Almost immediately after this he set out for Canada, with his young bride, his parents and four brothers. He chose a farm in Hibbert Township. We of this day cannot imagine the loneliness and hardship of those early days. The forest was not the friendly thing it is today. Wolves and bears infested it. The clearances were like little islands in an angry sea. Travel between these was difficult and often dangerous. It frequently had to be made following the blaze on the trees marked by the surveyor1s axe. They had to make almost everything they possessed. Their furniture was largely made by hand. Their clothing was manufactured from the wool from the sheep they raised on their farms. It was made into rolls. It was then sent to the cardigan mills. On getting it back they had to full (finish by subjecting to a process) it. This was an interesting process.
Sitting on either side of a trough of water, by the side of their log shanty, a couple of them would pull the cloth back and forth through the water. The hats worn by both men and women were woven by hand out of wheat straw.
Work was difficult for Robert and his bride but these sturdy pioneers were ambitious, they were people of indomitable will. After years of labor they became one of the most prosperous and influential families in that section. He specialized in dairy farming and succeeded in building up a fine herd of thirty or forty cows. In addition to farming, he built a cheese factory and became one of the pioneers in this important industry in Western Ontario.
He organized, and was years, President of the Usborne and Hibbert Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He took a great interest in Municipal matters. For years he served as Councillor and later on for fifteen years was Reeve of Hibbert Township. He was a member of Thames Road Presbyterian Church of which Dr. Colin F??er was Minister for forty-two years and did much to further the interests of the church. He was an elder here for years.
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