Bees - Glimpses of the Past with Karen Webster

There are bumble bees, honey bees, earth bees and wood bees (the kind that bore circular holes in wood). However, at one time, the term wood bee had a different connotation. 

 

Jeanne Kirkby, in her 1981 book called Morris Township - Past to Present, gives us a picture of what a bee was. “One of the outstanding characteristics of Morris Township people was their tendency to make many tasks lighter by sharing the work in a neighbourhood bee. Held for many purposes, these bees featured an amazing amount of work accomplished, a spirit of competition between teams with the task divided into sections, plenty of good food available for the workers and a lively party or ‘jig’ at the end of the evening to finish things off.”

 

Of course, Morris Township was not the only locale for this practice. In April of 1883, it was reported that “a swarm of bees” had occurred in Hullett Township. There were six wood-cutting bees held on successive days in one week. One man, A. Kelly, had 30 cord of wood cut. The same thing occurred near Brussels in 1894 with a wood bee on every day of one week. William Kerney had 40 cord cut at his place. 

 

Sometimes women held a quilting bee while the men cut wood. After supper, the men folk went home, likely to tend to chores, changed their clothes and returned to attend a dance at the host’s home. When Henry Rintoul held a wood bee in 1890, he found it difficult to get the workers to stop for a meal as they were so into the competition of cutting and splitting the most wood. After supper, the floor was cleared for a dance and the merriment continued until 3:30 a.m. All headed home for a brief time in bed and were ready to go to George Garton’s place the next day to repeat the process.

 

When Charles Wheeler Jr. held a wood bee in 1885, there were 10 saws kept busy. These weren’t mechanical ones, but, rather, cross cut saws that were about six feet long with a handle at each end. There would be men on either end of the saw who alternately pushed and pulled the saw back and forth to execute the cut. The workers were rewarded with an oyster supper and then an evening of musical entertainment by A. Stewart and George Davids.

 

From the Wingham Advance Times in 1933, a poem gives us a glimpse of the process of cutting wood. It tells that, at James Grigg’s place, 28 cord of wood was “sawed, split and piled”. Some of the workers were George Cook and Herb Wheeler, who cut down the trees, Nick McCrea and Tom Bridges, who trimmed with axes, and Lewis Cook and Ab Coultes, who piled up every limb. The rhyming couplets go on to name all of the hard workers involved in that particular bee.

 

A humorous incident involving wood-cutting occurred in 1933, when two carloads of men set out to do the charitable deed of cutting wood for a local church. When each group arrived at the bush, they were surprised that the other men had not showed up to get to work. Nevertheless, they each set to the task and, when finished, headed home only to find that one group had been cutting wood in the wrong bush. It was stated that an adjustment would have to be made to the owner of the incorrect bush

 

Cutting wood was not the only task that was made lighter by the work of many hands. At one time, rag bees were held, sometimes concurrently with a wood bee. Our pioneers did not have an abundance of possessions and as a result were quite thrifty with things like cloth. Just imagine, if you had to raise the sheep, shear the wool, clean and spin it, then weave and sew clothing from it, would you be likely to discard a coat or dress once you had tired of it? Not likely. 

 

Clothes went through the process of being handed down to younger siblings or cut down to make new garments. Once the fabric began to wear out, the good parts could be used to make quilts. 

 

Finally, the material landed in the rag bag destined to become cleaning cloths or rugs. In rug-making, cloth was cut into long strips and then sewn together or braided. Sometimes at a rug bee there would be a friendly competition to see who could sew a pound of carpet rags the quickest. At Mrs. Fred Horton’s rag bee in Leeburn, north of Goderich, those assembled played quoits and other games once the work was completed. The rugs created by these bees would help keep feet warm on the wood floors of the early cabins.

 

There have been many other kinds of bees held over the years. Perhaps a quilting bee would be the most familiar. To some extent, they still occur to this day. In the past, evidence can be found of manure bees and even a ditching bee. The spirit of co-operation and benevolence still occurs when someone has a misfortune and neighbours and friends pitch in to do haying, combining or whatever task is needed at the time. 

 

There are all kinds of bees, not all of which produce honey, but they are all sweet just the same.