A New Home
A road to connect Halifax and Annapolis Royal was started in 1815. The British, at the time, thought it a good idea, so that if war broke out with the USA, it would be easier and faster to get soldiers to fight. Thus it was that Dalhousie, named for the Earl of Dalhousie (who was Governor of Nova Scotia at the time), came to be settled in 1817 as disbanded soldiers were given land grants along this road. When the discharged soldiers first arrived they had only a blazed trail to guide them to Dalhousie as the land was covered in dense forest. Once there they had to find their lots which had been mapped out by an earlier expedition to the area and then start clearing the land. Before the soldiers came the place had been the home of the Mi’kmaw peoples.
Working with only the strength of your arms and the occasional help from your friends and if lucky,
a horse or two to help pull out the trees stumps, must have been an extremely arduous task! They worked their best so that they would have a roof over their heads before winter. This was the make of those men from whom we have descended.
As stated above, each soldier received a grant of 100 acres (with the officers receiving a larger grant) as well as provisions for three years. First the land had to be cleared to build the cabin. The smaller trees were used for fuel and the bigger ones to grow the four walls. A chimney was added to one side of the cabin with a fireplace for heat and cooking.
Later they cleared more of their land to plant grain and vegetables. They learned to grow or make nearly all that they needed as anything else had to be carried over land on their backs.
During the first years, the closest town was Annapolis and that was a long trek by foot through the woods, along over grown and twisting trails.
Once the cabin was built they sent word for their families to join them. A story is told of one of the wives (the first white woman to come to the area). It was said that she crossed the river Forty-Seven on a floating log while carrying her baby in her arms. She had refused to give him up to a soldier who had offered to help. This lady was Margaret Ryan, wife of James Long. The baby was John Long whose descendants later were joined to the Gaul family.
Although these discharged Irish soldiers and their families were the first to open up the area, Dalhousie soon became a diversified community as other nationalities slowly moved into the region. Thus the names of Leadbetter, Blicker, Zwicker, Russell, Walker, Kaulback and many more came to till the land and in time, to occupy its graveyards.
Click to enlarge this map.
Those first years all travel was by foot, as it was not until later that they had horses. The closest town was Annapolis and that was a long trek by foot through the woods, along over grown and twisting trails. Their provisions had to be carried on their backs or hauled home on home made carts or sleds. Later when they had horses in the community, they sent messages by a messenger on horseback.
The first mail was once a week. The messenger usually rode horse back; especially, in winter as the roads were quite impassible otherwise. On one occasion the mail carrier brought a spinning wheel a distance of fifteen miles for a lady friend. How he did that on horse back is not quite known. Much later the community went from semi-weekly mail to tri-weekly and finally, in the present era, daily mail delivery.
Life was hard in this new land. The men and women worked from dawn to dusk but they also were great people for gatherings and parties. They had chopping parties, brush piling parties, stumping parties, etc. to help with all the work. The men and boys did this work on the land while the girls and women usually met the same day and spent the time doing domestic work such as making quilts, mats and weaving woolen garments. In the evening they all joined in dancing. Someone usually played the violin and kept the party moving.
The first settlers did not have stoves to cook on or furnaces to heat their homes. The fire was built in a massive fireplace constructed of brick with a large brick oven. They had irons standing upright in the fireplace on which they hung their pots. They turned large pieces of wood and the cheerful blasé gave light and heat to their room. Very often during the long winter nights the wives and maidens sat around the fire sewing by the light of the fire only. Their only other light being candles they made from tallow which they only used as needed because of the effort involved in making them. Their brooms were made of birch wood, shaved and bound in a brush shape.
The community had a grist mill where they ground their own grain. It was not unusual for them not to see white flour for months on end. Sugar and spices were luxuries which came their way very rarely, and then carried on their backs or on horse drawn carts. They did make their own brown sugar by boiling down the syrup from the many maple trees that grew well in the region.
Their clothing was all home made. The families kept sheep and the women carded, spun, wove and knit the yarn.
