BY JAKE GRAHAM Arthur King

Name: Arthur King Country of Origin: England Age I came to Canada:14 Year I came to Canada: 1909 Type of work I did: dairy farming Name: Arthur King Country of Origin: England Age I came to Canada:14 Year I came to Canada: 1909 Type of work I did: dairy farming profile

How I became a Home Child I was born in 1895 into a family of 4; my Mom, my Dad, and my older brother Timothy. In 1898, my Dad died of a heart attack. Our money lasted a year. Then my brother and I were on the street until 1907, when we went to an orphanage. Sadly, my brother died a year later from a bad case of whooping cough. I was devastated. My dad died, my brother died and I had no idea what happened to my mother.

The Streets of London

Home Child 2 Living in the orphanage was an absolute disaster. Every night when I went to my miserable bed, I prayed for a way out of there. Then, one day, a man showed up and I thought he was the answer to my prayers. He gathered up a few of us healthy kids, and said we were going to a new land called Nova Scotia, Canada. I didn’t care what they called it, I was just happy to get out of that orphanage.

A Group of Home Children

The Trip to Canada I was thanking my lucky stars that we were finally out of the orphanage, but the trip was not exactly easy. I started to think that I had been thanking the wrong stars. The food was the same as in the orphanage – terrible, the beds were the same – hard and lumpy, but it gets better. Now, I have to deal with the rocking of a boat on the stormy sea, an awful, indescribable stench, and the feeling like I wanted to throw up every second of the day.

The Ship to Canada

The Trip 2 This was the first time I’d been on a boat. I really thought it was going to be a lot more fun. Boy, was I wrong. It felt like we were at sea for an eternity, but it only took a few weeks. I became really good friends with a kid named Jacob. We spent everyday together imagining the wonderful new life we were going to have in Canada. Once again, I was wrong.

Early life in Canada I thought I was going to be in the land of milk and honey. When we landed, it was more like the land of ice and snow. It was a cold February afternoon. It was much colder than what I was used to in London. Then, I found out that Jacob and I were going to different housing. Housing was just like the orphanage back home, only colder. My hopes were crushed about Canada. I missed my Mom, I missed my dead father and brother, I missed my new friend, Jacob, I even missed my old country.

Early life 2 Two months later, I was told to pack up my stuff because I was going to a dairy farm to work. This was an adventure. Luckily it was starting to get warmer, but I had no idea what I was in for. Not only had I never seen a farm before, I had never seen a cow. Face it, I lived on the streets of London, there weren’t exactly cows roaming around town.

The “Greeting” Cow and Others

Early life 3 The man who owned the farm was not always a nice man. He didn’t find it very funny that I’d never seen a cow before. He especially didn’t find it funny that I didn’t know how to milk one. He spent a lot of time hollering at me because he thought I was too slow. On weekends I had to get hay for the cows. That hay was heavy. It was hard work for a small city boy like me. So much for going to a good school and church in Canada like they promised me back in the orphanage.

Around the Farm

Early life 4 After I had been on that farm for a year, I still wasn’t the best, but there were a few more boys there to help. Those boys told some pretty bad stories about other farms, so I started to consider myself kind of lucky. I no longer minded the weather, I actually liked it, and I felt like I was getting a lot stronger. I still didn’t love milking cows though.

Nova Scotia Country Side

Later Life in Canada As I got older, the farmer and myself became friends he past on the farm to me because his sons got jobs in the city. I was 29 before that happened I was still a farm hand living on the farm. When I was 22 I took a year off of farming to get some education but stayed on the farm to work on the weekends, which is where I met my wife from Scotland who was a home child too.

Later life 2 I got married when I was 25 and it was a small wedding I have two children. One grow up to be a vacuums sales man; the other is a meat seller. When I was 67 I sold most of the farm to the city and I left myself 1 cow

References 9b23fe25a5-b.jpg %20Breton%20-%20WEB.jpg dDyI/AAAAAAAAOrU/YUczHZ0SRZU/s400/boy+on+cow.jpg