Chapter 9 - School House Burns, Farm Work, Sparking and Family Feasts

The next year our school was burned and the town hall was fitted up to continue under a new teacher who was in no way Mr Whyte's equal, so that spring brought my school days to an end and sent me to the hard drudgery of farm work only relieved by an occasional  Barn Raising or  Logging Bee 

Barn Raising

where all the men and big boys would be gathered to raise the frame of a new barn or to help someone to clear up a piece of land and the women would strive with each other as to who could provide the most sumptuous feast for such occasions and always ending up with a dance at night.

Needless to say the city or village girls did not attend these gatherings.

One Logging Bee made for a rather poor family in Craig, a concession north of ours - the fiddler who was to provide the music for the dance did not come so an old maid Scotch lady aged about 60 undertook to 'Lilt' for the dance which she did for the night keeping time with her foot to her Lilting which is neither singing or whistling but something a cross between the two, something that can be heard but not described.

Logging Bee

The Irish Wake

Adjoing our township of Lochaber was an Irish settlement - Connaught- which in customs was more old country Irish than was ours Scotch. A boy of about twelve in one of the families there named Cassidy died and according to customs a 'Wake' was held which Angus McLean and I went to. We got there about 8 pm and found about a dozen young folks gathered there for the wake- which consisted of first paying a visit to respect the body which was laid out in an inner room with lighted candles around it and watched over by the grand mothers, after which couples paired off to engage in what then was called 'sparking' in modern language 'petting'.  As there were more girls there than boys we were in luck as it was dangerous for us outsiders to try in ring in on any young man's friend.Cake and watered 'Whisky Blanc' was served several times during the night and as all the family had retired early an enjoyable time was spent interrupted every once in a while by the grandmother breaking out with the cry -"Oh Wirra - Wirra-for why did come for to go to die?" - and end up with a noise between a howl, a cry and a whine  When this break would occur the girls would shake their heads and say "she's Keening" altogether it was a weird combination of mourning and joviality.


New Year Celebrations
The first New Years after our return from California we had a family gathering at the old homestead of  grandfather McLean ( 1786-1879, grandfather of his mother ) and their eleven sons and daughters with their wives and husbands, but one son single and one daughter a widow, in addition to which was a brother and sister of grandmother's, a couple of her nephews and grandchildren by the score. Mothers and the girls counted up afterwards and found they had one hundred and seventeen(117) for dinner that day. A number of the family brought turkeys and dishes with them and mothers with two grown up nieces  to help spent nearly a week before baking and cooking for the occasion. There was enough left over to numbers of folks who stayed over for the next day.

These New Year's gatherings became a regular event until grandfather's death although never as many at a time as was this first one. As all had to come in sleighs, in the afternoon the young folks would take a number of the larger sleighs and go for a long drive from ten to twenty in a sleigh, plenty of buffalo robes and horses loaded down with bells making an hilarious crowd and a joyous outing. As the modern songs were unknown at that time hymns would be sung with a spirit and vigour that made the Valkyries ring. None who had part in these gatherings ever forgot the abundance of good cheer and warm welcome found there.


Family worship was the regular thing, morning after breakfast the head of the household would read a chapter from the Bible and then a prayer- same thing before retiring at night. When father would be away, which was frequent, grandfather would officiate- both reading and praying in Gaelic. In fact the old folks used Gaelic among themselves.

Chapter 8 - Arriving back in Canada and getting to know Annie

When at last we arrived home we took over from my grandfather, James Currie  the farm upon which he had settled forty years before, then a dense forest but which with the help of his family more than half cleared and cropped.

At this point I will halt grandfather's story to tell you a bit about his family history. His great great great grandfather Richard Currey (1709 - 1806) of Scottish background lived in Westchester New York. His son Joshua(1741 - 1802) fought on the wrong side in the American revolution. The story goes:  At the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, Joshua Currey sided with the British, but the rest of the family sympathized with the colonists.  During these troublesome times Mr Currey had several narrow escapes for his life. At one time he had to hide himself under the floor of his house to escape the fury of the revolutionists, and his son David Currey(1767-1827)was nearly killed killed by them by being buried in a sandpit. Joshua and his family managed to make good on their escape and joining a band of Loyalists reached St John, New Brunswick in Oct 23, 1783 where he remained for one year and then removed to Gagetown, New Brunswick where he died in 1802. He left large Estates in New York but he succeeded in carrying away with him in flight a large sum of money. He had a family of five sons and two daughters.Below is a picture of the house he built for his family in Gagetown in1789. His son David Currey had a son David but changed the name to Currie. This David (1796- 1886) was Donald Hector's grandfather that he refers to in his memoirs. Just to complete this story his father was James John Currie (1827 - 1918).

Donald Hector' was born in 1860 in Lochaber Quebec shortly after his father James Currie (1827 - 1918) moved from Gagetown, New Brunswick to Quebec.  Back to Grandad's memoirs  That fall and winter I went to school in Thurso walking about two miles over what was a badly drifted snow road. In fact during the winters the road was made through the fields and the roads would be so drifted that the fences along side were covered. It was a long cold walk alone every day as Dollie and Jessie (his sisters) stayed with our uncle in Thurso. I felt as though I would never could get warm although the boys did not seem to mind the cold; It was at school that winter I first met the future Mrs Currie, then a little girl - who like all the other girls- wore her hair in a long single braid with a bow of ribbons at the end. We boys when the chance offered took a delight in tying several of these 'pigtails" as we called them , together or pinning them to their seats. The school was held in what had been a Presbyterian Church and accommodated about sixty scholars ranging in age from five to eighteen years with but one teacher and classes from the ABC's to the fifth book. How she managed to hear them all is now a mystery but was then considered normal. The next two years were spent working on the farm and in spare time attending a country school near home with very few diversions as the whole country was then undergoing hard times very similar to the those of the present depression. ( he wrote this in the 1930's ) Soup kitchens in the cities and the countryside overrun with tramps - men looking for work or failing that something to eat. The third year the Thurso school was reorganized and the advanced scholars were separated in what was called an academy in Quebec Province; It was formed with a professor in charge and I again returned to school there. Under Professor Whyte's efficient guidelines more real knowledge was acquired than in all previous school years put together. At this time the future Mrs Currie had advanced sufficiently in wisdom and stature to be in the same classes and commenced there weaving those spells that brought all the boys in the form to her feet. Our school was on a rocky eminence on the edge of the village and to reach it we had to cross a deep ravine which during the spring thaws was a swift flowing stream over which planks were placed as a foot bridge. One day when we came down to cross over we found our bridge had been swept away so we boys each took a girl in our arms and waded across. I grabbed my chosen one - the first time I had her in my arms - and carried her across quoting her the lines from Longfellow "Over wide and rushing rivers, in his arms he took the maiden"; This sort of gave me a fixed place in her heart and in mine a feeling of an affinity 'which age hath not withered nor hath time staled'

Chapter 7. Returning from California to Canada

All was left behind and we took passage over the Union Pacific Railway for Canada, a trip which took us thirteen days and fourteen nights travelling with a lay off for most of one day Chicago where we changed from the UPR to the Grand Trunk. The big fire that had destroyed the greater part of the city had taken place the year before and at this time there was nothing but ashes and ruins of burned buildings.

The Great Chicago Fire

The summer of 1871 was very dry, leaving the ground parched and the wooden city vulnerable. On Sunday evening, October 8, 1871, just after nine o'clock, a fire broke out in the barn behind the home of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary at 13 DeKoven Street. How the fire started is still unknown today, but an O'Leary cow often gets the credit.

The firefighters, exhausted from fighting a large fire the day before, were first sent to the wrong neighborhood. When they finally arrived at the O'Leary's, they found the fire raging out of control. The blaze quickly spread east and north. Wooden houses, commercial and industrial buildings, and private mansions were all consumed in the blaze. 

 The Rush for Life Over the Randolph Street Bridge, 1871 (Harper's Weekly, from a sketch by John R. Chapin)

In crossing the plains of Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa - all the unsettled - we could see herds of Buffalo in every direction and antelope would run along side the train for miles at a stretch. There was also the prarie dogs sitting up at their holes watching the train go by. It was a great disappointment to myself and some other boys that the train never stopped out on the praries so that we could examine these prarie dog holes as it was said that every hole was occupied by an owl and a rattle snake but there were plenty of little grey owls buzzing around. In crossing the Rocky Mountains we saw the first snow we had seen seen since leaving Canada four and a half years before - the tops of the mountains being little covered though it was mid August.
American Bison skulls, circa 1870

 The annihilation of the vast Buffalo herds offered a dual benefit to the United States, the killing of the Buffalo also helped destroy Native American societies.