Difficulties of the new Settlement— The first building erected—Mr. Dickson actively engages in inducing Settlers to take up lands—An old limn with a History—A rough and ready Grist Mill—Population in 1817—The Branchton settlement—The Village of “Shade’s Mills” in 1820—Hoisting the Stars and Stripes on the new Griht Mill- -Nearly a serious affray —The price of land sixty years ago.

The difficulties and discouragements, not unmixed with adventure and jollity, connected with the first efforts to plant a new settlement in Upper Canada, are so familiar that it would be superfluous to fill in every detail. The founders of Galt had of every phase of bush life their full share. With scarcely a tree felled, no roads, no mills nor stores nearer than Dundas or Ancaster—twenty miles distant—and with the almost impassible Beverly swamp between, and only a solitary settler here and there, and these poor in everything bat their brave hearts and willing hands, the initial difficulties encountered by Mr. Shade in 1816, and afterwards, were of no ordinary kind. He tackled them, however, with a determination and vigour which seldom fail of success.

One of the most pressing necessities before the township could be brought into occupancy, was to have it properly surveyed. Mr. Adrian Marlett, of Ancaster, Provincial Deputy Surveyor, was promptly engaged by Mr. Dickson for the purpose, and surveyed a considerable portion of the lands in the neighbourhood of Galt during the fall of 1810. He commenced his work again early the following year, and continued it until it was completed.

The first building erected was near the corner of Main and Water-streets, where Mr. Alexander Buchanan’s residence now is. It was constructed of logs, two stories high in front, with a one-storey kitchen attached. The front was enclosed by a log fence. This was deemed quite an ornament in those days, but would hardly be esteemed so highly at the present time. For many years afterwards one end of this building was used as a rude store by Mr. Shade, and the other as a dwelling for himself and wife.

Mr. Dickson, although still residing in Niagara, took an active part in encouraging, and in some cases assisting, settlers to come in and take up lands. With this object in view, and to plan improvements of various kinds, he frequently spent weeks with Mr. Shade, whose house— the quaint appearance of which is remembered by some persons still living—for many years continued to be the centre from which all operations were projected.

Nothing was more urgently needed at first than some means of grinding grain for food. This was temporarily supplied in an ingenious manner. We have already mentioned the existence of a dilapidated old building on Mill-creek, near the site of Scott’s planing mill. Mr. Shade speedily converted the remains of this building, by the aid of the adjoining stream, into a rough and ready grist mill. Its product would hardly compare with the famous Princess Louise flour of the Stockwell mills; it boasted not of triple X or other fancy brands, and indulged not in packages with handsomely tinted labels; but the struggling settlers of those times greatly preferred it to the mixture which resulted from pounding wheat in a hole in a stump, or beating or rolling it by hand in some equally primitive manner. This mill without a name, in the absence of anything better, served the purpose until the project of erecting a proper flour mill was carried to completion about three years afterwards.

Shade acted as Mr. Dickson’s agent and attorney, and as soon as it became known in the Niagara district and other settled parts of the Province, that lands could be had on easy terms, a few straggling settlers made their way to the locality, and some returned to take up their abode. Scarcely any persons came in during the fall of 1816, and for several years afterwards, the progress made was not very promising. Report puts down the number of families in the township in 1817 as thirty-eight, comprising in all one hundred and sixty-three souls, and the whole of the farm stock as less than the number of animals now to be found on a single place. From a Government source, we find that in 1818 the estimate was only thirty-eight settlers, and sixty-three persons in all.

These statements are doubtless not for astray, but the latter estimate is probably below rather than above the mark, for, besides a few settlers who early took up land in the St. George neighbourhood, a small colony, chiefly from Genesee County, .New York State, had located in the bush between Galt and the present village of Branch-ton, as early as 1817. Among these were Messrs. Donald Fraser, Thomas McBean, William Mackenzie, John Buchanan, Robert Garrick, Alexander Harvie, Daniel McArthur and Dugald McColl, whose descendants, in several instances, still continue to hold and cultivate the lands then taken up.

The village was known as Shade’s Mills in its early days, and, like the Province generally, advanced very slowly at this period. By examining the illustration to be found on another page, the work of Mr. Homer Watson of Doon, some ideas of the modern Galtonian, not a little proud, perhaps, of the “Manchester of Canada,” may be roughly dispelled, but some conception may be obtained of the village of Shade’s Mills in the spring of 1820.

Ten buildings, all told, made up the village just sixty years ago. There was (1) Shade’s house and store, already described; (2) the saw-mill, whose site is now occupied by the Great Western Railway bridge, and which was running in the spring of 1817; (3) the Dumfries’ mills, built in 1818, which commenced running the following year; (4,5 and 6) two or three log houses and a shanty, between the mills and the dam, the latter building occupied by an easy-going adventurous half-breed, whose name has faded from the memory of the oldest inhabitant; (7) the distillery, which began operations in 1820; (8) a log blacksmith shop carried on by one Charles Kitchen, a little south of the site of Mr. William Robinson’s residence; (9) a small building near Mr. James Scott’s house, which had been originally built on cedar posts, but had afterwards been filled in with dry stones; and (10) the remains, at this time chiefly foundation and debris, of the old temporary mill, which, it is needless to say, was despised and cast aside as soon as the new, and, for that early period, superior Dumfries mills had been put into operation.

There are, alas ! only two solitary witnesses now left in Galt,—Mrs. John Miller, and Mr. Alexander Buchanan,— who resided in it at this remote period, and the fingers on one hand would probably suffice to count all the survivors who then saw it. Despite the disadvantages, not to speak of the trials of “bush life,” the time-scarred Veterans of those early times, look back with pleasure to the town’s early history, and many and curious are the incidents they relate in regard to it.

During the construction of the mills and distillery, the prospects of the village and settlement manifested some scanty signs of improvement. A few more settlers began to come in, and the workmen from a distance employed on the new buildings made everything more lively. All the millrights employed were Americans, and the machinery had to be brought all the way from New York—a task of the greatest difficulty.

Three of the workmen, named Robert Gillespie, Ira White, and John McCleary, were conspicuous for their strong American sympathies. At this period, in fact, there were very few citizens of the United States who did not regard the speedy union of Upper Canada with the Republic, as a foregone conclusion. Among those also employed on the mills, were a few French Canadians, who, with others in the little village or around it, were just as loud in expressing their British sympathies. When the work was nearly completed in 1819, the memorable Fourth of July came round, and for a lark, more than anything else, the Americans hoisted the stars and stripes from the gable of the mills! This so excited the ire of the French Canadians and others, that after considerable expression of loyal feeling—which was of double-distilled strength on the part of some in those days—an attempt was made to take the flag down. This was forcibly resisted by the Americans, and for a time a desperate fight was imminent, when more serious effects than a few scarred faces might have resulted. Mr. Shade, on hearing of the melee, hurried to the scene, and having gone on top of the mills and taken down the obnoxious flag, the breeze fortunately blew over.

To complete the description of the village in 1820, it should be mentioned that the Grand River had been bridged the previous year. The first structure was at the same point as the present Main-street Bridge. It was erected chiefly at the expense of Mr. Dickson, and was for many years the only place, during high water, at which the settlers could cross from one bank to the other. It was, consequently, a great convenience to the whole settlement for many miles up and down the river, and as it brought many people to the village more frequently than they otherwise would have come, the bridge proved a useful adjunct to the place.

The price of land at this early period was about $3 per _acre. There is lying before us as we write, in a perfect state of preservation, an agreement entered into for a farm between Mr. Dickson and Mr. John Leece. This gentleman was a native of Lancashire, England, but had been for some time in Albany, New York, before coming to Dumfries. The agreement was for the sale of the south half of lot number eight, in the tenth concession—being the farm now owned by Mr. William Smith, situated on Mill-creek, about one mile from Galt. The document was signed on the 30th of July, 1817, the signatures upon it being those of William Dickson, by his Attorney, Absalom Shade, and the purchaser, John Leece. The witnesses were William Dickson, jr., and Charles Irwin.

The consideration money was £75, and it was payable in five years with interest.

Some anxiety was at one time felt among the early settlers of Dumfries, as to the title of the lands they had purchased, one Daniel Penfield or his heirs, laying claim to the whole township. Penfield’s name appears in the Registry Office records, as having bought the township from one Elisha Wells, on the 11th of February, 1805, and Wells is also registered as having bought it from Peter Hogoboom on the 4th of December, 1802. A suit was instituted, contesting Mr. Dickson’s title. This caused much talk at the time, and some anxiety. The case was tried both at Niagara and Toronto, Henry John Boulton being counsel for Penfield, and John Beverly Robinson (afterwards Chief Justice), for Mr. Dickson. The result was favourable to Mr. Dickson’s title, as obtained from Philip Stedman and his heirs. Years afterwards, it was reported that a son of Penfield’s intended to revive his father’s claims to the township, but nothing ever came of it.