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Are all in good health at present, thanks to the giver
of all good things for the great mercies he has bestowed upon us times and
ways without number. I received your letter along with on from Thomson and
I went down and got the parcel with all that is mentioned and a shuttle
beside. I got the letter you mention. It was posted in New York but I got
the reeds from …. In Hamilton. When I wrote to you last I intended to be
on my farm by January but it was in May before I could get money and yet I
have not got it all in. We commenced our labour on our farm in May,
chopped three acres. We got one acre and a half in potatoes and quarter of
an acre in Indian corn and the rest in turnips for the cattle. Magdalene
has in her garden beets, radishes, cress, squashes, pumpkins, melons,
cucumber, cabbage and green kale, onions and parsley. Our cattle is a yoke
of oxen and two cows, one year old heifer or quey and a calf, three sheep
and two dogs, Scotia and Oscar, the oxen I bought them from Squire Fin. I
get one year to pay 20 dollars and I am to pay the rest at the end of the
second year. They are 65 dollars in all, 7 years old. All the rest is paid
already so that I owe no man anything. I have paid the first instalment of
my farm but here’s the grand question how am I to pass the winter. We have
plenty of potatoes but the cows will get dry by October and potatoes is
poor chear without pork or beef or flour. I am at a stand by the time
I get my house up I will not have a copper. I have got the logs cut for
the house, 26 by 20 feet, and I am going to raise it in the latter end of
the month. I intend to put in ten acres of wheat and some oats and Indian
corn in the spring. I have no fall crop this year yet but we are doing all
we can to get it by next fall. Little John is not doing as he ought to do.
He engaged himself for 70 dollars a year but it is too little for his
pocket. I understand he is going to be married to a lass in the name of
Goudie of a very indifferent character. I went down to him but he denied
it but had no monies. I have not got one farthing from him this 18 months
altho’ I gave him a whole dress so you can see the usage that he had given
me. He never so much as asks for us. January was a year, he came home with
a gathering and lay sick for 2 months and in summer he lay 2 months with
the ague and this is all the thanks we got for it. Our John is doing well
but is getting rather wise. He is very much obliged to Ann McCaig for the
socks for he was not out the need of them. He is five feet 7 inches high
and in good health. James is in good health and a good chap. Margaret is
in good health and assists her mother in keeping little Magdalene and
milking the cows. Ann is an active little girl, William is an active boy
but smelly and not just so healthy as we could wish. Little Magdalene is a
rale breer, she is all life. Joh, James and me chops and we all take a
great pleasure in it. We can commence to a tree 3 feet through without
fear or dread and take it down in about half an hour. The only thing is to
get along. I have done everything in my power but I have a great many
difficulties to encounter yet. We have seed of all kinds and a plough and
harrow to get in the spring. How to get these things I really do not know,
without you. Can you lend me a five pound note and I will pay it in the
fall. I expect I will have c 150 dollars worth of wheat to sell by then.
Wheat is the only thing that brings money here. It sells from three to
four shillings sterling per bushel and always paid cash and without a man
can raise wheat he will never get on. There is some has been here these
ten years and never sold a bushel but always in the depth of misery but
there is others again that has only been here for three years and can sell
three or four hundred bushels. Industry is rewarded with plenty. A man
that is not willing to work need not come to Canada and a man to leave his
wife and family and come to Canada is a thing I would warn every one
against. I have seen a good number and I have not seen one but was in the
greatest misery both in purse and spirits. Magdalene sends her best
compliments. Our kind compliments to my Mother for her compliments but we
got the long promised spoons. Five our kind compliments to J. Hutcheson
and wife and to Mary Shearer for her kind compliments to Magdalene. My
compliments to Matthew Morton and I am very happy to hear that he is
prospering. Give our kind compliments to our sister and Thomas, likewise
to Magdalene’s Father and all her friends specially to Margaret Drummond
for the care that she has for he our father. John says that he would like
to see Michell Andrew and family, they would do well here. Give my
compliments to Thomas Shearer and John Kesson and to John Reid in the
I have the knife that he gave me and I mind him when I cut a stick, not
forgetting George Brown, J Stevenson and Wm. Shaw. The bandas that he gave
to Magdalene did very well. She sewed them in the ship and we sold them at
a good price. John Burns’ daughter and her husband is well but not in very
good spirits, things is not as they would wish. He has commenced on a
wrong lot and all his labour is lost for he will have to move. No more at
present but remains
Your loving Brother
James Good.
Dear Brother,
If you can lend me the money and I will give you six per cent that is the
rule of this country. If you will lend it it will enable me to get along
in the winter and get seed and other things is the spring. It will come to
me free of expenses by sending it to the Canada Company in London and be
returned the same.
James Good. |
