1897-^- TRANSACTIONS. 4^ 



noble-hearted wife whose birth-place among the rngged Scotch 

 hills was called Ebnvale. Mrs. Ritchie survived her loving 

 husband 30 years and had the happiness of seeing her children 

 married and settled around her, the whole numbering 115, 

 viz., 4 daughters, 3 sons, 72 grandchildren, 35 great grand- 

 children and one great great grandchild. 



Gratitude is embalmed in some place-names. Here is 

 one example, " to our purpose quite." 



In the forties there lived in Louisiana a man named Rev. 

 William King who married a planter's daughter. On her 

 father's death she inherited 15 slaves. These, on her death, 

 Mr. King liberated and, after selling his Louisiana plantation, 

 carried them to Canada in 1848. He found in Western Can- 

 ada (now Western Ontario) a large number of fugitive slaves, 

 very ignorant and living in great poverty. In 1850 he pre- 

 sented their cases to the Presbyterian Synod, then in session 

 in Toronto, succeeded in enlisting the sympathies of its mem- 

 bers, as well as those of other denominations, and secured the 

 co-operation of Canadian anti-slavery societies. As a practical 

 method of aiding the slaves a company was incorporated in 

 June, 1850, called the Elgin Association. A prospectus was 

 issued for the " social and religious improvement of the colored 

 people of Canada" as -the Association announced its object. 

 The public was asked to take stock to the amount of $20,000. 

 With the money 9,000 acres of land were purchased from the 

 Government at an average cost of $1.75 per acre. This tract 

 was divided into lots of 50 acres for which the colored settler 

 paid $2.50 per acre in ten annual instalments with interest. 

 Mr. King formed the nucleus of the settlement by giving his 

 15 freed negroes their land in 1S50. While the Fugitive 

 Slave Law was in operation in the United States many thou- 

 sands of slaves found their way by the " undergronnd railway" 

 into Canada, and in 1853, ^00 families had settled in the King 

 tract, while many more occupied improved farms in the 

 neighborhood. They were very helpful to each other, and 

 most of the farms were cleared and homes built by means of 

 "chopping bees," those warm-hearted neighborly institutions 

 of early Canadian times. The settlers also found employment 

 on the farms of their white neighbors and sold railway ties at 

 seven cents each to the Canada Southern Railway then under 

 construction. 



As they advanced in prosperity a village sprang up in 

 the settlement being the railway station of Buxton^ so named 

 by the colored people in honor of Sir Fowell Buxton, the dis- 



