From the book “How Dear to My Heart” by Walter Kilborn Billings In my youth, Harper’s hill was all that could be desired as a spot to spend an afternoon on. At first the big hand sleigh at the farm was the only means of conveyance, but many times, unless the snow was […]
Fishing
From the book “How Dear to My Heart” by Walter Kilborn Billings I never seemed to have much luck at this sport. As a boy I could go down to the creek and over to the falls, where with a can of worms I could catch a dozen bullheads, which when cleaned and […]
Haying Time
From the book “How Dear to My Heart” by Walter Kilborn Billings The modern way of caring for the hay crop seems a far cry from the old way in which the weather had a lot to do with curing and stacking. The horse fork for unloading was a wonderful improvement, as before it was […]
Drawing Milk to the Cheese Factory
From the book “How Dear to My Heart” by Walter Kilborn Billings In Lyn the cheese factory was located at the foot of the Jarvis Hill, just across the creek from the tan-bark field where they used to play ball. One road led around the corner at the hotel (Stacks), down the mill […]
Log Canoes
From the book “How Dear to My Heart” by Walter Kilborn Billings The only log canoe that I can remember appeared first on the Lyn pond. An Indian had brought it down from the back lakes, portaging it from back of Temperance Lake, through the canals, over the dams, and finally pulled it up […]
The Sunburn
From the book “How Dear to My Heart” by Walter Kilborn Billings It was nearly the end of July 1881. The hay crop had been all taken care of when Father and Mother decided to take a holiday and drive to Gananoque, a town about thirty miles west, to visit her sister. It was […]
The Swimming Hole
From the book “How Dear to My Heart” by Walter Kilborn Billings Our old farm house was situated on the south side of the Lyn road. It had been re-modelled about the year 1871, and with lots of apple trees around it was a very pleasant spot to be brought up in. South of […]
More Bees
From the book “How Dear to My Heart” by Walter Kilborn Billings It was nearly the last week of haying. Father and a neighbour, Chris Bateson, had done this work together on both farms, and I drove the rake. This day we were on our neighbour’s farm, and I was following the wagon, cleaning […]
My Cousin
From the book “How Dear to My Heart” by Walter Kilborn Billings My cousin Eck Kilborn, a boy of about my own age, and doubly related to me, (his mother was a first cousin of my father and his father a brother of my mother), was an only child and so for companionship was always […]
The Bear Story
As told by Marble Billings many years ago, about 1879 Shortly after I was married and moved to my farm east of Lyn, I was called to the door one morning in November by a neighbour, William Judson, who said that he had left his horses out in the back pasture the day before, and […]
Christmas – 1886
Christmas 1886 By Walter K. Billings It was Christmas morning about the year 1886. We had been up early to get down to the kitchen where the eight stockings had been hung the night before. Now we were all in one big bedroom looking at the candy elephants, pigs, sheep and rabbits that were already […]