Through the 1860s and 1870s, the Coleman family lived in the area around Bowmanville, Ontario. It was a rural, impoverished existence. Francis Coleman (Arthur’s father) earned his livelihood by travelling on circuit, preaching as an itinerant Methodist minister. From a young age Arthur and his brother Lucius worked on neighbours’ farms. In his late teens and early twenties, Arthur taught in a one room school house.
Entries, such as the one featured below, evoke the simple pace of life and the closeness of rural families to their animals. The entry features a thick black border denoting mourning. The sudden death of Francis Coleman’s horse Fanny came as a shock, it may well have been a difficult economic blow as well.
Saturday Oct 22nd 1870.
Alas! poor Fanny is gone. No more shall I go to the pasture and hear her gladly neigh in answer to my call. Poor Fan. For 9 or 10 years she has been Pa’s faithful companion in heat & cold, summer and winter, day and night, and now she is gone and she died a death most horrible. Our cow was often pastured in the same field with her & today at about 4 I was told that the cow had hooked Fan badly. I thought nothing of it – for Fan & the cow were both quiet & used to each other, but soon I found out it was really true. I rushed off for the farrier to help her if possible.
Diary 2, 1870- 1871, page 95
