YE OLDEN TIME

One by one the links that connect the present with the past, are giving way and soon the days of simple, healthy pleasures and constant work of spinning, weaving and making the cloth at home, will be only a tradition with us. To listen to these pioneers tails [sic] of their struggles and privation and of their way of doing things is as entertaining as can well be imagined.

Mrs. Jesse Rice (formerly Mrs. Stephen Newell) while not the oldest person here has lived in their neighborhood since 1825. Mrs. Rice is now in her 84th year and is as smart and active as many people half her age. She is as straight as a girl of sixteen and to use her own words "When the walking is good I can go downtown and back in a jiffy."  Her memory is remarkable and her eyesight is still very good.

Her maiden name was Martha Brown and she was born in New Jersey in 1813. Her father came to this country in 1825 and lived for awhile on the "Powell Plains."  The first school she attended was taught by Abraham Powell. She also attended a school taught by Miss Chamberlain for a short time.

In 1845 she married Stephen Newell, miller for William Wilson, and when he died she married Jesse Rice, well-known in this town. Mr. Rice died five years ago.

With the exception of the first year of the rebellion when she lived in Tilsonburg, Mrs. Rice's life since 1825 has been spent in Simcoe and its vicinity.

"Those were good old days" said Mrs. Rice "but I tell you what, the women had to work. I learned to spin when I was eleven. We raised the flax and I could spin as nice and even thread as the No. 10 you buy. After the linen was woven we bleached it in lye.

"A great many used to go to church and Sunday school with just handkerchiefs on their heads. The first bonnet I wore, I bought at Campbell's store. It was a little green bonnet and I thought I was fixed when I had it on.

"At that time print and cotton were 50 cts a yard and tea $1.50 and $1.25 a pound. I tell you we didn't drink so much as we do now. People made their own sugar from the maple trees, boughten sugar costing so much.

"There were no stoves either, and we baked our bread, pies and cakes in a "bake kettle" which was like a big pot with a lid to it. Then we had very long handled "spiders" to use.  The first stove I had was a Jewsharp stove and it was made by Joseph VanNorman at Normandale. I tell you I thought it was paradise, most when I had that to cook by.

["]Times were very different then, I tell you, no silver knifes or forks--some used wooden forkes and knives.

["]We didn't have high-heeled buttoned boots as do girls now a days but calf skin shoes. The men folks took the skins to the tannery and gave half for having them tanned. Then a journeyman shoe-maker used to go round from house to house to make up the shoes for the family. Late of times we blackened them with black off the bottoms of kettles.

"The girls thought they were doing well if they had a pretty calice dress to be married in. For a while no minister could marry but a Church of England Minister, and 'Priest' Evans down at St. John's had lots to do that way. That was done away with before I got married, for I was married by Jacob Goble. When David Hayes and his wife were married they went to Scotland to Mr. Vining, and Mr. Newell and I with them.

["]The Methodist and Baptists each had very good meeting houses and the Congregationalists built the "Mud" church about 1845. It was built of mud and straw. They had little boxes and put the mixture in until it hardened, then used them like bricks. Mr. Clark, Dr. Clark's father, was the first clergyman and after him came Mr. Harris. The church finally broke down and the building was bought by Mr. Atkinson who had it torn down.

"For a long time the Court house and gaol was at Vittoria. When I used to go to school here I had to go past where Mrs. Corlis now lives going home. There was a pile of bricks there where a fireplace had once stood. A few years before we came here a man had murdered his wife and was hanged at Vittoria. We used to think her ghost haunted the place and we would run like good ones going past there. When Sovereign killed his family my father and Fero, who were constables, took him to London where he was tried and hanged.

"People would think it funny now to go to funerals in ox wagons and sleds, but they were used to then. The first carriage in this part of country was brought from Little York by old uncle Billy Wilson and is me ! people would go as far to see it those days as they would to see a caravan now. The roads weren't very good to drive it over neither.

"I remember Squire John Beemer, of whom Mr. Austin speaks, very well. He used to come to our place and sing: and I never forget one song. It was Mary's Dream and was the prettiest thing. Would you like to hear it ! and with that Mrs. Rice recited... [a verse not transcribed]. 

Mrs. Jesse Rice

Article index
Atkinson
Austin
Beemer
Brown
Campbell
Chamberlain
Clark
Corlis
Evans
Fero
Goble
Harris
Hayes
Newell
Powell
Rice
Soveriegn
VanNorman
Vining
Wilson

 
Copyright 1998-2013 John Cardiff