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Sharing Our Heritage had founded the mill and the towu-site of Ferguslea. My Great Great grandfather had been a weaver in Scotland, and worked in his cousin‘s mill here when he came to Renl'rew County in 1863. We know the blanket came from the Reid mills, because it has a scam down the middle, the looms there being too narrow to make a full blanket. The mills suffered several bad fires and in 1906 following a devastating one, the family abandoned the enterprise and Ferguslea and went to Western Canada where I am sure their pioneering spirit was well appreciated. This blanket when home from Ferguslea,just a little up the road. I do mean "the road' ofcourse. The Opeongo Road, a settlement road established in the 1850's to attract settlers into the interior of the province. My ancestor's like many others discovered that once the wealth of the trees was gone, the land along the 0pcongo was too shallow and stony to support much agriculture. So in 1910 we moved taking our blanket with us to the richer loamier soils of the slopes above the Bonnechcre ranges, along the Stone Road. Well the other reason we moved is that apparently my great-great-grandfather only had squatter‘s rights along the Opeongo, which ended with his death in 1909. This is the farm I grew up on and I well remember older relatives visiting and doing the tour ofthings no longer there, this is where the ice house was, or the chicken eoops, the sheep folds, the pig pens and ofcourse the orchard was bigger, and the pump house was there, But as a testament to progress, the barns grew bigger, there were new sheds for machinery and instead ofmixed agriculture there was a specialization in dairy. There is a photo from the 1930's of my grandfather delivering his own milk to homes in Renfrow, that ended with the pasteurization legislation promoted by Adelaide Hoodless and the Women’s Institute, none the less we have struggled on for the last 65 years or so delivering milk to the dairy instead. (Lynn) I've always had (ill interest in the history of our area and listened intently to the stories told by my elders around the kitchen table. One of my fltvom'ite tales related how my greategrcrttegrmt gramlfiithcr and his 2 sons, for! up with only the worst [and that was left in Lannrk County, walked to the Pinnacle outsith ofllenfrcw, looked across the Bonnechere River and saw stands ofhttrtlwoorl. They returned the ncxtyeru‘, 1833, to start to clear thefimtfarnts in Athnuston. I grew up on t/irttfrtrm where the original log cabin was known ttS the pighonsc, ..... ttv people moved into bigger and better houses the animals got the one left behind!!! This picture shows my grandfather getting ready to take the tnilk to the local cheesefltr'tmy, taken ttl thefurm where I live today. As Gail has mentioned the business of farming has changed considerably from the (lays of handling can: ofmilk and sheaves ofgrtn'n to the high tech machiner oftotlay. (Gail) The new farm was opposite the Protestant cemetery and in addition to inheriting the farm, my father's father and my father inherited the secretarial and caretaking duties ofthe cemetery. The documents that record the founding ofthe cemetery are witnessed by both my forefathers and Lynn's as community minded Scot's The first burial was in 1842, a farmer's daughter placed to rest on a sunny knoll. (Lynn) The stories that those headstones re!!! A large monument for my great- great-grentâ€"uncleis family shows the (tenth of 3 children within 2 weeks from diphtheria. A testament to the days before the vaccinations that we now take for granted. (Gail) In the same vein, our families are founders ofthe local church, Presbyterian Renfrew South District Women’s Institute Page 9 of 27