Oxen were the draught animals of choice for many of the earliest families because horses still weren't available in large supply. One of my gr grandfathers and his sons walked through the wilderness to a place where there was a known horse auction. They purchased a team of horses which they then built a raft and rafted themselves with the horses down the Thames River to their homestead in what is now Wardsville in Ontario, Canada. They had the first team of work horses in the area.

Oxen/cows were indeed the animals of choice for the early settlers. They were cheap, easy to care for, worked all day and you can eat them. Horses make lousy food (even starving soldiers won't eat a horse) and unlike cattle horses need large areas of grassland for food. Cattle will eat almost anything, horses won't. Wild horses did very well in the grassy southwest USA after being imported by the Spanish. The east was far too deeply forested to support horses and the rivers and swamps here made a canoe a much better transport method in any case . A horse can be bought for $1,000 even today but it's upkeep in care, vet bills, food and new shoes (about every month) will easily cost $1,000+ per month. - not a good bargain. Trees in most places could not be sold by the landowners to others! They like oil and mineral rights today belonged to whomever claimed the prospecting rights to them. Farmers could only cut down trees for farmland and to build their own homes and barns. Land speculaters and lumber companies could take the rest as they liked. Thus the local sawmill owner/lumber merchant was usually a VERY wealthy man. We rarely see the large trees of the past where giant chestnuts* and oaks were 12' across or more and a single piece of oak tree trunk made a ships lower main mast mast over 132' tall x43" in diameter - knot free. Think 3x the longest city telephone pole you can find! Imagine moving that by hand and they did every day often dozens of miles. No wonder people died young but looked so old! Oaks come in over 200 species so the location and species was of great concern to the pioneers as some was very expensive furniture grade and others best for shipbuilding and still others just as firewood/charcoal for the newfangled steel industry. Other trees held the same qualites - good and bad Fortunes were made and lost over the timber industry, much like oil and gas today. Most farmers spent the winters making furniture at home as there was litle else to do. Women often purchased a fancy new machine called a Scroll Saw in the 19th century. A foot powered saw that they could make fancy fretwork decorative items for furniture and "gingerbread" wood trim for the outside of the house. Ministers often preached against such things they they said women were getting ankles that looked too fat and strong! - A snide term for a woman who was pregnant out of wedlock was said to have "fat ankles". So many women turned to another new hobby machine to escape the stigma of being too masculine - the foot powered sewing machine! Now ladies pay big bucks to sit at a stationary bicycle to get strong ankles! How our ancestors and descendents would laugh at us. *Modern chestnut trees are not the same as the giant pioneer ones which were the size of California's redwood trees. The wood looks exactly like oak but is much softer - like pine. A huge number of "oak" furniture peices are in fact chestnut. This type of chestnut was killed off by a blight many years ago and very few remain. Nelson Denton P.S. My own pipe organ manufacturing company started as the "Spencer Brothers" lumber and furniture companies in Owen Sound Ontario in the 1850's. The teenaged brothers held virtual control over the entire town in their day. My Denton's were also big in the furniture/housing/boatbuilding/aircraft trade.

It is from people like this that the term "Worked like horses" came from....... (no pun intended, altho it is there, isn't it?) Our ancestors worked a lot harder than anybody today does,,,,,, and they accomplished a lot more, too, which laid the groundwork for our lives as we enjoy them today. mas -----Original Message----- From: can-usa-migration-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:can-usa-migration-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Joan Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 3:38 PM To: can-usa-migration@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [CAN-USA-MIG] "Lumber" Exporting it to Where you Want to Build Oxen were the draught animals of choice for many of the earliest families because horses still weren't available in large supply. One of my gr grandfathers and his sons walked through the wilderness to a place where there was a known horse auction. They purchased a team of horses which they then built a raft and rafted themselves with the horses down the Thames River to their homestead in what is now Wardsville in Ontario, Canada. They had the first team of work horses in the area. When you want to respond to a query or comment posted on this List, I find it MUCH easier to post a new message -- remembering to include the SUBJECT from the post you are responding to !! Please make sure there is a SURNAME or place-name in the Subject. To search the archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=CAN-USA-MIGRATION The information page is: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Immigration/CAN-USA-MIGRATION.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CAN-USA-MIGRATION-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message