Written By Alice Gibb
One of the best ways of gaining insight into the day-to-day life of our ancestors is through personal diaries. Passing into Oblivion: The Diaries of William Porte, Lucan, Ontario 1864-1898 provide wonderful glimpses into Christmas customs of the past. Edited by Glenn and Greg Stott, this book reflects years of painstakingly transcribing Porte’s hand-written diaries, preserved in the UWO Archives. Porte, the long-time Lucan postmaster, describes daily life in North Middlesex before the turn-of-the century.
Irish by birth, William Porte arrived in Biddulph Township in 1837. At age 38, he began his diary – making few entries at first but later making almost daily entries. A committed Anglican and monarchist, he married a Roman Catholic bride. Marriages between people of different religious backgrounds were extremely rare at this time. The couple had nine children – seven survived into adulthood.
Porte’s diaries show us how an ordinary man lived out his life in this period. One thing becomes obvious - Christmas was not the holiday in Victorian times that it is today. Porte often worked on Christmas Day – and community Christmas festivities were often held after December 25th. The following are excerpts from the diaries:
Saturday, Dec. 25, 1875 - “Green Christmas. Not a particle of sleighing.”
Wednesday, Dec. 29, 1875 – “Christmas Tree and Magic Lantern (show) in the Hall. About 400 piled three deep. Why. Cause was a free Guzzle.” (free lunch?)
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 1877 – “Christmas Day, no change in the weather except milder if anything. Raining or fine drizzly rain part of the day. Look(s) more like a day in the middle of April than anything else.”
Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1881 – “Mrs. Porte, Ida, Emma, and Mrs. W.E. Stanley went to Parkhill on No. 4 this evening. Maud and Edith Flock went to Craigs same time - The Kennedy family and the Catholic Bazaar at Parkhill and Christmas tree at Ailsa Craig.”
Sunday, Dec. 25, 1881 – “Christmas Day. Wrote Mrs. E. Patten. Without exception one of the finest Xmas days I ever remember to have seen in Canada. Dr. Flock and Harry left here for Leamington on Saturday evening, the 24th inst. Via Clandeboye.”
Tuesday, Dec. 27, 1881 – “Christmas Tree in the Town Hall last evening under the auspices of the Church of England Sunday School was more than a success. The Hall being crowded to Suffocation the body of the Hall as well as the approaches thereto. There could not have been less than 500 present. Scholars and adults.”
Five guests stayed overnight at the Porte home “and Alice (his daughter) treated them to an Oyster Supper, after which they made night harmonies with song and music until clear daylight in the morning…”
Next Week Part 2
