"We understand in England that the States of America are very flourishing at present.I intend to set off to America the first of June.If it should please God that I should get over safe, I hope to get to your house as soon as I can.All your cousins are in good health at present.Thank God for it, and they wish to be remembered to you and all your family.
"So I remain your most obedient cousin, "JAMES BOYES, "of Bilsdale.
"N.B.--By the wishes of one of your cousins, of the name of Harman Wedgwood, a son of Benjamin Wedgwood, a tailor, he would like to hear from you.He thinks you will give him some information of your country.
"He wants to come to live in your country, and if you please to give him some intelligence of tailors' wages in your country.
"So he remains your most obedient cousin.
"HARMAN WEDGWOOD, "Hawnby."
"N.B.--If you please to write to him you must direct as follows:
"'HARMAN WEDGWOOD, "'Hawnby, "'Near Helmsley, Blackmoor, "'Yorkshire, England.'"There was no change in the family at Prospect after Sallie's marriage in 1808 until 1817.On Jan.17th of the latter year Robert married Eunice Bent, of Fort Lawrence, a sister of Harmon's wife, and in October Amos married Susanna Ripley, a sister of Willie's wife.
Robert settled on a farm adjoining the homestead.His house was not built until the summer following his marriage.James, his eldest child, was born 30th October, 1817, in the Brick House at Prospect Farm.Amos settled at the head of Amherst (now called Truemanville).The following letter, written by his youngest daughter, Mrs.Sarah Patterson, is very interesting, as giving some idea of the experiences of that time:
"When my father first came to live in the place now called Truemanville it was a dense forest.In summer the only road was a bridle path.In winter, when the snow was on the ground, they could drive a pair of oxen and a sled along the road.
"The winter my father was married, as soon as there was enough snow and frost, he and one of his brothers and another man set out to build a house.
"They loaded a sled with boards, doors and windows, and provided themselves with bedding and provisions to last till the house was finished.They then hitched the oxen to the sled and started on their twenty-mile journey and most of the way on a trackless path.
"When they arrived at their journey's end, they erected a rude hut to live in and commenced building a house.They did not have to go far for timber--it was standing all around the site chosen for the house.
"They built a very nice log house, 15 ft.by 18 ft.Their greatest trouble in building was, the stones were so frosty they could not split them.They had to kindle a huge fire of brushwood and warm the stones through, when they split finely.
"After they had built the house they returned home, having been absent about three weeks.
"My father and mother then moved to their new home, and father began to build a saw mill and grist mill.
"Their nearest neighbors were one and a half miles distant, unless we count the bears and foxes, and they were far too sociable for anything like comfort.Sheep and cattle had to be folded every night for some years.
"After father had built his grist mill he used to keep quite a number of hogs.In the fall of the year, when the beechnuts began to drop, the men used to drive them into the woods, where they would live and grow fat on the nuts.One evening when my mother was returning from a visit to one of the neighbors she heard a terrible squealing in the woods.
She at once suspected that bruin designed to dine off one of the hogs.
She hastened home to summon the men to the rescue, but darkness coming on they had to give up the chase.However, bruin did not get any pork that night; the music was too much for him, and piggie escaped with some bad scratches.
"A short time after this, ominous squeaks were heard from the woods.
The men armed themselves with pitchforks and ran to the rescue.What should they meet but one of my uncles coming with an ox-cart.The wooden axles had got very dry on the long, rough road, and as they neared my father's the sound as the wheels turned resembled very closely that made by a hog under the paws of bruin.
"Imagine the way of travelling in those days! I have heard my father say there were only two carriages between Point de Bute and Truemanville.Their principal mode of travel was on horseback.My father and mother visited Grandfather Trueman's with their three children.Mother took the youngest on one horse, and father took the two older ones on another horse; and yet we often hear people talk of the 'good old times.'
"My father was a man of generous disposition.The poor and needy always found him ready to sympathize and help them.He often supplied grain to them when there was no prospect of payment.He would say, 'A farmer can do without many things, but not without seed grain.' That reminds me of an incident I will tell you, of our Grandfather Trueman.About thirty-five years ago my mother was visiting at Stephen Oxley's, at Tidnish, where she met an old lady whose name I forget; but no matter.When she heard my mother's name she began talking about Grandfather Trueman.She said she would never forget his kindness to her in her younger days when she and her husband first came from the Old Country and began life among strangers in very straightened circumstances.After passing through a hard winter in which food had been very scarce they found themselves in the spring without any seed wheat or the means of buying any.
