as his
sense of duty to each garrison might prompt; and Mrs. Norton with one
or two children lived in Fort Shirley for more than a year while her
husband was in captivity in Canada. Scouting parties of the soldiers
were kept constantly passing from fort to fort when not employed in
garrison or other duty; their allowance on the march was for each
soldier per day one pound of bread, one pound of pork, and one gill of
rum; while in garrison each man was allowed per day one pound of bread,
and one-half pint of peas or beans, two pounds of pork for three days,
and one gallon of molasses for 42 days. It is certain, that one or more
cows were kept by the garrison of Fort Shirley, perhaps on account of
Mrs. Norton and her children, for there was a cleared field around the
fort, and an old cow-bell half eaten up by rust was found not long ago
near its site, which site, it must be remembered, was several miles from
any habitation of men at any time in the last century.

After an existence of one hundred and forty-one years, the old well of
Fort Shirley, which was undoubtedly within the block-house and probably
in one corner of the enclosure away from the "parade," is able to tell
pretty thoroughly to this day the story of its own construction. Four
forest staddles about six inches in diameter, one for each comer of the
well, were set upright on the ground, and then ash planks rived from a
log about five feet long were pinned or spiked on the outside of these
staddles, beginning at the bottom; and this frame being placed on the
ground where the well was to be, the earth was thrown out over the
sides, and so the well was gradually sunk to the required depth, the
plank-siding being added gradually as the shaft was lowered. These rived
planks and the tops of the four corner-poles, that can now be seen and
fingered less than two feet below the surface of the ground, were not
very uniform in thickness, and of course have rotted off at the top by
time and exposure; but enough of both has been preserved till this time
by constant submergence in the water and in the unusually moist soil
above it to betray without any serious question the nature of the
materials used and the mode of their employment. One of the corner-posts
was a black birch and the bark on it is in a good state of preservation
at and below the surface of the water.

The last incident to be mentioned at this time in connection with Fort
Shirley relates to the Rev. John N