Townshippers' Association

During the winter, when the ground was frozen and covered with snow, the men and boys of the farm would take their axes and cross cut saws and drive their teams of horses into the woods. Since the foliage was all gone, the underbrush was not thick, so the teams could move about with relative ease in the forest. Often, the workers would stay out all day cutting wood. At the end of the day, they would load the cord wood, which had been cut and piled the previous fall or spring, on their sleighs for the trip home. Logs could also be drawn out by the teams of horses.

There were two kinds of logs, one for lumber, the other for firewood. A saw rig would be brought to the farm, and the logs sawed into timber. The lumber would either be drawn to town for sale or saved for use on the farm in the spring.

Logging near Coaticook, c.1880. (Photo: Farfan Collection)

Firewood that had been drying for months was essential for the wood-heated homes. Firewood would be drawn and piled in the barnyard for the woodcutter, who would come with his saw rig, a horse-powered machine, known as a tread mill, which sawed the logs into blocks about two feet long. The men and boys would chop and stack the wood whenever there was a free morning or afternoon. Enough wood was kept for use on the farm; any extra could be sold in town.