Hunter/Hall Farm History

For 45 years, from May 4th, 1968 until September 21st, 2013, Ruth and Terry Hunter referred to their farm as the “Hunter Farm”, but for more than 100 years prior to that it was the “Hall Farm”.

On May 4th. 1968, Ruth and Terry and baby daughters Leslie (22 months) and Andria (4 months) moved into the Hall Farm and a third daughter, Nancy, was added to the family in 1970. They had bought the east half of lots 30 and 31 and all of lot 32 in the 7th concession of Otonabee Township. The east half of lot 31 concession 8 was part of the Hall Farm but it went to a different buyer.

The Hall name had its beginnings in Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland with the birth of James Hall in 1821. County Cavan was a protestant township such as became the case with Cavan Township in the County of Peterborough, Canada. At the age of 27, James immigrated to Canada along with a brother and a sister. He was at home working as a farm hand in Cavan Township. James was a Presbyterian and a Reformer. After about 8 years, he bought his first farm which was the east half of lot 31 concession 7 Otonabee Township. The farm was mostly wooded and James was busy clearing land and improving the buildings. James lived in the log house that had been built by the settlers some 25 years earlier and he housed his animals in the log barns. Later, in the Hunter days, an ash pit discovered deep in the ground and this was probably the cellar of the log house, and it became a good place to dispose of ashes. James married Margery Taylor of Dummer Township in 1858. She bore him 4 sons William David-1859, George-1863, John Warren-1865 and James T-1867 and one daughter, Jane-1861. William David died and George, being the next eldest, was destined to carry on the Hall farm tradition.

James bought up three neighbouring farms. One was the east half of lot 30 concession 7. Its south boundary was the present day CP railroad. It was very wet and had only 25 acres of working land. Another acquisition was the so called “80 acre boundary strip”, lot 32 concession 7. It was deeded to Robert Nicholls from the crown April 13, 1847. There were 7 instruments on the property prior to being purchased from Patrick O Connell by James Hall, March 17, 1871. The story of how James bought this property is very interesting. He desperately wanted the property to establish a better laneway into his farm. Access from the sixth line across the swamp was very poor and one story had it that James brought a thrashing machine across lot 32 in the middle of the night so the owners of the land wouldn’t stop him. Eventually, owner lot 32 came up for taxes and an auction was held in the SS#9 Douro school house located on the other side of the boundary road. It seems that all the neighbours were Irish Catholics who resented the prosperity of the prodestant Irish Halls and it was said that the neighbours would make Mr. Hall pay dearly for the property. James bid against them until a reasonable price was reached and then stopped bidding and headed off home. Of course, the neighbours stopped running up the bid and a friend bought the property for James at a fair price.

Once he had this property, James built a laneway complete with “modern” wire fences and maple trees. To build the fences, cedar posts were first put in the ground. One anchor post was found to be 10 feet long and 18 inches at the top. Opposite sides of the bottom of the post had been flattened and scantlings spiked on to stop the post from heaving. A hole, 5 feet deep and large enough to accept the post with scantlings, was undoubtedly dug by hand, as were all the post holes. After about 80 years in the ground the spikes rusted off and the post heaved out anyway. Rust spots from the spikes could be seen on the flats of the post. Individual strands of fence wire were strung on the posts and stretched, then vertical wire stays were positioned along the fence and crimped to the horizontal wires; of course, there were no stays at the posts. It certainly was a well built fence and pieces of it are still standing today. The last property that James bought was the east half of lot 31 concession 8.

James built the lot 31 concession 7 brick farm house as per the well preserved hand written specification dated 1879. It was said that he would take a sleigh load of fire wood to the Curtis Brick Yard near Peterborough and return with a sleigh load of yellow bricks. Judging by the size of the house, he undoubtedly made many trips. The house was laid out with a central hall. The lower floor of the front part had a large dining room and parlour. There was a small bedroom for use of the elderly or any one who was sick or having a baby. Next to the dining room was a large pantry. A large kitchen took up the entire rear wing of the house and there was a chimney opening for a wood burning cook stove. All rooms had 10 foot ceilings and the brick walls were strapped, lathed, plastered and wall papered. Off the kitchen was a very large, all brick, summer kitchen which had an outside door for the workers to enter for dinner. It measured 20 by 24 feet. There is evidence that the floor of the summer kitchen had been raised about 18 inches in the early 1900’s. The kitchen chimney had an opening in the summer kitchen as well, and the cook stove could be moved to the summer kitchen to keep the heat out of the main part of the house in summertime. There was another chimney at the far end of the room. The ceiling was finished with matched pine lumber and was supported by only five, 2 by 8 ceiling joist, some on 6 foot centers. Boards were laid on the ceiling joist and this provided very “springy” storage space. Beyond the summer kitchen was an attached woodshed that was accessible only from outside the house. In later years grandson Stewart rebuilt the woodshed. The house had wooden verandas on three sides.

The upstairs had 9 foot high ceilings. There were 2 bedrooms on either side of the central hall and each had a clothes closet. The one large room over the kitchen was poorly finished and was probably used as a bedroom. In later years grandson Harold divided the room and put in bathroom facilities. All the windows had shutters and wooden storms and screens. The two chimneys on the front part of the house were originally connected to parlour stoves by way of stove pipes which passed through all the rooms. Parlour stoves were later replaced by hot air wood furnaces in two probable locations in the cellar. The cellar was quite wet in the springtime. A thin layer of concrete was put down on the mud floor in 1903. The natural drain was unable to keep the floor dry. There was only a crawl space under the kitchen and in it was a circular cistern which was made by digging a hole and plastering right on the soil. A cistern hand pump was used to put water into the wash-up sink in the back corner of the kitchen. The house was not insulated.

There were 5 dug wells around the homestead; beside the small upper barn, next to the house, at the spring at the base of the hill, in the original log barnyard south of the house and just west of the log barns at the foot of the hill. There was also a dug well on the homestead site of lot 30 near the railroad. The history of the smaller barn north of the big barn has been lost.

The third farm to be acquired was the east half of lot 31 concession 8. It had a small house and barn and the land was quite good. Son George and his wife Elizabeth Leeson, who was the sister of Jack Leeson senior and the aunt of Jack Leeson junior, moved into the house. They had 6 children; Harold, Fred, Lilah, Stuart, David J (Jim) and Mary. When James died in 1899, his wife moved to Peterborough and George’s family moved into the big house on lot 31concession 7. George had bought a farm for eldest son Harold on the eighth line of Otonabee Township south of county road 2. Harold came back from World War 1 with shell shock and was not well. He decided to stay on at the home farm and his farm went to his brother Fred. It is presently owned by Fred’s son James. Lilah married Jack MacFarlane and farmed on the 9th line of Otonabee Township where his descendants continue to farm. Stuart raised a family in Peterborough and operated the Massey Harris farm equipment dealership. Harold, Jim (David J.) and Mary never married and continued to operate the Hall Farm along with father George until his death on November 11, 1949. The title of the farm then went to Jim. The four members of the family each had areas of prime responsibility. Harold’s was crops, Jim’s was animals, Mary’s was the household and George’s was buildings and fencing. With the aging and death of George, maintenance of the buildings and fences suffered greatly. When Harold died in 1966, Mary and Jim could not cope and the farm had to be sold. They moved to a comfortable little house in Peterborough. When the Hunters moved to the farm in 1968 there wasn’t one field that could safely confine cattle.

In the early 1900s George decided to replace the log barns. He started by completing a new horse barn in 1906. In 1914 the one foot thick concrete walls of the main barn were poured with the Hall boys mixing the concrete by hand. In 1915 the superstructure went up under George’s supervision. Early in 1916 it was time to build a concrete silo. The boys had had enough concrete mixing by hand and son Fred traveled out west on the harvest excursion. When he returned, he found that his father had hired someone to put up a 12 by 40 foot silo for $100 and George supplied all the materials. Between 1915 and 1918 the windmill driven water system was put in. The windmill sat on the spring and pumped water up to a concrete cistern located part way up the hill. It provided a 50 foot head of water to supply the farm. The windmill pumped water until 1966 when it blew over in a wind storm. George was an accomplished blacksmith and builder and he had a well equipped blacksmith shop behind the house. George later built a small two car garage near the house and on the wall he recorded the oil change dates for the 1924 Essex car.

The communal thrashing mill and steam engine had been stored in the barn on lot 31 concession 8 for years. The barn burnt along with the machines and a new mill shed was put up on lot 31, concession 7 in1924. This building was moved nearer to the house by the Hunters and was made into a shop. A concrete floor was added, a 10 foot ceiling was put in, 8 inches of insulation was installed and a lean-to was added on three sides to provide a boiler room, firewood storage and equipment storage. A commercial fire tube boiler was fed with cord wood and hot water was piped underground to an insulated storage tank in the newly renovated and insulated basement of the house. Under thermostat control, hot water was drawn from the reservoir and passed through a heat exchanger heating air which was circulated throughout the house by way of a hot air system. A backup electric hot water heating system was also installed. The most southerly drive shed was moved to higher ground and put on concrete footings. The blacksmith shop, behind the house, was moved to the base of the hill where it became a sap shanty. A small run-down brooder house became a bee house at the base of the hill.

There were many other improvements made to the farm by the Hunters. Prior to the first winter a wood and oil fired forced air heating system was installed. Also, a windbreak was planted along the west side of the laneway. Two years later a new laneway to the sixth line was put in to guarantee daily access to work in Peterborough. Fourteen inches of insulation were added to the attic and insulation was added to the solid brick walls by adding insulated stud walls to the inside and replastering. The wood graining was restored in the main part of the house and wall paper and paint were renewed. A new outside chimney was built. Storm windows were added along with new eve troughs, soffets and fascia. The wooden veranda floors were replaced with concrete. The bathroom was made into two and the storage room was converted to a sewing room.

The well at the house was lined and a sun room with a basement was added next to it. The spring was concreted and a 1.5 acre pond was created by damming the hollow and excavating. The water table around the well was raised five feet guaranteeing an endless water supply. Trees were planted and the area was landscaped. A second pond was dug at the eastern tip of the hill. Most of the farm was fenced with rail and wire fences suitable for cattle and sheep. For the first 20 or so years a thousand trees were planted each year. This included trees for a “Cut Your Own” Christmas tree operation. “The Hunter Farm B&B” was started on the farm in 1990 and it called for more changes. A second story was added to the summer kitchen and two ensuit guest rooms were put there. The woodshed was removed and a double car garage was added with a second story apartment, foyer, laundry room and bathroom. The summer kitchen became a family room with the original pine floors, beam ceiling, wood paneling and an air tight wood stove.