"Adventures of the American Four Among the Pine Stumps of Canada", 1885 Diary of Visit to the Hall Family, Drumquin
Description
- Media Type
- Image
- Text
- Description
- For the month of September 1885, four young Americans came to Drumquin to visit their Hall family relatives. James Fremont Bailey kept a journal of their visit, recording their activities, the people they met and providing us with a wonderful glimpse into the daily as well as social life of area families.
In this record are several pages from this diary. The complete journal is kept in the print Trafalgar Township Historical Society archives.
The journal came to the hands of David Helsel, a descendent of James Bailey, who put together photographs of Joseph and Ann Hall, the four young Americans with notes of further information for presentation to the TTHS.
Page 4 starts in the middle of an entry describing silly singing one evening and the "treat" of a really sour melon from the farm garden. It goes on to describe one of their visits to the skating rink at Oakville. The rink is described in detail which is quite interesting - a wooden floor, of course, of rock maple, and the music was provided by Mr. Sherring the clarinet player, and a concertina player who skated as they played! The next page, not reproduced here, explains they got back to the farm at 12:30 a.m.
The next page reproduced here is Page 8 which starts on Friday, September 11th when they walked over to the Saunders place at Auburn with its blacksmith shop and beehives. They took rifles out for hunting and again went (roller) skating in Oakville. It ends with son Joe visiting his girl after dinner and on Page 9, also reproduced here, we learn that he stayed overnight as the weather was so wet.
Page 9 documents several more days and ends with the start of their visit to the Toronto "showgrounds". The following page 10, not reproduced here, lists in great detail all the animals and baking seen, their view of the Gattling Gun and Capt. Howard as well as the hearing the Dominion Organ Co. Band playing "Rock in the Cradle of the Deep", and much more detail of all the sights seen at this forerunner of today's Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). - Notes
- Two other digital records are linked to this record with further information. Joseph and Ann Hall were the hosts of the "American Four". The other record contains photographs of the "American Four".
- Date Of Event
- 1885
- Subject(s)
- Personal Name(s)
- James Winfield Bown, 1861-1955. James Freemont Bailey, 1862-1912. Alice Victoria Bown, 1861-1936. Clara Jane Bown, called "Jennie", 1858-1935. Joseph Hall, 1820-1898. Ann (Bailey) Hall 1831-1910.
- Local identifier
- TTDH000376
- Collection
- Trafalgar Township Historical Society
- Language of Item
- English
- Geographic Coverage
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Ontario, Canada
Latitude: 43.53341 Longitude: -79.78293
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- Copyright Statement
- Copyright status unknown. Responsibility for determining the copyright status and any use rests exclusively with the user.
- Recommended Citation
- "Adventures of the American Four Among the Pine Stumps of Canada", 1885 Diary of Visit to the Hall Family, Drumquin
- Contact
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Trafalgar Township Historical Society Sponsor: Jeff Knoll, Local & Regional Councillor for Oakville Ward 5 – Town of Oakville/Regional Municipality of Halton
