MF – 1865.01.12 – The Emigrant Aid Society Settlements – #115 – F12250

The Immigrant Aid Society Settlements

We publish to-day two reports of the present condition of those settlements which we recommend to the careful consideration of the working men of the community and the friends of the working men.

One is a detailed report of the condition of some of the settlements for which Robert Bowes, Esq., has been appointed a special commissioner by the government. He has frequently visited the settlements under his charge, [counselling] and assisting the settlers, laying out the roads, &c. The other is a summary of the state of affairs in the flourishing settlement of Johnsville, Carleton County.

We now ask the working men of the city who have this great opportunity of escaping from a life of [dependance] and poorly requited labour and hesitate to embrace it – who may secure the welfare of children now exposed to so many dangers – many of whom no effort can save from ruin if they remain in the city – if they only resolve to do so, who can escape from the filth and misery and wretchedness of dirty alleys and crowded yards to the pure air and healthy occupation of a country life if they choose to do so, and who, while they yet have health and strength, can secure an honorable independence for their old age – who can become if they wish, the owners in fee of farms and own nothing to any man, to read carefully those statement s and even now determine to do what these reports so clearly show is for the beat.

The men who went to those settlements scarcely three years ago were then no better off than those who remained behind, and they had difficulties to overcome and discouragements to conquer which men who now go to the settlements will know nothing about. They were the first to go into the wilderness; sometimes they were quite alone. They had no roads and their nearest neighbours lived miles away and could to little to help them. Now the roads are open the settlements are almost like villages and many of the settlers are already so well off that they can and do assist new settlers.

They had energy, determination and spirit, and already they are independent, – some of them even comparatively wealthy. They have farms on which no man has a claim; houses, cattle, and barns full of grain and roots. Which of all the men who put down their names as applicants for land three years ago and then frightened at some shadow, held back, has since done as well as e en the least successful of these settlers? Which of them is as well off to-day? Not one.

Besides those of whom return is made as settlers, there is a large number who have made clearings on their farms and other preparations to settle.

The settlements are some of the very best land in the Province. The land has been carefully selected, and the settler now has the choice of all that still remains unoccupied. He has also the certainty of a thickly settled neighbourhood, of church, school, post office, good roads, &c. There never was on this continent such an opportunity offered to working men to secure an independence, and the men who hesitated to avail themselves of it – who prefer to hang about town seeking employment, often in vain, consuming in winter all the money saved in summer – will one day when old age has come upon them or a bad season has reduced them to want, have cause bitterly to repent of their folly.

Mr. Bowes assures us that he could point out several farms in the settlements under his charge, on which, with any degree of industry settlers would certainly become wealthy in a few years so rich and almost inexhaustible is the soil.

To His Lordship The Bishop Of St. John,
President of the Immigrant Aid Association.
MY LORD: – I hasten to inform you that I have just arrived, after a hour through the Immigrants’ Settlements, formed under the auspices of that Society of which you are President. – I now proceed to lay before the Board of Directors of that Society, the happy result of their labour.

The following is the progress of the respective parties hereafter mentioned, showing the Agricultural produce raised this year:

Hardwood Ridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harley Road

 

 

 

 

All the above resides in the Counties of Sunbury, Queen’s and Salisbury.
Washademoak and Monteagle, are not yet reported on.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
– ROBERT BOWES.

St. John, November 11th, 1864.

The following is the return of the persons actually residing in this Settlement, of the produce raised in 1864:

Married men – 80
Single men – 65
Children – 280
Acres Cleared – 1,518

Bushes of:
potatoes – 13,860
turnips – 11,612
oats – 12,324
wheat – 2,000
buckwheat – 2,200
barley – 300
rye – 150

tons of hay – 50
tons of straw – 247
framed houses – 5
log houses – 80
framed barns – 4
log barns – 80
horses – 21
oxen – 42
cows – 90
young cattle – 50
sheep – 70
swine – 120