Resources for who sold the farm

Three Musketeers quote

Life knows no age nor time
Youth will ever set out to seek fortune
Man will ever fight for the love of woman
Kings will threaten - Queens weep - Ministers conspire
And so - though our story is of three hundred years ago
It is as young as yesterday or tomorrow


Many of the information found on this Who Sold the Farm blog comes from the pages of the following books and the map that was given to me by this guy who remains nameless at this time. All we know of him is that he spent a lifetime working in some of the mines that developed from the pioneering mines researched for this blog. Doesn't he look like he is carrying a lunch pale ?

This scan is only a
portion of the fuller map
of 1880 - 1920
residents and events
between Chelmsford
and Dowling

I believe the map of Chelmsford and Dowling included here was researched by a friend of his.

The Story of Onaping Falls , Dowling, Levack and Onaping is the work of Robert P. Trott who was a long time resident of Onaping Falls.

Book Cover
Story of Onaping Falls
Robert P Trott

The front cover photos show a Mr. Drysdale working a team of horses on his farm and a Mr. Tom Morley standing in front of his mine at the High Falls just west of Dowling and Larchwood.

You know this story is about to get even more interesting when you look at the map and see the name or Morley Arthur. In the Onaping Falls book Morley Arthurs is mentioned. However I have a suspicion that Morley Arthurs is probably Arthur Morley and somehow a relative of Tom Morley. However that is only a suspicion.

Not too far away in the same book we find the names of Charles Sanders and his son Freeman. And we also see Colonel Gordon and Ernest Gravelle.

Book Cover
1883 - 1983
Chelmsford

Then there is this gem of a book from Chelmsford. It is the parish book and a work by Marie Jeanne Vaillancourt who was at one time the Principal of Mgr. Cote School. Also listed as contributors to this book are Florence Auld, Glorette Blais, and Diane Belanger.

The Chelmsford Parish 1883 1983 book contains many of the names of the pioneering families of the townships of Balfour and Rayside. But better than that it is a source that can be used with the internet to dig deep into the past of those pioneers.

The intentions of those who write these books is certainly good but why should we take their word for the reality behind the events. Many of them were teachers in the schools that formed the professionals and trades people of the following generation. It is only justifiable that we question the validity of their teachings. Mgr Cote was an Abbot and had studied in Rome. He came to Chelmsford in 1906 when the schools were funded by the government public sector. When he arrived in Chelmsford the community consisted of some 200 families and 1600 residents. Wow.!!! That's an average of 8 people per household. Many of them were English and many of them were French and in the neighbourhood or forests where they lumbered for wood to build their dwellings many of them were natives of the land.

It is a story of the little guy against the big guy and of the French against the English and of both of them against the natives.

It is a story best described by a Dum as who wrote the Three Musketeers when he said the quote at the beginning of this post.

Interestingly enough, the 1921 silent film version of Three Musketeers was produced by Douglas Fairbanks. He also played to the role of D'Artignan who struggles with King Louis XIII of France and with Armand du Plessis, aka Lord Richelieu.

Fairbanks !!! Isn't that where the Club Richelieu operates in this day and age ?

Synchronicity - Chance - Conspiracy - Maybe just the way the game of life is played..................