Mother’s Day was just another day for pioneer mother Jane Gugins.

She farmed with her husband James Gugins in the Alliston area before Alliston ever existed. Their farm was located at Lot 2, Concession 6 in Tosorontio Township. This property would eventually become part of Earl Rowe Provincial Park. It was on the north slope of the hill just south of the Boyne River, and it was very good cropland.

The Gugins raised a large family there and they were my great, great grandparents on my mother’s side of the family. I found much of the following information in a book I discovered at the Dufferin County Museum at the corner of Highway 89 and Airport Road. The book is entitled, James of The Many Children by Carol Hare.

Jane was the daughter of Thomas Kell, a pioneer who farmed just south of Quebec City. She was born in Cockfield, Durham, England on Aug. 29, 1802. When she was 17 years old, she married my great, great grandfather who was described as a sandy-haired pioneer farmer, aged 35. He farmed in the St. Sylvester area of Quebec City on Aug. 18, 1819, and by the year 1831, Mrs. Gugins had already given birth to 12 children.

Apparently her husband had some early training in law and later in medicine. He is believed to have served with Lord Nelson when Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated. His farming in Quebec was not too successful. Old records from the Quebec Gazette state that James Gugins was granted a gratification by the Quebec Agricultural Society for collecting 103 pounds of yellow turnip seed upon his land, cleared the previous year. The family stayed there for 18 years before deciding to move to better land which was beginning to open up in Ontario.

Mr. Samuel Speir from Ireland had been granted land in Tosorontio Township before 1839 which he had abandoned so the growing Gugins’ family settled there. No doubt, the trip from Quebec with such a young family and a pregnant wife was not an easy one.

Possibly, the first owner of the farm had built a log cabin so that the big family had some kind of roof over their heads that summer. If not, James and the older children must have built one with some of the fine trees they were clearing from the land.

It would probably have featured just a single room heated by a fieldstone fireplace. James and Jane and a baby or two would sleep there and the others would sleep in the loft above. If no straw was available, the children might have slept on pine or spruce needles covered by heavy quilts or furs. On cold winter nights, a little snow might have sifted in through the cracks between the logs, the wolves would howl and bears would try to break in to rob them of their food supplies.

Life wasn’t easy in those days.

A mother’s life must have been very busy out there in the bush. The family’s diet, clothing and general care were her responsibility.

The men and boys were clearing land as fast as possible so that something could be planted in the fall around the stumps and piles of ashes from log burning. They may have arrived early enough to plant some turnips and potatoes which would be a main winter staple food.

Jane would also plant hop vines and various herbs she would need to make medicines. Between washing diapers on a scrub board, she had to make yarn from sheep’s wool in order to make clothing and she also had to tend to the garden. Venison stew was undoubtedly frequently simmering in a big pot hung above the fire.

Every year, Jane Gugins brought another child into the world. Neither television nor birth control had been invented in those days.

Berries and wild fruits and nuts were abundant in the area and the Boyne River, as well as Meadowbrook Creek, was full of fish, and Jane and her daughters took full advantage of them as they all worked together to preserve them for the next winter.

Jane realized that in those days, nothing was more important than the Christian education of the children, and Sunday was a day of prayer and Bible studies.

Then, as today, families should not leave something so important, entirely to others outside their homes. They realized that a mother plays a very important role in shaping the character and morals of the young folk. In those days, the mothers were in the homes for this teaching.

Today, most mothers are working out of the home and often this part of child-raising is neglected. All too often, its absence is seen in the behaviour of today’s adults. They believed in training up the child in the way he should go and when he is grown, he will seldom depart from it. This wisdom came straight from the Bible.

Well, as time passed, James and his sons cleared more land. By April 20, 1842, he claimed to have cleared eight acres, six of which were in crops. He had built a log cabin, a shed and a barn and had 14 children. They grew grain and hauled it by sleigh to Bradford in the winter, taking three loads of 40 bushels each, three times per week.

James bought more land and established some of the older boys on their own properties. Some of the girls married local men. They must have had some education because some became school teachers. In studying their family tree, it is surprising to see how the blood line of that big family spread through the new land even into western provinces and down through the United States.

The youngest daughter, Rebecca, married Williams Bowers and went pioneering near Bracebridge, Ontario. A book was written about her in her old age, entitled, Granny Bowers The Muskoka Pioneer.

James Gugins died on Oct. 23, 1858, and Jane continued to run the farm with the help of those five children who were at home, the youngest of whom was 10 years old. Apparently, her husband had served as a doctor to the local pioneers and the widow, Jane, continued to provide what medical service she could.

She raised hogs on the farm and butchered them. She then hauled them by sleigh or wagon to Toronto for sale. She also sold fowl and butter. Each trip, she stopped over at Holland Landing. Needless to say, she never became rich.

There is an old saying that the rich get richer, and the poor get kids. Well, this hard working mom had 23 kids during her years as a pioneer. No doubt, as Alliston appeared on the map, they were a part of the little village scene.

In time, an Anglican church was built on a hill of the west on what is now Highway 89 where the road curves around the south side of a little pioneer cemetery. The church, which is long gone, must have been important to the Gugins. On Jan. 26, 1867, this tired old mom was laid to rest by the little church that meant so much to her.

That’s the way we were then.

For more about the yesteryears of Alliston, see next Wednesday’s edition of the Alliston Herald.