{"id":1624,"date":"2021-11-12T15:56:41","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T19:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.upei.ca\/geolab\/?p=1624"},"modified":"2022-03-11T12:32:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T16:32:12","slug":"energy-on-the-john-orser-farm-and-alnwick-northumberland-county-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.upei.ca\/geolab\/2021\/11\/12\/energy-on-the-john-orser-farm-and-alnwick-northumberland-county-ontario\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy on the John Orser Farm and Alnwick, Northumberland County, Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Figure 1a. Terminus of the Cobourg & Peterborough Railroad at Harwood, Ontario, 1865. Cobourg and District Images collection of the Cobourg Public Library. Used with permission. Note the stacked cordwood on the dock that was fuel for the steamships plying Rice Lake. Click to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Orser Farm in Ontario\u2019s Northumberland County is an example of a Forest Product Farm with Supporting Livestock and Crops. John Orser (b. 1808\/ d. 1877) reported owning 220.5 acres, or 89.2 hectares, on \u201cOrser\u2019s Island, Rice Lake,\u201d in 1871.[1]<\/sup><\/a> Orser\u2019s Island was likely an early name for what is now\u00a0White\u2019s Island. Orser married Lucy Ann White April 1, 1836.[2]<\/sup><\/a> By 1871, the couple had four children: William age 29, David age 27, Martha age 24, and Gilbert age 22. A fifth child, 11-year-old Lucy White whom they had adopted, also lived with them.[3]<\/sup><\/a> Lucy was the daughter of Lucy Ann\u2019s brother George White and George\u2019s wife Marabah (nee Sickles).[4]<\/sup><\/a> Lucy was, therefore, Lucy Ann\u2019s niece.[5]<\/sup><\/a> Her parents George and Marabah had recently relocated to Wiikwemikong on Manitoulin Island. The move was likely because particularly harsh weather of 1866 resulted in crop failures, and they chose Manitoulin in part because Maribah had band membership.[6]<\/sup><\/a> However, whereas John and Lucy Ann\u2019s children were all in their 20s by 1871, George and Marabah\u2019s children were all young (Figure 1b).[7]<\/sup><\/a> It may be that George and Marabah did not have enough help on the farm for it to be productive. After a few years at Wiikwemikong, George and Marabah relocated to Ten Mile Point, Manitoulin Island, and George timbered cedar and tamarack from the surrounding area. He supplied many of the squared railway ties for the Algoma Eastern Railway.[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1b. Maribah (nee Sickles) and George White and their sons Darius who is standing and William Norman who is sitting on his mother\u2019s lap. This photograph, ca. 1866, is attributed to the Ten Mile Point Collection, courtesy of Harry Robbins. Ancestry Family Trees, Ancestry.ca<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The focus of this profile is on John and Lucy Ann Orser, the family that remained on Orser\u2019s (White\u2019s) Island. Like his brother-in-law, John mixed farming and forestry. In 1871, he reported 200 census standard pine logs, 20 census standard spruce or other logs, and 200 cords of firewood. This was the largest amount of logs and firewood reported by a landowner in Alnwick, in 1871.[9]<\/sup><\/a> Orser likely sold the firewood as fuel for the small steamships that plied Rice Lake (Figure 1a). It may be that he supplied cord wood to Zack (Zaccheus) White, his wife Lucy Ann\u2019s cousin, to fuel Zack\u2019s steamship The Firefly<\/em>.[10]<\/sup><\/a> Orser also reported in the 1871 census that he owned two town building lots, two houses, three barns or stables, two cars, wagons, or sleds, five ploughs or cultivators, one thrashing machine, one fanning mill, and four of his own boats (described by the census only as pleasure or common boats).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1c. Clip showing location of White\u2019s Island, previously Orser\u2019s Island, Township of Alnwick. Illustrated Atlas of the Dominion of Canada, Containing All the Provinces, the Northwest Territories and the Island of Newfoundland<\/em>. Toronto: H. Belden & Co., 1880. The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project, https:\/\/digital.library.mcgill.ca\/countyatlas\/searchmapframes.php<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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