While we are well aware of Georgian and Humber Colleges in Orangeville, and of all they offer to today’s students, we may not know so much about a much older, much smaller, local school known colloquially as Mono College, and about one of the more prominent early families of Mono who attended school there.

As you travel north from Orangeville on Highway 10, formerly known as The Prince of Wales Road, just past the Hockley Road, you may admire a classically designed stone school house, S.S. 6 and a small cemetery marked Mono College Cemetery. The school and cemetery are inextricably linked to the history of one of the most interesting early families of Dufferin County, the John Reid family. The Reid family lived at Beaver Meadow Farm, Conc. 2, WHS Mono, and many of the family members are buried in the Mono College Cemetery.

Like most other settlers in Dufferin County, the Reid family had its roots in Scotland and Northern Ireland. John Reid’s father arrived from County Tyrone in 1842 and settled in Quebec before making the trek to Mono. His mother, Mary Buchanan, walked from the town of York, Upper Canada, to Mono, carrying her baby Sally and a bake kettle. The Reid family settlement was at Lot 11, on Concession 2, WHS. When their house was built, it was surrounded by virgin forest with a beautiful stream running through a verdant meadow to the south. Beavers had constructed a dam in the stream and from this came the name of the Reid family farm, Beaver Meadow Farm.

John Reid married Margaret Henderson in 1851. They had 12 children – four sons and eight daughters – all of whom lived most interesting and productive lives, inspired by their father’s unwavering belief in the value of education. Mono College is so named because of the neighbors’ teasing of John about his uncommon insistence on his children’s regular attendance at the school. This was quite remarkable in a time when able bodied farm hands were more valued to most settlers than well educated offspring.

Several stories about John Reid are recorded in the family history, Through the Beaver Meadow. The most unusual of these concern his apparent mystical abilities. If an object was lost, he could intuitively go to the exact place in which to find it. As well, several times in his life, John was “guided by a light”. Once, when riding bareback over a ploughed field in late autumn, his horse caught its foot in the frozen sod. John was carrying an axe at the time, but dared not use it in the darkness in case he injured the horse’s foot. “He was exasperated!” and exclaimed, “Oh for a light!” A bright light came, long enough for him to loosen the horse’s foot so they could continue safely on their journey.

In early days of Dufferin County, bridges were crude structures made of logs which often became dislodged. John once crossed such a bridge in the darkness and found a log upended. This might have caused an accident to another unsuspecting traveler, and John wanted to fix the log. He couldn’t see to pry it back in to place, so once more he called for the light. Again, the light came, and he repaired the bridge. Was this the result of the bright moonlight in Mono, or of John’s extrasensory Celtic powers?

John was a talented impromptu poet, often choosing to tell stories in verse rather than prose. It was said that he could rhyme a story in twelve verses on the spur of the moment in celebration of an event and frequently did so for the amusement of his friends and neighbors.

John Reid died of pneumonia in May 1876, leaving behind 11 children, including one born posthumously in November of the same year. It is a tribute to John’s staunch belief in the power of education and to his wife Margaret’s remarkable character and strong personality, that their children grew to be such successful and noteworthy persons.

Joseph Reid B.A., M.A. and L.L.B., the eldest Reid child, lived an exciting and adventurous life. In 1902 he left a successful 30-year career as a school teacher in Mount Forest, Sterling and Dundas, packed up his family, and went homesteading in the Cremona District near Calgary. Life there proved very difficult, especially in the first years, as Joseph and his son Edwin decided on an appropriate location for settlement and struggled to build a house so that the rest of the family could join them. Once there, in critical economic times, the Reid family maintained itself by raising horses, and supplementing their income with various teaching assignments. Both Joseph and Edwin got involved in politics, Joseph running for the Legislature and failing, but being more successful in local politics, where both he and Edwin served as councilors in the Local Improvement District.

Their story from this point mirrors the history of the western settlement of Canada in the late 1800s; the struggle to farm the wild prairie land and to raise healthy animals in a harsh environment using the most rudimentary of husbandry techniques and facing always, the threat of illness and injury. In spite of these challenges the family prospered and remained a closely knit unit, making a significant impact upon the development of the Cremona area.

Part 2 of the story of ‘The John Reid Family’ continues next week. Watch for it!

In the meantime, the Dufferin County Museum and Archives is situated on the northeast corner of Highway 89 and Airport Rd. For more information, please call 705-435-1881 or toll free 1-877-941- 7787, or visit www.dufferinmuseum.com

Source: Through The Beaver Meadow – Reid History 1778-1982, by Bess Reid Marshall. From the Archives at the Dufferin County Museum and Archives