It never fails to amaze me what can be discovered on the Internet. As an example, I share below a link to reminiscences recorded by one of my ancestors, Robert McLaren Miller of Medonte. The document was posted on the searchable site Our Roots/Nos Racine, and I found it while researching the Millers.

The Millers were my paternal grandmother’s family. They came from Scotland to Canada in 1827, as the memoir explains, settling first in the area of Perth, then eight years later moving to Hobart in Medonte County. The source of the publication is stated as unknown, but other documents I’ve found confirm this was a series of articles Robert wrote for the Midland newspaper. The publication date given here is 1900, which sounds right: Robert lived from 1840 to 1922. Aside from this, the only other date indication is a stamp showing that the memoir entered the University of Toronto Library in 1973.

In “Early Days of Medonte County,” Robert describes, among other things, the funeral for his father (my great-x-4 grandfather), Alexander Miller, who died on August 11, 1845, and was the first person buried in Hobart cemetery. I’ve visited the cemetery, and there’s a large stone bearing a plaque commemorating Alexander’s burial.

Although there’s little here of the personal reflection that characterizes, and that we desire in, modern-day memoirs — this first-person narrative, more than 100 years after its writing and 150 years since some of the events Robert recollects or records as a result of conversations with older settlers, is no less valuable in conveying the flavour of life in the 1800s.

What better proof is there that whatever we write will grow more precious over time.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Along with the first settlers on the Penetang Road in 1815 was one James Johnston, they settled on a bush lot north of Craighurst on the Vespra Township. He had the experience of the wild animals in the bush, there being foxes, bears, wolves, and wildcats. This was owing to the swamp that lay in the north. They had to shut in their sheep and pigs in pens for over night. The bear in its way kills only for present use. It would take him a long time to kill as many sheep as a dog would destroy in a night.

“Mr. Johnston was a man who put his hands to something more than farming. He was a weaver of homespun cloth for the neighbourhood of Craighurst, and made boots for the family from his own tanning of leather.

“In after years, he took pride in talking of pioneer days. He told of starting early one morning long before daylight to take his oxen for grist at Coldwater Mill. The oxen were slow travellers over the road. It took him six or seven hours to get there. They were the only means the early settlers had to get their produce over the road, the horse being rare, so much so that a pioneer’s family in seeing a horse for the first time remarked to the parents about the want of horns.

“The ox had his day for being useful in clearing the land and cultivating the soil among the stumps. A yoke of oxen was preferred in many ways to a team of horses. The wood sleigh had a convenient place to put the axe, as wolves were so plentiful it was not safe to travel the roads without a weapon of some kind, and if the oxen were attacked by wolves, it was up to the man to get his axe and go for them with all his strength as Sampson did with the jaw of an ass over the Philistines.

“On a winter’s morning, Mr. Johnston was on his way to Coldwater with a yoke of oxen. When he came opposite Mr. Slee’s house he saw smoke from the flue and knew that there was a fire in the fireplace. He thought it was his chance to get himself warmed. Rapping at the door, it was opened by Mr. Slee, who, with his usual manners, said to Mr. Johnston, “Will you please stay out for a few minutes, my wife is dressing?” — This being the one roomed house of the pioneer….”

Click here to read Robert M. Miller’s “Early Days of Medonte County.”