use, as well as providing a place for neighbouring settlers to have their goods processed. In this latter case, the miller would keep a percentage of the flour or lumber as payment, and the neighbour would go home with finished goods without laying out any cash. It was also quite common for a distillery to be attached to a gristmill. The distilleries used the smaller, inferior grain or “trailings” to make whisky, a beverage highly prized for its ability to soften the hard edges of pioneer life.
This was also the time to start thinking about some domestic animals, probably a cow and some chickens to start with — a source of eggs, milk, and homemade butter. The following years would see the arrival of more cows and chickens as well as ducks, geese, sheep, and turkeys. This would require fencing and coops for the poultry to protect them from the local wildlife. Hogs were also raised but were generally allowed to run free until hunted like wild game in the fall.
Autumn was slaughtering time, when the abattoirs, tanneries, and smokehouses would swing into action. Here again, the barter system prevailed, so farmers with no money could go home with tanned leather and smoked meats and the tanners and slaughtermen would end up with meat and leather of their own, taken as payment for their services.
The stumps left behind after the land was cleared could take up to ten years to rot away completely, but early settlers needed tillable land sooner than that so they kept at the stumps with their oxen to clear as much land as they could. Then they would plant their first grain crops, usually wheat, rye, buckwheat, barley, or oats. Flax was also a valuable early crop with most farms featuring at least one acre of this most versatile plant with its beautiful blue flowers. The settlers grew flax to make cloth for their own clothes. The almost unbelievably labour-intensive process involved rolling the uprooted plants in water for several weeks before drying and pounding them. They were then flayed and combed to remove the flax fibres from the stalks. The fibres were then spun, woven, and sewn into clothes that would seem extremely crude to us today. Back then, however, they were just fine.
More new tools were available every year. Shovels, pitchforks, rakes, a plough, axes, saws, and scythes had to be acquired, and the little log cabin made a bit more civilized. A room divider on the main floor was a popular method of providing a little privacy, as was the construction of a second-floor bedroom. A cellar was another improvement that could pay many dividends, for although the labour required to dig a cellar out by hand was not for the faint of heart, the results were substantial. Carrots, turnips, onions, and potatoes could be stored there where they would stay fresh for most of the winter. The extra storage space was also a bonus since a proper barn probably didn’t exist yet. Primitive lean-tos were often constructed for animals before a barn was built. The cellar was a place to store all new tools as well as flax, cloth, firewood, and flour.
Cisterns were another popular and practical addition to the cellar. These were large water storage tanks made from wood or cement that stored captured rainwater. When hand pumps became available, they made cisterns even more attractive, as now water could be pumped from the cellar to the kitchen. With a proper wood floor for the cabin now in place, the prospect of a second winter is starting to look a lot better than the first.
Despite all of these improvements, life was still pretty primitive. Baths were taken outside in the warmer months and in the kitchen area in front of the fireplace during wintertime, in the same metal tub. The well-water was heated on the hearth. The whole family commonly used the same water and the soap that they had made themselves from potash and animal fat.
Interior lighting was uninspiring. There were few options, none of them all that satisfactory. There were candles made from animal fat, which smelled terrible, dripped, required constant trimming, and didn’t throw much light. Pine knots could be burned on flat stones, or grease lamps, pan lamps or fat lamps lit, none of which were terribly effective. The best bet would probably have been candlewood — splints cut from the heart of pine or fir logs, which were stuck in holders and lit just like candles. They burned steadily, needed no trimming, were brighter than candles, and even smelled nice. However, there weren’t any matches yet. If the fire went out, it was off to the neighbours’ for a bucket of hot embers or better still, a handily available tinderbox. The tinderbox was a metal cylinder that contained a piece of quartz flint, a piece of iron on which to strike the flint, and some tinder. The tinder could be any flammable material, usually a piece of pre-scorched cloth or linen. The flint was struck on the iron until a spark ignited the tinder. This process could take up to half-an-hour.
By the 1820s, bright, clean-burning wax candles were available at most general stores. Shortly afterwards, effective lamps with cloth wicks and turpentine or alcohol-based fuels also became available. By 1856, Ezra Butler Eddy was making the first matches in Canada at his factory in Hull. Kerosene lamps became popular in the 1860s. Finally, electricity would reach into rural Upper Canada in the 1900s. Until then, nighttime was best left for sleeping.
By the second year, more trees would be tapped, more sap boiled, and more maple sugar made. Each subsequent year would see an increase in activity, — clearing more land and pulling more stumps, planting more crops, and raising more livestock.
In a few more years, actual income would become a reality. As the Town of York, which was changed by provincial legislation to the City of Toronto on March 6, 1834, grew to the south, it would need ever-increasing amounts of grain, lumber, flour, meat, fruit, milk, and vegetables. The roads grew steadily from stump-riddled, muddy trails to passable, functional routes that could actually be used to convey goods to market in the city.
Commercial agriculture, as it is known today, didn’t really exist until the 1820s. What a sense of pride the first farmers must have shared at this juncture — to have survived those gruelling early years, to finally get their deeds from the Crown, to see their children born at home, grow into strong knowledgeable partners, and to see the farms become profitable enterprises. Now it was time for a new house.
The cabin, by now far too small for a growing family, would be used as a stable, storage area, or lodging for hired hands. The new house would be frame, brick, or stone, depending on the availability of raw materials and the skills of the local craftsmen who were available and willing to pitch in. The house would be built with the help of neighbours, likely starting with a day-long framing bee, and completed piece-by-piece as time and finances allowed. Around the same time a new barn would be needed, again built during a barn-raising with the help of neighbours, a communal practice that involved everyone. The barn would house livestock, farm implements, hay, straw, a wagon, a sleigh, and maybe even a buggy, as the roads were now smooth enough to be used by horse-drawn vehicles. The wagon would be used for chores around the farm and to take goods to market. If fortunate enough to have a buggy, it would be used to take the family to church and social events or, with some trepidation, lent to the eldest to go “a-courtin.’” With roads now passable for buggies, wagons, and stagecoaches, and both branches of the Don River still navigable as far south as Lake Ontario, export markets began to open up.
Orchards were now being planted on newly cleared land, making a pleasant addition to the settlers’ diet when the trees began to bear fruit. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, and cherries were sold fresh as well as being preserved for the winter or made into jams, jellies, pies, and tarts. Apples were especially prized for their versatility as they could be turned into pies, preserves, apple sauce, apple butter, apple cider (alcoholic or not), vinegar, or simply stored and eaten raw.
As the early pioneers moved into their fifties or sixties, they remained actively involved in running their farms, happy to see their children and grandchildren stepping up to make sure that the family was able to take advantage of emerging new opportunities. After all, for most, that was the reason for immigrating — to see their children owning their own land, and controlling their own destiny, not under anyone’s thumb.
By the last half of the 1800s, things began to evolve more quickly as the Industrial Revolution took hold in Europe, Great Britain, and the cities of North America. With change came the need to adapt. Potash
