HomeMy WebLinkAboutX2023-013-069The James and Agnes Montgomery Family Tree, Etc.
THE NORTH SHORE
It was a lucky day for England on September 23rd in 1787. The Indians met Deputyj,.
Surveyor John Collins acting.for the Crown at Carryingplace on the. Bay of Quinte to settle
for the purchase of York by -Britain. Although nothing was said about the land between'York
and the Bay of Quinte, the British were anxious to get a land route along -the north shore,lf.
to the west end of Lake Ontario where they already had land•xpurchased as far west as''11the
Thames River and around the end of the lake. They had the Niagara Peninsula,'which they
purchased from the Indians in 1784. So plans were begun for the surveying of ;.the land,,along
the north shore between Quinte and York into townships and farms. At that:time there were:.
no roads on either side of the lake. ;i
In 1791, the year Canada was divided into lower and upper 'Canada, John Graves'Simcoe;,.
arrived at Quebec. He was 'the new Lieutenant Governor who was to take charge ,of. it I:Ear1'ier,
that year, surveyor Augustus Jones had begun to lay out a.row of eleven townships alongthe.41
north shore of Lake Ontario from the Bayof
Quinte westwards to York,
That same year an old. New England family, the Charles Annis', crossed the Niagara;.Ri'
at Niagara into Upper Canada, with his wife and family, his yoke of oxen,?mare, colt�and 1 v
fi
He passed around the head of .the lake to York. Here after a stay of two weeks, he.refused'an]
,
offer of 100 acres for his heifer, on Yon a Street g (now owned by T. Eaton3Co.). He movedl'out
of muddy York up into the highlands of Scarborough. Here he tookbsquatters;'rights;toliland',
part of which Washington Church now stands on at the junction of EglintonjAvenue and;�Kingstoni
Road. After getting his two oldest boys and his daughter-in-law, Rhoda, settled, hedileft[thei
to clear a. spot, while he and the rest of the family made their way to. Oshawa'''Creek.to„visitll
his friend, Roger Conant and his wife.
For the next fifteen years, Charles AnniO ,wife,' and younger children''spent most,of 11
their time at the mouth of Oshawa Creek with the Conants: In 1808, he made*a,claim to the
Sc rborou h Land. 1"
g (Rhoda'Annis was a daughter of Roger Conant and wife). A descendant'of. 'i<
R er Conant, Gordon Conant, an' Oshawa lawyer and one-time Premier of Ontario, left the city
to a chunk of highland near the creek on the lake front in his will Ifor the enlargement. of,
their park. i
In the summer of 1793, surveyor Jones started to mark out the farm lots in'the�townsh
eastc,�of York. Aikens surveyed the township of York and a new town'site east,.of.the.bay. Thre�
e}yrs later there were some 40 houses. on the site,
This was the year David Thomson, a carpenter from Nei` York, who'had,been working 'n It
houses in muddy York, moved his wife and young family up into-Scarborough..�jThey, settled on ti
west banks of Highland Creek to take up land, working also in.York at hisltrade at times ,'The�
creek teemed with salmon then. ;A 'i
In 1794 three white families - the John Burks, Roger`Conants andlJohn!W. Tr`lls, �l;
moved from New York State to York, and east to what is now'Bowmanville.' Theyll;came'in4!a'large;
boat. by way of Niagara -on -the -Lake. They put up at the mouth of the creek,':�building�lphelters
for the winter. In the spring, the Burks' settled on the bank of the'creek;; the.Connants.ty
moved back to Oshawa Creek and the Trulls settled about halfway between the�two. Theltwof';
creeks are about nine miles apart.
At that time there'was standing timber almost to the water's edge. +In the winter yfl
could walk either way up the beach to York or Port Hope. In the summer, you- ;could usel;a: canoe;
There were no roads. There was a grist mill at Belleville. They had Indians and wolves forC,
neighbours, j
1
The firstwhite child .born between York and . Port Hope, was ,born toi the�Trulls l'in 17.95
i{,. ,..
He was named _John Casey Trull; Casey being his mother's maiden surname. This same year,:,
Governor Simcoe'ordered a horsepath cut through from York to the Bay of Quinte and i surveyV;a `1
road:. However, it was.1799 before anything was done towards the road, 'EarlyPthat;year',:'
Danforth contracted to cuta thirty-three foot road from the Don Riverjtolthe=Bay of;jQuinte.y
This:was.to total one -hundred and twenty miles., By -using teams of!ozen,',employinglforty.men;
the job could be completed by.the:•first of July, 1800. iDanforth was:to receive ninet "dollar.
for every mile. of road:'built. Surveyor John Ste I y,'
y gman began +surveying King} ton�;Road J:IjEarly., 11i
in June hereported that the'distance'from York to';Duffins.jCreek had ,been carefully .chsined'a1"
and mile posts erected The -greater part of said road is on a pine ridge,;;!7a avorable situat
for ahighway,'except for a few hills which were"impossible''to avoid i:Danforth waslto cut: 11i'
�irxteen feet' of the centre ` of ; the:` road down' flat ' with ' the' ground. I' however,,Jlthe road°was hard
to keep passable at times. Young trees and shrubs°grew up�and large trees, -from adjoiininghlan
fell across it. ;;.
The farmers that used it were busy clearing, their own land, etc. It wasn't muc'.i of a road
forty-five years later, then it was planked from York to the Rouge.
In 1802, the District of Newcastle was .formed (Bowmanville). The first regular mail
route between York and lower Canad was started over the Kingston Road in.1808. In summer the
,r boats had carried mail and supplies. By now shipbuilding was quite a business in Canada.!
The waf of 1812-14 took farmers as well as their sons away from clearing the 1 nd,�"
putting up buildings and improving the roads, etc. This slowed down everything.:
Capt. John W. Trull of Darlington had built a large boat out of timber off his'SIowni'`ta
farm. The government used it to transport prisoners from York to Kingston., The'Captain,�wit
his son, John Casey Trull, aged 17, fought side by side at Niagara against "the Amer "Cans;'i':;';
Another young fellow from the District, Joseph Gerow, aged 18, also fought under the,'Captain-I
at the battle of Lundy's Lane.
The Trulls told of the summerless year of.1816, which was hard for the settlers to!
take. The only one to help in case of sickness was the Captain's wife, Lydia, She' brought
her small iron kettle with her from the States where her father was a doctor.... She 'brewed 'i';.
herbs in it to nurse the sick between York and Port Hope. She made the tripson ihorsebackf,! ;;;
with little more than a horsepath to follow. There were no doctors between York'!and Napanee'.
A.
One thing the early settlers did have -was an abundance of wild animals and'fowl! for
food, and it was easily procured. There were wild pidgeons easily trapped,' and the';creeksi!:,U
and lakes were full with salmon. The bearest grist mill was at Belleville.'' They paddled,a
canoe with a bag of grain to be ground and brought back as flour or cereal,: In J 878 Captain,
John Casey Trull told of an incident which occurred at his father's house „whileihe'was still
a boy. His father had been away at the time to Moyer's Hill, Belleville:.",'A squaw with `four''
papooses came to the house. She asked his mother for Paw-pab-nee (flour-),�i This being'!;extreu'
scarce at the time, his mother refused giving her any. Then the squaw searched through the f
house. She found the flour in a kneeding trough. She brought it forth and commencedto;divi
it equally to everyone in the room. First, giving a double handful to his :mother, then herse
and the rest to each in the room. After dividing she then took her share in a bag and'
travelled off through the woods. Y f't``
Early in11817,. the _first stage line between Kingston and York was started You could
make better time in the summer if o you travelled by boat.
Shipbuilding'by 1820 was thriving. It was carried on.at the mouth'of,Highland"'Creek;.,
and at the Rouge River.
In 1822, my maternal grandfather, John Van Nest, who was born near'Kingston in'1812,'
came to the District of New Castle with his father and stepmother. The following ye'arIhis_.;;;
wife -to -be was born to Joseph and Pamelia Gerow. This same year the District changedi`its.ii!=i
name to Bowmanville. Both grandparents died in this town. My grandmother.'in`.1907 and;lgrand-
father in 1910.
I was born' in 1887 and had known m � � I y ` y grandparents well. The winter ,of 1909 l0 was ,
spent with grandfather and mother on'our farm. My father had passed away early :in 19;09..`,;,
In 1830, Captain John W. Trull died. His son, John Casey Trull, was sommissioneda f
Lieutenant in the first regiment of the Durham Militia by Sir John Colborne. •;;Then on,i:Sept L
of the same year he was commissioned to Lt. Governor of,Upper Canada. In this same:':year,;.i
Cyrus H. McCormack patented the first horse-drawn self -rake reaper.
In 1834 York changed its name to Toronto. ' I• f'j�I
In 1837, the portable horse-drawn steam engine for powering grain thresher appeared 1
9
Later it was self-propelled. This same year (1837) wasialso;the year of!the Mackenzie,"I i1+1
rebellion. Mackenzie and his followers gathered at Montgomery's Tavernon-North'`Yonge�Atreet
��
on December 4th for their march .on Toronto. In History of'Scarborough��, by R..Robertj,!Bonis,
he tells of the brief battle of Montgaomery's farm,''and,how Col. McLean mustered.`one hundreds;
Scarborough men to join 820.men loyal to the government. Together helping Ito:` d fsperse�'Ithe�'11,{'
rebels. Also it states that three days later, 1750'Militia men from Newcastle district marcl
through Scarborough to the defence of Toronto. It is.,told in the John W. Trull.family;jtree�:�_
book that
.Captain:`John Casey Trull, marched from Oshawato- Toronto, together 'Vith'1500tinen'�t!
during the Mackenzie rebellion. But`the Bonis book does not,tell who the..officer in'charge,;;
was; it would seem he may.. have been Captain John Casey Trull'. {'� }'' '`it �'l� `T �Ll''}t
In 1839,` the Kingston Road' was in such bad state that 'farmers were ;having trouble ;
getting'.to market.in-Toronto,• This part of the road had been travelled for�Jorty years,;andi
this year it was paved with four -inch planks from Toronto `m the Rouge Hills Farmers�Inow`i:iji
could haul great loads of produce to'the market. There were toll gates at''the Rouge"-i:and'at
Washington Church, Through the mud holes previously',:they could make two;to three mil�esiper''
hour; now over the fine plank road they could make six .miles' an hour.
The year 1839 was the year my grandparents, James and Agnes Montgomery, purchased a good sized
sail boat, gathered their nine children together, kissed their Glasgow friends good -bye,and set
out over the Atlantic from Scotland to try their luck farming in Canada. After,more thanitwo
months they had sailed the ocean, navigated the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario'to Port
--'hitby, Here they sold their boat, purchased an ox and cart (although there were horses around;
_nd made ready to hunt for farmland. All the land between the lake and Kingston Road hadlbeen
taken up. Everyone had wanted to buy near the lake or north of the village east and west. The}
were told that the Old Indian Trail north of the village had been widened to take carts and
wagons, They could take it east of west till they came to suitable land where they'wouldjlike ,
to settle.
Early one bright morning they hitched the ox to the cart, piled in their,cooking utensils
and bedding, placed the younger children on top and the older ones walking; they struck'north:tc
the Old Indian Trail north of Whitby. This path had been hacked out by the Indians!maybe�
hundreds of years before, to connect Frenchman's Bay with Rice Lake, Here rice could bepicked
for food. In the wild state, rice is much better food than after it has had the outer part'of
the kernel polished off- and discarded. I have eaten rice at Rice Lake several,times,,buthave
not been there since 1940. I think there would be no rice either place now as practically a11,
pleasure boats are motorized and would tangle with the rice and it would have to beikilled out.
When th Montgomery's got to the trail, they turned towards -the rising sun and: travelled about;';'
nine miles by evening. Then they came upon a gravelly knoll at the side of the'road where they
bedded down for the night. This was about a mile and a half north of Courtice Village onithe`
Kingston Road, They spent the night near the beaver valley (a place my father took;me to;see'
as a boy, long after the beaver had gone). The children were up early next morning and had
wandered to the valley and had seer the dam the beavers had made. The pond was,a good.placerto
bathe and they wanted to settle near it. That morning they only continued a half mile orjisoanc
decided to settle there. This is the east side of what is now Solina Road, some two miles north
of Kingston Road, the same distance south of Solina, and about five miles from Bowmanville, the
location being the south half of lct. 24 in the fourth concession of Darlington Township!;''"''`i,;
Any parts about the ox and cart, the gravel knoll, Beaver Valley, and the Indian Trail);;'
are facts, and were told to me by uy father as it was told to him. The trail was'closed';in'al""
:w years as people bought the land.
They had soon bargained for the land and had stayed on the roadside until they. had]:
cleared a spot for a log cabin. It had to be up before winter set in.' Two years.later`in 1841
my father, David Montgomery, was bcrn in the log cabin, He was the last and only child born;to
them in Canada, Although I was not born on that farm, I had played on it as a boy with al -
schoolmate. He was the son of the man that bought the farm from my father. The children;of
•James and Agnes Montgomery were: Her+ry, William, John, Robert, James and David;(my father).;
the girls were: Agnes, Janet, Margaret and Sarah, 1,l
The children helped to clear the land and put up the buildings. But it wasn't long befoi
they began to leave one by one. Janet married James Heal, Bowmanville; Sarah married J.� A.
Sweet Baseline (and later moved to Florida and bought an orange grove); Margaret married;'Thomas
Peters of Hampton; Agnes and two of the boys, Henry and William, had settled in Michiganistate;
John settled in Wyoming, Western Ontario; Robert'went to the Southern States (and was never ai'
heard of again); and James Jr, cut his foot'whild cutting down trees and bled to'death inI1845.'
In 1858, with the older boys gone, David, at age 17, was given charge of!the farm and'was
to pay the other children money and keep his aging parents. Father said he made fourteenitrips.
to Western Ontario and Michigan in thirty years while paying the debt. He would be;away:from;.'
the farm for up to a couple of weeks. This, he said, did him a world of good,
Grandma Montgomery passed avay in 1869. The next year Father married 'Caro line"Van'Nesf,'
daughter of a prominent farmer west of Solina.
My father had told me how the low end of the farm was wet until late in the'sprin�g, and
that he put it into grass for pasture and went into dairying. He grew corn and`cut.�it�green!t:o
feed to the cows when the grass got dry in the summer. However, cows drink a!lot'of water and.:,
it had to be pumped from an 80 foot well by hand. Some years -later they had.,windmills,
Tather wanted a farm with a creek on it. Some years previous, father had plantedt'six`acres'of '
chard north of the Buildings and around the log cabin, and it was bearing very well'4n'�l882._;.
this time he sold the farm to Samuel Northcott. Father had not been able to,fsell apples;;!;;!
well, but after he moved, Almost o-vernight the British market opened for Canadian' apples;,'?..';
In 1882, the first self -tying binder appeared. Twenty years later the' cabin! was 'still,;,;'
standing in the orchard,. The 100 acres was practically level, sloping gradually from.the`200 ;c
rods from the north to the south end of the farm,
fhe log cabin was at.the north end, but when they built the house and barn they put them about
30 rods south of the log cabin and opposite a neighbor's lane and buildings. This was so
'they
would be able to see and be near someone, as was the custom ir. the country at that time..;
I have taken pictures of Grandfather's house and barn lately. Although the buildings:are
125 years old, they are still standing and in good condition,
11 Williamd.Elford had a farm a half mile north and a half mile east (known as."Square Field
rarm) with a creek in it. It was 145 acres of good dark, leLel loam. This cost him three:timet
what he sold his for. There was a tenant on the place with a four year lease.'to run,' Father:'!
offered him $400,00 to give possession, but he wouldn't. So father had to get s place to;jstay111
in the interval. He was able to get 25 acres across the west creek at Solina,:;and across,
the corner from Edad Church, I was born on this place in 2887. The village is'between two'j;;"
creeks. On the other place five children were born: William, Lydia, A1don, Agnes and Ella,',.!; • There were six years difference between Ella and me. They called me a start of :'a second£amiiy.
Later came two pairs of twins. ! ;! t,.•.„,,•
The 25 acres had a lovely creek on it with a swimming hole. It acted.for the village'and'
for -the farmers' hired men as a place to bathe.after a hard dcy's wort. The school'childrenlwent
every dat at noon as soon as we ate. I swam the little frog Fond hundreds of?times'while�going
to school in Solana. So father was able to keep his milk route and keep quite :a number of"cows
as well. When he moved on the Elford farm he continued drawirg milk to the cheese factory ;and';;
kept two hired men, ,I„i
He did really well on the place, despite some bad luck. He had too much stock on'his',1.,:
birthplace for the small farm and had sold much of his stock end implements, 'He put the''moneyi''
in God's Bank, Bowmanville. A couple of years later the bank failed and he 11 t,the $1400, plus
interest. Over the -four years the tenant on the Elford farm went broke,
Whi_ld this was happening, Mr. Northcott was putting easy money in the back from the'sale
of apples to Britain. In fifteen years he ahad saved 14,000 end paid caps fora farm forihis
eldest son,
When Mr. Elford,Sr, sold, he moved into the cillage of Hampton and his`son with hi::1 a'
family. moved to Morden, Manitoba, and took up land. Great crcps of wheat could be,'grown,,on the
virgin soil and since 1876, they were shipping wheat to the wcrld's markets by'way;of Duluth !'1''i
the Great Lakes. Mr. Russel, the tenant who had failed, went out to Morden and took�u jv..
idnd and later paid he debts down east, �,i.p
The above covers history of about 100 years, and I hope to bring it up to date, the winter;;;
of 1970-1971. m
By J. C. Montgomery, 91 Galloway Road, West Hill, Ontario,
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