Upper Canada

In the College of Upper Canada, which is one of the public establishments of the city, a sound education in every department of polite learning can be had, at a very moderate expense: the annual charge for the instruction of each pupil, not exceeding nine pounds sterling.

It came to her naturally, so her family said, and perhaps for this reason she, like Tom Tulliver's clergyman tutor, "set about it with that uniformity of method and independence of circumstances which distinguish the actions of animals understood to be under the immediate teaching of Nature." You remember the beaver which a naturalist tells us "busied himself as earnestly in constructing a dam in a room up three pair of stairs in London as if he had been laying his foundation in a lake in Upper Canada. It was his function to build, the absence of water or of possible progeny was an accident for which he was not accountable." In the same manner did Miss Dearborn lay what she fondly imagined to be foundations in the infant mind.

Broderip's amiable beaver, as that charming naturalist tells us, busied himself as earnestly in constructing a dam, in a room up three pair of stairs in London, as if he had been laying his foundation in a stream or lake in Upper Canada. It was "Binny's" function to build; the absence of water or of possible progeny was an accident for which he was not accountable.

This information caught the attention of Janice Nickerson of Upper Canada Genealogy, Toronto.

Writing in 1971, Robert Stamp noted that while American schooling aimed to produce "good little Americans," prominent Canadian educators focused on "inculcating loyalty to Britain and British institutions." Upper Canada was then a colony of Britain, and Northern Ontario was becoming a colony of Upper Canada.

In the family bible currently held in the archives at Upper Canada Village, the sponsors noted for their eldest child, Caty, were Mary's mother and stepfather, Alida and Adam Empey.

The Fibershed movement has produced 40 plus affiliates around the world with 3 in Canada: the Sunshine Coast Fibreshed, the Upper Canada Fibreshed and the Atlantic Canada Fibreshed.

By looking at the sales accounts, and not at importations, the study constructs a model of not just what was available to consumers in rural Upper Canada, but also what they actually bought.

SUSANNA MOODIE | UPPER CANADA | PIONEER LIFE | RESILIENCE | FAMILY | HARDSHIP