SKETCH XX
The Old Gustin Mill
It was a red-letter day for the old Long Point settlers when the first local grist-mill made its appearance. At the first they were compelled to go all the way to the Niagara river to get their grinding done, or else be content with the home process of crushing the grain in a “stump mortar.” Later on the celebrated “sugar loaf” mill[1] appeared, shortening the distance by several miles; but when the first Norfolk mills made their appearance it was a time of general rejoicing in the settlement.
In the early days the mills regulated their own toll rates without any regard to uniformity. Before there was any legislation on the subject the officers of the British army assumed the duty of regulating miller’s tolls; but as settlement advanced a need was felt for a statutory enactment that would establish a uniform rate for the new province. A bill was accordingly introduced in one of the early sessions fixing the rate at one-tenth in all water mills. This was the rule in England and in the neighboring States, and it ought to have been the rule established in this Province. But discreditable as it may appear, it is said that a member of the new Legislature, who was a Dutchman, opposed the rate fixed in the bill on the ground that it was insufficient. He said “von-tenth vas not kanuff to pay dot millars to pild dose mills.” He moved that it be raised “from von-tenth to von-twelf,” and his amendment carried. The people’s representatives meant all right, but it would seem that a majority of them had never “ciphered” as far as vulgar fractions.
The Gustin mill was the first mill erected on the old mill-site located just east of Vittoria on Lot 23, in the 3rd concession. John Gustin was a U. E. Loyalist of New York.[2] He came to Long Point in 1794[3] and drew Lot 11 in the 3rd concession in addition to the lot mentioned above.[4] The mill was erected during the later half of the first decade of the present century, about the time the Finch mill was built at Newport, or “The Glen,” as it is now called. The oak tree which furnished the ponderous shaft for the big under-shot water wheel, stood in the forest about three miles north of Vittoria; and when it was felled and the timber prepared for removal, it required fourteen yoke of oxen to haul it to the mill. It was over three feet in diameter, and the arms framed into it were fifteen feet long, making a wheel over ninety feet in circumference.
John Gustin was held in high esteem by his fellow-pioneers. He was honest in business transactions and temperate in his habits. He was one of the original members of the old Baptist church at Vittoria, which was organized in 1804. He was appointed constable for Charlotteville in 1801 by the old London District Court which was held at that time at the house of James Monroe.
Mr. Gustin gave the mill property to his two sons—Isaiah and Eliphalet, who inherited the sterling qualities of character which so signally distinguished their father. The Gustins were honest millers, although the proverbial “tuft of hair” did not grow in the palms of their hands. They did good work and gave complete satisfaction to their numerous patrons. To give the reader some idea of prices and transportation charges at this time, one incident will suffice. James McCall turned in wheat at the Gustin mill in the year 1810, and had it manufactured into flour. Two hundred barrels of this flour were shipped to Quebec where it sold for $16 per barrel. The charges for freight and inspection at Montreal amounted to $3 per barrel. This wheat averaged about forty bushels to the acre, and was marketed—as will be seen by the above given figures—at over $2.50 net per bushel. This is enough to make the farmers of our day sigh for “the good old times.”
Isaiah Gustin, the second son,[5] was fond of children, and bitterly opposed to corporal punishment in the schools. He lived in part of a house located on Lot 22, which had formerly been occupied as a tavern by Thomas Finch. While Mr. Gustin was living in the place, the District Grammar School, taught by Dr. Egerton Ryerson, occupied the other part of the house.[6] One of the pupils who was wont to disturb the doctor’s mental serenity in those days, was Joseph Bostwick, a grandson of Colonel Bostwick, of Port Stanley.[7] One day Enoch Moore passed by with his sleigh and young Bostwick pelted the occupants of the sleigh with snowballs. This was a gross violation of the rules and tended to lower the dignity of the London District Grammar School, and the worthy doctor took the young incorrigible in hand. After dodging the ruler several times, the doctor laid it over the boy’s head, producing a slight cut on the face which bled a little. When Isaiah Gustin came up from the mill to dinner he heard of the affair and saw the mark on Joseph’s face. This was enough; he lost his equilibrium and informed the dignified doctor that if he would be so kind and obliging as to step out of doors he would mop the ground with him for several hundred yards around the school-room; but the doctor declined the pressing invitation, and Isaiah had to work off his pent-up wrath by indulging in an outpouring of verbal explosions, which were everything but complimentary to the future Superintendent of Education or his little grammar school. He assumed all sorts of menacing attitudes and taunted the doctor with a lack of bravery, and told him he was no soldier or he would come outside and fight one of his own size. After awhile the women folks managed to get Isaiah into the house where his dinner was waiting, and the storm blew over.
John Gustin married Abigail, daughter of Abraham Smith. He had three sons—Charles, Isaiah and Eliphalet,[8] and six daughters—Abigail, Freelove, Jemima, Catherine, Salome and Sophia.
Charles Gustin, the eldest son, was a Baptist preacher. He married Nancy Sovereign and settled in Charlotteville, on one of the lots drawn by his father from Government.[9] Isaiah Gustin the second son, (see footnote 5 above) married in the Edwards family, and settled on the homestead, inheriting a half-interest in the mill. After the mill was sold the family moved out of the county.[10]
Eliphalet Gustin, the youngest son, (see footnote 5 above) married Sarah Edwards and inherited a half-interest in the mill. After the disposal of his mill interest he settled in Lobo on a 500 acre tract of land drawn by George Ryerson, on condition that he perform the settling duties on the whole in consideration of a deed of 200 acres of the tract.[11]
Abigail Gustin, eldest daughter of John, married Simon Mabee, the old pioneer Baptist preacher, and settled in Oxford.
Freelove Gustin, the second daughter, married one Emmanuel, and subsequently, John Stone.[12]
The family settled in the States.
Three of John Gustin’s daughters married into the Wood family, and settled in Oxford.[13]
About the only descendants of the original John Gustin at present living in Norfolk, are the descendants of his son Charles, who had a son Charles and four daughters—Abigail, Patience, Elizabeth and Avangeline.
Charles Gustin, son of Charles, and grandson of the original John, married Mary Underhill and settled on the old Ward homestead in Charlotteville. He had three sons—John, Eliphalet and Charles; and two daughters—Jane and Amelia.[14]
John marr[i]ed Ellen Barber, and is a resident of the county; Eliphalet married Susan Hubbard, and lives near the site of the old mill; Charles married Dorotha Canty and settled near Simcoe; Jane married Amos Thompson and settled in Woodhouse, and Amelia married George Hall and settled in Walsingham. These great-grandchildren of the old pioneer all settled in Norfolk.
Abigail Gustin, daughter of Charles, son of John, married Isaac Handcock, and settled near Mount Elgin; Patience, sister of Abigail, married Daniel Ryan, and moved out of the county; Elizabeth, another sister, married Jacob Sovereign, and settled in Fredericksburg, now Delhi; and Avangeline, the youngest sister, remained single, and resides with the family of John Hubbard, of Woodhouse.
[1] “The Sugarloaf” is the raised land along the Lake Erie shore at Port Colborne, an area of early settlement. The Long Point Settlers went to the mill there until the Backhouse Mill was erected at Port Rowan in 1798, the Averill Mill at Waterford in 1799 and the Ryerse Mill at Port Ryerse about the same time.
[2] John Gustin was born at Sussex County, New Jersey on November 15, 1762. He did not serve in the American Revolution and so was not a United Empire Loyalist. His name was not placed on the official United Empire Loyalist List of the Executive Council and his children did not apply for grants as sons and daughters of a UE. See “John Gustin, Pioneer Miller” in The Long Point Settlers Journal, Volume 3, Number 4 and Volume 4, Number 1.
[3] Gustin arrived in Norfolk in 1796. He was living in Bertie Township, Welland County on July 16, 1795 when he made out a land petition. He met Simcoe and Acting Surveyor General David W. Smith in the Long Point Settlement in September 1795. Gustin wrote later to Smith “I pointed out the place to you,” but the survey not being complete, the grant was delayed until 1796, at which time Gustin moved there. Sources: Upper Canada Land Petition “G” Bundle 1, Doc. No. 7; Charlotteville Township Papers, Doc. No. 622.
4 John Gustin’s Crown Grants were Lot 22, Concession 3, Charlotteville Township patented on March 14, 1798 and Lot 20, Concession 3 patented on May 17, 1802, both recorded in the Abstracts of Deeds Register of Charlotteville Township. Gustin made his home on Lot 22 east of Vittoria and erected his mill there. He purchased the south half of Lot 11, Concession 2 from Henry Whitner in 1804 and then the north half of the lot from Thomas Smith in 1805, also recorded in the Abstracts of Deeds Register.
5 The birth order of John Gustin’s sons is incorrect. Charles, the oldest was buried in Vittoria Baptist Cemetery and his gravestone states that he died on September 9, 1867 aged 78 years and 4 months which calculates to a birth in April or May 1789. The gravestone of Eliphalet Gustin in Lobo Baptist Cemetery, Lobo Township, Middlesex County states that he was born on September 18, 1800 and died on May 1, 1893, making him the second son. According to his gravestone in the same cemetery, Isaiah Gustin died on 21 May 1848 aged 44 years, 9 months and 5 days which calculates to a birth date of August 16, 1803, making him the third.
6 There are several problems with this account. Thomas Finch lived on a part of the Titus Finch farm in Lot 20, Concession 1, Charlotteville Twp. at present Fisher’s Glen on the Lake Erie shore. Isaiah Gustin worked at his father’s mill in Lot 23, Concession 3, Charlotteville Township a few miles to the north. Egerton Ryerson was only twenty years old when Isaiah left Vittoria to live in Oxford County, and probably not teaching school at that time in his life. This could be a reference to James Mitchell who taught the District Grammar School in the Joseph Ryerson home in Lot 22, Concession 2, adjoining the Gustin homestead in the south. The Gustin home was not far from Ryerson’s.
7 Joseph Bostwick, born on January 24, 1811, was a son of Colonel Joseph Bostwick, not a grandson. The Bostwick family lived in Woodhouse Township then moved to Port Stanley, Elgin County in 1817.
8 There was a fourth son of John Gustin Sr.—John Gustin Jr. born sometime between 1800 and 1810. He moved to Pittsford Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan by 1830 in which year he was recorded in the census. John Jr. married to Asenath ________ and had three children before he died c. 1842-46. John Sr. also had an additional daughter, Rachel Gustin who was mentioned in her father’s will. She married Samuel York but died soon after her marriage. The order of the daughters according to their several gravestones is: Abigail c. 1783, Sophia 18 Dec 1786, Jemima 1 Nov 1791, Rachel c. 1793, Catherine 17 Mar 1796, Freelove c. 1797-9, Salome 25 Jul 1807
9 Charles Gustin inherited the southwest part of his father’s Crown Grant in Lot 22, Concession 3, Charlotteville Twp. and made that his lifelong home.
[10] John Gustin himself sold his mill on April 26, 1821 to Matthew H. Tisdale, the transaction recorded in the Abstracts of Deeds Register. John Gustin’s will, dated in 1800 before the mill was built, left his property jointly to all of his children. They signed off the north half of Lot 22 to Eliphalet Gustin on July 11, 1823 and he then sold it to Matthew H. Tisdale on the same day (Source: Norfolk County Deed No. 1518). On February 5, 1826, Isaiah Gustin married Jane Edwards and purchased from George Ryerse Lot 12, Concession 3, Lobo Twp. and moved there. (Middlesex Co. Deed No. 1803). He later settled in the village of Delaware Middlesex Co., recorded in the 1842 Census.
11 At the age of just sixteen years, Eliphalet Gustin received from Colonel Thomas Talbot Lot 186, South of Talbot Road Concession, Middleton Twp., Norfolk Co. He performed the settlement duties and petitioned the government for a grant in 1823 (“G” Bundle 13, Doc. No. 74). Eliphalet built a gristmill on Big Creek which flowed through his lot. He sold this in 1828 then moved to the area of Kilworth, Middlesex County. He then lived in the village of Delaware, recorded in the 1842 Census and in 1847 purchased from his brother-in-law Henry Edwards Lot 32, Concession 2, London Township, Middlesex County (Abstracts of Deeds Register of London Twp.)
12 Freelove Gustin married John Manuel, and both of them signed the 1823 Quit Claim deed on the John Gustin property. John Manuel lived a very long life. He was still living in Indiana in 1880, aged 94 years according to the obituary of his sister, Frances Procunier in the Norfolk Reformer newspaper, issue of August 6, 1880. John Stone Jr. predeceased his wife, Leah Manuel, another sister of John Manuel, so Freelove Gustin’s second marriage mentioned by Owen is not possible.
13 Sophia Gustin married Jacob Wood. Jemima Gustin married Israel Wood. Catherine Gustin married James Wood, all sons of Israel Wood of Woodhouse Twp. The three marriages were recorded in the Wood Family Register prepared by Ida Hambly and published in Isaac Gilbert, UE, by Harriet Walker.
[14] Owen has compressed Charles Gustin Sr. and Charles Gustin Jr. The Senior married first to Nancy Ann Sovereen (c. 1796-1828). He married second to Mary Underhill (1808-1890). Both were buried beside Charles Sr. in Vittoria Baptist Cemetery and stated to be his wife on their gravestones. By his first wife Nancy, Charles had Abigail, born in August or September 1816 who married Isaac Hadcock; Elizabeth Mary, born March 10, 1818 who married Jacob Sovereen; Patience who married Daniel Ryan; Angeline, born May 29, 1823 who never married. By his second wife Mary, Charles had: Amelia, born c. 1835 who married George Hall; Charles Boardman, born c. 1837 who married Dorothy Canty; Martha Jane, born c. 1839 who married Amos Thompson; John A. Gustin, born c. 1843 who married Ellen L. Barber; and Eliphalet A. Gustin, born c. 1847 who married Susan Hester Hubbard. All from Angeline on down were recorded with Charles Sr. in the 1852 Census of Charlotteville Township.