Kirkup Woods is a little-known, 104-acre Simcoe County Forests property located on the 13th Line.
A short, one-kilometre trail leads through a field and into a wooded valley, ending along the banks of a babbling brook.
The forest preserves an invaluable natural landscape. It also preserves the memory of the family who farmed the land and for which the property is named.
The Kirkup family farm began with Robert and Mary Kirkup in 1921.
Born in 1860 in Churchill, Robert Kirkup was born a farm boy through and through. Mary McCullough, eight years his junior, was born in Northern Ireland and emigrated to Canada as a child. She, too, had a rural upbringing and was no stranger to hard work and long hours. The couple married in 1889. Seven children followed, of whom five would make it out of childhood.
Unlike Robert and Mary, however, these children’s early years were spent not on a farm, but in the city. From 1890 to around 1902, the family resided in Toronto, where Robert worked as a teamster. By 1903, the family was farming in Vespra. Perhaps Robert and Mary had been working in Toronto with the intention of socking away money to purchase land to call their own?
Another move followed in 1921, this time to a new, 200-acre farm in Bradford West Gwillimbury. Robert was over 60 at the time, so we don’t know what compelled him to start anew, but it was likely with the aim of passing along more and better land to their offspring. Regardless of the motivation, Robert didn’t get to enjoy the land for long — he died in 1927.
The farm passed to 24-year-old son Douglas and his wife, Gladys (nee Morriarty). Mary resided with them until her death 20 years later.
Douglas farmed the bountiful fields, resisting the tides of time by continuing to rely on horsepower rather than embrace tractors. He only slowly, and reluctantly, embraced mechanization. Douglas also made extensive use of the woods that dominate portions of the rolling landscape. Maple trees were tapped for maple syrup, while other trees were harvested for milling into lumber or cordwood.
Gladys was kept busy raising five children, working on the farm, picking bushel after bushel of thimbleberries from field edges, and teaching in local schools.
Douglas and Gladys spent their entire lives on the farm. Gladys died Feb. 19, 1991. Douglas died only a few months later, on June 5.
In 2017, half of the Kirkup farm was purchased by the County of Simcoe. Its wooded landscape, crisscrossed by streams, is now preserved forever.
So, too, is the memory of the Kirkup family, who put down deep roots on the land.
