• Michael D. Gonder's memories

  • "About the year 1830 many immigrants from Germany came to Willoughby. They bought small lots of land, which were wild and covered by trees and bushes. To pay for the land, they chopped trees and sold the wood. Merchants and carpenters in the nearby village would pay them 75 cents to $1 for each cord of wood."

  • "This meant they could afford to buy land to plant crops. Most farmers grew wheat and barley to make bread and other kinds of food. Many also grew hay to feed to their animals."

• Michael G. Sherk's memories
  • "My great-great-grandfather was a fairly wealthy person in Pennsylvania. When the war started between America and Britain he stayed on the British side. This made many other Americans very angry and they burned his house down. He decided to leave Pennsylvania to come to Canada. His wife did not want to come, so he took his two children with fair hair and left the dark-haired children behind with his wife."

  • "I went to Pennsylvania in 1910. I saw the very same hill where my great-great-grandmother stood watching her husband and two children leave. It must have been sad for her to watch him go. She tried to convince him to stay, but he left for Canada anyway."
      "The War was the War of American Independence" - The Kindness of the Ball Family

  • "My mother told me this story. The Ball family was a Loyalist family who came from Germany. They settled near the Niagara River. They were farmers and had a large farm with good land."

  • "One year, most of the farms in the area had a poor harvest. There was very little food for people to eat."

  • "Many people grew Indian corn back then. The Ball family had a large supply of it. Mrs. Ball was a kind-hearted woman who shared her family's harvest with her neighbours who were without food."

  • "The next spring, the maple trees in the area produced plenty of maple sap to make sugar. Mrs. Ball believed the extra sugar was a reward for her kindness the past fall."
    Sheep Washing

  • "Most of the farmers along the river in those days had large flocks of sheep. Sometimes their families would eat a sheep, or give one to their helpers to eat. Most of the time, the sheep were used for their wool. They would spin the wool from the sheep and make clothing."

  • "Just before shearing season in the month of June, they gave the sheep a good washing. Sheep pens were kept near the river. The farmers herded the sheep into the pen. Then they would take them out, one at a time, for a bath and washing in the river water."

Michael D. Gonder's Memories are based on the "Reminiscences of Michael D. Gonder of Black Creek", Niagara Historical Society, No. 28.

Note: Michael D. Gonder was born in May, 1804 on the Canadian side of the Niagara River, on lot number 6 in the Township of Willoughby. His father and grandfather came to Canada shortly after the War of American Independence. His words have been changed to make them easier to read.

Michael G. Sherk's Memories are based on "Reminiscences of the Upper Part of the Old Niagara River Road",Papers and Records, Volume XXV, Ontario Historical Society, 1929.

Note: These are the memories of the Gonder family, told by Michael G. Sherk. He was the grandson of Michael D. Gonder. Michael G. Sherk lived in the Toronto area, but spent a lot of time talking to his mother and grandfather about life in early Willoughby Township. His words have been changed to make them easier to read.

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