Lakeshore Advance, 2011-07-06, Page 47Pioneer Life
The life of these French-Canadian settlers
was typical of pioneers in other parts of Up-
per Canada.
They purchased land from the Canada
Land Company for about $3 an acre, which
then needed to be cleared for crops and
livestock. Homes were made of logs, using
mud to block drafts instead of mortar and
bark or small logs for roofing. Open -stone
fireplaces were used for heating and cook-
ing.
After land had been cleared and the
soil broken using spade, plow or dragging
heavy tree boughs over the ground, the first
crop sown and harvested was buckwheat.
Home-made sacks were used to carry har-
vested grain to McConnell's MIII at Fran-
cistown for grinding to flour. Francistown
Is now the north part of Exeter. This was a
fourteen mile (22km) journey carrying hun-
dred -pound (45kg) sacks. Generally, two
men would take turns carrying the sack.
Buckwheat flour was reserved for special
occasions, while the daily diet consisted of
fish, wild fowl, game and berries. Even after
fifteen years, life remained difficult, The set-
tlers were helped by their English and Ger-
man neighbours inland. Stories have been
passed down of prosperous settlers bringing
wagonloads of food to the poverty-stricken
French-Canadians along the Lakeshore.
By the 1860s, the acreage in crops had
Increased and the settlers took their grain
to Seaforth or Goderich, where they would
exchange it for goods or have it ground to
flour for their own use. Like most pioneers,
they purchased no more than necessary
from merchants. As much as possible, fur-
niture, Implements, clothes, soap, candles
and mattresses were home-made.
During one particularly bad crop year,
known as the Famine Year, settlers were
forced to survive on plgweed and roots,
with several settlers actually dying of star-
vation. If natural food supplies (fish, birds,
deer) had not been as plentiful as they
were, this fledgling settlement would likely
have disappeared.
These settlers left Quebec because of
poverty. Their experience in the Huron Tract
was not much different for at least 60 or 70
years. Small surpluses gathered from farm-
ing, fishing and home industry were sold in
Goderich, Seaforth or Francistown (Exeter)
— the nearest settlements of any size for 10
to 15 years.
•
• e
4 kti
",� dva o cNQ
.,,,,tN1 &...........17 k [.1.1..,. I _2\r:,Z 1
h
i;
44 Pt
*T• d
•
I'J •�
l el
1.4
a �-. s. e
%►
e'
0 pip
• et
• "h-..,Ikeg.):44f...„44<11.....fAATMAJL........pjltl!
7:.31' 1rGet k..
mita AV
do.r. OG S G Ik. of»!
oto Oc.lp cP a,f'J
..iw..r.- --a w .w.. • .•.••-.-w••••••. 41.....•.•w....• v.+.
.A..$c!s.in. r.dr so
•
.11
s o n
6.1
. n 3 r1 .P Apt
ir``` r-
147
• `�..ftr;i ! it
o,
Pel
w.� it y���•' L+
eee
.e :"%"'
ft -r
C r 10
rt (io.
•.•...........•...
,. . R e.ein .tt e.' 460 its e
e feat hiel e t $?v C•G,
to
..rC.
r. .t/..1Crs bflci s&.
kite ts11:°•
.11
.. .! 1,'.r'.5 .Z .re.i i
•
flit* •
•
oop, ti
Freer. L ,.it t..,.
�•. �' >>,
4.rte:
• R . w_A+
.4.7IU'1[e2:1. Qtai
1
w, "A•Mrs •P121