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FOREWORD. Honour they father and mother that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. Ephesians 6 - 2-3. Having this quotation from the Book of Books before us, combined with the fact that it has many times been written, ” that a country that is not interested in its past, does not deserve a future“ we shall endeavour to record some of the ancient history of our community, together with a few pictures and brief biographical sketches of our founders. Only by the written word can we, of the present generation, do honour to those fathers and mothers long since returned to their Creator leavino behind them a heritage far beyond their fondest dreams. When we try to look backward and visualize the conditions under which those fathers and mothers were forced to live, surrounded by dense and unbroken forests. no reads and no means of travel â€" except by water â€" we cannot but marvel at the fortitude and ingenuity with which they must have been endowed from birth. Especially do we salute those brave mothers who, in addition to the hearing and rearino of their children, were responsible in great measure for the preparation of food and clothino for the entire household. In compiling these stories and the information contained therein, we have had assistance from many sources. Old handâ€"written records badly faded and creased frommuch handling, stories handed down from generation to oencration by peoples of different races and diffexemrraees‘ and different creeds, many of which vary slightly in respect to priority and factual dates but we do assure youI our readers, that those variations are so slight that they do not detract to any extent fror the actual events. For instance, one story gives the date of the founding of our village as l823 while it should have been 1820 but due to unavoidable delay in getting material and machinery, it was not until the year l823 that the village, then called “Keeler's Mills“, was a going concern. ' The Township of Asphodel was surveyed by Pichard Birdsall in the early part of l820 and immediately thereafter one Joseph Abbott Keeler was given a grant of Five Hundred Acres on condition that he erect a saw-mill and a gristmill thereon within a period of Two years. Mr. Keeler came to this area from the frontier village of Colborne ( of which he was also the founder) and thus the 'frontier' was pushed back a full Fifty miles in one single move. In order to fully appreciate this herculean task, we suggest that our readers should pause a few moments and try to imagine just how that enormous job could be carried out when we remember the cornlete absence of roads and the crossing of intervening water-ways such as the River Trent, across which there was no bridge until l826. Put somehow it was accomplished and today, we can only render a bit of homage to those brave pioneers by the written words He therefore present this volume with its numerous stories on various topics in the hope that it may brim to our readers pleasant thouohts and memories of days and years long since passed into history, coupled with the assurance that we DO HOHOUR those fathers and mothch whatever be their race or creed. l-‘e also assure our readers that in so far as this group is concerned, we are very definitely interested in the past history of 0UP. HOME AND OUR COUNTRV and earnestly pray that End's richest blessingsmay remain with us and that they may be carried through to all future generations. a ,‘ [791‘ Fincerely yours, \r I [1. nâ€"L’LJUL, “orwood Franch, How-ens Irstitute.