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).
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' |
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