Two hundred years ago, coal oil lamps were a rarity in the backwoods home. Hearth fires and candles were main sources of light. In heavily settled areas, a chandler might pass through once a year to sell their candles made with moulds.

Most pioneer women preferred to make their own candles. They saved tallow (animal fat) from butchered cows, sheep, and wild game like deer and bear. The tallow was boiled in water several times to rid it of impurities. Once tallow took on a waxlike consistency, it was strained to further ensure pureness. These processes help to prevent the animal fat in the candles from turning rancid. To camouflage the unpleasant odour of burning tallow, wild ginger or pleasant-smelling herbs were mixed in. Sweet smelling beeswax was sometimes added for a honey scent. Pure beeswax candles were reserved for special occasions as the wax was difficult to obtain.

Candles were made by repeatedly dipping wicks into hot tallow. Once the wick cooled it could be dipped again to build up a new waxy layer. The task was time consuming so candles were usually made in batches. A stick measuring the same width as the heating pot would have several wicks tied to it for this purpose.

Anne Langton journaled her backwoods experience on Sturgeon Lake near Fenelon Falls, Ontario. In 1838 she wrote about running out of candles. (As a writer and book lover, I can’t imagine an evening without reading light!)

“I have been engaged this afternoon making up my remaining supply of tallow into four dozen portly-looking dips, eight to the pound. My last making was 12 dozen, and I think the larger number is very much as quickly accomplished as the smaller one, for they gather more tallow when thoroughly cooled so that with many I need not go through them as often as with few.”

Anne Langton, April 13, 1839

This sketch of Anne using the candle-dipping machine which she and her husband developed together in 1846 comes from City of Kawartha Lakes Archives.

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