| Notes |
- Henry McCutcheon, True Pioneer, Womb to Grave:
Henry Smith McCutcheon was a true pioneer from womb to grave; he had quite a life's journey in his 73 years. Following the tradition for the McCutcheon penchant for nicknames, Henry Smith was called Horace during his lifetime. After being born in Montreal, Quebec in 1824, the Robert McCutcheon & Agnes Beck family didn't stay long in Quebec. The family was then living just outside Montreal at Megantic. When he was only a month or so old, the family boarded covered wagons, probably pulled by oxen & headed into the wild untamed woods of Ontario, travelling over rough terrain, arriving at Erin Township before the snow fell. This 900 kilometer journey took several weeks. The family had to bake bread & cook their meals on open fires on the trail; with millions of insects as dinner guests.
It doesn't seem logical that the family would have headed west on bumpy, unstable trails in the spring of 1825 when Agnes was 7 months pregnant with their third son Robert. Robert's father, John & his older brother William, were already in Erin Township on their new homestead, & it is probable that the family stayed the 1824 winter with them. Then journeyed a few miles north to their new homestead in the spring of 1825.
Information from Alice Burke: Robert applied for his land in Adjala near Rosemont in 1825, Lot 30, Concession 1. This was the homestead where Henry's younger brother Robert was born.
In his father's will, the homestead in Adjala was left to his younger brother Hugh. Henry was left some money. After he married Sarah they farmed for a while on an adjacent farm. But the lure of black gold was beckoning. At the age of 23, their 3rd son, Robert, died in 1879 & was buried on Canadian soil. Soon after their son Robert died, Henry & his wife Sarah, along with their 4 younger children again boarded wagons or Red River carts pulled by oxen & left the farm in Nottawasaga, settling in Tomahawk, Wisconsin in 1885. This journey was a longer one; 1,250 kilometers.
They both died here & were buried in the Protestant Cemetery near Tomahawk. Henry was one of the founding pioneer settlers to farm in Tomahawk, Oneida County. Tomahawk was an uninhabited wilderness in 1885. The city of Tomahawk was not yet surveyed or laid out. It was surveyed in the spring of 1887 & lots were sold on the 25th June 1887. TheJohn Oelhafen Stor has a picture of the first buildings to be constructed in this small outpost town.The population of Tomahawk was 1816 in 1890. Henry & his family probably hitched their horses at the front of this store to shop & visit with their neighbours before returning home to their farm. Note the hitching posts still in place at this date.
Later, his sons owned & operated a saloon in Long Lake, Wisconsin, located about 80 miles east of Tomahawk. In the mid 1880 & later, this area boomed with logging, many saw mills opening up, creating employment. It was to this industry that Henry & Sarah's younger sons turned to for work for a while. In a list of registered voters for the area on the 12 March 1898: two of their sons, in Ward 1, David McCutcheon was registered & in Ward 4, Alex McCutcheon was registered to vote.
Henry & Sarah raised 10 children over a period of 21 years. Other than a 5 year span between child 2nd & 3rd child, they did not appear to lose any children which commonly happened then to childhood illnesses such as scarlet fever (as did his brother James), measles, whooping cough, small pox, etc.
Of Henry's ten children, 5 eventually settled & died in the USA, one applied for & received a land grant in Alberta, dying in Lacombe, whilst 3 others applied for land grants in Saskatchewan, near Bengough. The only one of this family left in Ontario was 23 year old son Robert lying in a cold grave. This family lived near Rosemont Lot 32, Con VIII Mono Twp., (Mulmur), then moved to Nottawasaga Twp., Simcoe Co. & then to Wisconsin, U.S.A.
Ref: McCutcheon from Donaghadee - - -
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1824 - 1897 (72 years)