Monday 29 October 2012

The Harvest Moon

Harvest season was a very busy time of back breaking work for pioneers. Today, farmers can harvest their crops quickly and easy by using modern mechanized farm equipment. But for the pioneers, fall was a busy season, as all members of the family had to participate in order to ensure there would be enough food to survive the winter. It would start in late August, beginning with the wheat; pioneers would harvest the wheat by hand, cutting it by using a sickle or a scythe. The stalk of wheat was turned into straw, which could then be stuffed into mattresses or used as bedding for animals. The harvester that farmers use today combines many steps that the pioneers had to do by hand. After cutting the wheat and placing the stalks in shocks to dry, pioneers would need to separate the kernels from the stalks, using a piece of equipment known as a flail.
Flail

Winnowing Tray
 The kernels would land on the barn floor and would be swept up up and placed in a winnowing tray. Winnowing was done on a windy day. This process would separate the wheat from the chaff. Eventually, a fan mill was used to separate the wheat kernel from the chaff rather than relying on nature to provide the wind power. Farmers would then take their wheat to the Grist mill, and grinding stones were used to grind the wheat into flour. Again, natural resources were used as the grinding stones were usually powered by a waterwheel. Today, we have flour mills that grind wheat into flour by using a roller mill. Corn was also harvested by using a sickle or a scythe.

The fall was also a time when animals were slaughtered. The meat was hung on hooks in the smoke house and smoked for several days before being preserved by salt. The soft fat from pigs was used to make soap, and beef or sheep fat was used to make tallow candles. Vegetables and fruits from the garden were preserved with sugar, salt, and spice, while herbs and apples were dried. Females in the family spent many hours preserving and pickling food for winter storage. Many families would host a harvest bee where neighbours would come and help each other with the work and it would finish off with a barn dance after.

Farmers planned to harvest when there was to be a full moon, so that they had enough light to work until midnight, if necessary. In September, the full moon seems to linger in the sky for several nights in a row; hence, the expression, Harvest Moon.

School groups can learn more about Harvesting during our “Harvest Moon” Program presented at the Myrtleville House Museum. Students get the opportunity to take tour of the workshop, shell corn, make apple cider with our apple cider press, bake apple cookies, and learn about the harvest season with this program.

Fanning Mill
For more information about booking programs, please visit our website or call Lisa Anderson, Education Officer at 519-752-3216 or Lisa.anderson@brantmuseums.ca

Monday 15 October 2012

Traditional Healing Herbs

Aloe Vera
Life in 1812 was anything but easy. It was a struggle to complete the daily chores, and survival was incredibly laborious. The daily struggle was often compounded by diseases, accidents and injuries, that we may now view as insignificant given our multitude of available medicine. In the early 19th century, any community in Upper Canada that had a physician living within 10 kilometres of town was considered fortunate, but even then, response to a medical emergency could take hours or even days if the doctor was making a round of house calls. Before this time, traditional doctors didn't exist in Upper Canada. Women were the healers of the earlier European settlements and could make up home remedies to aid the sick or injured. The knowledge of herbs and natural remedies was often times passed down through generations by mothers, as well as learned from the First Nations communities.

Below is a list of natural elements that would be used by early Canadians to make up home remedies to help ease what ailed them.

Aloe Vera
Properties: Soothing, cleansing, and vulnery (wound healing)
Uses: Burns, Sunburns, infections, and wounds

Chamomile
Burdock 
Properties: Alterative (to restore health), Diaphoretic (Inducing perspiration), Diuretic (to increase the flow of urine)
Uses: Blood Purifier for acne, eczema, boils and rheumatic infections

Calendula 
Properties: Antispasmodic (to stop spasms), diaphoretic, and vulnery
Uses: Cramps, colitis, skin boils, and fever

Chamomile 
Properties: Anodyne (pain killing), antispasmodic, carminative (relieving flatulence), sedative (inducing calm or sleep), stomachic (increase appetite), and tonic (create feeling of well being)
Uses: Headaches, insomnia, and menstrual cramps

Catnip 
Properties: Anodyne, antispasmodic, carminative, diaphoretic, emmenagogue (stimulates menstrual flow), and vermifuge (to destroy parasites)
Uses: flatulence, insomnia, headaches, worms, and nervousness

Cayenne 
Properties: Carminative, irritant, stimulant, and tonic
Uses: Congestion, sore throat, colds, circulation, and digestion
Eucalyptus
Camfrey 
Properties: Astringent (contracts tissue), cell proliferant (cell growth), demulcent (soothes), expectorant (clears mucus), moisturizes, styptic (stop bleeding), vulnery
Uses: Anemia, congestion, hay fever, hemorrhage, and bone troubles

Dandelion 
Properties: Depurative (remove impurities), diuretic, stomachic, tonic
Uses: Anemia, eczema, circulation, warts

Elder 
Properties: Bark: Catharic, stomachic
Flowers: Diaphoretic, emollient
Uses: Fever, flu, kidney, skins, Caution: all parts of plant can be poisonous especially if not prepared with heat.

Eucalyptus 
Properties: Antiseptic, expectorant, stimulant
Uses: Oil added to sauna or steam bath, aids respiratory ailments. Diluted extract is anti-septic

Garlic
Ginger Root 
Properties: Carminative, diaphoretic, diuretic, stimulant
Uses: Chest and stomach spasms, suppressed menstruation, body resistance, diarrhea

Garlic 
Properties: Antibiotic, carminative, diuretic, expectorant, vermifuge
Uses: Bronchitis, colds and flu, liver and gall bladder problems, digestion, body resistance

Ginseng 
Properties: Demulcent (relieves irritants), stimulant, tonic
Uses: Central nervous system, longevity and vigor (especially for men)

Golden Seal 

Properties: Antiseptic, astringent, diuretic, laxative
Uses: Mucous membranes, buildup of mucous, colds, bites, gum and mouth sores

Golden Seal



Mint 
Properties: Antispasmodic, carminative, stomachic, stimulant
Uses: Cramps, digestion, colds, circulation, fevers

Raspberry 
Properties: Demulcent, purgative (laxative), vulnery
Uses: Menstrual cramps, diarrhea, morning sickness, other symptoms of pregnancy 



To learn more about how pioneers used these natural resources, read Mr. Carroll's Concoctions. 

Monday 1 October 2012

Celebrating Myrtleville House


             On November 22, 1836 Allen Good and his family; wife Eliza, daughter Anne, and sons John and Charles, left Cork, Ireland for Canada. They first moved to Montreal where Allen had been appointed Bank Manager for the Bank of Montreal. By 1837, Allen had been let go and they decided to relocate to Brantford, Ontario where he had previously purchased 108 acres of land. His family, now including a new daughter Charlotte, made the difficult journey to Upper Canada.
             Upon arriving in Brant County, the Good family stayed in a rental house for some months at the corner of Colborne and Dumfries Streets. Allen began drawing up contracts for their new family home which detailed a two-story, nine room house with seven fireplaces and no cellar, at the cost of four hundred and sixty-seven pounds, five shillings and nine pence halfpenny. This is equal to about sixteen thousand dollars today.
Myrtleville house was designed after a home in Ireland with the same name. It had been owned by a Thomas Daunt, a partner to Eliza Good’s Father, Mr.Carroll. The original house was a country home located on the bay of the Atlantic that got its name from the green myrtle shrubs which grew all around it. As a child Eliza spent many holidays at this house and no doubt wanted to bring a little piece of Ireland to their new home in Brantford. The Canadian Myrtleville house was given the same name and built in the same Georgian style with stucco siding, which was well out of fashion by this point.
The property was passed down through generations of the Good family and in 1903 William Good, the grandson of Allen Good was in possession of the farm and house. Ten years later William Good began construction of a new house on the current property next door to Myrtleville house. This house, unlike the original, was to be equipped with all the modern conveniences of the time. This included a coal furnace; stationary washtubs, bathroom upstairs, hot and cold water in the kitchen, laundry, and bath. Although the house was wired for electricity it did not receive it until 1917 when the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Canada was created. The first house’s main use from then on was as a summer home for family visitors, or for farm hands to stay.
William married Jennie in 1908 and purchased the Myrtleville property from ‘Aunt Annie’; after her death he became the figure head of the family. When William took over operations of the farm he started to make improvements such as the addition of an orchard. In 1921 William was elected to Parliament for four years. While he was away he put the farm on hold and rented out most of the property to a family. In 1925 William retired from politics and returned to Myrtleville. He was ready to go back to the family legacy of farming. He maintained his position as President of the Cooperative Union of Canada which he started in 1921, as well as being on the Board of United Farmer’s Cooperative of Ontario. When he returned to farming he built up a herd of purebred Holstein-Friesians and began what would come to be a dairy farm.
During the Great Depression William hired as many men as he could afford to help out on the farm and brought fruit to the Social Service Centre to be distributed to the unemployed. Jennie was also a very practical and thrifty woman, obtaining many unbleached soft muslin bags used to transport unprocessed silk from Japan and constructed sheets, nightclothes, and aprons for her family.
           Upon William Good’s death in 1967 the possession of Myrtleville was passed on to his son Robert Good. Many restorations in the 1960s preserved the homestead and began considerations of donating the house as a museum. In 1978 the documents were signed that donated five-acres of land, containing two houses, a swimming pool and a number of octagonal silos, to Heritage Canada.
           Many of the artifacts in the museum have found their way back to Myrtleville from previous family members. Original pieces from Eliza Good such as the big four poster bed in the master bedroom, her Collard piano now located in the parlour, and the dollhouse they gave to their daughter Anne still remains in the house. Likewise, William Good’s handmade camera still remains in the library along with shelves and shelves of books that the Good family enjoyed.
          Along with being a great example of living history of the Good family , Myrtleville has remained a place of learning and family gathering. The property is host to camps that are run throughout the summer and school year as well as annual celebrations such as the Easter Egg Hunt, and the Family Day event. Myrtleville house has changed over the years, but one thing has always remained true: Myrtleville is a place of family and community, a place of gathering for everyone.      Once upon a time Myrtleville was a place of learning and gathering for the Good family; now Myrtleville has come to encompass a broader family; that of Brantford.
           Visit Myrtleville House today to see 175 Years of Myrtleville: A Story of Family, Community and Nation on display now.