The Trail of the Black Walnut
Dr G Elmore Reaman, Professor and Dean of Men, Waterloo College, University of Western Ontario
"Mention should be made of settlers whose background was definitely Puritan. Let us take two famlies to illustrate - the Conants and the Aylesworths. Roger Conant may have been a Quaker, for he refused to join the patriot army, although two of his brothers did. Disposing of his land, he set out from the vicinity of Boston in 1777, with $5000 in gold, in a covered wagon drawn by two horses and followed by an ox team drawn by a cart laden with household goods and farm implements.
"Leaving the family at Geneva, Roger Conant came on to Canada arriving at the locality afterwards called Darlington, County Durham, Ontario, in october, 1778. The first Crown grant of land to Roger Conant was made December 31st, 1778. It consisted of Lots 28,29,30, and 31, 1st Consession, darlington County Durham - in all about 1200 acres. After building a house on his land and probably clearing some portion of it, he returned to Geneva."* he brought his family over in 1794. John Burk and John W Trull with their families accompanied him."**
* Conant, Thomas: Upper Canada Sketches, p. 57. Manchester, William Briggs, 1898
**Reaman, Dr Elmore: The Trail of the Black Walnut, pp 170-171, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1957
From a Burke Family History:
(I received this doccument from my grandmother, Maxine Rivette Kruse, daughter of Daisy Burke Rivette)
John and his brother James Burk recieved their land grant from the British crown in 1798. James came to Canada in 1796. Their brother Luke recieved his land in 1803. John sold his land and returned to the United States in 1816. Luke sold his land in 1808.
