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 KingOver 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
