- Pellum Cartwright, (originally spelled Pelham) thirteenth and youngest child of Peter Teeple, was born 28th November 1809, and was a participator in the Upper Canadian Rebellion in 1837, or the Patriot War, as it was then often called. He was the leader of a band of young Canadians opposed to the long mis-government of the county by an irresponsible body of men known as the Family Compact, who ignored the statutes passed by the parliament representatives of the people, and frustrated their will; and when it was determined to fight, he was chosen a captain, but on the flight to the United States of the two principle leaders, William Lyon MacKenzie and Hon. John Rolph, all those who had been leaders under them were compelled to follow them into exile or forfeit their lives.
Pellum, on attempting to flee, fell in with a party of soldiers who made him their prisoner. The story of his capture and escape is thus told by his nephew, Luke, son of Simon Peter Teeple, who heard it from his own lips:
"The price set upon his head by the Canadian Government was $600. He was determined to leave Canada and was then on his way to the western frontier line. He was riding a horse and had reached a point some seven or eight miles westerly from London, Ont., on the road leading from that city along the southern side of the River Thames. His brother, Edward Manning Teeple, lived on the road some two or three miles from London, and he was coming from his house. On turning a bend in the road, he came in full view of a sergeant and six men advancing towards him. He could neither retreat or conceal himself, so he rode steadily on and met them. The sergeant halted him and piled him with questions, and as his answers were unsatisfactory, he was taken in charge, faced about and obliged to go with them towards London. They dismounted him and the sergeant rode the house. Plodding along for some time, darkness overtook them before they reached the city. They stopped at a tavern, and the soldiers ordered a meal, which was at once prepared. They then asked him to come and eat with them, but he assured them he was not hungry, and they left their guns in the bar room and went into the next room and sat down to eat.
He also went with them into the same room and asked the waitress for a drink of water. He was on the side of the table next to the outside, and as the girl gave him the drink of water, she flung this door wide open, and in an instant he was through it and made for the woods. The men sprang for their arms and came rushing out, firing after him. He could hear the orders given to surround the cluster of tavern buildings, and saw lights moving, but he made good his escape into the adjoining forest. There was snow on the ground and running was difficult, yet for fear of being overtaken, he kept at it until almost exhausted. Taking what he supposed to be a course between the public road and the river, he at length came upon the latter, but he did not know whether above or below his starting point. Going down to the water, which was frozen over, he followed along until he espied an airhole; into this he threw a stick to see which way the water ran; then going down the stream he finally came upon a house. By this time he was excessively fatigued and very very hungry from his long fast. He went up and knocked at the door, and a man appeared and began talking with him. He had no means of ascertaining whether this man was a Patriot or not, so he feigned himself an urgent dispatch bearer of important official papers which must be delivered in London with utmost haste. He said he had given out in travelling and insisted upon the man's acceptance and conveyance to London forthwith, as he was utterly unable to go on himself. The man demurrred, so after an earnest discussion, Pellum said, "Well, if I could rest a few minutes and get some food to eat, I might possibly try to go on". He then heard the man's wife getting up, and she vehemently protested that her husband could not go, but said she would get Pellum something to eat at once, which she did. While eating he became satisfied they were Patriots, and revealed his true position.
The man then said they could not keep him there, but that they would see that he was hidden and fed at a neighbour's over the hill. Pellum went with him to the neighbour's and was concealed there for a time. If there was any likelihood of capture one of the children at the first house was to come over the hill and notify him. He was alarmed one day by seeing one of the children come running over the hill, but it proved to be only a neighbourly call. After a few days had passed and he thought search for him had ceased, he worked his way through the woods at night up to his brother Edward's, and soon after went in the same way to the home of his sister, Mary, wife of Angus Davis, of Orwell,Ont., on Talbot Street. Several weeks were spent in this hazardous trip.
Mary and Andrus Davis were reputed to be staunch Loyalists, and there is no account of any attempt to search for him at their place. There he was supplied with food for a short time, but the danger of recapture was so great that he did not remain all the time in the house but kept concealed sometimes in the woods. Still fearing arrest and execution, as some of his compatriots had thus suffered, his sister, Mary Davis, nephew, James Teeple, and sister-in-law Jemima Teeple, conducted him secretly in the dead of winter by sleigh from Orwell, to the Niagara frontier, where his relative Rev. Samuel Rose, of Lundy's Lane, though a political opponent of the Patriots, espoused his cause and under the pretense of being the employer of Pellum, sent him on an errand to friends across the Niagara, and at once hired a man to row him across a point below the Falls.
He, Pellum, grew very intense when relating this part of the narrative and declared that had any one ordered the boatman back to the Canadian shore he would have leaped overboard and attempted to swim to the American side. But no difficulty arose; he was safely landed in New York State and waving a parting adieu to his relatives, who sat in their conveyance and witnessed his crossing, he began his career in the United States.
Through the Patriot War, thus came to so inglorious an end, it is now generally admitted in Canada, that had it not been for that uprising by which the attention of the British Government was called to the untold grievances of the Canadians and a just form of responsible Government quickly conceded, it would in all probability have been many years before the people of Canada would have obtained that full measure of Home Rule which they henceforth enjoyed.
We next hear of Pellum's journey down the Ohio River with a party intending to go to Texas, but becoming dissatisfied with the rolstering of his companions, he left them and struck across the country to a place called Pekin, on the Illinois River. From there he eventually went to the city of Rockford, Ill., where on the 28th of March 1841, he married Mary A. Gleason, who is still living.
His father and mother were now so old they were desirous he should come home to Canada, and care for them the rest of their days, but although he had already paid them one secret visit he would not do this until a special amnesty was sent him by the Canadian government for his part in the Patriot War. This was readily obtained by the then parliamentary member for Oxford, and forwarded to him, and he journeyed to the old home in Oxford county, accompanied by his wife, son Charles, and Luke (son of Simon H. Teeple), who lived with them, in a two-horse buggy, there being no railroads, and remained there till the two old pioneers were laid away in the church yard. Later he returned to Illinois, and settled at Marengo, where he died on the 12th of December 1878, and where his son, Charles, above referred to, still resides. Pellum Teeple had six sons, viz: Charles Gleason, Addison, Vebelle, Levant, Jared, Lester and Frank, and four daughters Elmina, Elvira, Ruth L., and Lydia Mary.
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1809 - 1878 (69 years)
