Women Pioneers of Proton Part II
Description
- Creator
- Macphail, Agnes, Author
- Media Type
- Text
- Item Type
- Clippings
- Description
- Second part of a series of articles written by Agnes Macphail about her family history.
- Inscriptions
- [April 14, 1982]
Women Pioneers of Proton
[By Agnes Campbell Macphail reprinted in The Dundalk Herald, Dec. 1920 and January 1921, from the Farmers Sun]
(continued from last week)
Grandma trained her own yoke of oxen to follow her. She went ahead and they followed with the drag. If she went around a stump they went too, and they always guided their speed by hers, [sic] One day a man named MacDonald came to buy a yoke of oxen for his wife to drive, and after explaining how the oxen were “broken” the yoke was sold to him. His wife was a “town” woman and knew little about oxen and their ways, so rather timidly she began her task. At first all went well, then she began to walk a little faster to get away from the big creatures and they changed their lazy walk to a smarter one. Mrs. MacDonald hurried still more and so did the oxen; she ran and so did they. Then the race around the clearing got faster and faster until Mr. MacDonald had to come to the rescue and his wife never “led” oxen again.
Grandma and Great Uncle Tam, who always lived with my grandparents, broke oxen and sold them to other settlers. The story is told that as Rev. John Morrison, well known and dearly loved by Proton pioneers, was driving along the road one day and heard a man swearing at his oxen with the fluency of an expert. The Rev. Morrison stopped to remonstrate with him for his use of profane language but the accused cleared him self by explaining that he bought the yoke from Jock Campbell and he was using the only language they understood.
When they first came into the bush, hunting the cows was the very worst job, Grandma says. They never knew what direction they would be unless they were near enough to hear the bell. The baby was carried but the little children had to be shut in the shanty for fear they would wander away and get lost. Neither Grandma nor her sister-in-law had any steeples to lock the door, although they had a chain and padlock. So they took a link of a chain and an old axe and by turns at the job they cut it in two and so were able to lock the door.
The men did the logging but the women did the burning, both my grandmothers agreed that the men of pioneer days didn’t know how to burn. One day the men were over at Bob Blacks, Grandma’s brother’s place, helping to log. They had a big slash ready to burn and been holding back the burning and Grandma considered the slash ready and the wind right, so she went and fired it. She was barefooted; she got up on an uprooted tree and ran the length of it; another tree was just feet further on. She jumped down on what she thought was safe ground but one foot went through the cold looking ashes into a burning ground. The pain was very intense; she ran for Lizzie’s and at the door there sat a full pail of water, she put her foot in it, and as a result had a very bad foot: it broke open and balsam gum healed it up quickly.
The beaver-meadow supplied hay for animals and blueberries for the “kitchen” to make the scone go better.
When they came from Scotland quite a supply of clothes and blankets were brought in the “chist”. When the clothes were nearly done seven sheep were bought, but the wolves got the sheep and for two years no more sheep were purchased so every blanket that could be spared was made into clothes. They were coloured by boiling quantities of golden rod, staining it, and using the liquid as dye.
When they were new in the bush Mrs. John McEachnie died and Grandpa put on his “black” and high hat to attend the funeral. All the other men were in working clothes, and Grandpa was so disgusted with himself that he never wore the suit or hat again. He told Grandma to cut them up and use the pieces of cloth for the boys.
After a time the MacMillans, Blacks, Milliners and Dingwalls all settled near; the Parslows had been in before the Campbells came. Community life became brighter and Grandma says they had good times. They went visiting and to church in the only clothes they owned - their working clothes. Mrs. Milliner was a skilled needle-woman and Grandma’s talk is full of praise of her skill and kindness.
In this age of brotherhoods, [continued in "reverse" image] organizations and societies with all their get-together talk, we are just nowhere compared to the binding unity of those pioneer days with their real friendships. They were bound together with the strong “logging” chain of common hardship shared.
When Priceville came on the map a new style began for women. A blue derry skirt with a blue derry smock was the very latest and every woman who had one was well dressed.
Of all the old settlers I have mentioned no men remain and only three women, my two grandmothers and Mrs. Duncan McMillan, who now resides in Flesherton.
The rugged honesty, the devotion to duty and the real Christianity of these early settlers make us look very small. We do not realize how great is the debt of gratitude we owe them. It is a duty as well as a privilege to preserve the stories of the pioneer days in Ontario that the children of today and tomorrow will realize what a struggle it was to clear land and make it fir for cultivation, and that they may be proud to be descendants of the clearers of the forest and the tillers of the soil.
(Continued next week) - Publisher
- Dundalk herald
- Place of Publication
- Dundalk, On.
- Date of Original
- 1982
- Date Of Event
- 1850-1880
- Subject(s)
- Local identifier
- 996.023.032
- Language of Item
- English
- Geographic Coverage
-
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Ontario, Canada
Latitude: 44.2001 Longitude: -80.483
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- Copyright Statement
- Public domain: Copyright has expired according to Canadian law. No restrictions on use.
- Copyright Date
- 1920
- Copyright Holder
- Macphail, Agnes Campbell (1890-1954)
- Terms of Use
- Reproduced with permission of the Dundalk Herald
- Reproduction Notes
- Reproduction of digital objects is restricted to fair use for personal study or research, any other use must be done with permission of copyright holder.
- Contact
- South Grey Museum
