Biddulph Township, Middlesex County

     Biddulph formed part of Huron County until 1865, when it was attached to Middlesex.  It has since been incorporated with Lucan.  Biddulph's settlement dates back to 1835 when it had originally been intended as a colony of free blacks from the United States.  The black settlement failed to grow and the Irish who were immigrating to join friends in London were allowed to locate in Biddulph and within a few years, dominated it. (Irish Migrants in the Canadas: Middlesex and Carleton pp.136-130)  

     A letter came to Andrew and Mary Jane Caswell, from her cousin Ferris.  (There was also a family of Ferris’s two lots over NB 25 lot 27.  It is certainly possible that they too are relatives.) Ferris had taken up land in Biddulph Township, about 20 miles north of London, Ontario.  Ferris was dying and wanted to give his land to Mary Jane if she would come to look after him.  The family took the opportunity and pulled up stakes in Darlington.

    Son John wrote a memoir of the family’s trip from Darlington Township, two hundred miles west to Biddulph Township, just outside the Village of Granton.

        "Well I remember the kind of bridges that spanned most of the streams and swamps as our wagon went bump, bump from one log to another. They were usually a foot through, without a chip taken off them to make the wheels roll smoothly."

       "On nearing our proposed new home, we passed through a long stretch of road where the roadway had just been chopped down and a few of the logs were pulled out so as to let vehicles pass. In many places even this work was poorly accomplished, for many times our wagon wheel would bumpit-a-bump over the ends of the logs and large stump roots. It was about all that my mother and I could do to keep possession of me new hat, which did not fit any too well at best. When we reached within one mile of our new home where father had been a couple of months before us building a new log house, we were compelled to stop with one of my uncles who had been (there) a year before, until our house was finished.’’ (Uncle possibly refers to one of Mary Jane’s brothers—a Dickson).

        "As was the custom in those days, the neighbours gathered to help all newcomers. Father was not neglected, and neither was the whiskey.  “Bee’’, as they were called, could not exist successfully without the grog, and of course the children were never slighted.  So your writer had to have his share.  As I was then better able to furnish more fun that work for a lot of jolly good fellows, I was then well filled with the best they had, so you can imagine me as drunk as a sot you've ever seen."

       "We are now on our new farm and I have had my first experience in farming, and a rather unpleasant one it was. Around our new house were logs, brush, sticks, and chips, the result of a couple of months’ work in the shape of chopping down the huge, large trees which had stood around the new home a short time before: the sugar maple, elm, oak, beech and basswood were the most prominent.’’ 

     The children were given the task of gathering up the chips but, said John, “It suited my taste better to throw the chips about, rather than to gather them into bundles to be burned.’’ This was duly reported by John’s brothers to their mother, and John,  did not stop there, for...I was only able to raise my mother’s Irish...for it was only a very few moments until my little pants were lying on the leaves...and my legs were now covered with stripes."
     I am not sure the exact year the family moved to Biddulph but David 1856, Joseph 1857 and Robert 1860 were all born there.

The 1861 Census of Biddulph shows:

Styles	Robert	Ontario	34
	Margaret	Ireland	22
	Arthur	Ontario	3
	Martha	Ontario	1
Dickson	Thomas	England	31
	Mary	England	33
Dickson	Robert	England	28
	Jane	L. Canada	25
	Mary Ann	U. Canada	2
Dickson	James	Ireland	91
	Esther	Ireland	70
Caswell	Andrew		56
	Mary		46
	James
	Samuel
	William
	Thomas
	John
	Andrew
	A Kennedy
	Mary Jane
	David
	Joseph
	Robert

        All but Sarah were living in a 1 ½ story log house that had been built a decade before in 1850.  Immediately following, and in the same house, were entries for Robert Henry and Margaret Caswell Stiles and three children – eighteen people, of whom six were under the age of nine.  Some perverse humour makes one column heading “Names of Inmates”.

     Unfortunately, Andrew and Mary Jane experienced many problems when they finally took up cousin Ferris’ land in Biddulph. Initially they cleared the wrong lot; it belonged to John Rignay.  Thomas Rignay had the W ½ of NB 24 & John had the E ½ of NB 24.  Imagine the consternation and alarm at discovering all your hard work was on the wrong lot!

     Then one of Mary Jane’s brothers disputed the claim that the Ferris lot should go to her.  Yearly town assessments show the checkered history of that lot.  No wonder Mary Jane took a stick to her brother Robert – an act for which she was fined $5.  This was in 1861 and during the family feud over the cousins’ property.

     The 1862 assessment shows James Dickson had 75 acres and Andrew Caswell, the same.  Whereas the county map for that year shows Rob Dickson on half the lot and Andrew on the other half.  The 1863 assessment continues with James & Andrew, but in 1864 Thomas Dickson’s name appears on half the lot with Andrew on the other half.  By 1865 the entire matter seems to have been settled in Andrew’s favour as his name was now listed on the entire 150 acres.

     The following is an account from Robert Caswell’s Memoirs about what happened:

        A cousin Ferris of Mother’s came from Ireland some time before my parents and bought 215 acres from the Canada Land Company close to the village of Granton. (I have not found a record of this purchase yet and I think he was only a tenant leasing the farm.) He had cleared a few acres; it was heavily timbered with maple, beech, and elm. His health failed and he did not expect to live long. He wrote to my mother at Orono and told her his situation and that he would transfer the land to her if she and father would come and take care of him. They came and took possession and the cousin died before the transfer was made, however they were in possession.

        Another person put in a claim for the land as the nearest heir. It was thrown into chancery. That court was well named. It was a small chance that it would ever get out—however my parents were in possession and they went ahead and cleared it.

        There was not a nicer farm in Canada, choice land slightly rolling. The claim that was put in for the land was my Mother’s brothers and the claim was in the court for several years.

     According to son Robert, Andrew and family remained on the land and improved it before losing it to Robert and Thomas Dickson.  The parcel, Lot 25, North Boundary, was of 100 acres.  Assessor’s records show that Andrew paid taxes on different portions of the lot in different years, and finally ended up with fifty acres.  It was not until 1874 that he was able to buy the land from the Canada Company; with title secure, he turned around and sold it.  Andrew immediately moved to Palmerston and bought land with the cash received.  To date I have not been able to track down the court records for the land dispute.

		Name		Lot & Cons. #	Acres		Total Value	Total Value	Total Value
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1862
		Dixon, James	tenant	NB 25	75		350.00
		Caswell, Andrew	tenant	NB 25	75		350.00
1862 map of Huron Co. shows:
		Tho Rignay		W1/2 NB24
		Jn Rignay		E1/2 24
		A. Carswell		W1/2 25
		Rob Dixon		E1/2 25
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1863
		James Dixon	tenant	NB 25	75		300.00
		Andrew Caswell	tenant	NB 25	75		350.00
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1864
		Thomas Dixon	tenant	NB 25	75		400.00
		Andrew Caswell	tenant	NB 25	75		370.00	100.00	470.00
On Militia Roll		Samuel Caswell		1st class service
		Andrew Caswell		reserve
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1865
		Andrew Caswell	tenant	NB 25	150		600.00	100.00	700.00
On Militia Roll		James Caswell		1st class service
		Samuel Caswell		1st class service
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1866
		Joseph Caswell	tenant	13th Conc 2b Lot N 1/2 29	50		250.00		250.00
		M. Dickson	tenant	14th Cons 25 lot 25	house only		10.00		10.00
		Andrew Caswell	tenant	NB W1/2 #25	75		280.00	100.00	380.00
		Samuel Caswell	tenant	NB E1/2 #25	75		200.00		200.00
		Robert Styles	tenant	NB N1/2 #26	50		200.00		200.00
On Militia Roll		Samuel Caswell		1st class service
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1867
		Andrew Caswell	freeholder	NB W1/2 lot 25	75	35	280.00	100.00	380.00
		Samuel Caswell	freeholder	NB E1/2 lot 25	75	35	280.00		280.00
		Robert Styles	freeholder	NB N1/2 #26	50	25	230.00		230.00
On Militia Roll		John Caswell		1st class
		Samuel Caswell		1st class
		Robert Styles		2nd class
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1868
		Joseph Dickson	tenant	1st cons Lot S1/2 13	99	80	1,190.00	100.00	1,290.00
		Joseph Caswell	freeholder	M4 lot 29	50	30	540.00		540.00
		Andrew Caswell	freeholder	NB 1/2 25	150	80	1,300.00		1,300.00
		Robert Styles	tenant	NB N1/2 #26	50	25	425.00		425.00
		Samuel Caswell	freeholder	Cons 25 lot 5	1/5th		100.00		100.00
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1869
		Joseph Dickson	tenant	1st cons Lot S1/2 13	100	80	1,300.00	100.00	1,400.00
		Joseph Caswell	freeholder	cons 11 lot 25	100	50	950.00	950.00	540.00
		Joseph Caswell	tenant	cons 13 N1/2 29	50	13	550.00	100.00	650.00
		Andrew Caswell	freeholder	NB 1/2 25	150	70	1,300.00	100.00	1,400.00
		Robert Styles	tenant	NB #26	100	50	1,000.00		1,000.00
		Samuel Caswell	tenant	Cons 25 lot 5	1/5th		100.00		100.00
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1870
		William Dickson	tenant	Cons 1 lot 13	99	60	1,300.00	100.00	1,400.00
		Joseph Caswell	tenant	conc 11 lot 25	71	50	700.00	100.00	800.00
		John Caswell	tenant	conc 14 S 1/2 29	50	30	575.00		575.00
		Andrew Caswell	Freeholder	NB E1/2 lot 25	55	30	500.00	100.00	600.00
		Joseph Lawton	Freeholder	NB w1/2 lot 25	100	70	1,000.00		1,000.00
		Samuel Caswell	Freeholder	Cons 25 lot 5	1/5th		100.00		100.00
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1871
		James Dickson	Freeholder	Cons 50 lot S1/2 21		40	660.00	100.00	760.00
		Joseph Caswell	tenant	conc 11 lot 25	70	50	925.00	575.00	1,500.00
		John Caswell	Freeholder	conc 14 S 1/2 29	50	30	550.00	100.00	650.00
		Andrew Caswell	Freeholder	NB E1/2 lot 25	50	25	525.00	100.00	625.00
Assessment Roll for the Twp of Biddulph 1872
		James Dickson	Freeholder	Cons 50 lot S1/2 21		50	700.00	100.00	800.00
		Joseph Caswell	tenant	conc 11 lot 25	70	100	660.00	340.00	900.00
		John Caswell	Freeholder	conc 14 S 1/2 29	50	30	525.00	200.00	725.00
		Andrew Caswell	Freeholder	NB E1/2 lot 25	50	30	525.00	100.00	625.00

     While the Caswell dwelling in Darlington Township was a shanty—hardly more than a shed of logs, they seem to have moved up to a log house of several rooms at Biddulph. This we may surmise from the fact that Andrew had been working on it for several months before the family arrived, and that they had to live with an uncle for a month until it was habitable. Even then the Caswells were among the poorer families of the neighbourhood. A quick tally of the assessment sheet on which Andrew Caswell’s farm appeared showed his worth to be $500 in real estate and $150 in personal property, while 15 families listed on the same page had greater wealth, and 5 had less.

     Sheriff Ruttan wrote of the previous generation or two in terms that may have described our Caswells. “Our food was coarse but wholesome.  With the exception of three or four pounds of green tea a year for a family, which cost us three bushels of wheat per pound, we raised everything we ate.  We manufactured our own clothes and purchased nothing except now and then a black silk handkerchief or some trifling article of foreign manufacture of the kind.  We lived simply, yet comfortably." (C.C. James, “History of Farming” p568-69)

    Andrew and Mary Jane were pious people and strict Sabbatarians. For them it was a day of rest but not of gloom. Alexander recalled that his mother was “never more happy than when she led her ten sons into the church and fills up two or three pews and then sits to see that they behave, and get strength to train all these boys. Andy and Mary Caswell saw one of their most cherished hopes realized in seeing their ten sons all grown to be men.’’ And what of the daughters?

        I have been told that one of the motives for my great grandmother, Mary Jane Caswell marrying Hugh Donnan was in order to leave home.  Her mother, Mary Jane Caswell, was a strict disciplinarian and expected a tremendous amount of work out of the only daughter remaining at home.  Mind you raising thirteen children would require a certain level of order and discipline!

       John respected his parents’ piety and learned to enjoy a Sabbath of rest and fellowship, albeit he gave up playing checkers on Sunday. Here is a passage from his memoirs, heavily edited for easy reading.

     "About 8 a.m. we find the family about ready for the day’s duty. The horses and cattle have been cared for, and as there is no stable to clean on the Sabbath day and the potatoes, biscuits, pudding, cake and tarts for the meals were prepared on Saturday evening, every person is ready for Sabbath School or church, which are usually held in the forenoon. The Sunday School lessons and reading the Bible were considered the best sources of knowledge around the fireside on the Sabbath. Whistling or singing any “tunes of folly’’, as John’s father called anything not fit to be sung in church or Sunday School, was forbidden. After service we talked over the sermon or the text—such was the spirit of the times.  If a neighbor came in before church, he was invited to attend the service.  After service any class of jolly, Christ like conversation constituted the pleasure of the afternoon. You can depend on it that around this house the Sabbath was not a sleepy day, nor was Mrs. C. a mother who allowed her children to dislike seeing the Sabbath come around.  In fact, it was usually the pleasantest day of the week because of the wholesale effort of this dear mother to make the day one to look forward to a day above all the rest in which all of Christ’s followers could retire at night, feeling that they had just ended one of the pleasantest days of their lives. While Mr. C. is a man of quieter spirit and milder temper than his good wife, he never fails to appreciate all the efforts put forth to make the day one of complete rest from the usual labours of life.  It is a day of pleasures of the best kind.  He might scarcely say a word, yet his bright, sparkling eyes would fairly dance when the neighbour’s children and his own were making the house fairly ring with chatter and psalms or hymns."

    As time rolled on, the woods furnished many of our pleasantest hours, (for) in them our cows found the greater part of their food...But as the country became more settled and wild food became scarce, grass began to spring up around the fences and roads and the cows began to travel much farther in search of food, and many times they would get off two and even three miles, and as you could never depend on the course they would take...it often became a serious question in what part of the country they might be found...as bush was in every direction, you could not see them one half mile off”.  To relieve the tedium of the search the boys used to cut jumping poles about twice as tall as themselves, resulting in the cows not getting home every night. Chipmunks abounded.  They would be poked out of their homes under the tree roots, caught and tied together with string.  “...to us it beat any Spanish bullfight...for the little fellows would pitch at each other in such fury that in a very short time they would tire out and again rally.”

 

GOING TO SCHOOL

     Mary Jane was determined that her children would get a chance at schooling.  John remembers heading off, barefoot, with a card showing the ABC’s  the beginners were kept repeating them “until we hated the very sight of our card…for we supposed we could master those few letters in a short while and then would be men and women as far as knowledge was concerned, but to our regret and dismay…we knew the cat of nine tails…better than we knew our letters…we were finally promoted to our first reader and this little book had more in it than one child in ten ever learned.”

     In those days there were not vacations, except when the children were kept out of school to help with the farm work or to help their mother, who had to save every dollar to pay the tuition.  The Caswells, with thirteen children, were strong supporters of a free, tax-supported school.  The issue was voted on annually at Granton, and finally passed.

     Near the school was a fine hill for rolling snowballs and sledding.  One fellow avoided being hit by a snowball only to be hit by a sled.  Enraged, the man approached the boys, who pummeled him with snowballs, but a tall fellow who turned out to be his relative, came to his assistance.  John’s younger brother was attacked by the latter, which brought John and his best friend into the fray.  When school closed at four o’clock, the teacher detained John, not for fighting but for swearing.  He could not remember having done so, though a “dern it” might have passed his lips.  The accusation hurt him more than a dozen whippings; he was made to promise that he would swear no more.  “John is sorry to say that he has not at all times kept his word."

     About this time, John’s next older brother Thomas, who had been attending Fish Creek School, was needed at home. “as he was of more service than John and had got a better chance at school John took his place for he was working for George Hague for his board and going to school.”  When the boys found out that he was Tom’s brother, several took him on as a way of getting back at Tom.

     As the school was by the creek, John had the opportunity to learn to swim.  He regretted that he had not learned how to swim one-handed, which later would have spared him a close call.

     John did not stay as Fish Creek School long, for his mother needed him to tend the garden.

JOHN IS PUT OUT TO LABOUR

     One day a neighbor arrived and asked father “if he had a boy that could help him to get this harvest taken care of.”  Andrew could well have used John’s labour, but the man offered $1 a day although a man’s wages were $2.  The owner had hired a man “to cut his grain by the acre”.  As the contractor worked from dawn to dark, swinging his cradle through the wheat, John was expected to work the same hours.  As soon as the dew was dried off each morning, John and his boss would take their rakes and tie the sheaves into bundles.  At nightfall they would set the bundles up in shocks, seldom finished before nine o’clock.  At dawn, John was set out to leveling the barnyard until breakfast was ready, afterwards getting back to that task if the dew was still on the wheat.  Meanwhile his employer lolled around until time to get out into the wheat.  Occasionally John had the added duty of milking four cows.  Soon the evening’s work was extended by the need to take the shocks and toss them into the new barn.  Once he worked as late as 2 am.  For this he received another 50 cents per half day.  “Such was John’s first outing, earning a man’s wages and getting a boy’s pay.” 

     John’s next experience at working for pay gave him an opportunity to learn carpentry, a craft that he pursued later under a variety of conditions until he was in his seventies.  Mr. Radcliffe had hired a carpenter to build a new barn, and paid John $8 a month to act as his assistant.  John felt this was a step up on the scale of labour.  He confessed that “he rather had a liking” for the craft.  He also enjoyed the game of checkers, which both Radcliffe and he learned from the carpenter.  On almost anything flat enough for a checkerboard one was drawn, and the checkers often consisted of paper scraps versus wood chips.

MARY JANE’S GARDEN

According to son John "Mary Jane's the garden was one of the best in the country, there never was any lack for company, especially in the brant season.  Walking and chatting in the garden was much appreciated when indoor pleasures began to lull.  In fact, there is hardly any person who fails to appreciate the very sight of a well-kept garden, although it is one of the pleasures that a great proportion neglect, even on some of our well-kept farms.  Few can appreciate a large expanse of green grass or a dry pasture field, but many can go to the garden to admire the flowers from the time the snow leaves in the spring until it spreads its white robe the next fall." 

     Mary Jane called John home to take his turn as kitchen helper and apprentice gardener, as both his older brothers and sisters had been “put out to service”.

        John helped his mother in the garden “which was one of her great joys”.  She enjoyed the blooming flowers, the varieties of plum, currants, grapes, cherries, raspberries, thimbleberries, in fact every wild fruit known to the Canadian north”.  John “did enjoy digging, hurrying home, and planting those bushes that were so tastefully arranged by the direction of Mrs. C who was the “governor of the garden”.  As John became very handy around the house "he grew to appear to his mother to be one of the necessities around home, which gave him very little more school.  As time rolled on he began to feel right at home on the farm and in the garden. In fact, he got to be very familiar with the washtub and with the art of working the bread for his mother."

Andrew Caswell Family in the 1871 Census of Biddulph

Andrew	70	Farmer	Ireland
Mary	58		Ireland
James	35	Storekeeper	Ireland
Samuel	34	Photographer	Ireland
William	25	Farmer	Ireland
John	21	Farmer	Atlantic Ocean
Andrew	19	Farmer	Canada
Alexander	17	Printer	Canada
Mary Jane	15		Canada
David	12		Canada
Joseph	9		Canada
Robert	7		Canada

     In 1874 at the age of 76 Andrew and Mary Jane sold their land in Biddulph and moved to Palmerston.  Part of their lot was sold to Alexander Grant and the other part to Joseph Lawton.  

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