MOVING THE SHILTON HOME FROM ONE SCHOOL DISTRICT TO ANOTHER. Andrew Shilton is a brother to Samuel Shilton who was married to Abbay Grace Ostrander the daughter of Gilbert Ostrander. by Iril Shilton, The Sebewa Recllector, December 1971, Vol 7, # 3. About 75 years ago my father, Andrew Shilton, bought 40 acres in Sebewa and moved his family here from Orange Twp. The 40 acres was located at the west end of York Road. His family consisted then of my mother, Hattie, my elder brother Ernest and myself. The land near the road was low and swampy, so the site for our first living quarters was on a knoll in the woods about 40 rods west of the road. A lane was made back there from the road.. After my father had bought the land, there was little money for anything else. Our first winter was spent in a tent that my father rigged up. The tent had room for four of us. It was a square and had a stove in it that kept us warm--sometimes too warm. There was a shield for the stovepipe to keep it from setting fire to the tent.. That fall a tall, lanky half-breed Indian came through the woods gathering herbs, which he would sell to Indian doctors. Ernie and I were scared of him at first but we soon got to know him and took a liking to him. He sometimes gave my father herbs that would cure our ailments. He asked my father if he could pitch his tepee nearby and stay the winter. His wigwam was covered with skins and as he had a surplus of skins he gave my other some to cover our floor. That made our tent more comfortable and cozier than before.. The next spring my father had Jimmie Creighton saw out some lumber from our timber to build us a house. It was rough lumber, 15 x 20 house of a story and a half. Ernie and I slept in the loft and reached it by a ladder in the corner.. When it came to go to school we found we were in the Travis District and we started at that school. There were a lot of big boys at the Travis who seemed to enjoy making it tough for the little fellows. My father decided enough was enough and he had a solution. Our new house was built on a foundation of wood blocks. By fitting a pair of skids under the house and using three teams of horses and moving the house a short distance, we began living in the Sebewa Center District and finished our schooling there. Later, by skidding the same house between the stumps and stones, it was drawn to the location where I live and became a part of this house. I wish I could remember the name of that half-breed Indian.. by Iril Shilton, The Sebewa Recllector, December 1971, Vol 7, # 3.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 03:20:00 +0000
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