I’ve always loved visiting pioneer villages, but I’ve never really longed for the rustic life for myself. Sure, a hermit’s hut in the peaceful woods may sound pleasant at first, especially during a pandemic, but the lack of modern urban conveniences quickly cancels out its advantages. (I didn’t even like camping much as a child and certainly don’t miss summer farm work in my youth, either.) Before I started digging around in my family history, I had never imagined that some of my own ancestors had inhabited log cabins. But several had!
Take my great-great-grandmother, Mary Cairns, for one example. Mary was born on 12 July 1855. There’s no birth record for her to be found, so she first shows up in the records as a 5 year old child in the 1861 census. There, she is listed as living with her parents Hugh and Ann Cairns. Both parents were born in Ireland, and Hugh is described as a farmer. Mary’s siblings are Samuel, Margaret, Hugh, Eliza and Sarah.
The agricultural schedule of the census shows that the family farm is located on Concession 5, Lot 11, in Storrington in the County of Frontenac. This is about 20 km north of Kingston. The family has 50 acres, valued at $500, and are growing wheat, peas and potatoes on it.
There is no sketch of the family homestead, unfortunately, but based on historic records, it likely resembled the log cabin at the top of this page—more or less. With two parents and six children, you can imagine how crowded this must have been.
On Mary’s maternal side, her mother Ann (nee Connell) had relatives living close by—well, relatively speaking. You can see their land on the map above. (I haven’t been able to find any information about Hugh’s parents. It’s possible Hugh immigrated to Canada alone.) So did Mary visit her Connell aunts and uncles and cousins when she was young? Possibly. However, this is farm and forest country, so travelling to even nearby farms was difficult in those days. Mary’s mom and dad and siblings were probably isolated most of the time, and too busy with work to do much socializing at all.
In 1865, when Mary was only 9 years old, her mother Ann died. There is no death record, but the year of Ann’s death is inscribed on the family tombstone. The oldest girl, Margaret, would have been 14 years old, and likely had to become a substitute mother for the children. The youngest, Sarah, was only 6 years old.
In the 1871 census, oddly enough, Mary is not listed on the census with her widowed father, who is still living with 5 of his children under his roof (the children are now aged 11 to 23 years old). Mary would be 16 years old at this point. Where is she? I can’t find her in any of the census records across Canada, either. It’s like she’s fallen off the map.
By 1875, though, Mary was 20 years old. Her son William Amos Liscomb was born that year, in Winchester, Ontario, which is about 170 km away from the Cairns family farm. The distance is great when you think about the difficulty of travel during this time. Baby William’s father is also named William Liscomb. We can assume from this birth date that Mary and William must have wed when Mary was around 19 or even younger perhaps. How did Mary and her husband William ever meet? It’s a mystery.
Mary and William went to have several more children, including my great-grandmother Lizzie, who bore my grandmother Margaret, who gave birth to my father Garnet Spencer. Mary lived to the great age (for that era) of 77 years. She died in the town of Chesterville, Ontario, in 1932. The world had changed so much in the span of her lifetime. Did she recall her youth, and tell her children and grandchildren tales of growing up in a log cabin?
Guylaine Spencer 