Thomas & Sarah Peacock (2)

In the previous article about Falkenburg, it is mentioned that road
construction began into Muskoka in 1859. However, the land was
not actually offered as free grants until 1868.

Thomas and Sarah came to Canada in 1865 and were tenants on land
in King Township for several years. It was the Browns (Catherine
Peacock, her husband and his parents in November, 1870) who went
to Muskoka first. They had lived in the Schomberg area (on the same
concession as the Peacocks a few miles farther north). Family
connections and the opportunity to own land probably drew Thomas
and three young sons to Muskoka. (The eldest son, Fred, was
married and living in Philadelphia.)

Although the free grants were advertised overseas, and some
people did come from overseas to settle, many people came from
other parts of Ontario for the free land to resell it or to cut the
trees for lumber or both. It was known that most of Muskoka
was not suitable for agriculture. In an article written by Hugh T.
Hill (perhaps a newspaper article) describing his grandfather’s trip
from Schomberg to the Huntsville area in 1867 to look at land,
he recounts that an Irishman in a Bracebridge hotel asked him
(a clergyman) if he thought he could live off the land there. He
informed Rev. Hill that when a man died in Muskoka, there
wasn’t enough soil to bury the body.

Two teenage sons of Mr. Hill’s ancestor cut down trees on their
lot all summer and a year later the family made the move:

When my granddad left Schomberg, he brought two teams of oxen and
wagons, and nine cows, (one team of oxen was bulls). My dad has told
me how the bulls used to fight. He said the only excitement they had in the
early days was a bull or a dog fight. All the stuff they brought was loaded
on the wagons. They tied a cowbell on the first wagon and drove the
cows behind. They camped wherever night overtook them. (They) made
the trip to Vernon Lake in 9 days. There they had to leave the wagons and
drive the cattle through the woods.

The Peacocks acquired lot 8 of concession IX in February of 1872 (100 acres) about a year and a half after the Browns. This is where they lived and it is immediately west of Hwy #11 north of High Falls. In May, 1872 they received lot 13 of concession VIII (83 acres) , and in January, 1874 they received lot 13 on concession IX. The last two lots were on the river and were probably logged for income, either by design or because family circumstances had changed and the
land wasn’t needed.

Sarah died in 1875 just a few years after the move to Muskoka and a few months after John married Mary Ellen Oliver. Hugh married in the fall of 1878 and died of consumption in the spring 0f 1879. John and Mary Ellen were living with Thomas on his land in the 1881and 1891 census records. It is doubtful that anyone lived on the two lots on the river for any length of time, although it was a requirement of the free grant system.

There was an article written by Ted Currie and published in a Muskoka paper in the 1980s in which it is stated that the Peacocks called their land Jerusalem.
I believe the author had interviewed a great grandson of Thomas Peacock and then went searching for the Peacock land. The pictures in the paper are not believed to be from the Peacock land although it is probably true that they referred to their property or the area as Jerusalem.

1881 Census - Macaulay Township, Muskoka

Thomas Peacock, Wid, m. 60, b. Ireland, Farmer,
John Peacock, M. m. 24, b. Ireland, Farmer
Mary Peacock, M. f.22, b. Ontario
Fred Peacock, m.5, b. Ontario
John Peacock, m. 3, b. Ontario
Sarah Peacock, f. 1, b. Ontario
All Presbyterian

1891, April 17 - Macaulay Township
Thomas Peacock, Wid, m. 72, b. abt 1819, Ire, Farmer,
parents b. Ireland
John Peacock, M. m. 37, b. Ireland, Farmer, parents both b. Ireland
Mary Peacock, M. f.33, b. Ontario, parents both b. England
Fred Peacock, m. 15, b. Ontario
John Peacock, m. 14, b. Ontario
Sarah Peacock, f. 12, b. Ontario
** William, m. 9 (see Robert Peacock census in Monck – 1891)
Thomas Peacock, m. 8, b. Ontario
Mary Peacock, f. 6, b. Ontario
George Peacock, m. 5, b. Ontario
Violet Peacock, f. 2, b. Ontario

All Presbyterian