As early as 1900 people settled in the Margaree's then called Marguerite
River. Times were hard for these new settlers in a foreign land. Even getting there
was a very hard and tiresome task. They had to cross the ocean from the old
land in small sailing vessel, the voyage often taking several months. During
these voyages the passengers experienced the terrors of storms, often shortages
of food and water, and crude and uncomfortable living conditions. Often
sickness broke out during the voyage to add to the passengers’ miseries. It is
related that on the vessel bringing Rev. and Mrs. Donald MacDonald across from
Ireland their oldest child became sick and died and had to be buried at sea.
Arriving at Sydney for repairs to the vessel, it is said Mrs. McDonald went
along the shore hoping to find the body and bury it. Another story tells of
another Irish family who was very unfortunate in crossing. A load of Irish
settlers were stranded off Cape Breton, because of ice, for two months, Daniel
M. Carmichael of North East Margaree was one of five survivors. Another
incident tells of two sons of an Irishman, Malcolm MacLeod being killed during
a trans‑Atlantic trip. He is an ancestor of the Cape Breton MacLeod's
(Lake O'Law).
There were other instances of hardships suffered in the crossing of the
ocean to the new land, and we today can only faintly realize the courage of
these peoples, who knowing in advance the dangers and privations of trans‑Atlantic
crossings in small sailing vessels, nevertheless, undertook the voyage in their
eagerness to reach the new land that they could call their own.
The courage and fortitude of these people was further displayed after reaching
this land as they undertook the grueling trip through the unbroken forest to
reach Margaree Valley. In those days, roads and even trails were unknown, and
no horses were available. Some brought their scanty belongings in by canoe from
Margaree Harbour, but in the majority of cases their food and effects were
packed in on the backs of the men folks. The first of these settlers did not
have friends living in the valley in advance of their coming to extend a
welcome and provide a temporary shelter.
Immediately upon arrival in the valley these hardy pioneers erected
temporary shelters and commenced clearing land for cultivation. First homes
were of the lean‑to type, followed by log cabins, which were later
replaced by frame buildings. The frames for the framed houses were hewn from
logs with broadaxes. Shingles were made by splitting thin sheets from blocks
and smoothing them with knives.
Perhaps the
most backbreaking task of all was the clearing of land. The settlers had only
axes with which to cut down trees, crosscut saws being unknown until around
1880. Then followed the cutting up of trees into logs, burning of brush and
thrash and removing stumps. With only crude implements to work the labour was
arduous and progress painfully slow. Nevertheless, the broad fields that may be
seen today in the Margaree's is the product of their labours, and stand as
monuments to the memory of those preserving industrious pioneers. It is somehow
sad that about one third of the fields cleared by these hardy pioneers have
gone back to forest. In some cases there has been two cuttings of timber made
on some of their farmers fields.
Horses and oxen being in short supply in the early
days of the valley, the cultivation of lands and harvesting of crops had in
many cases to be performed by manual labor. Fields for seeding were dug up with
hoes and the seed covered by hand. Crops of hay andgrain were cut with reaping
hooks or sickles and carried to the barns in sheaves and bundles. Grain was
beaten from the straw with flails and grain for food purposes ground in hand
mills called guerns.
There being no stores
in early days of settlement, and buying centers far from the valley, these
hardy pioneers as a group had of necessity to be fully self reliant.
Practically all their needs in regard to food, clothing and farming
requirements were produced locally on the farms.
While men attended to the clearing of lands and
tilling of soils, the women,, in addition to attending to their household
duties, and often helping in the fields; sheared the sheep in the spring,
washed cleared and picked the wool and then spun it into yarn for knitting or
wove it into blankets or cloth. They made their own yeast for baking, soap for
washing, candles for light as well as High quality cheese and butter as well as
being highly accomplished cooks. Washing of clothes was done in a heavy wooden
tub in the kitchen or out at a brook where water was heated over an open fire.
Water for household use had to be carried from a nearby brook, spring or well,
and along with all this they raised healthy families as well as taking a
prominent part in all community activities. Practically every man could do the
families shoemaking, make his own harnesses as well as tan the hides or the
leather that went into them. He was able to do his own carpentry work including
the preparation of the lumber required for the work, shoe his own horses,
butcher his own meat, and perform hundreds of other tasks around he premises.
In short, the men and
women of those early days were efficient and self reliant. They had to be,to
survive. In this part of Cape Breton supplies were hard to obtain. Margaree
being an inland district far off from shipping facilities, conveyance of
supplies and equipment into the valley was an arduous task before roads were
laid out. Furthermore shipping along the coast was suspended each year from
December to May so that settlers were thrown on their own resources for months
at a time.