Lester Dene Hart (1894-1981), no stranger to sorrow

Birth Record of Lester Dene Hart (21 April 1894),
Portage Twp, Hancock County, Ohio.
Click to Make Bigger (closeup below).

In the beginning, he went by Dene, and that is the name by which my mother knew of him. He was her Uncle Dene, although I am not certain that she ever met him. Hi Mom, I'm back on your side of the family!

Lester Dene Hart was my grandmother’s oldest brother and my grand uncle. In actuality, he was my grandmother’s half-brother. He had a different father than my grandmother did. Lester Dene Hart was born, on April 21, 1894, to Orley Calvin Hart and Fannie Susan Hartman (my great-grandmother) in Portage Township, in Hancock County, Ohio, five months after his parents’ wedding. His mother was from Hancock County, Ohio.

Closeup of Lester Dene Hart Birth Record.
This is what above red arrow points to.
Click to Make Bigger.

He was their oldest child. Fannie and Orley had four children after Lester Dene: Gladys (1896-1902), Reed Charles (1898-1954), Verne Allen (1900-1954), Julia Ann (1903-1978).

By 1900, the family had moved to Clay County, Illinois, where Orley’s family lived. Orley took up farming and shared farming duties with his family across several farms. On August 7, 1902, Dene’s younger sister, Gladys, died at age 5; Dene was only 8 years old. The family records state that she died of diabetes, but I have not been able to find anything confirm that. Just two years later, on January 28, 1905, at age 30, Dene’s father died, purportedly for the same reason (I don't have a death certificate) , leaving his mother to care for and raise the children alone, far from her family. I expect that Orley’s family continued to help farm the land. Dene was eleven years old when his father died.

In 1909, Dene’s mother married my great-grandfather, Vernon Erwin, in Louisville, Illinois, Dene and his siblings continued to live with their mother after she married Vernon. The 1910 census shows Vernon (spelled Verna), Fannie (listed as Frances), and Fannie’s four children in the household. Vernon was not working then, but the census indicates Dene was working as farm labor on the home farm. The 1940 census indicated that Dene’s highest level of schooling was the 8^th grade, so he likely dropped out of school right about 1910, age 15, because his labor on the farm helped support the family. In the next two years, Vern and Fannie gave Dene two more little sisters: my grandmother, Mabel LeRe (1910-1990) and her sister, Dale Hart (1912-?).

In 1915, at age 21, Dene married Leta Frances Elkin (20), daughter of Larkin C Elkin and Clara Hayes Elkin. On June 5, 1917, at age 23, Dene registered for the draft for WWI. On his registration, he indicated that he was a farmer and self-employed in Louisville Township. His only dependent was his wife. He did not try to claim exemption from the draft. On the back of the card, he was described as being of medium height and medium build with blue eyes and dark hair. He was not disabled.

WWI Draft Registration of Lester Dene Hart.
Click to Make Bigger.

In “Clay County and the Great War: a Narrative History of the Contributive and Sacrificial Involvement of Clay County, Illinois in World War I” the author, Ryan Herdes, stated that a total of 1350 men registered for the draft in Clay County on June 5, 1917. Of the 1350 men who registered on June 5, the names of 214 men were drawn to represent the county in the national draft. Ultimately, only 107 were actually drafted from Clay County. The article indicated that a complete listing of those individuals called in the county draft appeared in the final July edition of the Southern Illinois Record. I went looking for a copy of that paper (I googled it, after checking my normal sources for online historical newspapers to no avail) and found that it had been digitized in a collection maintained by the Eastern Illinois University. The listing was found on the first page of the July 26, 1917 Southern Illinois Record. Lester is not on that list. I’ve found no evidence that he served in World War I.

On May 18, 1920, Leta gave birth to their daughter, Josephine Vivian Hart. According to the 1920 federal census, Dene worked as a Teamster hauling coal at that time and earned a wage (he was not self-employed). Both he and Leta indicated that they were able to read and write. Unfortunately, on June 30, 1922, Leta died. I have, so far, been unable to find out why. She was buried in the Orchard Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Illinois. 

This left Dene a single father of a two-year-old girl. At some point after Leta’s death, Dene and his daughter moved to Findlay, Ohio, in Hancock County. He probably moved there because his mother, my great-grandmother, had moved back to Ohio with her two youngest daughters, after my great-grandfather left her; she and her youngest daughters were in Hancock County Ohio by the 1920 Census. (Family notes say Vernon left in 1915, the year Dene married Leta.)  I don’t know what Dene was doing to support himself and his daughter, who was caring for her, or where he was living when he first moved back to Ohio. 

On November 22, 1925, Dean (31) married Edith Matilda Becker (20), daughter of Casper and Anna Becker, who became stepmother to five-year-old Josephine. According to the 1927 Findlay City Directory, they lived at 1203 Lima St. and Dene was a “tire builder.” Findlay, Ohio has had a history of tire companies as significant employers in the town; the longest lasting one being Cooper Tire and Rubber Company. I’m not certain which one he worked for yet.

According to the 1930 census, Dene, now 35, and Edith, now 26, (and Josephine, age 10) rented their home and paid $15 a month rent. They lived on Santee Avenue. Dene worked as a truck driver for the state highways.

In or about July of 1930, Dene’s wife, Edith, contracted tuberculosis, a dangerous respiratory illness that frequently caused death. Approximately 110,000 Americans died each year from tuberculosis in the early 1900’s. Typically, patients were separated from their families so that their families would not catch it; in the 1930s the most popular treatment was rest and fresh air in sanatoriums. I don’t know whether Edith was sent to a sanatorium. She was sick for eight months and then died at the home of her parents on February 12, 1931. She was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Findlay, Ohio. 

Edith Matilda Becker Hart, Obituary,
Findlay (OH) Morning Republican, 13 Feb 1931 p.2.
Click to Make Bigger.

Edith's death was less than ten years after the death of Dene's first wife. 

Later that year, on August 18, 1931, the Findlay Morning Republican, reported that Dene and his daughter, Josephine, his mother, and my grandparents, were among 44 family members (all named in the article) who attended the fourth annual reunion of the S. M. Hartman family, held at the old homestead, 1 mile east of Van Buren. Perhaps being with family was a comfort.

Dene apparently liked being married, and he did still have a young daughter who needed to be cared for. On December 23, 1932, at age 38, he married Helen Marie Black, age 29, daughter of O. L. (Lawrence) Black and Carrie Plumber or Plumer. While the marriage license indicated that Helen had been married before, I know nothing about that marriage and I don’t know whether she had any children from that prior marriage but I don’t think so as she didn’t bring with her into this marriage. While the certificate indicates that her prior husband was not living, I cannot confirm that (there are some indications the contrary, but, if that bears out, we should remember that it was not unusual for divorced women to list themselves as widowed as that was less embarrassing).

Marriage Record for Lester Dene Hart and Helen Black (1932).
Click to Make Bigger.

In 1935 and 1937, city directories indicate that the couple were living outside of Findlay in the village of Jenera. Dene worked as a foreman for the state highway department. In May 1937, the couple experienced tragedy when their daughter, Alice Virginia, was born, but only lived one day.  

Approximately one year later, on June 11, 1938, Dene’s daughter, Josephine, age 18, married Merrill Bushong (son of Mr. and Mrs J. M. Bushong), in New Stark, Ohio.

At the start of May 1939, Dene and Helen left Ohio for Texas to work on a Rural Electrification project, with the Bigley construction company. He ended up working first on a REA project in Arkansas. The federal Rural Electrification Act was passed in 1936. It was one of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs to improve the economic condition of farmers hit hard by the depression and drought. It provided 25-year loans at 3% interest for constructing power lines in rural areas. Local cooperative companies were formed to provide electricity. The Bigley Construction Company, of Findlay, Ohio, won the contract to install the substations, poles and wires with the low bid on the project. The bid for the North Central Texas electrification project was $86,787.06. I don’t know what the bid was for Arkansas. The first Arkansas project provided electricity to 600 farmhouses over 307 miles of wire in Mississippi County, Arkansas and used 3500 poles, 600 miles of aluminum wire, and 36,000 man hours of employment. Farmers along the lines purchased electric pumps, ranges, and some had modern plumbing installed in their homes for the first time. After total installation in Arkansas, the minimum bill of $2.50 for 35 kW gave sufficient current to light a four-room house, and to run an electric iron, a radio, and a fan for a month. Later the North Central Texas project made service available to 1400 families.

While the men worked on the REA project in Arkansas, the wives and families lived in an encampment near Lockesburg, Arkansas. On August 15, 1939, the Findlay Republican Courier reported that “Mrs. Dene Hart, the former Helen Black of New Stark, and daughter of Mrs. Carrie Buchanan of Findlay, was honored guest at a recent shower given at Lockesburg, Arkansas, by the women of the Bigley Electric Construction camp. She received many gifts from guests. Dene and Helen’s second daughter, [Edit: name removed as I just found indications that she may be alive] was born 1939 in Arkansas. Helen’s mother went out to visit with the family and see her new granddaughter, for three months, returning in late November 1939.

1940 U.S. Federal Census - Hart, Lester Dene and family.
Click to Make Bigger.

By 1940, the family was back in Findlay, Ohio and Dene was once again working for the state highway department, although he was looking for work at the time the census was taken. He reported that, in 1939 he worked 48 weeks and earned $1400. He evidently found new work because the City Directory for 1941 indicated that Dene worked for G.E. Edgington & Sons as a distributor operator. They lived at 134 ½ North Main St., Apt. 10., Findlay.

WWII Draft Registration Card for Lester Dene Hart, front page.
Click to Make Bigger.

Draft Registration Card for Lester Dene Hart, top portion of back page.
Click to Make Bigger.

Dene registered for the draft for World War II on April 25, 1942. He was 48. The draft registration indicates that he is white, 5 foot 7 ½ inches tall, 155 pounds and had blue eyes, black hair, and a ruddy complexion. He also indicated that he had a bad thumb on his left hand and that he worked for an ordinance company in Marion Ohio. This is likely this Scioto Ordinance Company, an ammunition and bomb-making facility operating from 1942 to 1945. It produced fuses, 20 mm bullets, 50 caliber bullets, artillery shells (50, 65, and 75 mm), incendiary bombs, and napalm bombs. I don’t know if he stayed there after the war working for the postwar company on the same site, Atomic Energy Commission Laboratory, which was operated by Monsanto. Radioactive materials were used and stored on-site and a nuclear reactor was built but never operated. If he did, I would be concerned for his health in his later years as at the end of the 20^th century it was noted that there was a higher than expected number of leukemia cases and respiratory illnesses in the area, and a government investigation was launched, as well as a few lawsuits.

I lost Dene for a few years, but by 1952 and 1953, pursuant to Dallas (TX) City Directories, Dene was now going by his first name “Lester;” he was a carpenter and a cabinetmaker; and he and Helen lived at 512 Liberty.  Dene’s mother died on July 13, 1954. I don’t know whether he made it to the funeral, as the July, 1954, Findlay papers are missing from online records. His wife, Helen’s father died on May 15, 1958 and they did return to Ohio for the funeral. This indication of family feeling might mean that they returned for Fannie's funeral as well.

I then lost them again until I found his death certificate, which indicated that Lester died on April 21, 1981 at 10:15 AM, at the age of 87.  He and Helen were living in the Dallas Texas neighborhood of Cockrell Hill. Lester died of emphysema and renal failure. The death certificate indicated that he was a self-employed carpenter. He was buried at Calvary Hill Cemetery in Dallas. His wife outlived him by nearly 5 years, dying on January 14, 1986, in Fort Worth, Texas.

Texas Death Certificate for Lester Dene Hart (1981).
Click to Make Bigger

-------------------------------------

I would like to know more of what happened in Dene’s childhood, how he met Leta and courted her, how he met and wooed Edith, and how he met Helen. I’d like to fill in the blanks about when he and his daughter Josephine moved back to Ohio, and to fill in the huge gaps in his life from 1942 to his death in 1981. I’d also like to find out what happened to his children.

(More complete citations available on request)

Marriage record for Orley Hart and Frances Hartman, Hancock County, 1893; Ohio Birth Record, Hancock County, 1894; U,S, Federal Census for 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940; Draft registration for WW1; Birthdate of daughter Josephine Vivian Hart from email from MSD & confirmed in part by 1930 & 1940  U.S. Federal Census; death of Leta Elkins Hart, Illinois Death and Stillbirth Index, 1916-1947 & Find-a-Grave.com; Findlay, OH City Directories for 1927, 1931, 1935, 1937 and 1941; Dallas TX City Directory for 1952 and 1953; Marriage record for Helen Marie Black and Lester Dene Hart, Marion County OH, 1932), Birth record for Alice Virginia Hart, Ohio Birth record; Alice Virginia Hart U.S. Find-a-grave.com; Draft Registration for WW2; Ohio Obituary Index; Findagrave.com; Texas Death Certificate for Lester Dene Hartman; Texas Death Index for Helen Marie Black Hart.

“Clay County Soldiery” Flora (IL) Southern Illinois Record, July 26, 1918, p. 1 (found at http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/ref/collection/fpl01/id/2483);  “Mrs. L. D. Hart is Dead”, Findlay (OH) Morning Republican, 2 February 1931, p. 2; “Hold Reunion”  Findlay Morning Republican, August 18, 1931, p. 8; “New Stark” (Hart-Bushong wedding) Findlay Republican Courier , June 11, 1938, p.15; “New Stark”, Findlay Republican Courier, May 13, 1939, p. 2;”Hardin Men Leave For Jobs in West”, Findlay Republican Courier, May 13, 1939, p. 14;  “Findlay Bid Low on Light Project” New Philadelphia (OH) Daily Times, June 15, 1939, p.2; “Shower Given For Mrs. Dene Hart, Findlay Republican Courier, August 15, 1939, p. 6; “Return From A Visit” Findlay Republican Courier, December 1, 1939, p. 8; “Current To Be On By Sept. 15 First Line of REA Lines to be Energized Soon”, Blytheville (AR) Courier News, August 3, 1939, p.1; “To Energize County’s First REA Line of 145 Miles Tuesday” Blytheville Courier News, 4 December 1939, p. 1; “Lawrence Black Called By Death” Findlay Republican Courier, May 15, 1958, p. 16; “Officials Want Probe of Marion Laboratory”, by Randall Edwards, Environmental Reporter,  The Columbus (OH) Dispatch, October 9, 1999 (found at http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news/nn10253.htm); “Leukemia Fears, Man’s Scary Take Trigger Marion Radiation Probe”, by T.C. Brown, Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer, October 9, 1999 (found at http://www.ohiocitizen.org/campaigns/marion/o09mark.html); Scioto Ordnance Plant, Wikipedia; “Rural Electrification”, The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture (found at http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2162);  “Clay County and the Great War: A Narrative History of the Contributive and Sacrificial Involvement of Clay County, Illinois in World War I” by Ryan Herdes, Historia (A publication of the Epsilon Mu Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta and the Eastern Illinois University History Department), Special Edition, Volume 1 (2013), p. 111 (http://www.eiu.edu/historia/2013SEissue.php).

52 Ancestors: #50 Anna Mae Bennett (1898 – 1977) and #51 Owen Carl Henn (1906-1988), my grandparents

Anna Mae (Bennett) & Owen "Carl" Henn - early to mid 1950's
Click to Make Bigger

This is my last post for the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge initiated by Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small blog. For more information about the challenge and links to the other blogs participating in the challenge, please click on the badge in the right margin. I didn’t make it to 52; but considering that I took 4 or 5 weeks off in the summer to pack, move, and unpack, I don’t feel bad about it.  I’ve enjoyed it, but I’m also glad to be done.

Anna Mae (Bennett) and Owen Carl Henn are my grandparents, my father’s parents. I will not be naming their children or giving specifics about them in this post as they are still living.

The Grandma I remember was, to my child’s memory, what we now call an introvert, and she was also quite shy. She loved her God, her husband, her children and her grandchildren fiercely. But she didn’t like crowds much, and would get overwhelmed and withdraw into another room for a while until she could come back out to be with people. She loved reading, and listening to music.  My memories of her remind me of me (minus the kids – I haven’t got a maternal bone in my body – and Grandma loved being a Mom and a grandmother, and minus that degree of shyness).

The Grandpa I remember was a do-er. He dug wells in his 70’s -- by hand! He gardened – on a large scale. He loved puzzles – did jigsaw puzzles upside down, green side up. Loved those odd puzzle things you get only at Christmas. He loved math. He found mathematical puzzles in the Bible. He loved the Bible and God and his family. He had a lot of Bibles. I have one of them now. I have his jigsaw puzzle gene too – but the math gene skipped me entirely.

I tried to write their entries separately as I did for my mother’s parents. But for Mom’s parents I had newspaper articles from their home town that covered the minutest things throughout their growing up years (who went to whose 4-year-old’s birthday party, 50^th anniversaries, kid’s plays, football games, debate clubs etc.) But, although I’ve got basic documents such as census documents, city directories , etc., as I’ve noted before, there are very few local papers online for Michigan’s Lapeer and Sanilac counties for this time period -- and none that mentioned my grandparents.  Moreover, I discovered that my grandparents didn’t make the papers in the town they spent their adult life in. So I’m depending more on the email interviews I did of my uncle, my Dad, and my aunts.  In the stories I know, and the ones I learned, Anna and Carl are too intertwined to do separate blog posts well so I decided to write about them together.

As we’ve seen both Anna and Carl (Grandpa went by “Carl” to friends and family because his father was “Owen,” too; but in nearly all official documents he is “Owen C. Henn”) descended from people who pushed their boundaries to live on the edge of civilization, leaving family and home for the gamble and the hope of better things to come.  Both Carl and Ann’s ancestors were hard working people who did their best to make a good life for their families with what was available to them. When you read Carl and Anna’s story, you can tell that that blood runs in their veins.

I don’t have a birth certificate for Anna, and her children tell me “there were some questions about her birth year,” although they agree that her birth day was May 16.  I think her birth year was about 1898 or 1899. In the 1900 census she was listed as 2 years old, which put the birth year as likely 1898.  In the 1910 & 1920 census, she was listed as 11 and 21 respectively, which indicates a birth year of 1899.  After she got away from home and married a younger man, she indicated in 1930 that she was 28 (which would have her born in 1902) and in 1940 as 40 years old (1900).  I think that the earlier ones, where the information was supplied by her family are more likely to be right.  Moreover, the Ohio and Social Security death indices and her obituary also all say she was born in 1898. 

Anna loved books, school, and learning, and had dreams of going to college. She grew up in a farm in Maple Valley Township in Sanilac County, Michigan. Unfortunately, she was just old enough, when her mother became ill, to help care for her parents, Andrew and Anna Gregor Bennett, her younger siblings, and keep up the housework, and she spent the next 13 years of her life doing so, as her older siblings went to college, or got married, and struck out into lives of their choosing. (See the posts on Anna Gregor Bennett and on Andrew Bennett for a listing of her siblings and their spouses.) She also knew sorrow, and just how short a time one could have to live her dreams, as her older sister, Elizabeth, died at age 28, in 1920, not long  after marrying; Anna was 22. Anna wanted to finish school and go to college, but she was not allowed to go to school past 8^th grade. After her mother died in 1828 (her father had died three years before), Anna left the small town home where she had cared for her parents, to move to the big city of Detroit. She got a job in a Department store – my father recalled the job was as a secretary, and that it was a job for which she had to dress very nicely and she was pretty. She hoped to save money to go to school.

Map of Southeast Michigan,
showing where Sanilac &Lapeer Counties are in relationship to Detroit,
In the public domain
Click to Make Bigger

I’m going to save the story of how she met Carl Henn until after I tell you about his beginnings.

My grandfather also had boundaries placed on him my Aunt tells me he felt ignored his dreams. Owen Carl Henn (“Carl”) was born on December 27, 1906 to Owen James and Myrtie Mabel Wilcox Henn. I don’t have his birth record either but all the other documentary evidence I do have that mentions a specific date is in agreement. As a farmer’s son, he was used to helping out on the family farm in Lapeer County, Michigan, while he went to school, but he had dreams of going to college to become a math teacher.  He had taught Sunday school at his family’s church from late high school on. One of my aunts told me that Carl’s father, Owen Henn, did not allow Carl to go to school past age 16 and pulled him out to work full time on the farm. But Carl reported on the 1940 census that he had finished all four years of high school. In either case, he was not given the option to go to college and was held to farm work until he turned 21, in 1927. (See posts on Owen James Henn and Myrtie Mabel Wilcox for his parents' stories and listing of brothers and sisters.)

I know the family story is that Carl and Anna married one month after he turned 21, but Grandpa’s (Carl’s) genealogy notes say that he married Anna on January 26, 1929, and the Michigan marriage records confirm that; so it was 13 months after he turned 21.  The 1929 date comports with the rest of the story, too.  It looks like Carl left the farm after his 21^st birthday, and went to Detroit and found a job, likely as a laborer, and began saving money, still with the dream of going to college.

My aunt told me that Anna met Carl in Brown City, the small town nearest to where each of them grew up, when she took her nieces to Sunday school, which he taught. But my Dad, my uncle, and my Mom told me that Carl met Anna at a church Bible study and some church socials in Detroit, which fits, as Anna had been living in Detroit since 1928. He was attracted to her because she was so pretty, well dressed, and well read, and from the same small rural area he was from. He may have found her, an older, pretty, well-dressed woman, a touch exotic. He courted her and she liked this young man from the same sort of background as she, who was a church-going man, with the same dreams as her of further education.

Carl and Anna (Bennett) Henn, circa 1929 - wedding picture, I think
Click to make bigger

They married, in Detroit, on January 26, 1929. He was 22 and she was 30 years old. They started out living in Detroit and Anna became pregnant within a few months. Unfortunately, they lost all their savings in the stock market crash of October 1929 and the resultant financial panic. Carl likely lost his job then too, because, the family story is that after they lost nearly everything, they heard that there were jobs in Indianapolis IN and Dayton OH and they flipped a coin to choose which city to move to. The coin flip sent them to Dayton, Ohio.

In the longer run the choice was a good one. Dayton did suffer from the Depression, but as the war escalated in Europe in the late 1930’s, many of Dayton’s many factories were converted to produce war-related supplies to be shipped overseas, and, therefore, Dayton’s economy began to recover sooner than other cities. But they arrived at the start of the Great Depression, and they didn't know that yet, and neither did anyone else in Dayton.  In Ohio, by 1933, more than 40% of factory workers and 67% of construction workers were unemployed. In 1932, Ohio’s unemployment rate for all residents reached 37.3%. The industrial workers who managed to retain their jobs experienced reduced hours and wages. People had a terrible time trying to support, and feed, their families.

When Carl & Anna first got to Dayton, the only work Carl could find was as a farm hand at a $1 a day, seven days a week plus room and board, and he took it.  Anna helped by cutting wood on the farm, even though she was pregnant. Carl knew they needed more money with a child on the way, therefore, because it was more money per week, he quit his job and they went on Welfare at $15 a week, until he was able to find other better paying work.  By April 2, 1930, when the census was taken, he was a laborer (freight handler) in the B & O rail yard, and he and Anna were renting a home or apartment for $28 a month; their first son was born twenty days later.

The 1930 and 1931 city directories show that Carl & Anna were living at 18 Pioneer Street about one block west of the Miami River. At that time, through about the 1950’s, anything west of the river that split Dayton was known as the poor side of town. Carl was soon promoted to “checker” at the rail yard which involved assuring that freight was moving to the correct car, to arrive at the proper destination; later he was promoted to foreman.

In 1933 they moved further west to 43 Harvard Blvd, outside of the downtown area. My father was born that year, a healthy baby boy, over eight pounds!  My Dad told me that he was born in Drexel and Harvard Blvd doesn’t look that close to Drexel on the map so there may have been another address between 1931 and 1933; I haven’t been able to find the 1932 city directory.

They only lived at the Harvard Street address for about one year before moving to 39 Dennison Ave., southwest of the city. The city directories show them at the Dennison Ave. address from 1934 through 1937. A baby girl was born to Carl and Anna in 1934, and in April 1935, Anna’s younger sister, Margaret, died, bringing more sorrow to her and making her children all the more precious to her.

Three of Carl & Anna's addresses in Dayton, OH
Courtesy of Google Maps (& Skitch)
Click to map bigger

By 1937, the city’s economy was improving as war ramped up in Europe and the city’s factories switched to producing wartime supplies for Europe, so salaries also increased. As the economy improved, people from other areas began migrating to Dayton to find work, but Dayton was unprepared for the influx and an acute housing shortage developed. By the early 1940’s, it was reported to the Public Welfare Office that multiple families were sharing single homes, and other families were living in hotel rooms, garages, automobiles, and even sewer pipes.

Carl and Anna had been saving what they could, and some time after Anna’s younger sister died, Anna received a $500 bequest from her sister’s estate.  With that money they bought two acres of a farm being subdivided out in Jefferson township, a largely rural area of Montgomery county, to the southwest of, and abutting, Dayton; one acre had a garage or large shed on it. The acre with the garage cost $175 and the one with the building cost $125, according to my aunt. Carl bought building materials with the other $200.  My Dad remembers the family moving into that one room dirt-floored garage before he started school. According to the city directories, they were living on the property as of 1938. Dad remembers they got a fierce cat, Balti (for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad where his father worked), to deal with the rats that were used to stealing the grain that used to be stored there. The family lived in the garage while Carl built an 8 room, 2-story house, with a basement and well that he dug by hand with pick and shovel. Dad remembers that every day after work his father would come home with some of the box car package framing sticking out of his Model A Ford’s window; he used it in building the house.  After he got home from work, he would work until dark on the house, helped by the kids. After Carl finished one room (the living room, about 12’ x 16’), the family moved out of the garage and into that one room while he built the rest of the house around them; they would expand into each new room as it was done.

My Grandpa built this house!
on Olt Rd Extension in Jefferson twp, Montgomery County OH
Click to Make Bigger

The house was built without electricity or indoor plumbing; it had a gas furnace in the basement with registers cut in the floors to allow the heat to rise to the next level.  My aunt remembers studying by kerosene lantern.  When it was finished, (although one of my aunts contends, with a laugh, that it was never finished), it had a living room, dining room, kitchen, and four bedrooms … and by the time I remember it, indoor plumbing, electricity, and a bathroom.

The property became the one house in the neighborhood that all the kids played at. They had a baseball diamond laid out in the yard, and Carl built them a clubhouse in the basement.

Part of the reason they wanted that much land was to raise goats to supplement the table with milk, cheese, and meat, and a garden to bring more food to the table. Initially, each spring they rented a horse to plow one acre for corn to feed the goats for a year. They used a single bottom handheld plow. When my uncle was 9, Carl taught him to drive the Model A to pull the plow so they didn’t have to rent the horse anymore. Carl dug a huge vegetable garden, and turned the soil each year, by hand. They grew potatoes, green beans, lima beans, corn, peas, lettuce, onion, carrots, tomatoes, etc. They also had a small orchard (apple, pear, and peach trees and grapes, raspberries and blackberries).

Walk behind, horse- drawn  (or Model A- drawn!), single bottom, handheld plow.
In the public domain.
Click to Make Bigger

At that house, Anna did washing on Monday: an all-day job.  According to my uncle’s recollection water was pumped from the well, then carried to the kitchen stove to be heated. Clothes and sheets & such were washed in a tub with a scrub board. She washed, rinsed, and wrung out each item, then hung it all up on a clothesline, and when dry took it all down again. She ironed all day on Tuesdays, with irons heated on the stove, and folded each item. In addition, , cleaned house and cooked meals on a gas stove, without refrigeration, and washed up without a dishwasher and after having gone out to pump more  water and heating it on the stove. They tried to have meat on the table once a week: sometimes a rabbit, sometime a chicken, and occasionally a goat.  Late summer and fall, she spent innumerable hours harvesting the orchard and vegetable garden, cleaning and sterilizing canning jars and lids, and then canning all sorts of fruits and vegetables. Her children were the main focus of her life, and later, her grandchildren. But whenever she had a quiet moment, she loved to read books she had gotten from the library (since she didn’t drive, she had to walk a mile or so to the end of the trolley rail line to take a city trolley car to the library), or, if she thought no one was around, she would play the piano.

The family went to church “every day it was open”, at the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) Church in Liberty Ohio (a community in Jefferson Township that doesn’t seem to exist anymore). Carl taught adult Sunday school there, and was a superintendent of the Sunday school. He also taught a Men’s Bible Study at the Euclid Avenue EUB in Dayton, and Bible at Sinclair College. I know he later also took several correspondence courses in the 1950’s in such subjects as “Bible Studies”, and “Guidance In Christian Homemaking”, and “John – Life Through Believing”, as I have the certificates of  completion he received. I also have a copy of one of his Sunday school curriculum memos – it’s an intense course. His belief in God and his religion/church was very important to him. It was also important to Anna, but my father thought that her beliefs were not as rooted in a literal reading of the Bible as those of her husband. That dichotomy of belief has carried down to the next generation with some following in their father’s footsteps, and some, more in their mother’s.

In 1940, Dayton had 432 factories; from the late 1930’s through the mid-1940’s many of those producing war-related products. As the wartime economy ramped up, Carl knew that while he was making good money as foreman at B & O and loved working with trains, he could make more money at G.M., and he hired on to work on the assembly line at Frigidaire in the Moraine City plant, which made propellers and aircraft machine guns. He was soon promoted to “set up man”, which meant going in two hours before the first shift started to prepare for that day’s production.  My uncle told me that at some point Carl was working two jobs as he got off work at G.M. at 1 p.m., then went out to Hamilton OH to work at a B & O rail yard there, too. The city directories only list Carl as working at the rail yard – I guess that’s the job he liked best. When he switched to working for Frigidaire, he lost his draft deferment. In the 1940 Census, Carl reported working 48 hours the week before, and that his income in 1939 was $1120. (For comparison’s sake for my younger readers, in 1939, the average yearly wage in the U.S. was $1730; average rent was $28 a month; a new home cost $3800, a new car was $700 and gas was 10 cents a gallon.)

Propeller made by Frigidaire during WWII in Moraine City plant
[Note: I couldn't find copyright info on this picture, or who to contact for permission to use.
If it's yours, comment below, with available proof, & I'll attribute or take it down as you choose.]
Click to Make Bigger 

In 1942, a second daughter was born to Carl and Anna. The older children were 12, 9, and 8. They considered her a miracle. She was a well-loved baby.

In 1944, at age 38, Carl was drafted into the army. The family was very scared. Several men in the neighborhood had died in the war so they knew the danger was real. They held family prayer meetings and sang and prayed every night from when he got his draft notice until he left for Ft. Thomas in Newport KY in March, 1944. While he was away, Anna made sure each child wrote their father daily, as she did. Carl responded to each letter individually.  Anna was given a driver’s license without having to take a test even though she had never driven, because Carl was in the military and the family did not live near public transportation or any stores. My uncle, then 14, was given a restricted license, but at least he had driven the Model A to pull the plow in the garden and knew how the car worked.

Carl did not want to leave home. He felt he was needed more at home than by the army.  He had had rheumatic fever when he was 14, and, occasionally, his heart would act up, especially if he smoked or was around cigarette smoke. Nearly everyone smoked in the army, and he spent a lot of time in Army hospitals.  The Army doctors decided that his heart was too bad for him to remain in the Army and be shipped overseas, and so he was discharged. He came home 7 months and 22 days after he left. The night he came home the children heard their dog, Shep, barking outside, and when they went to look, saw their father walking straight across the fields to the back of the house carrying a shopping bag of gifts for his children, with Shep ecstatically running circles around him, barking like crazy.

He returned to work at Frigidaire, and continued working there until he retired.  

In 1948, Anna grieved the death of another older sister, at only 54. This left Anna the only surviving sister in her family. In the end, Anna, who was the sixth of eight children, outlived all of her sisters and brothers.

Carl & Anna’s oldest son married his high school sweetheart in 1950.  Their oldest daughter married in 1957. Their younger son married in 1959, and younger daughter in 1962.  On March 18, 1962, just weeks before his youngest child’s wedding, Carl’s older sister Hazel (58) was murdered in her home by a burglar who beat and then strangled her, while she fought him. $900 was taken, but nothing else was disturbed. I don’t know how you deal with news like that about your sister’s death in that manner.

Carl & Anna at my father's wedding - cropped from the 'bridal couple & parents' photo
Click to make bigger

I asked Dad, but he can’t remember when his father retired, but can recall seeing him make calculations repeatedly to determine whether he would have enough money in retirement to live on. When he calculated that he would have $6000 a year, he retired because he felt they could live comfortably on that.

After retirement, he became more involved in the church, helped his neighbors with building projects, worked in his garden, and took up the hobby of researching his family’s genealogy (the traditional way – no computers) and his work on that (and that of other’s on my father’s side – it seems to be in the genes) has formed the foundation of mine. (Thanks, Grandpa!)

In her later years, Anna developed medical issues similar to dementia (so sad for such a bright person), and Carl cared for her. She died on September 7, 1977, while Carl was feeding her oatmeal. She was 79.

Carl lived for 11 more years. He didn’t care for being alone and he met someone who helped him not feel alone, and enjoy life again.  On July 11, 1980, he married Winnie Korn Baver, became instant (step) grandfather to her grandchildren as their grandfather was dead.  He was 73 and she was nine years younger than him. They moved to a trailer park in Miamisburg OH.  I remember her as bubbly and cheerful and their home as bright and filled with tchotchkes everywhere. Carl died on April 14, 1988, at age 81.  Winnie outlived him by 18 years; she never remarried.

My grandparents pushed against the boundaries placed on them by their families to make their own lives. When the Great Depression hit in 1929, they left Michigan and their birth families behind for the gamble and the hope of better things to come.  Although they never did get to realize their original dreams and attend college themselves, like their ancestors, Carl and Anna were hard working people who did their best to make a good life for their family with what was available to them. They succeeded in that. And they succeeded in passing on their love of learning and their love of God to their children. They raised four children who went to college and obtained advanced degrees, paying for it themselves. In addition, all of them have had good careers and have good families and a strong faith. 

-------------------------------------------

I would like to know more of Carl & Anna’s years in Michigan, and about their life after the 1950's.

I know I need to track down copies of the documentation I mentioned that I don’t have.

I Love hearing any story I can about them.

More pictures would be great too, especially a better copy of the one that I think is their wedding picture.

There is probably more I'd like to know but it's after 3:00 AM and I can't think of it right now.

____________________________

U.S. Census for years 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1940; Dayton City Directories for 130, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1942; WWII Army enlistment records; Ohio Birth Index; U.S Social Security Death Indices; Email interviews of my aunts, uncle and Dad, 2014;  Interviews of my father over a decade, compiled into a small book in or about 2008; “Ohio Modern: Preserving Our Recent Past Dayton and Surrounding Area Survey Report”, prepared for the Ohio Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historical Society by Heritage Architectural Associate, Kathy Mast Kane, Historic Preservation Consultant and Nathalie Wright, Project Manager and Historic Preservation Consultant, September 2010 (found at www.ohiohistory.org/File%20Library/.../Report/rp-05.pdf); http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Great_Depression; http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1939.html; Ohio Marriage Index for 1980; Findagrave.com Memorial # 13206439 for Winifred Korn Baver-Henn.

52 Ancestors: #49 James McGregor/Gregor (???? – before 1852), immigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1834 with his family

Scottish & Canadian flags pin
used with permission

This is my latest post for the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge initiated by Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small blog. For more information about the challenge and links to the other blogs participating in the challenge, please click on the badge in the right margin.

James McGregor / Gregor, is my 3^rd great grandfather on my father’s mother’s line. He was born in Scotland, but I don’t know exactly when, or where. I have been guesstimating backwards from the date of his first marriage, to about 1780, but it’s just a guess and could well be wrong. Also, right now, I have no idea who his parents were.

I’ve seen his name spelled as McGregor, Gregor, McGrigor, Grigor, and Gregory. He seems to have mainly used McGregor in Scotland and Gregor in Canada. (Likewise, those of his children who came to Canada used the name Gregor in Canada, and thereafter.) I mostly identified him as my James by the other people listed in the record or article with him, and vice versa. Putting together James’ story was like piecing a jigsaw puzzle where the box top is missing, and some of the pieces as well -- and there may or may not be pieces mixed in from another picture puzzle but right now it looks like they go with this puzzle based on the other pieces they fit in with. This is my current arrangement of the pieces I’ve found. The story is subject to change as more is found, or as it is found that “this piece doesn’t go there!”

Jigsaw Puzzle
Photo by Enlightment Photography via  Photopin.com, creative commons license  

James married Lillias Addie/Eddie on June 25, 1799 in Canongate, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland (near Edinburgh today). He is listed under the name James Gregory, a labourer – the reason why I’m sure it’s my James with his surname misspelled fits in the story later. Lillias was born on September 23, 1781 in Dunning Perth, Scotland, and baptized on the 30th of that month. She is the daughter of Hugh Adie and Sarah Flockhart; her father was a labourer in Clairridge, parish of Denoon.  

James and Lillias had three children: Hugh, John and Lillias. I‘m not certain of the birth order because the only one I know a birth date for is Lillias McGregor/Gregor. Well, actually, I know a baptism date. Based on the rest of such I’ve found thus far in Scottish records, she was probably born a week to ten days before she was baptized Lillias Steil Mcgrigor on May 6, 1804 in Dunning, Perth Scotland.  Her parents were listed as James Mcgrigor and Lillias Eadie.

James’ wife Lillyas must have died sometime before 1815, but I don’t have a record of it. He then married Grizel Drummond. I have no marriage record, but I have plenty of birth records showing the two as parents, and other records referring to them as husband and wife.  

Drummond Castle (castle grounds were used as back drop for  1995 film, Rob Roy, starring Liam Neeson)

Photo by denisbin  via photopin.com  pursuant to creative commons license 

click to make bigger

According to “A Genealogy of Badenoch Families" by Llewella MacIntyre & Marjorie Clark, James Gregor was a forester at Drummond Castle, Craigcrook Castle, and at Harburn House near West Calder in Scotland. Grizzel may have lived in the area of Drummond castle given her last name, and they may have met while he was working in that area. I find it difficult to believe that she was a member of the named gentry. Upper class women marrying foresters tends to happen more in books than in real life, even without the complication of the centuries old feud between Clan McGregor and Clan Drummond. But, after two hundred years or so from the underlying cause (relatively succinct retelling of story here on a McGregor  website and here on a Drummond website), such political considerations are more the concern of the gentry than of the working folk, and the McGregors had been officially restored in 1775.

A forester’s job in Scotland in the early 19th century involved more than simply patrolling the forest like some sort of border guard looking for poachers. It involved planting trees and other plants to improve the land. Some Scottish landowners began to introduce foreign tree species from continental Europe such as sycamore maple, Norway spruce, larch and European silver fir, and to experiment with new planting methods. The experimentation and improvements were done with an intent to use their forest resources in ways that improved revenue for the estate. It was also important to the landowners that the esthetical beauty of the forest be maintained as well, allowing for multiple uses of the forest. Foresters in Scotland combined game management, commercial timber production and esthetic planting and were members of a respected profession. (To read more about Scottish Forestry in the 19th century, read this.) 

James and Grizzel had seven children that I know of (designated McGregor in the birth records & Gregor in any Canadian records): William born March 16, 1816 in Muthill, Perth, Scotland and died in 1834 in Hamilton Upper Canada; Ann was born October 14, 1817  in Muthill, Perth, Scotland and died in 1834 in Hamilton Upper Canada; James was born July 6, 1820  in West Calder, Midlothian, Scotland  and died in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada after 1891;  Grace Gregor Hawkins August 6, 1822 in West Calder, Midlothian, Scotland and died December 21, 1916 in Oxford, Ontario, Canada (she married Francis Hawkins March 16, 1849 in Montreal, Quebec); my 2nd great-grandfather Benjamin,  born May 14, 1824 West Calder, Midlothian,Scotland and died in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada on March 15, 1880 (he married Elizabeth Taylor); Janet, born April 3, 1826 in West Calder, Midlothian, Scotland - ??;  and Peter, born August 6,  1828 in West Calder, Midlothian, Scotland – died 28 April 1908 in Brant, Ont., Canada (he married Margaret Rintoul).

In 1834, James gathered his family and immigrated to Canada. According to “A Genealogy of Badenoch Families" by Llewella MacIntyre & Marjorie Clark, he joined several other Scottish families [the Beattie, Cockburn, Todd, Walker, & McFarlane families] on the “Alfred of Alloway” to Quebec, Canada.  The voyage lasted 9 weeks and three days.

The Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation, by Donald Whyte, cited the passenger record as showing that “James Gregor” [note the change to “Gregor”] arrived in Quebec in 1834 with the following family members: “Wife Grizel Drummond, Child William [died later that year], Child Ann [died later that year], Child James, Child Grace, Child Benjamin, Child Janet, Child Peter, Child Hugh [from first marriage], Child Lilias [(Linn), with son-in-law (James Linn) & three grandchildren (Alex, James, & John Fleming)] and Child John [from first marriage].” From this document I deduced that James’ daughter Lilias had been married twice, one to a man named Fleming (turned out to be John Fleming) and at that time to James Linn. This is also the only document I’ve found, so far, that mentions Hugh and John McGregor, James’ sons from his first marriage.

The “Genealogy of Badenoch Families” states that James brought with him a letter of recommendation to Adam Fergusson at Woodhill near Waterdown. With this document, he obtained work in Hamilton, Upper Canada, working on the grounds of Dundurn Castle. He later worked on the grounds at Victoria Park, in Niagara Falls.

Dundurn Castle, Hamilton, Upper Canada as seen in 1835
In the Public Domain
Click to make bigger

Tragically, shortly after the family moved to Hamilton, James’ two oldest children, William and Ann, contracted cholera and died. It must have been very hard to have come so far from home to see your children die within the first year. In addition, James’s daughter from his first marriage, Lillias (McGregor) (Fleming) Linn, died in 1835. James and Grizel took in her infant daughter Lillias Linn and the three Fleming boys (all James’ grandchildren) and raised them.

After working on Victoria Park, James moved his family to the Puslinch settlement in Upper Canada to be near the other families from the same area of Scotland, including some who had arrived on the same ship that they had. I expect it granted them a feeling of home in this strange land. They settled on Lot 33, rear Concession 8, and began clearing the land and farming.

Map of Puslinch Twp, Wellington County, Ontario original concessions and lots,
Published in 1860 Historical Atlas of Wellington County,  In the Public Domain.
Click To Make Bigger

I have only found one more reference to James and Grizel Gregor, to date, in a history of the Badenach portion of the “Scotch settlement” in Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Upper Canada (now Ontario) found on the ClarksofTomfad website (“Badenach to Badenach”). It notes that James and Grizel Gregor were said to be buried on the hillside of the front field of their lot, near the road, but that the stone piles that marked their places had disappeared. I don’t know when they died, nor of what. I think they likely died before 1852, because I found a 17 year old Lilly Linn living with James (30), Benjamin (25), Janet (23), and Peter Grigor (21), with no sign of their parents in this census.

If you know anything more about James McGregor or Gregor or Grizzel Drummond or their children, I would love to hear from you. Please contact me through the email address on my Contact Me page or  leave me a message below  (even if just to tell me to check my junk email if you've tried the other way and haven't heard from me - it does that occasionally, but these comments do end up in my email.)

--------------------------

Ancestry.com. Midlothian (Edinburgh), Scotland, Extracted Parish Records [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001; Scotland, Marriages, 1561-1910. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013; “A Genealogy of Badenoch Families" by Llewella MacIntyre & Marjorie Clark (1999); http://www.scotweb.co.uk/info/gregor-or-macgregor; Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation by Donald White (Toronto: Ontario Genealogical Society, 2002); From Badenach to Badenach, Emigration - http://www.clarksoftomfad.ca/FromBadenochtoBadenoch.htm; Conquering The Highlands: A history of the Afforestation of the Scottish Uplands, by Jan Oosthoek (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2013), chapter 2 - http://press.anu.edu.au//wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ch021.pdf; 1851 (taken in 1852) Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

52 Ancestors: #48 George Taylor, Sr. (1795 -1862), pioneer settler of Puslinch Twp., Wellington County, Upper Canada

Map of Scotland, showing Perth shire
Click to make Bigger

George Taylor, Sr. is my third great grandfather. He was born in Perthshire, Scotland on 29 August 1795, according to a record index on FamilySearch.org (which also references his wife’s name and his death date). Unfortunately, the index does not name his parents. This is another record I hope to order and look at myself when I get to one of that organization’s Family History Centers.

George married Ann McArthur on 12 May 1816, in Kincardine by Doune, Perth, in the southern highlands of Scotland. To my certain knowledge they had four children born in Scotland. Other writings I’ve found indicate there was at least one other born in Scotland. The four that I’m sure of are Isabella Taylor, born on 12 April 1819 in Perthshire and baptized in Kincardine By Doune, Perth (married John Horrocks in Ancaster, Canada in or about 1834, and died on April 15, 1905 in Burleigh County North Dakota, USA) ; Janet Taylor, born January 5, 1823 in Kincardine By Doune, Perth (married Duncan McFarlane, and died on February 11, 1899 in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada); George, jr., born July 24, 1825 in Kincardine By Doune, Perth (married Mary Smith in or about 1849, and died on August 26, 1907 in Brookfield, Huron, Michigan); and Mary Ann born September 27, 1829, and baptized ten days later in Hutchesontown Relief Church, Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland.  

In 1832, George Taylor decided to take his family to the British Colony of Upper Canada (later Ontario).

The British Government had been focused for several years on enticing highlander Scots to move to the frontier lands of Canada. Even since the War of 1812, the British had been afraid that they would lose their Northern American colonies to another American incursion, and began recruiting Highlanders to settle the buffer areas near the United States.  They focused on Highlanders because they were known to be fierce and to be able to live in difficult, remote areas. Their campaign was helped as good reports of the new land came back to friends and families left behind. At the same time, in the highlands, rents were rising, and land that had been used for farming was being restructured for sheep farms, and the economy was stressed in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.   

Poster Advertisement for Passage to Upper Canada, approx. 1844 [For example of the advertising of the time only - I've NO indication that the Taylors were on this ship. They were already in Canada by 1844.]
Click To Make Bigger

The height of the influx of highland Scots to Upper Canada was between 1830 and 1855. At that time emigration from Scotland to Canada was only available to Scots who could pay the travel costs involved in getting to Upper Canada by an approximately 6-8 week sailing ship trip, and then the inland travel to their destination. If a ship docked at Quebec, the immigrant would go onto Hamilton by river – another 10-14 days, and then proceed to their final destination by wagon. It was a long trip!  And it was a trip that ended in what was still old growth forest, not cleared farms, according to descriptions given by old pioneers of what they found when they arrived in Puslinch, Upper Canada, in the McPhatter Letters on the Clarks of Tomfad website.

For the Taylor family it was a long and traumatic trip. In a copy of the letter George Taylor sent to the Commissioner of Crown Lands upon his arrival at Puslinch, one of his children died on the trip, and his pregnant wife gave birth on the trip.

Transcript of body of George Taylor's 20 August 1832 letter:

“Honored Sir

As I have arrived hear (sic) just now with wife and family from Scotland, owing to the distress that I had on my voyage in my family, and one of my children died and my wife had a child upon the sea, and my money has been done and as I have no friends, no home [? - 1 word/symbol] worldwide to get lots to improve before winter come on. I have left my wife in an acquaintance house and have gone myself to work for them. I have hired two of the eldest and hope I will soon be able to answer your installments if you be pleased to grant me one. The lot that I am for is No. 22, the front half. It was called the rear half before the new survey but I suppose (sic) it is now called the front half in the 7^th Concession old surveys and as it is aside a good del (sic) of my acquaintance if your honour (sic) would grant it I would improve on it as soon as possible and if you will grant it to me a lise (sic)  of it [? 3 words] and please write in the answer what terms the lise (sic) will be on and what it is to pay yearly if you will not grant it the other way if you would give it it would ever be remembered.  Most honourable sir your most obliged servant.

George Taylor – N23

I am staying in Mr. Peter McBeath and intend stopping in it til I receive and answer from you direct to me to said place by Guelph Post Office.”

Map of Puslinch Twp, Wellington County, Ontario original concessions and lots,
Published in 1860 Historical Atlas of Wellington County,  In the Public Domain.
Click To Make Bigger

According to the research done by the Puslinch Historical Society into who owned the original lots of the township, he and his family ended up being granted Lot 27 in Concession 1, Rear. The entry at the Puslinch Historical Society website says, in relevant part, “This lot was settled about 1833 by George Taylor Sr. and wife Ann McCarthy m. 1816 The 1851 census found George Taylor from Scotland, age 56, his wife Ann age 56, and children, Elizabeth born on Atlantic Ocean age 19, Jane age 16 The older children were Margaret Taylor married William Graham on 9 Dec 1834 in Ancaster by John Miller, Minister, Isabella Taylor married John Horrocks on 2 Aug 1834 in Ancaster by John Miller, Minister, Janet Taylor 1822, married Duncan McFarlane of Puslinch (Janet was a great person. If anyone was sick, she was called for), and George Jr. m Mary Smith, a daughter of Rev. James Smith. Information is scant on other first names, Duncan, Maryann, Elizabeth and Jane. Puslinch Papers have George Taylor’s letter indicating arrival in 1832 after losing one child at sea, and birth of another, he asked for F7 L 27. They were staying with McBeaths. R1 L27 was the second last lot in the new survey, almost adjacent to the 7th concession in the old survey.”

This research and George’s letter are what led me to say that there was perhaps another child born in Scotland other than those I found birth records for and named above. I’ve found birth records for Elizabeth, and  for Jane who born in Canada, so I think the other one born in Scotland could be Duncan. The child who died on the trip over could be Mary Ann or Duncan as I’ve not found records of either one in Canada. Both names reoccur in subsequent generations of the extended family – Duncan a bit more often than Mary Ann.

My 2nd great grandmother, Elizabeth, is the child that was born on the Atlantic Ocean on the trip to Canada. I wrote about her & her husband’s story last week and you can find it HERE.

The last child I found for George and Ann, Jane, was born in their new home is, in or about 1835 (she married Alexander McCaig on October 25 1866 in Puslinch, Wellington, Canada, and died on December 4, 1914, in Galt, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada).  

In 1852, according to the census, George (56), Anne (56), Elizabeth (19), and Jane (16) were living together in a log home and George farmed their land. They attended the Free Church of Canada. Ten years later, according to the 1861 census, George (66) and Ann (66) are living in a frame house and farming their land. Jean Taylor (20) is also listed as living with them. I don’t know whether to assume that Jean is their youngest daughter, Jane, and that the census taker got both the first name and the age wrong (– she should have been 27), or to assume it’s a grandkid or some other relative there to help with the farm. I did note that they live fairly close to their daughter Elizabeth and her family is only a page away in the census.

George died the next year on June 10, 1862. I don’t know how or why. Ann survived him by 18 years According to a transcription of an obituary sent to me by Marjorie Clark, a Puslinch historian, she initially went to live with her daughter Mrs. Duncan McFarlane (Janet), and after a short time, she moved to Kepple to live with her son-in-law Alex McCoag  (Jane’s husband) until her death on April 27 1880. It finished by saying that she was greatly respected by all who knew her. A very nice epitaph.

If you know anything more about George Taylor or Ann McArthur Taylor or their children, I would love to hear from you. Please contact me through the email address on my Contact Me page or  leave me a message below  (even if just to tell me to check my junk email if you've tried the other way and haven't heard from me - it does that occasionally, but these comments to end up in my email.)

----------------------------

I would like to know a lot more about George and Ann’s life in Scotland. And about Margaret, Mary Ann, and Duncan  -- starting with whether they exist, whether they had a life (marriage, kids?), and when and what did they die of. I’d like to know more of George and Ann’s life in Puslinch. And then I would like to know more of Ann’s life after George died. And, as always, I’d love to see pictures of everyone.

Canadian Census for 1852 and 1861; The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada, 1784-1855 by, chs. 1 & 8.; Canadian Birth records, Canadian Marriage records, Scotland’s birth and baptism records – all via Ancestry.com http://multiculturalcanada.ca/Encyclopedia/A-Z/e3/6; http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canon/research-topic-immigration-migrate.html; http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Migration/articles/harper.html; http://www.scotstocanada.com/new_page_2.htm; http://jubilation.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/emigrants1832.html; http://www.clarksoftomfad.ca/McPhatter.htm