Eric Graves Jr High School

Name : Richard Lincoln Country of Origin : Ireland I became a home child because my parents were poor and couldn’t take care of me anymore Age Arriving in Canada : 12 Year Arriving in Canada : 1912 Like many boys, when I arrived in Canada I work on the farm, mostly harvesting plants and milking cows.

My family was made up of four people. My brother Joey, my mother Rosie, my father Bob and myself. We are a very kind family in spite of not having much. We live in in an old broken down building. We struggle for food and only have one old, dirty pair of clothes. My dad works at a barn in Scotland so he is gone for half the year. He only gets paid one pound a year. The only thing we buy is food like rice or vegetables that we get at a local shop.

Many families including mine are poor, very poor. That's why a lot of children are given to the orphanage. My mom told me yesterday that we were to poor for them to care for me anymore so they have to give me to the orphanage, I started balling but it was best for them. The farm was not far from an orphanage so my parents took me to the orphanage. This happens to a lot of kids. Some reasons include : there parents don’t want them anymore, there parents are to poor, some people do not have a choice, like when Mr. Harris’s father was taken at four years of age because Edith Cooper didn’t have the rights to take care of him.

At the orphanage it was pretty fair treatment. We had to do some work like cleaning and yard work but at least we have food, clean clothes and a roof over our heads. This picture is of the Saint Joseph’s orphanage in Halifax.

When leaving the UK, we were on separate ships from the girls. When we got on the ship we would go to the lower level as that is where we would sleep. The basic routine is as follows : Get up at 6:30 am, wash and get dressed, breakfast at 7:30 am, prayers at 10:00, lunch is at noon, 5:30 pm is supper, prayers are at 7:15, hot gruel at 8:00 and bedtime is 8:15. The same routine applies for the girls.

It was fair treatment on the ship except we weren’t referred to as our names. The ship staff would just call boy. We would get along well with the other children. I remember some of my most fantastic memories, like when I made my first friend on the ship, Billy. He is nice and funny. Shortly after I met him one of the other kids shouted, I can see Canada, I couldn’t wait.

I walked off the ship excited as ever. The first thing I was told to do was go to the train that sent me to Winnipeg, Manitoba. I guess that's where I was being sent to do farm work. I got on the train and was off to Manitoba. Our train made stops along the way. We stopped in Montreal and in Toronto. After leaving Toronto we arrived in Winnipeg in a couple of days.

We had to take a horse and buggy to the farm from the train station. We arrived at our farm. Billy and I were dispatched to the same farm which was great. We got off the buggy and walked up to the front door with ten other boys between the ages of ten and fourteen. A man answered the door.. He was tall and looked mean. He said come in so we did not question his demand. He said to go to the back of the farm and weed the entire yard.

I am now 17 and am just about old enough to leave the farm. I am just debating if it is the best thing to do. If I leave, I am afraid I won’t get a job. Billy is one year younger then I am so it means I would have to leave him too.

I have come up with a great idea. The owner of the farm, Mr. Lavender, is 80 years old. I don’t think he will have much more years to go. So I went to talk to him about buying out his farm. He said yes to the offer but only when he passes away. The picture to the right is of Mr. Lavender