Revisiting "Our Forest Home"

Frances Stewart arrived in Upper Canada from Ireland in 1822, with her husband, three children, and two servants, and settled in Duro Township on the shore of the Ottonabee River in 1823. Spanning three-quarters of a century, her letters represent the immigrant experience of one of the first pioneer woman to the Peterborough, Ontario, area. Included are full transcripts of the extant collection and several letters possibly not available earlier. The Introduction is comprehensive in scope, providing historical context for the letters. While the chronological arrangement of the letters is biographical - the years of Frances' childhood in Ireland to her departure for North America, her voyage across the Atlantic and her life in Upper Canada to her husband's death in 1847, and the period of widowhood until her death in 1872 - chapter summaries, annotations, and key passages extracted from letters written by others further the story of Frances's 19th-century immigrant life.