Finch Ontario

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.

    

     I am thankful for having been in that part of Ontario and seeing the fall colours, farms, cornfields and history.