Results for ‘PLACES’
[Written by Milton M. Sundy, unknown date]
The 81st anniversary of the Bismark Evangelical Brethren church was observed with a good attendance on October 25,, Rev. J.C Weller in charge the history of the church was written by Charles Swingle at the morning service.
On October 22nd, 1933 we celebrated the 100 anniversary of the Sunday settlement, as many you will remember. The occasion also marked the 50th anniversary of the building of the present Evangelical church.
Following is the history of the Sundy Settlement, read by the Mr. Milton Sundy, at the Sunday night meeting. There were 175 people, past 50 years of those with us who were residents of Bismark 50 years ago :There in Mr. Sundy words.”
Mr Pastor, Ladies and Gentleman I am very glad to be with you here to-night at the large gathering of people to do honor for the one hundreth anniversary of the beginning of the Sundy Settlement.The occasion also marked the Fiftieth anniversary of the building of the church. I am glad of the opportunity to meet so many of the old friends and schoolmates and neighbors of long ago. There are many recollections of olden times that I would like to recall, but time will not permit. We have with us to-night, Pastors of this church of 30 to 50 years ago and I know they have plenty words to say to us. I will therefore keep my talk as short as possible. Mr Sundy said I believe the part that I am to take in the program is to go back into the past 100 years and bring the past 50 years forward the present or up until the building of the church in 1833
I would like to say that anything that I may say to you upon the subject is gleaned from information of things that were told to me by my parents and grandparents and the older people of my neighborhood days but more particularly by my grandfather. He and I were pals I had the benefits of his companionship for 13 years. I was the oldest grandson and lived in the same house with him, and we were constantly together. As we worked side by side and as we drove along the road together, going to and from Beamsville, Smithville and Wellandport, to the store or to the mill he told me many things of his early life here, and of his childhood days. In the old land. By piecing together all these things that I have bee told in my boyhood days I can tell you the following story. In the year 1830 there came to this country from Germany, a man, his wife and children, seven girls and two boys also a brother named Jacob. This man’s name was Christian Sundy. “My great grandfather.” and he was I believe the founder of the Settlement in this vicinity which was afterwards known far and wide as the Sundy Settlement. They landed in somewhere along the Niagara Frontier and by working here and there at short intervals, they in the course of a year. They worked themselves back to the township of Pelham near where now is situated the village of Ridgeville. They remained there two years but not being
satisfied with the light land of Pelham they set out in search of heavier land and in the search came here and settled upon the block of land upon part of which this church now stands and extending north for the next wood 200 acres of dense and very heavy timbered land. I never heard that they ever complained of this land not being heavy enough to suit them.
Mr Sundy said”Now I am not going to claim for my ancestors that they were the only people in a vast and endless wilderness because I do not believe that is a fact. We all know that in the settlement of a new country where there are no railroads or colonization roads, that the settlements almost always follow the lakes and streams and I believe that is what occurred in the settlement of this territory. We all know that long before the war of 1812 the country all around lake Ontario was settled from around old York to Burlington and Stoney Creek an in Niagara and Queenston. Along the river to the Falls, Lundy Lane and Chippawa and so on up the shores of Lake Erie. These settlements followed back to the Chippawa Creek and on to the 20 mile creek and there were people then living in St Ann’’s and Wellandport. (which was then known as The Narrows) because the narrow strip of land between the two creeks. This was a block of unsettled land lying between these two small settlements and was known at the time as the “Big Bush.” The present highway was then a trail or path connecting the two settlements. The eldest of the children was a girl of about 18 years and the boys were aged 16 and 14 when they came for this land. They at once started to hew out for themselves a home in this solid and densely timbered bush. I would like to say just here that I do not think it is all possible for the people of the present day who have never seen the original virgin forest as it stood here 100 years ago this summer when these people first set foot upon it, to realize the enormity of the task they were facing. I do not think it is possible for the people of today, to recognize the toil the hardships the suffering and deprivations these people endured in the building of their home and cutting and logging burning grubbing and clearing of the land . They built their buildings of logs of course a house and a stable. They were located just over here where now stands the old frame home and barns I remember seeing the old log building still there when I was a small boy. After they had cut enough trees to build the buildings they continued to cut and piled and burn as many as they could to clear the land for wheat. In burning they buried over pulled and dragged out what few stumps they could and sowed wheat between the stumps that were left right on the burned soil and made it in a homemade wooden rake . When this crop had ripened, they cut it with a sickle, threshed it with a fail and then threw it up against the wind to separate the wheat from the chaff. When they wanted flour they took this wheat all the way to Niagara to mill. This work of home building and clearing covered a period of 15 to 20 years, and during that time many other people some friendly and some relatives came over from the fatherland and settled here. The children had grown up married and started home building themselves. The girls of the family, all but two married husbands who settled in close by the old homestead, so by that time they had quite a large settlement with better implements an d more comfortable ways of living They had saw mills near by and a flour mill at St John’s or Effingham. It was at this time that the second set of buildings, which wee of frame construction. This farm was divided between the two boys John got the south half and built the old frame house and barns yet standing over here and Christian my grandfather got the north hundred acres he also built frame buildings. The shingles in those days they split out of blocks of pine and tapered them down with a draw knife. In the settlement at this time were tradesmen of all kinds carpenters, masons black smiths, cabinet makers and joiners, coopers, weavers, taylors and shoemakers. The wool as it was taken from the sheep was taken to the carding mill, which was in Pelham township and carded made into strips about 3 feet long and a half inch thick. These were brought home to the farm and the women spun in into yarn. Knitted stockings, mittens or other garments. When they had the family supplied they knitted for sale to the stores and traded them for groceries. What they did not knit they took the weaver and had it woven into cloth and when the boys needed new suits or the girls needed the dresses they did not jump into a car and drive to a big department store and dig up 25 to 50 dollars for a suit. They sent for the taylor or the dressmaker, who came to the house and mother out the large bolts of beautiful cloth which was made in dresses and suits. U believe the people were well and comfortably dressed at least I know they were effieciently dressed in those days. The boots were made in the same way. The hides were taken to small tanners and the leather brought home. The shoemaker also came to the home and made shoes for the whole family. During all this time of strenuous clearing and building these people’s religious duties were never neglected quarterly meetings were very largely attended, by people from Pelham, Campden Worship was held in the homes or in warm weather in groves. There was always some one among them who was capable of taking charge of the services. The quarterly meetings were very largely attended, by people from Pelham, Campden and South Cayuga and was usually held in my ancestors barn. Throughout the years they felt the need of a church very keenly and somewhere about the year 1850 they decided to build one, but were in the same fix in those days.
That we find ourselves today. They had very little money. At that time however they had plenty of timber, they had a carpenter made out a bill of all the material they would require to build the church they so much wanted and each member who would not give money, agreed to supply so many sticks of timber or lumber or sand. My grandfather’s brother John gave the land and grandfather being a good shingle shaver made most of the shingles required in this way they got their first church.During the next 29 years, in the natural course of events the settlement grew and prospered, In this period thev next generation, the children’s children grew up and married and started home building. They then stared the third set of buildings fine large accommodation houses and barns many of them still standing here today.
About 1871 my grandfather built the large brick house part of which my father and mother occupied when they started life together. Mr Sundy said I can now speak of events that happened with in my own memory and my if you could only see his head and shoulders. There was a row of long seats on each side and just one centre aisle about eight feet wide. It might be amusing you people to know that the women all sat in the left hand row of seats and the men in the right hand row. This was not only a custom it was a rule of the church which was very strictly enforced and I can remember upon several occasions that young men who attempted to sit by their best girl were quietly escorted to the other side. About the time there began to spring up much dissatisfaction from the younger people as to the use of the German language exclusively in the church services. They had learned the English at school and talked it much of the time. A large number of English speaking families had moved in and in order to satisfy these young people the pastor spoke both English and German. After a year or so it was changed t o Germany every other Sunday. Then to German once a month then to English every Sunday with about five minutes in German and finally shortly after the new church was built the German was cut out altogether, but it was a struggle that lasted 8 or 10 years. For several years to 1883 the agitation for a new church arose. This grew stronger year by year in face of much opposition but finally early in 1883 a meeting was called and a vote taken which resulted in a majority for a new church A subscription list was started right there and several hundreds of dollars were subscribed. They had the money this time. The plan as drawn the contract let and the church completed that fall. This brings me to the end of fifty years that I was to talk about. I believe other speakers will take the story up from there and bring it up to the present. Just in conclusion I would like to remind you that this fifty years tells of the evolution of a densely timbered wold and and inhabited territory to a well settled well cleared well farmed happy contented and prosperous country side and believe at no time within my memory was this district better farmed and most productive tan right now.
(Unknown Date)
The camp meeting near Canadasville is expected to be much larger than it was last year. There are seats for 2,000, yet we expect them all filled, as it was estimated that there was 1,500 present last year. There are a few more tents, 12×14, yet to be rented at $2.16 a piece.
Passengers and baggage will be hauled from Perry station free on the first day of the meeting. Remember the time, June 3 to 12.
G.T. Clayton
(1897)
There will be an old fashioned camp meeting beginning Sept. 4Th, at Candasville, near Canboro road, southwest of Fenwick. The motto of this meeting will be holiness to the Lord. No Sunday traffic, gate fee or public collections, no boarding tents or refreshment stands allowed on or near the grounds, people coming to this meeting must come prepared with tents, bedding and provisions or depend on the generosity of their friends. Tent lots will be free and there will be some free tenting room for those who can furnish their own bedding and provisions.
D.S. Warner, of Grand Junction, Mich., G.W. Shell of Belfountain, Ohio and other evangelists are to be there.
(1889)
Mrs. D. Coleman is visiting relatives in Philadelphia…. We have had to use the creek for driving on, as the roads have been drifted full of snow… The surprise party season is now at hand and the young people are taking advantage of it…Mr. W Moore contemplates learning the art of telegraphy. May success attend him.
Mr. Wm. Robinson is still very sick and little if any improvement can be seen in him.
(1889)
Revival services are being held at Salem.
The youngest son of Mr. G. E. Robertson is very ill.
The gold fishermen will start to work in the creek as soon as the ice is out.
Mrs. G. Johnson is visiting relatives in Tonawanda, N.Y.
Singing school is to be carried on another quarter with Mr. Merritt as teacher.
Fortunately the water was not very deep or one of our young men who ventured on the ice after the recent thaw might have met with a sad accident.
Ella Gertrude, the six year old daughter of Mr. C.A. Cook, died on Tuesday; funeral at Wellandport today. The family have the sympathy of all friends.
(1900)
The store in the old Marshall stand at Canadasville will be reopened on or before Saturday next, by J.B. Carr, with a full stock of fresh groceries, butter, eggs, grain of all kinds, etc., taken in exchange. A call invited.
[Compiled by ‘S’]
A log school house on the farm of Mr. Henderson one mile west of the church and Black’s west of Boyle school was used for church services until 1866. The Quarterly Conference of the Episcpal Methodist church met when it was determined to build a church at Robin’s Bridge across the river Welland in the township of Wainfleet.
The trustees appointed were Walter Henderson, Cyrus Robins, Albert Putman, Eli Robins and George Eastman.
It was a community project with neighbours providing labour and skills. For example Pelick Tabour Farr Jr. Used oxen to haul timber when the Salem Methodist church was built.
Walter Henderson was one of the founders of Salem Methodist church and is said to have given the church its name.
The church dedication took place March 8, 1868. Mr. Richard Farr was ordained deacon.
The minister’s salary was $400.
The first baby christened was Alba Robins (Mrs. Cyrus Brown)
When the organ was installed in 1885, she became the first organist.
The deed to the tract of land was deed to the church December 17, 1870 by Peter Jones and Phoebe Jones.
First stewards were Leonard Haney, David Brown, Cyrus Robins and Gavin Robertson.
In 1885 the first Ladies Aid was organized. Mrs. Walter Henderson as President.
In 1968 the Salem Church was sold to The Church of Christ.
MINISTERS OF SALEM UNITED CHURCH
Early preachers were Richard Dawdy, Walter Henderson. Revs Phillips, Servie, Pomeroy, and Duff.
1871-72 Rev. A Beamer, Rev, J.R. Phillips
1874-75 Rev. John Reynolds
1876 Rev. B.L. Cohoe
1878-80 Rev. J. Fairchilds
1881 Rev. E.L. Clement
1883 Rev. E Adams
1884 Rev. H.A. Cook
1886 Rev. Mr. Collings
1887 Rev. O.G. Collimore
1894 Rev. E.H. Taylor
1896 Rev. George E. Honey
1899 Rev. Thomas Grandy
1902 Rev, Thomas Amey
1906 Rev. D,A. Walker
1909 Rev. W.A. Terry
1910 Rev. Jas. Webb
1912 Rev. W.L. Davidson
1915 Rev, G.B. Snyder
1917 Rev. Mr. Knight
1919 Rev. Chas. Jay
1923 Rev. P.A. MacMillan
1925 Rev. Gordon Domm
1925-1931 Rev. W.C. Almack
1931-1939 Rev. George C. Cropp
1935-1945 Rev James Hampson
1945 Rev. W.A. Dempsey
1968 Rev B.W. Ball
References
A History of Salem Congregation, the United church of Canada. 1868-1948.
Chronicles of Wainfleet Township. Wainfleet Historical Society. 1992.
[Written by Sharon Misener June 26, 2024]
In the 1960s many small farms dotted the lands of Ontario. “Ma and Pa operations” with 100-200 acres of land with 20-40 Holstein cows, sending milk to the local dairy.
As time went on the farmers retired and the farms were turned into hobby farms or swallowed up by the big farms of today.
I grew upon on a dairy farm in Fenwick, Ontario, was an only child. My maternal grandparents lived two miles down the road in Boyle.
A typical day on the farm, my dad was up at 7 a.m, went to the barn to milk the cows. He came into the house at 9a.m. to have breakfast. His favorite cereal was puffed wheat with a good strong perked coffee from A&P.
We had Holstein cows about 40 along with pigs, chickens and sheep. We sent milk to Sunnyside Dairy in Welland. Had a big bulk tank to keep the milk cool, a truck picked up the milk daily. My mother washed the milking machines, the milkhouse had to be clean.
After school I came home, and read the Hamilton Spectator Newspaper then made my way to the barn to feed the cows. They ate chop, silage and hay. I also fed the pigs and calves.
We came into the house and had supper that my mother had prepared. Usually meat, potatoes, vegetables and cake or cookies for dessert. After supper my dad went to the barn to milk the cows. He usually got back to the house about 9 p.m. Myself I played the piano and did homework, afterwhich I watched a bit of TV. 10P.M. was the usual bedtime.
My mother grew a big garden, had potatoes, usually enough to last the winter. Also planted tomatoes, onions, radish, cucumber, pumpkin, cabbage lettuce and peppers to name a few.
We also grew raspberries apples, pears, quince and she always canned 5 bushels of peaches each year. In the yard we had lilacs, rhubarb, and willow trees. My mother planted pink petunias, her favorite, also window boxes of colorful flowers.
We had a hammock in the yard, tables and chairs with flowers all around. Many older evergreen trees grew as well.
In many ways we were self-sufficient.We butchered a cow to have frozen and canned meat. My mother also froze and canned vegetables and fruits. Many weekends I would bake cookies and freeze them.
I went to a one-room school at Boyle, we had grades 1-6, with one teacher. For grades 7-8 I went to Wellandport and for high school Pelham High in Fenwick.
At Boyle we had one teacher who seemed to control the classroom.We had special events at Christmas. I played the piano. We had a concert and a play where the community could attend. Valentines Day we had special treats gave each other valentines. One year we brought our skates and skated on the neighbor’s pond.. There was a field day in Wellandport. We boarded a bus and participated in the field day events.
We had a little library, I remember reading all of the Nancy Drew books. We played marbles, skip rope, Simon says, and baseball.
During the summer I worked on the farm, drove the tractor for haying, baled hay and stooked it. I also sewed my mother shift dresses for summer and made clothes for myself.. I also mowed the grass all summer which took 3 hours to mow.
I had a dog names Petunia, she would fetch the cows from the field. I remember a time when the cows crossed the bridge over the Welland River and a cow decided to swim across the river, I held my breath.
I had a swing near the Boyle Road and watched the traffic on Hwy 57.I spent many hours contemplating life on the swing.
On a Sunday afternoon my dad might take a drive around the countryside. When I was 16 I got my drivers license.. The bridge was out between out farms so I had to drive bales of hay around the farms..
One year m dad gave me a calf—a Hereford, I called her Morticia. Then one day my dad sold her.I was so sad.
At the end of the summer my dad ask what I wanted, I said I wanted a typewriter. I had the typewriter for years and wrote many stories. One year my dad made me a bookcase, which I still have today.
Christmas on the farm was a special time. My dad would go to the bush and cut down a tree and my mother would put it in the livingroom and decorate it with lights and tinsel. I would help her decorate too. My parents never traded Christmas gifts. Myself I received three gifts, stiffed animals, clothes and dolls.
We would have my maternal grandparents for Christmas dinner. My mother made dark Christmas cake. She cooked and stuffed a turkey along with potatoes, vegetables and salad. Dessert was jello and whipped cream.
I wrote letters to Santa in Buffalo, NY, still have his photo. My mother sent many cards and received many in return.
By Walter Melick Jr.
[Welland Tribune, 4 November 1897]
Essay which won the Dunnville Chronicle’s special prize at Canboro fall exhibition
In the year 1784 the township of Canboro was given to Captain John Dochstader by Joseph Brant, or Theyendanegea, a chief of the Indians, with the concurrence of the chiefs of the Six Nations. About the year 1800 Benjamin Canby, a Quaker and a native of Philadelphia, came up from Queenston, where he had been doing business as a tanner, and negotiated with Captain Dochstader for the purchase of 19,500 acres of the Dochstader Tract, as Canboro was then called, for $20,000, for which sum he was to execute the mortgage. The land was sold for the benefit of his (Captain Dochstader’s) two children. The balance of the land, 1,750 acres, he retained, and it is known as the “Dochstader Tract”.
Canby named his estate “Canboro,” and established himself on the Talbot road where it crosses the Oswego creek, and laid out a village, which he named in compliment to himself, Canboro Village. Instead of having the township laid out in lots and concessions, he had it surveyed into blocks of unequal size and irregular shape, and opened roads, now called the Dunnville, Indiana, Smithville and darling roads, all of which converged and centred in Canboro Village. These, with the Moote and River roads, are now the principal ones of the township. There never was a government survey made of the township, but Canby, for convenience, divided it into three concessions , the Oswego creek being the division between the first and second, and a crooked line, along which there is no road allowance, forms the southern limit of the second concession.
Among the first settlers of Canboro were Peter Swick, a native of New Jersey, who settled on the Indiana road, and Peter Melick, who settled on the Talbot road, a short distance east of the village. These pioneers cane to Canboro in 1804. There were no roads by which the township could be reached. They had, therefore, to ascend the Chippewa and Oswego creeks in canoes, and brought all their property also by these conveyances. Matthew Smith came shortly after from the state of New York, and built a mill on the Dunnville road on the farm now owned by George Brooks. The motive power of this mill was horses, and the stones were dressed from common hardheads. This primitive contrivance soon gave place to a waterpower grist and sawmill, which Mr. Smith built at Canboro Village. This mill he traded to Canby for land, and afterwards he built the saw and grist mill on the Dunnville road, known later as Melick’s mill.
In the year 1814 Samuel Birdsall, a native of Delaware and a nephew of Canby’s, settled north of the village. William Fitch, also a relative of Canby’s, came here in 1832and started the first general store and post office in Canboro. Adam Moote, a man of German descent came from the township of Grantham, and settled in the north-east part of the township in 1835, where his descendants still reside. Major Robinson was also an early settler, locating on what is now called the Robinson road, where he built a mill and store near where Attercliffe station stands. He has long since disappeared and his land is now known as the Ebenezer block.
The first church in the township was erected in 1824 near where the town hall is standing in Canboro village. This church was built of hewed logs, and erected by means of a “bee” of the settlers.
There was no organized system of education in the township until after the rebellion of 1837; before this the schools were supported by subscription or a tax of $2 a quarter on each scholar attending. The first of these schools was erected in Canboro Village about the year 1825, and the second one erected was situated on the Grand River near where H.N. Misener lives, and was known as the Burnham school house. These were the only school buildings erected for a number of years and they were also used as churches.
About the year 1848_to the Niagara district council, Ezra Smith, who held the office each succeeding year, until 1850, when the first municipal council was elected with Barton Farr as reeve. Amos Bradshaw, Jacob A. Bradshaw, Calvin Kelsey, William Burk, Walter Melick, Samuel Swayze, W.H.M. Birdsall, Jas. L. Ricker and Geo. Brooks have consecutively held the office of reeve, with Jas. E. Ricker elected the previous year.
The population of the township of Canboro is 975, and this assessment for the year 1897 is $385,215. The soil in the northern part of the township is a heavy clay, while along the Grand River it is mostly sand or sandy loam, and in the Moote settlement there is considerable land of black and gravelly nature, very productive and valuable. There are three railways crossing the township, two branches of the Grand Trunk and the main line of the Michigan Central.
3 Chestnut Street, Fonthill, Lot 168, Pelham, (formerly Thorold)
[Pelham Historical Calendar, 1986]
Catherine B. Rice
This magnificent house is situated on a quiet street, fronted by an extensive lawn and bushes and sheltered by a lovely maple tree. The owner, Mrs. Holly Mosley, is surrounded by beauty within and without, while she continues to create more beauty with her needlework.
The patent for Lot 168, one hundred acres, was made out to Thomas Karraghan on October 25, 1798. In 1814, the land passed to George Keefer, and in 1825, to Caleb Swayze. He was the last one to own the complete acreage, and he was selling portions of his land in 1850. In 1921, Mr. and Mrs. Mosley purchased this property, now consisting of twenty-five acres from Roland Tanner, whose father William Tanner had taken possession in 1872, and had constructed the house. The land was in Thorold Township at that time, but on January 23, 1929, a by-law amended the Village of Fonthill, changing Lot 168 from Thorold to Pelham.
The cottage roof on the house, decorated with triple peaks, is unique. Beneath the central peak topped with stained glass, the verandah, with its sloping inset roof and four sturdy pillars, occupied the centre of the facade. It has two high windows flanking it on each side, with two similarly-placed windows on the second storey. Over the front door there is a stained glass window, while the main window in the door is most unusual, having an etched design on frosted glass.
The interior is composed of large, light and airy rooms, with high ceilings. The dining room, hall and two sitting rooms all have a large moulded decoration in the centre of the ceiling. The one in the dining room portrays a harvest theme of fruit and grain. In the hall there is fern-like arrangement, and those in the two sitting rooms are carved with doves, flowers, leaves and ribbons. A third stained glass window adorns in the main sitting room. The clear, rich colours attest to the value of the material and the workmanship. The woodwork throughout the house is impressive in its quality and its depth. The staircase was apparently constructed of cherry wood from the trees on the estate. The beautiful hand wrought newel post draws one’s attention for a second and third glance.
In the rear sections of the house Mrs. Mosley’s son, Harry, conducts his insurance business. He is better known as “Moe,” a nickname that he acquired in the air-force which has remained with him ever since. There is also a daughter, June (Mrs. Gordon Clemens), who resides in Welland. Mrs. Mosley has five grandchildren and five great-children who are able to come to this gracious home for happy visits.
SOURCES: Mrs. Holly Mosley
Land registry Office, Welland
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