Pioneer Sketches of

Long Point Settlement

By E. A. Owen

With annotations by R. Robert Mutrie

This is an exact transcript of Norfolk County historian E. A. Owen’s landmark 1898 history Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement with end notes by R. Robert Mutrie. The chapters will be added to this website over time. Click on a chapter to the right to view Owen’s text with Mutrie’s endnotes.

Annotator’s Introduction

During the late nineteenth century, Egbert Americus Owen took on the task of writing his major book of pioneering times in Norfolk County, Ontario. He traveled miles to meet with a woman or a man who could tell him about “The Old Days.” The resultant book, Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement chronicles the founding century in one of this province’s earliest pioneer areas. The work has withstood the test of a hundred years and still lives on.

The insightful author’s original 1898 edition sold 1,100 of the 1,200 copies printed. The remainder burnt in a fire. There was a succeeding reprint seventy-five years later and another done soon thereafter. The original edition of Pioneeer Sketches of Long Point Settlement has since been reproduced on the Internet in the website of Open Library.org

What makes this one of the great stories of pioneer life in Ontario, Canada is Owen’s folksy look at Norfolk County during its infancy based on the memories of people who lived there. It is the most widely circulated of the several books written about this cradle of south-central Ontario civilization. The author’s interesting 1898 volume resulted from interviews with the descendants who lived in the 1890’s and included their colourful memories of the first settlers passed down from generation to generation. He added his own philosophical chapters telling about the contrasts between “Then and Now.”

The often mentioned problem encountered by readers of this work is: What is historical fact and what is embellished family lore passed down through the generations? E. A. Owen’s informants lived a century after some of the events in his book and their passed-down reminiscences proved not correct in every detail when compared with the documents contemporary to the lifetimes of their predecessors.

Being the author of The Long Point Settlers and editor of The Long Point Settlers Journal and then the compiler of the many Long Point Settlers Genealogies placed me in an ideal position to study the discrepancies in family lore and compare them with historical documents. In 1997, I began an exact transcription, adding on correcting endnotes sourced in historical documents along the way.

Annotating E. A. Owen’s one hundred and nine-year study required consultation of many sources. During his lifetime, these documents sat in various government repositories gathering dust and had not been released to general study. Most information for my endnotes came from primary source documents—those written by the individuals themselves, or others of the day who knew them. There exists a remarkable array of primary sources for this period, more of them coming to light every year and I consulted all those found then extracted the information for this work. I included many of these in my earlier book, The Long Point Settlers.

My comments concentrate on errors of commission and less on omissions. To document the latter would be a book in itself! The footnotes represent current research progress, the fruits of years of study by myself and by others in archives and libraries. Additional documents may come to light later to further clarify the pioneer background. What we have here is an interesting array for understanding our progenitors who lived during the 1700’s and 1800’s.

My annotation to this century old work by E. A. Owen is now more than a decade in its development. It is done with deep appreciation to E. A. Owen for recording these important memories. The text itself is his without change. I added anything additional in my footnotes only. Read on and enjoy.

Acknowledgements

This annotated transcript of E. A. Owen’s Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement would not be possible without the help of many people. At one time or another, most of the subscribers to The Long Point Settlers Journal shared with me information from their dedicated researches into their pioneering ancestors. In addition, my footnotes reflect several decades of correspondence with the descendants of the pioneers as our research of documents progressed. The hours behind this work cannot be numbered in anything less than thousands. I thank each and every one of the contributors for their assistance over the years.

Special appreciation is given to John Cardiff and Jo Weitzel who helped with the transcribing and proofreading of this work. Their meticulous review cannot be underestimated and is much esteemed.

Robert G. Moore provided copious amounts of Elgin County material for the many Norfolk families who moved to that neighbouring county. Owen’s informants lost touch with quite a few who had moved there and gave only vague references to the author. Robert Moore ferreted out the documents at St. Thomas, the county seat of Elgin and filled in the historical gaps.

Major reviews of the endnotes in individual sketches came from Norman Brown, Donald G. Anger, Thomas A. Ryerson, C. Fred Prong, David P. Sicher, Katie Valentine, Wayne Messecar, David C. Edwards and the late William B. Jackson, to name several. Their time, further research and thoughtful commentaries along the way added insight to the lives and times of the Norfolk pioneers enriching my endnotes.

I also appreciate the assistance of the staff of the Norfolk Historical Society and the Ontario Archives. These two institutions opened their repositories and helped with period documents to prove or disprove the century old traditions passed down to E. A. Owen.

There is no shortage of Norfolk County researchers and all are to be commended on their endeavors. Weekly I hear from more. It is with great pride that I present to the reader the benefits of the thousands of hours that all have happily spent in learning about the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth in this Upper Canadian cradle of civilization.

Happy Hunting,

R. Robert Mutrie