Christmas at Moore's Point: Sleigh rides, feasting and friends

From the archives of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library:

What does the perfect Christmas look like for you? Probably for most of us celebrating Christmas means lots of food, visits with family and probably weeks spent trying to find that perfect gift to put under the Christmas tree for Christmas morning. Have you ever considered what Christmas may have looked like for the early pioneers who settled here when Sault Ste. Marie was just a small village?

The Moore family has a long history in this area. George Moore was born in Northern Ireland and began working for the Hudson’s Bay Company. He was sent first to the Red River colony and then later was sent to Moose Factory. He met Emma Goode, the daughter of a shareholder in the Hudson’s Bay Company and they married and began a family.

In 1850, George, Emma and their family travelled by boat along the Abitibi River to begin a new life in this area.

For the first year after their arrival, they settled in Pointe aux Pins and joined the settlement there. During this first year, George looked for a place nearby to build his own home for his family. He eventually found a point of land on St. Mary’s River just a couple of miles west of the area that eventually became Algoma Steel, so he began cutting timber and was able to build his own cabin in 1852.

This location eventually became known as Moore’s Point where George Moore lived until his death in 1865.

George and Emma’s son, Richard Moore was a sailor on the Great Lakes before settling down on the family farm at Moore’s Point. He married Julia Martha Ann from Ontonogan, Michigan in 1871 and they settled onto the Moore family farm. Richard’s mother, Emma, now an invalid lived with Julia and Richard.

In an article published by the Sault Star, R.M. Moore recalled some of his mother’s memories of her first Christmas.

Mrs. Julia Moore arrived here in 1871 and fondly recalled what her life was like in those early days. First of all, she found that their home was in the bush and that the village of Sault Ste. Marie was difficult to reach.

There were no roads from their cabin, just some trails through the bush. In the summer months, travel into the village was by water, either by rowboat or by sailboat. Before reaching the rapids, they would have to make landfall and portage around the rapids.

Once winter arrived, they could travel on the ice by horse and sleigh.

Any visit to the village would usually include picking up needed supplies. Many of the supplies could be found at the store located at the Hudson’s Bay Fort or perhaps by visiting one of the two stores located in the village.

Mr. William Turner had a store located in the area where Brock Street is now located. The other store, owned by Mr. John Davison was located near Pim Street. This store was later purchased by W.H. Plummer.

Living on their homestead, they had to be very self-sufficient.

They were able to grow most of their own food on their farmland as well as learn to gather wild berries. Julia explained that “at our place, we supplemented our food supply with fish and game, both of which were plentiful.”

They still needed to purchase staples such as tea, coffee, sugar, flour, and salt pork as well as dry goods like bolts of cloth and other necessities of life. Being able to reach the village of Sault Ste. Marie within a day’s journey meant that they were usually assured of being able to pick up what they needed and have enough food to feed their family.

As Christmas approached in 1871, Julia Moore explained that it was important to create a feast using what was readily available to them. This meant that “chickens were roasted beside wild geese, quail and wild pigeon pies, great kettles of rabbit stew, roasts of beef and venison were all gotten ready.”

Special treats were made such as suet pudding with currants and raisins and flavoured with spices that had been shipped from England and kept for special occasions such as Christmas.

Decorating meant searching for mountain ash berries and reindeer moss and cutting pine and spruce boughs from the nearby trees to make their homes look and smell festive.

Nowadays we may use candles to create a special atmosphere in our homes but in 1871 they were a necessary source of light during the long dark evenings that would be experienced in the winter months. They didn’t have a Christmas tree inside their home, but the children did hang up their stockings by the fireplace on Christmas Eve hoping that Santa would find them!

On her first Christmas as a new bride, Julia recalls that there was a loud knock at their door before dawn. They opened the door to find their closest neighbours, Joe and Ycente Davieux who explained “we have come to take you home with us for Christmas.” Before setting out Julia provided them all with a hearty breakfast consisting of rabbit stew and game pie and loaves of homemade bread. Wild fruit jam and black tea accompanied the breakfast fare. This is probably a little different than what we would expect to have today! Her invalid mother-in-law, Emma, enjoyed having visitors stop in and appreciated this early morning visit.

After finishing their breakfast, the two couples set out for the village so that they could attend church on Christmas Day. Joe and Ycente Davieux went to Sacred Heart Church and Richard and Julia Moore headed to the Ermatinger Stone House to attend an Anglican service.

Reverend Mr. Chance was a missionary from Garden River and conducted the service. The two couples returned to the Davieux home for a brief visit and then Richard and Julia set back out with their pony Zeb hitched up to their homemade sleigh and headed out on the ice to Pointe aux Pins to visit with Richard’s sister who was spending the winter in the settlement there.

There was more feasting to enjoy with those gathered together there. By the time that evening arrived, everyone settled in front of a large fire and spent the evening roasting and cracking nuts that they had gathered earlier in the fall.

Soon however it was time to hitch up Zeb to their sleigh once again and head for home across the ice. Soon after leaving the settlement at Pointe aux Pins Julia recounted that they were treated to a beautiful show from the stars and northern lights as they made their way home.

When they reached the cabin, they finished off the day by telling Grandma Emma all the news of the village and the friends that they had visited with throughout the day. Since Emma couldn’t travel very far, an Indian couple had stayed and spent the day with her.

When asked about Christmas gifts, she explained that they just weren’t that important, it was much more fun to spend time with their family and friends and enjoy the simple pleasures of spending time with each other. However, gifts were exchanged when possible and might be something useful like scarves, mittens, and silk kerchiefs, material for a new dress, special treats like candies and scents that had been imported from England or perhaps they might give pretty beadwork and sweet grass work made by the Indian women in the area.

Richard and Julia Moore had two daughters and six sons and Julia found most of her time taken up with raising her family. She remained very active in the township throughout her entire life and probably watched the changes that came to Sault Ste. Marie from her early years in the area with some amazement. Unfortunately, the family homestead on Moore’s Point was taken over by Algoma Steel in 1962.

Towards the end of her life, Julia Moore found humour in the fact that people wanted to get back to celebrating a simple homemade Christmas exactly like her first Christmas spent here as a new bride.

Julia lived to be 100 years old and passed away in December 1949, making her one of Korah Township’s oldest residents.

Each week, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and its Archives provides SooToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.

Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here