Excerpt from A Reminiscence of the Early Days

Mccarthy at that time kept a sort of general store on Division street, and my father was often paid for his work by getting an order on this store, where he would get such things as he most needed. I have often heard my father say that he cut cordwood many a day for three York shillings a cord. That in our day would be thirty seven and a half cents. The old seminary or college, or, as it was afterward called, the Uppe1 Canada Academy, was in course of erection, also the first Presbyterian church. It was situated between what is now known as Ontario and William streets, fronting on William street. This church was built of gray stone. The first minister who labored here was the Rev. Thomas Alexander. Here in the little burying ground by the old stone Kirk reposes the dust of many of the early pioneers of those days. I have heard my parents and others say that it was so wet and swampy that when a grave was dug it would fill up with water, and the coffin would'have to be lowered down in this - there to take their last long repose. The old church has been pulled down for some years, and not one stone left upon another to tell where it once stood. I have often thought that the people of Cobourg made a great mistake when they did away with this time-honored building. It should have been left as an old landmark and monument to the memory of those early pioneers whose ashes repose in the old Kirkyard. It was here they met together, a small band of faithful worshippers whose names should ever be held in sacred remembrance by all their de scendants for generations to come. What a debt we owe to those worthy men and women who braved the ocean's storms, the hardships, the separation from home and friends coming to this country - then an almost unbroken forest - hewing out for themselves and children homes in the new land. With but little of this world's wealth, poor, but honest and persevering. Laying the foundation of our country's prosperity and the privileges we now enjoy are not so much our doing and dar ing as theirs, and we should cherish their memories with rev erence and gratitude.

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