Stranica 46 [46]
eye of Dr. Schofield, who, it is needless to remark,
was a physician of the highest character, and a
gentleman with the most scrupulous regard for
truth. We give the account in his own words :
“Various are the ways by which drinking people
are brought to their death. Some die lingering ;
some commit suicide; some are executed; some
die by violence ; some are drowned, some frozen, or
burned up. This last instance being more than
ordinary terrific, a few observations upon it may
not be uninteresting.
“It is well authenticated, that many habitual
drinkers of ardent spirits are brought to their end
by what is called ‘spontaneous combustion.’ By
‘spontaneous combustion,’ I mean, when a person
takes on fire, as by an electric shock, and burns up
without any external application. Trotter mentions
several such instances. One happened under my
. own observation. It was the case of a young man
about twenty-five years old ; he had been an habitual
drinker for many years, I saw him about nine
o clock in the evening on which it happened; he
was then, as usual, not drunk, but full of liquor.
About eleven, the same evening, I was called to see
him. I found him literally roasted, from the crown
of his head to the soles of his feet. He was dis¬
covered in a blacksmith’s shop, just across the way
from where he had been. The owner of the shop,
all of a sudden, discovered a bright light in his
shop, as though the whole building was in a general
flame. He ran with the greatest precipitancy, and,
on flinging open the door, discovered the man stand¬
ing erect in the midst of a widely extended, silver
colored blaze, bearing, as he described it, exactly
the appearance of the wick of a burning candle in
The blacksmith seized
him by the shoulder, and jerked him to the door,
upon which the flame was instantly extinguished.
There was no fire in the shop, neither was there any
possibility of fire having been communicated to him
from any external source. It was purely a case of
A general sloughing soon
came on, and his flesh was consumed or removed
in the dressing, leaving the bones and a few of the
larger blood vessels standing. The blood, never¬
theless, rallied around the heart, and maintained
the vital spark until the thirteenth day, when he
died, not only the most noisome, ill-featured, and
dreadful picture that was ever presented to human
view, but his shrieks, his cries and lamentations,
Were enough to rend the heart of adamant. He
complained of no pain of body—his flesh was gone ;
he said he was suffering the torments of hell; that
he was just upon its threshold, and should soon
the midst of its own flame.
spontaneous ignition.
enter its dismal caverns; and, in this frame of mind,
gave up the ghost.” ;
For many years the process of constructing roads
was very laborious, the main roads being first
marked by blazing trees; then the boughs were
trimmed off, so that persons on horseback might
ride through ; in time a winter road was made, and
finally a wagon road built. The late Sheriff Sher¬
wood says in his memoir: “I recollect when the
King’s highway was established from the Provincial
line to Kingston; the line was run by a surveyor
named Ponair, with a surveyor under his direction
by the name of Joseph Kilborne, The distance from
the Provincial line to my father’s farm three miles,
below Brockville, was ninety-five miles; and from
Brockville to the fort, this side of Kingston, fifty
miles. At the end of each mile was planted a red
cedar post, marked on it the number of miles from
the Province line. This line of road was made some
years after the first settlement, but I have forgotten
the year.”’
The oldest cemetery in Brockville was in the
front yard of the premises at present occupied by
KR. P, Cooke, Esq., at the east end of the town. In
consequence of the wife of Col. Butler declaring that
the place was haunted, the bodies were exhumed,
and removed to another resting place.
The following account, written in 1846, is preserved,
of the arrival of Governor Simcoe in Upper Canada,
in 1792.
“But one house remains in Johnstown in its
original proportions. It is built in the Dutch style,
with sharp-pointed roof and curious gables. This
house was framed of oak, and, considering that it
had been drawn from lot to lot, until it had traveled
almost the entire extent of the Johnstown Bay,
within the last half century, it certainly is a remark¬
It is now a hostelrie, with the sign,
‘Live, and let live—St. Johns Hall—Peace and plenty
to all mankind. In this house, Governor Simcoe
held his first levee, on his arrival in Upper Canada.
When the Governor cast his eye over the curving
bay, he beheld the sparkling river and the dilapi¬
dated old French fort, built during the French
ascendancy. The house stood on a point of land
formed by the bay and a small stream which passes
from the north westward, called formerly by the
French, ‘ Riviere de la Vielle Culotte, which, being
translated, means, ‘ O/d Breeches River.’
‘At the time the gentry of the Johnstown District
collected, looking spruce, though weather-beaten, in
their low-tasselled boots, their queer old broad¬
skirted military coats, and looped chapeaux, with
parture of the Governor, in a birch bark canoe, for
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