Canadian Transport Sourcebook

IV

FIRST WHEAT IN THE HURON TRACT

VAN EGMOND and his family made swift progress in the clearing of their 100 acres, and in the second season had half of it sown with wheat. In the midst of the strenuous work the man of vision saw also the poetic aspect of what was taking place under his hands in the forest wilderness. I know of no more pleasing rustic idyll in the history of our early settlement than his manner of marking the great central event,—the ripening of the first held of wheat. The story of this ceremony is so beautifully recorded by Samuel Strickland, one of the participators in it, that I will give it in his own words:

"Within the short period of twenty months, Van Egmond had chopped and cleared, fit for a crop, nearly a hundred acres of land, fifty of which were sown wheat. As this was the first field ripe in the tract, the old man determined to celebrate the event by asking some of the gentlemen connected with the Canada Company to dinner, and to witness the cutting of the first sheaf.

Thomas Mercer Jones, Esq., one of the Company's Commissioners, Dr. Dunlop, Mr. Prior, the Professor, and myself, composed the party on this important occasion. As the distance was little short of eighteen miles through the Bush, and we had no way of getting there—except by walking—it was arranged that we should start the day previous, and sleep all night at Van Egmond's.

Accordingly, we left Goderich about eleven o'clock a.m. by the newly cut-out road through the forest. I wonder what our English friends would think of walk­ing in their shirt-sleeves, with their coats and neckcloths thrown over their arms, eighteen miles to a dinner-party, with the thermometer ranging something like 90° in the shade.

The day was hot, though not unpleasantly so; for the leafy screen above our heads effectually protected us from the scorching rays of a. July sun, which would otherwise have been very oppressive.

Our long road was considerably shortened by the amusing stories and anecdotes of the Doctor, who kept us in good humour during the whole journey. Nearly midway between Goderich and Van Egmond's a small rill crosses the road; here we stopped for an hour, and refreshed ourselves with beef-sandwiches and brandy and water—not bad things in the Bush.

We reached our destination about five o'clock, where we were received with every mark of respect and hospitality. We were shown upstairs into a newly-finished room—the only apartment as yet completed in the tavern old Van Egmond was building. Here we found an excellent supper ready for us, to which, after a walk of eighteen miles, you may be sure we did ample justice.

In the morning we walked over the farm with the old Colonel, and were much gratified by seeing the prosperous condition of the crops, which argued well for the goodness of the land. I think I never saw a finer crop of oats, or better promise for turnips in my life. The wheat also looked extremely well. It was certainly an interesting sight, after walking for miles through a dense forest, suddenly to emerge from the wooded solitude upon a sea of waving grain, white for the harvest.

About noonday we all proceeded to the harvest-field, headed by our host and his lady, and her fair daughters. As soon as we arrived at the scene of action, a sickle was placed in the hands of Madame Van Egmond; and she was requested to cut and bind the first sheaf of wheat ever harvested in the Huron Tract—an honour of which any person might be justly proud.

What were the red battlefields of Napoleon in comparison to this bloodless victory, won over the forests of the Huron) The sight of that first sheaf, cut by the gentle hand of woman, was one that angels rejoiced to see; while the fruits of his conquests were such as might well make 'the seraphs weep'.

Madame Van Egmond handled her sickle something better than a mere amateur, which makes us conjecture it was not the first sheaf she had ever cut and bound. As soon as this interesting ceremony was over, we gave three hearty cheers for the Canada Company. A horn of whiskey was served round, in which we pledged our host and hostess, and drank health to the settlement.

On our return to the house we found a capital din. ner awaiting us. Indeed, the old soldier had spared neither pains nor expense in providing handsomely on the occasion. After the cloth was removed, a. nice dessert was laid out, consisting of almonds and raisins, oranges, and red and black raspberries. The two latter dishes are easily procured, for they grow more plentifully in the angles of the snake-fences in Canada than blackberries do in England. They are a. delicious fruit, and particularly grateful in a hot day to the weary traveller.

I need hardly describe our evening's entertainment, save that 'we ate, drank, and were merry'. Indeed it would have been difficult to be otherwise with Doctor Dunlop as one of our companions."

Samuel Strickland was a member of the noted literary family of Stricklands of the eastern English county of Suffolk, at whose head stands Agnes, the author of the well-known Lives of the Queens of England. Samuel was the first of the family to come to Canada. After a few years he was followed by two of his sisters,—Catherine Parr with her husband Lieutenant Traill, and Susanna with her husband Lieutenant Moodie. By their books these two Strickland sisters have made their names familiar to all who know anything of our early history,—the former by her Backwoods of Canada, Canadian Wild Flowers and writ­ings on Canadian botany; the latter by her widely read Roughing it in the Bush. When Samuel Strickland had been settled for a couple of years on the Otonabee river, where Peterborough now stands, he began to wonder, owing to the slow development of the district at first, whether it was going to be the right place as a permanent home for his family. Accordingly, having heard much of the work of the Canada Company in the western part of the province, he came to Toronto to interview John Galt as to employment with it. Strickland was taken on at once, to have charge of the Company's stores, keep the labour rolls, and superintend the roadmaking and bridge-building. No contract as to salary was mentioned; it was just a gentleman's agreement, that Strickland was to get what he proved to be worth.

Van Egmond and Strickland came to the Huron Tract at almost the same time. The nature of their work brought them closely into touch. Hence Strickland's inclusion as guest at the sheaf-binding ceremony. The account of it which he has so happily preserved for us is to be found in the valuable book of his early Canadian experiences that he wrote many years later. After a long residence in the Upper Otonabee district to which he returned after Galt's departure, he visited his old home in Suffolk. Here he found the literary ace of the family, sister Agnes, so interested in his Canadian story that she helped him to write a full account of it. This is his Twenty-seven Years in Canada West. Agnes lent prestige to it by placing her name on the title-page as editor. It is evident that the picture of Madame Van Egmond wielding the sickle and binding the first sheaf of wheat on the clearing in the Huron forest made a strong appeal to her, for under its inspiration she breaks into verse which—of course with the approval of brother Samuel—she inserts in the printed story. Not because of its excellence, but as an example of the poetic effort of a distinguished historian who was rather vain of her versifying, I venture to quote the little known stanzas here:

"The Harvest! the Harvest! how fair on each plain

It waves in the golden luxuriance of grain!

The wealth of a nation is spread on the ground,

And the year with its joyful abundance is crowned.

The barley is whitening on upland and lea,

And the oat-locks are drooping, all graceful to see;

Like the long yellow hair of a beautiful maid,

When it flows on the breezes, unloosed from the braid.

"The Harvest! the Harvest! how brightly the sun

Looks down on the prospect! its toils are begun;

And the wheat-sheaves so thick on the valleys are piled,

That the land in its glorious profusion has smiled.

The reaper has shouted the furrows among;

In the midst of his labour he breaks into song;

And the light-hearted gleaners, forgetful of care,

Laugh loud, and exult as they gather their share".

Anticipating the tragic close of Van Egmond's career, I may insert here Samuel Strickland's comment on his folly in joining William Lyon Mackenzie in the Rebellion of 1837, which is as follows: "Had he but been contented and stuck to his last, instead of troubling his head about politics, he would, in all probability, have become one of the richest and most independent farmers in the Huron Tract."

It is relevant to note that at the moment when Fitz­Gibbon and his loyalist force was engaged in scattering Mackenzie, Van Egmond and the rest at Montgomery's Tavern on Yonge Street on December 7th, 1837, Strickland was among the volunteers from the Peterborough district who were on their way to Toronto to assist in the suppression of the Rebellion.