I'd Rather £&i/e in ^utfon ffd ^atfie/t S&i/e m ^uvtfon ^ Karen Shadd-Evelyn ^ Simon & Pierre The writing of this manuscript and the publication of this book were made possible by support from several sources. We would like to acknowledge the generous assis- tance and ongoing support of The Canada Council, The Book Publishing Industry Development Program of the Department of Communications, The Ontario Arts Council, and The Ontario Publishing Centre of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Recreation. Kirk Howard, President; Marian M. Wilson, Publisher Copyright © 1993 by Karen Shadd-Evelyn. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permis- sion of Simon & Pierre Publishing Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Dundurn Press Limited. Permission to photocopy should be requested from the Canadian Reprography Collective. ISBN 0-88924-242-9 1 2 3 4 5 • 8 7 6 5 4 Simon & Pierre Publishing Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Dundurn Press Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Shadd-Evelyn, Karen, 1958- I'd rather live in Buxton ISBN 0-88924-242-9 1. North Buxton (Ont.) - Fiction. 2. North Buxton (Ont.) - Poetry. 3. Blacks - Ontario - North Buxton - Fiction. 4. Blacks - Ontario - North Buxton - Poetry. I. Title. PS8587.H34I4 1993 C813'.54 C93 095036-4 PR9199.3.S43I4 1993 Photographs: Photograph of The Liberty Bell courtesy Raleigh Township Centennial Museum, North Buxton, Ontario. All other photographs are used by permission of the author. General Editor: Marian M. Wilson Editor: Jean Paton Printed and bound in Canada: Metropole Litho Inc., Quebec Order from Simon & Pierre Publishing Co. Ltd., care of Dundurn Press Limited Dundurn Distribution Dundurn Press Limited 2181 Queen Street East 73 Lime Walk 1823 Maryland Avenue Suite 301 Headington, Oxford P.O. Box 1000 Toronto, Canada England Niagara Falls, N.Y. M4E 1E5 OX3 7AD U.S.A. 14302-1000 "ITkis book is dedicated to tke memory of Robby Skane Robinson in tke kope tkdt an improved understanding of tke common denominators of kwfrvanity/ and an appreciation for its differences, migkt somekow abate tke existence op tke racis^n tkat took kim from us/ and tke injustice tkat pardoned it. Sleep sweetly, Skaka. <^cfenou^edgew6nte I could not have compiled these stories alone. I would like to express my thanks especially to the following people: • first and foremost, to my sister, Joyce Shadd Middleton, whose avid pursuit of our history first intrigued me with the Buxton story, who helped me keep my facts straight, and who gave me invaluable assistance, encouragement and support; • to all four of my sisters and my brother, who share the memories of so many of the stories, and forgave me for putting them in print; • to my husband Dennis, who encouraged me, and who, along with my girls, tolerated the down side of my writ- ing; • to the people of Buxton, those who see themselves in these pages and those whom Tin saving for the sequel, those I talked to during this process, and those I talked about, past Buxtonites, present, and future; • and to the memory of Eileen and Owen Shadd, for being what you were, and helping your children become what we could be. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the financial assis- tance (and the boost to my morale that accompanied it) of the Explorations Program of the Canada Council, as well as the Ontario Arts Council Writers' Reserve, in the compilation of these stories. Arlie Robbins, a Buxton native who recorded its history in her book Legacy to Buxton, to which I am indebted for many of the historical facts herein, paved the way for its continuing saga in her concluding statement: "... the North Buxton story will continue to be written in the everyday lives of its people." Here, then, is the next chapter. 'Dabfie o^ Contents Introduction 8 Circa 1870—Papa Brimel's Cariage Ride 12 Circa 1915—Tody for Two 13 Circa 1950—. And a Good Time Was Had by Al 16 Betwen the 8th and 98 18 Uncle Ira 20 Share and Share Alike 29 The Litle Brown Church in the Vale 30 Mothers at Three O'Clock38 38 Seventy-Six Trombones 43 The Wrath of the Sorceres 45 Snapshot of the Universe 47 Grandpa's Gray Dort 58 The Liberty Bel 61 Painted Lady Going Home 64 Home to Buxton 68 A Roster Tale 69 Behind the Blue Dor 76 The Universe Revisited 80 Her Grandma's Pearls 83 Home and Away 86 In Dependence 87 87 The Women of Buxton 96 Mineta 97 The Dancer 104 The Sunday School Picnic 106 Reflections—The Return of the Hunters 108 Scoty's Children 1 One Last Editorial 126 Hands128 128 electricity—a beacon 139 Epilogue: Eulogy for the Universe 141 Roots & Wings 149 8 vQnfaoduction Nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, November 28th, 1849, Reverend William King moved, with the fifteen former slaves he had inherited and subsequently freed, onto the land that would soon become the bustling Elgin Settlement. Some thought him a madman, a dreamer, his vision of a self-suffi- cient community a far cry from the heavy bush and swamp- land that they found. But beyond those forests he saw a haven, where the former slaves, well used to heavy labour, though never on their own behalf, and the free Blacks seeking a shelter from the constant threat of being kidnapped into slavery, could provide for themselves the necessities, and then the niceties, of Canadian living. Once tiled and drained, the swamps that confronted the farsighted King and his party would come as near to the Utopia they sought as any place could. For their Paradise would be a place built by and for themselves, where they could realize the fruits of their own labours, and claim the freedom that should have been their birthright. Most of King's life would be dedicated to the planning, the founding, and the functioning of this vision, which came to pass with unequalled success. The settlers had not settled for necessities, and industry had flourished. After homes had come churches and schools. And after those, a post office, stores, a temperance hotel, a blacksmith shop, pearl ash and potash factories, a brickyard, a sawmill and a gristmill, a car- pentry shop, and a shoe shop all ranged around Buxton Square. Today the village remains, the only example still in exis- tence of a Black Canadian Community established before the civil war. Known officially as North Buxton, called simply Buxton by its residents and alumni, the former last stop on the Underground Railroad still harbours many of the descendants of those original settlers. Only a fraction of the estimated two thousand citizens of its zenith, the tiny hamlet now numbers somewhere under two hundred. A large part of its population returned to the States after the emancipation proclamation, to =£> 9 c,fo find the lost loved ones they had left behind and pass on the lessons they had learned of self-sufficiency, and self-determi- nation, in Buxton's classroom. Still, it remains a community which has preserved the cooperative way of life with which it was begun, and remem- bers its role, and its roots, in North American Black history, and in the history of Canada. The culture of Buxton's citizens, though for the most part indistinguishable from that of the majority of Canadians of this region, still holds some unique qualities as it functions as a haven for its community within the Canadian mosaic. The support systems of this "society within a society" emanate from the spirit of the people, cultivated by an upbringing which may be unique to the particular shared circumstances of their background which brought them here. My parents gave each of their six children a copy of Look to the North Star, by Victor Ullman, the year I was twelve. I didn't read mine until I was thirty-two. It was the story of Reverend King's life, but more than that it was the story of our ancestors. It was the story of how we had come to this place, and what this place had once been. The treasure I had unwittingly hoarded until I was old enough to appreciate its value unfolded the drama behind those facets of life I had grown up taking for granted. Suddenly I could see the pat- terns, the reasons, the whys and wherefores of Buxton's tradi- tions, the customs we learned as children having grown from that early settlement. The home-centred lifestyle, the emphasis on education, the rarity of alcohol, the strict upbringing and the dominance of religion in our lives, were outlined in the pages of this marvel- lous revelation, and had sprung from our forebear's foresight. The inexorable bonds of kinship that had grown out of this way of life were like anchors in a strong wind: we bound our- selves with, and to them. And we had just considered ours ordinary lives! The presence of these qualities of life in the settlement had been remarked by a daughter of one of those early settlers, Hattie Rhue Hatchett, in her poem Memories of the Old Home, which reads in part: