Here is the next record as we
try and trace Michael and Scholastica’s life.
1843 Lot 77 - 80 acres -
executors of Abraham Erb to Michael Huber.
Michael owned his first piece of
Canada! He in fact was the first real owner of the land.
Lot 77 Michael Huber bought in
1843.
No 173 – A memorial to be registered
pursuant to the statute in such case made and provide of an
Indenture of Bargain and Sale
made the eighth day of April in the year of our Lord One thousand
Eight hundred and forty three
by and between Jacob E Snider and Samuel Erb both of the
Township of Waterloo in the
County of Waterloo in the district of Wellington and Province of
Canada Yeoman Executors of
the last will and testament of Abraham Erb late of the Township of
Waterloo aforesaid yeoman
deceased of the first part and Michael Huber of the same place
yeoman of the second part
whereby the said party of the first part for and consideration of the sum
of fifty eight pounds of
lawful money of the province of Canada to them in law paid by the said
party of the second part the
receipt whereby is acknowledged did give and bargain sell alien and
assign, transfer release
enough convey and confirm unto the party of the second part his heirs and
assigns all that certain
parcel or Tract of land situate in the Township of Waterloo , District of
Wellington and Province of
Canada Containing by measurement Eighty acres be the same more
or less composed of lot
number 77 in the Dutch Company Tract in the Township of Waterloo
aforesaid and may be more
particularly known and described as follows that is to say
Commencing at a post planted
on the West boundary line of said lot adjoining the land of John
Toasting thence north sixty
four degrees and thirty minutes west nineteen chains and seventy two
links to a post Thence south
sixty four degrees and thirty minutes west forty chains and fifty seven
links more or less to a post
Thence south twenty five degrees and thirty minutes east nineteen
chains and seventy two links
more or less to the place of beginning To have and to hold the said
above granted premises with
all the privileges and appurtenances thereof to the said party of the
second part his heirs and
assigns to his own use forever which said Inductor to witnesses by
Jonathan B Bowman of the
Township of Waterloo of Province aforesaid Yeoman and Daniel
Snider merchant of the same
place and this memorial thereof is hereby named witness my hand
and seal the eight day April
in the year of our Lord one thousand and eight hundred and forty
three
Signed Sealed with presence
of
J B Bowman
Daniel Snider signed Michael
Huber
Source Book #
70 U of W Rare Book Room , Folio 689 Memorial 53
So we see on 13 April 1843
Michael had found a neighbour Diebold Waechter was
willing to give Michael the
required cash and hold the mortgage so Michael could purchase lot
77 for £58. His down payment
in cash was £5, 4 shillings, cash in his pocket was about $24.96 at
that time. The mortgage was
£52 16 shillings @ 6 % per annum. April 13 1843 Registered
April 15 1843 at 9 o’clock
a.m. Converted to dollars at that time would be $253.44 for the
mortgage. Interest for one
year $15.21 Total cost for 80 acres would be roughly $293.61 back in
1843. It does look as though
Michael was on the land early on holding a “Location Ticket” -
basically a squatter’s rights
type of arrangement. That land in 2003 is selling for about five or six
thousand per acre.
Michael paid the mortgage off
on May 11, 1844 to Diebold Waechter and the same day
sold Lot 77 to George Schiebel
for 200 pounds. That would be with the improvements he had
made to the land, so it is not
clear profit. £200 @ $4.80 at that time would be about $960.00. At
today’s exchange about half of
that or $480.00, but we do not know just what all you could buy
for one dollar way back then,
to give us the true picture of this.
It sure looks as though the
hard work has paid off for Michael. I wonder what happened
to Sebastian, Michael would have
had to share the profit with him, after all isn’t that why they
formed “Hoover and Company?” I
think Sebastian also moved out of the area at this time.
An interesting note about
taxation before 1850, if unhewn log houses or shanties had
only one fireplace settlers
could continue to live in them without being taxed. Many a family
continued to live in their log
cabins for that very reason.
In September of 1843 William
Walker had completed surveying Wellesley Township and
the population was 254
inhabitants or squatters. The following spring Michael and family settled
very near the crossroads in
Bamberg, on Lot 3 Concession 4. If you are coming from St. Agatha
into Bamberg turn right at the
main intersection on Weimar Rd and proceed to the top of a big
hill and Lot 3 is on the
crest, the # 3725 would be near the land. Bertha Kieswetter (a descendant
of Rufina and John Kieswetter)
showed me where it was in May of 2002.. There was a one and a
half storey log house down a
lane where the Hubers and later the Kieswetters lived. It was torn
down quite awhile ago. Bertha
says she worked in that old log house for her Aunt when she was
a young girl. I saw it last
Sunday (march 2003) reconstructed by Ken Kieswetter of Timeless
Materials. It is now near
Elmwood Ontario. It is a cosy looking log house with a full porch
across the front and a gable
in the roof. Michael and Scholastica lived and died there.
I have not found the document
but Michael did have a ‘Location Ticket’ for Lot 3 Con 4.
There had been squatters in
some areas previous to that, some were Negroes. So perhaps there
was even a crude log house and
some of the land was cleared for crops by the time Michael
arrived there in May of 1844.
He would still have time to get crops planted so they would have
food for the next winter.
Another son was born on August 7th that
summer on their new farm and
he was named Michael, after
his father. Two years later on a dark cold Nov 19th 1846 another
son was born they named him
Louis Sebastian. Three years after him arrived the only other little
girl, Mary Ann on March 13th 1849. Michael and Scholastica
have six children, a fine family.
“Many mouths to feed” and much
work to be done. It only took four large logs to bring the wall
to the right height for the
first church.
The SS # 9 a separate school
was built by 1857 so his younger children and
grandchildren did attend there
as the names in that register were Huber, Kieswetter and
Kroetsch. The first book of
records in 1859 was written in fine sophisticated handwriting in old
German script and was signed
by Johannes Moser and Johann Kieswetter, (this John Kieswetter
was Rufina’s husband,
Michael’s son-in-law who was living on the same farm.) There are three
old record books in existence
that I would very much like to see. SS# 9 was known as a
boundary school as the
children belonged to St Agatha and to St Clement’s parishes. Twenty
years later a new school of
brick was built. Mrs Olive Huber/Moser recalled her days of school
there beginning in 1907 and
said they still spoke German in school until one year they had an
English speaking teacher and
then she learned English, but with family and friends it was always
in German she said.
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Olive’s home is the log
house I took a picture of as it was being dismantled by Kieswetter’s
Timeless Materials. It seemed to have a past associated with it as we
walked around it, you could smell that very special smell of old wood and olden
days. I even thought I smelled food cooking! It did have a feeling about it,
like hauntingly quiet whispers of the past. My photo even has a shadow
in the upstairs window that looks like a person, at least to me it does. It
really is a reflection of something in that old wavy glass pane. Do you see
someone looking out of the window upstairs on the left side? |
Now back to Michael and
Scholastica and their busy family.
Scholastica probably received
a great deal of help from her mother Rufina in the everyday
chores of providing for her young
family of six children. The eldest daughter, Rufina who was
named after her grandmother
was already 12 years old and likely helped out too.
Her little sister Mary Ann was
three months old and would be having fun being carried
around by her big sister. They
had been living in Bamberg, Wellesley Township for five years
already, in that one and a
half storey log house. I wonder if Scholastica ever heard this following
lament and if she did, did she
recite it? Did she agree on some days?
I’m sure if I were free again, I’d live a single life
And not be such a simpleton as to be someone’s wife.
This was a popular women’s
lament in the 1850’s and I can see why!
It was July 1849 and a ‘heat
wave’ had been going on for a few days with no relief in
sight. Maybe it was just too
hot to work and Michael took the day off with his jug of whiskey.
He apparently stayed with it
the entire day of that very hot 11th of July 1849.
During this hot sultry weather
Scholastica’s mother Rufina Graf died on the 11th of July
1849. On the death record I
saw in St. Clements church records, was written under the ‘cause of
death’ that she was “struck
with a piece of wood.” She was sixty-eight years old. I thought it
sounded odd but there was no
more information than that. Where did the piece of wood come
from? Just fall out of the
sky? The word ‘struck’ made me think it was not an awful accident, it
was driven by force but I
didn’t think I would ever know the story.
The next puzzle was a “Quit
Claim” of August 1st
1849 for Lot 3 that
Michael had just
bought in 1844.Why was the
“gaoler Robert Dunbar at Guelph” a witness to this document?
Why did he sell so suddenly?
Why did he sell for only 50 pounds? What about his crops in the
fields? It was very soon after
Rufina’s death. I was getting suspicious.
Here is a copy of that Quit
Claim document.
Quit Claim 1849
Registered the first day of
August 1849 at two o’clock P.M. upon the oath of Solomon
Kauffman, H.M. Peterson
Registrar
A Memorial to be registered
of a Quit Claim in the words following: Know all men by those
presents that I Michael Huber
of the township of Wellesley in the Wellington District, Labourer of
the First Part, doth give,
grant and sell unto Daniel Snyder of the Township of Waterloo in the
Wellington District, Merchant
of the Second Part for and in consideration of Fifty Pounds of
Lawful money of the Province
of Canada to me paid in hand the receipt whereof I do hereby
acknowledge have given
granted and sold and by these presents do give grant and sell unto the
said Daniel Snyder all my
right, title and interest claim and demand both at Law and in Equity, of,
in to and out of All that
parcel or tract of Land and Premises containing One Hundred Acres be
the same more or less,
situate in the said Township of Wellesley being composed of the West Half
of lot number Three in the
Fourth Concession for which I now hold a Location Ticket from the
District Agent together with
all my improvements thereon to the intent and purpose that said
Daniel Snyder may hold and
use the said premises, or dispose of the same as he may think proper
In witness whereof I have
hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal at the town of Guelph this first
day of August one thousand
eight hundred and forty nine
And which said above recited
Quit Claim Deed, as the execution thereof by the said Michael
Huber is witnessed by Robert
Dunbar of the town of Guelph in the Wellington District, Gaoler and
Solomon Kauffman of the
village of Waterloo in said District , Merchant Clerk, And this memorial
thereof is hereby required to
be registered by me the said Daniel Snyder therein named. As witness
my hand and seal this first
day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
forty nine
Signed and Sealed in the
Presence of
Solomon Kauffman signed
Daniel Snyder ( Town Warden Township of Waterloo)
A M Jackson
Source:
University of Waterloo Library, Rare Book Room, Book #407, Folio 1, Memorial
1221
Michael held a “Location
Ticket” for Lot 3 as said on that ‘Quit Claim” document which
would allow him, as an
authorized grantee the right to occupy a specific parcel of land, namely
Lot 3, if he occupied it
within 30 days of obtaining the Ticket, built a house at least 18 X 24 feet
and cleared 12 acres in four
years, he would receive a patent [title or deed] to that land. It looks
like after about five years of
improving the land by clearing and cultivating and constructing
buildings etc. he let all this
go for a mere 50 pounds, it hardly made any sense at all. But the
1851 Census had a “clue” for
me.
Census 1851 (copy from KOL
microfilm)
Michael Hover - farmer- born
Germany- Catholic- and then under heading “residence if out of
limits” it says “Penitentiary”
I didn’t know what that could mean. It also says members absent
one male. So Michael seems to
be in the “pen”, not at home! His age is 42.
Celesta Hover (note she is not
Scholastica any longer, her mother passed away in 1849,
when struck by a piece of
wood, and now her daughter changed her name, maybe she never did
like her name, or modernized
herself, or maybe that “Census Taker” misunderstood her, I don’t
know) Her age is 41. Their
children are listed as: Rufina, 15, who was no longer attending
school. Christian, 13, Joseph
11. Michael 8, who were all in school. Sebastian 5, and Mary 3.
Mary was called Marianne, and
she and her brother Sebastian were still at home with
Scholastica/Celesta. Their
home was a one and a half storey log house with only one family
living there, and I am
wondering how, if Michael had sold it by ‘Quit Claim’, Scholastica and
her six children managed to be
still living there and how they kept the farm running as well as
keeping body and soul together
in Michael’s absence. [ I checked land registry but didn’t find
any further transaction]
Christian was 13 years old but
still a boy, but most likely was made to ‘earn his keep’ as
my father would say. Rufina
was 15, and I wonder if John Kieswetter who came to Canada in
1849 with two brothers as
newly arrived immigrants from Germany had worked as a “taglohner”
for the Hubers. Tag in German
is “day” - loaner, so day labourer, loosely translated. I do think he
worked for them, but he is not
with them on that census. How else could they manage? He and
Rufina were later married in
1857.
Well, “penitentiary” indeed as
stated on that 1851 Census! I tried to find out the meaning
of this. Was Michael under a
contract to build this jail, after all his trade was ‘stone mason’ or
was it already built and he
was in it? I contacted the Ontario Archives and learned the whole
story. He was charged with
murder on July 14, 1849, three days after
Rufina was ‘struck with a
piece of wood” and died.
Then I searched the newspapers
of that time and here is the story
as it appeared in the Berlin
newspaper “The Deutscher Canadier, July 20,
1849." Printed in German
at the left of this page, and below is the
translation.
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‘An unfortunate affair took
place last Wednesday in Wellesley Township, not far from the
Catholic church, whereby a man, Michael Huber by name, a brick-layer
by trade, took the life of his old mother-inlaw as the result of an
unfortunate blow. At the coroner’s examination, carried out the following
day by Dr. Scott, it was indicated and testified that Huber had for some time
been a slave to drink and behaved like a true monster toward his
family. That’s the way it was on this day as well, as he drove his wife,
children and mother-in-law out of the house several times. The old lady, towards
evening, locked up the whiskey jug in her own chest, whereupon he
grabbed the axe and broke the chest open; she then stormed into the house
again to save her chest. He chased her out again, and threw a log at
her with all his strength. He struck her with it with such force on the head
above the ear, that her skull was split open and this led to her death
eight or nine hours later. |
The body had already begun to
decay badly because of the
extreme heat at the time, so
that the coroner and jury had a truly horrible
task before them. The corpse
was so swollen that it wouldn’t fit into the
coffin, and therefore a larger
one had to be made. The jury gave its verdict of “guilty of murder,”
and the perpetrator was handed
over immediately to the prison in Guelph.
What responsibility do those not
bring on themselves who continually provide the truly hellish
fire-water to those
unfortunate slaves of their passion, merely for cursed mammon’s sake? Such
events are also warnings, or
at least, should be. For women, just as they demand that men should
deny their tongues thirsting
after whiskey the fiery beverage, so should they apply a bridle and
bit to their own tongues. For
many an otherwise well-meaning man has become a drunkard
because of the god-less,
poisonous, unbridled tongue of his wife, to the ruin of the entire
household. We do not intend to
say, however this was the case in Huber’s family; oh, no, but
other situations have brought
us to these comments.’ Translated from German by Patricia J. Kauk
The
Deutsche Canadier publisher owner was Elias Eby (1810 - 1879) second son of
Bishop Benjamin Eby and I
wonder if
he himself wrote this article. Who ever wrote the story sure put the women
down.
Michael was discharged from
the Guelph jail on September 24th 1849.
I have a copy of the page in
the Guelph jail records, it says he showed good conduct, was
married, and was intemperate -
(he drank) He was able to read and “wright” imperfect, meaning
he could at least read and
write a little. To be free less than three months after being found
“Guilty of Murder”, by a jury
did not seem possible. So more research was needed.
The National Archives in
Ottawa found Michael Huber in a book but not a lot of
information on the record. I
had been hoping to find his place of birth or his parents names.
Here are the crimes and length
of sentence for the page Michael was on in that record
along with three others;
#1 Larceny - term 3 years,
#2 Stabbing with intent - term
4 years.
#3 was Michael Huber -
manslaughter term - 4 years,
#4 Obtaining goods under false
pretences - term 3 years.
Considering the terms and
offenses for those charged on the same day, Michael must have been
showing he was a good man if
he was sober! He was getting off pretty lightly I think. Four years
at hard labour and the charge
had been changed from murder to Manslaughter at the court in
Hamilton.
Here is what is written on the
upper half of that page from the National Archives in
Ottawa.;
“At a court of Over and
Terminer and General Jail delivery begun and holden at
Hamilton in and for the District
of Gore on Tuesday the twenty fifth of September 1849 before
the Honorable John Beverley
Robinson and his associates, the persons whose names are
underwritten were severally
convicted of the offences set opposite to their respective names, and
were severally sentenced on
the days mentioned in a column opposite to the name of each person
respectively to be confined
and set to hard labour in the Provincial Penitentiary for the term of
time set down in each case
opposite to the name of the respective prisoner.”
The date of sentence for all
four of them on that record was 8th October 1849.
It was signed J.B. Robinson
Michael left for Kingston with
these men. One had four years “to do”, they travelled together on
the trip.
“A
Penitentiary as its name imparts should be a place to lead a man to repent of
his sins and amend his life.”
- Province
of Upper Canada, House of Assembly, Journal 1826
I wonder if Michael’s first
train excursion was the ride from the Guelph Jail to the
Hamilton Jail? I imagine he
then went from Hamilton by train to Kingston in October to begin
his term of four years at hard
labour. The convicts were delivered under escort of their respective
local
Sheriffs. I wonder if Michael was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery as they
made their
way east through the
countryside. Did he even notice the brilliant autumn colours of the trees
and the crisp blues of Lake
Ontario from the west end of it to the eastern edge at Kingston. I
wonder if he was worried about
how things were going at home. I wonder if he was heartsick
and homesick for his family.
The Curator at the Kingston Penitentiary Museum in Kingston told
me it was more likely he
travelled by stagecoach or since there was a wharf in those days it
could have been by boat. I do
not know, but one’s first train ride does sound exciting doesn’t it?
So Michael was on his way up
the river to meet with about 450 other ‘residents’ at the
Provincial Penitentiary of
Upper Canada. At that time it was also known as Portsmouth
Penitentiary as well as the
Kingston Penitentiary. It was the 16th of October 1849 the day he was
“received” to take up
residence in cell Number 20 in the North Wing, this would be his home for
the next four years. A very different
life was about to begin. The building was made of limestone
which the convicts helped to
build. The prison wall was originally a 12 ft high wooden fence but
by the time Michael arrived a
stone wall which is still there today was already in place.
First thing he experienced was
being stripped of his clothes by convicts supervised by the
Deputy Warden, his body was
thoroughly washed, cleansed, his beard shaved, hair cut short and
then dressed in prison garb
[this may also have happened earlier at the jails in Guelph or
Hamilton].
The winter woollies were brown
and yellow and the lighter summer clothing was white
and drab cotton or linen. Any
money was handed over and recorded. Next he was taken to the
clerk’s office where
information regarding his birth place, physical description, trade or
occupation were recorded in
the Prison Register, which unfortunately was destroyed or lost. That
is really unfortunate as it
may have told us his actual birthplace in Germany! Then after a brief
admonition he was escorted to
his cell, given two blankets, two coarse sheets and for cold
weather a straw ‘mattrass’ and
an extra blanket or rug.
The cells were made of strap
iron not bars and each cell was just 8 foot deep 29" wide
and 6.7" high. The
hammock or stretcher took up most of that space and his ‘night bucket,’also a
wash tub/basin and a coarse
and a fine tooth comb were the only other things in there. There
were pegs on the wall to hang
their day uniform to air out overnight. No lamp or table. “Candle
lamps” were placed along the
corridor which was a high wall enclosing a central inspection
corridor for the guards, this
separated the two rows of cells so the convicts could not see each
other. There were no windows
to look out of. A Bible was provided for anyone who could read
and wanted one, but the light
was too dim to read it anyway. The cells were said to be cold and
damp and remained that way for
sixty years, from 1835 until renovations in 1895 - 1908. Even
though these ‘accommodations’
were rooms with a beautiful view on the waterfront of the
eastern edge of Lake Ontario
and the beginning of the mighty St. Lawrence River, life there was
no picnic, and remember no
windows either! It was intentionally made harder than the harsh life
they were accustomed to on the
‘outside.’
The inmates were not allowed
any contact whatsoever with family or friends, no visits or
letters even (remember the
phone had not been invented yet). They did allow visitors to go
through on tours and the staff
suspected family members did that to catch a glimpse of their
loved ones. The prisoners were
not allowed to look in the direction of the tours. It seems unlikely
that Michael ever saw or heard
from his family in his four years there. Strict rules were strictly
enforced. For instance, upon
arising in the morning until lock up at night, silence was enforced.
No one was allowed to even
smile or nod, whisper or sing or dance! (not that any one of them
would want to) Or to even
wink. One resentful thing they were able to do was direct controlled
flatulence without being
punished. It was not written in those strict rules!
The cat o’ nine tails known as
“the Cats” was used liberally and being given only bread
and water and put in darkened
cells were two more forms of punishment. Michael escaped ‘the
cats’ but on two occasions he
had meals of bread and water as punishment. The first was six
months after being ‘received’
it was on 6th of April 1850 reported by
Guard Richard Nursey, for
“Talking in the East Wing
while convicts marching out to buckets.” Punishment = 2 meals bread
and water. The ‘crime’ -
Apparently he had been talking to convict Charles Masterton. In those
days , the inmates were
subject to strict rules of silence. They were not to speak to each other for
any reason.
Here is what ‘marching out to
buckets’ is all about. It is the routine each morning
wherein the inmates carried
their night buckets [used as toilets] out to the bucket ground at the
South end of the prison yard
where they would be dumped for composting, then rinsed and
refilled with fresh water.
The buckets would be numbered
to each cell and would be left outside during the day to
air. At the end of the work
day, they would retrieve their buckets and return to their cells, with
their supper kit in the other
hand.
The coming and going to the
bucket ground was done in single file and lock step, but not
in chains. They marched close
together with heads inclined in one direction so as to avoid eye
contact with each other.
The second time he was punished
was in spring the following year on April 26th 1851.
He was one of three inmates
reported by Guard John Rowe for “Laughing and talking at their
work in the kitchen.” Probably
they were able to make eye contact while working peeling
potatoes or something and the
temptation to talk was too great. Apparently eye contact in
humans triggers conversation.
So most situations avoided that temptation by not letting them see
each other’s faces. The Two of
them, Michael Huber and Elias Breckenridge were sentenced to 3
meals bread and water for that
one. The third Charles Doherty was admonished. These were
relatively mild offences the
Museum Curator told me in November 2002.
We know a good laugh is good
for the soul, so I am glad Michael found something to
laugh about and lighten his
day in the kitchen. Apparently he did not mind too much the bread
and water punishment he said.
This is how the kitchen was run, one of the inmates would be
appointed Chief Cook and was
up early to light the fires and get breakfast cooking.
The inmate crews were
organized in their appointed duties, preparing inferior but
wholesome food which had to be
carefully measured out or weighed for each portion on the
plates - ration kits- they
were called. If a convict did not care to eat all of his portion he raised
his right hand and if someone
wanted more to eat he raised his left and the waiter would dump
the remains of one onto the
plate of the one still hungry. Oh yummy! They were seated at one
side of long narrow tables so
they faced the backs of the prisoners on the next row. All their shirt
backs had “P P” stamped on
them for “Provincial Penitentiary.” There was no eye contact and
remember silence was strictly
enforced at all times. I bet they made lots of noise banging their
plates and cutlery while
getting away with mumbling under their breath to nearby mates!
It seems things were kept
clean and neat, fresh clothes, sheets etc were available when
they were deemed needed.
Floors scrubbed, and walls were whitewashed by the inmates of
course. Bathing occasionally
when weather was warm, otherwise they had to wash their feet
frequently and their face and
hands daily before lock up for the night. Wednesdays and
Saturdays everyone was shaved
- - - by the younger inmates I heard. Isn’t that a bit scary?
Instruction was given in the
shops so the new inmates learned to do the various trades
and tasks well. I wonder if
Michael did much in the line of stone work? I wonder if he taught
others the trade. Out of it
all he could have bettered himself from the early days of “Wrighting
imperfect” as stated on his
Guelph Jail Record. There was a teacher Mr. James F. Gardiner
employed at the Penitentiary
on May 10th 1852 and he wrote his synopsis
for the end of the year
December 31st 1852. Apparently when he
arrived the prisoners were instructing each other
during classes with as many
different books as ‘students’. He organized them and moved the
classes to the West Wing, and
at 6 a.m. in the summer months held class until breakfast at eight
and from 830 a.m. until nine
except Sundays. Another class was held at noon and for a short
time in the evening. In the
dead of winter it was too dark at most times to accomplish much but
the convicts in general were
enthusiastic about their education.
It was also too dark in their
cells to read before bed time. There was not a proper
classroom with sufficient
light and sometimes they had to do their lessons while men were
working in the blacksmith shop
making lots of noise.
Mr. Gardiner also assisted the
Protestant Chaplain in the “Sabath school” which contributed both
to the health and morals of
the convicts. When Michael was asked at his ‘Liberation’ whether
any communication went on
between convicts during the time they were taught in their different
classes, he replied “they do.”
So it looks like he did attend classes otherwise he would not know
this.
Sundays were not really a day
of rest for them. Remember the saying “no rest for the
wicked”? I am not sure where
that came from but here is how their Sundays went. The day
began as usual. After the
‘marching out to buckets’, they marched around the grounds for their
fresh air and exercise and
then were locked in their cells until at 11 a.m Divine Service was held
and Holy Mass was held for the
Catholics. They were marched to the Chapel and faced the
Chaplain but not each other,
again no eye contact. The ‘Keepers’ were stationed around the
chapel so as to see each man’s
face and demeanor. No singing was allowed either. How awful.
Immediately after Service they
marched to a place where their kits of rations were set out, this
was their food from noon on
Sunday until Monday morning. They picked them up and their cans
of drinking water to carry
back to their cells. If they spilled their water or required more a guard
was allowed to give them more
through a funnel in the grating of the cell door.
They were not allowed to lay
down during the entire day, but locked in that tiny space.
Nothing to do, nothing to look
at, nothing to look forward to, except maybe their day of release.
Even that thought would not be
pleasant for them as they were shunned by society. It would be
difficult for them to find
work so many of them would steal for food and end up back in once
again. Michael would be
wondering if his family would let him back in the door I’ll bet. I
wonder if he worried about how
they were managing to keep alive. Most likely he did.
Michael had arrived the fall
of 1849 and in 1850 a fire broke out in the Penitentiary, so
Michael was there, he could have
told us this story. Apparently the prison depended on Kingston
town for help as they didn’t
have their own fire brigade. The town fire brigade did not respond
claiming they had not heard
any bells ringing, which was true. The Kingston town hall and the
local churches’ bell ringers
had not been paid by the Penitentiary and would not pull that rope
until they were paid! I don’t
know how serious that fire turned out to be. Michael would have
known about it though. Would
the convicts have had to use the contents of their ‘night buckets’
to put out the fire?
Well the big day was nearly
here, it was Thursday October 6th two
days before his release
on Saturday October the 8th 1853 and he was answering his
‘Liberation Questions’ usually done
by the Chaplain. Since he was
ill, Warden Donald Aeneas MacDonell was in charge. Here are
some responses by Michael, he
did not know his height but said he weighed 170 lbs. He felt ‘the
cats’ were the best form of
punishment to deter prisoners. When asked if he thought the strict
discipline and hard labour was
enough to deter convicts from further commission of crime,
Michael said “he thinks so”.
When asked what he thought was the greatest hardship Michael
replied, “the long
confinement.”
When questioned if the
treatment of convicts was harsh or inhumane, Michael said, “he
cannot say he was treated
well.” When asked in what manner in regard to your moral and
religious duties were you
brought up by your parents? He replied “Well.”
He also said, “he was not
guilty of anything prior to the crime for which he is here.”
The other questions were
mostly about creature comforts, ie. clean clothes, enough
blankets, being looked after
during illness, size and warmth of cell, and did you arise from bed
or go to bed sooner than you
wished? He was not complaining about any of those. But there was
a note on Saturday October 8th his release day. “ . . . Saw
convicts Huber and Freeman before
going out, the former
complained that he had been abused by Mr. Mostyn without cause.”
To clarify, Mr. Mostyn was the
Kitchen Keeper. No details relative to the accusation are
given. Michael Huber was not
well treated “on his way out.” I wonder what happened? He had
the same travel companion he
had on the way in . . John Freeman/ Froman who did the stabbing
and got four years as well. He
was on the same document as Michael. Each was given a decent
suit of clothes and one pound
of English currency to get back home.
Many changes occurred along
the country side. The population had grown to 3,000 in
Wellesley township by 1851.
I wonder how those four years
went for him. Did he miss seeing his family grow up? Can
you imagine how much those six
children would have grown in four years? Did he worry about
them? Was he sick and weary?
Did he dare hope to see a ‘yellow ribbon ‘round the old oak tree’
when he came back home, . .
probably unannounced? He could not call ahead to say he was on
his way. Scholastica maybe did
not even know where he was. She may have been quite
surprised. She did let him in
the door.