{"id":4772,"date":"2020-05-31T22:28:57","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T02:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=4772"},"modified":"2020-05-31T22:38:11","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T02:38:11","slug":"fwd-episode-56-eywood-parst-two-the-immigrant-years-of-freeman-family-1905-to-1914","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=4772","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: EPISODE 56 EYWOOD PARST TWO: THE IMMIGRANT YEARS OF FREEMAN FAMILY 1905 TO 1914"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Begin forwarded message:<\/div>\n


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From: <\/b><\/span>ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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Subject: <\/b><\/span>EPISODE 56 EYWOOD PARST TWO: THE IMMIGRANT YEARS OF FREEMAN FAMILY 1905 TO 1914<\/b>
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Date: <\/b><\/span>May 30, 2020 at 11:42:02 PM EDT
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To: <\/b><\/span>Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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EPISODE  56    EYWOOD, PART TWO<\/div>\n

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Louisa (Bufton) Freeman with daughter Elsie on her one and son Frank by her side.<\/div>\n
Photo may have been taken in the Head Gardener\u2019s house at Eywood Estate.<\/div>\n

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In 1972, I asked mom to explain life as immigrants in Canada from 1905 to 1914<\/div>\n

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This is  Granddad and is gardeners\u2026ten men and boys and two horses<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
May  2020<\/div>\n

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There was always something strange about the Freeman farm house.  Something different<\/div>\n
from other houses as I remember.  And the difference, I now realize, was the picture frames<\/div>\n
and the photos fitted therein.  The frames  were hand carved by Granddad out of slabs of <\/div>\n
hardwood.  Then intricately carved.   As below.<\/div>\n
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\u201cHow long did it  take you to carve these, Grandpa?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDid one ever winter for a few years?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWho is in the frame?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s  to cook from Eywood\u2026your mother\u2019s godmother?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI thought you hated Eywood?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cToo strong a word, Alan.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cbut you said you hated tipping your hat to Mr. Gwyer, the owner of Eywood.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHate is  too strong a word\u2026let\u2019s say disliked.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIf you disliked Eywood, then why spend your winter\u2019s  doing something<\/div>\n
that reminds you  of Eywood.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAlan, there is the world of difference between a system I might dislike<\/div>\n
and the people working within the system.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t get it.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSome of those people in service at Eywood became as  close to <\/div>\n
your grandmother and me as our family.   They became family really.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Winer\u2019s work beside the wood stove in Erin Township,  Wellington County 1930\u2019s.<\/div>\n

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Elsie Freeman\u2026hand made frame by Edward Freeman<\/div>\n

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The old Freeman farm house had reminders of Eywood on each  wall of the only room<\/div>\n
in the house that was permanently lived in.  The room with the big wood stove. The rest<\/div>\n
of the house in winter time was so cold that icicles formed in the rooms.   Just to got<\/div>\n
to bed upstairs we had to take a hot brick wrapped in paper.  The brick was heated in<\/div>\n
the wood stove oven.  <\/div>\n

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This was not the home of rich persons.  Yet the walls  were reminders that there was<\/div>\n
a place somewhere in England where rich people lived and  were served by servants.<\/div>\n
It was all  very confusing.<\/div>\n

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I thought Grandma and Grandpa came to a better place..Canada.  But the reminders<\/div>\n
on the walls told a different story.<\/div>\n

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Always in the back of my mind were these reminders  of Eywood.  A mystical place<\/div>\n
that I thought I would never see.  Time and  circumstances changed things for me.<\/div>\n
Remember this point.  I was born in 1938. I was  a teen ager in the 1950\u2019s.  I was<\/div>\n
an adult in the 1960\u2019s.  I was to become part of the luckiest generation of humans<\/div>\n
this world has ever seen.   I did not know it though.   Nor did  I know that in a few years<\/div>\n
I would find myself on the Eywood estate.  Not once, but several times.  I would<\/div>\n
arrive there just six years after the grand house was demolished by impoverished<\/div>\n
Brits.   I would  arrive just six years after the grand estate home was blown to<\/div>\n
kingdom come.  <\/div>\n

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What of  granddad?<\/div>\n

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\u201cWill you ever go back to Eywood \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cNo.  We will never return\u2026burned  our bridges.\u201d<\/div>\n

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They left Eywood in 1905.  Sailed  to St. John, New Brunswick. Then train to Toronto.<\/div>\n
where  Granddad expected  his wife Louisa to stay  for a few weeks while he checked  out farming<\/div>\n
in Manitoba.  That was a non starter.<\/div>\n

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\u201cYou expect us to take Frank and Elsie to a remote wilderness  where there are no schools nearby?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFor a while that will be so.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd no hospitals.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot close.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWell\u2026that is  not going to happen\u2026we are not going to Manitoba.\u201d<\/div>\n

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So grandpa bought a small garden farm in Etobicoke (exactly where Highway 427 sweeps  north<\/div>\n
today and crosses Burnhamthorpe  Road.).  He tried to grow vegetable then haul them to Toronto<\/div>\n
for sale.  Tough.  Poverty was getting close.<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe will sell the garden farm, Lou.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd  do  what?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI have a  job as carpenter with the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway.  Big things<\/div>\n
happening in Northern Ontario.   We will have a  cabin in Krugerdorf\u2026a village near Englehart.<\/div>\n
Start all  over again.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Around 1985 we drove north to find krugerdorf.  We found it.  All that is left of the<\/div>\n
railway village is this  sign.  As  I looked  at the sign, a black bear crossed the railway track<\/div>\n
some distant away.<\/div>\n

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This is the log cabin of Harry Horsman, a friend of the family in Krugerdorf.  His cabin is primitive as was<\/div>\n
the cabin belonging to Ted and Lou Freeman.  Theirs caught fire an burned to the ground in 1913 or 1914.  Fires<\/div>\n
raged all across Northern Ontario in those years.<\/div>\n

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Contrast the log cabin above with the majesty of Eywood Estate main  house.<\/div>\n

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The cabin turned out to be a rudimentary log cabin.  In the summers massive wildfires swept across<\/div>\n
Northern Ontario.  Granddad had to ride through at least one such massive blaze sitting on a flat car<\/div>\n
with forests burning on each side.   It was tough.  Then their own log cabin caught fire and burned<\/div>\n
to rubble.  They managed to save their one t treasure\u2026a small pump organ.  Music was a big <\/div>\n
part of their social life.  But they were burned  out.  So they moved\u2026fled\u2026 south.<\/div>\n
Grandma wanted something stable.  Not flashy.  For their money was  limited, very limited.<\/div>\n

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In 1914 Edward and Louisa  Freeman bought a small farm in southern Ontario.  Very small indeed.<\/div>\n
The 25 acre farm on the Fifth line of Erin Township, Wellington County, Ontario could hardly<\/div>\n
be considered a farm.  Jus to 20% of the land was swamp.  And the fields were oct strewn.<\/div>\n
rocks left behind  when the glacial ice retreated thousands  of years ago.  Rocks on the surface.<\/div>\n
Rocks below the surface.  But there was a brick house.  Well  really a brick faced house\u2026one brick  <\/div>\n
thick.   Really the house was  built like a barn.  Timbers rescued here and there from other buildings<\/div>\n
some of them scorched by fire.  No running water.  No indoor toilet than thunder jugs beneath the beds.<\/div>\n

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There was  a barn.  The builders must have thought  the site for a barn was ideal.  Between two<\/div>\n
swamps with ager inning through the stable.  No need to haul water.  Of course the idea was faulty.<\/div>\n
In  winter the water froze.  When water freezes it expands with force enough to crack and push cement<\/div>\n
foundations out of place.  The barn would not last the century but it would last the remaining lifespans<\/div>\n
of Ted and Louisa Freeman.  Room enough for a chicken coop and stabling for a few cows and a horse<\/div>\n
to two.  Small.   Self sufficient.  Survivable.<\/div>\n

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The Freemans set down roots.  Roots that took some time to get established because<\/div>\n
the Freemans were Welsh-English.  And Erin Township\u2019s Fifth Line was  overwhelmingly Scottish.<\/div>\n
There was no love lost between the English and the Scots.  Tensions dating back and beyond<\/div>\n
Robert the True and William Wallace were very real in this small  backwater piece of  rural Ontario.<\/div>\n

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Photo of the Freeman farm in  the 1930\u2019s as seen from the air.<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe were not liked  at first.\u201d<\/div>\n

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(Most locals could  not understand  why anyone would try to eke out a living on 2r acres.  An<\/div>\n
English family forced by  poverty to buy the small rock\/swamp parcel.)<\/div>\n
\u201cThey won\u2019t stay long..\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat is  worst is  that they are English.  Odd  they did not get better land.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMust be a reason.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWait and see what happens.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Across the dirt road was the farm of Jean Macdonald, nest to her farm on south side<\/div>\n
were Jean and Janet McLean\u2026south of the Freeman farm were the Macecherns, then<\/div>\n
the Kerrs.  To the north was a  great wedge of forested swamp that had once been part of<\/div>\n
the new Freeman farm.  The land had been sold  to raise enough money to build the <\/div>\n
brick house.  Once the new Freeman house had been built the former owners found<\/div>\n
they no longer had a farm.  All of this  did  not bode well.<\/div>\n

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Did the Freeman\u2019s feel they had made a massive mistake leaving a reasonable comfortable<\/div>\n
life in the Gardeners House on the Eywood Estate for the near poverty of life in Canada?<\/div>\n
They must have but I never heard a word  of complaint as a boy spending many  free hours<\/div>\n
with my grandparents.<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt did not take lone for us to fit in.  A little tension at first.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBut everyone was poor.  We made our own entertainment<\/div>\n
using the one room school for musical evenings.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI played the violin along with Frank.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYour grandmother played  the pump organ and she<\/div>\n
had a lovely singing voice.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIn not time at all, we were part of the community.  Did not matter that<\/div>\n
we were English.\u201d<\/div>\n

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The Great War began in the same year the Freeman\u2019s bought the farm.  To pay<\/div>\n
for it, Edward  Freeman  took a job making eplosives in Toronto.  Elsie, Frank<\/div>\n
and his wife Louisa were left to do the farming.  With the money earned the<\/div>\n
mortgage was  soon paid in full.  I am guessing when I say the farm cost $6,000<\/div>\n
perhaps less than that.<\/div>\n

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From 1906 until their deaths in the 1950\u2019s,  Grandma and Granddad kept in close touch<\/div>\n
with the resident of Eywood.  No complaints.  Granddad even successfully encouraged <\/div>\n
two of his brothers and his sister to come to Canada.  They did not feel poor although they<\/div>\n
were poor.   But there was a  richness of  spirit in them.  A great joy of living on their own land.<\/div>\n
Security of tenure.<\/div>\n

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All the same it was wonderful to hear about the happenings on the Eywood Estate. The gossip<\/div>\n
of those still \u2018in service\u2019.   The letters from the Griffiths were a  kind of  touchstone.<\/div>\n

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Mercifujlly, both Grandma and Grandpa died  before the terrible news reached us.<\/div>\n
The Eywood Estate was gone\u2026the great house had sold everything right down to\u2019<\/div>\n
the floor boards and doors and windows.  All gone.  And the final catastrophe was<\/div>\n
the demolition\u2026with the help of explosives I was told\u2026the final demolition of the <\/div>\n
great estate house.<\/div>\n

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IN 1955, this wasalll that remained of Eywood mansion  house.<\/div>\n

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Odd fact though.  The rest of the estate\u2026the barns, the servants quarters, the dovecote,<\/div>\n
the park, the lake, the walled  gardens\u2026and the head gardeners red brick house\u2026all of these<\/div>\n
remain.  Mom..Elsie Freeman\u2026was born in that red brick house in 1901.<\/div>\n

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NEXT STORY:  PART THREE OF THE EYWOOD STORHY<\/div>\n

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BACK  THEN\u2026THE 1940\u2019S<\/div>\n

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(MY BROTHER ERIC AND  I DRESSED  AS WE DID BACK THEN\u2026ON THE FREEMAN FARM)<\/div>\n

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TODAY\u2026YEAR 2020<\/div>\n

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So here we are in the year 2020\u2026and the 25  acre Freeman farm has survived while thousands of<\/div>\n
other family farms have been gobbled up into larger and larger farms with fewer and fewer farmers.<\/div>\n
The average size of a farm today is over 500 acres.<\/div>\n

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We call our farm a farm but is  really not a farm.   Our income from the farm is<\/div>\n
miniscule.  So  small that we do not pay farm taxes.  We pay the much larger<\/div>\n
property tax of non farming rural residents.  No matter.  The farm has survived.<\/div>\n

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A wooden horse like this would likely have been present in Eywood.<\/div>\n

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NEXT STORY\u2026PART THREE OF EYWOOD. \u2026AS FOUND IN 1960<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
may 2020<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n


<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Begin forwarded message: From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> Subject: EPISODE 56 EYWOOD PARST TWO: THE IMMIGRANT YEARS OF FREEMAN FAMILY 1905 TO 1914 Date: May 30, 2020 at 11:42:02 PM EDT To: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> EPISODE  56    EYWOOD, PART TWO Louisa (Bufton) Freeman with daughter Elsie on her one and son Frank by her side. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}