SKETCH XCIX
WONDERFUL PEDESTRIAN FEATS OF A PIONEER FATHER AND MOTHER—TIMOTHY CULVER
One hundred and one years ago the first Timothy Culver settled in Norfolk.[1] Since that time many Timothy Culvers have been inscribed on Norfolk’s voters’ lists. In fact, there has not been a generation of Culvers, from the original Timothy down to the present time, that did not have its full quota of Timothys, and it would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer to describe the various degrees of consanguinity existing between the descendants of any one Timothy and those of another.
But it is the old original Timothy Culver and his wife that form the subject of this sketch. As before stated, more than a century has elapsed since this old pioneer built his log cabin in Norfolk, yet he had previously made two visits to the new settlement. The Jabez Culver families came to the new country in 1794, and Timothy, who was first cousin to Jabez, came to visit them in their new homes. He made the long journey on foot, and not being fully satisfied, he made a second visit, accompanied by his wife. They walked from New Jersey to the new settlement in Norfolk and back, making a round-trip walk, mostly through forests, of more than a thousand miles. What a herculean task for a wife and mother to perform! What a wonderful story it would be if the incidents of each day’s experience during that long, tedious and dangerous journey were minutely written down! The staff, which was the only weapon of defence carried by the old pioneer, has been carefully preserved, and is at present the property of Timothy Culver of Waterford. It is nearly five feet in length, and made of a rare old New Jersey shrub. It has a large brass head, globular in form, and its lower end is fitted to a sharp-pointed steel tip, about six inches in length. While tramping through the forest they were attacked by a hungry wolf. The brute advanced with open mouth, and Mr. Culver pinned it to the earth by thrusting his spear, or staff rather, down the animal’s throat.
Three daughters of this pioneer father and mother married three sons of Jabez Culver in New Jersey before they came to Canada, and hence the motive which prompted this hazardous undertaking may be readily understood. The New Jersey home circle had been broken, and three of their daughters had gone to an unknown region of wilderness, and it was a desire to learn something of their destiny that sent the brave mother off through the forest on foot. Their visit was made in the fall of 1795, and Mr. Culver was very much pleased with a patch of turnips which his son-in-law, Aaron Culver, had grown that season in his little clearing. He concluded that land which would produce such fine turnips must be good land, and he determined to bring out the rest of his family and settle in the new country himself. They came the following season with all their personal belongings, and erected a log cabin on land drawn from the government. In 1801 he purchased Lot 1, 12th concession of Townsend, from Gideon Cooley, paying £83 4s. 0d. for it.[2]
Timothy Culver had three sons—Nesbitt, Timothy and Ebenezer; and five daughters—Anna, Elizabeth, Miriam, Martha and Eunice. The first three of these daughters came to Canada in advance of their parents as the wives, respectively, of Jabez, jun., Aaron and John Culver. The three sisters had married three brothers in New Jersey, and when the family came, the fourth sister, Martha, married a fourth brother, Gabriel Culver. And it is said the fifth sister, Eunice, and a fifth brother—Benjamin Culver—were engaged to be married, but owing to his dissipated habits the engagement was broken off. Eunice married Abraham Beemer, and subsequently William Schuyler. The jilted Benjamin turned his back on his kindred, and settled in the new State of Ohio, where he died single. These inter-marriages between the families of Jabez and Timothy Culver were quite without the ordinary course of events in our old family genealogies, and as all four unions were pioneer heads of large and important families, they are treated of in a special sketch entitled, “The Double-Culver Quartette.”
Nesbitt Culver, eldest son of Timothy, married into the Bacon family, and settled on the Townsend side of the settlement. He had three sons-—Robert, Nesbitt and Clark; and two daughters—Eunice and Patty. Robert, the eldest son in this family, died in 1871, in his 72nd year. Nesbitt Culver, the father of the family, died in 1813 in his 40th year.[3]
Timothy Culver, second son of Timothy, married Mary Kern, and settled on the Townsend side of the settlement. He had five sons—Ebenezer, Samuel, Timothy, Lewis and David; and eight daughters—Patty, Charity, Catherine, Elizabeth, Esther, Mary Jane, Sarah Ann and Lizana.
Ebenezer, youngest son of Timothy, married Elizabeth Kern and settled on the Townsend side of the settlement. He had two daughters—Martha Ann and Eveline.
[1] Timothy and his children signed their surname “Collver“. Some in the later generations adopted the “Culver“ spelling.
[2] On January 7, 1797, Timothy Collver was given permission to occupy land by Peter Russell, the Administrator of Upper Canada, mentioned in a minute of the Executive Council (Land Book C). Later that year, Collver was recommended by Townsend Township agent Paul Averill for Lot 6, Concession 11 and included in a list in the 1797 Averill Report. Three years later on February 8, 1800, he purchased from Gideon Cooley, Lot 1, Concession 12, Townsend Twp., recorded in the Abstracts of Deeds Register for the township. His homestead north of Simcoe was located across present Highway 24 north from that of Reverend Jabez Collver who made his homestead on Lot 1, Concession 12, Windham Township.
[3] Nisbett Collver Sr., the son of Timothy, and his son Nisbett Collver Jr. signed their name that way. Nisbett Sr. had an additional son not mentioned by Owen, named Timothy, born c. 1808, mentioned in his father’s will (Norfolk County Surrogate Registry, Doc. No. 43). Timothy married Hannah Pettit and inherited his father’s homestead in Lot 7, Concession 11, Townsend Township. Later, he purchased Lot 16, South of the North Branch of the Talbot road in Southwold Township, Elgin Co. near the village of Fingal, recorded in the Abstracts of Deeds Register.