Loading...
535-03 Page 12 b26 do Stagecoach Jaunt to Ingersoll i573So 73S19 3 3700 3 §_496 The Old Stage Road, which is a continuation of Ir gersoll's King St.,' -although now only a secondary country road, was, in the very early 18001s the main artery for over- land travel between Toronto, Brant- ford, and Chatham. !Boats and barges plied the Thames and Lake Erie, but were slow and inconveti- Tent, so all passenger travel was BY stage -coach mx the Stage Road. Even this form of travel ,was so dangerous, uncomfortable and in- convenient, that only those who ab- solutely had to travel were found) on the roads; it was'ilot uncommon for a person to take out life insur- ance before undertaking -r long' trip. c4z-:e ; i There were the remittance orml from England, in foppish and un- suitable clothes, pushed out of the family home to fend for themselves V in the colonies; itinerant preacher's, bringing the fear of "Hell -fire and Damnation" to their scattered back- woods onestalki fast • e g pa rishioners; w P salesme n with bags s ofsousamples, d often an officer's wife, newly out from England to join her husband at his garrison post. She had likely heard endless tales of life in the Canadian wilds and was terrorized with thoughts of being scalped by Indians, or eaten by bears and and wolves. _^ Bedit for Strength The coaches in use in the early 1800's were built for strength, and not for comfort. The coach driver sat on a seat on top of the coach, with the trunks and baggage behittj� wry rude A1t&1ra - — The earliest coaching inns were very crude affairs of log walls and shake roofs. The only thing that made them habitable in the winter was the great abundance of fire wood, stacked in ),neat piles behind the irm, and hauledinthree foot lengths, to be burned in great fire- places- built of stone and clay. Some of the fireplaces had no chimneys and the smoke went out through a. a hole in the roof, or between the rough uneven shake shingles. So much smoke stayed in the Peale of the roof, before finding its way out, that hams and -sides of bacon were hung there to be smoke -cured, and certainly no flies ever bothered them. If meat was left there too long before being used) it was often found to be as smoke blackened as charcoal and as hard as a rock. All the cooking was do ne over the fire- place in iron pots, swung on a crane, and as few early inns had more than two rooms, the ntegssnge3ingen- orally slept by thefire. the summer they slept in the barn or outside. The women passenger shared a bed with the inn -keeper's wife or her often numerous children The Martin Stand .Hotel, which stood on the Stage Road south o the village of Beachville, must have g3So hint, and managed his four horses by four reins and a foot brake. The ungraded hills were often so steep t that hard and continuous braking of the rear " wheels was necessary, 1 sometimes causing the wooden brake -blocks to catch on fire from the friction. On some difficult and rough hills the wheels were chainyd together and skidded down. The r steel spring's of later years had not come into use and the coach body itself was suspended over the axles by rawhide straps which allowed it j to roll from side to side and Pitch Up and down. The wheels were of wood with steel rims, and very high to give the axles maximum clearance I' for often stumps and stones were left in the centre of the road, inI hopes that sooner or later some irate freighter with several span of oxen, would pull out the stumps after smashing a wagon wheel on them once too often. The army originally cleared the road through to Chatham in order and supplies, s later troops a P move P to P for UP - keep tuxnin the responsibility g of the road over to the town- ships. The townships in turn made every property owner responsible for the road in front of his property. Some farmers soon found that if they let their road section get in' bad enough shape, the heavy freight- ,ing-wagons would get stuck. The farmer then turned up with a good .team of horses and pulled the freighter out, for a fee. One man had a particularly profitable mud - hole on his section of the road and every night he drew a wagon -load of avater which he dumped in the hole to keep it from drying up. Become Quagmires It was always a toss-up as to ]more summer travel was any more comfortable than winter trav- el. In spring, when the frost came out of the ground, the dirt roads became quagmires and the coaches sank in the holes, even on the main streets of the towns. In the open country, travel sometimes stopped for days for the creeks were on - fordable where there were no bridges. In the heat of the summer the dust rose behind the horses in great clouds, and covered the pass- , engers, who were also harried by flies and great swarms of mos- quitoes. Winter brought drifted roads, and passengers dressed in great buffalo and coonskin coats. Lady Passenger's were given feetwarmer's; these were metal boxes, which were filled with hot coals at every stage stop. The coaching Ines were spaced out along the road, generally at r vie inter vals, ]s bu t short dx g half -day I stops were made at every post office, for the coach carried the mail and s as Usually all the mail was carried in s one bag, it had to be dumped out on the floor and sorted over to find the letters for that community. The post office was also the local f barroom and inn, and since a good e deal of the inn -keeper's business y came from the coaches stopping mere, the drivers were always given jfree drinks in return for the cus- tomers they brought in. In places where the inns and drinks were 'too ,lose together, the driver was some- times Unable eventually to get up to his high seat on the coach top. If one of the passengers had the skill and nerve to drive the horses, the coach might go on, but if no one volun- teered, a stop was made for the night. seen fairly elaborate for those da s /ry t was• a log building_�wp,�—" sy /'^ i �d i es and a stone four oc fe One coach line in JA t1 �� //f/����- i 'tom Ingersoll to P,t�..9 C7`ed chat is now number 1%��0V4 t l way. At one time th paved with planks a naturally enough, the By Robert J. Spence At that time a vast a In 1804 the Reverend Nathan umber was being, cutBai s became the first Meth gist and taken to London issionary to Essex County. endless line of team'. Arriving at the door of all et - On a frosty mornip tier's house at mid-afteroon wheels on the Plank .olling rumble, like on Saturday he said: "Do you could be heard for >want the, Gospel preached here. direct! mt, "'Yes, that we do. Are you a The Hagles built preacher. cross-roads now kno "That is my occupation." Corners", between "Then get off your horse and Salford. It is built come in." rbly because of clay and still stands today. In this manner almost a as the "Wiseman •Hcentury-and-a-half ago the time, and was the no Church, in the form of this Meth - Port Burwell stage. odist missionary, came into be - south was the (Madan ing'. in the district between Lon- m Mount Elgin, a tv don and Detroit. It was at this building', where a time, too, that the original con - At one time there wi gregation of Epworth United there, also, the Gold, Church in Kingsville came into Rob Stage being, a church which is among o v nerabl the most e In er soil's end of g ern Ontario. ot e was the Bradyy s Imperial Bank is nov There had not b barns, where the at: a great deal of kept, still stand in t Canada West, b Oxford County's was there at the stage -coach robbery Na�t_ha�n Ba s to tween Ingersoll and ular th`�gy to th the Old Stage Road, ever he found th 1800's. An army r his horse through regret- batman _wet would come upon coach to 'London, wit and ask for a h tity of gold for the to preach, for t East of Beachville churches. But a stopped and robbed, 1 from settlement t son to believe that always found a h in cahoots with the people anxious to negro batman was n People took the! He was probably kil Peop in those their from talking, and h Ouslit into their he The gold was suppos times seems a s buried near Karns .the resent en many years a great feel present frugen Bing was dtra one by ]c attempt to 'find it. S which inspired t Centreville got tire(, these towns and digging and went their first crude c Gypsy fortune telle'. and finally the exactly where to rug treasure, but warned them not tol speak a word while they dug, nr they would never find it. They start- ed to dig' a big' hole and just as they thought they should be reaching'_:' the gold, a run -away horse and wagon dashed through the trees. One of the.. men inadvevtantly spoke, and they always said afterwards that was the only reason they were not successful. Another story told is about an old empty barn that was - u ent 7 use d as a there, frequently neve r the q cache Jiang -out and a good place to a bottle of whiskey. One old-timer �I needed a drink, early one morning, and went to the barn to see if he could find a bottle. :Somebody had dug up the earth floor during the, night and he could see where they, they had liften out a box from the hole, for the imprints were still in the dirt. Who they were, or what was in the box, nobody ever found out. Officially, the payroll gold was never found" but strangely enough, . not too long' after the robbery, the large mortgages on several local farm were paid off in full. In gold"!•i� to he It 14A wQ . e to all West- een before 1804 settlement in the Church very beginning. ok his partic- e people where- em. Riding on the bush he a settlement ouse in which here were no s Bangs rode o settlement he filled with him speak. r religion seri- ya and brought mes. It some - ad thing that oration cannot tion of spirit he founders of villages to build hutches of logs, fine meeting with s _ ;ex ountly places which stand in numbers in every community today. Bangs was a practical minister. When he rose for the first time before the people of asettlement he would give them an account of his birth, his call to the min- istry, and his motives in life, so that all would understand why he was there, why he rode from clearing to clearing, living with- out pay on a meal here and a night's lodging there. Then he would say: "I am a Methodist preacher, and our manner of worship is to stand up and sing, and kneel in prayer; then I stand up and preach while the people sit. As many as see fit to join me in this method can do so. If not, you can choose your own method." The idea was to preach. The rpunner was not important. Once Bangs had finished his sermon he would say: "All those who wish to hear any more rise u :' And such preaching, P (everyone would rise. This was the beginning of so- cial life in the territory. And in Kingsville today there seems to be a trend back toward the social life of the Church. Y k rt Bangs was an intinerant preacher. A regular missionary was appointed to the Kingsville area in 1805. His name was Wil- liam Case, the "Father of Indian Missions' in Canada, whose headquarters were in Detroit, which in that year had become the capital of the Michigan ter- ritory. The "Thames Circuit" was next covered by Vivian Holmes and Silas Hopkins, but in 1812 the war broke up the circuit until Joseph Hickeox re- sumed office in Detroit. Gideon Lanning followed him ,and in J - — In 1805-8 James Burdick erected a combination grist a 3 on Reynolds' Creek (Centrevlle 'mak) on Concession I in the Towpshlp of West Oxford, south of the pres- ent village of Centreville. It is de- scribed as a building 16 feet square, and stood south of the road where a small house now stands. The mill -race from the original Perot can still be traced. In 11110 the mill was sold to An- drew Westbrook, of Delaware, who disposed of it just prior to the beginning of the War of 1812. He then turned traitor and joined the American forces at Deetsroit, hence he led raiding P� prisoners and Can - ado, carrying destroying property. In 1814 he led 300 soldiers and Indians into Oxford, .and among other buildings burned the mil), which was the only one in opera- tion 1, the district. Later, how- ever, the owner was Paid by the British Government for his loss. The millstones, used by James Burdick, lay for over a century at the entrance to the farm just west of the creek, owned from 1804 until recent times by the Nichols family, and then sold to its present own- er, J. Shuttleworth. When the farm changed hands the stones were moved to Sweaburg, and may be seen at the entrance to the home ii of Mrs. Wiseman, daughter of .John Nichols, the last of the pioneer Nichols family to own the farm. 1818 the work came strictly under Canadian control. A lot happened in those 13 years in the world of religion. When Case first came to the district Joseph Smith was found. ing Mormonism in Vermont. In 1807, John Smithurst, the lover of Florence Nightingale who was to enter the ministry and come to Canada at her request, was born. In 1813 David Livingstone was born in Scotland. Then in 1818, Karl Marx, the man whose philosophy would one day per- secute Christianity in many parts of the world, was born. And on December 23 the pastor of the Lutheran Church at Arnsdorf in Germany wrote one of the great inspirational hymns, "S i l e n t Night." Through a succession of minis. ters in he Thames t am s Circuit the. Rev. William Ca pr esided restd d as P elder. in 1826 the Amhers b rr 4 & . Circuit was formed. This inclAdcd Gosfield Townsh. , and in 1833, as the popular'M of the area grew, the Gosfield Circuit, in. cluding. Kingsville, was formed. Between 1833 and 1866 the gos. field Circuit was served by V different ministers, and from 1866 to the present the Kings- ville Circuit, now 85 years old has had a total of 36 incumbents.' As should be expected, the first church building in the Kingsville Circuit was constructed of logs, just east of Kingsville as it stands today. The events preced- ing the building are recorded it the following manner, one whirl is not at all unique considerim the piety of many of the firs settlers. "Now in the year 1817, wire ,the children of Leonard Kral alld Wendel Wigle had great!, increased and multiplied in ch' land, and when Wendel .y friend of Leonard, had died an. had been gathered to his father' Leonard called his sons and hi daughters and his sons-m-lay; and his daughters-in-law, andltbl sons and daughters of Wendel his departed friend, and sail unto their, 'It has been our eua tom for these many years tc worship the God of our fatheu in the house of Wendel hbe Weaver; let us now, I pray yom build a house of the Lord in th Land of Gosfield, over against the lake that is called Erie', a.r., the children of Leonard an, Werift ' said unto their a.ge. father, 'Than bast spoken wel. we 'will do according to th words and build a house of th Lord.' "And Peter, the son of Leor ard, gave the ground for tl house of the Lord; and Leonart his father being rich in mono-; and in cattle, gave largely tt build the house of the Lord, a,r, the people round gathered oab maple and walnut timber fryer the woods of Gosfield nd l which to build the, house; and) the year 1818 the house of Lord was finished, and in tju seventh month in the sixth di,j of the month, in the first day i" the week, and at the 10th hey of the day, Warren, the priest dedicated the house of the Lot which the descendants of 'A ard and Wendel ha.d huik, i!rIV the people said 'Arnett.'"