The Story of Markham - Pioneer Kids: Community Life

          Life on a pioneer farm could be very isolated. In some cases it was more than a mile between families. Each family was hard-working and independent, but for work that required many hands, we came together to get the job done. Cooperation among the people who lived in our community was necessary for the survival of everyone.

         We met with our neighbours for an event called a ‘bee’. We gathered to help each other complete a variety of different tasks. The singing, joking, and the company turned a long, difficult job into a much faster and more enjoyable one.

Markham Museum and Historic Village

Men held logging bees and bees for various kinds of work. Raising bees were held to build houses and barns because the logs and wooden frames were so heavy.

Women sometimes held bees for quilt-making.

Photo Courtesy
Black Creek Pioneer Village

Photo Courtesy
Black Creek Pioneer Village

One kind of bee that was enjoyed by all, including us children, was the apple-bee. People came from all around with homemade apple peeling machines. The boys sat around the tables to peel the apples, which they then tossed to the girls who cored and sliced them to prepare them for drying on strings. After the work was done, everyone sat down to a large meal followed by dancing, singing, and skits.

Getting from One Place to Another

Other than going to school and the occasional visit to the general store, we didn’t leave the farm very often. In the spring the roads were very muddy. It was easy to get stuck in the deep ruts made by the wagon wheels. Some of the roads were covered with logs, called “corduroy” roads, which helped keep the wagons from sinking into the mud. Sometimes it was simply easier to walk.

Photo Courtesy
Black Creek Pioneer Village,

Because of the poor conditions of the roads , traveling far from home took a long time. It was a special occasion to take the horse and wagon into the city and the trip took several hours. If our trip took long enough, we had to stay overnight in one of the hotels along the way. The hotels had a stable at the back to shelter the horses for the night.

There were long tables for serving dinner from the large kitchen, and rooms upstairs for overnight quests. These hotels were always busy places.

You might find it surprising to know that it was easier for us to travel in winter than at any other time of year. In winter the mud was frozen and the ruts were filled with snow. Instead of wagons, in winter we used a sleigh with runners that glided along the snow. It was possible to travel much faster in the winter once the snow became packed down. The unpleasant part of winter travel was the cold. We wrapped ourselves in heavy blankets, and we put a brick, that had been heated by the fire, at our feet to help keep some of the chill away. There was also a danger that we could get caught in a snow storm, get stuck in a snow drift, or worse, fall through the ice on a frozen pond or river.

Going to Church

Every Sunday, my family went to church in a small wooden building. Our congregation built it when a family donated a piece of land on the corner of their farm. The outside of the church was very plain and there was no tower or steeple. Inside, there were rows of pews for us to sit on. Each row of pews had a small door at each end to keep out the cold draughts in winter and to keep my little brother from running down the aisle.

Photo Courtesy
Black Creek Pioneer Village

At the front there was a pulpit where the minister stood to give his sermons. Sometimes he would preach for over an hour and I had to sit up straight and pay attention the whole time! When we sang a hymn we all stood and sang to the music played on an instrument called a dulcimer. We didn’t have hymnbooks because they were too expensive; but we knew all the words anyway.

The General Store

Photo Courtesy
Black Creek Pioneer Village

Most of the things we ate and used at home we could grow or make ourselves, but there were some things we had to buy from the general store. The general store carried a wide variety of items. There were tins, boxes, jars and barrels filled with things such as

sugar, molasses, flour and even whiskey. In the same store you could find tools such as ploughs and shovels.

We could take eggs, butter, apples, cheese and grain from our farm and sell them to the storekeeper. We could also trade those things for other items that we needed. This kind of trade was called barter.

The general store in the nearest village was also the location of the post office. It had been a long time since we had seen some of our family, so the post office allowed us to keep in contact with them.