HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-04-26, Page 12Eileen Hanna [left] and Emma Franken look at an old-fashioned stereoscope, part of a display of historic items in St.
Augustine Thursday when the Huron County Historical Society met in the village. Mrs. Franken for the Catholic
Women’s League of St. Augustine, hosted the meeting while Mrs. Hanna, chairman of the West Wawanosh Township
history book project, was guest speaker.
Historic letters read at
St. Augustine meeting
Letters giving a first-hand view
of life in the earliest years of
settlement in West Wawanosh
were read by Eileen Hanna at a
meeting of the Huron County
Historical Society held in St.
Augustine Thursday night.
Mrs. Hanna, chairman of the
West Wawanosh history book pro
ject read letters from John Gordon
to family back in Scotland in Nov.
1850. Mr. Gordon told of walking
three miles through the bush each
day to get to work on the building
of his first shanty. The first year 12
acres were cleared but crops of
wheat and potatoes weren’t as
good as expected, although they
had enough food to get by. In the
second winter they planned to clear
another 13 or fourteen acres.
One of Mr. Gordon’s regrets
was that he couldn’t get to church
more often. With the nearest
church being in Goderich, he had
only once taken the three days
necessary to go to Church and
return.
A second letter in 1854 showed
the great changes the landscape of
West Wawanosh had seen. Mr.
Gordon had been recommended as
a Justice of the Peace by this time
but he wanted no part of the grief
the job brought.
Henry Mathers who had under
taken the innumeration of Wawa
nosh for the 1851 census also told
of the hardship of trying to carry
out the task under the primitive
conditions when roads often
weren’t passable. Mrs. Hanna also
read from letters involving a com
plicated ownership struggle over
one farm and read a version of the
poem “Donnybrook Fair” recount
ing the rowdy days of the fair held
at Donnybrook before it was finally
cancelled because of too many
fights.
The meeting, one of four mem
bership meetings a year of the
Huron County Historical Society,
was hosted by the Catholic
Women’s League of St. Augustine
Church. Entertainment was pro
vided by Cyril Boyle and Maureen
Stapleton.
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