HomeMy WebLinkAbout789"Article taken from Kindred Spirits, page 3, Volume 15, Issue 4,Fall 1996, submitted by
Eleanor Todd.
To date, nothing is known of Ruth's early life beyond the fact that she was born in New
York and married Samuel Munger there in 1795. When her second child, my great great
grandmother Sarah Munger Ward, was four months old, the family left New York for
Canada. They took the Lake Champlain route and arrived in Cobourg in February of
1799 where they petitioned for land in Hamilton Township. They didn't get it and moved
on to Duffin's Creek. By November, Samuel had permission to lease Lot 16, Conc. 2.
At that time, the creek was navigable right up to their doorstep and being one of the
very few settlers along that stretch of Lake Ontario, it was inevitable that they would find
themselves operating a tavern and a place for weary travellers to spend the night. Their
homestead was also the scene of the first Town Meeting for the combined townships of
Whitby and Pickering in 1801 or 1803 (depending on the source).
Although Samuel is the one whose name appears in the history books, it's not hard to
imagine who was doing most of the work in accommodating guests, and Ruth had
several small children in tow at the time. But Ruth managed her own small bit of fame
when a story about her appeared in the York Gazette, Aug. 10,1805:
HEROIC ACTION OF AN UPPER CANADA WOMAN
Mrs. Munger of Duffin's Creek, in the Township of Pitcairn, 23 miles from York, hearing
her neighbor, Mrs. Woodruff, hollow out for help, immediately took down her husband's
gun and ran to her assistance. When she arrived she was informed that a very large bear
had taken off a sow into the bush; his route being shown to her, this heroine immediately
pursued, and found the destroyer in the act of devouring the sow, upon which she rested
her gun on a stump and shot Bruin through the head; on weighing the bear it proved to
be the largest that had been killed in that township.
Apparently, the Mungers had quit the tavern business by the time the soldiers were
travelling back and forth between York and Kingston during the War of 1812-14,
and it's easy to see why. The one doing all the work was no longer there. Ruth died on
February 14,1813 at age 35, only five months after giving birth to her tenth child.
Submitted by: Eleanor Todd
p. 3"