Books: Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago

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Our fathers did not travel much, and there was a good reason, as we have
seen, why they did not. The ordinary means of transit was the stage,
which Mrs. Jameson describes as a "heavy lumbering vehicle, well
calculated to live in roads where any decent carriage must needs
founder." Another kind, used on rougher roads, consisted of "large
oblong wooden boxes, formed of a few planks nailed together, and placed
on wheels, in which you enter by the window, there being no door to open
or shut, and no springs." On two or three wooden seats, suspended in
leather straps, the passengers were perched. The behaviour of the better
sort, in a journey from Niagara to Hamilton, is described by this writer
as consisting of a "rolling and tumbling along the detestable road,
pitching like a scow among the breakers of a lake storm." The road was
knee-deep in mud, the "forest on either side dark, grim, and
impenetrable." There were but three or four steamboats in existence, and
these were not much more expeditious. Fares were high. The rate from
York to Montreal was about $24. Nearly the only people who travelled
were the merchants and officials, and they were not numerous. The former
often took passage on sailing vessels or batteaux, and if engaged in the
lumber trade, as many of them were, they went down on board their rafts
and returned in the batteaux. "These boats were flat-bottomed, and made
of pine boards, narrowed at bow and stern, forty feet by six, with a
crew of four men and a pilot, provided with oars, sails, and iron-shod
poles for pushing. They continued to carry, in cargoes of five tons, all
the merchandise that passed to Upper Canada. Sometimes these boats were
provided with a makeshift upper cabin, which consisted of an awning of
oilcloth, supported on hoops like the roof of an American, Quaker, or
gipsy waggon. If further provided with half a dozen chairs and a table,
this cabin was deemed the height of primitive luxury. The batteaux went
in brigades, which generally consisted of five boats. Against the
swiftest currents and rapids the men poled their way up; and when the
resisting element was too much for their strength, they fastened a rope
to the bow, and, plunging into the water, dragged her by main strength
up the boiling cataract. From Lachine to Kingston, the average voyage
was ten to twelve days, though it was occasionally made in seven; an
average as long as a voyage across the Atlantic now. The Durham boat,
also then doing duty on this route, was a flat-bottomed barge, but it
differed from the batteaux in having a slip-keel and nearly twice its
capacity. This primitive mode of travelling had its poetic side. Amid
all the hardships of their vocation, the French Canadian boatmen were
ever light of spirit, and they enlivened the passage by carolling their
boat songs; one of which inspired Moore to write his immortal ballad."
[Footnote: Trout's Railways of Canada, 1870-1.]

The country squire, if he had occasion to go from home, mounted his
horse, and, with his saddle-bags strapped behind him, jogged along the
highway or through the bush at the rate of forty or fifty miles a day. I
remember my father going to New York in 1839. He crossed by steamboat
from Kingston to Oswego; thence to Rome, in New York State, by canal-
boat, and thence by rail and steamer to New York.

CHAPTER VI.

ROAD-MAKING--WELLER'S LINE OF STAGES AND STEAMBOATS--MY TRIP FROM
HAMILTON TO NIAGARA--SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES--PIONEER METHODIST PREACHERS
--SOLEMNIZATION OF MATRIMONY--LITERATURE AND LIBRARIES--WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS
--PRIMITIVE EDITORIAL ARTICLES.

The people were alive at a very early date to the importance of
improving the roads; and as far back as 1793 an Act was passed at
Niagara, then the seat of government, placing the roads under overseers
or road-masters, as they were called, appointed by the ratepaying
inhabitants at their annual town meetings. Every man was required to
bring tools, and to work from three to twelve days. There was no
property distinction, and the time was at the discretion of the
roadmaster. This soon gave cause for dissatisfaction, and reasonably,
for it was hardly fair to expect a poor man to contribute as much toward
the improvement of highways as his rich neighbour. The Act was amended,
and the number of days' work determined by the assessment roll. The
power of opening new roads, or altering the course of old ones, was
vested in the Quarter Sessions. This matter is now under the control of
the County Councils. The first government appropriation for roads was
made in 1804, when L1,000 was granted; but between 1830-33, $512,000 was
provided for the improvement and opening up of new roads. The road from
Kingston to York was contracted for by Dantford, an American, in 1800,
at $90 per mile, two rods wide. The first Act required that every man
should clear a road across his own lot, but it made no provision for the
Clergy Reserves and Crown Lands, and hence the crooked roads that
existed at one time in the Province. Originally the roads were marked
out by blazing the trees through the woods as a guide for the
pedestrian. Then the boughs were cut away, so that a man could ride
through on horseback. Then followed the sleighs; and finally the trees
were cleared off, so that a waggon could pass. "The great leading roads
of the Province had received little improvement beyond being graded, and
the swamps [had been] made passable by laying the round trunks of trees
side by side across the roadway. Their supposed resemblance to the
king's corduroy cloth gained for these crossways the name of corduroy
roads. The earth roads were passably good when covered with the snows of
winter, or when dried up in the summer sun; but even then a thaw or rain
made them all but impassable. The rains of autumn and the thaws of
spring converted them into a mass of liquid mud, such as amphibious
animals might delight to revel in. Except an occasional legislative
grant of a few thousand pounds for the whole Province, which was ill-
expended, and often not accounted for at all, the great leading roads,
as well as all other roads, depended, in Upper Canada, for their
improvement on statute labour." [Footnote: II.]

[Illustration: THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE.]

The Rev. Isaac Fidler, writing in 1831, says: "On our arrival at Oswego,
I proceeded to the harbour in quest of a trading vessel bound for York,
in Canada, and had the good fortune to find one that would sail in an
hour. I agreed with the captain for nine dollars, for myself, family,
and baggage, and he on his part assured me that he would land me safe in
twenty-four hours. Our provision was included in the fare. Instead of
reaching York in one day, we were five days on the lake. There were two
passengers, besides ourselves, equally disappointed and impatient. The
cabin of the vessel served for the sitting, eating, and sleeping room of
passengers, captain and crew. I expostulated strongly on this usage, but
the captain informed me he had no alternative. The place commonly
assigned to sailors had not been fitted up. We were forced to tolerate
this inconvenience. The sailors slept on the floor, and assigned the
berths to the passengers, but not from choice. The food generally placed
before us for dinner was salt pork, potatoes, bread, water and salt;
tea, bread and butter, and sometimes salt pork for breakfast and tea;"
to which he adds, "no supper." One would think, under the circumstances,
this privation would have been a cause for thankfulness.

The same writer speaks of a journey to Montreal the following year:
"From York to Montreal, we had three several alterations of steamboats
and coaches. The steamboat we now entered was moored by a ledge of ice,
of a thickness so great as to conceal entirely the vessel, till we
approached close upon it. We embarked by steps excavated in the ice, for
the convenience of the passengers."

The following advertisement, from the _Christian Guardian_ of 1830,
may prove not uninteresting as an evidence of the competition then
existing between the coach and steamboat, and is pretty conclusive that
at that date the latter was not considered very much superior or more
expeditious:

"NEW LINE OF STAGES AND STEAMBOATS FROM YORK TO PRESCOTT.

"The public are respectfully informed that a line of stages will run
regularly between YORK and the CARRYING PLACE, [Footnote: The Carrying
Place is at the head of the Bay of Quinte.] twice a week, the remainder
of the season, leaving YORK every MONDAY and THURSDAY morning at 4
o'clock; passing through the beautiful townships of Pickering, Whitby,
Darlington and Clark, and the pleasant villages of Port Hope; Cobourg
and Colborne, and arriving at the CARRYING PLACE the same evening. Will
leave the CARRYING PLACE every TUESDAY and FRIDAY morning at 4 o'clock,
and arrive at York the same evening.

"The above arrangements are made in connection with the steamboat _Sir
James Kempt_, so that passengers travelling this route will find a
pleasant and speedy conveyance between York and Prescott, the road being
very much repaired, and the line fitted up with good horses, new
carriages, and careful drivers. Fare through from York to Prescott, L2
10s, the same as the lake boats. Intermediate distances, fare as usual.
All baggage at the risk of the owner. N.B.--Extras furnished at York,
Cobourg, or the Carrying Place, on reasonable terms.

"WILLIAM WELLER.

"York, June 9th. 1830."

I remember travelling from Hamilton to Niagara in November, 1846. We
left the hotel at 6 p.m. Our stage, for such it was called, was a lumber
waggon, with a rude canvas cover to protect us from the rain, under
which were four seats, and I have a distinct recollection that long
before we got to our journey's end we discovered that they were not very
comfortable. There were seven passengers and the driver. The luggage was
corded on behind in some fashion, and under the seats were crowded
parcels, so that when we got in we found it difficult to move or to get
out. One of our passengers, a woman with a young child, did not
contribute to our enjoyment, or make the ride any more pleasant, for the
latter poor unfortunate screamed nearly the whole night through.
Occasionally it would settle down into a low whine, when a sudden lurch
of the waggon or a severe jolt would set it off again with full force.
The night was very dark, and continued so throughout, with dashes of
rain. The roads were very bad, and two or three times we had to get out
and walk, a thing we did not relish, as it was almost impossible for us
to pick our way, and the only thing for it was to push on as well as we
could through the mud and darkness. We reached Niagara just as the sun
was rising. Our appearance can readily be imagined.

"In 1825, William L. Mackenzie described the road between York and
Kingston as among the worst that human foot ever trod, and down to the
latest day before the railroad era, the travellers in the Canadian stage
coach were lucky if, when a hill had to be ascended, or a bad spot
passed, they had not to alight and trudge ankle deep through the mud.
The rate at which it was possible to travel in stage coaches depended on
the elements. In spring, when the roads were water-choked and rut-
gullied, the rate might be reduced to two miles an hour for several
miles on the worst sections. The coaches were liable to be embedded in
the mud, and the passengers had to dismount and assist in prying them
out by means of rails obtained from the fences." [Footnote: Trout's
_Railways of Canada_]

Such was the condition of the roads up to, and for a considerable time
after, 1830, and such were the means provided for the public who were
forced to use them. It can easily be conceived, that the inducements for
pleasure trips were so questionable that the only people who journeyed,
either by land or water, were those whose business necessities compelled
them to do so. Even in 1837, the only road near Toronto on which it was
possible to take a drive was Y'onge Street, which had been macadamized a
distance of twelve miles. But the improvements since then, and the
facilities for quick transit, have been very great. The Government has
spent large sums of money in the construction of roads and bridges. A
system of thorough grading and drainage has been adopted. In wet swampy
land, the corduroy has given place to macadamized or gravel roads, of
which there are about 4,000 miles in the Province. [Footnote: In order
to ascertain the number of miles of macadamized roads in the Province,
after hunting in vain in other quarters, I addressed a circular to the
Clerk of the County Council in each county, and received thirty replies,
out of thirty-seven. From these I gathered that there were about the
number of miles, above stated. Several replied that they had no means of
giving the desired information, and others thought there were about so
many miles. I was forced to the conclusion that the road accounts of the
Province were not very systematically kept.] Old log bridges have been
superseded by stone, iron, and well-constructed wooden ones, so that in
the older sections the farmer is enabled to reach his market with a
well-loaded waggon during the fall and spring. The old system of tolls
has been pretty much done away with, and even in the remote townships
the Government has been alive to the importance of uninterrupted
communication, and has opened up good central highways. The batteaux and
sailing vessels, as a means of travel, with the old steamer and its
cramped up cabin in the hold, and its slow pace, have decayed and rotted
in the dockyard, and we have now swift boats, with stately saloons
running from bow to stern, fitted in luxurious style, on either sides
rows of comfortable sleeping rooms, and with a _table d'hote_
served as well as at a first class modern hotel. Travelling by steamer
now is no longer a tediously drawn out vexation, but in propitious
weather a pleasure. A greater change has taken place in our land travel,
but it is much more recent. The railroad has rooted out the stage,
except to unimportant places, and you can now take a Pullman at Toronto
at 7 p.m., go to bed at the proper time, and get up in Montreal at 10.30
a.m. the next day. The first railroad on which a locomotive was run was
the Northern, opened in 1853, to Bradford. Since that time up to the
present we have built, and now have in operation, 3,478 miles, in
addition to 510 under construction or contract. [Footnote: This is
exclusive of the C.P.R.]

Washington, in his farewell address, says: "Promote then, as an object
of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of
knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to
public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be
enlightened." Fifty years ago, education, even in the older and more
enlightened countries, did not receive that attention which its
importance to the well-being of society and the state demanded, and it
is only during recent years, comparatively speaking, that the education
of the masses has been systematically attempted. Indeed, it used to be
thought by men of birth and culture that to educate the poor would lead
to strife and confusion--that ignorance was their normal condition, and
that any departure therefrom would increase their misery and discontent.
Those notions have, happily, been exploded, and it is found that
education is the best corrective to the evils that used to afflict
society and disturb the general peace. It goes hand in hand with
religion and good order, and so convinced have our rulers become of its
importance to the general weal, that not only free but compulsory
education has become the law of the land. It is not to be wondered at
that half a century ago our school system--if we could be said to have
one--was defective. Our situation and the circumstances in which we were
placed were not favourable to the promotion of general education. The
sparseness of the population and the extent of territory over which it
was scattered increased the difficulty; but its importance was not
overlooked, and in the early days of the Province grants of land were
made for educational purposes. The first classical school--indeed the
first school of any kind--was opened in Kingston, by Dr. Stuart, in
1785, and the first common school was taught by J. Clark, in
Fredericksburg, 1786. In 1807 an Act was passed to establish grammar
schools in the various districts, with a grant of L100 to each. But it
was not until 1816 that the government took any steps towards
establishing common schools. The Lieutenant-Governor, in his Speech from
the Throne on opening the House, in January, 1830, said:--

"The necessity of reforming the Royal Grammar School was evident from
your Report at the close of the session. By the establishing of a
college at York, under the guidance of an able master, the object which
we have in view will, I trust, be speedily attained. The delay that may
take place in revising the charter of the university, or in framing one
suitable to the Province and the intention of the endowment, must, in
fact, under present circumstances, tend to the advancement of the
institution; as its use depended on the actual state of education in the
Province. Dispersed as the population is over an extensive territory, a
general efficiency in the common schools cannot be expected,
particularly whilst the salaries of the masters will not admit of their
devoting their whole time to their profession."

As far as my recollection goes, the teachers were generally of a very
inferior order, and rarely possessed more than a smattering of the
rudiments of grammar and arithmetic. As the Governor points out, they
were poorly paid, and "boarded around" the neighbourhood. But it is not
improbable that they generally received all their services were worth.
In those days most of the country youth who could manage to get to
school in winter were content if they learned to read and write, and to
wade through figures as far as the Rule of Three. Of course there were
exceptions, as also with the teachers, but generally this was the extent
of the aspiration of the rising generation, and it was not necessary for
the teacher to be profoundly learned to lead them as far as they wished
to go. I knew an old farmer of considerable wealth who would not allow
his boys to go to school, because, he said, if they learned to read and
write they might forge notes. He evidently considered "a little learning
a dangerous thing," and must have had a very low estimate of the moral
tone of his offspring, if he had any conception of morality at all.
However, the safeguard of ignorance which the old man succeeded in
throwing around his family did not save them, for they all turned out
badly.

The books in use were Murray's Grammar, Murray's English Reader,
Walker's Dictionary, Goldsmith's and Morse's Geography, Mayor's Spelling
Book; Walkingame's and Adam's Arithmetic. The pupil who could master
this course of study was prepared, so far as the education within reach
could fit him, to undertake the responsibilities of life; and it was
generally acquired at the expense of a daily walk of several miles
through deep snow and intense cold, with books and dinner-basket in
hand.

The school-houses where the youth were taught were in keeping with the
extent of instruction received within them. They were invariably small,
with low ceilings, badly lighted, and without ventilation. The floor was
of rough pine boards laid loose, with cracks between them that were a
standing menace to jackknives and slate pencils. [Footnote: Atlantic
Monthly.] The seats and desks were of the same material, roughly planed
and rudely put together. The seats were arranged around the room on
three sides, without any support for the back, and all the scholars sat
facing each other, the girls on one side and the boys on the other. The
seats across the end were debatable ground between the two, but finally
came to be monopolized by the larger boys and girls who, by some strange
law of attraction, gravitated together. Between was an open space in
which the stove stood, and when classes were drawn up to recite, the
teacher's desk stood at the end facing the door, and so enabled the
teacher to take in the school at a glance. But the order maintained was
often very bad. In fact it would be safe to say the greatest disorder
generally prevailed. The noise of recitations, and the buzz and drone of
the scholars at their lessons, was sometimes intolerable, and one might
as well try to study in the noisy caw-caw of a rookery. Occasionally
strange performances were enacted in those country school-rooms. I
remember a little boy between seven and eight years old getting a severe
caning for misspelling a simple word of two syllables, and as I happened
to be the little boy I have some reason to recollect the circumstance.
The mistake certainly did not merit the castigation, the marks of which
I carried on my back for many days, and it led to a revolt in the school
which terminated disastrously to the teacher. Two strong young men
attending the school remonstrated with the master, who was an irascible
Englishman, during the progress of my punishment, and they were given to
understand that if they did not hold their peace they would get a taste
of the same, whereupon they immediately collared the teacher. After a
brief tussle around the room, during which some of the benches were
overturned, the pedagogue was thrown on the floor, and then one took him
by the nape of the neck, and the other by the heels, and he was thrown
out of doors in the snow. There were no more lessons heard that day. On
the next an investigation followed, when the teacher was dismissed, and
those guilty of the act of insubordination were admonished.

Dr. Thomas Rolph thus refers to the state of schools two years later:
"It is really melancholy to traverse the Province and go into many of
the common schools; you find a brood of children, instructed by some
Anti-British adventurer, instilling into the young and tender mind
sentiments hostile to the parent State; false accounts of the late war
in which Great Britain was engaged with the United States; geography
setting forth New York, Philadelphia, Boston, &c., as the largest and
finest cities in the world; historical reading books describing the
American population as the most free and enlightened under heaven,
insisting on the superiority of their laws and institutions to those of
all the world, in defiance of the agrarian outrages and mob supremacy
daily witnessed and lamented; and American spelling books, dictionaries,
and grammars, teaching them an Anti-British dialect and idiom, although
living in a British Province and being subjects to the British Crown."

There was a Board of Education consisting of five members appointed to
each district, who had the over-sight of the schools. Each school
section met annually at what was called the School meeting, and
appointed three trustees, who engaged teachers, and superintended the
general management of the schools in their section. The law required
that every teacher should be a British subject, or that he should take
the oath of allegiance. He was paid a fee of fifteen shillings per
quarter for each scholar, and received a further sum of $100 from the
Government if there were not fewer than twenty scholars taught in the
school.

Upper Canada College, the only one in the Province, began this year
(1830), under the management of Dr. Harris. Grantham Academy, in the
Niagara District, was incorporated, and the Methodist Conference
appointed a Committee to take up subscriptions to build an academy and
select a site. The last named, when built, was located at Cobourg, and
the building which was begun in 1832 was completed in 1836, when the
school was opened. There were 11 district and 132 common schools, with
an attendance of 3,677, and an expenditure of L3,866 11s 61/2 d.

There was very little change in our school laws for several years.
Grants were annually made in aid of common schools, but there was no
system in the expenditure; consequently the good effected was not very
apparent. The first really practical school law was passed in 1841, the
next year when the union of the Provinces went into effect; and in 1844
Dr. Ryerson was appointed Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper
Canada, which office he held for thirty-two years. During that time,
through his indefatigable labours, our school laws have been moulded and
perfected, until it is safe to say we have the most complete and
efficient school system in the world. The influence it has exercised on
the intellectual development of the people has been very great, and it
is but reasonable to expect that it will continue to raise the standard
of intelligence and high moral character throughout the land. Our
Government has, from the very first, manifested an earliest desire to
promote education in the Province. During Dr. Ryerson's long term of
office, it liberally supplied him with the necessary means for maturing
his plans and introducing such measures as would place our educational
system on the best footing that could be devised. This has been
accomplished in a way that does honour, not only to the head that
conceived it, but to the enlightened liberality of the Government that
seconded the untiring energy of the man who wrought it out.

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