Furniture for the house was made by the old soldier; this was generally of the roughest kind. They had the fashion of exchanging work, as well as of having bees. Some of them had been mechanics in other days. A carpenter was a valuable acquisition, and while others would assist him to do his heavy work, he would in return do those little nicer jobs by which the household comforts would be increased. No chests of drawers were required; benches were made of split basswood, upon which to sit, and tables were manufactured in the same style. The bedstead was constructed at the end of the cabin, by taking poles of suitable size and inserting the ends between the logs which formed the walls on either side. These would be placed, before the cracks were filled in and plastered.
CLEARING THE LAND.
A log hut constructed, wherein to live; and such plain rough articles of furniture as were really necessary provided, the next thing was to clear the land, thickly covered with large trees and tangled brush. Many a swing of the unhandy axe had to be made ere the trees could be felled, and disposed of; and the ground made ready for the grain or root.
A few years later, and the settler would, in the dry summer season, fire the woods, so as to kill the trees. By the next year they would have become dry, so that by setting fire again they would burn down. In this way much labor was saved. But sometimes the fire would prove unmanageable and threaten to destroy the little house and log barn, as well as crops. Another mode of destroying the large trees, was to girdle them—that is, to cut through the bark all around the tree, whereby it was killed, so that the following year it would likewise burn down.
A portion of the disbanded troops, as well as other loyalists, had been bred to agricultural pursuits; and some of them, at least those who had not been very long in arms, could the more readily adapt themselves to their new circumstances, and resume their early occupation. The axe of the woodsman was soon swung as vigorously along the shores of the well wooded river and bay, as it had been in the forests years before, in the backwoods of New England.
It is no ordinary undertaking for one to enter the primeval forest, to cut down the tough grained trees, whose boughs have long met the first beams of the rising sun, and swayed in the tempest wind; to clear away the thick underbrush, which impedes the step at every turn; to clear out a tangled cedar swamp, no matter how hardy may be the axeman—how well accustomed to the use of the implement. With the best mode of proceeding, with an axe of excellent make, and keen edge; and, combined with which, let every other circumstance be favorable; yet, it requires a determined will, an iron frame and supple muscle, to undertake and carry out the successful clearing of a farm. But, the refugees and disbanded soldiers, who formed the pioneers of Upper Canada, enjoyed not even ordinary advantages. Many of the old soldiers had not the slightest knowledge of the duties of pioneer life, while others had but an imperfect idea. Some scarcely knew how to fell a tree. Hardy and determined they were; but they possessed not the implements requisite to clear off the solid trees. We have seen that the axe furnished by government was large and clumsy, and could be swung only with difficulty and great labor, being nothing more than the ship axe then in use. Slow and wearisome indeed, must have been the progress made by the unaccustomed woodsman in the work of clearing, and of preparing the logs for his hut, while he had, as on-lookers, too often a feeble wife and hungry children.
The ordinary course of clearing land is pretty well known. At the present day the autumn and winter is the usual time, when the wood is cut in sleigh lengths for home use, or made into cord wood for the market. The brush is piled up into huge heaps, and in the following season, when sufficiently dry, is burned up. Now, wood, except in the remote parts, is very valuable, and for those who can part with it, it brings a good income. But then, when the land was everywhere covered with wood, the only thought was how to get rid of it. The great green trees, after being cut down, had to lie until they had dried, or be cut into pieces and removed. Time was necessary for the first. To accomplish the second, involved labor with the unwieldy axe; and there were at first, no beast of burden to haul the heavy logs. The arm of the pioneer was the only motor power, and the trees had to be cut in short lengths, that they might be carried. To overcome the more heavy work connected with this, the settlers would have logging bees from place to place, and by united strength subdue the otherwise obstinate forces. Mainly, the trees were burned; the limbs and smaller portion first, and subsequently the large trunk. The fire would consume all that was flammable, leaving great black logs all over the ground. Then came “logging,” that is, piling these black and half burned pieces into heaps, where, after a longer time of drying, they might be consumed. A second, perhaps a third time the pieces would have to be collected into “log heaps,” until finally burned to ashes. It was by such means, that slowly the forest along the St. Lawrence, and surrounding the Bay Quinté, as well in the adjacent townships melted away before the daily work of the aggressive settler. Although deprived of all those comforts, which most of them had enjoyed in early life in the Hudson, and Mohawk valleys, and fruitful fields of Pennsylvania, they toiled on determined to conquer—to make new homes; and, for their children at least, to secure comforts. They rose early, and toiled on all day, whether long or short, until night cast its solemn pall over their rude quiet homes. The small clearing of a few acres gradually widened, the sound of the axe was heard ringing all the day, and the crash of the falling tree sent the startled wild beast to the deeper recesses of the wild wood. The toilers were not all from the same social rank, but now in the main, all found a common level; the land allotted to the half pay officers was as thickly covered with wood. A few possessed limited means, and were able to engage a help, to do some of the work, but in a short time it was the same with all; men of education, and who held high positions, rightly held the belief that it was an honor to be a refugee farmer.
At the close of the war a considerable number of the refugees found safety in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. But a certain number, not finding such prospects as they had hoped, resolved to try Canada. Consequently, for five or six years after the peace, this class continued slowly to flow, to swell the number of inhabitants of Upper Canada. Some of them tarried, or remained in Lower Canada; but the majority ascended the Bay Quinté, and settled the new townships at the head of the bay; not a few would remain for a year or two in the townships already settled, working farms on shares, or living out, until the future home was selected. A good many of the first settlers in the sixth, seventh, and eight townships, had previously lived for a while in the fourth township.
The advance of the settlements was along the bay, from Kingston township and Ernest town, westward along both sides. When the settlers in the first, second, third and fourth townships, had, to a certain extent overcome the pioneers’ first difficulties, those in the sixth, seventh, eight and ninth, were yet undergoing mostly all the same hardships and trials. Far removed from Kingston, they could, with difficulty, procure necessities, and consequently endured greater privation, and experienced severer hardships; but in time these settlers also overcome, and ended their days in comparative comfort.
Gen. Simcoe, after he became the first Governor of Upper Canada in 1792, held the opinion that there remained in the States a large number of Loyalists, and conceived the idea of affording them an inducement to again come under British rule, as they were British in heart. He, by proclamation, invited them to free grants of the rich land of Upper Canada, in the following words: