over Mary Ann's safety. Wild weather. Wolves. Bears. Snakes. This was not selfishness. This was survival necessity. Besides, she was a brave shot with the musket and had decent survival skills.
Mary Ann picked up much of the farming chores and he was thankful for her work. He had made her the loom, spindle and butter churn, and had purchased her raw wool. She was a great hand spinner and had been able to weave 26 yards of basic home spun for the market last season. She also had a strong arm for that Butter churn. Together they collected and boiled the maple sap, heated and carded 30 yards of rough woolen flannel, tended the pigs and oxen, butchered the pigs, and, his favorite, cured, and smoked that pork. Boiling maple, smoking and salting pork; the aroma and victuals made most hardships tolerable.
Picture
The oxen team had been their major purchase; an unimaginable 65 pounds. They were bought in Toronto along with the piglets, cow, and used Brown Bess musket. To their delight, the cow had soon produced a calf. The oxen had been one of their few disagreements. Thomas had planned to clear and till the land with only a hand tiller along with the strength of his back, legs, and arms. Mary Ann had argued successfully for the team. She was right. It made an exponentially huge difference in speed and ease of production. With the team and Mary Ann's help he had produced the peas, potatoes, and oats - the main food staple for the whole area. His bushels would be transported through the waterways and pathways to Barrie, and from there to points unknown. South to the mills in Rochester. East to Quebec. Maybe over the water to England.
But he did have another suspicion about the oxen. Mary Ann was shy to hitch up and handle the team. This meant she didn't have to do any of the tilling. Smart woman, that Mary Ann. No matter. She did everything else.



To find the individual family members in the '1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia' I had to scroll backwards through the pages to reach the population statistics. I do not know enough of the sub divisions of old Veulam to know exactly where Thomas and Mary Ann's farm was actually located. Sub district number 357 was not enough information. Perhaps one of you will be able to fill in that information. They may have been located near Bobcaygeon, which had a mill completed in 1840. Thomas did seem to have a relative named Alfred working a farm in nearby Kingston.

I have no idea if Thomas and Mary Ann argued, how much, or over what. But the purchase of the oxen would have been a major expenditure. I also have no idea if Mary Ann was or was not willing to hitch up that team and participate in the tilling. She most likely did planting and reaping. To follow up on the couple, in the 1861 census they were no longer on the farm but living in the township of Emily near the large foundry in Peterborough. The area was known for having a large Irish Protestant community. Common knowledge claims that many Irish fled poverty and famine in the mid 1800s, immigrating to the Americas. The fact that both Herse families were listed as members of the Protestant Church of England in the censuses may indicate an additional clue to the possible reasons for their 1845 migration from Ireland.

A poignant touch in the 1861 census shows that the couple had taken in a young school girl - not a family member - an Irish girl named Ann Revington from Ennismore in Upper Canada. Their house was a log house - much more comfortable than the shanty. Perhaps they had abandoned the farm. Perhaps they managed it from the distance.
Picture

Educated readers will have accurately surmised that I have next to zero knowledge of farming, smithy work, or rural life in 1850 Ontario. I had much help from the following sources:


Unequal Beginnings
Agriculture and Economic Development in Quebec and Ontario until 1870

By John McCallum
University of Toronto Press, 1980
ISBN 9781442682894 1442682892
I was so surprised to find that John McCallum was not a stereotypical adjunct teacher stuck in a back room of some smallish college. I was going to send him an email thanking him for writing the book - but I think he probably doesn't read such trivial correspondence.

The Irish in Ontario - A Study in Rural History
By Donald Harman Akenson
McGill-Queen's University Press, 1984
ISBN-10: 0773520295
ISBN-13: 978-0773520295

Historical Atlas of Canada , Vol. II - The Land Transformed, 1800 - 1891
University of Toronto Press, 1993
ISBN 0-8020-3447-0
AND - I have had uncontrollable urges to consume huge quantities of barbeque pork while preparing this blog.

Other Great Sources used in creating this story:

MAPS!!
A Few Canadian Critters by John James Audubon
Farming and Canada Links Page One
Farming and Canada Links Page Two


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70 Acres Wood or Wild

9/15/2015

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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



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Canada West

9/14/2015

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Please allow me to present just one more map:
For the purposes of my Hersey in Ontario Canada investigation, this 1849 Tallis map of West Canada will be very useful.

Drawn and engraved by J Rapkin,  "The Maps" were published to coincide with the great exhibition in London in 1851.  This map of  "West Canada" shows the eastern part of modern Ontario, divided into districts, along with Indian territory and traders, with  vignettes of  the  Falls of Niagara and, most importantly, a first sighting of Kingston on a map.  Look very closely and find Kingston as well as Old Verulum in Victoria County - a place of Wild Acres...

Picture
Enlarge here...
John Rapkin (1815-1876) drew and engraved a series of maps for John Tallis published to coincide with the great exhibition in London in 1851. "The maps" were also later re-issued by the London Printing and Publishing Company, still bearing the Tallis imprint. Rapkin's style is elegant and clear and considerable geographical detail and nomenclature is shown on the maps. 

The map shows the eastern part of modern Ontario, divided into districts/counties. Part of the map is shown as "Indian territory", with "Indian traders" and "Falls of Niagara" vignettes.



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Antique Maps - Terres Inconnues

9/14/2015

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Lands Unknown

I am infatuated with antique maps of Old Canada, before the great eastern territories west of the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean  were pioneered. These maps reveal the history of Canada from the emergence of New France into Canada West and Canada East, and into present Canada.  There are hundreds of old maps available on line to view and purchase.  Each, with great beauty,  give insights into the views of the world at the time of their creation.  Close inspection of the artistic details hidden in the maps are historical details.  They are little vignettes of past life.

The magnificent Nova Orbis Tabula in Lucem Edita (New World Map Publication) by A. F. de Wit. of 1680 is very vague on the presence of Canada.  It does contain magnificent comments on every day life - once you bypass the presence of cupids and goddesses.  Please click here for more views and information. 

Picture

Gerhardus Mercator's 1620


Gerhardus Mercator's 1620
Map of the Americas is equally erroneous in it's guess of the Americas, giving it a rather bulbous grub-like shape.  Please click here for details. Image provided by Antiquariat Reinhold Berg.




This 1681 Map of Northern America by Claude Bernou says it best - Canada - Terres Inconnues  -  Unknown Lands.  Please click here for details.

Picture

New France
The magnificent Nicolas de Fer: Le Canada, ou Nouvelle France, la Floride, la Virginie, Pensilvanie, Caroline, (Paris 1702) from: L'Atlas curieux, ou la Monde, quatrième partie  is a detail of historic New France - an eye opening display of the huge  area monopolized by the King of France, and how easily the area could have emerged into a complete French-American entity, instead of the English-American area it is today.  The minuscule British Colonies are engulfed and encompassed by the huge bulk of New France.  I notice the "Acadie" is still a part of New France. Please click here for details.


Curious indeed.  Here is a truly amazing and elaborate map - the name is as engrossing as the map itself. By Henri Abraham Chatelain in 1719 the Carte Tres Curieuse de La Mer Du Sud. Contenant Des Remarques Nouvelles et Tres Utiles Non Seulement Sur les Ports et Iles De Cette Mer is loosely translated: "Very curious map of the South Sea which contains notes, new and very useful not only of ports but islands of this sea".  Here there is still not a handle on the Scope of Canada and North America.  But it does show beautiful detail of life at the time. Click here for details. 
The World, 1719, Americas, Pacific, Chatelain
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Oh, Canada?

9/6/2015

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Ontario, ca or Ontario, ca...

In looking for Thomas Albert Hersey and Elizabeth Evans (both born in Kingston, Frontenac, Ontario, Canada in the late 1800s)  I am getting comfortable with the bizarre Canada West/Canada East compass.  Kingston is not in England.  Ontario is not just in California.  Perth, Perth, Perth, Perth.  All these people from Perth.   I'm not looking for ancestors  from Australia.

I live East of Interstate 5 in California.  I have lived East of I-5 before there was an I-5.  All my educational experiences trumpet the USA in 1950's Orange County, California.  Finding Canadian locales, old regional vernaculars, and historical facts has been a huge cob-Web-site  exploration.   When I google terms listed on the old Canadian censuses I find very odd and entirely unrelated non-information.  I have had to learn how to web-site search for these places.


Let me go back and give you examples.  For instance, the Thomas Herse in the 1851 Canadian Agricultural Census was from Verulam in the County of Victoria. Perhaps this Thomas may be the Thomas Albert Hersey I was looking for. I  googled "Verulam" -  got Virginia, USA and South Africa.  I googled "County of Victoria" and got Texas.  A simple Southern Californian would leave it there; guessing  the Hersey family came from British Columbia before immigrating to Ontario, So Cal.  So, why go further? 

Another instance is related thus:  I explained to my Yale Grad Husband "This research really makes me want to travel to Frontenac."  "Where?"  Up to that point he'd  been hearing  about Ontario and Kingston.  Frontenac seems…Foreign-tenac.  Canada East or West?  Is it then, French and spelled Fronteneque?   To us Ontario is simply the pathway to Palm Springs via Riverside California.  So I decided it would be a interesting to give the history of Ontario, California a google.

Ontario.  Aha. I believed I found a huge Californian Misconception.  There was nothing on the official Ontario City sites giving me the Canadian connection.  I googled Ontario, California and Ontario California history. 

The official
City of Ontario, California page says:
"It was in the first week of August, 1881 when (founder) George Chaffey, a Canadian engineer, viewed the wastes known as the Cucamonga Desert and decided that this patch of land, if properly watered, could become productive and profitable."


The
Ontario California Heritage page states:
"George Chaffey Jr. and his brother William founded Ontario, which means 'the City on the side of a mountain,' in September of 1881."

There was no connection that I could find to Ontario, Canada. 

It was only after guess, assumption, viewing of old maps and discovering buried web sites that I  connected  the Chaffey family  of the Chaffey Mill on the Rideau Canal in Ontario, Canada  with the Chaffeys in Ontario California. 

Picture
I finally found a GREAT hidden page that gave me the connection.  The Chaffe Family Tree.  (I love how the Chaffe name spellings on the header morph).  Read all the way to the bottom of the page to find the mother of bi-Ontarians "George Chaffey and William Benjamin Chaffey, C.M.G., celebrated irrigationists in California and Australia."

Eh!!!  Jeez.  I must be very thick.  Now it is easy.  Somehow I am using better search techniques.  I can enter Veralum and find Canada.  I can enter Ontario California and find that
 "It takes its name from the Ontario Model Colony development established in 1882 by the Canadian engineer George Chaffey and his brothers William Chaffey and Charles Chaffey.  They named the settlement after their home province of Ontario".

But of course, Thomas Hersey immigrated to Orange County, California, not Ontario, San Bernardino County, California.  So all of this is really of no consequence... 


Further Reading...

George Chaffey Cooper Museum (California)
Chaffey's Lock Mill (Canada) - Nature Notes
Chaffee Family Tree
Chaffeys Locks
Natural Recourses Canada: Name Origins
Canadian genealogy (Canada)
Ontario Historical Society (Canada)
Ontario Genealogy (Canada)
Canadian History
Ontario.ca (Canada)
Ontario Canada Travel
California Genealogy - History of Ontario
Ontario Heritage (California)
City of Ontario (California)
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