Old-Fashioned Debt Problems
Managing money and debt seems like a modern-day issue. Recently an economist noted that, with the low interest rates, Canadians have been on a borrowing binge and, over the past 15 years household debt has been rising twice as fast as disposable income. He said they risk real trouble if they were hit by a sudden economic shock like a big rise in interest rates. However, one of my mother's stories relates how, even more than a century ago, managing debt plagued my great-grandparents too.
Great-Grandma Helferty was Catherine O'Toole, the daughter of Dr. Jim O'Toole and Mary Doyle. She was raised as an only child as her father died when she was quite young. Dr. O'Toole also ran a farm, "a very nice farm", according to my mom, "one of the best around Osceola." After his death, Catherine and her mother, Mary, tried to run the farm but found it most difficult. They hired men to run it for them but they ran it into debt.
Things began to look brighter when Great-Grandpa Helferty came along. Bernard (Barney) was a great big man - a great worker - and when he married Catherine, they thought they could get the farm back on its financial feet. However, after several years of struggling, Barney realized he wasn't going to be able to pay off the debt so he began to look for a resolution. Rumours had it that great fertile land was available along the Madawaska River in Raglan township, that it could be bought "for a song", and a good hard worker could have fields cleared for planting in no time. Barney and Catherine were up for the challenge and sold the Osceola place. They went up to Raglan and bought what later became four farms. They built on what was known in my time as Mac Sullivan's place, - that was Jim and Julia's farm before Mac owned it - plus, their property included the farm that later became Hughie and Mollie's, - part of which Don and Stella own - plus two other places; a lot next to Jim Sullivan's that became Uncle Willie's place and a lot beyond that which Hughie owned in later years. In those days, children were a great asset to a farming couple and with a large family of sons and daughters (eventually they had ten) and lots of hard work, it appeared that Barney and Catherine could leave their debt problems behind.
Today, economists tell us that real wages, after accounting for inflation, have been virtually flat since the start of the decade. It seems that any increase in income barely makes up for the ever-rising cost of living. It's difficult to find any extra money for special occasions or unexpected expenses. Our ancestors faced similar challenges in making ends meet. There was some money to be made in selling livestock or other farm animals but land needed to be cleared to raise enough feed to raise them. Clearing the land required a good team of horses and, always, there was yet another tool or piece of harness needed. Today, one might cut a little timber off the property but in those days lumber companies were interested in only the very best of the trees; good, tall, white pine especially, so there was little value in many of the trees and other growth that consumed the poor farmers' energies. The crops they managed to plant were used to feed their families or to trade at the general store for dry goods or other household items. I recall stories my parents told of a kind of barter system for meat or vegetables at Proudfoot's General Store in Palmer Rapids. They would be able to run up a bill and then pay it off in the spring when they would have fresh pork, or in the fall with fresh vegetables. Sometimes they would owe Proudfoot or sometimes he would owe them.
For Barney and Catherine, it was Harriett's General Store. It was located at what is now called Harriett's Corners, at the intersection of the Letterkenny Road and the road that comes through Rockingham from Combermere. My mother recalls how there used to be an old hotel there and a general store, and for years, she remembered seeing the remains of an old brick chimney standing back in the bush at that spot. Farmers from all around the area came to Harriett's to buy clothing and goods. The local general store stocked every imaginable item a farming family might need; tools, shovels, rakes, and hoes, items for the barn, for the household, for the animals, and for the parents and children. In the fall of the year, after the harvest, farmers would take a load of several bags to the grist mill in Killaloe to have the wheat ground into flour for the household and oats and other grains ground up for the animals. On the way home they would stop in to Harriett's and barter for a whole load of other items they needed; utensils, sugar, salt, lamp oil, and the like. I imagine that on her many trips by there over the years, my mother wondered how her grand-parents ever let debt creep into their lives once again.
It came to light one spring when Hughie came home from the log drive. Catherine was in tears, wringing her apron as she anxiously told their son of their predicament. Harriett's was after them to pay off their debt and was threatening to take one of the cows. She knew Hughie would have a pocketful of money after working all winter in the lumber camp and another six weeks on the log drive. Hughie, on the other hand, would have his pocket buttoned pretty tightly. The money wasn't easy to come by. Life in the camp was almost unbearable. It was cold and dangerous, from dawn until dark, and the food agonizingly monotonous. The log drive was even more dangerous and arduous. It seemed you were wet for six weeks and the only reprieve was a night's sleep on the ground, in a tent. There wasn't much of a chance for a young man to make money in the summer months so, whatever money he had would have to do him until he got back to the camp in the fall. Plus, he had his eye on this young Mollie O'Brien and he'd need to save a bit if he wanted to catch her eye. Catherine promised if he would pay off the debt, then she and Barney would give him a cow when he got married. Hughie saw it as a reasonable investment - who can stand to see their mother cry, anyway - so he paid off the debt.
One would think, that by now, Barney and Catherine would have agreed to some kind of marital pact to stay out debt. Their lives, like our own, must have been replete with adages and proverbs advising about the dangers of debt and borrowing. We see the ads today promising that you can have it all now and pay later. The temptation must have been no different for them as they walked into Harriett's and saw all the items they could use. Hope springs eternal and the fall crops could pay for all of it. However, the autumn harvest dissolved like a September frost and when Hughie came back from the log drive the following spring, Harriett's was threatening and his mother was in tears again. Another cow was promised and, once again, Hugh dished out the money.
In February of 1904 Hugh and Mollie were married. They were among the first couples married in the new church of St. Francis de Sales in Latchford Bridge. For a wedding gift, Jack & Ellen (nee Sullivan) O'Brien, the parents of the bride, gave them a cow. One can imagine what a stand-up comedian would do with such a gift in this day and age, but, a hundred years ago, that was a prized bequest. Mother told us it was a beautiful cow - Dolly was her name - she was a great milker and every year had a good healthy calf. Hugh and Mollie had her for years. In the springtime, Barney told Hugh to come over and pick up his two cows and he'd have a little herd of his own. However, when Hugh appeared in the farmyard with ropes in hand to lead the two cows to his place, Catherine came out and raised bloody Cain. She accused him of taking their two cows and leaving them with nothing. Hugh was dumfounded and reminded her how she was the one who promised them and that he had already paid for them. Tears welled up as she resisted the loss of the two cows. Then Barney put his foot down.
"They're his, he paid for them already, so he's taking them and I'm going to help him. That's all there is to it!"
It was a tough and confusing walk home for Hughie with his two new cows, Lilly and Reddy. He must have thought about the promise made and used the experience to warn his own children of the lure of things one can't afford.
There's an ad on TV that promotes the "Don't pay a cent event!" It goes on to promise that you don't need any money down and you need not pay a cent until some time in the distant future - I think it's up to eighteen months now. Every time I see it, I think of Barney and Catherine and I imagine Hughie wearily plodding home with Lilly and Reddy in tow.
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