Women’s diaries are a wonderful resource for those of us who would like to understand what it was like to live in a bygone era. Women would write about what could have been considered the commonality of their daily schedule. Journal entries might include recipes, details of chores completed, who came to visit or what was the new rage in hats for that season. Sickness, births and deaths, weddings, harvests, all the events and tasks that marked the span of a woman’s day could find a place of note. These small details, the minutia of a life lived, when combined paint a picture of a place and an existence fixed in time.
Merinda Williams was born in 1842 near Iona, Ontario. She married Thomas Pearce in 1865. Thomas came from fine pioneer stock being the grandson of John Pearce who along with the Patterson, Storey and Backus families help found the Talbot Settlement. For the last 14 years of her life, Merinda kept a personal journal. Her entries are brief for the most part but clearly illustrate what life was like between 1892 and 1906 here in the Dutton Dunwich area.
Today is March 12, 2010. It is a Friday. The week has been wonderfully mild and graced by sun lit skies until today. The sky is overcast but the fine drizzle that fell this morning seems to have moved on. The shoreline here is home to strong winds that can gust for days but there has only been a sigh of a breeze for the past several days. The mild weather and drizzle have made a hazard for walking with mud and slick leaves but deeper down the soil is still frozen and hard. There are small shallow patches of snow in the open fields despite the recent mild weather and under the tree line and shaded woodlot paths it lays a little deeper.
In 1893, March 12th was a Sunday. The weather for that week was bright but it seemed that the snow was lingering longer. The names of towns and families that are still common to the area shout out of the text. Reading Merinda’s entries for the same time of year one cannot help but see that time laid like a curtain over the contemporary landscape.
Here are excerpts from Merinda’s diary for this week in March over 100 years ago…
“ 8th- Bright & nice. Men getting noggins scalded, Sammy staid home to help. Had to shovel snow around camp. Been a great winter for snow. Good sleighing began last December and staid firm on till now. Mr Andrew Lunn brought James Lunns wife & baby in afternoon & had tea with us. Very nice baby, glad to see them. Rain commenced before they went away. Nearly 10pm and Sammy & Willy are out bathing old Dolls leg with hot water. Thomas not well.
9th- White frost yesterday and today. Thomas paid Jackson after breakfast and let him go, he has very little sense, poor man, too messy for anything. Thomas tapped 110 trees and had noggins scattered. In afternoon we saw someone coming up lane and behold it was Bertha, Frances, Eva & Stewart Pearce. Willie, Leslie, & Harry Sifton had started to drive up the lane with democrat and broke down in gully. So girls had to walk to the house, of course they all had to look over the house in every nook and corner. (as does everyone who come around) From cellar to garret. Staid until 11, Thomas and Sammy led them to road.
March 10th 1893- Fine. Mr Sloan helped tap trees and got all big bush but 40 trees done. Sammy rode to P.O. in evening, took Damas beef.
11th- Thomas to Shedden in morning, Mr Sloan & boys gathered 26 buckets of sap. Rain came on at 9 and continued all day and evening."
The sap is running here and now in Dutton Dunwich. Conversation at the local eatery touches on the weather, how many trees got tapped and how fast (or slow) the sap is running. While many things have changed it also seems that just as many stay the same.
Merinda Pearce's diary is one of numerous interesting documents archived at the Elgin County Archives in St Thomas Ontario. If you'd like to venture a little further afield visit the Archives of Ontario to discover even more resources.
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