Farming Fridays

This week we are featuring an agricultural tool called a winnowing basket which is used to separate grain from the chaff. After being harvested, farmers would bring the grain into the barn to be threshed, which involves beating the grain with a flail to loosen the grains from the husks. It would then be placed into the winnowing basket where the farmer would toss the recently flailed grain up from the basket into the air. With both barn doors open it would create a cross breeze which would allow for the wind to blow the light chaff away and the grains would fall back into the basket. The grain would then be ready for the grist mill where it would be turned into flour. Different techniques included; using a winnowing fan (a shaped basket shaken to raise the chaff, like the one from our collection shown in the picture) or using a tool (a winnowing fork or shovel) on a pile of harvested grain.

Today, in developed areas, the process of threshing and winnowing grain is mostly done by machine usually by a combine harvester, which harvests, threshes, and winnows the grain all while it is still in the field. 

Glengarrians & The Great War

This photograph features Pte. Oliver Barton  & Pte. Gilbert Fraser Barton, a set of brothers from Lochinvar in Glengarry County. Both Bartons served in the Great War, and lost their lives as a result of the tragic conflict.  They were the sons of Margaret Sarah Fraser & Robert Barton, who also had seven other children.

Pte. Gilbert Fraser Barton, shown on the right, was the older brother of the two. He was born on December 29^th, 1895. At 20 years old, he enlisted into the Canadian Army at the Ottawa Recruitment Office.  He spent a portion of the next two years serving in different battalions, and suffered a bout of Scarlet Fever.  On March 30^th 1918, Barton received gunshot wounds to his side, and was removed from the field. On April 1^st, he passed away in hospital from his injuries.

Oliver, who is pictured on the left, enlisted into the army when he was 18 years and 9 months. He was assigned right away to the 137^th Battalion for The Theatre of War in France.  He served for most of 1916, until October 8^th, when he is reported missing and then listed as “Killed in Action.” There is no further information available on Pte. Oliver Barton.

Author’s Note:

The Barton brothers, as well as the other soldiers that will be featured on this blog, are remembered for their strength and devotion to their country. This blog does not aim to glorify the war- all wars are tragic and horrific periods of history- but to remember and pay tribute to those lost in these agonizing conflicts. It is to ensure that their stories are heard, and their lives are cherished.

Farming Fridays

Before tractors, farms needed some form of power to run mechanical equipment. Horsepower was the most versatile and plentiful form of power at the time. They required a little water and some hay for fuel and they’d be good to go. Generally, very simplistic and scalable, so if you needed more power you would simply get more horses.

This is a treadmill powered by a horse walking on an inclined conveyor. This unit would power something like a threshing machine which is used to separate the grain seed from the stalks. This treadmill is part of the extensive collection of antique farm equipment here at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum and was donated by Norman M. MacLeod.

A horse would be put in the middle of the treadmill and as you can see in the photograph, the wooden treads on the conveyor where the horse walks are clearly well-worn. As the horse walks, a wheel on the side would move and a system of belts and pulleys attached the treadmill to the specific machine the farmer wanted to run. There were a few different forms of treadmills, one which the horse would be walking flat, and another like our treadmill shown in the photograph where the horse would walk on in incline in order to utilize both the pulling power and the weight of the horse which would increase efficiency. Once steam engines and tractors were developed, horse treadmills were no longer used, although the importance of the quantitative unit “horsepower” came to be developed and is still used today.

Farming Fridays!

As our main mission is to preserve the early settlement of Glengarry County and share it with the community, we are introducing a weekly post which will feature many of the unique agricultural artifacts from our collection here at the museum. To start things off we will share some history of our Campbell barn which houses the museum’s large collection of tools.

            Although the date that the Campbell barn was constructed is unknown, it is estimated that the barn was built shortly after 1844 when the lot it was originally on was handed over from Crown land to Mr. John Campbell. This barn was used to house the Campbell’s livestock. The Campbell farm was primarily a dairy farm so inside you will find many of the tools that would have been used on a dairy farm. The Campbell farm, including the barn, remained in the possession of the Campbell family for 90 years. When Hwy.417 was going to be built in 1962 it was saved from destruction and donated to the museum by Leslie Clark.

Glengarrians & The Great War

Pte. John Archibald MacDonald

Our first blog post features Pte. John Archibald MacDonald. Mr. MacDonald was born to Mrs. And Mr. Archie MacDonald who lived on Lot 27 in the 3^rd Concession of Kenyon Township. He was the brother of Mrs. Annie MacDonald Langstaff- the first woman to graduate from the McGill Faculty of Law. Pte. J. A. MacDonald was killed in action in 1917. This portrait was taken in Alexandria around 1915.

There is memorabilia of Pte. John Archibald MacDonald on display at the museum as part of our “Glengarrians and the Great War” exhibit.  This includes his commemorative medals, pocket knife and memorial plaque- also known as a “Dead Man’s Penny.” These plaques looked similar to a Canadian penny, which is how they earned their nickname, and were issued to the next-of-kin of all British and Empire service personnel who were killed as a result of the war. They were graciously donated to the museum by Sister Clair MacDonald.

Melodeon

This is a melodeon, a type of 19th century reed organ, which is on display at the museum in the Star Inn. It is covered in rosewood veneered casework. Its marker's mark states that the melodeon was made by "Andrus Bros in London CW"- CW stands for  "Canada West" which referred to the region of Ontario before Confederation. This information puts the melodeon's date from around 1865-1868.  It was originally purchased for Mrs. B. Sara Jane Nicholson by her father, Henry Nicholson. The cost of this instrument was $50 in gold and 100 bushes in grain. There were no local established banks or currency at the time it was purchased.

It was donated to the museum by Mrs. Mabel A.D. (Barrett) Stewart in memory her mother, Mrs John Barrett.

Moustache Monday

Mr. Allan MacRae's cane and picture was on display at the museum this past weekend for the annual Glengarry Wood Fair, and it was decided that his moustache is just too wonderful not to have him featured in a Moustache Monday post. Mr. Allan MacRae lived an intriguing  life, earning some interesting nicknames such as Black Allan the Dogs, Allan Gorrach, Allan the Dog or Allan na Coin. He was even represented as a character (Allan Gorrach) in Ralph Connor's novel Glengarry School Days in 1902, as a wild eccentric who lived in a shack. Allan MacRae seems to have this mysterious air about him, represented in oral history as a homeless wanderer who travelled the countryside, finding lodging wherever the curiosity or charity of people allowed. He made  wooden objects such as  potato mashers and butter ladles, fixed chairs using elm trees, and also had the habit of disposing unwanted dogs by selling their hides or turning them into mitts. Less known, but equally as interesting, he apparently had a lovely singing voice in both English and Gaelic, was an exceptional storyteller and brought the news to the townspeople. At one point of his life, he actually did lived in a cabin in the woods- Lot 11 in the 19th Concession of Indian Lands near Maxville- which assisted the portrayal of him in Glengarry School Days.

No matter this man's history, he had wonderful facial hair and a grim stare which earned him a spot on our Moustache Monday post.  The museum has collected a few of his things, including the cane shown in this photo, and some chairs that he is believed to have fixed. At your next visit to the museum, be sure to ask the staff about this interesting man, and to point out of these historical chairs!

 

Moustache Monday

 

Not only was Dr.Donald McDiarmid (1840—1910) a bearer of magnificent facial hair, he was also a physician, school inspector, and a military captain. He was born in 1840 in the town of Killin, Scotland. He earned his education in Canada, and became a graduate in Medicine from McGill University in 1867. He practiced medicine in Cornwall, then Athol, and in 1892 moved the practice to Maxville. Besides his medical work, Dr. D. McDiarmid also  inspected public schools in Ontario for many years. In 1868, he joined a militia company that formed in Dunvegan in response to the Fenian threat. He remained in the militia until 1884, rising to the rank of major. It was remembered that in this company, all the men “spoke the Gaelic with greater fluency than they did English.”

One of Dr. D. McDiarmid’s sons—William (born 1867) followed his father’s path in becoming a graduate of McGill and medical doctor in Maxville. Dr. Willie, as he became known, was also involved in politics. In 1940, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal for Glengarry. Shortly after election, he gave up his seat to Mr. Mackenzie King,  who was Prime Minister of Canada at the time.

Another portrait of Dr. Donald McDiarmid

Windsor Settee Deacon's Bench

There are many beautiful and wonderful pieces of furniture in our collection here at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum.  One of such pieces is the bench shown above. It belonged to the early MacMillan family, and was likely used in a church as a deacon's bench.  It is a Windsor settee; it has a broad crest rail  that is characteristic to the earlier form of Windsor style, and scrolled arms and flat stretches which were only introduced later, putting the date of this bench in the second quarter of the 19th century.

The most interesting feature of  the furniture we have in our collection are the marks and scratches on their surfaces, created by the many people who had used these pieces before us. This bench is quite worn, which suggests it was well-used and well-loved, and leaves us to wonder who had sat on this bench, and what experiences have happened around it.

Most of the information above was taken from" The Heritage of Upper Canadian Furniture" by Howard Pain, where this bench, and several of our other artifacts, are featured. This book can be found in our reference collection.

Moustache Monday

This is a photo of Danny Long Donald MacMillan and his family. Mr. MacMillan is sitting in the middle of the group, with an delightful moustache above his lip. Danny Long Donald MacMillan was born in 1858, and lived at Lot 24 Concession 4, Lochiel, with his wife Mary Jane (her surname is unknown) and his children.  He had inherited the land from his father, Long Donald MacMillan (born in 1821), who also had lived at Lot 24, and was a member of the Church of Scotland as well as a local weaver.  This photo is assumed to have been taken around 1895 in the Duncan Donovan studio.

This family's records were found in the St.Colomba Cemetery Register. If you are looking to do some genealogy work on your family from Glengarry County, feel free to contact the museum and arrange an appointment to browse the many records we have in our reference collection.