THOMAS CONANT (the Author’s grandfather) 60 OLD GRAVEYARD NEAR OSHAWA, THE PROPERTY OF THE AUTHOR 66 FIREPLACE AND HOUSEHOLD EFFECTS IN USE IN UPPER CANADA, 1813 76 KITCHEN UTENSILS, UPPER CANADA, 1813 76 THE OLD CONANT HOMESTEAD NEAR OSHAWA, BUILT IN 1811 100 DANIEL CONANT 104 DESK USED IN THE LEGISLATIVE CHAMBER BY W. LYON MACKENZIE, UPPER CANADA, 1837 113 CANADIAN APPLES AT THE GLASGOW EXHIBITION--“THE BEST IN THE EMPIRE” 143 SCENE NEAR BOBCAYGEON 172 A CANADIAN VIEW--LOOKING SOUTH-EAST FROM EAGLE MOUNTAIN, STONEY LAKE 172 A SAILING CANOE ON LAKE ONTARIO 214 LIFE IN CANADA. CHAPTER I. Roger Conant--His position in Massachusetts--Remained in the United States two years without being molested--Atrocities committed by “Butler’s Rangers”--Comes to Upper Canada--Received by Governor Simcoe--Takes up land at Darlington--Becomes a fur trader--His life as a settler--Other members of the Conant family. The author’s great-grandfather, Roger Conant, was born at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on June 22nd, 1748. He was a direct descendant (sixth generation) from Roger Conant the Pilgrim, and founder of the Conant family in America, who came to Salem, Massachusetts, in the second ship, the _Ann_--the _Mayflower_ being the first--in 1623, and became the first Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony under the British Crown. He was graduated in Arts and law at Yale University in 1765. At the time of the outbreak of the Revolution in 1776 he was twenty-eight years old. His capacity and business ability may be judged from the facts that he owned no fewer than 13,000 acres of land in New England, and that when he came to Canada he brought with him £5,000 in British gold. He appears to have been a man of keen judgment, of quiet manners, not given to random talking, of great personal strength, and highly acceptable to his neighbors. In after days, when he had to do his share toward subduing the Canadian forest, they tell of him sinking his axe up to the eye at every stroke in the beech or maple. The record is that he could chop, split and pile a full cord of wood in an hour.