Randal and I made a two day
truck tours with a destination of Finch, Ontario where
my mother was born.
Prior to going I contacted my
cousin, Jim Rutley, for information. He sent me pictures of the
Rutley houses and information about the remaining Rutley family still
living in the area.
Randal entered this
information on to his GPS and we were off. From Milton Heights Campground, near Hamilton, we headed out on the 401 towards Cornwall driving
through history-packed country.
Through Upper Canada and on the
Loyalist Parkway
Highway
33, also known as the Loyalist Parkway, follows a pioneer colonial
route on which the first segments were built two hundred years prior.
The route connects several historical settlement sites in Prince
Edward County, continuing east through Bath to what is now Kingston.
Upper
Canada existed from December 26, 1791 to February 10, 1841 and
generally comprised present-day Southern Ontario. The prefix
"upper" in its name reflects its geographic position higher
up the river basin or closer to the headwaters of the Saint
Lawrence River than that of Lower Canada or present-day
Quebec to the northeast.
My Grandfather John Duncan
Rutley wrote:
I stayed at home and worked
on the farm with my father and brothers for three years. My
father gave me a hundred acre farm near Finch.
I began to think seriously of settling down and began courting a girl
I’d known most of my life. Mary
Ellen (Minnie) Duvall, daughter of Edgar Duvall
at Newington. She was a pretty, slender brunette who was teaching in
the Hanes school. My brother Hughie, who was also courting took turns
with me using the horse and buggy and the bicycle. Minnie and I got
married on January 9, 1901 in her
father’s home.
We went to live in the new
house my father had helped me build. It was of brick and had a
verandah on the East and South sides. A railway track ran behind the
barn and when the children were old enough it seemed to draw them
like a magnet. Our first child, Laura
Hughenna
was born on
our first wedding anniversary, January 9,1902. John Irwin Alexander
was born on December 17, 1903 and on November 13, 1905 another
daughter, Mary Donalda arrived.
