. . . . Loch Erne Country . . . .
 

In 1868, the Land Grant and Homestead Act was passed by the Canadian government of the day. These land grants were made available to early settlers willing to homestead.  Thousands of settlers, mainly people from southern Ontario who wanted to become landowners, claimed lots between 1869 and 1885. They often chose their land sight unseen from a map in the Crown Land Agency’s office.
 

Roads had to be built to access this wilderness. Beginning in 1853, and over the next 20 years, the Government built 20 Colonization Roads into these forested areas to reap the lumber riches and to entice settlers to clear new farmlands. These colonization roads were built to assist settlement of the virgin uplands between the Ottawa River and Georgian Bay. Homesteaders quickly followed these colonization roads looking for their own piece of paradise in the area.
 

Although the land was touted as utopia for land hungry immigrants, the roads were mainly built to help the great lumber companies gain access to valuable forest lands in the area. Timber was in great demand in the United Kingdom and the United States. The 60 to 80 feet tall trees were excellent for shipbuilding.
 

In pioneer times, just getting from one place to another in this frontier region often demanded supreme effort as roads were rudimentary. Road’ is a generous description; bush trail would be more accurate! Roads were rough trails hacked through the woods, heavily rutted and laced with rocks and stumps. Swampy areas were crossed by teeth-jarring ‘corduroy roads’, consisting of logs lying over the soggy terrain. This ‘corduroy’ construction was necessary, especially during spring break up when for weeks roads were often impassable. Wagon’s wheels were liable to get bogged down to the axles in gooey eruptions known as “frost boils.” These occurred in roads stretching over clay.
 

Winter sleigh traffic would compact the snow and admit frost, and as the ground thawed in the spring, the clay turned semi-liquid. ‘Road’ is a generous description; bush trail would be more accurate! All the settlers needed was a trail cleared of trees and eventually the ruts made it a road. Wagons pulled by horses met conditions ranging from poor to impassable.
 

One of the access roads was The Great Northern Road. The road was built in the early 1870s between Parry Sound and Commanda/Nipissing. This road in the McKellar area generally follows Highway 124 towards Dunchurch.
For much of its length the road was little more than a rough trail. It was very busy.  As many as 30 to 40 wagons laden with immigrant families and their belongings passed through on a single day.
 

To serve these travelers, taverns and inns, often little more than log shanties but occasionally quite refined, sprung up along the Great Northern Road. There were dozens of them, so many that at one point an only slightly exaggerating newspaper correspondent noted that there was a ‘watering hole’ located every three miles. If the comforts of civilization were hard to find out here in the wilderness, than at least a shot of whiskey to chase off ones fears at failing in this harsh land.
 

Also developing along the Great Northern were tiny hamlets, each one located about 10 to 12 miles – or an average day’s journey – apart. Like the taverns, these communities existed almost solely to cater to road-weary travelers. Here, settlers could find stores to purchase goods, a blacksmith to shoe a horse or repair a wagon, a post office to mail off a letter to concerned relatives, or a church in which to pray that the decision to uproot one’s family and settle them in this frontier wasn’t a terrible mistake.
 

These villages were tiny pockets of civilization. Between them was nothing but dark, oppressive forest and countless predators, animal and human alike. There are numerous harrowing tales of settlers being stalked by packs of bold wolves, and of bears preying upon precious milking cows. Rarer, but still frequent enough to be a menace, were highwaymen who robbed and even murdered unwary travelers.
 

To access further land, secondary roads were built off the Great Northern Road to allow access to additional crown land. Land surveyors had divided the land in this area around Loch Erne and Lorimar Lake into 100 acre lots. The Lorimar Lake Road was built in 1874 allowing access to the two lakes.   The Lock Erne Road branched off the Lorimar Lake Road eventually reaching the future Kirkham homestead.
 

To Billie and the first settlers in the Parry Sound District, the sparkling lakes looked like paradise. However, the area was a land of stark economic contrasts. The trees made a fortune for the lumber companies, but the promise of a better life for the homesteaders was not easily fulfilled.
Many land speculators had obtained the free land and were selling it off to others. This was the case with James Sheraton who initially had the property around Loch Erne which he sold to Billie Kirkham in 1882 within months of his marriage.  This is now the location of Kirkham family cottages found on both sides of Loch Erne. As the early pioneers cleared the first acres, they discovered infertile and acidic soil. Many settlers did not stay. Those that did remain struggled to scratch out a living from the land. Although homesteading was to prove difficult, some families survived and prospered. Billie Kirkham’s family was to be one of them.
 

In 1881, Billie (William) Kirkham loaded his belongings and moved to Loch Erne. Mile after mile of ruts, mud-holes, and rocks took its toll on the wagon, and if it had broken down, Billie and his new wife Sarah would have been forced to carry all their worldly possessions to the newly purchased homestead.
 

It was a long trip but Billie eventually reached his land. Billie swatted at the mosquitoes gorging on his neck while surveying the situation. He looked around, seeing nothing but endless trees. With darkness approaching, he suddenly felt very small, and very alone.
 

William Kirkham had been born and raised in Lanark County near Perth, Ontario. His father, also named William, (1828) had married Mary Ann Watson (1829) in 1854 and established a farm in the Perth area. William had four brothers, Thomas (1856) John (1857) and, George (1862), Isaac (1876) and three sisters Mary (1864), Hannah (1866) and Sarah (1869).
 

Billie, as most people called the younger William, left Perth looking for work. He was initially drawn to the area working in the lumber industry in early 1880s.  The twenty-one year old Billie then met Sarah Crocker, a local girl from McKellar. Sarah born in 1858, had immigrated with her family from  Henstridge, Somerset England. Sarah’s parents were farmers in the McKellar area.
 

The two were married on April 19, 1881. Billie and Sarah were to have ten children who were all raised on the homestead at Loch Erne. First born was Mary Ann (Minnie) in 1882. Daniel, the next oldest, was born in 1884, followed by two sisters - Ida in 1886 and May in 1888. George came next born on April 21, 1890, then Edward, 1893, Arthur 1895, and the last brother, Allan 1897. The last two children were to be born in the 20th century-Doris in 1900 and Sadie in 1904.  
 

Many of the early homesteaders initially bought land for the lumber rights. William Vowels owned the farm next to Billie Kirkham. Even today, the fields, the cedar fences and the Vowel’s old homestead and barns can be found just off the road.
 

William saw the value of trees and acquired a 1000 acres for the purpose of harvesting the trees. His son, Phil Vowels, was eventually to take over the land and the lake that was part of the old homestead. In recent years the lake has been renamed Phil’s Lake. Phil’s sister, Clare Edna was to marry the lad down the lane, my Great Uncle Edward. Ed Kirkham lived and farmed on the north end of Lock Erne for 50 years.
 

If you look at the family trees of the area you will see that the Kirkhams married into all the pioneer families from the early 1900s including the Vowels, Moores, Campbells, and Haselhursts. In a time when horse travel was the main means of transportation, you tended to court the girl next door, or at least, the next homestead over.

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. . . . The Homestead . . . .

Billie was issued a patent when he acquired the land. If he worked it for five years, he would be given title to the land. There were three stipulations. First he needed to build a house and then a barn.  Finally, Billie was required to clear fifteen acres of land. (One and half acres of land is about the size of a Canadian football field.)

It should be noted that according to the Homestead Act, the farmers did not own the trees or minerals found on their property. The trees belonged to the lumber agents in the area. A farmer could only use the trees on their property for buildings, fences, furniture and heat. Many homesteaders tried to circumvent the rules but in the end the lumber companies always seemed to get their logs.
 

The 100 acre homestead where the family settled would provide for many of the basic needs in life.  There was accessible water and acres of trees.  The abundant wildlife in the woods and lakes would help keep them fed.
 

However, despite these advantages, life was not easy for the new farmers. Homesteading meant hard physical labour each day. There were no automobiles, or gas powered machines to farm, no electricity for heating and lighting, no chainsaws to cut the trees, and any thought of indoor plumbing was years away. The general use of the radio was still thirty years in the future. Forget about refrigerators and freezers.
 

The pioneer home was the first consideration of any farming endeavour. Clearing land for pastures provided the logs that Billie needed for building his first home.  In all, there were to be three houses built on the home section. The original structure was a log cabin. To meet the requirements of the Homestead Act, the new home had to be at least 16 feet by 20 feet in size.
 

Billie eventually replaced the original log cabin with a squared log home. The first step from round log to square timbers was hewing - a process which shaved away the rough exterior of the log, making it relatively square. This procedure was carried out with an axe or broad axe. The surface of the log was smoothed to shed water from the building and reduce the exposure to moisture. Sometimes a plane was used for finishing the log so that the logs did not trap any water. Hewing logs was a labour- intensive building technique.
 

In later construction Billie would take the logs to any number of sawmills in the area where the logs would be cut into planks.  The mills were established quickly in the homestead areas because settlers would always need lumber for their homes, outbuildings, and furniture.  
 

A sawyer just needed running water or a steam engine to create the power for the mill. The planed lumber allowed homesteaders like Billie to replace the square hewed log cabin with a larger framed house.  
 

Although pine trees provided most of the lumber needs, there were cedar trees in the area that proved useful as well. Shingle mills had begun to appear in the McKellar area. Cedar trees were cut and brought to the mills to have shingles cut to roof the new homes. Cedar trees were also used to fence the fields and pastures. You can still see cedar fences as you drive in the area. Most of these fences have bordered farmers’ fields for over a hundred years.
 

Harvesting the trees initially was a short term goal. William was required to clear and cultivate at least fifteen acres. Clearing the land, in the long term meant fields for planting vegetables and grain crops. It would take years of hard work to create the pastures and crop fields.  
Each spring and summer the trees were felled and the brush was piled up around the stumps for burning. This helped to loosen the stumps that would be dug out later. Those stumps that proved stubborn could be blasted. Blasting was also used to break up rock outcrops.
 

The new fields were planted with vegetables-potatoes being the popular choice. They also seeded peas and turnips. These crops grew abundantly in the newly dug up soil. During the following summer, this land was used for cereal crops. Continuing in this way each year, they soon had enough land for hay and grain. They used mixed grain and hay for feed, wheat for flour and oats for cereal and animal feed.

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                        . . . . Making a Homestead a Home . . . .

A pioneer’s spouse worked right beside her husband to make the farm viable. Sarah was expected to run the household and farm during the winter when Billie was gone for months working in the lumber camps. Women needed to be self reliant and able to cope with any emergency.  
As a homestead spouse, Sarah had many responsibilities; many are the same as today’s household chores, but without modern conveniences these tasks required more physical effort and time. Sarah was responsible for the house and garden. She organized the cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Of course, a major part of Sarah’s responsibilities included the care of the children which meant sewing their clothes, ensuring their basic education, tending their wounds, and teaching them homemaking skills. The adage, “A woman’s work is never done” was surely coined in this homestead era.
 

Sarah’s day might look like this: She rises at 5 a.m. to get ready, start a fire, and prepare breakfast and a lunch pail for Billie and the school children. The men go to work in the fields and are responsible for the cattle and horses, but today she is needed to help build a section of fence. Before heading to the field she mixes up a batch of bread to rise while she is out. As she is responsible for the pigs, sheep and chickens, she also makes sure they are tended to before she leaves.  She smiles as she strolls by the pigpens. Pigs are easy to raise; they eat just about anything.  She passes a flock of sheep in one of the several pastures near the farm. Penning the sheep is the job of the girls and younger children, but Sarah double checks to make sure all is in order.  Down towards the lake is the chicken coop with eggs to be gathered each day. Again, one of the younger children has been assigned this duty.
 

She returns to the house in the early afternoon, relieved of her fencing duty to start getting supper ready.  She aptly catches, butchers, plucks, and cleans a fat hen to fry up for the evening meal. She digs some potatoes and collects some fresh vegetables from the garden. She cleans and prepares them for cooking. She stokes the stove to make sure the temperature is hot enough to bake her bread. She hauls more water in to heat for dishes and bedtime bathing. Once dinner is cooked, served and cleared, she does the dishes. She darns some socks, then sits with a child to read.

It is bath day today so most of the evening is taken up with this special activity. We must remember though that even the simple task of bathing the children requires her to pack and heat gallons of water on a wood stove. All children, and adults share the same hot water, starting with the youngest family member. Hot water is a precious commodity; the bath water is recycled.

Bedtime is about 9:00 p.m.  It has been a long, hard day, which will be repeated in much the same way the next day and every day.
 

                                         . . . . The Neighbourhood . . . .

Although the homestead tried to be as self-sufficient, there still had to be trips to town for supplies. In these early farming years, a local commercial area had developed just down the road from Loch Erne.

McKellar was to become the first town in the area east of Parry Sound. It was originally known as Armstrong's Rapids, but the name McKellar was given when the post office opened in the community in 1870. McKellar is named for Archibald McKellar (1816-1894), a member of the Legislative Assembly for Ontario. The village was surveyed into lots in 1869 and the streets were given names.

Within a few years McKellar had two stores, a hotel, a temperance boarding house, wagon shop, gristmill, sawmill, and two boot and shoemakers. There was a Methodist Church, Orange Hall, schoolhouse, and post office. In 1880 a woolen and carding mill was erected and  shortly after, a cheese factory. All these businesses and industries were built to support the farmers and lumbermen in the area.

The blacksmith shop was an important business for McKellar. The blacksmith played an important part in the village. He made metal hoops for wagon wheels, made shoes for all the horses, and was the jack of all trades, repairing almost anything.

In those early days, a trip to McKellar from Loch Erne was still considered an arduous journey, even though it was just twelve miles away. There were no automobiles in this area until after World War 1, mainly because the bridges and the roads were inadequate for car travel on the Great Northern Road.

The outing took several hours as all travel in the area was by horse and wagon. Weather conditions sometimes made it impossible to travel and would deter families from going into town.  When all else failed, George and family members would walk the twelve miles to McKellar, and this they did often.
 

Longer journeys were sometimes undertaken. Getting to Parry Sound could be accomplished by taking the stagecoach that ran from McKellar to Parry Sound three days a week.
 

The closer town of Waubamik had limited services in the early years. These services were to grow in future, which had a lot to do with Arthur (Art) Kirkham who opened a store and a gas station. Art also managed the post office. Waubamik received a railway station just down the road from Uncle Art’s store when the railroad was built in the early 1900s. A one car train operated daily allowing passengers easy access to the railroad stations up and down the line. In many cases, travelers simply flagged the train down and hopped aboard. For many residents this was the easiest way to get to Parry Sound.   
 

In the early years when George travelled north to the homestead from Port Credit, it meant taking the train to the Waubamik station (Grandpa never did own a car or have a driver’s license). Many times he slept on the couch in Uncle Art’s house which was next to the station. The house was a hub for family members coming and going on their way to the homestead.

Later in his life, Billie moved out to Waubamik and lived with Uncle Art and family. Farming was still important so he felt it necessary to build a new barn and bring his cattle from Loch Erne. During those years he and the boys continued to work the homestead in the summer.

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                                        . . . . Taken for Granted . . . .
It is easy to forget in our modern world the many advantages we have over the pioneer lifestyle. Medical care would be at the top of the list.
Colds and flu could be deadly. Diseases such as typhoid and scarlet fever, and the various strains of measles could cause serious complications and death. Polio, which is often associated with mid 20th century epidemics, was common in the early 1900s. Smallpox vaccinations became available in the late 19th century and were the first use of the vaccinations that proved to be effective. An important source of illness on the farms could be traced back to unpasteurized milk. Farm milk was consumed quickly so the chances of sickness were minimal.

The closest doctor and pharmacy were located 10 miles away in the local farming community of McKellar. Pharmacies sold more snake oil than real cures. This was the time before antibiotics, which were first used in the 1940s during World War 2. This meant that simple cuts could easily become seriously infected. Aspirin was not to become available to the general public until 1910.

In the end, medical care fell to the mother, and home “cures” were a part of every family tradition. Sarah relied more on folk remedies and medicines than on doctors or nurses. The remedy for a cold was goose grease heated and rubbed on the chest, back and front. Mustard plasters were used for pneumonia and were very effective. Cough medicine was made from various tree barks. The bark was put in a kettle, covered with water and boiled. Stick licorice was added along with essence of aniseed making it easy to swallow. Sarah made it in quantity to have on hand for winter.

All the Kirkham children were born at the homestead. Childbirth was more dangerous at the turn of the century. In 1900, maternal mortality was 65 times higher than it is today. With large farm families it only increased the chance that Sarah might have complications with childbirth.

 

Children were born with the assistance of local women who were midwives, but more commonly, the expecting mother would be surrounded by her mother, sisters and women neighbours. It defies the odds that a large families such as the Kirkhams had all the siblings reach old age.
While medical services were scarce, dentists were largely nonexistent. Toothaches were a major source of aggravation. Without modern dentistry practices the procedure for most problems was to yank the troublesome tooth. Most men and women of the early 1900s would receive false teeth long before their fortieth birthday.

                                     . . . . The Need to be Social . . . .

In time, several homesteads were located in the Loch Erne area. The farmers became convinced that they needed a school for their growing families. The local authority received a petition dated January 20, 1896, requesting a school be built in the area. Many of the early pioneers had signed including Kirkhams, Vowels, Buchanans and Keatings.

 
George Steele was the first secretary, and the first trustees were Bill Kirkham, George Vowels, and Yonge Buchanan. Other ratepayers in this section included Edwin Vowels, Ernest Crockford, Duncan Crawford, Abraham Crockfort, George Keating, and Aaron Teneyck.

During the spring of 1896 a frame school was built on land donated by Billie, with the lumber provided by the farmers in the area. Kirkham children would attend this small one room school house until 1918. As many as four Kirkhams attended the school at the same time. They would be in different grades all instructed by the one teacher.

September 1896 marked the beginning of the first school year. With the completion of the school 6 year-old George would be one of the first pupils to attend. Mr. Bert Quinn was young George's first teacher.  Teachers in those early years also included Miss Jennie McRoberts and Miss Young. A teacher could make $200 to $250 a year. The teacher was boarded by one of the local farm families.

There was little furniture and equipment when the school first opened. Benches were used instead of the usual desks.  The school had no electricity, running water, telephone, nor washrooms in those early years. Outhouses for the boys and girls were at the back of the schoolyard. Water used for drinking and washing had to be hauled up from the lake, and the bucket for drinking with a dipper was found inside the school. During winter, students would have to break the ice that inevitably formed on top.

Everyone studied by natural light coming in through the windows. There were oil lamps, but these would have been used for evening meetings.
Each day before school George along with his brothers and sisters had farm chores to finish. There were cows to be milked and animals to be cleaned, fed, and watered. It was only after all the chores were done that George would get ready for school.

Sarah packed the daily lunches. The Kirkhams brought their lunches from home carried in lunch pails. These pails were whatever they could find at home such as syrup, coffee, or lard cans. It really didn’t matter what these pails were as long as they had a handle. Sandwiches, biscuits, cookies, and home baking were the choice items. Fresh milk would be placed in their lunch buckets. Sometimes, they took a small metal container of homemade soup to be warmed on top of the school stove. There were also times when it would be a simple lunch of bread and brown sugar.

George, like most of the children, wanted to arrive early to play with his friends. The Kirkhams would walk to the schoolhouse through a path in the woods, a trek of only 600 yards. However, the majority of students would walk miles to get to school. Those students with longer distances could ride their ponies, keeping them in the fenced-in area near the school throughout the day.

Mr Quinn arrived early for school. The teacher organized the work that students would be doing that day. It was the teacher’s responsibility to prepare the classroom and get a fire started in the stove before the day began. The heating system consisted of a small box stove, which took a stick 20 inches long. The original stove was in use until March 1945.

Soon enough the teacher would ring a bell to signal children on their way to school to hurry or risk being late. Later, the teacher would ring the hand bell a second time to start classes. The children would file into the classroom, girls on one side and boys on the other.

On the school wall were hooks where they hung their coats and hats as they entered the building. The students stored their lunch pails on the floor of the cloakroom area. During winter, sandwiches stored next to the outside wall would freeze so before lunchtime they had to be placed on the stove to thaw. They then stood by their desks ready for morning exercises such as the Lord’s Prayer and God Save the Queen (Victoria before 1902 who celebrated her Diamond Jubilee on June 27, 1897) or King (after 1902 Edward VII).

 
The students sat in rows of wooden desks facing the teacher’s desk and blackboard. Children from the various grades would come to the front of the room when it was their turn. They sat on a bench, and worked with their teacher at the blackboard. The blackboard was just that, a board painted black.

Students were expected to be studying, writing, or reading when it wasn’t their turn to work with the teacher. School subjects included spelling, reading, history, maths, and geography. Older students helped the younger ones. Sometimes the entire schoolroom had lessons all together such as spelling bees, singing, or drawing.

George and his siblings used pencils and lined paper, but frequently did arithmetic problems with pieces of chalk and individual slates. When it was time to practice penmanship, they got out paper and glass bottles of ink, using wooden holders with a special point for writing.
 

Classmates ate their lunches at their desks, and then hurried outside to enjoy the remainder of the noon hour. They played baseball, tag, hide and seek, crack the whip, and other schoolyard games. Both boys and girls played marbles.  There were large glossy ones called alleys, while the girls played with smaller ones called pimsells.

A favorite place for the Loch Erne students was a rock outcrop behind the school known as the mountain. There was a similar play space on the other side of the road from the school.  Children could be found running through the bush pretend hunting or playing cowboys and Indians. Another hiding game was fox and hound. The foxes would scattered only to be chased and caught by the hounds. There imagination and a stick provided their entertainment.

For young George, school attendance was spotty. Many of the boys were kept home in the fall during the harvest and spring for planting.  The roads in the area were all dirt trails and heavy rain would result in impassable conditions. It was extremely cold during winter days, sometimes dipping to -60 degrees. The Kirkhams would often have to wade through the five or six foot snowdrifts to get to school. It wasn’t unusual to close down the school if there were colds or flu in the community until the sickness passed.

The old school underwent a few changes over the years. During Miss Burn’s teaching term in 1907 the desks, clock, and globe were purchased and in 1908 a flag was added. A school library was begun in 1908 while Miss Van Wicklin was the teacher. A new floor was laid in 1911 and the school was resided about the same time.

The school at times became the modern day equivalent of matchmaker.com. Case in point: In 1922 a new teacher came to teach at Loch Erne School. Ester White arrived at the schoolyard to see two tall gentlemen by the door. One, later as she was to learn, was Phil Vowels who lived on a farm past the Kirkham homestead.

At first, because of their size, Ester thought the two men must be school trustees. It turned out that they were just a couple of local boys that had heard about the new teacher. Best of all she was single. It is unfortunate for the Vowels that Ester was instead to meet and be courted by Arthur Kirkham from the farm down the road.  Art and Ester were married in 1923 and had their first child, Eva, in 1924. They didn’t waste much time back in those days.

The school provided many social activities for the small farming community. Christmas, in particular, was a special community event.  There were programs to be practiced and individual parts to be memorized.  At other times there were evening gatherings, such as an ice cream social or a musical program, to help raise money for something new in the classroom – a bookcase, a globe, books or maps. Parents and children, as well as county neighbours, came to these events to help support their little one-room building and enjoy time together, warmed by community spirit and the schoolroom stove.

The original school operated at the Loch Erne location until 1952. A new school was then built just opposite Uncle Ed’s farm at the top of the lake. It had students until it was closed in 1962. The later school was sold off in the 1970s and is now a residence.

George left school during the year he turned twelve. Grade 6 was about all most farm families felt was the necessary education. The girls were more likely to stay in school longer. Ida and Doris Kirkham, who both were later to become school teachers, would have completed at least Grade 10 to qualify for teaching credentials.

For George and the other Kirkham children the school provided a place to socialize. It was the hub of their lives for those early school years; however, for the adults, the church became the focal point for gatherings and community events.

The first church in the area was built on Church Hill and located on land again donated by Billie. It was opposite and down the road from Uncle Ed’s old homestead. It is hard to see now because of forest growth, but there is a rock outcrop just a hundred meters off the road behind the sandpit, just before the descent down to the creek. Back a little off the road and below the outcrop stood the church. This Baptist church was built as a branch of the Bloor Street Church in Toronto.

Pastors spent many hours traveling over bad roads and in all kinds of weather ministering in these country churches. As a result, services were not held every week. Many times a local person would act as a lay preacher. The first lay pastor was Henry Smith who had a farm along the road to Lorimer Lake. His wife was the Sunday school teacher.  Minnie Kirkham was to meet and marry Edgar Smith, the minister’s son in 1905.
Church attendance was almost universal in small rural communities like Loch Erne. Sunday was always a special day when everyone wore their best clothes.

In this area the settlers were Baptists and Methodists. This was Orange country for sure and McKellar had its own Orange Lodge as did most communities in the area. There was no sign at the county border, but if there was, it would have said, “Catholics, Stay Out!”

Sunday church was an opportunity for the adults to get together and socialize. On those warm spring and summer days, church picnics were held. The promise of the tasty treats prepared and packed in advance with food like fried chicken, freshly picked corn and vegetable relishes, along with homemade breads, and fresh fruit pies made the event especially popular. The kids in their Sunday best, instead of their usual hand me down clothes, would play games. The adults talked weather and farming. For the women this was a welcomed time to meet and chat with others.

Sunday at the turn of the century was also a day of rest from most work chores. With the Kirkham farm so close to the church it was a time for neighbours to come calling. It was a chance to visit and be visited by relatives and friends.

 
                                                   . . . . The Farming Life . . . .

 



While Sundays were a day of rest, the rest of the week was for work.  Farm life was filled with physical labour and chores that began early in the morning and went late into the evening. Work and chores on the homestead depended on the time of year. Farming by it nature had cyclical rhythm dictated by the seasons.

Early spring was time for an important yearly chore - hauling ice. Being situated on the lake had many obvious benefits; one was the availability of ice for food storage. Before the ice was too thin, Billie and the boys would head to the lake and chip out the biggest blocks of ice that they could manage. The ice would then be loaded on to the wagon and hauled to the root cellar, which in those days was the refrigerator/freezer. Hay or straw was packed around the ice to make it last longer. This allowed the root cellar to remain cold well into the summer.

Spring chores also included the collecting of an important sweetening source - maple syrup. The Loch Erne homestead not only had pine and cedar trees, but in behind cousin Butch’s cottage was, and still is, the location of a maple tree stand. In the 1960s and 1970s, when Grandpa was still active, he led the family into the sugar bush.

Collecting maple sap for sugar was not the invention of European settlers. Woodland Indigenous had been practicing it for centuries before the first white man even appeared on the shores of the New World.

Early Ontario settlers recognized the value of tapping maple trees and set aside several weeks each spring to harvest the sap. The European way of making maple sugar was more sophisticated and on a far larger scale than that practiced by Indigenous people, but largely similar.

Unlike today, comparatively little maple syrup was actually produced; instead, settlers used the sap for manufacturing maple sugar because cane sugar, which had to be imported from the Caribbean, was both rare and expensive in rural 19th century Parry Sound. Maple sugar, painstakingly manufactured from the sweet springtime sap of maple trees, was an ideal substitute and so most landowners retained acreage of bush for this very reason.

As the 20th century dawned, sugar was becoming cheaper and more readily available. The harvesting of maple sap became increasingly rare, and those who continued did so with an eye largely towards supplying the demand for maple syrup.

Today, most of the sap collected in Ontario sugar bushes ends up as sweet, sticky syrup destined for the breakfast table. - Andrew Hind -
George was the chief operations officer during those times. He had his whiskey and tended the fire overlooking the production of the syrup. As far as I knew, he slept there and looked after the fire all night long, 24/7 as they say now.

We did the maple syrup harvest in my childhood years much like they would have when Grandpa was young. This was not one of the modern operations that now pump the sap from the trees to a collection bin. It was trudging through the melting snow from tree to tree and tipping the sap into buckets and hauling it to the collection bin. That was the glamorous job we cousins did twice a day. It was never seen as work. We were part of something that we all worked together to accomplish.

The sap was originally boiled in the main cauldron that hung over the fire from a tripod The syrup was then transferred to the low pan to thicken. For the last step, the syrup was strained through cloth and into the bottles ready for the table.

It was worth the effort; the treat at the end of the one or two weeks was the homemade maple syrup that was split up between all the aunts and uncles. If we were lucky we got the best treat of all - maple sugar candy, syrup boiled past the syrup stage, or perhaps maple syrup poured over snow.

For the cousins making syrup was just another adventure. Grandpa would have seen this as part of living off the land in the early 1900s and not the socializing activity that we made it out to be.

With the coming of spring, it was time for cleaning the homestead.  Windows were washed. The carpets were taken out and thrown over the clothesline for a thorough beating to get all the dust removed. The layer of straw which had been placed under the rug for warmth, was removed. When threshing was over, new straw would be spread and the carpet tacked down again.

Bed ticks (mattresses) were emptied of their old straw, washed and refilled with fresh new straw. George and the siblings went to the barn with a fresh tick and had fun stuffing it until it puffed up. Then, one or two under one end and one or two under the other end, they would carry it back to the house. At first the mattress was so fat George had to climb onto the sideboard of the bed to reach into the opening to stir the straw.

In the late 1800s prosperity and farm wealth were measured in the amount of cultivated land and livestock a farmer owned. The farm at its peak had a dozen cattle, and as many as four horses. The homestead also included sheep, pigs, goats and chickens. From spring through fall, taking care of the livestock required a significant portion of the Billie’s time. All needed to be fed and watered. Cows and goats needed to be milked, sheep clipped, animals butchered, eggs collected, and horses groomed and prepared for work, just to name a few of the chores.

 
Spring was also a time of rebirth. There were no vets to help with the livestock. Assisting animals through the birthing process required long nights and early mornings. The calves arrived in March and colts appeared later in the spring. Little chicks hatched and piglets filled the pigpens. All these new critters needed to be handled with care and looked after to ensure they would survive their first months of life.
 

With all the farm animals, one of the biggest projects was building the necessary animal shelters. Chicken coops, sheep and pig pens and several barns of various sizes were all built and needed to be maintained.

Billie acquired cattle, which were needed for meat and dairy products. While the milk cows were kept near the homestead, the rest of the herd were generally kept in the nearby pastures. Sometimes, however, the cattle were free to roam the area looking for forage. They were turned loose in the spring and summer and gathered in the fall.

One of the daily farm chores was milking the cows. This provided entertainment on the farm. Milk was used to squirt the cats and each other. After milking the cows it was time to separate the cream.  A milk house was specifically built where the milk was put into shallow pans and then stored on shelves until the cream came to the top.

Some of the cream was skimmed off and put into a dash churn to make butter. These churns were earthenware crocks with a hole in the middle. A churning stick was used to move the cream until it became solid and formed into butter. Excess milk and cream were sold to the local creameries in the area. The extra cash from selling dairy products helped to pay some of the many farm bills.

Before the internal combustion engine solved forever the problem of propulsion, horses furnished most of the non-human energy needed for farming.   Operating an average sized farm took several good horses and usually draft horses.  The draft horses pulled the heavier farm equipment but were not suited for either horseback riding or to serve as buggy horses. Riding and buggy horses were smaller and faster.
Horses required other costs such as barns, harnesses, saddles, and a blacksmith to keep them properly shod.

George was expected to get the horses ready for the day. It started with gathering horses from the pasture and placing them into their proper stalls before breakfast. They were then fed their morning ration of grain. George would curry them while they were eating, especially if it had been hot the day before and they still had dried sweat on their coats of hair.  His next job was to harness the horses so they would be ready to work the fields right after breakfast. Two horse teams were needed to pull a wagon, a hay rake, a mower, or a single 12” plow which went about six inches deep.

Plowing and planting were major tasks, taking days or weeks to finish during the spring planting. Plowing a field of any size with a single twelve-inch plow took many circuits around the spring fields. Billie, a skilled driver, might cut ten-inches of unplowed ground per round. 

 
To produce much of their own food, there was a huge garden beside the farmhouse, scarecrow included. Corn, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, beans, beets, turnips and peas were grown. To add a little spice to the meals there was always an herb section.

The garden took up a great deal of time during the summertime and became the center of many chores. Hoeing, weeding and harvesting were major garden activities. Insect control in the garden was limited to a very few chemicals like nicotine and copper sulfate. George and the other siblings were assigned the task of picking worms off various plants-worms to be later used for fishing. The garden resulted in an abundance of fresh vegetables and herbs that were a welcome addition to the dinner menu.

An additional summer chore was berry picking. Berries were plentiful around the farmers’ fields.  It started with strawberries and raspberries in late June and early July. Early August meant time to hunt for blackberries and blueberries. This provided Sarah with an opportunity to use the berries in all kinds of recipes; puddings, jams, pies and cakes.

Fall arrived and work on the farm and chores increased. The harvesting of the garden and berry picking was followed by yet another labour-intensive chore - preserving and storing of the fruits and vegetables. The canning of produce from the garden was a major undertaking and this was ‘woman’s work’.

Canning and preserving usually took place over several days in late September. The crops had to be picked, processed and canned all in one day. Fifty to one hundred quarts or half gallon glass jars of each item had to be filled and sealed. This meant that the canner had to be kept in continuous use, often well into the night. Preserves were stored in the root cellar.

Some items required additional processing, such as fermenting cabbage to create sauerkraut. Apples and pears were wrapped individually in old newspapers for future use. If apples or other fruit were stored touching each other, a rotten piece of fruit would cause the other fruit to spoil more quickly.

Butchering could happen any time of the year.  Of course chicken could be part of any meal, hence the chopping block at the back of the house. Major butchering of pigs, cows and wild game usually took place in the fall to allow meat to be hung, cut and stored through the winter. Pigs for example were butchered, cut into pieces, and salt rubbed into the meat. The meat was packed into barrels to keep for winter use. Sara would cut, clean, wash and cook the pig’s head and make it into head cheese.

The major concern in fall along with canning and butchering was harvesting the crops. This required all the help Billie could get and the whole family assisted with this physically intensive task.

Hay being the most important crop, provided the basic feed for the livestock. Hay was valuable in aiding the animals to produce manure which was supplemented by phosphate and lime to be used as fertilizers.

The hay crops needed to be taken off the fields. Horses pulled a mower and rake to cut the hay and leave it to dry in the field.  A moist crop would result in mold and spoil the hay.

 
Once it was dry, the wagons would be pulled into the field. The hay wagon was made of wood and hitched to two horses. Billie stood on the top of the wagon controlling the team of horses as he worked his way through the field. His job was to pile up the hay and pack it down. The boys on the ground used pitchforks to throw the dried hay up to him. The hay wagon hauled the hay from the field to the barn. From there it was loaded into the barn loft for use throughout the year.

Oats were the most important cash crop for Billie and the family. Oats put many homesteaders on their feet. Fortunately, large quantities were required by the lumber camps for oatmeal and as feed for the horses. One estimate was that it took a bushel of oats for every 8000 board feet of pine produced. Oats were also sold to hotel owners who needed it to feed their customers.

Oats required a great deal of labour to harvest. In the early years of the farm Billie and the boys cut the oats by hand. The tool used was called a reaper knife or sickle which could be bought at the McKellar hardware store for 50 cents. Later, when harvesting with horses, farmers used the mowing machine to cut the oats.

The oats once cut were then tied into sheaves by hand and left to stand. The oat sheaves were then picked up by a farm wagon and taken to the barn. Parry Sound’s first settlers completed the chore of threshing by hand. When the grain was dry, a flail was used to thresh the oats.
 

The flail was composed of two pieces connected by a short chain or leather band. The longer of the two sticks would be held and swung causing the other shorter stick to strike a pile of stalks and thereby releasing the kernels from the heads. After the grain sheaves had been harvested and stacked in the barn, neighbors would gather to thresh each other’s crop. The straw was gathered and stored to provide bedding for animals, while the grain was swept up and put into containers for winnowing (separating the grain from the chaff) and then, later still, to be taken to a mill to be ground into flour.

Threshing could take days to complete, and at the end of each day the farmer would return to his home exhausted, drenched in sweat, and covered head-to-food with a layer of white dust that made him appear like an apparition.

Eventually, and to the celebration of farmers everywhere, steam-powered threshers appeared. A job that would have taken many days could now be completed in perhaps one.

Steam tractors and the threshers they operated were expensive, however, and not pieces of equipment everyone could afford. Instead, an enterprising man would buy the machine and rent his services out to area farms.

Every day through the autumn, the farmer would drive at snail’s pace—no more than perhaps 5 miles an hour— to a new farm, stopping at creeks and lakes along the way to fill the water tank. It was the client’s responsibility to have a stack of firewood on-hand for the boil.

In 1900 Frank Macfie of Dunchurch bought a Deering grain binder, the first in the region. He would rent it to area farmers. This new technology was a major step forward from cutting and binding oats by hand.

Hardier crops like potatoes and turnips were also gathered in the fall.  A digger pulled by horses would throw the potatoes out of the ground, and the Kirkham boys followed behind picking them up. The potatoes were placed in wooden barrels or bushel baskets where they would be safely stored in the root cellar. Potatoes were a mainstay food because they could be used as the basis for a variety of dishes such as soups, stews and casseroles all winter long.

   
Billie and Sarah knew that with ten children to feed, the farm had to grow. It took intensive labour clearing fields, harvesting, selling crops and milk.  Certainly a big family of ten children allowed for a division of that labour. Most of the items they needed on a day to day basis on the farm were made by family members. All of these activities made it possible for the farm to become almost self-sufficient. Usually only coffee, teas, sugar, flour, and spices had to be bought at the “corner store”. Self sufficiency was a goal that the whole family worked towards.

Many farmers in the area struggled to survive, but despite the odds, the Kirkham farm prospered. In 1907, Billie bought farmland north of the lake and even had enough money to purchase some property in Parry Sound.