[Illustration: MILL IN DEVON, ENG., IN 1897. USED AND OWNED BY ROGER
CONANT PREVIOUS TO SAILING TO AMERICA WITH THE PILGRIMS IN 1623.]
Upper Canada Sketches
BY
THOMAS CONANT
With Illustrations, Portraits and Map
TORONTO
WILLIAM BRIGGS
29-33 RICHMOND ST. WEST
1898
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year
one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, by THOMAS CONANT, at
the Department of Agriculture.
To Thomas G. Milsted
_Of Chicago, Ill., U.S._
A LARGE-HEARTED, FAITHFUL FRIEND AND PLEASANT
COMPANION, UNDER EVEN THE MOST TRYING
CIRCUMSTANCES;
WHO SWAM IN THE DEAD SEA, ASCENDED THE NILE TO
THE MAHDI’S CONFINES, AND LIKEWISE WITH ME
KICKED PARIAH DOGS FROM OUR PATHS
IN CONSTANTINOPLE,
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,
WITH FULL RELIANCE IN THE HOPE THAT EXPATRIATED
CANADIANS, WHO ARE SO VERY NUMEROUS IN THE
UNITED STATES, MAY ENJOY WITH HIMSELF
(LIKEWISE ONE OF THEM)
THESE RANDOM CANADIAN SKETCHES.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Prefatory Note vii
CHAPTER I.
Normandy--William the Conqueror--Origin of the name Conant--Devon,
England--Sir Walter Raleigh’s home--Richard the Mill-owner--Roger
the Pilgrim--The first Governor of Massachusetts--Salem,
Massachusetts--Mill-owners 9
CHAPTER II.
The American Revolution--Personal Rule of King George III.--Washington’s
politeness--Valley Forge--Washington’s prayer--Raw New England
levies--John Hancock--Other leaders and generals--Colonel
Butler--Murder, not war--Roger Conant removes to Canada--An old
deed--Governor Simcoe--York (Toronto) 21
CHAPTER III.
A home in the wilderness--Salmon fishing--An idyllic life--Logging--Fur
trade--Durham boats--Rapids of the St. Lawrence--Trading with the
Indians--The Hudson’s Bay Company--_Coureurs du bois_--Maple sugar
making--Friendly Indians 32
CHAPTER IV.
Waubakosh--Making potash--Prosperous settlers--Outbreak of war of
1812--Transporting military supplies--Moode Farewell’s hotel--“Here’s to
a long and moderate war”--A lieutenant’s misfortune--“Open in the King’s
name”--Humors of the time--Ingenious foragers--Hidden specie--Hardships
of the U. E. Loyalists 40
CHAPTER V.
Capture of York--Immigration increasing--David
Annis--Niagara--Prosperous lumber business--Ship-building--High freight
rates--Salmon spearing--Meteoric showers--An affrighted clergyman--Cold
winters--A tragedy of the clearings 51
CHAPTER VI.
Discontent in Upper Canada--Election riots--Shillelahs as
persuaders--William Lyon Mackenzie--Rioting in York--Rebellion--Patriots
and sympathizers--A relentless chase--Crossing Lake Ontario in
midwinter--A perilous passage--A sailor hero--A critical moment--Safe on
shore--“Rebellion Losses Bill”--Transported to Botany Bay--Murder of my
grandfather--Canadian legends--A mysterious guest 65
CHAPTER VII.
Religious movements--Itinerant preachers--$50 a
year--Camp-meetings--Weird scenes at night--Millerites--World
coming to an end--Dissenters attempt to fly--Affrighted by a
“sun-dog”--Destruction fails to materialize--The Mormons--An improvised
Gabriel--Raising the dead--Converts--Salt Lake--An Irish refugee and his
poem 89
CHAPTER VIII.
Canadian laws--Cases of justifiable homicide--Ineffectual attempt to
discipline a church member--Major Wilmot--Asa Wallbridge--“Uncle
Ned”--Cows and matrimony--A humorous dialogue--A witty retort--An
amusing duel 102
CHAPTER IX.
Paring bees--Mirth and jollity--Dancing and games--Playing
“forfeits”--Anti-Slavery Act--Canada’s proud distinction--Refugee
slaves--“Uncle Tom”--Old Jeff--Story of a slave 120
CHAPTER X.
Civil war in the United States--Large bounties paid Canadian
recruits--Prices of products go up--More than two million men under
arms--I make a trip to Washington--Visiting the military hospitals--I am
offered $800 to enlist--Brief interview with President Lincoln--A pass
secured--I visit the Army of the Potomac--90,000 men under
canvas--Washington threatened by the Confederates--Military
prison at Elmira, N.Y.--Cheap greenbacks--A chance to become a
multi-millionaire 137
CHAPTER XI.
The “_Trent_ affair”--Excitement in Canada--Bombastic
“fire-eaters”--Thriving banks--High rates of interest--Railway
building--The bonus system--A sequestered hamlet--A “psychologist” and
his entertainment--A mock duel--A tragic page of family history 153
CHAPTER XII.
Fenianism--A claimant for my father’s farm--A scare at Port
Oshawa--Guns, forks and clubs for fighting--Awkward squad--Guard catch
a young man out courting--The Fenian raid of 1866--A Catholic
priest taken prisoner--United States Government at last cries
“Stop!”--Adventure in high life--A youth runs away from home--Tragic
death of the mother of the runaway--Marries the serving-maid--Wedding
and funeral journey in one 171
CHAPTER XIII.
The French in Upper Canada--Sir Wilfrid Laurier--Voyageurs and their
songs--“A la Claire Fontaine”--Money-lenders--Educational
matters--Expatriated Canadians--Successful railway speculation--A shrewd
banker 181
CHAPTER XIV.
Poor-tax--Poor-houses undesirable--The tramp nuisance--A tramp’s
story--Mistaken charity--Office seekers--Election incidents 193
CHAPTER XV.
Upper Canada’s favored situation--Our Great Lakes--Cases of apparent
tides on Lake Ontario--Canadians as givers--Oshawa’s generous support to
churches and charities--Life insurance--Amusing incidents of a railway
journey--A “talking machine” 209
CHAPTER XVI.
Drinking habits in the early days--Distilleries and mills--Treating
prevalent--Drinking carousals--Delirium tremens--“One-Thousand-and-One”
Society--Two gallon limit--Bibulous landlords--Whiskey fights--Typical
Canadian pioneers--Clearing the farm--Sons and daughters
married--Peaceful old age--Asleep in death--Conclusion 228
ILLUSTRATIONS AND PORTRAITS.
PAGE
Roger Conant’s Mill, Devon, England _Frontispiece_
Thomas Conant 6
Mrs. Thomas Conant 7
Map of Upper Canada (Ontario) 9
Roger Conant’s house, Salem, Mass. 18
Roger Conant’s first settlement in Upper Canada 33
Typical Logging Scene 40
Durham boats ascending River St. Lawrence 48
David Annis 52
Indian trading scene 65
Maple sugar making 78
Indian wigwams of birch bark 84
Potash making--the “melting” 97
Hauling cannon in the war of 1812 104
Moode Farewell’s tavern 122
Daniel Conant’s lumber mill 135
Meteoric shower (1833) 144
Daniel Conant 152
Mary Eliza Conant 153
Loading lumber on schooners, Lake Ontario 160
Refugees escaping over the ice at Oswego, N.Y. (1837) 172
Crossing Lake Ontario in a canoe 186
Assassination of Thomas Conant (1838) 193
Camp-meeting scene 209
A Millerite’s attempt to fly 220
Mormon attempt to raise the dead 228
Awkward squad--Fenian raid, 1865 236
[Illustration: THOMAS CONANT.]
[Illustration: MRS. THOMAS CONANT.]
PREFATORY NOTE.
In presenting to the public these random sketches I crave the reader’s
indulgence. I do not pretend to elegance of style in my writing, and
if--as is doubtless the case--the canons of literary form are
occasionally offended against in these pages, I ask the kindly
consideration of the critics.
If asked my reasons for publishing the volume, I would state: First, the
many communications received by me from time to time, from various
sources, commenting favorably on my letters to the press, have given me
to believe that the Canadian public appreciate and value the relation of
old settlers’ stories and the legends and traditions of the past; again,
as a son of this noble Province, a descendant of one of its pioneer
families, having witnessed much of the marvellous development of the
country, I feel constrained to thus preserve records which I believe are
historically valuable. I have sought to present glimpses of the rude,
free life that obtained in the earlier years of settlement, while at
the same time depicting some phases of life in Canada as seen at the
present day. Though since Confederation (1867) our Province has been
known as Ontario, I have preferred to use the old name of Upper Canada,
which seems not improper in view of the fact that much of the matter
herein given relates to pre-Confederation times.
It has been my endeavor, in compiling these sketches, to avoid wounding
the feelings of others in my references to the living or their friends
who have passed away. If, unfortunately, I have done so, I ask the
pardon of such persons, and assure them that wherever I have used names
or made personal references, I have done so only where I considered it
necessary to render the events chronicled historically correct.
For the insertion of some family portraits it is unnecessary to ask the
reader’s indulgence, as they are portraits of those who have helped
materially in the upbuilding of the Province.
THOMAS CONANT.
OSHAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA,
September 28th, 1898.
[Illustration: MAP OF UPPER CANADA
1898]
UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Normandy--William the Conqueror--Origin of the name Conant--Devon,
England--Sir Walter Raleigh’s home--Richard the Mill-owner--Roger
the Pilgrim--The first Governor of Massachusetts--Salem,
Massachusetts--Mill-owners.
Though of the past from no carved shrines,
Canvas or deathless lyres we learn,
Yet arbored streams and shadowy pines
Are hung with legends wild and stern;
In deep dark glen, on mountain side,
Are graves whence stately pines have sprung,
Naught telling how our fathers died
Save faint Tradition’s faltering tongue.
--_Adapted._
There is no reason to doubt that the progenitor of the Conant family in
England and America came originally from Normandy, in 1066, as one of
the followers of William the Conqueror. Frederick Odell Conant, of
Portland, Maine, whose exhaustive work, “History and Genealogy of the
Conant Family,” entitles him to be quoted as an authority, has arrived
at this conclusion.
Edward Nathaniel Conant, of Oakham, Rutland County, England, a member of
the English branch, told the author, when visiting Lyndon Hall, in 1894,
that he had seen the name Conan--from which Conant has been evolved--on
a castle archway in Normandy. In 1896 the author met a Frenchman of the
same name in Melbourne, Australia, who was, no doubt, a descendant of
the branch of the family that remained in Normandy when the others came
over with William to the conquest of England. There are several
derivations given of the name Conant, many of which would establish it
as of Celtic origin; and though a Conant came over to England with
William, it would appear his ancestors had come originally from Cornwall
and Devon to Brittany. The meaning of the name is almost as variously
given as its origin, but it appears that the conclusion arrived at by
the family historian and genealogist is that it is equivalent to the
word in the Welsh, Irish, Saxon, Dutch, German and Swedish tongue, and
also the Oriental, signifying chief or leader.
Although the Conants probably returned to Normandy during the reigns of
William and his sons, they finally settled at East Budleigh, in
Devonshire. It is unnecessary here to trace the succeeding generations
of the family, as we have to do only with the immediate connections of
Roger Conant, known as the Pilgrim, who emigrated to the English
Colonies in America in 1623, and from whom all the Conants in the United
States and Canada are descended.
The picture which forms the frontispiece to this volume is a faithful
one of the mill yet standing on the Conant lands at East Budleigh. This
mill was owned and occupied by Richard Conant, father of Roger the
Pilgrim. It will be observed that the part of the stone building at the
end farthest from the water-wheel is now used as a residence. Whether it
was so occupied by Richard Conant the author has been unable to
ascertain. There are indications that a residence had been located back
from the mill and on rising ground farther from the road. The mill is a
long stone structure. In front of the part used as a dwelling is a yard,
and at one side farm buildings. Mr. Green, the present Rector of East
Budleigh, assured the author that there is no doubt of its being the
identical building and mill occupied and used by Richard Conant. The
family records (parish register) are in Mr. Green’s care. There are
entries of the birth of John Conant in 1520 and of his son Richard, born
in Devon in 1548. These are on parchment, the latter yellow, covered
with leather, wood-bound and worm-eaten.
Back of the house and mill a small spring creek runs. It has been turned
from its bed by the rising ground, so that no artificial dam is needed,
and to-day, as in 1560, it runs over the wheel and pours from the flume.
In volume it is four inches deep and twenty wide, and is about six feet
above the wheel. The latter, of course, has been renewed, being an
overshoot about fourteen feet in diameter, but its foundations are now
just as Richard Conant originally laid them. The lands owned by Richard
Conant probably amounted to about two hundred acres. The glebe land,
extending nearly to the mill, which is about five hundred yards from the
church, and the Conant lands extending to the farm of Sir Walter
Raleigh, we may conclude to be the probable extent of the property.
Roger’s father, Richard, inherited the mill from his father. He
graduated at Emanuel College, and was also Rector of East Budleigh. The
book of his charities accounts is still extant. On the fly-leaf are the
words, “This book was bought in 1600, to mark the amounts of charities,”
etc. It is in Richard’s handwriting. Every few pages are signed by him,
and the entries are neatly made, not a blot, erasure or scratch upon the
well inscribed pages. The amounts vary from one penny to sixpence. All
this is evidence of the careful upbringing and piety practised in the
home of Roger Conant, the man destined later to exert so beneficent an
influence for the well-being of the Massachusetts Colony in America.
Ascending for three-quarters of a mile the little burn whose waters
turned Richard’s mill-wheel, one finds it running by the door of the
Raleigh homestead, Hays Barton House.
His living near the man who drew so much attention to the New World
would suggest that Roger Conant’s ambitions to seek a new home in the
wilds had been fired by the tales told by the adventurous knight; and
hearing of its wonders and possibilities possibly made the lad restless,
and later on willing to sail away to America.
The Raleigh pew in East Budleigh church is at a right-angle from the
Conant pew, and not ten feet away. They both face the pulpit, and as
these were possessions as hereditary as their lands and homes, there is
nothing improbable in the idea that the families were well known to each
other.
On the Raleigh pew-ends are carved the armorial bearings of the family,
the lower part cut off. This was done when Sir Walter was attainted for
treason, and may be a curious instance of the penalties exacted from the
families whose head suffered such attainder at the hands of the
sovereign. On the Conant pew is the head of a North American Indian. It
is well done. The Indian features, high cheek-bones and large nose, are
faithfully depicted. On the other pews are negroes, ships’ paddles,
tropical trees and foliage. Sir Walter’s father was Rector of East
Budleigh when Richard Conant ran his little grist-mill and attended the
church.
Roger could not, in the natural order of succession, inherit the mill
from his father, so he went early to London. No doubt the seeds sown by
the study, as a child, of the quaint carvings in his parish church had
an influence in directing his manhood’s steps.
The church is a small stone leaded roofed building. It is dedicated to
All Saints, and was consecrated by Bishop Lacy about A.D. 1430. It
consists of a nave and chancels, and north and south aisles. It is
eighty feet long and forty-eight and a half feet wide. The tower, which
contains five bells, is seventy-two feet high. It is a Norman
embattlemented tower with a chimney-shaped buttress. (_Vide_ “History
and Genealogy of the Conant Family.”) About the church is the graveyard,
walled in and the earth dug away, leaving the church and graveyard
isolated, and above the level of the surrounding roads and lands.
Although the Conants are buried here, no stone or monument has been
found to mark the spot where they lie. The Rector told the author that
all the Conants had moved away, leaving none to care for the graves of
their ancestors. This was probably the cause of the absence of any
information by which the place of burial could be ascertained.
A brother of Roger’s--John, matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford--was
made a full Fellow, 10th July, 1612; B.D., 2 Dec., 1619, or 28 June,
1620. He resigned his fellowship, and was instituted Rector of
Lymington, a country parish near Ilchester, Somersetshire, on the
presentation of Sir Henry Rosewell, and on the 20th of January, 1620,
compounded for the firstfruits of the living--the sureties of his bond
being his brothers Christopher and Roger. The name of Rosewell or
Rowswell, is well known to students of the history of Massachusetts. Sir
Henry’s name stands first among the grantees in the Patent from the
Council of Plymouth--a fact which bears some significance to the
emigration of Roger and Christopher to the New World, and also indicates
that Conant had already espoused the cause of the Puritans.
The above is taken from the “History and Genealogy of the Conant
Family,” and is necessary to connect Roger’s early life with the period
of his emigration to the New World.
Roger was baptized at All Saints’ Church, East Budleigh, on the 9th
April, 1592. He was the youngest of eight children. His after life
showed that the integrity and piety which characterized his parents and
elder brothers had been instilled into his mind in childhood. Like his
brothers, he evidently received as good an education as the times would
afford. He was employed to lay out boundaries, survey lands and transact
other public business. The records of the Salters’ Company, to which he
belonged, have been burned, so that no more authentic proof of his
having been a freedman of the company can be adduced than the
presumptive evidence given by the fact of his signing his brother John’s
bonds as “Salter of London.” He married in London in November, 1618, and
emigrated with the Pilgrims to New England in 1623.
Members of the Drysalters’ Guild of London (the ninth of the twelve
great livery companies, and chartered by Queen Elizabeth in 1558) have
certain privileges and perquisites. To illustrate this more fully, the
author during a visit to London, at the time of the Queen’s Jubilee,
1887, learned upon enquiry that by the laws of primogeniture (only
abolished in Upper Canada in 1841) the direct descendant of Roger Conant
was entitled to two meals a day and a bed to sleep on. The perquisite is
not retroactive and an application for any commutation could not be
regarded, but he was told that the two meals a day and a bed would be
given to the direct heir of Roger Conant, the Drysalter, whenever he
chose to claim them.
It is not certain what was the name of the vessel in which Roger Conant
sailed, but from the fact that his brother Christopher was a passenger
in the _Ann_, which arrived at Plymouth about 1623, it may be inferred
that Roger accompanied him. In a petition to the general court, dated
May 28th, 1671, he states that he had been “a planter in New England
forty-eight years and upwards.” This would fix the date of his arrival
early in 1623. Roger did not remain long in Plymouth. There were
differences between him and the Pilgrim Fathers, he being a Puritan and
they Separatists, and although these differences were not sufficiently
marked to subject him to the treatment meted out to Allan and John
Lyford, he left Plymouth for Nantucket, where they had settled soon
after their expulsion from the former place. While here he appears to
have made use of the island in Boston harbor, now called Governor’s
Island, but then and for some time afterward known as Conant’s Island.
The Dorchester Company was formed in 1622-3, and in 1624-5 Roger
Conant’s reputation as “a pious, sober and prudent gentleman” reaching
its associates, they chose him to manage or govern their affairs at
Cape Ann. While here a proof of the truth of the report was given them
in the magnanimity and justness, as well as prudence, exercised by him
in settling a dispute over the possession of a fishing stage between
Miles Standish, “the captain of Plymouth,” and a captain Hewet, who had
been sent out by the opposite party. This scene has been made the
subject of a window in the Conant Memorial Congregational Church,
recently erected at Dudley, Mass., by Hezekiah Conant.
Cape Ann was not a suitable place for settlement; the land was poor and
the merchandise brought from England unproductive of lucrative returns.
Roger selected a site “on the other side of a creek called Naumkeag (now
Salem),” and shortly after removed there.
During his stay at Cape Ann Roger occupied the great frame house which
had been built by the old planters in 1624. The frames, it is said, and
probably with truth, were brought from England. The timbers are oak, yet
sound, and in existence still as a part of a stable. The house, as given
in the accompanying illustration, is taken from a drawing made in 1775.
It is similar to many of the old houses of the same date, and still the
most picturesque features of the villages in Surrey and Devon.
This house was occupied by Endicott when
[Illustration: ROGER CONANT’S HOUSE, SALEM, MASS., 1628, FIRST GOVERNOR
OF MASS. BAY COLONY.]
appointed Governor, it being taken down and removed to Salem. The exact
site of Roger’s house, the first built in Salem, cannot be ascertained.
Subsequent records go to show that the stability, the permanency and
good government of the colony were largely dependent upon the influence
of Conant, although after the appointment of Endicott as Governor, under
the new patent, he was no longer the head. During the rivalry between
the members of the old and the new company his self-denial and upright
character won him friends on both sides and secured that harmony which
resulted in the public good; he “quietly composed that the _meum_ and
_tuum_ which divide the world should not disturb the peace of good
Christians.”
There has been some controversy among the antiquarians on Roger Conant’s
claim to the title of first Governor of Massachusetts. He is, however,
entitled to the honor, for the colony of which he was the recognized
head for three years was the first permanent settlement in the
territory, and from it the other colonies sprung. There are many
documents extant, besides entries in the records of the Governor and
Company of Massachusetts Bay, which go to prove how frequently Roger
Conant was called upon to fill offices and do his share in the numerous
works inseparable from the building up of a country, the knowledge and
experience as well as the influence of the “prudent Christian gentleman”
being invaluable to his fellow-townsmen and settlers.
In 1668 that part of Salem known as Bass River, on the Cape Ann side,
was incorporated under the name of Beverley, and one of the most
interesting incidents of his long and active life is Roger Conant’s
effort to change this name for that of Budleigh. The original petition,
which however was not granted, is among the Massachusetts archives. It
is interesting as showing how the memory of his birth-place still
remained fresh in his affections. He died November 19th, 1678, in the
eighty-eighth year of his age. From this date until that of the
Revolution the succeeding generations of Conants have left individual
records of worth, as landed proprietors in the State of Massachusetts;
but it is unnecessary here to enter into their history. Several of them
were graduates of Harvard University, and many of them mill-owners, thus
carrying on the calling and talents of their ancestor, as we shall see,
to the seventh, eighth and ninth generation; Hezekiah Conant, of
Pawtucket, being a large owner of the great thread works of J. P.
Coates, employing five thousand hands; and Daniel Conant, the author’s
father, also a mill-owner in Upper Canada, a property which contributed
largely to his success.