The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

better life expected of us. We had to hay, clear stables and lift heavy loads. I didn't For years they came feel the younger ones by the thousands, should have to work like homeless youngsters that." For some the stigma shipped to Canada in of being a Home child hopes of a better life. For some it meant hung heavy on some. Yet years of backbreaking others are philosophical toil on Canadian farms, and even proud of the enfor others it meant durance and perseverdomestic service in mid- ence that made them dle and upper class Canadians. Winnifred Smith of homes. B u t d e s p i t e t h e Belleville sailed the ,,».,, bewilderment and hard- Atlantic aboard the ships, most agree it was Scandinavia, docking in the best thing that could eastern Canada in 1921. have happened to them. After one year in Sunday many gath- Preston and two years in ered together for the Chatham, she came to ' the Belleville to work as a third time at H a s t i n g s C o u n t y domestic - retiring only Museum to reminisoe 11 years ago. Smith had about their lives, past been placed in an orand present, in their phanage after her father died and her mother was adopted homeland. Most who attended unable to care for her. _, _ reunion lived She had no choice about Sunday's for a while at Belleville's coming to Canada. Marchmont House, a There were 11 children home for destitute in her "new" family. children on West Moira That meant a lot of Street. They all came to washing and ironing. Canada through juvenile "It wasn't exactly emigration schemes, the rough, but it kept me best-known founded by busy." British social reformer But Belleville resident Dr. Thomas J. BarCharles West was one of nardo. Dr. Barnardo used the the more fortunate M a r c h m o n t House Home children. After through its founder Anne disembarking from the MacPherson and her Aurania in 1925, he went emigration agency to Marchmont House, before buying the house one of the last to pass while setting up his own through its doors. From there he went to organization in 1882. By 1925, when the im- a farm near Madoc. "I was treated like a migration of children ended, more than 80,000 son and stayed 17 years youngsters, known as in the one place. I had no Home children, had ar- complaints about comrived on Canadian ing to Canada." After leaving the shores. One of them was Dick farm, West came to Terry, 73, of Trenton. In Belleville and worked 1921 he stepped off the for StewartrWarner 35 Minidosa after a long years before retiring. cross-Atlantic voyage, His 'sentiments about destined to work on a the strange land he farm north of Shan- came to as a youngster are echoed by Terry. nonville. Still only 11, Terry was "I was glad to come ... often expected to do the Canada was a land of work of an adult. plenty. I'm glad it hap"At that age it was pened, despite the hard hard to do some chores times." By BILL WfflTELAW Staff Reporter