Cantley's 1889 Articles in The Echo of Cantley

A Winter Journey to the Ottawa Market

Gary Blackburn

This story is typical of many Cantley farmers who sold wood or ice blocks at Ottawa’s Byward Market in the early 1900s to 1940s.

My father often told stories of his long four-hour journeys to the Ottawa Market in winter to sell wood for extra farm income. He would ski into the Wilson bush lot at Wilson’s Corners to cut several long cords of stove wood for $1.50 a cord, then load the logs on to our horse-drawn sleigh to take back to our farm.

The trip to our farm with a sleigh loaded with wood was not easy: a dangerous hill down to the main Cantley Road at McGlashan’s Store, and another through Chamberlain’s Farm and Boon’s Waterhole to Blackburn Creek, then an incline to St. Andrew’s Church and through the McClelland farm to Hamilton’s Hill where the road ended. He then had to skirt the deep gulley to climb the steep hill towards St. Elizabeth’s Road to access the Cantley Road at the United Cemetery. After passing Brown’s Store and the Blacksmith Shop, he finally reached our farm where father unloaded and stacked the wood.

When farm work allowed the time, father re-loaded his sleigh with the long cords of wood ready for the next morning’s long trip to the market. His day began at 4 am. After breakfast and chores, he hitched our horses Prince and June to his sleigh and began his journey south on the Cantley Road.

The first hurdle was the steep Gauthier’s Gulley downhill towards a creek crossing which ended in a ninety-degree corner. Father had to install “hill chains” on the sleigh before every downward hill to stop the sleigh from running up on the horses. After the downhill section, the chains had to be removed, and the team continued up the next hill to the long flat land that went on to Holmes’ Corner. For the uphill sections, another type of brake, called a “dog”, was dropped down at the back of the sleigh to stop it from reversing and pulling the horses backwards.

The next leg of the journey was The Big Gulley, where the road skirted around to bypass a deeper, impassable gulley. From there, it was on to Reynolds Hill and the long descent to the Alonzo Wright toll bridge where he crossed the river to Chelsea. After paying the five-cent toll, he continued south. He turned left at Mile Hill through Hammond’s Farm, past the Avalon Hotel, to the incline at Dead Man’s Corner, which was so long that the horses had to stop to rest several times. The final leg took him through Wrightville and Hull then across the Interprovincial Bridge and the end of his four-hour journey to the market.

At the Ottawa Market, he unhitched the horses and led them to stalls in the upper levels of the designated boarding facility where they were watered and fed with provisions brought from our farm. The fee for boarding a team of horses there was five cents a day. The sleigh was parked in a large outdoor staging area where buyers would circulate freely to inspect the produce being sold. It was common for keen buyers to haggle. The typical sale price for a long cord of wood was $2.50, delivered locally and piled in the buyer’s yard.

After the wood was sold, it was time for the cold, four-hour journey back home to the farm. Several sleighs followed each other in a convoy, with the drivers and helpers congregating on the front sleighs to keep their spirits up. With the grooves in the snow acting like rails, the other horse teams in the rear would follow closely, driverless where permissible, all the way back up the Cantley road.

Father arrived home sometime between 8 pm and 10 pm. After a hearty supper, he counted his earnings for the day. After paying for the wood, the boarding fee and the toll bridge both ways, his total profit was eighty-five cents for a 16-hour day. He considered this to be a rewarding winter day’s pay.