EARLY SETTLER‘S

Mr. John Smith born on the Isle of Thanet, England, came to Prince Edward Island in 1799 landing at Rustico, and settling first in Cavendish, thence to the north side of the South—West River, then to Margate, where he finally settled on the property now owned by Eric Moase.

He was one of the first settlers of Margate, and he named it after Margate, on the Isle of Thanet in England.

John Smith died on March 5th., 1824. Ann Dobson, his wife, died on May 27th., 1838 and Charlotte, their daughter died Feb. 18th, 1827.

Another early settler namely Mrs. John Tuplin, mother of Mrs. Hannah Bentley, came to Prince Edward Island with her parents in 1799 and was born on the passage from England. They settled in Cavendish and in a short time moved to Margate.

The following item was copied from the “Island Guardian” and “Christian Chronicle” of Charlottetown, dated July 5th., 1894 and was for- warded by a correspondent for publication:

“An event of rare occurrence took place at Margate on Friday, the 22nd of June 1894, in the removal of the remains of the late John Smith, Wife and daughter, from a plot in a field owned by Mr. Thomas R. Tuplin, Margate.

The above named Mr. Smith was born on the Isle of Thanet, Kent County, England. Mr. Smith came to Prince Edward Island in 1799, land- ing at Rustico and the settlement he made is explained above.

At the removal of the remains of John and Ann Smith, there were present three grandsons —-— Mr. Smith from Ontario; Mr. John Bentley from Victoria, P.E.I.; Hon. G. W. Bentley, Kensington and two grand— daughters —— Mrs. W. B. Tuplin, Kensington and Mrs. John Tuplin, Mar- gate. Also present was one great grandson, Mr. Gordon Tuplin.

Appropriate services were conducted at the home of Thomas R. Tuplin, and at the grave by the Rev. Richard Opie”.

EARLY DAYS

During the early days of the first settlers, life must have seemed very hard to those people, who braved the tides and the forests to begin a settlement here on Prince Edward Island.

Our information is mostly hear say, but we know that the men cleared away trees, built log cabins and cleared land to plant food to eat.

Each year more land would be cleared and the main crops grown were potatoes, wheat, oats, barley, hay and probably corn. These crops were attended by hand, later a horse-drawn machine was used to cultivate. The average farm machinery used was: one sod plow, a set of harrows, a hay mower, a cart and a buck-board.

Potato pickers received 25¢ a day each, working in the field.

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