Begin forwarded message:

From: SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>

Subject: BARN RAISING, ERIN TWP, 1820, “MYSERY ON A SCRAP OF PAPER DAED 1940”

Date: February 17, 2019 at 12:53:32 PM EST

To: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>

MYSTERY FOUND ON A SCRAP OF PAPER DATED 1940

(listen to Joelle, fiddler extraordinaire…in your imagination)

ALAN SKEOCH

Feb.2019

Picture of a barn frame…It was customary for the barn builder to walk the high beams in a kind of celebration.

Often whiskey was  involved.  This picture is not the alleged Skeoch barn on the Cruickshank property.

AN  ODD STORY CAPTURED ON BACKSIDE OF A 1939 CALENDAR.

alan skeoch

By chance this scrap of paper fell from a  pile of old letters…it led  me on a trip.  Please

Join me.

This letter was never mailed…written about 1940.  Hard to say  the real  origin as it has been transcribed onto the back

of a  1939/1940 calendar   Written in pencil…faded…but translated below.

Mrs. F. Slater,

73 Heywood St.,

Moss side

Manchester

England

Wrtten in pencil, so faint that in another decade it will be indecipherable..

Found  among papers  and clippings I bought at an auction sale years ago

ERIN COUNTY BARN RAISING 1820 ?

“This is  a true story a barn raising in the early history of the settlement of Erin Township, in the County of Wellington,

Whisky was cheap in those days and it was the custom to have a keg on hand for the barn raising. The whiskey was

procured and  stored  in the old barn while the carpenters  were in the woods preparing the timbers for the new barn.

The good lady paid a visit to the whiskey keg and  when the mend came in to dinner the good lady was in high good

humour but no dinner was ready. The husband and with the help of a carpenter put up the dinner.  After  dinner they 

went out to the barn and  getting the offending keg. They, with the aid of a rope slung it high up in rafter out of reach.

Later in the day the good lady paid a another visit to the barn only to find the whisky out of reach, however, she set her wits

to work going back to the house. She returned with the wood tub and the rifle setting the tub under the keg she put

a bullet through the keg and caught the whiskey in the tub.   When the men came in to supper she was in quite good

humour but a good  supper was prepared, after supper she told what she had  done.  She said she didn’t care so’

much for the  whiskey but she was not going to be outwitted by the men. The next day the neighbours were called

for the raising. the men putting up the barn, the ladies preparing the meals. By supper the last rafter was on and

the floor laid. After supper all the young and old folks gathered  on the new barn floor.  The fiddler and caller were

on hand then to the tune of Turkey in the Straw,  Old Irish Washerwoman, and the Scotch reels and —  On with the

dance which was kept up until the wee hours.  Incidentally the first settler came into Erin Township in the year 1820.”

SILLY OR MEANINGFUL?

Was this copied from an original written 120 years earlier.  Hard to say.  This unsigned rewrite was done sometime

in 1940.  My thoughts?  1) There may be a  kernel of truth…small kernel  2) The  story is the kind of story that

would  be told at a one  room rural school Christmas social.   These evenings featured short plays, speeches,

music (as mentioned) and as much humour as possible.   Women were usually  associated with the Temperance

movement as cheap whiskey (25 cents a gallon in early 19th century) caused a lot of trouble in small communities.

To sophisticated ears today this  story seems rather silly but mid winter socials were not sophisticated.

Associaitons of alcohol with barn raisings was no exaggeration.although hardly mentioned in the laundered

barn raisings.   Kernels of truth acted like sand in a clam shell.  Layers and layers of exaggerations resulted in

a pearl of  a story.

ALEXANDER SKEOCH..TRUTH OR FICTION

I am not sure about the truth of the hearsay concerning Alexander Skeoch and barn raising.  One story has

Alexander walking the top beam of the barn…a topping off ceremony.   Allegedly, He had been drinking whiskey and

fell from the top beam.  Injured  or dead?  I have no idea.  I even suspect the story is false.  I am not even

sure a person called Alexander Skeoch was a  barn builder.  Alexander Skeoch, however, did exist. 

 The kernel of truth came from Christina  Skeoch

and Evan Cruickshank who assured me that a person name Alexander Skeoch did build the Cruickshank  barn.

I have a picture of t he barn to prove its existence.  On one occasion I even entered the barn, by then a part of

land owned by Imperial  Oil.  A huge pile of grain had  been dumped on the threshing floor and ignored since

the grain was being eaten by a bunch of rats some of which were dead from poison.  The barn looked great

but its future  seemed tenuous.   I have no proof that Alexander Skeoch built the barn or

walked the high beam to celebrate or had  been drinking whiskey.  If the barn was built around  1890, then Alexander 

Skeoch would have been 46 years  old.   A barn builder possibly.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PAST AND PRESENT COME TOGETHER?

COMMUNITY MID WINTER CELEBRATION AT WOODSIDE SCHOOL 1940   (HYPOTHETICAL)

WINDMILL THEATRE WNTER CELEBRATION OF CELTIC MUSIC, PORT CREDIT UNITARIAN CHURCH, FEB.  2019  (REAL)

I know this  requires a stretch of the imagination but stick with me for a moment or two.  On Feb. 16 we attended a wonderful performance at the Windmill Theatre.  A festival of Celitc Music.  As I 

watched  and listened my mind jumped back in time to the small  farm community on the Fifth Line of Erin Township in the late 1940’s where my grandparents provided some of the music…Granddad on the violin

playing the Devil’s Dream, Grandma singing Roses  of Picardy…and everyone else contributing with dancing or elocution (public speaking)…or food  and drink.  Drink?  No alcohol because the

Temperance Movement had been victorious in the battle with the demon Whiskey.  Heavy drinking of cheap whiskey had damaged many  families.  It was fortunate that horses

knew the way  home after some of those heavy drinking evenings such as barn raising celebrations. Motor vehicles  had no memory.

So look over the pictures below,  taken Feb. 15, 2019…grainy pictures…and let your mind  roll back to Woodside School in 1940.  Someone is giving a speech on a  barn raising way back in 1820

in Erin Township.  First, however , listen to the music.  Join in with the lyrics if you wish.

MASTER OF CEREMONIES:

“AND ON THE VIOLIN…FIDDLER  JOELLE”, A NEW RESIDENT ON THE FIFTH LINE, LIVING ON THE OLD MCLEAN FARM.

JOELLE WILL PLAY A FEW REELS AND JIGS…AND THEN WATCH HER FEET AS SHE TAP DANCES  HER WAY TO YOUR HEARTS.

JOIN IN IF YOU WISH…SING, CLAP,  DANCE…WHATEVER.  WE ARE GOING TO DISPELL THE WINTER DOLDRUMS  TONIGHT….”

SKYE BOAT SONG

Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward! the sailors cry;
Carry the lad that’s born to be King
Over the sea to Skye.

Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
Thunderclaps rend the air;
Baffled, our foes stand by the shore,
Follow they will not dare.

DANNY BOY

Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling,
From glen to glen and down the mountain side;
The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling;
It’s you, it’s you must go, and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow,
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow;
I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow;
Danny boy, Oh Danny boy, I love you so.

“My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose”

Oh, my love is like a red, red rose 
That’s newly sprung in June 
Oh, my love is like a melody 
That’s sweetly played in tune 
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, 
So deep in love am I 
And I will love thee still, my dear, 
Till all the seas gang dry. 
Till all the seas gang dry, my dear, 
Till all the seas gang dry 
And I will love thee still, my dear, 
Till all the seas gang dry. 

‘Til all the seas gang dry my, my dear 
And the rocks melt with the sun 
And I will love thee still, my dear 
While the sands of life shall run 
But faretheewell, my only love 
Oh, faretheewell a while 
And I will come again, my love 
Tho’ ‘t were ten thousand mile 
Tho’ ‘t were ten thousand mile, my love 
Tho’ ‘t were ten thousand mile 
And I will come again, my love 
Tho’ ‘t were ten thousand mile.

GONE  NOW?  MAYBE NOT!  

Gone now.  The local mid winter community gatherings at Woodside School.   Television killed them dead  as  a  door nail.  Entertainment just

got too professional .  Corny homespun entertainment died.   I was lucky to be around just before these amateur evenings faded away.  I think

the story of the barn raising that I rescued from a scribbled note on an old piece of calendar was written to be performed.   When the farm families

around  Woodside school organized a social evening everyone was expected to play a role.  Some would sing, some play the fiddle or the pump organ,

some would  dance … and , always, some would tell stories of the old days.  That is what i think that scrap notation of a barn raising in Erin Township,

Wellington County was meant to record.   The barn raising described likely never happened.  The facts were never allowed to get in the way of a good

story.   Facts  can be embellished.  So here is the barn raising story in my words.

BARN RAISING STORY FROM  THE OLD DAYS

“I was there when the first barn in the township was erected.”

“That was  1820…this is  1940…that was 120 years ago…you couldn’t have been there.”

“OK…OK..I heard this story from my grandmother.”

“Seems the  wife got into the whisky while the men were in the bush squaring timbers for the new barn.  She drank 

a couple of dippers full and  fell asleep.  When the men came home they expected a big meal but got nothing.  So

my Grandfather rustled up a quick meal and let the men have some goodly cups of whiskey before the went back

to the bush.  “What if she gets at the whisky again?”

“She won’t.” 

“How can you be sure?”

“Because we are going to string the keg up on the high beam where she can’t reach.”

The men raised the whiskey high above the threshing floor…thought they had outwitted 

the farm wife.”

“Not so, when she saw the barrel high in the air she went back to the house and got the rifle

and the wooden wash bucket.  Placed the bucket on the floor and then put a bullet through

the barrel.  Pow!  Out poured the whiskey which was caught in the bucket.  When the men came

back expecting the a big barn raising mean, they got nothing. 

 SHE WAS ASLEEP AND THE  WHISKEY WAS GONE.

No huge  dinner and no whiskey.

“Why no whiskey? There should have been lots in the wooden tub.”

“Tub had dried out…leaked the whiskey onto the new threshing floor…a kind of baptism.”

“ And That’s why we do not have whiskey at barn raisings anymore.”

ALAN SKEOCH

FEB. 2019