Elm’s Strength

Hosted by Kelly and Richard Janssen Farm, 4135 Longwoods Road, Glencoe, Southwest Middlesex, ON

“My husband George was worried sick about us. It was early March 1814 and he knew the Americans were coming from the West. We were here at the inn at Ward’s Landing and he was fulfilling his militia duty with the British company in Delaware – to the east. Neither Colonel Stewart nor Captain Wilson would give George permission to return to Wardsville to look after us. When it turned cold he headed home without permission.  He spent an uncomfortably long time hanging from a tree after he was overtaken by Lt. Gill of the Michigan Mounted Rangers near Strathburn.

“My George, a tough old soldier and British patriot, held his tongue. The Americans took him back to their abattis at Twenty Mile Creek and hanged him again for further questioning. On the morning of the Battle of the Longwoods, March 4, he was released. He walked to the Edwards farm at the Big Bend. Ward asked Mathews to take his horse and warn the British but Mathews refused.  The battle started at 5 p.m. and the Edwards could hear the battle from the Big Bend.

“Alas, William Caldwell saw my George leaving the American compound and assumed he was playing both sides.  The British accused George of being a traitor!  The accusation stuck. He lost his army pension and spent the rest of his life writing letters to the authorities requesting a fair trial.  At the age of 94, George died in 1837 with a cloud still over his head.”

Written by By Mary Simpson

Memory

Hosted by Curran Farms, 13689 Longwoods Rd Thamesville,  Chatham-Kent,  ON 

Painted by the Bothwell Boy Scouts Troupe  and Families

Word has reached our farm that the Americans are coming this way. I hide in a thicket a distance from the house in hopes that I am invisible to their keen, hungry eyes. It gives me time to gather my thoughts of times gone by.

Memories of leaving an old country for a new one, across a vast ocean.  Memories of departing again, for a beginning in a newer, better country. Memories of working side by side with my husband to clear our very own land. Memories of my first garden with the fragrant scent of lily-of-the valley but also the cabbages, onions and squash that kept us over the long winter. Memories of evenings with the family, keeping warm by the blazing hearth. Memories of two tiny graves in a clearing in the woods. Memories of the first whispers of war which we were reluctant to believe. Now they are memories no more, but a cold, cruel reality.

I am disinclined to leave my home and especially, those tiny graves, but if I must, I will rely on my happy memories to sustain me.

By Anne Carruther, Melbourne.  February 2010

Quilt Done

  Here it is.

What everyone  has been waiting for. Through vision, creativity and hard work,  the 30 block Longwoods Quilt is finally completed.

Great work team. What a project we have created to commemorate the War of 1812 Women.

Thanks to Northcott Fabric and Joan Hillhorst at Sew Creative.

and all the Ladies  of the  Quilt Team

More Stories to follow….

Barn Quilt Installs nearly completed

Home Ward Bound and Mr Mitton from Thamesville

The weather was perfect this past weekend for the Longwoods Barn Quilt Trail installations. Twenty-five out of the 30 paintings are now up. Barn quilt hosts are enthused with the new pieces of “art”.  Passersby are questioning “what is happening” in our rural area? “What are those things on the barns?”

For those who know, please spread the word. The Longwoods Barn Quilt Trail is a 65 km stretch of rural highway running from the Delaware Speedway on Gideon Road to Tecumseh’s Monument east of Thamesville.

Take your honey for a drive and “head on down” the barn quilt trail.

2nd Bothwell Scouts – “artistes”!

Mr. and Mrs. Wammes hosted the paint workshop for the 2nd Bothwell Boy Scouts to paint 5 blocks for the Longwoods Road Barn Quilt Trail.  Good work!