Rural House Abandonment in Southern Ontario

KENYON WEEDS UPSPRING WHERE THE HEARTH SHOULD BE ... 39 "WEEDS UPSPRING WHERE THE HEARTH SHOULD BE": RURAL HOUSE ABANDONMENT IN SOUTHERN ONTARIO' Ian T. Kenyon A site type often encountered in the course of townships in Ontario south of the Canadian archaeological field surveys is the rural house Shield were reasonably well-settled. In fact, abandoned in the nineteenth or early twentieth rural population peaked in the 1880s, reaching centuries. The creation of such sites is related a total of about 1.4 million. to two phenomena well-recorded in contemporary documents. Initially most houses were Log Housing In Early Ontario built of logs, but as settlement progressed " Many nineteenth century accounts chronicle these were often replaced by improved" the pioneer experience. Unless a settler had structures of frame, stone or brick construction. independent means, their first house was Later, in the half-century between 1880 and usually a log cabin or shanty. Only later was it 1930, came a second phase of house possible to build a more substantial dwelling of abandonment, when much of rural Ontario frame, brick or stone. Of these various house underwent a general depopulation. This paper types, 'Tiger" Dunlop wrote in 1832: examines these two periods of house abandonment, and looks more specifically at Most of the houses, more particularly the underlying factors2. In particular, those of recent settlers, are built of logs. When a man gets on a little in contemporary descriptions and statistical the world, he builds a frame house, information from census records will be used weather-boarded outside, and lathed to develop a framework for understanding the and plastered within; and in travelling space-time dimensions of rural house along the road, you can form a pretty abandonment and loss. accurate estimate of the time a man has been settled, by the house he inhabits; — indeed, in some in- INTRODUCTION stances, you may read the whole history of his settlement in the build- At the opening of the nineteenth century, ings about his farmyard. European settlement in Ontario was largely The original shanty, or log-hovel, confined to the loyalist-settled townships ar- which sheltered the family when they rayed along a narrow strip bordering the St. first arrived on their wild lot, still re- Lawrence River, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie - mains, but has been degraded into a an area inhabited by less than 100,000 people piggery; the more substantial log- (Figure 1). From this ribbon-like core, only house, which held out the weather about 25 to 50 miles wide, settlement ex- during the first years of their sojourn, panded northwards. From the late 1820s to the has, with the increase of their wealth, 1850s there was a tremendous wave of emigra- become a chapel of ease to the stable tion to Ontario, especially from Scotland and or cowhouse; and the glaring and Ireland. Each year, something like 10,000 to staring bright-red brick house is brou- 50,000 emigrants arrived in British North Amer- ght forward close upon the road, that ica, many attracted to Ontario where interior the frame-dwelling, which at one time townships were rapidly being opened for the proprietor looked upon as the settlement. By 1851, rural population in Ontario exceeded 800,000 people. Although emigration declined in the 1860s, still, by about 1880, most 40 ONTARIOARCHAEOLOGY No. 64, 1997 KENYON WEEDS UP SPRING WHERE THE HEARTH SHOULD BE ... 41 very acme of his ambition, may at and frugality, ought to have from once serve as a kitchen to, and be twenty-five to thirty acres under im- concealed by, its more aspiring and provement....a comfortable house, a aristocratic successor.... [Dunlop good barn, and plenty of food for 1967:130-131]. himself and family [MacGregor 1832:I:468-469] Cost and convenience dictated why log houses predominated in the backwoods — in Such estimates of land clearing rates ap- remote settlements sawn lumber or bricks pear to be overly optimistic. As shown later, were either not available or very expensive; but only in areas where cleared land exceeded 40 logs could be had for free on the settler's own or even 50 acres per farm did improved houses farm. Through the use of a "bee" - where supplant the log cabin. According to Peter neighbours were enlisted to erect a house - a Russell's (1983) calculations, an average farm log cabin could be built in a few days for as family could clear about only 1.5 acres per little as £5 to £10. In contrast, a frame house of year. It could take 30 or more years until a farm modest size could cost 5 to 10 times as much3. was productive enough to permit financial As a farm lot was cleared and more land put investment in a frame or brick house. into production, frame or brick houses became The relationship between the average more affordable. For those without independ- amount of land cleared per farm and the ent means, nineteenth century writers sug- amount of improved housing was reflected in gested that it might take 10 to 20 years until the the geography of nineteenth century Ontario. settler was in a financial position to erect an Many nineteenth century writers observed that improved house. In 1855, Catherine Parr Traill in making a journey from the developed "front" advised prospective emigrants that: townships to the backwoods the whole settlement history could be traced. For example, the ... a wild farm is not to be made in Rev. Beaven in the early 1840s remarked on the one, two or even five years. - The new change in landscape and house types in the soil will indeed yield her increase to a Grand River area as he emerged from the large amount, but it takes years to backwoods and entered into the long-settled clear enough to make a really good countryside: farm, to get barns and sheds and fences and a comfortable dwelling- ...I had an opportunity of witnessing house; few persons accomplish all the clearing process in all its stages. this under ten, fifteen and sometimes In one place might be seen a few even twenty years. I am speaking now trees cut down, and the first rough of the poor man, whose only capital is shanty of boards set up....Then about his labour and that of his family.... an acre, with the trees felled, and [Traill 1968:36-7]. lying irregularly about; about a cou- ple of roods cleared in the centre of it, Similarly, MacGregor observed in 1832 that: a small log cottage set up, and the rest planted with potatoes. This would Few habitations can be more rude be fenced in perhaps with the boards than those of the first settlers, which of the original shanty, nailed to a few are built of logs, and covered with stumps and small trees, with their bark or boards.... The most that an tops cut off and left rooted in the emigrant can do the first year, is to ground....Further on the process has erect his habitation, and cut down the advanced another step ........ comfort- trees on as much ground as will be able stables and barns are erected; sufficient to plant ten or twelve an addition is perhaps made to the bushels of potatoes, and to sow log hut; the chimney, which was of three or four bushels of grain....In wood, filled in and plastered with the course of five years, an clay, is replaced by one of brick or industrious man may expect, and stone, built up from the ground....As should have, twelve acres under we approach the older settled country cultivation....In ten years, the same man, with perseverance 42 ONTARIO ARCHAEOLOGY No. 64, 1997 Figure 2. Percentage of Improved (Non-log) Housing in 1861 (Wightman 1974) the rough clearings scarcely appear, es in house construction material throughout such as the first I described: the farm the nineteenth century. With the 1851 and 1861 buildings, (all of wood) become capa- data, however, a sort of "cross-sectional" study cious, and are kept in good order. can be made, since, as indicated above, There is a good garden with upright different parts of Ontario were settled at differ- paling or boards; and a substantial ent times. frame-house, painted white or rough- To examine quantitatively the shift from log cast, with its neat verandah, and to improved housing the following variables pretty green French blinds, shows were recorded for 89 townships, using printed that the occupier has triumphed over census records: necessity, and possesses both leisure and ability to think of comfort, even • number of log houses in 1851 and in 1861; perhaps of elegance [Beaven 1846:58- number of improved houses (frame, brick and 62]. stone combined) in 1851 and in 1861; number of farms in 1861; In fact, spatial distribution of housing mate- amount of land occupied and cleared in 1861; rial types for 1861, as shown in a map (Figure total acreage of the township; and 2) by the geographer W.R. Wightman (1974), length or age of settlement (i.e. 1861 minus the very much parallels the settlement history of year when township was first settle&). Ontario (Figure 1). To the south, in the old loyalist core bordering the Lakes, most town- Using total acreage of a township, informa- ships had over 50 percent improved housing. tion on houses was standardized by converting But further north, in the backwoods, this figure raw numbers into densities per 100 acres, declines, and log cabins predominated. since 100 acres was about the average farm Printed census records provide a source of size.

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