This plaque, although it appears brand new, was unveiled on Thursday, October 22, 1966 in Cenotaph Park in Lakefield.
Born December 6, 1803 to Thomas Strickland of Reydon Hall, Suffolk, England, Susanna married John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie in May 1831. In the summer of 1832, sailing on the brig
Anne, they emigrated to Upper Canada, purchasing a farm in "the Front", the settled area along Lake Ontario. After several crop failures they moved to Douro Township onto land that had been granted to John as a retired army officer. Facing a difficult life, near starvation and more crop failures, Susanna procured for John the position of paymaster with the militia regiments in the Victoria District and later the appointment of sheriff of Victoria District (now Hastings County). This last appointment forced them to move to Bellville.
It was in Bellville that Susanna began to write in earnest, contributing to
The Literary Garland, a Montreal magazine. From 1839 and 1851 she was the main contributor to the magazine, writing novels, short stories and verse. Her best-known work,
Roughing it in the Bush, published in 1852, was inspired by their time on the farms, and the hard times experienced there. Several chapters of the book first appeared in
The Literary Garland.
Other works of hers include four novels published in England:
Mark
Hurdlestone (1853),
Flora Lyndsay (1854),
Matrimonial Speculations (1854) and
Geoffrey Moncton (1856).
John died in Belleville in 1869, while Susanna died in Toronto on April 8, 1885, at the age of 82. They are both buried in their adopted hometown of Belleville.
SUSANNA MOODIE 1803-1885
This talented writer, the wife of a retired British army officer, emigrated with her husband and daughter to Upper Canada in 1832. In 1834 they moved to a nearby farm lot to be near her brother, Samuel Strickland, and her sister, Catherine Parr Traill. The following six years of unsuccessful effort to develop a wilderness property provided the theme for her best known work, "Roughing it in the Bush". In 1840 they moved to Belleville. There the Moodies edited and were principal contributors to the short-lived "Victoria Magazine", and Susanna wrote many novels and poems. Her contributions were for years the mainstay of "The Literary Garland", a Montreal publication.
Archaeological and Historic Sites Board of Ontario.