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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2015-01-07, Page 22 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, January 7, 2015 Susanna Moodie in Seaforth The writings of Susanna Moodie are the starting point of Canadian literature. Her books Roughing it in the Bush (1852) and Life in the Clearings (1853) are the most famous works on pioneer life in Upper Canada. In her later years, Moodie made her home in Seaforth with her son, Robert, and his family. Susanna Strickland was born on Dec. 6, 1803 in Suffolk, Eng- land. Her parents, Thomas and Elizabeth Strickland, were mem- bers of the impoverished gentry class. When her father died in 1818, the family was left in dire financial straits. The Strickland women turned to literary pur- suits as the only respectable way for cultured women to earn a living. Susanna published an anthol- ogy of children's stories in 1822. She also became involved in the British anti -slavery society where she met her future hus- band Captain John Moodie. Moodie was a half pay army officer struggling to maintain his station, after the Napoleonic Wars, in class -obsessed England. In 1831, Susanna and John Moodie were married in the Church of England. The next year they had the first of their seven children, which meant an added drain on their already limited means. Hearing stories of boundless wealth and oppor- tunity in Upper Canada from Susanna's brother, Samuel Column Dave Yates Strickland, a Canada Company officer living in Goderich, the Moodies and Susanna's sister Catherine Parr Traill (who also became a successful Canadian author) emigrated with her hus- band in July 1832. It was her unhappy experi- ences as a gentlewoman in Douro Township near Peter- bourough that earned her undy- ing fame in Canadian literature. For the most hardy of the British settlers, the harsh life of Upper Canada's frontier came as a ter- rible shock. For the Moodies, 'roughing it in the bush' was a dismal failure. Yet, Susanna Moodie retained her pretensions to gentility. She scolded other emigrants who dreamed of having their own servants in the new world. She had nothing but contempt for the crass manners of her Ameri- can neighbours who, in turn, took advantage of the Moodies' naivety. It was, however, the Moodies who were out of place in the backwoods. As hard as they worked, they never succeeded at farming. Circumstances were so desperate that they asked a neighbour to take in their six- year-old daughter. In 1837, her husband, served in the loyalist militia in the Upper Canadian rebellion. Although Susanna shared her husband's horror of American republicanism, she was no Tory. Her political sympathies, according to biographer Char- lotte Gray in Sisters in the Wil- derness (1999), lay with the moderate Reformers who sup- ported British institutions. After the rebellions, Moodie was appointed Sheriff of the Victoria District thus removing the family from the hardships of subsistence farming. Susanna developed her literary ambi- tions by publishing poems and stories in various journals in Great Britain and North Amer- ica. The Moodies, for the next 15 years, enjoyed a decent liv- ing standard and some social status. During this affluent period, Susanna published Roughing It in the Bush in 1852 and 'Life in the Clearings' in 1853. Her real- istic and gritty portrayal of life on the frontier were a shocking departure from typical pioneer genre literature, which down- played the misery and empha- sized social mobility through pluck and determination. Some feared the book would discour- age immigration. Susanna's Canada was a wil- derness hell of mosquitoes, sickness, crude neighbours, suf- fering and backbreaking toil. The publication of Roughing It scandalized Susanna's family 1F ATTENTION ADVERTISERS! DEADLINES Our Weekly Deadlines are as follows: ADVERTISING & EDITORIAL Friday @ 2:00 pm Huron Expositor 8 Main St., Seaforth P H : 519-527-0240 www.seaforthhuronexpositor.com OFFICE HOURS: Mon. - Fri. 9am - 5pm CLOSED TUESDAYS in England. The thought of an English gentlewoman reduced to physical labour, dirty finger nails and unkempt hair was too much for her sister, Agnes Strickland. Gray recounts that Agnes, authoress of the 'Lives of the Queens of England' (1850- 58), said 'that disgusting book made the very name Canada hateful.' Ill health forced Captain Moodie to yield his Sheriff's position in 1863. Unable to find work, John and Susanna gave their Belleville home to their son, Dunbar, and his wife Eliza, with the understanding that they would to continue to live in it. Yet, relations between Susanna and her daughter in law were less than harmonious. At one point, Susanna dis- missed Eliza as 'a selfish, cold hearted arrogant quadroon.' The Moodies soon left the home. After her husband's death in 1869, Susanna found shelter with her son, Robert and his family, in Seaforth. Robert had just been appointed Seaforth's Grand Trunk Station agent. Gray called 'Robert's offer' to accommodate his mother 'more than generous, since it meant that he would have to support, on a very limited salary, not only his delicate wife Nellie and their three small children but a mother and mother in law who couldn't stand each other.' When Susanna arrived in November, she found the small GTR house cramped. Its front door opened onto the railroad SCRAPER (DAVE SCRAP MIE AI. 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Household tensions aggravated his wife's depression forcing Susanna to spend most of the time in her room painting or reading. In her letters, Susanna lays the blame on Nellie's mother but one suspects Susanna was not entirely guiltless. Locally, Susanna received many admiring visitors awed at having such a distinguished author in their midst. She regu- larly attended St. Thomas' Church where she may have crossed paths with seven-year- old future novelist, and British Member of Parliament Sir Gil- bert Parker. Beginning on Dec. 2, 1870, The Huron Expositor carried Roughing It in the Bush in seri- alized form. The paper intro- duced the first instalment by stating that 'the name of this author is, doubtless, familiar' to its readers. The Expositor lauded her 'true heroism as a Canadian pioneer' and 'her rare literary ability.' Yet, in order to escape the confines of the GTR station house, Susanna frequently left Seaforth to stay with friends in Toronto and Belleville. She returned to Seaforth for 'extended visits' with Robert's family. Susanna Moodie died in Toronto on April 8 1885. Ironi- cally, one of Canada's most cel- ebrated authors wrote works that may have discouraged potential immigrants from com- ing to Canada. She always believed her books were only a warning to immigrants about the hardships that awaited them in this harsh land. In the end, she accepted Canada as her home not out of any roman- tic attachment to the country but because it was the land of her children's graves. Not our most uplifting story but one of our finest.