| Title: | Tom Hay, Big Bend Prairie, Canada, to His Mother [Anna Hay?] |
|---|---|
| ID | 1381 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Hay, Tom/20 |
| Year | 1879 |
| Sender | Hay, Tom |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | manual worker |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Big Bend Prairie, Canada |
| Destination | Peterborough, Ontario, Canada |
| Recipient | Hay, Anna |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | son-mother |
| Source | D1424/11/4C: Purchased From Mr. John A. Gamble, 44 Taunton Avenue, Belfast 15. #TYPE EMG Letter From Tom Hay at Big Bend Prairie, Canada, to His Mother [Anna Hay?], [Peterborough?], [Canada?], August 31 1879. |
| Archive | Public Record Office N. Ireland |
| Doc. No. | 9004005 |
| Date | 31/08/1879 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | 11:05:1990 SS created 13:08:1990 MC input 14:08:19 |
| Word Count | 1974 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Tom's journal resumed from August 31st 1879 Big Bend Prairie I am going to take my party down to the R.M. [Riding Mountain?] House on thursday for a load of Flour, Pork, &c to last us untill [until?] we return from the N.[North?] E. [East?] township - I see you have had a very warm summer - Here we have the advantage over you in that respect - having only had one or two very hot days - the nights being always cool indeed even frost sometimes - I fear my letters are not what they should be my dear Mother but you must know that it is very difficult writing in camp from sitting in a comfortable quiet room - Here we often have a great thunderstorm raging - with water dripping down through the canvas & the whole tent shaking like an earthquake with the wind & millions of all kinds of horrible flies biting & bothering the life out of you & every thing in the greatest confusion this is a little picture of camp life in this wild country - Tho'[although?] we are highly favoured in today - being one of the most lovely days - we have had yet Thank you for the news papers you sent me - I have got some of them but there are a great many that we should have got & did not - Thank you for remembering me when you were making your Raspberry vinegar I wish we had some of it here now we should enjoy it or any of the good things of life For our food is of the plainest in every respect & if we have only enough we are thankful & can live well enough on it untill [until?] we get home Rollie & I have moved our seats from the tent out to the River Bank & are sitting in a nice little grove of Balsams & spruce trees which over hang the river it is very pretty the river takes a great bend just at our camp - from which the prairie takes its name of Big Bend Prairie & the bush where we are sitting is very high - just through an opening in the trees below us - we can see down to the water where dozens of Marsh Rats are at work building houses & swimming about collecting stuff for their work they seem such busy little fellows 1st Camp in the woods Sept 7 1879 I must dearest Mother write you a few lines today to wish you many happy returns of your Birthday the 12th although it will be at least a month before you get this letter still you will see your Boy did not forget you dear Mother we have made a strike into the woods at last hitherto we have always camped on prairies near woods so as to get fresh air & avoid the flies as much as possible - but now they are not so bad quite as in summer & the nights are more frosty, that we are very glad to get into the woods - I must now give you an account of our move here this week - first of all on tuesday morning Ted Brown Walter Stewart & I were to start for Riding Mountain House for flour Pork &c we intended starting at 6 a.m. but could not find the - pony we had let him off for a rest of two weeks to heal a sore spot on his back made by the saddle - so we ran round the prairie for two hours before we caught him he had got so wild - well we got off at last & were nearly tired out from our run after him so did not feel much like a walk of 25 miles, However we took turns at riding in the cart one at a time along the good parts of the road which was very little only across patches of prairie between the woods - the road which is only an old Indian trail is very bad in the woods from so much rain - well we got to one of our old camps & had dinner This place is about half way from here to the R.M. [Riding Mountain?] House we reached the house about 4.30 p.m. got one load of about 800 lbs of flour pork, beans &c & started at 5.30 p.m on our road back to camp, we had to ford the river which was just shallow enough to keep the load dry & these carts are very high concerns & we got back to the half way camp ground at 9.50 p.m. where we staid [stayed?] got our supper cooked & camped under the cart for the night we were very hungry as you may suppose having had nothing to eat from dinner time till 10 at night & travelling all day having gone 40 miles that day we took our tea kettle & a frying pan with us so we had some tea fried pork & bread - then we turned in each wrapped in his blanket under the cart & slept as sound as tops altho'[although?],there was a hard frost that night but having walked so far & pushed the cart through all the mud holes we from this slept rather late in the morning for it was nearly 8 o clock before we were on the tramp again & arrived at camp at 10 o'clock just in time for dinner - after dinner we took on some stuff & took the load up the road to where our trail turned east & left it there then on thursday morning we took all the rest in one load on the cart & every one carring [carrying?] a pack - There we had to leave the cart & make our own path through the woods for about 3 miles & each had to carry about 100 lbs on our backs & the horse carrying about 350 lbs we made two trips in this way that day - did not get into camp till about six o clock A M next morning we finished one big move in three trips - we have & nice place for our tents now I hurt my foot very much by running a sharp spike into it but it has healed up again very quickly - for the first day or two after hurting it, I could not get any rest or sleep at night from the pain - walking through the day made it worse - and this week has been very hard work for this move has been the hardest we have had When we got home last evening from work we found two men who had come from Rapid City 100 miles from here - to live with us - so Uncle G [George?] took them at once being short of hands by so many being still disabled from the boils or cut feet or hands & we have not for & long time had one full party at work at once - Poor Rollie has been laid up for a long time first he had a boil on his knee & just got over that & was at work one day when he got another one on his finger there are five laid up now from these nasty painful things - caused the people say from being so much in the marshy water & drinking the water uncle G [George?] & I are all who have not had any yet & I hope never shall poor uncle G[George?] has had to give up for a day or two from his ankle swelling in walking so much in rough places - when he had his leg broken some years ago - I never felt better than I now do - I have a superb appetite & sleep like a top at night & if not for the hard work I would grow to fat Sept 14 Just one week today since I began this letter & we have all been at work except Rolly who is still suffering very much from his finger Our new men are rather a failure as axemen - but one of them an old man has been made cook & he is a good one so that all are at work the young man is no good with the axe but works at any thing he is put to & seems ready & good natured young fellow We intend to move to the boundry [boundary?] of the next township, after that we shall be divided into two camps for a while till we get that township nearly finished - Uncle G [George?] will take one camp to the east side & I shall run the western camp so that will help to hurry the work on a little I think we are getting on a little better than Mr Thompson who is surveying the next block of townships west of us we heard that he had great trouble with his men leaving him - he is not hard man to get on with, but he does not manage his men properly & he did not bring the right kind of men with him - a person coming out on a survy [survey?] to this country should understand that he is going to have a rough time of it & that he must not grumble, but make the best he can of every thing & practice self denial untill [until?] he is back in the face, and his whole thoughts must be concentrated in hurrying along the work, at the same time doing it as correctly as possible I hope this week mail will bring me a good packet of letters no one knows how I hunger for home letters - I wish I could write more to you but we have not a moment to spare ourselves - But I can always find time to write to you dearest mother & one else It some times seems as if we had not much to write about out here - for one days work is so like another except that sometimes one days work is a little harder than another & it is very disappointing to go out in the mornings intending to do a certain amount of work before night & then have to come home without doing it. & to have to acknowledge that although we did our best we could not get so far - then at others times we do more a great deal than we expected & come home in the evening blowing about how much we did. When we come home at night we are dreadfully hungry & it is quite dangerous for the cook if he has not got the soup boild [ boiled?] & the pork fried & tea made - but after tea when we are having our evening pipes around the fire we all tell one experience of the day & all the little accidents & adventures & ecapes we have every day - altho'[although?] scarcely remembered the next day - by us would make & pretty story book - when the old cook washes up the dishes & gets every thing put away, he comes along & sits down with us & tells us yarns about his life - he lived 12 years in Australia & new Zealand & has some splended stories about his adventures there I must now say good bye for this time we have all been cutting each others hair this morning & you would laugh could you see us of course none are cut very scientifically cut - but we are clipped to the skin - T.A. Hay |
