More on Maberly Moores

Since my last visit to Maberly, Ontario (near Perth), much has been brewing with local history buffs helping to put together information for the 200th Anniversary of South Sherbrooke (now Tay Valley Township) coming up in 2014.

PRESERVING LOCAL HISTORY OF MABERLY

We are currently investigating the original Wesleyan Methodist chapel that was built on Conc. 10 Lot 14 of S. Sherbrooke and a petition that was signed by local residents in 1852, including Thomas Moore Esq. (later magistrate/Justice of Peace/Reeve) and many of the early settlers of that area.  This chapel and old burying ground is no longer visible, but we are cooperating with local families to research and locate the original location of these sites and preserve what we can of local history.

More photos from our last trip.

Reeve’s walking stick; List of Reeves, South Sherbrooke Town Hall, Maberly including Thomas Moore and Ephraim Deacon

Bethel (Maberly) Women`s Institute, a picture of the Maberly Hotel. See pic below for the same tree beside the hotel, still standing.

Krista in front of oldest tree in Maberly, where John Morrow’s Maberly Hotel stood.

We visited Town Hall where my forefathers, both Thomas Moore Esq., Reeve, and Ephraim Deacon, Reeve, served on council for many years, and many of their descendents.  Thomas Moore Esq. was also a local magistrate or Justice of the Peace to the King, and must have been sworn in at some point by the Lieutenant Governor General.  Magistrates were put in place in local towns in the new British colonies to settle local disputes outside of the larger courts.  He was not likely a lawyer, but a loyal servant who was passionate about politics, justice and local law.  He fought to preserve the original Weleyan Methodist Church and old burying ground, in a signed petition with his fellow settlers and trustees of the church.

Here we are on the land that William Moore worked with his father, originally owned by Thomas Hughes and later requested to be deeded to Robert Hughes.  It is where the Zealand Rd meets the now Trans Canada Highway, Highway 7, constructed in the late 1940s/50s.  The lines of the land have changed, so locating the original burying ground has been a challenge. The land is now occupied by a modern house with new owners.

Karen and Steve discuss where the old landmarks may be on the 1860s map to modern day Tay Valley Township

New highways divide the land once inhabited by the Moores and Wesleyan Methodist church

Here is a letter of petition the old inhabitants wrote to protect the Wesleyan Methodist church and old burying ground on this property:

Original petition to save Wesleyan Methodist church and old burying ground, Maberly, undersigned Thomas Moore et al

“Petition 0526”, Township Papers, Township of SHERBROOKE SOUTH, Microfilm Series C-IV, Archives of Ontario, copy: June 2, 2010, transcribed by Krista Moore September 21, 2011.  (Describing petition of Church trustees for Wesleyan Methodist Chapel and burying ground on south South-East Lot 14 Conc. 10 S. Sherbrooke, Oct 14^th 1856.)

Transcription:

[marks: 10.165 /slash 58]

To Anthony Leslie Esqr    Agent for the

Sale of Crown and Clergy Lands [v mark] at Perth in

The County of Lanark.

[Petition: 0526]

We the Undersigned respectfully state for your

consideration that on the south part of the South East

half of Lot No. 14 in the 10^th Concession of South Sherbrooke

there is a plot of ground used as a burying ground

that on a part of this plot or contiguous to it there has

been a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel erected and in [our?]

[start?] occupancy and use for public worship for more

than twelve years. The undersigned Settlers in the nei

ghbourhood of said Chapel and burying ground re-

{ spectfully request that in the event of the said lot being

{ sold that at least two acres be preserved for the use of a

Wesleyan Methodist Church and burying ground

or not deeded  to any [purchaser ]  except to trustees du-

ly appointed whose names shall forthwith [was? Some or seem as] prac-

ticable be forwarded to you and through you to the land

granting department.

South Sherbrooke Oct 14^th 1856

[signed by:]

Abrah Adams                                }    Malcom Morrow

Robert Lewis                                  }   John Chambers

John Buchanan                               }    William Armstrong

George Buchanan                          }    Charles Judge

Thomas Moore                               }    Da[vid or Daniel?] Conboy

George Buchanan                          }     John Armstrong

Wm Charlton                                 }     John Duffy

William Morrow

[along right margin:]

John Morrow

The now Maberly United Church:

Krista beside the now Maberly United Church. Below an embroidered picture hanging in the local bar and grill on Highway 7.

Dear Thomas – Part II

A fictional letter to the late Thomas Moore of Maberly from his 3 x Great-Granddaughter, Krista Moore…..

Do you remember the Deacons?  Do you remember old Ephriam and Ellen? And the Deacon farm? Did you visit often?  Did you two ever have a match of wits, and who decided to accept the role of Reeve first?  Was it you?

The Deacon Farm, Bolingbroke 2011

You were likely a fairly ambitious young man.  I  noticed you were a councillor very early on, and you took the charge as a young magistrate as well, and you, along with the other pioneering churchmen, fought for the little church on your father William Moore and later Robert Hughe’s land. I’m not sure what the picture was like at the time, or who was fighting for whom, but your name was on everything! So I can only assume it was very important to you.

Petition to save Wesleyan Methodist church, Thomas Moore Esq. et al. circa the 1850s, Maberly, South Sherbrooke

What was that first little Wesleyan Methodist church like? Do you remember it now? Could you describe it to me?   If you were here, or I could hear you, I could imagine you saying it was quite dim inside, the logs were quite heavy and dark, and the place was quite stark. It was good enough for the purpose it served at the time. Certainly not an elaborate testament to God or King.  But, it would do for a little chapel in the woods.  I wonder who attended, and what they wore, I wonder who descended upon it, and the little wagons pulling up or going through the lane-way on your father’s land. Maybe it was different then and the church wasn’t where I imagined it at all. Perhaps I got it all wrong.

What a log cabin church might have looked like in 1840s Ontario.

You see, we only have an 1880 map of the area, and the roads have changed since then. I’m sure if you stood where your house was now, you would be quite alarmed to see a paved road running through, and a big white house standing where your father’s log cabin used to be. Or perhaps you would be standing in a thicket and nothing would be there. Or, perhaps, you would stumble down the lane-way, the very stony lane-way I saw on your father William’s land, where I could see his wagon and horses coming through, to the open patch of land where I imagined his crops were, or his cows grazing, or oxen pulling and tilling the hard earth…

The new lane-way up to the old William Moore farm, Maberly, 2011, Conc 10, Lot 14

Maberly has changed quite a bit since you first lived there.  But I imagine your face would light up to see some of the buildings and houses still in place, like the old general store, now boarded up, but the backroom still open and the old shelves still there and the same old door.  The river Tay runs behind it, and where once was an old mill I believe. I can’t remember if we had a hand in that at all, or just the Deacons, and the Morrows. You tell me!  I imagine though, you had to do something with all that wood you cut down on your properties. I feel so ignorant as to your lifestyle and what it meant to live at that time. What you men went through, clearing your land and building structures that were liveable enough for your ever-widening brood.

End of Part II

Continued in Part III