Jan '10 This essay is in development. Edward's life and choices are a puzzle, and figuring them out has made me look seriously into agricultural practices in Wallace in the period 1800 - 1900, and that essay is mostly done and will appear this month. I also have more material on his children.

Thomas Edward Huestis [H122] (1820 - 1898) m. Lydia Fulton (1822 - )

• Sarah Ann Huestis [H1221] (1845 - 1890) m. Isaac J. Hingley
• Charlotte Amelia Huestis [H1222] (1846 - abt 1885) m. Levi Langille
• Harvey Huestis [H1223] (1849 - 1911) m. Margaret Jane Smith
• Armanella Huestis [H1224] (1850-1851)
• Elsie Huestis [H1225] (1852- 1940) m. Samuel Fletcher
• Henry Fulton Huestis [H1226] (1855 - ) m. Amelia Langille
• Alexander Wylie N. Huestis [H1227] (1859 - 1896 in Providence, RI) m. Georgia E. Chisholm

Edward Huestis was the second child and oldest son of Joshua Huestis and Sarah Black. His first name was Thomas, presumably for his grandfather, but he was never known to use it. Edward worked as a farmer in Wallace until he was in his fifties, when he re-appears in the record as the proprietor of a hotel in Londonderry, NS. He later followed his grown children to Rhode Island, where he died in 1898.

Edward was the only one of Joshua's children to engage in farming, which was also Joshua's nominal occupation. As the oldest son, I would have expected Edward to continue on part of the family farm but that does not appear to be so. The various census and directory listings for that period show Edward and family farming at Six Mile Road (now Wallace Station), which is about five miles inland from Wallace Harbour.

Figuring out the life of Edward Huestis gives me trouble. Here's a man who was a farmer at Six Mile Road and suddenly, at age 55, he appears as the manager of a hotel in Londonderry, 60 miles away. In 1871 he was listed in the census as a farmer in Six Mile Road, and later that year he is listed as the manager of the Intercontinental Hotel in Londonderry, a booming steel town in Colchester County. Edward was the manager of the hotel until 1879, and in 1880 and 1881 he had a grocery store there. His brother William and wife also had a store there in Londonderry at that time.

Londonderry went into decline as steel technology improved, and eventually Edward and Lydia ended up in Rhode Island where several of their grown children were living.

Edward and Lydia's first child was born in 1845 so I am guessing that they were married in 1844, when Edward was 24 and Lydia was 22. It would have been common for Edward to stay on his father Joshua's farm but I suspect that Joshua's household was a noisy place, with five children under age ten. Moreover, Joshua was gradually selling off his farm for building lots. Joshua's farm was a 200 acre grant which he had purchased when he left his father's home across Wallace Bay; almost all of the present business district of Wallace is located on Joshua's land. I am sure that Joshua would have been able to assist his son in purchasing land out in Six Mile Road, where Joshua's brother James was farming and raising another large family.

Agriculture in 1845 was not a lot different from agriculture of 1785 when the Loyalists came to Wallace and cleared their farms. All agricultural machinery was made of wood, with the wearing parts made of iron. Steel was not yet widely available. Farmers grew their own food, and with luck grew enough extra to sell. Farms would all have several milking cows, pigs, chickens, sheep for wool and mutton and tallow, and probably a horse. Most field work was done with oxen.

There are two very important points to be made about agriculture in the years before 1870. Point number one is that almost all of the work was done by human hand, especially the cutting of hay and grain. Oxen and horses were good at pulling, but there was no machinery for cutting hay, not until about the 1880's and 1890's. Hay and grain were cut with a scythe, raked up by hand, and carried to the barn (by animals) and then thrown into the hay lofts by hand. The grain was threshed by hand with a flail. This was all hard work, although the daily grind was not all that onerous. There were periods in each season when the days were not long enough to accomplish all that had to be done, but there were also many days when there was little that could be done, or needed to be done, and life was good.

The second point is that there was very little cash in the farm economy.

In his essays Martin Huestis says this of the economy of the North Shore during the days of shipbuilding:

But for the whole district this did not mean prosperity. Many farmers, the backbone of the country, while cutting and bringing timber for ship-builders, neglected their farms. They were paid chiefly in store goods. It was difficult to get for timber or produce enough money to pay taxes or church dues. The balance of their accounts with the Shipward shops was usually on the wrong side. Consequently, when shipbuilding ceased, lawsuits for balances due were frequent.