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'^'HE enclosed sketch was written by Mr. Sinclair in the ^^ year 1896, in the seventy-eij,Hith year of his ai,'-e, in response to a request from children and friends and as v means of diversion from the sorrow and loneliness which followed the death of his dear wife, in August," '95. His own death occurred December 17th, '97, and this sketch is now published by his children in fond remembrance of him whom they loved and honored. The manuscript has been retained in its original form and phraseology, being intended only for those whose 'nterest in the subject and in the author may cause them to value it more highly with- out than with reconstruction. Toronto, 1898. PIONEER REMINISCENCES. nv .\!.f:xani>pk Sinclair. <^T is strange when we j^row old how our mind continually %J wanders back to the days of our childhood. 1 was thinkinj,'- to-day o( the interest my father used to take in tell- inj^ us how his j^-randfather and j^^reat j^jrandfather li\ed in Kirran, in Upper Lorn, and how his father went alonf,' with his grandfather with the clan to fij^ht Prince Charles Stuart at Culloden. My j^-randfather was then but twelve years old, but he went with other boys to brinj,'" home news, for there were no newspapers in those days. My j^randfather married Ann McKillop, the dauj^-Jiter of a neij,Hiborinj4- farmer, and moved across the river to the Town o( Bar- jiflass, where he remained all the rest of his life. He had four sons and three daughters. The boys names were: Duncan, Donald, John and Neil, and the j^irls names were: Ann, Christy and Anabella. The eldest son, Dun- can, lived at Barnacarra, across the river from Dal- nanen, till he died. Donald learned the carpenter's trade and went to Renfrew, and John took half the farm of Bar- glass in partnership with his father. When my father, Neil, was eig-hteen years old, the landlord, Campbell, of Lochnell, with the other Campbell landlords, of Ari^yle, took upon them to raise a reg'iment of foot, called the 91st Foot, or Campbell rej^iment, of their own tenants* sons, and my father went with the rest. They remained about a year in Eng-land and then sailed with three other reg^iments to the Cape of Good Hope, which wis then in possession of the Dutch. After encountering- a tremendous storm in the Bay of Biscay, they landed safely about thirty inik's f'rt>ni Cape Town. Attor jiiarchiiij,"^ to within a low miles of the town, they were met by the Diiteh army, but the battle did not hist \ol^^:;, for the Dutch powder maj^-a- /inc blew up and the army lied. Alter three da}s the Puteh jL^ave the liritish army peaceable possession o( the castle, which they held for eij^ht years, and then sold it back. My father said that t'ape Colony was the linest country he ever saw. The farmers had \nr^c ranches with immense Hocks ot cattle and sheep, and plenty of slaves to take care of them. In some places the wolves were so plentiful in the mountains that they had to j^'-ather the cattle in lari^'^e flocks in the eveninj,' and kindle lires at certain distances, with slaves keeping up the fires all nij^ht to save the cattle from the wolves. The inhabitants consisted of four classes of people, the Boers or Dutch, the Black slaves, the Hottentots (a miser- able race living'- in huts and caves), and the Kaffirs, a larjjfe, powerful race who were similar to our American Indians. The inhabitants used wine at meals as the Germans use beer, and as we use tea or c >ffee. Some regiments went from the Cape to India, and the rest returned to England. Shortly after their return to England my father was dis- charged with a pension of fifteen pence per day, corporal pay, which he continued to get till the time of his death. From England he came home to Barglass, where he remained with his father and mother for some time and got acquainted with and married my mother, Ann Mc- Cowan, fifth daughter of Alexander McCowan, of Ardna- hua, in Lower Lorn. After their marriage they rented part of Burglass for five years. They then removed to Dalnanen, whe-e I was born in Mid-Lorn in 1818. Three of their child- ren were born in Barglass, Ann, John and Flora, and three in Dalnanen, Alexander, Duncan and Jane. Our luniSL' \v;is liuilt iiml used tor a tasorn before nn father nuned into it. On .icconnt of the cross road to the south and the next farm chi},'-h, they huilt a iarj^'e tavern and j^Tist mill, a larj^^e distillery and ten or tweho houses for cotta^-ers or laboring men. My lather's ineome paiJ the rent of tlie farm We kept six cows, two horses ami twentN sheep, and raised oats, barley, peas, potatoes and cabbaj^'es. My father and mother beinj^j non-eonformists, went to the Con}^••re}^^■ltional Church in Oban e\ery Sunday, takin|4' as many of the children as could walk that distance with tiiem. P'rom my earliest recollection they read a chapter out of the Hible, followed by family prayer, every morninj^" and eveninj^, and when my father was not at home, my mother practised the •ime. Our house was the missionaries' home, and it was the only !iouse within three miles of any other place where they preached. It was on the Missionaries' road in f^'oinj,^ to the North Hij^'^hlands. When the minister would come we were sent to the farms round about us to tell the people that there was to be preachinj^ at nij;"ht, and the house used to be crowded to hear them. The missionaries were Baptists and Conj^re- gfationalists and were sent north by the missionary societies of either (ilasj,''ow or Edinboroug-h. When I was able to g^o to school I was sent there, for the school house was in sight of our house and we always came home to dinner. When I was eight years old they kept me at home to herd the cattle in the summer with my brotiier Duncan. We drove to the pasture after breakfast and stayed with them till sundown, and then took them home and put them in the stable till the following morning, for there were no fences to keep them out of the grain. They always sent us our dinner in the field. Whenever the harvest was gathered in we went to school till the next spring. When I was twelve years old my father gave up the farm in the spring o( 1 83 1, and made i> -'hi' auction and sold every- thin},'- hut what we could b '^ .. h us to America, which consisted of clothes anc : .les and all the books we possessed. On the first day of May, 1831, we moved from Dalnancn to Azeog-as and stayed there with my Uncle John Li\ inj^'-ston and Aunt Flora for three weeks till an immigration ship would be ready to start from Greenoch. Then we took the steamboat from Oban to Clreenoch, but found that the ship was so crowded that there was no room to spare, and we had to wait in Greenoch for three weeks more till the next immig-ration ship, the Tamerlane, would start. One ijreat curiosity for us boys was to see a porter put on his hand-cart what was a cart load for a horse to draw at home and draw it himself to any place in the city. The time arrived at last and the ship started with a fair wind down the river, bidding farewell to bonny Scot- land and all old friends there forever. The following- day we were in sig-ht of Ireland. All day we had beautiful weather, and for the following week, and then we had what we called a terrible storm, but the sailors said it was noth- ing-. However, the most of the passengers got sick and bedfast. I did not get sea sick for some time, but being- called upon every little while by the women that had no boys to run errands for them, it made me sick and I had to go to bed for a day, but I soon got over it. On account of head winds we were seven weeks and two days between Greenoch and Quebec. We were two weeks coming up the St. Lawrence river to Quebec. The views along- the river were beautiful. The French farmers would come alongside of the ship with their boats selling all kinds of vegetables. When we arrived at Quebec a large steamer cam alongside the ship and took all the passengers and their luggage that were going on as far as Montreal. From there we took barg-es or long boats to Prescott. Each boat had six Frcticlimeii with pikes and oars to push or row the boat. It was then that I first saw oxen work- ing. In comiiif^' up the rapids they tied a lonj^- rope to the boat and hitched the oxen to the rope, while the men with their pikes kept the boat oflP the rocks. It took nearly two weeks between Montreal and Prescott. P'rom there we took a steamboat that was going- west as far as Queenstown, and my father and mother got out at Toronto and remained there three days while the rest of us went on to Queenstown where we waited for them. A Highland man, who both teamed and farmed, named Stewart, and his family, were living in Queenston, took us into his own house and put our lug-gage in his barn. When father and mother came they engaged him to take us to Fort Erie, opposite Buftalo, where we found a schoo.ier loaded with immig^rants for Port Stanley waiting for a change of wind which came the nig^ht after we g-ot on board and we arrived safe in Port Stanley in two days. The day following we all started on foot for uncle's house in Aidboroug-h and g^ot as far as Gilbert Ta\lor's house in Dunwich. He was my cousin Ann McCowan's husband. His house was only two miles from uncle McCowan's house, where we arrived next day. There we stopped for two weeks helping them to clear a field for wheat, husk corn, thresh buckwheat and dig potatoes. My father was at the same time looking for land, and got James Caine to go with his horses and wagon to Port Stanle}- for our lug- g-age. Not finding land in Aldborough to suit him, and being told that the best land in the west was along the Howard ridge and that he could get any quantity of it at two dollars per acre, he concluded to go and see it. So he and uncle and my brother John started and got to Don- ald McKinlay's on the Ridge before night. The next day they and Mr. McKinlay went to see the lots in the rear of !0 the Reader's farm, that is lots fifteen and sixteen in the ninth concession of Howard, and they thouj^ht that hind was real g^ood. They found that Charles McLaren was settled on lot seventeen and that William Anderson had settled on the lot opposite McLaren's two years before and had twenty acres cleared and ten acres under corn and one acre under potatoes and was living in his house alone. He was anxious that we would go and live with him in his house till we could get a house of our own and iielp him dig his potatoes and husk his corn on shares. When they got back my father sent the first instalment to Toronto to pay for lot sixteen. My mother was taken down with lake fever and could not be moved, and my sister Ann had to remain at my uncle's to attend to her. John, Flora and I went to Anderson's and husked all his corn and dug his potatoes on shares. After two weeks my father came to Howard and got McLaren and Anderson to go with us to pick the spot in the woods and clear the place where the house was to be built. They chose the highest knoll and cleared about one hundred feet square of all trees and brush and chopped down every tree that was in danger of falling on the house after it was built. The house was to be built eighteen feet by twenty-two and twelve logs high, eight logs below the beams and four logs above the beams. The roof to be of split clapboards sup- ported by cobbin and ribs. We got a light pole and cut it ten feet long and marked the feet on it and then we com- menced cutting the logs for the house and cut a notch in the one side of the tree for every side log we cut and a notch in the other side for every end log, butting them all at the top when we cut them. When all the logs were cut we got Anderson to draw them into the clear place with his oxen. After they were drawn in we squared the butt ends to the exact length and then got the ribs, cobbin, II handspikes and spades ready. When all was ready Ander- son started off with father to ask the neighbors to the rais- ing. They asked all along- the Ridge road as far as Scanes (about four miles). They came the next day, the corner men with their axes and Jephta Willson with his broad axe to hew the beams. They commenced by putting four blocks under the sills, placing the sill so that it would not roll. Then they made a saddle on the sill and put on the end logs and with a long strip of basswood bark measured between the corners angling to square the house. Then the corner man stood on the end log as near the end as they could stand and cut a notch half through the log to fit the saddle and then stood on the side log and made the inside half of the saddle. Then they turned the log down and with a handspike pushed the log out to its place and then finished the outside of the saddle. The men on the ground then placed the skids, which were about five inches in diameter and twelve feet long, and rolled side logs on with handspikes and when the logs were on they pulled the sides back so that the logs when notched might be close together. They did the same to every log and when they came to the eighth log they cut notches in it to lay the ends of the beams in. The end logs below the plates were four feet longer than the rest — that is two feet on each side to hold the butting pole outside of the plate. The butting poles, plates and ribs were two feet longer than the side logs to keep the rain off the walls of the house. The logs, when beyond the reach of the men, were pushed up with crutches. Instead of a saddle the plates had a notch cut on the top to hold the cobbin and then the ribs were placed on the cobbin about three feet inside of the plates. The ribs were cut the same way and the next cob- bin put on and so on to the top and then the ribs ranged in a line from the top one to the top of the plate. The 12 cobbiii had no notches in it so the ribs could be knocked out or in with the axe to brinj,*- thoni in ranj,''e. That done the cobbin was tapered ofT in ranj^e with the ribs. When that was llnished it was ready for the root". Vor the rais- iiii,', Mrs. McKinlev and my sister Flora ^oi dinner ready at their house and broui^ht it out in baskets and the men put the hewed beams together and spread the dinner on them. The dinner consisted of bread and butter and meat with water and whiskey and the men made a hearty dinner, usinj^' their pocket knives to cut their meat, without phites. Amos Simpkins, a Vankee, took the job of splitting' the chipboards and coverinj^- the house for five dollars. We cut down a larj^'-e oak tree close by, and with a crosscut saw, sawed it into blocks three feet six inches lon|4". When cut he split the blocks into eij;-ht pieces and then threw out one-third or heart of the block. It was then ready for the froe which split the outside to any thickness he wanted. The clapboards were generally nine inches wide and half an inch thick on one side, a quarter on the other. When split the clapboards were laid op two deep with blocks two feet six inches long on top of the outside clapboards to support a weight-pole to hold the clapboards down and support the foot of the next tier of clapboards and the same way continued till the last tier was finished. There is no eavebearer butting nor weight-poles needed when the clap- boards are nailed on as they were on our next house and barn. When the house was covered we hewed it on the inside under the beams Jiud chinked all the cracks inside and plastered it on the outside. Then we put in sleepers and split basswood logs and hewed for the floor. We also split and hewed boards for the door and put on cross pieces with wooden pins and hung it with wooden hinges and put on a latch and a catch. The door was opened from the outside by pulling a string. We put windows in the house, r I I »3 I I' I one in the back of the house and one in the front with nine panes of j^-lass in each. Kor the chimney we put up two hewed jams a^'^ainst the beam eij^-ht feet apart and then a frame inside which we filled with pounded sand and clay four feet hij;-h. The back wall was seven feet lon^ and one foot thick and the side walls were a foot wide where they joined the back wall and six inches where they joined the jams. The hearth was first of clay and then of brick. We put a hewed cross piece or mantlepiece between the jams on a level with the back wall and then built the chim- ney with split sticks like lathinj^. The sticks were covered with mortar and built like a house commencing^ on the back wall and side walls and mantlepieces and carried two feet outside the house. The chimney was plastered one inch thick on the inside to keep the laths from catching^ fire. A chain with long- links was hung- on a pole laid on the side walls and a piece of iro' hooked at both ends to raise or lower at pleasure was used to hang kettles on. We moved into the house early in January, bought wheat from Anderson at seventy-five cents per bushel and took it to the mill and brought back flour. We bought a beef cow from John Buchan and a new milch cow from Uncle McCowan at $15 each. My father and my brother John walked to Amherstburg and back for his pension in January, 1832. The only implements required by a pioneer are an axe, two iron wedges, a spade, a hoe, a hand saw and two augers, the one three-fourths of an inch and the other an inch and a quarter. He can make his own maul or beatle from a knot of a tree and shape it like a small cheese and make a hole through the middle with an inch and a quarter auger anjd put a straight handle in it, and with this he can split any sized logs, using large wooden wedges along with the iron ones. A man can split from 200 to 400 rails a day. The first winter we chopped about '4 seven acres, cutting- all the underbrush (that is all trees under six inches) clo.->e to the ground and the rest from two to three feet high, piling the brush of every tree in brush heaps and cutting the trees in logs about fifteen feet long. In the spring we burned the brush, logged and fenced the field and planted in it corn and potatoes and chopped three acres more for wheat. It was slow work to burn green logs and brush through the summer. We bought another cow and a yoke of oxen, sleig-h and cham. We made a drag in the shape of the letter A with nii.e teeth made at the blacksmiths out of iron an inch r^nd a quarter thick. By hitching the chain to this drag the oxen could tear up any kind of ground and draw \i: between the stumps without any danger of breaking. When the corn was ripe we cut it and drew the stalks off the ground and sowed the field into wheat and timothy seed. Having no wheat of our own we helped to cut McLaren's and Risk's wheat that year. That was the year 1832. In 1832 the Asiatic cholera raged in Detroit and Toronto ; old Mrs. Gosnell moved in to Orford a mile from our place with her family, having lost her husband in Toronto. The family consisted of six sons and two daughters, and were all Methodists and our most intimate neighbors. In the spring of 1833 we took out logs for a barn twenty-six feet wide and forty feet long, and raised it in the summer. It was the firs, '^^rn raised in Howard without whiskey. A log barn requires eight corner men, for it is built like two houses with ten feet between them, to the top of the door which is eight logs high and fifteen feet long. Above the door there are logs forty feet long to the roof. There is a tier of cobin from the plate to the top in the centre to support the roofs and not be in the way when filling the hay mows. We brought logs to Green's saw-mill which he sawed on shares to make the doors and floor of the barn. Archy McLarty split the chipboards for the barn and we nailed them on with weij^-ht-nails. For the first five years we threshed the wheat out by hand with flails, and then they broug-ht in spike thrcshinj,'- machines and we had to make a big- box to hold the wheat with the chaflF and then clean it again by hand. In about six years they attached a cleaner to the machine which saved a g-reat deal of work and took less room to hold the grain. For the first six years we cut all the grain with sickles and then we began to cradle it, raking it up with hand-rakes and bind- ing it as we went along. A man could cradle two acres in a day it grain stood up well, and the man that followed could bind it in the same time. We continued this system for twenty years, then the reapers came in. At first it took a man's time to rake the sheaves off the table. Then followed the self-rake which was a great improvement and saved one man's work. Finally the self-binder came in and made farming light work. When we .idd the mowing machine, horse-rake, hay lifter and improved cultivator, farm work is only child's play when compared with what it used to be. When we came to Canada in 1831 there were two Gov- ernment roads "unning east and west through the District. The first, along the river Thames from Moravian Town to Sandwich, was settled before the American war of 181 2 by United Empire Loyalists from the States ; the other was opened shortly after that war from Long Point to Sand- wich and was named after old Colonel Talbot who lived at Port Talbot as monarch of the west. The Ridge road lots were taken up and settled in 1823 and 1824 by men from Aldborough and Dunwich, who drew the lots from Talbot as head rights. When we came to Howard township the only crossroad between lak^ Erie and the river Thames was the Howard i6 and Harwich townlinc. Htl. Lee kept a j^^eiieral store, Ruddel Hros. built a ^ood ^rist mill and John (ireen a saw- mill on B'ly; Creek, so we had no trouble in ^ettinj^ lumber and flour. Ruddles had a storehouse at Antrim on the lake shore, where we drew the wheat in the winter time and sold it in the spring. There was not one wag'on nor frame building between Talbot street and the Thames. We lived in the first house we built tor three years and then built another house, thirty fee' by twenty-two, with two bedrooms and plenty of room upstairs. This house had four raised windows and the doors were all made by Mr. Rhodes, an Enj^lish carpenter The sam.e year my sister Ann was married to Charles Marshall who lived about a mile away. The next year we bouj^ht a younj^ mare from Archy Campbell ; we also boug-ht lot 15, next to where we lived, and called it John's lot. About the same time they built a school-house on Ned Willson's lot, here John Burgess kept school for some years and bought and lived on fifty acres of Ned Willson's lot, where Mr. Harrison is now living. Mr. Webb kept Sunday school in the school-house for two years and it was the only meet- ing house on the Ridge road at that time. Then they built another house on the town line in the woods that they called Webb's school-house, where Mr. Webb taught school for many years. Mr. Walker, a Baptist preacher, had a regular appointment there for many years. They built another school-house on the Harwich town line where Mr. Walker kept a large Sunday school and preached regularly. In the fall of 1837 there was a general excitement. William Lyon Mackenzie and his party took up arms and were drilling near Toronto, and all Lower Canada was up in arms against the Government. All belonging- to the regular army were sent from ToronvO to help Sir John Colhonic to put tUn\ n t' • I'VciK'h in Lower Canada, and Sir Francis Uond Hoad L-alled out the Royal militia to put down tlie rebellion under Mackenzie, which was easily done, but the Americans t'ax'ored the rebellion and allowed bands to muster and drill all alonj;' the line. Several thousand ^fathered on Naw island near the i^'alls and a large number came to Babola island opposite Amherstbury^ and broui;-ht with them the schooner J////. It had one cannon on board and they used to lire at the building-s as they sailed up and down ever\' day. There was then a rejjfular call for volunteers and a company of foot was raised in Howard under l*'reeman (ireen, and a company of horsemen under James Ruildle. My brother John hear- iiii,'- that my uncle had raised a company in Aldboroui^h and had s^-one west, followed and joined them. Kach man was to briui^ with him three days' provisions, a g'un and a blanket. In three weeks there were more than a thousand men in Amherstburg", and they were so crowded for room that three had to sleep tos^'elher on the tloor, after sweep- ing it, with one blanket under them and two blankets o\er them, and without undressiui,''. The schooner was taken and all on board were sent to ijaol. The rebels fled and left the island, \\'hen the volunteers returned, after one month, they were nearly all sick with heavy colds. Toward springs the rebels mustered on Pointe au Pelee island, iuid five hundred rej^ular soldiers and Ermatin^er's company of horsemen went to drive them off. Starting- at dusk in sleii^hs from Amherstburj;' they ^ot to the island by daybreak. Here they met the rebels in lari,'-e numbers who commenced firing" at them out of the woods and killed a few of the regulars and shot Parish, one of the St. Thomas cavalry men. The regulars rushed forward without stopping- and charged bayonets which soon >,cattered them. The following fall, that is the fall of 1S3S, the rebels be^'"an to imister aj^^ain at Detroit and bej^'an to cross the river to \\'indsi>r in the bej^'^i lining'' of December, and killed a man w ho was staiulin}^" in his own door, and burnt a steamboat and bej^-'an plundering'' the stores. Then Colonel Prince and McDouj^'all mustered volunteers enouj^'h to j^ive them battle and scattered them, some back across the ice, some into the woods and some few they took prisoners and shot them after the battle was over. Those were the last rebels that crossed to Canada. Their comini;- across caused a i^'-eneral alarm, and the Government raised live hundred men to be stationed at Chatham under Colonel Little. My brother John and I were both drafted into Captain Patterson's company and we remained out for one month and then some re^'^ulars came from Toronto and all the militia went home. For years after the rebellion they were in the habit of calling,'- out all the militia from sixteen years old to sixty on the Queen's Birthday to train ; those in the front, i.e., near lake Erie under Capt. Smith on Talbot street, and those on the river Thames under Capt. Arnold at old Thamesville. For Colonel Prince to shoot the prisoners was called cruel at the time but it put a complete end to the rebellion. Mackenzie's reforms have all been carried out since then without any bloodshed. After tlie rebellion we steadily went on clearing- land, and in 1842 we boug'ht Edward Willson's farm on the Ridg-e and rented it to him for three years, and in 1845 we boug'ht the two lots opposite the first two lots we had, that is 15 and 16 of the eig-hth concession Howard. We then owned 500 acres of land clear of all encumbrance, and my father thoug^ht it was better to divide it so that each would have his own. John took the two fifteens and Duncan the two sixteens, that was the old homestead, and I took the Willson's lot on the Ridg-e and moved on to it the same '9 spring. In the summer of 1S48 my brother I')uncan went to Knox Collej^e, Torontii, anil in the followini,'- year my brother John was married to Miss Jessie MlaeU of l^ramt^sa. In March of the same year, 1H49, I was married to Mary Ann Louisa Hower of Botany, and we \\\c{.\ a happ\ Mfc toj^'ether for forty-six years. The followinj^ yt-Mi", in May, our eldest son, John Harwin, was born. The rej^ular tt>wnship council (or town meetinj,' as it was called) was held in old Mr. Marsh's house near Ridj^'-etown, it beinj^'' the most central house in the township. At this meetinijc, held the first Monday in January every year, all householders had a vote. After electinj,^ a chair- man and town clerk, the township representative to the western district council at Sandwich was elected. Then the road or pathmasters were elected one by one. There were only two pathmasters on the Ridj,^e road, two on Talbot street, two on tlie River road and one on each of the town-lines. The town clerk at the bej^'-inninj^ of summer sent each pathmaster his road list with instructions to add the name of everyone in his beat or district over 21 years old, each to do two days work. The lists were to be returned in the fall with an affidavit that the work had been done. All back of the Ridj^e road to the third concession, three miles square, worked for years on one beat, that alonjj- the Indian land on the Orford town-line. The assessors and collectors were also elected at the town meeting' the same as the pathmasters. The assessors went round in the winter on a sleigh and assessed all the land inhabited, putting down the cleared land at four pence currency per acre, and the wild land at one penny per acre. This tax was collected the next fall and paid to the dis- trict treasurer. This continued till 1850. Up to that time voters had to go to Chatham to vote for a member of parliament, but after that the votes were taken in the town hall by the township clerk. 20 I was appointed (.ollcctor in 1850 by the Howard town- ship council. That was the lirst township council. Het'ore that there were district councils held at Sandwich with one member from each township ol' Kent, Ivssex and Lambton, then called the Western District. lUit in iH^i) they di\ ided the district into three counties, and each town- ship had its own coinicil of five members, the reeves meet- ing- in the county towns as a county council, and any council that had 1,000 ratepayers sendinj^" two men to the county council. The lirst township council was composed of CTeorf,''e Duck, reeve ; councillors Frederick Arnold, Wil- liam iMcKerracher, John Willson, and William Ruddle ; clerk, Duncan Sinclair; treasurer. Hooper Kin^- ; audi- tors, Wm. Willson and Wheeler Hubble ; assessor, Peter Walker ; collector, Alex. Sinclair. When the district was di\ided the two counties, Kent and I.ambton, having,'' no jails or courthouses, they com- menced to build them, and it took two years before they were fuiished, and in 1850 I had three collection-rolls, one for the district, one for the county and one for the town- ship. All were made up in Halifax currency. When the courthouse and jail were finished, all connection with Kssex and Lambton was at an end, and Kent from that time man- aged its own affairs. In the first year of the township council they divided the township into five wards. The first from the river to the block between the second and third concessions, the whole leng-th of the township. The second ward from the west town-line to lot No. 10, and from the concession to the lake, and the same lenj^th as the second ward, the fifth ward the same as the fourth to the Orford town-line. John. D. Willson was in council four years for the third ward and then retired, and I was elected in his place, and deputy-reeve by the council, alonj^ with Dr. Rolls, reeve, to go to the county council at Chat- 21 ham. FIk" fall before we were appointed the county passed a by-law to borrow fifty thousand dollars to improve the town-linos. Three thousand o{' it was to be laid out on the town-line between Howard and Orford, o\\ which there was no travel, and Dr. Rolls and 1 ^ol the ci>unty council to chanj^e it to the side-roads from Hill's dock to Thames- ville, the Doctor overseeing from the dock to Ridj,'-etown and I overseeinj^ the rest. Instead of a crooked anj^'^linj,^ road between Morpeth and Ridj^etown throujji^h the lots, we made it a ^ood straight road. The road between the rid^e road and the river was only slashed down four rods wide, but we ^ot it all ditched and bridged and some of it covered with i^ravel, makinj;' it a fair passable road. The township surplus was divided into five equal shares. VV^ith my share, which was three hundred dollars, I laid out thirty-six dollars on each road in the third ward. In 1847 the Great Western Railway bej^an to run. All the time until then, the bears and wolves used to run about after night and kill pi^^s and sheep. We had to make a hig-h pen of rails with a slipg-ap and fasten the sheep in every nig"ht. In 1848 I was late one ni|^ht and could not find the sheep to put into the pen, and next morning I found seven of them dead, killed by the wolves, and they had eaten a part of two of them. The same year John Willson had his pigs in a rail pen by his house, and he, hearing a pig squealing before he went to bed, took a candle in his hand and saw a bear carrying a pig out of the pen. He hal- looed to his brother Crowel, who lived across the road, to take out his gun, which he did, and killed the bear with the first shot. After the railroad started there were no more bears or wolves, and it was soon thought that the sound of the engine had frightened them all away. The following year Dr. Rolls and I were re-elected to the same positions, and we got a by-law passed to build a town hall 22 in Ridi^'-etown. The contract was taken at tweKe hundred dollars by John Ferj^'-uson and Brothers, and from that time the council always sat at Ridj^etown instead of Mor- peth. There were five saloons in the township to whom the council had j^-iven license for some years. I broui,'-ht a petition from the Ridj^etown Templars praying- that no saloon license be j^rantcd that year. I moved that the prayer of the petition be g-ranted, and it was carried, and there has been no saloon license j^-ranted in Howard since. After spending,'- two }ears in the township and coiuitv councils I retired. When I retired from the council we put up an addition to the house, (a kitchen and a parlor,) fourteen feet by twenty-four, which <^ave us plenty of house room for some time. The Ferj»-usons did the work. After two years more we bouj^'^ht north half of No. ii, ninth con- cession, from Edward Lee of Morpeth for one thousand dollars. Instead of the loj,'- barn we beg^an to prepare ibr a larg-e two-storey frame barn, the size to be forty feet wide and fifty-six feet long- in the main part and fifteen feet hig;h. The basement was divided into three parts, the front an open shed, the middle for horses and cow stables and the back one 'pen for calves the other for lambs, and the remainder lo hold straw and roots. John Atkinson, from Botany, built the barn and finished it for $150.00. In 1874 we built a new house. It was twenty-eight by forty-two feet, two storeys high, and contained fifty thou- sand brick, being- the second house in Howard having- a slate roof.