JULY 3 ISSUE ANSWERS: The oil painting was painted by William Gibbs. It is titled “The Finch’s Barn.” The painting is in the RHS Archives Museum. Mrs. Clara Chloe Knapp Finch, born October 1777, came to Indian Village in 1823. Her husband Albert was born Nov. 22, 1778 in Dutchess County, N.Y. The Baileys, Finches and Gates families were friends and neighbors in Ontario County, N.Y. They came as the result of the Bailey’s great news of the “goodly land” and fertile soil with the purpose of “securing some of these broad acres for their boys, just coming into manhood.” Mrs. Finch had good reason to find land for the boys for she had 10 children, nine of which were males. She had already spent seven and a half years of her life in pregnancy having a child every two or three years, as farm families often needed many hands. Her children were Ezra, John, Sylvester, Harriet, Alfred, George, Alpheus, Wesley, Addison and Alanson. Mr. Finch took two children “for company” and to “view the land in search of Michigan in general and Bailey in particular.” The party consisted of Sylvester,18 years old, and only daughter, Harriet,16 years old and husband Albert, 45.

JULY 3 ISSUE ANSWERS: The oil painting was painted by William Gibbs. It is titled “The Finch’s Barn.” The painting is in the RHS Archives Museum. Mrs. Clara Chloe Knapp Finch, born October 1777, came to Indian Village in 1823. Her husband Albert was born Nov. 22, 1778 in Dutchess County, N.Y. The Baileys, Finches and Gates families were friends and neighbors in Ontario County, N.Y. They came as the result of the Bailey’s great news of the “goodly land” and fertile soil with the purpose of “securing some of these broad acres for their boys, just coming into manhood.” Mrs. Finch had good reason to find land for the boys for she had 10 children, nine of which were males. She had already spent seven and a half years of her life in pregnancy having a child every two or three years, as farm families often needed many hands. Her children were Ezra, John, Sylvester, Harriet, Alfred, George, Alpheus, Wesley, Addison and Alanson. Mr. Finch took two children “for company” and to “view the land in search of Michigan in general and Bailey in particular.” The party consisted of Sylvester,18 years old, and only daughter, Harriet,16 years old and husband Albert, 45. In February 1823 “he set sail with a sled, a yoke of oxen and a few of the necessities of life. But their zeal was strong, and their health equal to it.”
Mrs. Finch remained at home to care for Alfred (13), George (9), Alpheus (7), Wesley (5), Addison (2), and Alanson (1).
By now the eldest son Ezra was married to Miss Becraft and John to Miss Hopkins.
The trip to Detroit took 15 days from the time of starting from Ontario County. N.Y. to Detroit.
It was 93 miles from their home to the Niagara River below the falls — crossing above Niagara Falls was too dangerous.
Upon entering Ontario, Canada, they traveled west through Ontario until they reached the Thames River which passes through present London, Ontario, following the southwesterly flow along the Thames River on the ice, alongside or both.
The Thames empties on the south shore of Lake St. Clair, leading them directly west to Detroit.
Think of it, a 16 year old girl traveling in February, on an open sled with a slow oxen team and uncertain roads, too cold to ride which made it necessary to walk just to keep warm, stormy, snowy weather, up early, late to bed, what bed?
“The trip was tedious and uncomfortable in the extreme.”
As they approached Detroit “they found the snow had melted and the track was flowing with water.”
They left the oxen, sled and Harriet behind in Detroit.
We know nothing about where this young girl stayed for a week while hopefully waiting for her brother and father to return. Will she journey to Romeo? What will happen to her “lost brother”?
Next week in The Record, the next part of the adventure continues.
—Joan Beringer
Romeo Historical Society Curator