CANADIAN HISTORY: Miss Greely’s Address at Grafton on the 3rd inst.

[Welland Telegraph, 23 January 1891]

Miss Greely, who was formerly a teacher in Grafton, and although 85 years of age is in full possession of her facilities, and in delivering her address before the large audience gathered together at Grafton, on the 3^rd inst., to witness the hoisting of the Empire’s flag, was listened to with the greatest of interest and attention.

Miss Greely, who was greeted with long continued cheers, commenced an address which was rendered with a vigor and cleanness that is truly remarkable for one of her age. She said: “Before commencing to make a few remarks on the British flag, I would say to those present, you will probably never again have an opportunity of seeing one who remembers the day that General Brock was killed, for I well recollect hearing the guns at the battle of Queenston Heights. What are the ideas which will fill the minds of the Canadian youth when they see the British flag raised on their school houses? What should they think of it? For what object has it been placed there? It is the symbol of power, of bravery, of daring enterprise, of heroic endurance, of faithfulness to duty, and whatever man has done or can do that is good or great, has it not been done under the shelter of that flag? And, with the progress of civilization and refinement, still wider views and brighter prospects reveal themselves and more interesting associations cluster around it.

But our young friends may enquire how does it obtain this charm-what gives it this power and influence? We will answer as Queen Victoria did when a foreign ambassador told her that his sovereign was anxious to know what rendered Britain so superior to other nations. She showed him a Bible and told him that was the foundation of England’s power and prosperity. British rule is founded on truth, justice and benevolence, and is leading many weak and oppressed people in every quarter of the world to seek from it shelter or help.

Was it not this that led Drake to explore unknown seas till he compassed the world; Cook to transverse the ocean, bringing to the knowledge of their fellow men multitudes who had, till then, been unknown, or Mungo Park to penetrate alone the wilds of Africa? And there is not a department of science or art but Englishmen have reached to the top most height. As Canadians we may well be proud of forming part of such an empire, for which our forefathers sacrificed every thing to maintain their connection and performed as great a deed of heroism as has ever been known in the history of the world. It would take too long to tell of the privations and hardships endured by the U.E. Loyalist settlers of this province-some of us know them by personal experience-but we may mention a few reminiscences of those early times. My mother was one of the first party of those pioneers who landed on the shores of the bay of Quinte in 1784.

When the Loyalists reached the termination of their long and weary journey from the homes they had left they found an unbroken wilderness, for there was not a white settler between Frontinac and Toronto. Those who arrived early in the season and had tents dwelt in them till they could clear a bit of land, but those who had none remained without other shelter than the boughs of the trees till they could put up their log houses, which soon dotted the country and long remained memorials of their founders. No glass or nails were to be had, neither could they get boards till they sawed them out by hand.

The British Government furnished them with tools and provisions for the first year consisting of pork and peas. Those who had money could send to Montreal and get flour and those who had not did without-which was the usual custom in those days.

When they succeeded in raising some wheat, how were they to get it ground? No roads, no teams, no mills nearer than Kingston. Those who had pepper mills made use of them, with more or less success, and some used the home-made mill, composed of the hollow stump and stone pounder. A number of settlers would often join together and take a boat to Kingston. The return was often long delayed by head winds or the forming of ice, and those at home had to go hungry. I know of one family who had nothing to eat but turnips for a whole week. Those who could hunt did well. Deer and wild ducks were abundant. Very sad stories are told of the hungry year, which was in 1787, after the Government supplies were discontinued. I heard of one mother who had to go out in the morning and pick her apron full of basswood buds for her children’s breakfast. Clothing was more easily obtained. They soon raised wool and flax, and they had been accustomed to manufacture these things for themselves. In every house was a wheel and a loom, and the skins of the animals killed in hunting formed an important part of the comforts of their houses. For those who desired finer articles of dress and had money to purchase them there were plenty of British goods at Montreal and Quebec, but it was weary work to get them up the river. Young people in those days liked finery as well as they do now, and we know of two young ladies, connections of the late Sanfield MacDonald, who sold 100 acres of land for an ostrich feather.

Sickness was what tried the people most. Their scattered position rendered it difficult to obtain help from neighbors, who would often be several miles apart. I have often heard my mother tell of a night’s anxiety she endured at the age of 14. She was five miles distant from any neighbor, watching alone with a delicate and almost helpless mother and a sister in life’s last extremities, which reached the fatal crisis before morning. It may amuse some of our young folks here to be told of an encounter this same young girl had with a bear who had robbed the pig sty of one of its inhabitants. She chased it some distance to the edge of the woods, where the bear laid down its burden and looked at her, and she sat down on a log and watched him closely till her brother, David Regan, came with his gun and put an end to Bruin’s depredations on the swine. The greatest terror to the settlers was wolves, which I have heard howl dismally many a night in this village. The first settler in this neighborhood was Stephen Hall, who came here in the latter part of the last century. I am pleased to know that we have with us to-day some of his grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren. In making his way up here through Prince Edward county all the seed wheat he could purchase was one bushel, for which he had to pay a guinea. At that time a deer track was his only guide, and I can remember his telling of an encounter with a bear at the place where the village of Colborne now stands.

The late Thomas Ward, of Port Hope, who was registrar, and Col. Peters, the district sheriff, told me of a trip they made on horseback to Toronto in 1802, from having to follow the lake shore, a great portion of the way and swim the streams, the journey one way occupied a whole week.

But the greatest privation the people felt was the want of the means of education and the ordinances of religion. Those who could, taught their own children, but books were scarce and newspapers were unknown, and as the greater number had a severe struggle to obtain the means of subsistence, they were obliged to let their children grow up with little or no education, and this has been one of the chief reasons whey their descendants for one or two generations became so over shadowed and almost forgotten-till recently, when the services they rendered to the British crown in laying the foundation of our fair Dominion are being appreciated and acknowledged, and it is not a more loyal, industrious and enterprising people in the British Empire than the descendants of the U.E. Loyalists.

Before closing I would like to say to the pupils before me there is not a boy that lives under the shadow of the British flag and attends this school, or any other, for the purpose of striving to acquire knowledge which will fit him to do his duty to his God and to his fellow creatures but has the right to place his name as a Briton beside that of Alfred the Great and Roger Bacon, and Wycliffe and Cranmer, Sit Philip Sydney and Sir Isaac Newton, Shakespeare, Addison and thousands of others whose names shine bright in English history, and every girl, however lowly her station, or humble her abilities, if she faithfully perform her duty in that station where Providence has placed her, is worthy of being a countrywoman of Queen Victoria, whose highest praise is that she faithfully  tries to perform her duty in that station God has given her to occupy, and may feel that she is performing her part towards the prosperity of the empire equally with the most learned or accomplished individual that dwells under the shadow of the British flag.”