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Please Note: I am not related to the LOSSING, MOTT or EMIGH Families

MOSES MOTT'S JOURNEY


THE NORWICH SETTLEMENT To 1855
Compiled by the Norwich & District Historical Society

Norwich & District Archives, Oxford County,
91 Stover St. N., RR#3
Norwich, Ontario N0J 1PO
Canada
Phone: 1-519-863-3638


For almost two centuries before the arrival of white settlers to Norwich area was an unbroken forest inhabited on by deer, wolves and other wild animals.

In the mid-17th century the Neutral Indians who had long lived on the banks of the Otter had been destroyed by the powerful Iroquois who were interested in controlling the region but not in settling it.

In the next year the government of Upper Canada, following the practice of the day, granted parcels of the township to a number of its friends. William Wilcox received 15,000 acres of Norwich township in this way and promptly mortgage it to a Thomas Grey.

During the year 1809, Peter Lossing, a Quaker farmer whose family had been among the first to settle in Dutchess County, New York, attended a Friends’ Meeting in Prince Edward County, Upper Canada where he heard about inexpensive but fertile land for sale in the western part of the province.

Lossing journeyed to the area with his brother-in-law Peter DeLong and they purchased Mr. Wilcox’s complete tract for 50 cents per acre at a total cost of $7,500.

Back in Dutchess County Lossing made every effort to find people who would purchase and settle upon land in the Norwich tract.

He had little trouble; perhaps because the land of Dutchess County was stoney and difficult to farm, perhaps because large landowners were making economic survival more and more difficult for small farmers, perhaps because the pioneering spirit was still strong among these industrious people about fifty families quickly agreed to move to Canada.

Adam Stover accepted 1000 acres for each of four of his children. Joseph Lancaster agreed to purchase 3000 acres. The Motts, Cornwells, Snyders, Sackriders and Emighs were among those who decided to make the trek.

Peter Lossing and Sear Mott brought their families over the border in 1810 and both settled in the northern part of the township on the third concession which became known as Quaker Street.

Many years later Moses Mott, a boy of 12 at the time wrote an account of the trip to their new home.

MOTT’S OWN STORY

Here is what Moses Mott wrote in 1885.

My father Sear Mott, with his wife and family of six children, one girl and five boys, came from the town of Washington, Dutchess County, New York, to Canada, in June 1810. he had previously seen Peter Lossing, who had purchased a large tract of land in the township of Norwich in Canada the year before, and made arrangements in regard to the time of leaving.

” Two other families from Beekham town (Note: Town in New York State was the equivalent of township) came with us as far as Brant County, each of the three families with a covered wagon similar to those often seen about the country now, used by gypsies. The writer of this article, then in his twelfth year can now well recollect many incidents that took place during the journey.

” We were 21 days on the road, but laid by Sundays and some rainy days. We crossed the Hudson River at Catskill and travelled a rough hilly road for some distance. When we came to Cayuga, New York, we crossed a bridge said to be over a mile long. The country near the lake was well settled, with quite a village near the east end of the bridge, and good roads.

” When we came to the Genesee River, where the city of Rochester now stands the country was quite new with very few settlers. A number of men with teams had just come to repair the bridge as we came to it. They said it had been condemned as unsafe and if we drove on it, it would be at our own risk. They also said we had better stop and settle there, that Canada was a cold place, with but few white settlers and most of them had squaws for wives. However, after careful examination of the bridge we ventured on, one at a time, and all got safely over. At a short distance they took the teams from the wagons and fed them by the road, there being no house or clearing in sight, the land being oak opening or plains.
” Met Indians

After starting in we met an Indian richly dressed in Indian costume, with much jewellery and wampum about him supposed to be a great man in his tribe. He was the first being of that kind we younsters had ever seen, and it made us keep pretty close to the old folks.

” The country appeared quite new for some distance and roads bad, but as we came on towards the Niagara River the country was more improved and the roads good. We crossed the river above the Falls at a place then called Black Rock where there is a very strong swift current. The craft we crossed in was something like a scow with four oars and two men at each oar and one man to steer. They started up stream close to the river bank in the eddy, and went about half a mile, then turned into the current and pulled their best. But the boat went down stream for a mile o more as fast as a horse could run, before they got through the swift current. It took nearly all day to get the three teams over, one at a time.

” We came along by the Falls and stopped and took a look at them. The road along the bank was good, but when we turned toward where St. Catherine’s now stands, the roads were horrible nearly all the way to the Grand River. Some small streams had no bridges, others had old, rotten ones. Then we would get stuck in mud holes at times, and had to be pried out and have a double team pull us through. We saw where a few white people had settled along the road and come across a Indian village or two between Niagara and where we crossed the Grand River which we had to ford, for there was no bridge or ferry boat.

” At Brant’s Ford

A man rode a pony through to guide and the teams followed close behind, the water coming up to the horses’ side some of the way through. We crossed very near where the bridge now stands and put up at a little tavern on this side of the river just below where we crossed, it was kept by a man named Foster, and we stayed over Sunday. At that time on the north or northeast side of the river where the city of Brantford now stands, were scrub oak plains. A road cut wide enough for teams to pass over was all the clearing there was; no kind of building was in sight.

” When we started Monday morning we parted company with two families, they going toward what was then Long Point, where they had some connections. We went through scrub oak plains to John Yeigh’s an honest Pennsylvania Dutchman living in the Township of Burford, about 10 miles from where we crossed the Grand River. There were a number of other settlers scattered around Yeigh’s, but none very near.

” In the fall of the same year (1810) Peter Lossing with his family and William Hulet came in and stopped at Yeigh’s, which was about 12 miles from the tract which he had purchased, all the way a wilderness. Soon after Peter Lossing came, he and father and their sons went through the woods to locate and commence clearing and to build shanties for the men while chopping wood throughout the winter. (Note: Ruben Mott and Benson Lossing, each 10 years old, ran a foot race as they neared the boundary of the township to have the honour of being the first white boy to enter Norwich. As long as they lived each claimed to have won that race.

” Father had bought 20 acres of land, the north halves of lots 13 and 14, Concession four, but it was some miles from where Lossing were settling on Lot 8, Concession three, so he took a reserve lot across from Lossing’s to settle on, the north half of lot 9, Concession four, and they were the first settlers in North Norwich. (This land belonged to the government, leased for 20 years with chance to purchase at the expiration of the lease. When father died the lease had not expired. I bough out the heirs and bought the land from the government when it came to market, the farm I now live on. I have since bought also the farm where Peter Lossing settled.

” That was in the Fall of 1810. The next Fall several families, Lancasters, Cornwells and deLongs came and in 1812 the Stovers.

” War Slowed Settlers

In 1812 war broke out between England and the United States and continued for three years, which retarded the settlers coming from the States a good deal, as it was very difficult to cross the lines. My two older brothers were drafted and served some time, Jacob with his musket and Enoch as a teamster. Enoch was present at the “Battle of Lundy’s Lane”, he helped carry the dead and wounded from the field of battle. After this was other settlers came in from the States and other countries very fast.

” During the war there were but few settlers scattered through the woods and plenty of Indians hunting all over the place. Sometimes the settlers felt afraid the Indians might do them injury as we often saw them with their faces painted in streaks of red and black, and acting somewhat fierce, but they never harmed any settlers or their property in the least, probably because there was no whiskey at that time that they could get drunk on.

” The “Rebellion of 1837-38”, disturbed the county a good deal, otherwise we have lived in peaceful times.

” Moses Mott July, 1885

Norwich Early facts about the Norwich Settlement from 1810

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created by Loree Leatherdale-Wilson update 07/29/2000 URL http://www.bigwave.ca/~john