author
Samuel Strickland
1804–1867
An early settler in Upper Canada, he turned the hard realities of pioneer life into vivid nonfiction. His writing offers a firsthand look at immigration, farming, and community-building in nineteenth-century Ontario.
1 Audiobook
Twenty-Seven Years in Canada West The Experience of an Early Settler (Volume I)
by Samuel Strickland
About the author
Born in Suffolk, England, on November 6, 1804, he emigrated to Upper Canada in 1825 and became part of a remarkable literary family that also included Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill. He first farmed in the Newcastle District, later settled in the Peterborough area, and spent part of his career working with the Canada Company.
He is best known as the author of Twenty-Seven Years in Canada West (1853), a memoir-like account of pioneer experience that blends practical detail with personal observation. The book remains valuable for its clear picture of settlement life, from clearing land and building farms to the everyday challenges faced by newcomers.
He died at Lakefield, Canada West, on January 3, 1867. Today he is remembered both as a settler who helped shape early Ontario communities and as a writer whose work preserves the lived experience of colonization in Canada.