Chapter Six: William of Tuckersmith

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

William Aberhart Jr. was born on December 30, 1878 (1), in Hibbert Township, Perth County, Ontario; the fourth child and third son of William Sr. and Louisa (Gourica) Pepper. His family owned a rather large and prosperous wheat farm, and were not terribly sociable, so Williams' early years would be spent there with siblings.

He first attended school at Hibbert #7, a one room schoolhouse, but at the age of eight, the family moved closer to town so that their eldest children would have an opportunity to attend high school. The remainder of William's elementary school days would be spent in Egmondville.

By this time, the town had a gunsmith, cobbler, weavers, blacksmiths, a woolen mill, tanneries, several general stores, a cider mill, at least five hotels, a brewery, ashery, pottery, sawmills, gristmills, a brick and tile yard, cabinet makers and an undertaker, a German Lutheran as well as Presbyterian Church, a schoolhouse of course and a post office.(3)

His paternal grandparents were both deceased, though their history was woven into the tapestry of that small town.

The Aberhart home (shown above)was a white, two-story farmhouse, covered with clapboard siding, standing on an open rise of land, with a picturesque view from all directions.

The house had a spiral staircase to the second floor, and the parlour boasted a piano and fine furniture. Out behind the house were farm buildings later shaded by the large deciduous trees that the boys planted. A stream flowing through the back of the property provided a ready supply of fish and a source of water for the livestock. A new piggery that William Sr. had constructed along the latest scientific principles, and which was described as a ''palatial mansion,'' was the talk of the community and earned him a reputation as a progressive farmer." (2)

A normal day for William would be up at 4 or 5 to milk the cows and then deliver the milk before going to school, then another delivery in the evening.

His father was stern, though it is said that his mother was the disciplinarian. She was not affectionate with the children, but pushed them to succeed, and stressed the importance of education.

William was only an average student though he excelled at mathematics and penmanship, and had an almost photographic memory, but few reasoning skills. He also enjoyed music and taught himself to play several musical instruments.

Children he went to school with claimed that he did not really get along well with other students, so had no real friends.

He later attended Seaforth high school, where he earned a reputation as a top athlete, and was nicknamed "Whitey" because of his light hair colour. From there he enrolled in a model* school and obtained a third class certificate allowing him to teach elementary classes.

He thought he had found his calling.

Chapter Six Continued: Classrooms and Battlegrounds

Footnotes:

*Model Schools were established to train young people how to teach. The quality of instruction was poor, but there was a great demand at the time for teachers, especially in rural areas, so it was really the best they could do. I think the focus was on discipline and maintaining control of a classroom.

Sources:

1. Registrations of Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1909. MS 929-40, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario.

2. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 3

3. Egmondville and Van Egmond House, Heritage of Huron East, Virtual

Chapter Four Continued: William and Louisa

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

By the time of the 1861 census, William Aberhart Sr. was living on his own, working as a blacksmith's assistant.

Egmondville had continued to grow, with a large Presbyterian church that was described as “a plain but spacious edifice capable of accommodating an audience of 450-500 people." William still listed his faith as Lutheran-Evangelical, but he was living in a Presbyterian home, and with no Lutheran church built yet, it's difficult to say if he practiced any religion at that time.

Constant Van Egmond was the magistrate, and since there was no jail in the village, he had the cellar windows of his house barred and used part of the cellar to incarcerate his prisoners. (1)

After Egmond's father died, the bulk of his land was offered at a sheriff’s sale. Eventually, it came to be owned by Christopher Sparling, who persuaded the Buffalo, Brantford & Goderich Railway (later the Buffalo & Lake Huron) to buy their right-of-way through his property. Shortly after, three lawyers and land speculators from the east, Patton, Bernard and Le Froy, bought land from Sparling and immediately had the whole lot surveyed into a town plot they registered as Seaforth. They also cinched the deal for the location of a railway station in Seaforth, offering land and agreeing to build the station at their cost.(2)

As a result, businesses began moving from Egmondville into Seaforth, and soon the town had retail stores, a doctor, a blacksmith, a post office, several hotels, a wagonmaker, and a number of firms engaged in the building trades and in the buying and selling of grain. (3)

In 1868 salt was discovered, giving a further boost to the area, and William went to work in the salt mines. He would also drive stagecoach, trading off with his brother Charles. His half-brother Henry, who was just a baby when they left Prussia, then worked as a teamster for the brewery in Egmondville.

About 1870 William married Louisa Pepper, daughter of John and Elizabeth Pepper from England. (4) Louisa's mother had died when she was quite young, and her father remarried on February 1, 1858, providing a mother for Caroline, Thomas, Timothy and Louisa.

His new wife was Rebekah Dobson, daughter of John and Ruth Dobson from New Brunswick. She was just 24 at the time, and Louisa's father was 44.(5) The couple would add four more children to the roster: William, Roger, George and Lucy.

Louisa's father was a farmer and classed as a Yeoman, meaning a man who cultivated his own land, with political rights, and he was on the voters list as early as 1851. Since grain was a huge industry at the time, and Seaforth a hub for grain distribution, Louisa may have met William on one of her father's trips to market.

In 1874, the couple were able to purchase a 20-hectare wheat farm at the crossroads of Tuckersmith and Hibbert Townships, about 14 miles from Seaforth. He was very successful and was able to gradually increase his holdings, even buying out his brother Henry's adjoining acreage.

William was described as tall and powerful, his muscles hardened from the salt mines, and it was said that he could toss barrels of salt into his wagons with little effort. Local merchants knew him as a thrifty man who struck hard bargains .

He had penetrating blue eyes and a flowing blond beard, worn in the Mennonite fashion, which blew over his shoulders as he drove his high-spirited horses through the countryside. He took no part in the community life, only occasionally joining his friends for drinks at the local tavern. (6)

By now he stated on census reports that he was a member of the 'free church' and since Louisa's father had suggested that he belonged to no church, this was not part of their lifestyle.

Louisa Pepper Aberhart worked alongside her husband on the farm. She was short and, in later life became quite stout, but strong and strong willed. All but one of her children were born without medical assistance, and she even left her bed shortly after the most difficult birth, to milk an ornery cow. She was described as a solitary person, who believed that a woman's place was in the home. She never voted or became involved in the women's suffrage movement, stating that "if men did not know how to run the country, she did not see how women could be expected to do any better." (6)

A bit of anger over the government for something it would appear.

The couple would have eight children, all born in the two-story, buff-coloured brick farmhouse, that was home until 1886, when they moved into Seaforth. Their son Louis ran a mill and machinery business, John became a blacksmith; Charles went to Pharamcy School and his parents set him up in a business; Wilfred became a barber and Harry a crook. Daughter Augusta moved to the U.S. with her husband, where she ran a rooming house and Nettie married and became the proprietor of a restaurant.

And son William (the tall lad in the middle, back row) would choose two unlikely careers, given the family's position on religion and politicians: A preacher and the Premier of Alberta. But he would play an even more important role, by combining those two things, starting the movement toward a desired federal theocracy in Canada.

Chapter Five: Spiritual Awakenings

Sources:

1. Egmondville and Van Egmond House, Heritage of Huron East, Virtual Tour

2. Seaforth Beginnings, Dean Robinson, Erin: Boston Mills Press, 1987.

3. A Souvenir of Seaforth, Canada. Toronto: The Grip Printing and Publishing Co. for Henderson, Seaforth, c. 1900

4. 1851;Census Place: Fullarton, Perth County, Canada West (Ontario). Schedule: A. Roll: C_11747, Page 57, Line: 10.

5. Huron District Marriage Register, Original Book, R.G. 80-27-1, Vol. 13, Microfilm MS 248 Reel #2, Provincial Archives of Ontario, Toronto.

6. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 3

Chapter Four Continued: Political Climate

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Vote for no man whose conduct in private and public life is not above suspicion, and inquire with due diligence before you give your suffrages.* William Lyon Mackenzie

Before any European settlers arrived in Upper Canada, there was a well established governing body. In fact the Six Nations Confederacy, has been referred to as the oldest living participatory democracy on earth. Another claim to fame for this country.

Democratic government for the new settlers was a bit slower going, and did not come about without a fight. In 1841 Upper and Lower Canada united, in response to the 1837 Rebellion, with Ontario becoming Canada West and Quebec Canada East.

The Reform Party was established decades before and another protest party, the Clear Grits, under George Brown, also emerged to challenge the status quo. (Eventually becoming the Liberal Party** of Canada)

Over the next several years coalitions were formed and broken, until 1867 when Confederation** brought about the new Dominion of Canada, with Sir John A. MacDonald as it's first Prime Minister.

However, even with suffrage, democracy was not quite as democratic as it sounds, because voting for most people was difficult. Distance to polling stations and poor travel conditions kept many settlements out of the process.

Voting was also oral, resulting in intimidation, blackmail, and even violence. The law stipulated that if no one showed up at a polling station for an hour, they could simply close their doors, so candidates would use hired thugs to prevent would be voters from making it inside, and unlimited free alcohol, usually led to further violence.

One polling station reported the following in the early days:

Passions ran so high that a terrible fight broke out. Punches and every other offensive and defensive tactic were employed. In the blink of an eye table legs were turned into swords and the rest into shields. The combatants unceremoniously went for each other's nose, hair and other handy parts, pulling at them mercilessly ... The faces of many and the bodies of nearly all attested to the doggedness of the fighting.

In fact it was stated that the reason why women weren't given the right to vote, was because these events were far too dangerous. Before 1867, 20 deaths and countless injuries occurred at polling stations as a result of riots, so I guess I can understand the reasoning.

But women were not the only ones left out of the process, since the criteria for the right to vote in Upper Canada was pretty restrictive, and applied only to British subjects with often exclusive definitions of what that meant. You also had to be a land owner and have been paying taxes for at least a year, and many government employees were also barred.

The Heffler-Aberhart family did not appear to be involved in politics, at least not in running for office, though Christopher Heffler did make the voter list beginning in 1877. Whether he exercised his right to vote is not recorded.

However, several years later, his wife's biological grandson would certainly earn his place in Canada's political history, as he too started a protest movement that would culminate in a new Reform Party, eventually forming the federal government in 2006, under Stephen Harper.

Since the party of Sir John A. was disbanded in 2003, ending a 150 year tradition, this new party claimed the title: The Conservative Party of Canada with a neo-Conservative mandate.

Chapter Four Continued: William and Louisa

Footnotes:

*Address to the reformers of Upper Canada Toronto, September 1834

** In 1867, Nova Scotia was greatly apposed to joining Confederation, until a popular scholar and theologian, George Monro Grant stepped in. It is said that without his involvement, there may not have been a Dominion of Canada, at least not at that time. And as a matter of coincidence, his great, great grandson, Michael Ignatieff, is now leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (in opposition to Stephen Harper), though Grant at the time was non-partisan.

Sources:

Elections Canada: A History of the Vote in Canada, British North America, 1758–1866

Chapter Four Continued: Saving His Soul

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

One of the reasons for the 1837 Rebellion was something called the Clergy Reserves, which were established in 1791 by Upper Canada's first lieutenant governor, John Graves Simcoe.

What the act allowed for was the designation of one-seventh of all Crown lands for "a Protestant clergy," though it was implied that would mean the Church of England (Anglican).

However, because it wasn't specific, the Presbyterians challenged the law and in 1824 the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) was added, though all revenues were still controlled by Anglican Bishop Strachan, chair of the Clergy Corporation. Strachan was aligned with the Tory elite as part of what was dubbed the Family Compact. (1)

The settlers had brought with them their own customs and traditions, including diverse religious practices, and soon they were all vying for a piece of the pie.

After the Rebellion, as an appeasement, the profits of the clergy reserves were distributed amongst all leading Protestant groups and in 1854, the lands were finally removed from church ownership and revenues transferred to the government.

All denominations now had the right to self government, though most did not have the resources to build churches, so various ministers would travel about, holding services in school houses, barns or private homes.

There was no census recorded for Tuckersmith in 1851, but in 1861 the Heffler family was listed as belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran denomination. (2) It would be several years before a Lutheran church was build in Egmondville, so they would have been ministered by one of the travelling preachers. Lutherans believe in the infallibility of the Bible, salvation and forgiveness.

These travelling preachers at the time, especially the Lutherans, also brought another element to the lives of some of the German settlers who didn't reside in German communities, including news relating specifically to them. And the fact that they could preach in German brought reminders of home and a sense of belonging.

By the time of that 1861 census, William, then 17, was already working as a blacksmith's assistant, possibly for Francis Angus, a Scotsman and Presbyterian. He may have boarded with him at the time, so it's not likely that he received much religion, at least not in the Lutheran tradition, as noted on the census. (3)

Continue to Political Climate

Sources:

1. The Bishops of the Church of England in Canada and Newfoundland, by Charles Henry Mockridge, 1896

2. 1861; Census Place: Tuckersmith, Huron, Canada West; Roll: C-1037; Page: 5, lines 41-46

3. 1861; Census Place: Tuckersmith, Huron, Canada West; Roll: C-1037; Page: 4, Line 7

Chapter Four: William of Mecklenburg

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

When William Eberhardt arrived in Upper Canada in 1851, he was just seven years old. After being shipwrecked, robbed and bounced along roads that surely must be leading to Hades, the family arrived at their final destination, which actually, would not have done much to convince the young lad that they hadn't indeed landed in Hades.

A settlement in the backwoods of Upper Canada in 1851, was a pretty intimidating place. But to the Heffler-Eberhardt family this would be home.

And that family then included his step-father Christopher Heffler (the original German spelling was Hoeffler) (1), his mother Sophia, brother Charles, who was close to William's age, and a half-brother Henry, who was just a baby; the first child of Sophia and her new husband. At least four more siblings would be born at Tuckersmith, all Hefflers: Loucina, Fresia, John (who appears to have died between 1861 and 1871) and Louis. (2)

Growing Up in Tuckersmith

In many ways the Heffler-Eberhardt family prospered in sync with the hamlet of Egmondville. They never enjoyed the riches of the Egmond family, but their evolution from penniless immigrants to contributing citizens was just as profound.

Most of their time would be spent at the homestead, clearing land, building, making furniture and furnishings, and struggling to survive. But trade and the acquiring of provisions would be done in Egmondville, which had become a thriving little community.

In 1852, Valentine Boehler had established a pottery on land purchased from the Van Egmond family for £20. In 1854, the youngest of Susanne's children, August; started the Van Egmond Woolen Mills and in 1866, two of August's sons, Leopold and William, upgraded the woolen Mill and constructed a three storey brick building.

There were two blacksmith shops, one across from Constant Van Egmond’s house. There was also a wagon and carriage shop, a brewery, a post office and a general store. All of this would have been the backdrop to William's formative years. (3)

There was a schoolhouse at the time as well, but I don't believe he ever attended, since he grew up never learning to read or write. Or at least not being able to read or write English. The family probably spoke only German, at least in the early years, which would have been an impediment in an English speaking school, where the teacher probably knew only that language. And of course, William's help would have been required at home, so schooling was a luxury they couldn't afford.

There was also a large Aboriginal population, members of the Six Nations, who played a significant role in the community. New settlers learned a lot about crop rotation, proper clothing and surviving the elements from people who had been doing it for centuries.

If there was time for play, games were probably based on those played in Prussia, which were not unlike those most children played everywhere. Verstecken (hide and seek) or Fangen (chase or catch). Aboriginal children also shared one of their favourites with young pioneers; follow the leader. This was part of their growing up, since it would always include the necessary skills for travel through the forests. Music and stories were also probably those learned by Sophia and Christopher when they were children.

William's parents may have been stern, since it was a trait passed on to future generations. But they were probably also very hard working, another trait passed on through the years.

Chapter Four Continued: Saving his Soul

Sources:

1. Christopher Heffler - Code: 1823.15 Primary Immigrant: Heffler, Christopher, National Archives of Canada in Ottawa, Index to the 1871 Census of Ontario: Huron. Toronto: Ontario Genealogical Society, By: Bruce S. Elliot, 1986, Page: 110

2. 1871 Census: Huron South, Tuckersmith, Division: 3 Microfilm Roll: C-9929 Page: 43

3. Egmondville and Van Egmond House, Heritage of Huron East, Virtual Tour