Old Port Oshawa in Rebellion Days: Schooner Days CCLXXXI (281)

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THOSE marshes east of Oshawa harbor, Hall's and Farewell's, figured more than once in the drama of the Mackenzie rebellion of a century ago. Oshawa was neither solidly for the Family Compact nor for the Rebels, neither altogether Loyalist nor altogether Patriot. But from the stories told, the bulk of sympathy seems to have been on the side of the poor Patriots, especially after the pitiful battle of Montgomery's Tavern left them leaderless and hunted men. There are Oshawa houses still standing near the lake shore which were searched from cellar to attic again and again by zealous soldiery on the track of Mackenzie's abandoned followers.

Elder Thomas Henry, that godly harbormaster and head of the Christian conference, had fought under Brock at Queenston Heights and no one could question his loyalty to British institutions, but he himself said afterwards: "I was not only a friend to British law and to order, but I had much sympathy for many who unwisely took arms against it."

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So, too, had his seventeen-year-old son, John. Elder Henry's house, barn and cellar were refuges for hiding Patriots, whether the father knew it or not. On one occasion John had as many as twelve rebels in hiding, not on the homestead, but in a house three miles west of the port. He knew another sweep was I going to be made, and that any further movement would attract suspicion. So he hitched up his father's team, and hung all the sleigh bells on the two horses their harness would carry, and drove off west with a flourish. Government spies, not believing in duck-hunting with brass bands, or with sleigh bells, did not follow him. He loaded all his refugees under the buffalo robes and drove back at a smart clip to one of the marshes east of the port, where a schooner was lying, intending to sail for Rochester, if she could get out before the entrance froze. John drove alongside the ice in the dark, dumped his passengers over the rail, and drove home with all his bells ringing a merry chime— while the little schooner, pushed out through the marsh entrance by poles, was ploughing the wintry waves for the south shore.

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John's exploit was suspected, but nothing could be proved against him and in the following spring he had to repeat it under greater difficulty.

Elder Henry had been able prove an alibi for Dr. Hunter, when he was placed on trial for treason because he deposed that he himself had been at Dr. Hunter's house the evening of the fight in Toronto and that Dr. Hunter had been there with him. But the rebel hunt did not slacken, and one March night Dr. Hunter came to his door and begged him to assist him in escaping. The officers were again after him, having uncovered further evidence of his complicity in the Mackenzie plot or of his rebel sympathies. Elder Henry hid his friend for the time, and son John smuggled him to an old man's shack near Farewell's marsh.

A schooner belonging to his uncle, Jesse Trull, had been frozen in this marsh all winter. She was now fitting out for the first voyage of the year to Rochester across the lake. John knew that his uncle was sympathetic, but he dared not implicate him, because his other uncle, John Trull, was a captain in the militia and zealously Loyalist; so much so that he had assigned a Sergt. Martin to supervise his brother's schooner and see that she carried no passengers away when she sailed.

John sauntered down to the lakeshore and watched the overhauling of the schooner after the waste of winter. In fact he got a job helping. He knew the mate, Billy Barrow, an eccentric good-hearted chap, who slept aboard alone while the vessel was fitting out. Jesse Trull the owner was also the captain, and he slept on shore. There was nothing suspicious about Johnny Henry helping at fitting out his uncle's schooner.

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To Billy he broached his plan when opportunity offered, and at night he slipped home and then to the shack, where he had Dr. Hunter hidden. He led the doctor down to the edge of the marsh. Here he had moored a little red skiff which he used in coming and going from the schooner. Making the doctor lie down he paddled across the open water, in great danger of capsizing, for the wind was blowing a gale and tossing great cakes of ice about. In the dark it was very difficult to find the schooner, but at last got under her lee, and the doctor was quietly pushed on board and down into the tiny lazarette in the schooner's stern, where her spare were stowed. Here a supply of food and water had been concealed. The lazarette was bulkheaded off from the cabin and cargo hold, and the only access to it was through the square hatch under the tiller.

Once the doctor was stowed, John fitted on the hatch cover, bolted it down with bolts, for which he had bored in the holes, and then pitched all around the commons with fresh tar. The main hatch coamings had already been so treated. Then he slipped into the cabin, nudged the supposedly sleeping mate to signify that too was well, and turned into an empty bunk.

In the morning, Capt. Jesse Trull came aboard with Capt. John Trull, asking him to make an inspection and give him his certificate, so that he could clear at once for his destination, the wind having come fair. He pointed out that his hatches were all sealed and no one could go below. The militia captain questioned his sergeant, who had seen no one come aboard except the boy John Henry with his little red skiff. John ostentatiously hauled the skiff up short by her painter, got his pay for helping to fit out, and climbed over the side. Capt. John Trull wrote out the clearance for his innocent brother and climbed into the sergeant's boat, which was lying on the other quarter. Up went the sails, around went the windlass, home came the anchor, and out the schooner steered Rochester - with another rebel safe from the noose which strangled Lount and Matthews a few weeks later here in Toronto.

It is more than probable that John Henry's first recorded exploit was part of the daring rescue of the Patriots by the schooner Industry, which will be recounted next week.

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BUILT FROM BALLAST OF KINGSTON LIMESTONE, this house of Elder Thomas Henry, early harbormaster and president of the Oshawa Harbor Company, still stands in old Port Oshawa. In the great days of the grain trade, schooners loading at Oshawa used to come back light from Kingston, or ballasted with local limestone to be had there for the loading. They would throw their ballast overboard to make room for the grain. Elder Henry thriftily acquired enough of of it to build the walls of his second home.

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ELDER HENRY, PATRIARCH OF PORT OSHAWA—-His descendants are well known in the town and in Ontario.