| Title: | From Thomas William Magrath, Esq., Upper Canada, |
|---|---|
| ID | 4544 |
| Collection | Authentic Letters from Upper Canada [Rev. Thomas Radcliff] |
| File | radcliff/2 |
| Year | 1831 |
| Sender | Magrath, Thomas Wm |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | superintendent for settlers |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Erindale, Toronto, Upper Canada |
| Destination | Ireland |
| Recipient | Rev. Thomas Radcliff |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | friends |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 2792 |
| Genre | living expenses, settling, income |
| Note | |
| Transcript | to the Rev. Thomas Radcliff, Ireland. Erindale, Toronto, December, 1831. My dear Sir, I mentioned in my last the necessary expenditure in settling a family of nine, and also that, for an individual. The next consideration appears to me to be, whether it would be most advisable for the emigrant boldly to encounter the difficulties and privations of the Bush or at once to establish himself on a farm partially cleared, and ready for the immediate reception of his family? This must, in a great measure, depend on the extent of capital, as well as on the number, age, and internal resources of the family. It should, however, be a chief object of inquiry, and I will furnish you with information on this important point, by specifying the expenditure and respective circumstances of each method of location, so as to give a fair comparative view of both cases, and the course the settler should pursue in either. In order to make this comparison, the farms may be considered equal in extent, and at equal distance from the town of York. Number of acres 200; distance from York 30 miles. I shall begin with the uncleared lands, and will suppose the settler landed on the wharf of York, the capital of this province, whose first visit is to the office of the Commissioner of Crown Lands, to inquire what lots are to be disposed of. Being there informed that he can purchase certain lots of wild land in an unsettled part of the country, at from five to ten shillings an acre, he next proceeds to inspect their situation and quality. And with this view he travels in a public conveyance as far as is practicable, say 15 miles, and hires a waggon to carry him from thence to the settlement nearest the land he wishes to inspect, say 5 miles, and there procures an intelligent person acquainted with the township, lots, &c. to act as his guide, with whom he sets forward for the land on foot; and finding, that instead of performing the remaining ten miles, and of reaching it, as he may have expected, in a few hours' walk, he will, perhaps for the first time in his life, be obliged to dispense with the luxury of a good bed, and dispose himself to rest as he best may, upon one composed of the boughs of the hemlock in the small shanty of a new settler. On getting up next morning, not perfectly refreshed; after drinking his tea without the agreeable accompaniment of cream, or even milk, he proceeds with his guide, who, instructed by the index posts of the surveyor of the township, at length exclaims "this is the lot;"—when, the weary emigrant, seating himself upon a log and looking round him, ponders upon the impracticability of bringing his family so far into the Bush, and to a lot perhaps badlv supplied with water, and covered with pines, (an invariable indication of inferior land,) he decides upon further inspection, and at length fixes on a lot, under more favourable circumstances, upon which to found his future habitation and his home. He retraces his steps with altered feelings; his thoughts occupied by pleasing anticipations of the future improvement of his Estate, and is received at the shanty he had left, with all that hospitality which characterises the new settler, who will share his last loaf with his expected neighbor. The emigrant returns to York, concludes the purchase of his land, and hires, or purchases horses and waggon to convey his family and baggage to the farm of another comfortable settler in his vicinity, with whom he has bargained for their accommodation, at a moderate rate, and for a supply of excellent provisions for as many weeks as he shall be employed in the formation of his own residence. With this interesting object at heart, he hires as many men as circumstances will permit; a yoke of oxen and a sleigh, which is the only vehicle that should be brought into the woods until a road be regularly formed. The master and his men start before the oxen, to prepare what is termed a Bush-road, which is done by felling and drawing aside all trees under five inches diameter, from the line of march, and by cutting a pass through any fallen timber of larger dimensions; thus leaving the great trees standing, round which, the others being cleared away, the oxen and sleigh can ply without difficulty. About an hour before nightfall preparation is made for sleeping, and what is termed a camp is formed for this purpose, in a summary way, by placing a ridge pole of ten feet upon two forked sticks six feet in length, and stuck firmly in the ground. Against this ridge pole are laid, at one side, a set of poles, obliquely; leaving the other side which forms the front, entirely open, not only to admit the heat of a large fire, which is lighted up before it, but the smoke, also, to banish the musquetos. A thick coat of hemlock boughs, or of bark stripped quickly from the standing trees, and covering the poles, keeps off the rain or dew. By this time the oxen have arrived with the bed-cloaths. provisions, &c. and then comes on the interesting scene of cooking. The frying-pan ("contrived a double debt to pay") not only supplies successions of savoury pork, but also of bread or paste cakes, not less enticing from the oily drippings of the meat with which they are fried. After a hard day's work in the Bush, this is no unwelcome supper. Your epicures sometimes bring biscuits. The oxen are tied to a tree, having hay, or maple branches as their provender; and each of the party having composed himself, with his feet to the blazing fire, sinks into repose, upon the floor of this temporary shelter, strewn thickly with the small boughs or tops of the hemlock Breakfast being over by dawn of day, the party move on as before for FIVE MILES farther, and having at length arrived at the selected settlement, a substantial camp or wigwam is erected, to accommodate all who are to be engaged in the building of the house. The oxen are sent back, to return on a certain day to draw the logs together, and the "Lord of this silent domain," commences active operations; not so very silent, however, as the axe resounds through the wood, and the expert choppers, have speedily made a sufficient clearance, furnishing, at the same time, the necessary timber for the building. A wise settler will take care not to leave any trees standing close to the site of his intended mansion; a friend of mine Lieut. who neglected this precaution, having just completed his roof, was sitting under it, with the utmost complacency, when a tremendous crash, from a falling tree of great dimensions, laid the entire edifice level with the ground; he himself, by a miraculous escape, was taken out uninjured. To return to our new settler. Having determined on the plan, and proper scannings, he has the logs cut, accordingly, to the right lengths, and drawn together where the formation of the house is to take place. The walls are contrived in the same manner as a schoolboy makes a crib, except that they must be upright; but, like that, they have corresponding notches, cut out of the ends of the respective logs that their adjoining surfaces may close, with as little space as possible between them, and that the coins or angles may be thus strongly braced. The elevation must depend on the room required within; where upper apartments are intended, it must rise accordingly, and proportionably higher in a log house, which is generally finished with a shed, or pent-house, roof. In the formation of this roof, however simple, much accuracy is to be observed. Black ash and bass wood are considered best adapted to this purpose—the stems should be about fourteen inches in diameter, straight, clean, and easily split. Having cut them into lengths, corresponding with the pitch of the roof, they are then to be cleft asunder and hollowed out by the axe like rude troughs. These are ranged in sufficient number from front to rere, in the line of the roof with the hollow side uppermost; and over them are ranged alternately, an equal number, with the round side uppermost; so that the adjoining edges of each two of the upper logs meet in the hollow of that beneath them, whilst the adjoining edges of each two of the lower logs are covered by the hollow of that which is above them; thus forming a compact roof perfectly water tight, as the hollows of the under logs effectually carry off all rain that may fall through the joints of the upper surface; and the roof continues staunch as long as the timbers remain undecayed. This being completed—means must be taken to admit both" the family and the light. The openings for the doors and windows (which are generally procured, ready made, from the nearest settlement) are then formed in the walls by a cross-cut saw or an axe. The chimney is then built with mud, if stones be scarce. The stubbing afterwards takes place, which means the filling up the vacancies between the logs with slips of wood, mud and moss; the floor is then formed of cleft planks pinned to logs sunk in the ground, and smoothed or rather levelled with an adze; the interior partitions &c, may be got forward by degrees; but the oven, which is an essential, must be completed before the arrival of the family. Stones or brick must be procured for this, at any inconvenience, for security against fire; but mud will serve as mortar; it is always built outside the house, and stands alone. It is heated with pine, or very dry hard wood split into small pieces, and burnt in the oven to ashes, which being swept out, the bread is baked as in the common brick ovens at home, where dried furze are used to heat them. Thus at the expiration of three or four weeks the preparations are completed. Having now brought our settler into his own log house, with all the privation of former comforts that must of course attend his enterprize, I shall close this settlement in the Bush, with an estimate of the expense he must be supposed to have incurred, from the day he set off from York, to that of his first family dinner under his own roof. Items of expenditure in taking possession of a farm of 200 acres in the Bush; distant from York 30 miles— open road for 20 miles. Coach hire 15 miles, (public road). . . . £0 5 0 Waggon hire to farm house, nearest to the lot, 5 miles, half a day's hire . . . . 0 12 6 Guide from thence to the inspection of lots, 3 days . . . . 0 15 0 Coach and waggon hire returning . . . . 0 17 6 Removing family to farm house . . . . 3 0 0 Transport of luggage and provisions to farm House . . . . 4 10 0 Lodging for family of six at farm house during twenty days . . . . 2 0 0 Provisions for do. Do . . . . 5 0 0 Hire of five men at half a dollar each, per day, for building log house &c. and making a road—twenty days . . . . 12 10 0 Provisions f or do. Do . . . . 6 5 0 Hire of Oxen—two days . . . .0 10 0 Iron work, frames, doors and window shutters . . . . 8 0 0 Clearing and fencing ten acres at 3l. 5s. per Acre . . . . 32 10 0 Taking family from farm house to log house . . . . 1 5 0 Purchase of 200 acres at 10s. per . . . . 100 0 0 307698257509 Total expenditure £178 0 0 We are now to give a comparative view, of the trouble and expense of settling on a farm of similar extent partially cleared—say ten acres (being the same number as in the former case,) with house and offices prepared. In this case as in the other we must suppose our emigrant arrived at York, where, upon inquiry, he finds that many farms of the foregoing description are advertised for sale, in different parts of the country, and he determines upon viewing some of those within his reach, as speedily as possible. That, of which we are to suppose him to become the purchaser, being, of the same extent and distance from York, with the farm in the Bush, is to be approached with expedition and facility by means of good roads and public conveyances. Having found ten of the two hundred acres cleared and in good heart to yield the necessary crops— with the house and offices ready built—he returns at once to close his purchase and convey his family to their new home. A few years' previous occupation has produced a dairy, wash-house, fowl-house, garden, and many convenient appendages, which promote the good humour of the lady of the house, as to her domestic arrangements, whilst the gentleman cultivates his ten acres, (with judgment it is to be hoped) so as to produce nearly enough of the necessary articles of vegetation for the consumption of the house and farm-yard; thus enjoying in his first year, and of his own production, many necessaries and comforts, that could not be grown, till the second in the Bush—and being enabled to purchase others at a moderate rate in an established settlement, which in a new one must be procured at an advanced price. The attention bestowed on the cleared ground is not to prohibit his industrious efforts to dear more, or to make such improvements as his capital may enable him to do; but that does not come within the limit of our present object in either case; which is, to compare the circumstances and expenditure in both. Here then is the estimate of the latter, to be compared with that in the former case. Items of expenditure in taking possession of a Farm of 200 acres, with ten acres cleared, 30 miles from York, in a Township already settled. Coach hire, 30 miles, to view the farm, and back . . . . 0 15 0 Removing family by coach to the farm . . . . 1 15 0 Transport of luggage by wagon . . . . 4 10 0 Purchase of 200 acres at 20s. per . . . . 200 0 0 3059730699220 Total expenditure .... £207 0 0 Purchase and expenditure in taking possession oi the above farm . . . . £207 0 0 Do. do. of farm in the Bush . . . . 178 0 0 266291463476 Difference £ 29 0 0 This would tempt many to determine in favour of the cleared farm, which appears to be the most economical. The comparison, however, is also to extend to circumstances as well as to cost. Those of the Busk which are favourable, are these— Cheaper land—a choice of district—a clear title—and the power of forming a neighbourhood of select friends. Those of the cleared land which are favourable, are The immediate accommodation of house and offices. The prepared state of the cleared portion for the reception of different crops. The presumed facility of intercourse with mill and market, with readier access to the physician, and place of worship. The unfavourable circumstances of the Busk are these— Difficulty of access—the various privations to be encountered in the solitude of the wilderness—the possible want of society—the absolute want of roads—the great difficulty, of intercourse with mill, market, physician or clergyman. The unfavourable circumstances of the cleared land are these: A dangerous title—liability to the debts of a predecessor —an undesirable neighbourhood, fully settled, to the exclusion of relatives and friends. The settler has now an opportunity of deciding for himself As I shall state nothing but what is strictly fact, as far as my judgment enables me, I request you to make use of what I write in any way you think proper, for your sons, or any other emigrants. My name also is perfectly at your service in any manner you may please to use it. I remain, my dear Sir, Your's, faithfully, THOS. WM. MAGRATH |
