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Johnny Moon Part 2
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PART TWO; BARNARDO BOY, JOHNNY MOON, ARRIVES IN MUSKOKA, DECEMBER 1897
A CITY CHILD IN THE VAST HINTERLAND OF WHAT WAS STILL PIONEER MUSKOKA
NOTE: IF YOU MISSED PART ONE, OF THE "DIARY OF JOHNNY MOON," YOU CAN ARCHIVE BACK TO YESTERDAY'S BLOG TO CATCH-UP!
IF YOU HAVE EVER SUFFERED FROM HOMESICKNESS, SAY, IN YOUR ADULT YEARS, IMAGINE THEN, THE SUFFERING OF A FOURTEEN YEAR OLD BOY, WHO HAS JUST RECENTLY BURIED HIS MOTHER, AND THEN HIS FATHER, AND WITHOUT THE RIGHT TO AN OPINION ON THE MATTER, BEEN SENT TO AN ORPHANAGE, BECAUSE NO ONE IN THE FAMILY WOULD AGREE TO LOOK AFTER YOU. AND THEN BEING SHUFFLED OFF TO THE COLONY, TO WORK AS FARM LABOUR? WHO COULD BLAME JOHNNY MOON FOR SUCCUMBING TO HIS HOMESICKNESS, AND REBELLING AGAINST THOSE WHO PUT HIM IN SUCH AN ADVERSE CIRCUMSTANCE, IN THE FIRST PLACE.
AS WITH MANY EMIGRANTS FROM EUROPE, TO CANADA, FROM THE LATE 1850'S, EVEN TO THE TURN OF THE CENTURY, THEY HAD BEEN URBAN DWELLERS IN THEIR COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN. THEY WERE COMING TO A FRONTIER THAT WAS HARSH IN SO MANY WAYS, WITHOUT THE URBAN LUXURIES, SUCH AS TRANSPORTATION LINKAGES, LIKE BRITAIN'S UNDERGROUND RAILWAY, (EVEN IN THE LATE 1800'S), SUPPLY COMPETITION, (COMPETITIVE PRICES FOR GOOD AND SERVICES), AND CERTAINLY MORE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES, THAN IN PIONEER VILLAGES AND FLEDGLING TOWNS ON THE ONTARIO SETTLEMENT FRONTIER. LIFE WAS HARD, AND JUST BECAUSE THE FIRST FORTY YEARS OF SETTLEMENT HAS PASSED, DIDN'T MEAN THAT LIFE HAD BECOME MUCH EASIER, THAN IT HAD BEEN IN THE 1860'S.
THE BARNARDO CHILDREN, SENT FROM THE ORPHANAGES OF ENGLAND, FOR EXAMPLE, HAD MANY MORE URBAN-RAISED CHILDREN IN THEIR CARE, THAN THOSE BORN AND RAISED RURALLY. PART OF THE EXTREME DIFFICULTY FOR THE TEENAGE CHILDREN, SENT TO CANADA, BY DR. BARNARDO, WAS THAT THEY WERE TOTALLY UNPREPARED, LIKE MANY OTHER HOMESTEADERS, FOR THE SEVERE CONDITIONS OF RURAL PRIVATIONS. THEY WERE NOT FAMILIAR WITH FARMING, AND THAT'S WHERE MANY OF THE YOUNG LADS FOUND THEMSELVES. IN MUSKOKA, THEY WERE SENT TO FARMSTEADS, THAT WERE STRUGGLING, BECAUSE IT CAN BE SAID WITH SOME ACCURACY, THAT IN A HARSH ENVIRONS OF ROCK, TREES, BOGLANDS, A SHORT GROWING SEASON, AND THIN, ARABLE SOIL, EVERY AGRICULTURAL ATTEMPT WAS BURDENED BY THE PREVAILING REALITIES, INCLUDING POOR AND SLOW ACCESS TO MARKETS. ANY BERNARDO CHILD, SENT TO ONE OF THESE LOCAL FARMS, WOULD HAVE BEEN EXPECTED TO PROVIDE A YEOMAN'S EFFORT IN RETURN FOR THE APPRENTICESHIP, FOOD AND LODGING. I WONDER IF THERE ARE STATISTICS ABOUT THE NUMBER OF BARNARDO YOUTH, SENT TO CANADIAN FARMS, WHO WERE SO INSPIRED BY THE CHANCE TO WORK IN AGRICULTURE, AS IT EXISTED THEN, THAT THEY SCRAPED UP ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY THEIR OWN FARMS BECAUSE OF THE POSITIVE EXPERIENCE? WELL, I'M BEING SARCASTIC HERE, AS YOU PROBABLY GUESSED. WHILE THERE WERE LIKELY POSITIVE EXPERIENCES, ON THESE FARM PROPERTIES, I THINK THEY WOULD BE FEW, AS COMPARED TO THE NUMBER OF ORPHANS PLACED IN AGRICULTURAL POSITIONS, WHO SUFFERED FROM THE SEVERE NATURE OF THE WORK, AND THE BRUTALLY LONG HOURS OF EACH DAY. PHYSICALLY, MOST OF THESE URBANIZED TEENAGERS, WERE NOT PREPARED FOR WHAT LAY AHEAD, ON THE ROCK STREWN, TREED HOMESTEAD ALLOCATIONS, WHERE EVEN LONG DAYS IN THE FIELD, AND SEVEN DAY DEMANDS, DID NOT MAKE MORE PROSPEROUS FARMS. THERE WAS A LOT OF PHYSICAL DEMAND ON THE SHOULDERS OF THESE ORPHANS, RE-LOCATED FROM THEIR HOME COUNTRY, TO THE COLONY, FOR WHAT SEEMED A PUNITIVE REACTION, BASED ONLY ON THEIR FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCE. THEY HAD'T COMMITTED A CRIME, YET THEY WERE BEING SHIPPED ACROSS THE OCEAN. JUDGE FOR YOURSELF, WHAT IT WAS LIKE ON THESE FARMS, AND IF YOU, UNDER SIMILAR CIRCUMSTANCES, WOULD HAVE RUN AWAY, OR ASKED THE BARNARDO FOLKS, FOR IMMEDIATE RE-ASSIGNMENT. ALTHOUGH HISTORIANS AREN'T REALLY SUPPOSED TO SIDE, IN CASES LIKE THIS, BECAUSE IT SHOW BIAS, FRANKLY, I DON'T CARE. I KNOW WHY JOHNNY MOON KEPT RE-LOCATING HIMSELF, AND I CAN'T BLAME HIM WHATSOEVER.
ARRIVING IN MUSKOKA
(THE DIARY OF JOHNNY MOON IS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE TOWN OF BRACEBRIDGE, AS PART OF THEIR ARCHIVES COLLECTION, SO RESPECTFULLY, I WILL ONLY QUOTE SMALL PASSAGES FROM THE ORIGINAL TEXT, WHICH WAS FOUND WHEN HIS SHANTY, ON THE NORTH BRANCH OF THE MUSKOKA RIVER, IN BRACEBRIDGE, WAS BEING CLEARED AWAY MANY YEARS AGO. THE DOCUMENT WAS GIVEN TO THE TOWN, AND WAS TRANSCRIBED INTO TYPED COPY FROM THE ORIGINAL. IT IS ONE OF THE TOWN'S MOST IMPORTANT RELICS OF WRITTEN HISTORY, REVEALING THE OTHER SIDE, OF THE TO-BE-EXPECTED, TRADITIONAL CHRONICLE OF COMMUNITY HISTORY. JOHNNY MOON'S DIARY IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF FOLK HISTORY, AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN TERRIBLE, FOR THE TOWN, IF THE DIARY HAD BEEN DESTROYED, IN THE PROCESS OF CLEARING THE RIVER ROAD PROPERTY. SO THANKS FOR SAVING THIS INCREDIBLE DOCUMENT FOR THE BENEFIT OF FUTURE GENERATIONS, WHO WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THEIR HOME TOWN)
In the opening paragraph, of the diary, noted after arriving in Muskoka, Johnny Moon pays particular reference to the fact it was a distance of 122 miles between Toronto and Bracebridge, and that by rail, with stops included, it takes four hours to cover the countryside. This is important because, as you will read later, Johnny Moon wasn't adverse whatsoever, of walking to and from Toronto if that soothed his passion, at any particular moment. He approved of the scenery, as it appeared out the passenger-car window, so he knew the obstacles he would face, if and when he took to the road, on his shoe leathers; what was left of them.
"As we rode along, the country took on a more wintry appearance. Just out of the city there had been but a little snow upon the ground; nearing Muskoka the snow lay deep. Darkness came on, but we could still see out on account of the snow; also there was a rising moon."
It was at around six o'clock in the evening, that the steam of the newly arrived train, encircled the roof-top of the Bracebridge train station, in the moonlight of what was a cold night to be out and about! The conductor travelled through the passenger car, letting the Barnardo travellers know, that they had arrived at their destination, and needed to disembark. When they climbed down the steps, to stand on the ice-covered platform, in front of the station, there were two men waiting for them. They were identified by Johnny Moon, as Adolphus and Byron Booth. There would undoubtedly have been a buffalo robe, or heavy wool blankets to snuggle beneath, for the sleigh ride through the snow laden countryside. The route they would have taken then, to the hamlet of Monsell, would have been wild by modest estimation, owing to the winding route, significant hillsides, and slippery declines, with very precarious ditches at the side of these roughly hewn cartways. For a couple of young Englishmen, this would have been both exciting and frightening at the same time. The temperature on a moonlit night in early December, would have been remarkably cold for those used to London winters.
"We got on a sleigh and after a short ride through the town, getting goods from some of the stores, we drove out into the country, by the way of the old concession, which I shall now call the Bracebridge-Monsell Road. So then, that evening of the 4th of December, 1897, I passed by a spot, just a short way out of town, which, about fourteen and a half years later, I was to build my first little home and live for eleven years. But that, of course, as well as many another event to come, I did not dream of, as the old saying goes, at that time," the teenage emigrant wrote in his journal. "This was my first sleigh ride. It was a cold, bright moonlight night. We travelled along a winding road over a rocky, hilly country. Seeing it for the first time, the country seemed a wild one to me. After a few short hours ride, we arrived at Byron Booth's farm at Monsell, where Willie Price (another Barnardo Boy) was to stay."
On this bitterly cold, early winter night, Johnny Moon stayed at the Booth farmstead, with Willie Price. He enjoyed a hot supper and then a hardy breakfast, before again heading out by sleigh, to the farm operated by Mrs. Stonehouse, further north to the hamlet of Fraserburg, on the South Branch of the Muskoka River. In the sleigh with Byron Booth, were his children. "I can remember even today, a snatch of conversation between Byron and his little girl, Jessie, concerning the name given to the foliage of the evergreens, which he explained to her was not called 'leaves,' but 'tendrils.' Fraserburg, where we arrived shortly, is calculated at three and a half miles from Monsell. There I was introduced to Mrs. Stonehouse and her son George. At that time, they kept a small general store and post office, George carrying the mail to and from Bracebridge, a one-way distance of nine or ten miles, twice a week, I think."
At this time, it is noted by the young Mr. Moon, that there were two or three other Barnardo Boys residing in this vicinity of Monsell and Fraserburg, north east of the Town of Bracebridge. Today of course, these former villages are part of the wider Municipality of Bracebridge, as part of regional governance. One of the other orphans, was named Charley Whitfield, and he was staying with Mr. and Mrs. William Stonehouse, and he was much younger than Johnny Moon, being only ten or eleven years of age.
At fifteen, Johnny Moon had suddenly, without any preparation, physical or emotional, had become a farm labourer, in an unfamiliar land. He was full of anticipation, which masked somewhat, his homesickness, and fear of what might go wrong so far from home. He was glad to have other Barnardo mates near by, but would have benefitted greatly, to have had another chum working at the same farmstead.
When New Year's rolled around, and Johnny looked ahead to the promises and dreams of 1898, his life was changed, in his words, as a direct result of someone else's authordom. He somehow acquired the book, "Millenial Dawn," by Charles Taze Russell, and it would later reverberate in his personal philosophy yet to mature. This will be noted again in this diary.
Johnny's work on the Stonehouse farm involved the typical chores you'd expect, but in the bitter cold of a challenging Canadian winter. In the summer months, he had to work in the fields, "seeding, haying, harvesting, besides under-brushing some of the fallow ground in the fall. In the evenings I went looking for cows and drove them home. On some of those trips I sometimes had little bother and adventure. To the same place, there came in the spring of 1898, a girl from a Canadian home. A brother of hers, from the same home, stayed for a short time with James Stonehouse. The girl's name was Hannah Adeline Pellar. The boy's name was John Pellar."
Johnny writes that his best friend at this time, in his personal biography, was Charley Whitfield. He was moved from the Stonehouse farm sometime in the year, 1900, and placed at another farming operation in Southern Ontario. It is important to appreciate, that a lot of the placements did not work out, and the Barnardo officials were forced to change placements, to please the stakeholders, who were housing these British youngsters, in exchange for services rendered. There were many occasions, when the farmers turned-out the children for being lazy, and poor at their chores. And there were those Barnardo orphans, who escaped what they felt were abusive circumstances.
He lasted at the Stonehouse farm for a year and five months, according to his accounting. Mrs. Stonehouse and her son George weren't happy with the work they were getting from Johnny, and contacted the Bernardo supervisors in Toronto, and asked that he be returned to their care. There isn't much to suggest why he was sent packing, except that, as you will read later, the teenager was much more a dreamer and country philosopher, than a labourer; and when he admits to having "adventures," during his labours, one can imagine the wee fellow, gad abouting off the farm, seeking inspiration from the countryside appointments. More so than from the company of the Stonehouse family.
On the wagon ride back to Bracebridge, to meet the next train to Toronto, Johnny observed that, just before town, "we passed a small saw mill on the right hand side of the road coming out; I know today that mill was on Sharpe's (or Black's) Creek. Today, of course, nothing remains of it."
In May 1899, Johnny Moon was back in Toronto, having bid fellow Barnardo Boy, Willie Price farewell. "With him I had come to Muskoka, and him I saw, on the way leaving it!"
The young man, fresh from the Muskoka farm experience, spent several weeks, back at the Barnardo facility, on Farley Avenue, before being placed on a dairy farm, just north of the city. It was on a much larger, more prosperous farm, with a significant herd of cattle to tend. He didn't like the change of pace, and never got to know the people who actually owned the farm.
"I was very homesick, now, so plans of getting back to England were coming to my mind. This was in mid-summer of the year 1899. Having heard that one could go over on a cattle-boat, and that the Toronto cattle market was the place to start from; and finding out, later, where the cattle market was, I decided to go by that route. I got up early one morning, and went off toward the pasture at the back of the farm, near the Don Valley, where the cattle were grazing. But instead of turning the cows homeward for milking, I struck off to the far side of the field, and down into the valley. Followed that down a short distance, and came up to a road which lay just back of the dairy and led to Yonge Street."
Johnny Moon had escaped. In his mind, it was an important personal liberation, and he saw England as the betterment of his life, if he could only arrange himself, as a working-passenger, on a ship sailing overseas. He made his way along the north-south corridor of Yonge Street, down to Queen Street, and southward to where he found the cattle market, alongside the steam trains, which transported the livestock to the major shipping centre out of Montreal. "I may be said to have walked from the north side to the south side of Toronto, and by a zig-zag route. But for a good hiker, such as I was, this was but a trifle." It would be interesting to know just how far Johnny Moon walked in his life, and the only other Muskoka area individual, to have walked further, would have been Anglican missionary, Gowan Gillmor, known as the "Tramp," who travelled on foot to frontier churches all over the Diocese of Algoma. (You can archive to find out more on this blog collection, about Gowan Gillmor)
The young man, hopeful of finding an opportunity, to either sneak on-board a cattle boat, or be hired onto the crew, as his step brother William, had become a ship's cook, on his travels. While he thought progress had been made, saddling-up to the crew of one of the vessels, gathered on a rail car headed to Montreal, he was subsequently discovered, without proper papers and train ticket, and thrown off the train by the company enforcer.
He wasn't the only one, trying to get on a boat, and out of Canada. The shipping companies had to be constantly vigilant for stowaways. He had a great distance to walk back, to the cattle market, from the shipping yard, but had a plan to stay close to the company offices, sleeping on a table near by. He was able to convince one of the market bosses, the next morning, that he was fit to sail, having experience handling livestock. Johnny also scored a free dinner, from another man, who felt sorry for the wee fellow, who looked as if he was starving to death. Some who knew Johnny, claimed he always looked this way, and he did get frequent hand-outs, which he kindly acknowledged, and in most cases, remembered all his life. He got on the cattle train later in the day, joining a new friend, who claimed to be the son of an army chaplain, returning to England, after living in Brantford, Ontario, for a period of time. The next thing wee Johnny Moon knew, was that he was a cattleman, on a train steaming toward Montreal, and eventually, to a ship, for an overseas voyage, to his native England.
"Ran along by the shore of Lake Ontario that evening (by train)," wrote the young traveller. "Well here was I, now, on the way back home to old England; and my thoughts then, were that my coming to Canada had been a big mistake. But now I know, as I look upon it all, that I was simply coming to another blaze upon the trail. One of the bosses was something of a ventriloquist, and was amusing himself, and the others, with tricks of that accomplishment, at our expense. Stopped for a short time at Kingston, that night to let a fruit train pass. Jogged along all night, and arrived in Montreal about middle of following day. There I was up against another difficulty; I was not quite old enough, to go as a cattleman, being only seventeen, instead of eighteen, the required age. That afternoon I went down to the quay, where the shipping is, by the river side. I went along the shore, making enquiries, looking at one ship after another. Finally I found the right one, an Elder Dempster Company boat, the 'Mount Royal.' There also, I met some of the men who had come ahead of us, from the Toronto Cattle Market. I was taken to an office on the wharf alongside, and there I signed on as a cattleman, by the help of one of the bosses, who answered the questions put to me by the clerk, who was a little deaf."
Johnny Moon was officially one of the hired hands, on the cattle boat, Mount Royal, which would leave the next morning, with a full cargo of livestock, on the way east in the St. Lawrence River. He observed that they "passed the old City of Quebec that evening, with its many lights shining, some at the river level, but most high up on the rock. There was a band playing somewhere up there as we glided by. I think we anchored somewhere below Quebec that night." He writes that the Mount Royal was a 'cargo boat,' or 'merchant ship,' and not all that comfortable for passengers onboard. The labour on the ship, for the young Mr. Moon, was to water and feed the livestock. There were reportedly twenty horses and sheep on the ship, as well as cattle, and Johnny noted, it was "the sheep most troubled by sea sickness."
It wasn't a particularly rough voyage, and the young lad had, by immersion, become used to the roll of the sea. He claimed to have been stricken, once more, by seasickness, but for a much shorter period, than on his inaugural voyage on the passenger ship, "Labrador," a few years previous. The teenage crew-member, of the Mount Royal, was emotionally stirred, to see the rugged, dangerous coastline of the Scilly Islands, on the 12th day of trans-oceanic transport. Within twenty four hours, of that point, the ship had entered the Channel, passing the Isle of Wight, then Beachy Head, and the cliffs of England's south coast. Then the ship traversed the waters of the Dover Strait. Soon they arrived at the mouth of the Thames, up through the "green fields and hedgerows of Essex and Kent on either side."
Johnny Moon had arrived home in August of that year, a stay that would last until June 1901, following the death of Queen Victoria. He would soon thereafter, head back to Canada, and arrive once again, in Bracebridge, Ontario.
Just last evening, Suzanne and I took a drive down the old River Road, where Johnny Moon, had once resided, and a place he rather enjoyed; his leaky rowboat pulled up on shore, and woodsmoke coming from his tiny cabin, that kept him as comfortable as could be expected, considering his circumstance of irregular, modest income. I could imagine very clearly, the vision of this row boat coming along the dark reflective waters, of the north branch of the Muskoka River, above the Bass Rock rapids. He would have tramped along this dusty trail many times in his life, so it's no wonder, some folktales reference the fact his ghost still travels the same route as it did once, back in the early years of the 1900's, when Johnny Moon called Bracebridge his home. The english Barnardo boy, who wanted so badly to escape Canada, found that his life in England, would be forever limited, and disadvantaged, him being denied opportunity to get ahead amongst millions of citizens, many unemployed and suffering. In Canada, especially in the wilds of Muskoka, he could find work, and afford to acquire property in the still under-populated Town of Bracebridge. He may have been spending those next two years in England, but he was plotting out a new plan for a future in Bracebridge, Ontario.
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