A Sketch of the life of Thomas McMicking
by James McMicking
(his youngest son)
Addressing his children:
Of your Great Grandfather, Thomas McMicking (the third) very little is known by the family. He was a blacksmith by trade and was twice married. He had three sons by his first wife, but I do not know either their names or occupation. The name of his second wife was Janet Mulwain, by whom he had two daughters, Janet and Sarah, and two sons, Thomas (the fourth), your Grandfather, and John. This is all I know about him. He died in 1756 when your Grandfather was only six years old.
Although the recollections of his life are extremely meager, still there is one incident that may be told with pride. One Sabbath he was herding sheep on the moors, and reading the Bible, when he saw a troop of Claverhouse Dragoons approaching the place where he sat. Concealing himself as well as he could among the rough herbage, he was successful in escaping their notice, the colour of his garments resembling the herbage. Had he been discovered, his blood would have stained the heather. After they had passed, he paced the distance from where he lay to the nearest horse track, and found it to be just nine paces. He was a religious man.
Of your Grandfather, Thomas McMicking (the fourth) more can be related, but nearly so much as I would desire and will therefore content myself with a mere epitome.
He was born in the parish of Stranraer, the then County of Galloway, being now divided into Wigton and Kirkcudbright, on the 11th of April 1750. His father dying when he was but six years old, he was obliged to earn his living at a very early age and without the advantage of more than a limited education. For three years he lived with Mr. Dixon, the Minister of the Parish, where he learned to read the Bible as well as many other good habits.
At the age of eighteen he was apprenticed for three years to the mason trade for which he had to pay three pounds sterling, together with a bed and bedding and a check apron for the Master’s wife. Having obtained his trade, he worked three years at splitting, shaping and dressing free stone, but not being satisfied with the mode of making his living in his native land, his brother John also have fulfilled his apprenticeship to the same trade, they resolved to try their fortunes in the New World and accordingly sailed from Port Patrick in the said parish of Stranraer, on the second of June 1771*1, bound for New York, where they arrived alright after tossing to and fro on the tempestuous Atlantic, for nine weeks. They then went to live in the Dutch settlement on the south side of the province of New York, to work for a farmer, where they remained for a month. They then took up wild land on the west branch of the Delaware river, not far from the Catskill mountains, which they began to improve, and two years after their embarkation, their mother and two sisters set sail from the same port and bound also for New York.
On this voyage, her daughter, Sarah, died and was committed to the deep. After being some time on the ocean, the Captain lost his reckonings and was sailing about on the open sea when he fell in with another vessel, the Captain of which gave him his course and told him to make all speed to gain some port, as war had been declared and the ports would all be closed at a certain time. He therefore obtained all the passengers’ consent to be landed at the first harbor he could find. To this they all agreed. Your Great Grandmother and her daughter Janet, who was the widow of John Cooper who died before they left Scotland leaving a widow (Janet McMicking) and two sons, Thomas and James Cooper.
After leaving the said vessel they soon arrived at Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA). From this place the Captain had to procure a passage for them to their friends, Thomas and John McMicking, who had built a house and otherwise improved the land they had taken up on the Delaware river. They were much rejoiced to see their mother and sister again. Here they all remained until the war of 1776 broke out when they all were all taken prisoners by the Seneca tribe of Indians, except your Great Grandmother who had a short time before fallen from her horse and broken her leg. The captors thinking her too lame to walk, resolved to kill her, some of the Indians remaining near the house, to let the others get far enough sway not see the murder, were watching them recede, with their backs toward her. She took advantage of it, and escaped into the woods, where she hid behind a log until they were gone. In the meantime the party detached to do the bloody deed returned to the house to accomplish heir commission, but not finding her they began stamping on the floor, and finding there was a cellar beneath, the entrance to which they could not find, thought she was concealed therein, set the house on fire and watched it until they were sure she was dead. They then started to overtake the rest of the party. She now seeing her way clear, left her concealment. After travelling several days, through field and forest, she found herself on the shore of Lake George. There she found three fellows with a boat. She offered them a guinea to take her in sight of the British shipping, which they accepted, and after rowing a short distance rounded a point and found themselves immediately under the guns of the Royal George, a British man-of-war. She then showed a flag to truce, this brought a boat to take her on board. The Captain asked her who she was and how she came there. She related the capture of her sons, daughter and grandsons, how she escaped and made her way through the woods, and of giving the guinea to the fellows to her the British shipping. The sailors hearing the tale of the guinea, offered to take it from the rascals and return it to her. She replied, “Na, Na, they hae fulfilled their bargain, it’s nane o mine.” (Would there were more such honourable dealing in the world today). Having now got safely on board a British vessel, in due time she arrived at Kingston, thence to the mouth of the Niagara river, where she arrived sometime during the summer, the others having arrived there the March before.
We will now follow the other party from their being made prisoners to same place. The party consisted of the previously mentioned Janet McMicking Cooper, her two sons, Thomas and James, her brothers, Thomas and John McMicking. They now began their journey through the woods toward the Seneca village, and after travelling several days in that direction, they were met by a runner who told them of a party of Indians and a boy, who had gone southward on a marauding expedition and taken three negroes prisoner. On their way homeward they all laid down to sleep, leaving their arms scattered about, but the negroes kept awake and when the Indians were sound asleep, got up and seizing the arms, killed the three Indians, wounded the boy and made their escape. The boy then went to the village and told the tidings. A runner was sent to meet the party that had the first mentioned prisoners, Thomas, John and Jane McMicking Cooper and her two sons. They halted and held a council which decided that three white prisoners should be killed to compensate for the three braves the negroes had dispatched. Your Grandfather, Thomas McMicking, was selected as one of the substitutes and condemned to run the gauntlet. When they arrived at the village (which was a day or two subsequent to said council) the arrangements were being completed, he was brought near a brush fence with a rude wicket gate behind which an Indian boy (who had asked the privilege of killing him) was standing with his tomahawk over his shoulder ready to strike the fatal blow, as the prisoner passed in, but fortunately he slipped by, without the young hero observing him. After which the Indian lost ground which he was not able to make up. The fastest runner in the tribe then took up the chase, but was not able to gain on the refugee. A white boy standing on a fence called out, “Run, my man, or they will kill you”. He stopped to ask him where I shall run – “to some house in the village, perhaps they will show you”. During this dialogue, the pursuer gained on him and as the prisoner started to run he threw his tomahawk which struck him between the shoulders and staggered him though he did not fall and again maintained his distance. On reaching the village, he entered a house which was soon filled with Indians, who began beating him and calling him, “Damn Yankee”, the juvenile rabble striking him with sticks.
He now for the first time began to think of revenge, and that if there were enough white men to kill those outside, he would dispatch those around him, but that not being the case, he spread out his hands as in swimming, and clearing a passage for himself, gained the open air when he again set off at full speed. Turning into another house, he was more successful as there were two squaws in it who seemed to pity him and pointed to scalp would on the back of his head from which blood was flowing freely, but he did not know of it. About this time a Chief came in followed by a rabble who wished to get him out, to run again, but the Chief said “He has gained his life, go away”. This order they obeyed and he was left without further molestation, but still kept prisoner, I think a prisoner for four years.
When he was given liberty he set out with a party on a journey through the wilderness, bound for Niagara, where they arrived after sleeping ten nights in the snow. Each one had a sockfoot full of corn dealt out as a ration for the journey. They killed a raccoon which was distributed among them.
On arriving at Fort Niagara on the east side of the Niagara river, they were supplied with new clean garments by the government. The men joined Col. Johnston’s Forresters which was a fatigue regiment, and remained with it a little over a year, then they were honourably discharged and given land because they were loyal to the British flag. Each man was given two hundred acres, and each of their children the same. Your Grandfather drew Lots 1 and 2 in the Township of Stamford, Welland county. The land is situated on the bank of the farfamed Niagara river, about a mile from the historic village of Queenston. The village lies just under the mountain on which Brock’s Monument stands, a memorial to Sir Isaac Brock who gave his life in defense of his country in the war of 1812.
Your Granfather now began to clear his farm. He built a log house, where they all lived except for his brother John who had gone back to Scotland to settle up some business and get a wife. When he returned he settled in Windham, New York. They had thirteen children and finally settled in the Township of Bay Michigan about thirty miles from Detroit with his thirteen children and their families. I saw Uncle John in 1849. He was blind and living in the midst of his family, the one farthest from him, not more than three miles distant and numbering in all 96. He was certainly Patriarchal.
Your Grandfather returned to Scotland in 1787 to get a wife.*2 He married Isabella Gass, daughter of William Gass, grain merchant. She was born in Anadale, Dumfrieshire, Scotland in 1767 – married to Thomas McMicking in 1787, died in 1830, buried in the Stamford Presbyterian Church burying ground at Stamford.
Your Great Grandmother lived to be old. I don’t know the date of her death. She was the first one buried in the Presbyterian burying ground at Stamford. *3
Your Grandfather, being fairly settled, he began clearing and otherwise improving his farm which he found to be a much better one, continued to work with the usual varied success, until 1812 when that disastrous war between Yankeedom and Briton took place.
His home being in the midst of the battle fields, we were sorely put about. We were about a mile from “Queenston Heights”, nine from the Battle at Niagara, seven from Chipawa, and four miles from Lundy’s Lane and other battles at greater distances and although our boys were never afraid to meet the enemy in the ratio of two or three of enemy, still they sometimes attacked them in such overwhelming odds that our boys were obliged to surrender. In such cases they overran the country and committed such depradations we were obliged to leave and go farther from the frontier. Our family loaded what household stuff they could on two wagons and found quarters in the short hills, near the Beaverdams. Here we were made quite welcome at the home of Mr. McGlashan, which was rather crowded, being a small log house and containing three families, Mr. Chisholm, neighbours of ours being there too.
My first recollections are connected with this house. The upper part had a rude floor consisting of rough boards laid down loosely. In this apartment, the young men and boys slept. The next thing I remember is being at home ( I suppose I would be about 4 years old at this time), where we found the house in dreadful disorder, the furniture all thrown about and broken, a plank shoved though one of the windows, a feather bed ripped open, the churn set in the middle of it, and treated to a coat of tar and feathers. Of the livestock, we found three cows, one of which had a ball hole through the ear, three pigs, two chickens and a cat. The latter we did not see when we arrived but running away in a fright she called it and the cat answered and followed her into the house, and expressed its joy by going from one to the other and rubbing against them, and all night from bed to bed purring and showing the most expressive signs of pleasure that any dumb animal could.
In a short time the house was put in habitable shape and things went on as before but times were exceedingly hard for some years after. The towns were small and a few goods were brought long distances and were therefore very dear, whereas farm produce was quite plentiful and difficult to sell at any price. The mills were scarce and the owners arranged prices to suit themselves. Grists would be taken, twenty, thirty or even forty miles, or more, to a mill and when they had some to sell they would be offered half a dollar per bushel, half cash and half trade, in goods at more than four times the price they can be bought for now.
Still with all the difficulties, they were free, social, generous and ten times more honest than the money grabbers of the present day. But there was a habit at the time that is quite worthy of depreciation, that was, every family kept spirituous liquors in the house and gave to everyone that came in. It was thought quite mean not to accept the offer. The consequences was many drunkards and rough characters were reared in such neighbourhoods. When teetotalism was first introduced, it met with the strongest opposition as almost all reformation of bad habits is sure to do.
There are a few reminiscences of your Grandfather’s life which I neglected to state in their proper place, that I may her relate. One is, he brought apple seeds in his pocket from the Catskill mountains for the purpose of raising trees to plant an apple orchard. He was told to steep them in milk and make them sprout better. He put them in a cup of milk which he had placed on the top of a cupboard, where a cat found them and ate seeds, milk and all, showing the futility of human calculations.
After living for a time in the first log house, he built a second, a much larger one, by the old garden. Soon after that he opened a stone quarry on his farm near the bank of the Niagara river, then he added a stone kitchen to the back of his log house. He planted an apple orchard and had the first apples in this vicinity.
He was warden of the township in 1793.
Your Great Grandmother did not reach Fort Niagara for some months after the rest, which caused much uneasiness. They know nothing about the Indians intending to kill her, how she escaped, not about her long tramp journey through the woods or her journey to Kingston. Your Grandfather developed a method to discover her whereabouts and condition (which he ever after regretted, it being after the Witch of Endor style). There was a woman in the neighbourhood who seemed to be conversant with recent events to whom he applied for a solution of his difficulty. He gave her half a dollar to tell him about his mother. She put sand in a dish and began working among it with her hands and saying “Telle True, Telle True” (being a foreigner she could not speak English plainly). When her manipulations were finished she turned to him a gave him a complete description of his mother. She said your mother is an old woman and walks with a stick, being lame, she is coming to you, and will be with you at such a time, all of which was exactly fulfilled. But by all means the best plan is to wait patiently, for the culmination of your destiny, and not have recourse to such doubtful policy.
Your Grandfather was of medium height, stoutly built, his hair auburn, He had a firm step and was considered of more than ordinary strength and activity, being a fleet runner. All he owned was confiscated during the war of 1776. He just got comfortably situated again when the war of 1812 broke out. He fought at the Battle of Queenston Heights. He was marching beside two brothers, John and Martin McClellan, when Martin was killed. They were U.E. Loyalists and on May 17, 1827, my older brother, William McMicking (father of Thomas and Robert Burns McMicking, who with a number of others went the overland route to British Columbia in 1862) married Miss Mary McClellan, daughter of the said John McClellan, who was related to Generals George B McClellan and Ulysses S Grant.
Martin McClellan killed during the Battle of Fort George (Niagara) 27th of May, 1813.
Janet McMicking Cooper married Wullie Brune *4, a Scotsman. They owned a farm near where the suspension bridge now crosses the Niagara. She died there, a short time previous to the war of 1812. Your Grandfather died on the land he got from the Crown, February 19, 1830, and is buried in the Presbyterian burying ground at Stamford village, beside the old church he helped to organize in 1784.
Transcription and Editor Notes:
*1 – Thomas and John McMicking actually departed from Stranraer to New York on board the vessel
“The Gale of Whitehaven” in May of 1774
*2 – Isabella Gass was living in New York (Greene County) in 1787 having immigrated there with her
parents several years previous. Thomas did not marry her in Scotland, but in Schenectady, New
York.
*3 – Janet Mulwain – First Burial at Stamford Presbyterian Church Cemetery in 1784.
*4 – Likely “William Brown”
Of your Great Grandfather, Thomas McMicking (the third) very little is known by the family. He was a blacksmith by trade and was twice married. He had three sons by his first wife, but I do not know either their names or occupation. The name of his second wife was Janet Mulwain, by whom he had two daughters, Janet and Sarah, and two sons, Thomas (the fourth), your Grandfather, and John. This is all I know about him. He died in 1756 when your Grandfather was only six years old.
Although the recollections of his life are extremely meager, still there is one incident that may be told with pride. One Sabbath he was herding sheep on the moors, and reading the Bible, when he saw a troop of Claverhouse Dragoons approaching the place where he sat. Concealing himself as well as he could among the rough herbage, he was successful in escaping their notice, the colour of his garments resembling the herbage. Had he been discovered, his blood would have stained the heather. After they had passed, he paced the distance from where he lay to the nearest horse track, and found it to be just nine paces. He was a religious man.
Of your Grandfather, Thomas McMicking (the fourth) more can be related, but nearly so much as I would desire and will therefore content myself with a mere epitome.
He was born in the parish of Stranraer, the then County of Galloway, being now divided into Wigton and Kirkcudbright, on the 11th of April 1750. His father dying when he was but six years old, he was obliged to earn his living at a very early age and without the advantage of more than a limited education. For three years he lived with Mr. Dixon, the Minister of the Parish, where he learned to read the Bible as well as many other good habits.
At the age of eighteen he was apprenticed for three years to the mason trade for which he had to pay three pounds sterling, together with a bed and bedding and a check apron for the Master’s wife. Having obtained his trade, he worked three years at splitting, shaping and dressing free stone, but not being satisfied with the mode of making his living in his native land, his brother John also have fulfilled his apprenticeship to the same trade, they resolved to try their fortunes in the New World and accordingly sailed from Port Patrick in the said parish of Stranraer, on the second of June 1771*1, bound for New York, where they arrived alright after tossing to and fro on the tempestuous Atlantic, for nine weeks. They then went to live in the Dutch settlement on the south side of the province of New York, to work for a farmer, where they remained for a month. They then took up wild land on the west branch of the Delaware river, not far from the Catskill mountains, which they began to improve, and two years after their embarkation, their mother and two sisters set sail from the same port and bound also for New York.
On this voyage, her daughter, Sarah, died and was committed to the deep. After being some time on the ocean, the Captain lost his reckonings and was sailing about on the open sea when he fell in with another vessel, the Captain of which gave him his course and told him to make all speed to gain some port, as war had been declared and the ports would all be closed at a certain time. He therefore obtained all the passengers’ consent to be landed at the first harbor he could find. To this they all agreed. Your Great Grandmother and her daughter Janet, who was the widow of John Cooper who died before they left Scotland leaving a widow (Janet McMicking) and two sons, Thomas and James Cooper.
After leaving the said vessel they soon arrived at Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA). From this place the Captain had to procure a passage for them to their friends, Thomas and John McMicking, who had built a house and otherwise improved the land they had taken up on the Delaware river. They were much rejoiced to see their mother and sister again. Here they all remained until the war of 1776 broke out when they all were all taken prisoners by the Seneca tribe of Indians, except your Great Grandmother who had a short time before fallen from her horse and broken her leg. The captors thinking her too lame to walk, resolved to kill her, some of the Indians remaining near the house, to let the others get far enough sway not see the murder, were watching them recede, with their backs toward her. She took advantage of it, and escaped into the woods, where she hid behind a log until they were gone. In the meantime the party detached to do the bloody deed returned to the house to accomplish heir commission, but not finding her they began stamping on the floor, and finding there was a cellar beneath, the entrance to which they could not find, thought she was concealed therein, set the house on fire and watched it until they were sure she was dead. They then started to overtake the rest of the party. She now seeing her way clear, left her concealment. After travelling several days, through field and forest, she found herself on the shore of Lake George. There she found three fellows with a boat. She offered them a guinea to take her in sight of the British shipping, which they accepted, and after rowing a short distance rounded a point and found themselves immediately under the guns of the Royal George, a British man-of-war. She then showed a flag to truce, this brought a boat to take her on board. The Captain asked her who she was and how she came there. She related the capture of her sons, daughter and grandsons, how she escaped and made her way through the woods, and of giving the guinea to the fellows to her the British shipping. The sailors hearing the tale of the guinea, offered to take it from the rascals and return it to her. She replied, “Na, Na, they hae fulfilled their bargain, it’s nane o mine.” (Would there were more such honourable dealing in the world today). Having now got safely on board a British vessel, in due time she arrived at Kingston, thence to the mouth of the Niagara river, where she arrived sometime during the summer, the others having arrived there the March before.
We will now follow the other party from their being made prisoners to same place. The party consisted of the previously mentioned Janet McMicking Cooper, her two sons, Thomas and James, her brothers, Thomas and John McMicking. They now began their journey through the woods toward the Seneca village, and after travelling several days in that direction, they were met by a runner who told them of a party of Indians and a boy, who had gone southward on a marauding expedition and taken three negroes prisoner. On their way homeward they all laid down to sleep, leaving their arms scattered about, but the negroes kept awake and when the Indians were sound asleep, got up and seizing the arms, killed the three Indians, wounded the boy and made their escape. The boy then went to the village and told the tidings. A runner was sent to meet the party that had the first mentioned prisoners, Thomas, John and Jane McMicking Cooper and her two sons. They halted and held a council which decided that three white prisoners should be killed to compensate for the three braves the negroes had dispatched. Your Grandfather, Thomas McMicking, was selected as one of the substitutes and condemned to run the gauntlet. When they arrived at the village (which was a day or two subsequent to said council) the arrangements were being completed, he was brought near a brush fence with a rude wicket gate behind which an Indian boy (who had asked the privilege of killing him) was standing with his tomahawk over his shoulder ready to strike the fatal blow, as the prisoner passed in, but fortunately he slipped by, without the young hero observing him. After which the Indian lost ground which he was not able to make up. The fastest runner in the tribe then took up the chase, but was not able to gain on the refugee. A white boy standing on a fence called out, “Run, my man, or they will kill you”. He stopped to ask him where I shall run – “to some house in the village, perhaps they will show you”. During this dialogue, the pursuer gained on him and as the prisoner started to run he threw his tomahawk which struck him between the shoulders and staggered him though he did not fall and again maintained his distance. On reaching the village, he entered a house which was soon filled with Indians, who began beating him and calling him, “Damn Yankee”, the juvenile rabble striking him with sticks.
He now for the first time began to think of revenge, and that if there were enough white men to kill those outside, he would dispatch those around him, but that not being the case, he spread out his hands as in swimming, and clearing a passage for himself, gained the open air when he again set off at full speed. Turning into another house, he was more successful as there were two squaws in it who seemed to pity him and pointed to scalp would on the back of his head from which blood was flowing freely, but he did not know of it. About this time a Chief came in followed by a rabble who wished to get him out, to run again, but the Chief said “He has gained his life, go away”. This order they obeyed and he was left without further molestation, but still kept prisoner, I think a prisoner for four years.
When he was given liberty he set out with a party on a journey through the wilderness, bound for Niagara, where they arrived after sleeping ten nights in the snow. Each one had a sockfoot full of corn dealt out as a ration for the journey. They killed a raccoon which was distributed among them.
On arriving at Fort Niagara on the east side of the Niagara river, they were supplied with new clean garments by the government. The men joined Col. Johnston’s Forresters which was a fatigue regiment, and remained with it a little over a year, then they were honourably discharged and given land because they were loyal to the British flag. Each man was given two hundred acres, and each of their children the same. Your Grandfather drew Lots 1 and 2 in the Township of Stamford, Welland county. The land is situated on the bank of the farfamed Niagara river, about a mile from the historic village of Queenston. The village lies just under the mountain on which Brock’s Monument stands, a memorial to Sir Isaac Brock who gave his life in defense of his country in the war of 1812.
Your Granfather now began to clear his farm. He built a log house, where they all lived except for his brother John who had gone back to Scotland to settle up some business and get a wife. When he returned he settled in Windham, New York. They had thirteen children and finally settled in the Township of Bay Michigan about thirty miles from Detroit with his thirteen children and their families. I saw Uncle John in 1849. He was blind and living in the midst of his family, the one farthest from him, not more than three miles distant and numbering in all 96. He was certainly Patriarchal.
Your Grandfather returned to Scotland in 1787 to get a wife.*2 He married Isabella Gass, daughter of William Gass, grain merchant. She was born in Anadale, Dumfrieshire, Scotland in 1767 – married to Thomas McMicking in 1787, died in 1830, buried in the Stamford Presbyterian Church burying ground at Stamford.
Your Great Grandmother lived to be old. I don’t know the date of her death. She was the first one buried in the Presbyterian burying ground at Stamford. *3
Your Grandfather, being fairly settled, he began clearing and otherwise improving his farm which he found to be a much better one, continued to work with the usual varied success, until 1812 when that disastrous war between Yankeedom and Briton took place.
His home being in the midst of the battle fields, we were sorely put about. We were about a mile from “Queenston Heights”, nine from the Battle at Niagara, seven from Chipawa, and four miles from Lundy’s Lane and other battles at greater distances and although our boys were never afraid to meet the enemy in the ratio of two or three of enemy, still they sometimes attacked them in such overwhelming odds that our boys were obliged to surrender. In such cases they overran the country and committed such depradations we were obliged to leave and go farther from the frontier. Our family loaded what household stuff they could on two wagons and found quarters in the short hills, near the Beaverdams. Here we were made quite welcome at the home of Mr. McGlashan, which was rather crowded, being a small log house and containing three families, Mr. Chisholm, neighbours of ours being there too.
My first recollections are connected with this house. The upper part had a rude floor consisting of rough boards laid down loosely. In this apartment, the young men and boys slept. The next thing I remember is being at home ( I suppose I would be about 4 years old at this time), where we found the house in dreadful disorder, the furniture all thrown about and broken, a plank shoved though one of the windows, a feather bed ripped open, the churn set in the middle of it, and treated to a coat of tar and feathers. Of the livestock, we found three cows, one of which had a ball hole through the ear, three pigs, two chickens and a cat. The latter we did not see when we arrived but running away in a fright she called it and the cat answered and followed her into the house, and expressed its joy by going from one to the other and rubbing against them, and all night from bed to bed purring and showing the most expressive signs of pleasure that any dumb animal could.
In a short time the house was put in habitable shape and things went on as before but times were exceedingly hard for some years after. The towns were small and a few goods were brought long distances and were therefore very dear, whereas farm produce was quite plentiful and difficult to sell at any price. The mills were scarce and the owners arranged prices to suit themselves. Grists would be taken, twenty, thirty or even forty miles, or more, to a mill and when they had some to sell they would be offered half a dollar per bushel, half cash and half trade, in goods at more than four times the price they can be bought for now.
Still with all the difficulties, they were free, social, generous and ten times more honest than the money grabbers of the present day. But there was a habit at the time that is quite worthy of depreciation, that was, every family kept spirituous liquors in the house and gave to everyone that came in. It was thought quite mean not to accept the offer. The consequences was many drunkards and rough characters were reared in such neighbourhoods. When teetotalism was first introduced, it met with the strongest opposition as almost all reformation of bad habits is sure to do.
There are a few reminiscences of your Grandfather’s life which I neglected to state in their proper place, that I may her relate. One is, he brought apple seeds in his pocket from the Catskill mountains for the purpose of raising trees to plant an apple orchard. He was told to steep them in milk and make them sprout better. He put them in a cup of milk which he had placed on the top of a cupboard, where a cat found them and ate seeds, milk and all, showing the futility of human calculations.
After living for a time in the first log house, he built a second, a much larger one, by the old garden. Soon after that he opened a stone quarry on his farm near the bank of the Niagara river, then he added a stone kitchen to the back of his log house. He planted an apple orchard and had the first apples in this vicinity.
He was warden of the township in 1793.
Your Great Grandmother did not reach Fort Niagara for some months after the rest, which caused much uneasiness. They know nothing about the Indians intending to kill her, how she escaped, not about her long tramp journey through the woods or her journey to Kingston. Your Grandfather developed a method to discover her whereabouts and condition (which he ever after regretted, it being after the Witch of Endor style). There was a woman in the neighbourhood who seemed to be conversant with recent events to whom he applied for a solution of his difficulty. He gave her half a dollar to tell him about his mother. She put sand in a dish and began working among it with her hands and saying “Telle True, Telle True” (being a foreigner she could not speak English plainly). When her manipulations were finished she turned to him a gave him a complete description of his mother. She said your mother is an old woman and walks with a stick, being lame, she is coming to you, and will be with you at such a time, all of which was exactly fulfilled. But by all means the best plan is to wait patiently, for the culmination of your destiny, and not have recourse to such doubtful policy.
Your Grandfather was of medium height, stoutly built, his hair auburn, He had a firm step and was considered of more than ordinary strength and activity, being a fleet runner. All he owned was confiscated during the war of 1776. He just got comfortably situated again when the war of 1812 broke out. He fought at the Battle of Queenston Heights. He was marching beside two brothers, John and Martin McClellan, when Martin was killed. They were U.E. Loyalists and on May 17, 1827, my older brother, William McMicking (father of Thomas and Robert Burns McMicking, who with a number of others went the overland route to British Columbia in 1862) married Miss Mary McClellan, daughter of the said John McClellan, who was related to Generals George B McClellan and Ulysses S Grant.
Martin McClellan killed during the Battle of Fort George (Niagara) 27th of May, 1813.
Janet McMicking Cooper married Wullie Brune *4, a Scotsman. They owned a farm near where the suspension bridge now crosses the Niagara. She died there, a short time previous to the war of 1812. Your Grandfather died on the land he got from the Crown, February 19, 1830, and is buried in the Presbyterian burying ground at Stamford village, beside the old church he helped to organize in 1784.
Transcription and Editor Notes:
*1 – Thomas and John McMicking actually departed from Stranraer to New York on board the vessel
“The Gale of Whitehaven” in May of 1774
*2 – Isabella Gass was living in New York (Greene County) in 1787 having immigrated there with her
parents several years previous. Thomas did not marry her in Scotland, but in Schenectady, New
York.
*3 – Janet Mulwain – First Burial at Stamford Presbyterian Church Cemetery in 1784.
*4 – Likely “William Brown”