Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-02-24
A BackWOOdS Heroine
BY William Thomson


most incredible hardships and diff
culties overcome by those hardy pio-
neers OF the backwoods, to$whose en-
terprise and endurance we owe the cul
tivated fields and pleasant homes of
our present civilization. With a view
of rescuing at least one case from OBJ
iivion, / write this story, to the abso-
Lutte truth of which / can testify; for,
although but six years of age when the
incidents occurred, i knew all the
actors well sand afterward lived among
them during the whole period of my
boyhood.
Early in the spring of 1925, two Scot
fish families, named McGill andf Nc
Gregor, respectively, emigrated from
the old country to upper Canada, and
Immediately upon their arrival took
up adjoining lots of wild land 200 acres
each, some miles northeast of a strag-
Cling village, then known as Muddy
Little York" now the rich and populous
city of Toronto. AT that time there
were two public roads running east
ward from York, one along the shore
of Lake Ontario and the other a mile
or two inland, which last led in toll
of Hamilton now stands; but when
once well beyond the Little York set
elements, a large tract of country north
of this upper road was primeval forest.
when seeking a location our immi-
grants left this trunk line at point
eight miles west of York, and making
their way through the unbroken woods
for nine miles north, finally selected
tract, lying upon both sides of a small
river, called Etobicoke creek, and COW
cred with a dense growth of beech,
maple, Eastwood, elm, hickory, birch
and ash trees.
Here the sturdy settlers, though as
yet unlearned in woodcraft, quickly
built for themselves rude log shanty
-commodious enough to shelter both
families-in the construction of which
not single nail, screw or scrap of iron
of any kind was used.
McGill's family consisted of himself
ard wife and their daughter, Jennie,
buxom, rosy-cheeked damsel of II,
while McGregor's included father,
mother and two stalwart sons, Duncan
and John, aged respectively 81 and 10.
Thus the arduous task of hewing
home out of the wilderness undertaken
by this party was backed up by four
a ble-bodied men and three scarcely less
muscular women; and, notwithstand-
ing the fact that none of them had
ever seen a Canadian chopping ak be-
fore, they managed, with infinite toll,
10 get two acres roughly cleared and
burnt off and planted with potatoes,
corn and other garden truck, by the
first of May. BY this time the men
had become fairly proficient choppers,
especially Duncan, veritable giant in
stature and strength, and the forest
began to fall fast beneath their blows.
Meantime the woods around supplied
them with abundance of meat, Jennie
McGill herself, by the aid of an old
tiint-lock musket, frequently killing
fat deer; and, through the early sum-
mer months, numbers of salmon were
speared, at night by torchlight, on
the shadows of the creek
Finding it impossible to make much
headway in logging by unassisted man
ua1 labor, our embryo farmers sent to
the settlements and procured yoke q
oxen; but, within a week, both were
killed, one by a falling tree and the
other by wolves, and they were obliged
to do without this help until times
should get better. About the middle
of August an untimely frost cut off
the whole of their first little corn crop
and blghted the tops of their half
grown potatoes, so that toward the end
of the year the two families found their
stock of provisions reduced to the sim
pie articles OF smoked salmon and
fresh venison, without -four, meal or
vegetables, the only substitute for these
being large supply of hickory, beech
and butter nuts.
Stern Presbyterians and direct de-
scendants of the old Covenanters as
were the McGills and AlcGregors, they
attached no especial Importance to the
coming of Christmas, the first day of
the year being their one great festival.
This, the national holiday of alf' Scot
land, was fast approaching. and as old
memories stirred within them, our
friends thought shame to let it pass
without some kind of celebration.
They had on hand asmall stock of furs,
consisting of fox, bear raccoou and
muskrat pelts, the result of the fall
trapping, and on the evening 1f De-
cember %, as they sat before the huge
open fireplace talking 20 auld times -
the gudewife McGregor said to her eld-
est SON:
Duncan, my mon, yen do weel to
set out to York the moraand TAX these
furs and buy US bit fiooer, plums,
spice and grain Or twa o. store sugar,
sac that the New Year day may be
keepit in a Christianlike manner
This proposition met with general
approval, and Duncan started next
morning with his precious pack. I'M
armed and alone. for his I7-mile tramp.
The ground was covered a foot deep
in snow, and for the first nine miles
he must break a path through the
woods with only the "blazed" trees to