Stewart MacDonald , Gold Rush of 1898. He stayed in the North for ten years, making enough money to buy the farm next to his old home. John MacDonald got married to Sarah Jane Stewart from Belle River shortly after he bought the farm. They had twelve children, four of whom died in infancy, in¬ cluding twin boys who lived only a couple of days. My father worked hard to raise his growing family. His time of getting up in the morning was at 4 a.m. He fed the horses and then went to the shore to see if there was any seaweed. We collected up to 500 cart loads of seaweed a year and this was our fertilizer. I remember one day getting 35 loads between tides. One had to work hard before the next tide might remove what seaweed was left. In the first year of their marriage they kept boarders who were drilling for oil. The site of the dig was about 300 yards from our house in a field just west of a creek and about 100 yards into Sam Dixon 's farm. After dig¬ ging for 2000 feet, the well was capped. I remember when I was about 10 years old my father decided to go out West and work at his trade, as money was hard to make on the farm. At that time we had 20 cows, 30 sheep, and about 50 hens. He was able to sell some hay from a productive farm. He worked in British Columbia for a couple of years, but the farm was never as productive again. Seaweed seemed to stop growing, which meant less fertilizer for the land. In memory, I can see my father taking great care in building a small casket and covering it with white cotton for my youngest brother, who died two weeks before my mother (in 1929). My father kept the family together. One of my two older sisters came home from the United States to keep house for him. 22