There was a sad want of religious instruction amongst the early settlers.  For many years there was no clergyman nearer than Niagara, a distance of 100 miles, without roads.  My father used to read the Church Service every Sunday to his household, and any of the labourers who would attend.

As the country became more settled, the neighbours used to meet at Mr. Barton’s, and Mr. Bostwick, who was the son of a clergyman, used to read the service, and sometimes a sermon.  But there were so few copies of sermons to be obtained, that after reading them over half-a-dozen times they appeared to lose their interest.

But it was for the children that were growing up that this want was most severely felt.  When the weekday afforded no amusements, they would seek them on Sunday; fishing, shooting, bathing, gathering nuts and berries, and playing ball, occupied, with few exceptions, the summer Sundays.

In winter they spent them in skating, gliding down the hills on hand-sleighs.  And yet crime was unknown in those days, as were locks and bolts.  Theft was never heard of, and a kindly, brotherly feeling existed amongst all.

If a deer was killed, a piece was sent to each neighbour and they, in turn, used to draw the stream, giving my father a share of the fish.

If anyone was ill, they were cared for by the neighbours and their wants attended to.

But the emigrant coming to the country in the present day can only form a very poor idea of the hardships endured by the early pioneers of the forest, or the feelings which their isolated situation drew forth.

Education and station seemed to be lost sight of in the one general wish to be useful to each other, to make roads and improve the country.

Continued....>

Copyright 1994-2014 John Cardiff and Port Ryerse Environmental and Historical Society

Colonel Talbot >