16 A Bridge To The: Past 
     
    
   
   
    
     About this time two enterprising young farmers, John W. Hogg and 
     
     Robert Stavert, bought about 50 acres of land in this south-easterr. corner 
     
     of Wilmot Valley and were working hard. The newly cleared land produced 
     
     abundantly and their careful husbandry paid off. Soon reports of great 
     
     crops of grain, hay and potatoes were circulating far and wide. For these 
     
     two farmers an era of prosperity was underway and a great wealth, not un- 
     
     like the wealth of the gold fields was being discovered. A local wit, whether 
     
     through envy or exuberance but making use of the news topic of the day, 
     
     was heard to remark: “Them young fellers must have struck gold in there— 
     
     just like the Klondike”. The name once applied has remained to this day. 
     
    
   
   
    
     There are other more romantic tales to be told. This was a favorite 
     
     place for young lovers out for a Sunday afternoon stroll and more than one 
     
     young man has found a bride by taking a short cut through to Freetown. 
     
     Harry Waugh, Wilmot Valley, who courted and won Rusie Schurman, 
     
     Freetown; Percy Marchbank, New Arman who married May Cairns, 
     
     Freetown; and two brothers, Edward and John M. Clark, Clark’s Mills, 
     
     who visited the home of Thomas Reeves in Freetown and claimed as their 
     
     brides Eliza Alice Reeves and Sarah Margaret Reeves. This was their way 
     
     of travelling before and after marriage and the grandchildren still have 
     
     pleasant memories of going through the narrow road to visit their relatives. 
     
     One grandmother who often accompanied them, would be busily knitting 
     
    
   
   
    
     all the way. 
     
    
   
   
    
     To one young couple; Scott and Georgie Cairns, it served as a honey— 
     
     moon trail on a chilly wet night in November, 1927. After their wedding at 
     
     the home of the bride in Summerside East, they travelled by horse and 
     
     wagon to the groom’s home in Freetown following the sheltered short cut 
     
    
   
   
    
     through the woods. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Other memories of this area include the trips to pick wild raspberries 
     
     that grew in abundance following the cutting of trees for lumber and fuel 
     
     and the family picnics held at the “Rolling Bank”—-one of the cleared 
     
     spaces where logs were rolled into the river. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Today the narrow romantic trail through to Freetown is almost grown 
     
     over but a new era is underway and the Klondike has again come to life, at 
     
     least during the winter. The gentle slopes are ideal for cross—country skiing 
     
     and who knows—romance may bloom again among the younger folk who 
     
     enjoy this winter sport in the Klondike. 
     
    
   
   
    
     THE COST OF A FARM 
     
    
   
   
    
     To be classed as a “squatter” in the early days simply meant that the 
     
     person referred to did not hold a clear title to the land on which he lived, but 
     
     it was not uncommon for houses to be built and land to be cultivated 
     
    
   
   
    
     without first acquiring ownership.