George Graham (1838-1926), Canadian pioneer, my first cousin three times removed.

A Settlement Home, painting by William Henry Bartlett. (In the Public Domain)
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When I finished my post on my third great grandfather, George Taylor (1795-1862), last December, I closed it by asking anyone who knew more about George Taylor or Ann McArthur Taylor or their children to contact me. I further said that like to know more about “Margaret, Marianne, and Duncan – starting with whether they exist, whether they had life (marriage, kids?), and when and what did they die of.” (The names were mentioned on the website of the Puslinch Historical Society as being George and Ann McArthur Taylor’s children.) I’ve been contacted by a woman (EG) who told me that George and Ann Taylor were also her husband’s three times great-grandparents by way of their daughter Margaret who married William Graham. We've exchanged several emails, shared information, and gave each other guest access to our Ancestrydotcom trees. Any mistakes in the following, are solely my own, not hers, as I’ve diverged a bit in one or two places from her research in an experimental attempt to find a documented connection. It’s too soon to see whether that will actually fly, and there is more research that I would like to do, in terms of looking for homesteading records and, now that I’ve heard of them, checking out whether any of the Grahams appear in the Upper Canada Sundries records, and the Sessional Minutes, but it occurred to me that if I waited to be “done” before I wrote a blog post about this, it would probably never be written. Also, I have recently been contacted by another new to me distant “cousin” on the Bennett line, through my administration of my father’s AncestryDNA results and I would really like to table this current line of inquiry for a while in order share information with my new found “cousin” and explore that line further back for a bit (she’s got them further back than I do).

Before I get to George Graham, Sr.,  my first cousin 3X removed, I would like to talk a bit about his parents, Margaret Taylor and William Graham. In my last post about my Taylor branch [52 Ancestors: #48 George Taylor, Sr. (1795 -1862), pioneer settler of Puslinch Twp., Wellington County, Upper Canada], I listed Margaret Taylor as the daughter of George Taylor and Ann McArthur; but while I have been able to find baptism records for all of their other children, I haven’t been able to find one for Margaret. In looking further, I have found an index of a baptism record for a Margaret Taylor as the daughter of George Taylor and Helen Robinson, in a different county approximately 53 miles from where George and Ann McArthur Taylor were married and all their other children baptized; this indexed baptism record shows that this Margaret Taylor was born on 26 March 1815 in Midlothian, Scotland and baptized onto April 1815 in Canongate, Edinburg, Midlothian, Scotland. I want to track down the original of the baptism record because I’m not certain that “Robinson” will be the name shown on the original as I have also found an earlier index of a marriage record for George Taylor and Helen Robertson (daughter of Thomas Robertson), on 31 March 1812 in Canongate, Edinburg, Midlothian, Scotland (I also need to get the original of that record to verify the names recorded). It could be that George was married and had a daughter, Margaret, before marrying Ann McArthur. I’m unable to confirm or deny this theory through DNA testing because it isn’t my direct line. I have a lot of double-checking to do before I can confidently say that George married Helen before and that Margaret is Helen’s daughter and not Ann’s, but it is a possibility I am exploring.

As noted in my prior post, George Taylor and family arrived in Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Upper Canada in 1832. As reported by the Puslinch historical Society, in their section on the research regarding the owners/residents of the original lots of the Township, George's daughter Margaret Taylor (age 19) was married to William Graham (age 33) on 9 December 1934 in Ancaster by John Miller, minister. William Graham was born to  William Graham and Catherine Ross, in Dornoch, Sutherland, Scotland in about 1801; he was baptized on 25 November 1801. He arrived in Québec in 1830 and bought land in Puslinch Township outside of Guelph, Ontario in 1833. When he married Margaret Taylor, he was a millwright and built the first sawmill in Puslinch on lot 23 in the 8^th Concession. His obituary said he built the first three sawmills in Puslinch Township. The 1840 Puslinch Assessment rolls shows that William owned Lot 13 of Concession 8, a 100-acre lot with 15 acres of cleared land. William and Margaret had four sons: William Graham (1836-1891), George Graham (1838-1926), Alexander Graham (1840-1926) and Duncan Graham (1843-1906). I think Margaret died shortly after the birth of her fourth son. I haven’t found a record of her death yet, but William Graham married Catherine “Connie” McKenzie (1815-1888) on 2 January 1846. I found it interesting that one of the witnesses to their marriage was a Peter Robertson; it made me wonder whether he was related to George’s first wife Margaret Taylor (which would tend to support my hypothesis that her mother was Helen Robertson and not Ann McArthur – it’s something to check out). William and Connie had three children: Robert (1849-?), Murdoch (1849-1931), and Catherine (1855-?).  William Graham died on 25 September 1892, in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada after four days with pneumonia.

Map of Puslinch Twp, Wellington County, Ontario original concessions and lots.
Published in 1860 Historical Atlas of Wellington County,  In the Public Domain..
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For the purposes of this post, I am focusing on William and Margaret’s second son George Graham, Sr., my first cousin three times removed, mainly because I was intrigued by his pioneering spirit: courage, sense of adventure, and dedication to hard work. Some of my nieces have asked me if I’ve found that we are related to anyone famous. My answer has been: not that I’ve been able to find yet, but we are related to a whole bunch of pioneers, people who go off into the unknown and choose to hack out a life at the edge of civilization and help make it into a community and a Country. George Graham is a good example of this.

George Graham was born in Guelph, Upper Canada (which later became Guelph, Ontario, Canada) on 13 August 1837. I wonder whether his mother was visiting someone in Guelph at the time because the family lived in Puslinch Township, which was about 16 miles southeast of Guelph. In those days, you didn’t just drive 16 miles to give birth. Roads were few and rudimentary; vehicles were not necessarily common and were pulled by horses or slower moving oxen at about 5-9 miles per hour. Most people just walked. In the 1851 census (actually taken in 1852), George is 14 and living with his father and stepmother and brothers on the east side of Brock Road in Puslinch Township. His father is listed as it a farmer and he and his brothers as laborers.

According to Beautiful Stony Keppel: including the village of Shallow Lake, 1855-1986, page 335, “In 1856, George Graham walked from Guelph to North Keppel. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Graham and other family members had come from Glasgow Scotland and settled on a farm at Guelph. The farm he chose has a wonderful view from the top of the hill overlooking the bay. Two other brothers, Alexander and Murdoch, followed George to North Keppel to purchase farms.” A History of the County of Grey, p.201, 202 states that William Graham arrived in the Township of Keppel, Grey County, Ontario, in 1863. The family lore told me by my newly found distant cousin’s wife holds that George walked from the farm in Puslinch to Keppel Township with only the axe his father gave him and his father’s blessings. It is about 170 km or 105 miles between Puslinch and Keppel Townships. [Can you imagine, at age 19, walking about 100 miles, through mainly frontier wilderness, to look at land to bid on and buy, knowing you intend to carve your life out of that wilderness with not much more than an axe to start out with? Can you imagine encouraging your 19-year-old son to do so?]

Representational Map of George Graham's walk in 1856,
edited section 1860 map of Canada West (in the Public Domain)
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Keppel Township is a peninsula between the Colpoy Bay on the north and Owen Sound on the east, on the Great Lakes.  A huge fishing industry developed there early as there was an abundance of fish. The town of Wiarton was later located on the northwest corner of the Township. Keppel was the largest Township in Grey County and was named after the family of Lord Bury, head of the Department of Indian Affairs, who negotiated the land transfer of the Owen Sound Indian Reserve, from the Ojibway to the Canadian government under the Saugeen Treaty of 1854. According to the Bond Head treaty of 1836, the Saugeen Peninsula in Owen Sound was supposed to be reserved and protected as Native territory. However, the Saugeen Treaty of 1854 granted the government approximately 50,000 acres in return for being paid regular annual interest payments on funds from all Crown sales of the ceded territory (the payments received, or amount of them, has subsequently been disputed, as well as the capacity of the First Nation participants, who may not have been the actual leaders of the tribe to whom the land belonged, and who largely couldn’t read or write English, to contract away the rights of the Ojibwa to the Saugeen Peninsula). [Link to text of the Saugeen Treaty.] As soon as the 1854 agreement was signed, survey teams began to lay out the concessions and divide the township into lots of 100 acres each. The surveying continued through the early spring of 1856. In about that time, the Government of Canada began advertising land in the County of Grey saying it was open to settlers on the following conditions: 50 acres as a free grant, and 50 more on the purchase at $.50 an acre, to be paid at a later date. No one could get a grant if he did not go and reside on the land and make certain improvements before the issuance of the deed. A public sale auction of hundred acre plot of Keppel Township land was held in Sydenham (later the town of Owen Sound) was held on September 2, 1856. It is probable that George walked to Sydenham to bid on property in 1856, and having bought it, initially returned to Puslinch, as he shows up in the 1861 census, in Puslinch with his parents and siblings, where he is described as age 23 and a laborer; it is also possible that he may just have been visiting that day and recorded as present at that location that day. According to the Gazeteer & Directory of the County of Grey for the year 1865-1866, George Graham had obtained Lot 37 of Concession 24.

Map of Keppel Twp, Grey County, Ontario, original concessions and lots.
Published in 1880 Historical Atlas of Grey County. In the Public Domain.
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Graham Hill Keppel Twp, Grey, Ontario CA  June 2014
Today called Big Bayside Road 250537-250536
used with permission  from E. Graham
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George’s future wife Julia Lenora Ward was living in Grey County in 1861, in Sullivan Township. Their daughter Josephine was born in 1861. It was not abnormal for children to be born before the wedding on the frontier; there may not have been a Presbyterian church in the area yet (I’ve been looking for a reference to one and not found one yet in that year). George and Julia were married in the Grey County on 14 April 1863. Their family quickly grew: Margaret was born in 1864, James was born in 1865; Mary Ann in 1867, William in 1869, and George Taylor in 1870.

An early pioneer, Elizabeth Atkinson Hambly, in the late 1920s, gave a talk to the Mount Horeb Women’s Institute, which was excerpted in Beautiful Stoney Keppel: including the Village of Shallow Lake, 1855-1986, pp. 9-10. The talk described life in Keppel in the early pioneering times; her family came to Keppel in 1862, about the same timeframe as George Graham and his young family. According to Ms. Hambly, the first thing one had to do was clear a space in the bush to build a log cabin or shanty, which was usually 10’ x 12’, using only a hand axe. Wedge pieces of timber called chinks were shoved between the logs, and if necessary, stuffed with moss to keep out the wind. There was only one door, hung on wooden hinges, and one tiny window about 8” x 10” (small to protect against bears and wolves, which were plentiful). The roof of the shanty was made of split cedars called clapboards and the floor of hand-hewn basswood. There was a fireplace where cooking was done, a roughhewn table, and a bunk which served as a seat by day and a bed by night – you would either lie lengthwise or crosswise depending on the size and number of children. There were no cupboards, but only holes bored in the walls and pegs pounded in with a flat piece of timber laid the top to form shelves.

Drawing of Log Shanty, Ontario CA by William Harlow White. 1875. In the Public Domain.
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After the home was built, and the timber cut down, rolled into piles and burned, potatoes or grain was planted among the stumps. The following season wheat was generally planted and when ripe was cut with a sickle and bound by hand. The County History noted that while the grains produced in the area were excellent, in the beginning farming was primitive. When it came time to harvest the grain, a tree with a spreading top would be cut down, the branches on one side trimmed off, a pole laid across the top and the branches spread out and fastened to it by vines or strips of basswood bark, and the grain or hay would be placed on top of that. Then oxen were hitched to the log end of the tree and the load was drawn this way to the stack, or barn if there was one. Initially, the grain was flailed by hand, and later a horse or oxen-powered threshing machine was used. [YouTube video of threshing wheat by hand with a flail ]  In the springtime, maple sugar and syrup was made and stored or taken to the store in exchange for provisions. In Ms. Hambly’s family, when enough land was cleared and fenced, sheep were raised. I don’t know if George Graham raised sheep, but the rest of this account is likely very close to how George and his family lived in the early years of their settlement. The production of livestock developed slowly at first because of a large number of wolves in the area.

From about 1833, when the British Parliament abolished slavery, to the end of the American Civil War, escaped slaves made their way across the Canada-US border via the Underground Railroad which included Great Lakes steamboats and sailboats. Many settled in the Village of Sydenham (now Owen Sound), Grey County, the last terminal of the Railroad. Keppel Township is a peninsula northwest of Owen Sound. As soon as the land survey was underway in the late 1850’s, Keppel’s population began to increase, as white men and their families made their way into the area, purchasing farming lots. By 1865, there were 194 families in Keppel, and by 1871 there were 379 families. The increase in population brought in such conveniences as several saw mills to Keppel so that houses and boats could be made with sawed lumber rather than hand-hewn, lightening the load of the early pioneers. Blacksmith shops and cooperages (barrel makers) also arrived, as well as shops to make wagons and sleighs, and general stores.

The County History noted that in the years 1860 and 1862, the effect of the early frosts on the crops planted by the pioneers was so serious that the Council petitioned the Governor General for a remission of the interest accruing on the price of the Crown and school lands held and occupied by the settlers. Beautiful Stoney Keppel noted, at pp. 440-441, that in 1869 the winter came on soon after the middle of October and stayed persistently until the middle of April 1870, the snow becoming deeper and deeper. “Potatoes and turnips were left in the ground all winter and were dug up in good condition in April. The total amount of snow that fell during this winter was 22 feet.” (22 FEET!!)

In the 1871 Canadian Census, George, Sr., was 32, and Julia, 29, and their children Josephine (12), Margaret (7), James (5), Mary Ann (4), William (2), and George Taylor (7/12) lived in the Township of Keppel, County of Grey. Although George, Sr., and the children had been born on this continent they identified as Scotch. The local culture encouraged that; even the church services were in Gaelic.  George’s wife Julia was born in England. George is listed as a farmer and the three oldest children as “going to school”. The family was Presbyterian. George and Julia’s family continued to grow, adding sons, Joseph Tuckey in 1874 and Duncan in 1876, and their daughter Ruth Elsie in 1880. Sadly, they also mourned the brief life and death of their son John Alexander Graham who was born in 1873 and died 11 months later on January 29, 1874. The death record states that he was teething and had been ill for three weeks before he died.

In total, George and Julia had 10 children. Think of it, Julia was nearly always pregnant and/or nursing for over 10 years. In addition to George’s continuous farming labor and hunting to feed and support his family, Julia’s work would have been as difficult. A woman’s work in those pioneering times was described in Beautiful Stoney Keppel, at p. 215. In addition to caring for the children; there may have been chickens to feed and eggs to collect; cows to feed and to milk; butter to churn; a garden to plant, tend, and harvest; food to cook for the family on a daily basis, and more food to preserve for the winter months; washing to be done; clothes and home furnishings to be sewn; wool to be carded and spun; socks and mittens to be knitted; quilts to be made and stuffed; candles to be dipped; soap to be made from animal fat and lye leached from ashes. In addition, many women worked in the field with their men, and  nursed the sick in the family and/or community. It was not an easy life on the frontier for anyone.

In 1873, the Toronto Grey & Bruce Railroad arrived at Owen Sound, and in 1882, the new railroad line to Wiarton opened on July 1^st, making it easier to take trade goods out of the area to bigger markets, and to visit family in other areas. Prior to that, most communication with the outside world was done via ship on the Great Lakes out of the port at Owen Sound. With the arrival of two railways in town, Owen Sound became a major shipping center. By the 1880's, the waterfront was frequented by Georgian Bay and Lake Superior steamers.

Drawing of the town of Owen Sound,  by  George Harlow  White. 1875
In the Public Domain.
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At the time of the 1881 Canadian Census, George was 40 and a farmer and his wife, Julia, was 38. Josephine was 21, Margaret 16, James 15, Mary 13, William 12, George 10, Joseph 6, Duncan 4, and Elsy was 1. James, Mary, William, George, Joseph, and Duncan attended school. They are still Presbyterian and everyone except Julia identifies as Scotch; Julia is from England. But by the time of the 1891 census, the census taker indicates that George (51) and the children were born in Ontario while Julia (49) was born in England. George is still a farmer and James and George are listed as working as farm labor. Josephine and Margaret have gotten married and left the household (see below). James was 26, William was 22, Mary Ann was 24, George was 20, Joseph Tuckey was now known as Tuckey and was 16 years old, Duncan was 14 and Ruth was 11. The whole family could read and write, and no one was deaf, dumb, blind, or unsound of mind.

George’s wife Julia died in on January 5, 1897, when she was 59 years old. In the 1901 census, George (62), now widowed, is shown as living with four of his children in a household headed by his son Duncan (24). The other members of the household are Mary Ann (32), Joseph T. (26) and Ruth E. (20). Duncan is a farmer; and while no one else is listed as working or having an occupation, I expect all of them are helping on the farm. Beautiful Stoney Keppel, at p. 336, states that George Sr.’s son George, Jr. bought the farm from his father some point; it looks like that occurred after 1901. I lost George, Sr. in 1911. I cannot find him in the census. Well, I found one George Graham, age 72, in Toronto but I don’t recognize the people that George is living with so I can’t confirm that he is my George Graham even though the search function for the 1911 census at the Library and Archives of Canada (which I used after I couldn’t find anything on Ancestry) tells me that there is no other George Graham age 72 in all of Canada in 1911 (and 119 George Grahams total in Ontario, and 200 in all of Canada, looking with the age box left blank, and I can’t confirm any of them as him). But then, I also seem to have lost all of George’s offspring in the 1911 census, as well, since I can’t find any of them (odd and aggravating).

I found George (now 83) again in the 1921 census; he is living at 546 Alpha Street in the city of Owen Sound with his youngest daughter Ruth (30). Confusingly, they indicated that the house they are living in is both owned and rented monthly, but it doesn’t list a payment amount, so I tend to believe that they own it as the instructions to enumerators for the 1921 census indicates that column 7 is to give the amount of the rent paid per month if rented (it says “BB” or “88”, but the instructions for enumerators do not indicate what that abbreviation should mean – I observed that this particular enumerator frequently broke the rules as set forth in the booklet “Instructions to Commissioners and Enumerators, Approved by Order in Council, 1921”). 546 Alpha Street is a single detached home made of concrete block and has six rooms. They can speak English but not French. It indicates that George has an income and is retired; his daughter has no a job or income.

546 Alpha Street, Owen Sound. June 2014. Used with permission from E. Graham.
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George Graham, Sr., died five years later on 11 May 1926. George was 80 years and nine months old when he died. He was buried on May 13, 1926 in Greenwood Cemetery in Owen Sound; the cause of death is listed as apoplexy and contributory causes were old age and valvular heart leakage. The physician who signed off on the death record was W. J. Frizzell, and the name of the undertaker was R. A. Breckenridge.

The children of George Graham, Sr., and Julia Lenora Ward are as follows (as I’ve been able to find):

Josephine Graham (1861-1937), married Donald McKenzie and had one child, Oswald.

Margaret Graham (1864-1936), married John Thomas Perry and had three children: Minnie Alberta, George Thomas, and Viola May.

James Graham (1865-1923) – I was not able to find very much about him and don’t know whether he ever got married or had children.

Mary Ann Graham (1867-1937, of ovarian cancer), never married, 30 years a nurse.

William Graham (1869-?), married Margaret Walker. I don’t know if they had any children.

George Taylor Graham (1870-1941), married Bertha Marshall and had 12 children: Gertrude, Clinton, Ross, Julia, Tressa, Mina, Donald, Duncan, Gordon, Sadie, Inez, and Malcolm.

John Alexander Graham (1873-1874).

Joseph Tuckey Graham (1874-1936), married Hattie [?] and had three children: Donald, Ross Tucker, and Evelyn.

Duncan Graham (1876-?), married Maud Gardiner in 1901 – I have been unable to find out whether she died or whether he divorced her – but he subsequently married Goldie L Eddy in 1909. Goldie and he had seven children: Ruth E., George Edward, Arthur T., Vernon W., Marjorie M., Robert W., and Mary L. I’ve not found any children with Duncan and Maud. He immigrated to the United States in 1904 (settling in Shiawassee County, Michigan).

Ruth Elsie Graham (1880-? – she died sometime after 1937).

Many thanks to EG for letting me look through her private Ancestry Tree.

In the future, I’d like to look for George’s homesteading records, and check the Upper Canada Sundries records and the Sessional Papers for him. I’d also love it if I could find a historical (contemporaneous) local newspaper archive that has been digitized and is online.  And if anyone knows where everybody got to in 1911, please let me know in the comments below or at the email address in my “Contact Me” page; I am intensely curious (since I lost everyone in the family)!

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If you want citations in greater detail, contact me. However, I’m not a professional genealogist and I don’t keep them to professional Mills standards; mine are just to ensure I and others can find it again.

Ancestry.com, Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA, FHL Film Number: 1067742, 990561, 990561.  Ancestry.com, Scotland, Select Marriages, 1561-1910 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: FHL Film Number: 1067744; Annals of Puslinch (1850-1950), Puslinch Historical Society, Puslinch, Wellington, Ontario, Canada (http://www.clarksoftomfad.ca/AnnalsofPuslinch1850-1950.htm); 1840 & 1844 Assessment Rolls, Puslinch Historical Society, Puslinch, Wellington, Ontario, Canada; The McPhatter Letters, collected by Matthew McPhatter and compiled by Anna Jackson, Published by the Puslinch Historical Society, p. 31, John Hammersley interview letter; Obituary of William Graham (clipping, paper unknown); “Historical background on traveling in the early 19^th Century,” http://www.teachushistory.org/detocqueville-visit-united-states/articles/historical-background-traveling-early-19th-century; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_in_Canada; Beautiful Stoney Keppel: including the village of Shallow Lake, 1855-1986 by Betty Warrilow, Betty Siegrist, William Bev Shouldice, Keppel Township Historical Society, Shallow Lake Ontario: Keppel Township Historical Society, 1986; A History of the County of Grey by Edith Louise Marsh, Grey County Council (Ontario), Owen Sound, Ontario: Fleming Pub. Co., 1931; http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ojibwa/; http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_treaties/fp_treaties_preconfed.html; https://www.owensound.ca/owen-sounds-black-history;  http://www.blackhistorycanada.ca/timeline.php?id=1800; The Canadian Census of 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, and 1921; transcription of the “Gazeteer & Directory of the County of Grey for the year 1865-1866”, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wjmartin/grey1.htm; http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/searchmapframes.php; Booklet “Instructions to Commissioners and Enumerators, Approved by Order in Council, 1921” found at http://www.ccri.uottawa.ca/CCRI/Images/1921%20Enumerator%20Instructions%20-%20English.pdf; http://www.osaic.com/index.cfm?page=221; Gaelic in Grey County,  by Mary McTavish, 2010, www.leithchurch.ca/Gaelic.doc; Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Registrations of Deaths, 1869-1938. MS 935, reels 1-615, Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Ancestry.com. Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947 [database on-line]; Ancestry.com and Genealogical Research Library (Brampton, Ontario, Canada), Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928 [database on-line]; Ancestry.com. Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947 [database on-line]; 1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta; Ancestry.com. Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913 [database on-line];USA Federal Census for 1920 and 1930; Ancestry.com, Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867-1952 [database on-line]; Owosso Michigan City Directories, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1989 [database on-line] ; U.S. WW1 Draft Registration Card; Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]; Find A Grave Memorial# 121602063 (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=121602063&ref=acom); and Ancestry.com. Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913 [database on-line].

52 Ancestors (plus!): Grace Gregor Bentley (1864 – 1929) Home is WhereFamily Is

Where Grace Gregor Bentley (1864-1929) Lived
Image copyright to Google Maps
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Last year I did the 52 Ancestors Challenge with Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small Blog. This year she is continuing it, but is using themes for each week. I hadn’t thought to participate even though I knew I wanted to continue the ancestor bio sketches, albeit at a slower rate,  but she did tell me at the end of last year that I could drop in and out of it as I needed. This week her theme is “close to Home” and it seems to fit Grace Gregor, my great grand aunt, in an odd way. She moved huge distances in her life with her family, and for her, it seemed that as long as family was there, she was home. And, frankly, as I was writing it, this became more of a family entry than a person entry.

Grace Gregor was born in 1864 in Morriston in Puslinch Township, Wellington County in the British Province of Unified Canada (three years later that area would become Ontario, Canada when three provinces joined to become the nascent Dominion of Canada in the British Commonwealth). She was the fourth child and youngest daughter of Benjamin Gregor and Elizabeth Taylor; my great-grandmother Anna’s younger sister. They lived in Puslinch Township, where her father was worked as a farmer and laborer. Both her parents died before Grace was 17. Her oldest brother had moved to Burnside Township Michigan in the year before their father’s death on March 15, 1888, and when their parents died Grace, her older sister Anna, and younger brother Benjamin moved to Michigan to live with him in Goodland Township in Lapeer County. The 1884 Michigan Census showed Grace’s siblings living in the township of Goodland, in Lapeer County: James (27) worked in “lumber manufacturing”, Anna (24) was his housekeeper and Benjamin (17) attended school. The same document indicated that a female of 18, who had previously lived in the household, had married Anson Bentley on August 18, 1884.  

Grace married Anson in Burnside MI on August 18, 1884; their witnesses were Anson’s brother William and Grace’s sister Annie (my great-grandmother). Anson Jacob Bentley was the oldest son of George B. Bentley and Sarah Buck; he was born on 31 July 1856 in Dorchester, in Elgin County in the Unified Province of Canada.   [His younger siblings were Gertrud (born about 1863), William (born about 1866), Emma (born about 1870) and half-brother Duncan (born about 1876).]  He grew up in Canada. I’m uncertain of when he moved to Michigan, because his self-reported dates don’t really agree with some of the documentation I’ve found.

Grace and Anson lived and farmed in Burnside MI for about twenty years. All of their children were born in MI.  Grace and Anson had six children: Sarah E. (later known as “Essie” – I expect from her initials, “S.E.”), born May 16, 1884; George Gregor, born March 25, 1886; Gertrude G., born October 20, 1890; Benjamin F., born May 9, 1893; Josephine A., born November 8, 1898; and  Anson Buck, born 1902.  (Note: some trees on Ancestry showed one more short-lived child born after they left Michigan, but I’ve not found him independently yet.)

The 1900 census showed that Anson was a naturalized citizen. As of the late 1800’s a woman’s citizenship status was dependent on that of her husband, so Grace would have become a citizen when Anson did. I’ve not yet been able to determine when Anson became a citizen of the U.S. because, although he asserts in later census that he was in the USA by the 1860s, he is counted in the Canadian census and not the U.S. Census through 1881 and the 1890 census doesn’t exist. I haven’t found his naturalization documentation yet.

At some point between 1902 and 1905, Anson & Grace moved the whole family to Gove County, in western Kansas. According to the 1905 Kansas state Census, Anson & Grace and the family were homesteading and farming in or near Alanthus, in Larrabee Twp, Gove County (Alanthus was a farmers’ “post office” village, and has since become a ghost town). Their oldest daughter, Essie, was a school teacher but had been unemployed for 7 mos. of the prior year.

Gove County Kansas by Chris Hartman CC by 2.0
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Monument Rocks in Gove County KS by Lane Pearman CC by 2.0
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The Homestead Act was signed by President Lincoln in 1862. Under the provisions of the Act, a homesteader could claim 160 acres of public land by applying and paying a filing fee of 10 dollars at the nearest land office to claim the land temporarily. Then he or she (single women could apply too) had six months to begin living on the property. If the homesteaders lived on the 160 acres for five continuous years, built a residence and grew crops, they could then “prove up” or file for their deed for the property, by filling out forms describing the boundaries of the land and the improvements they had done to it and having two neighbors or friends sign as witnesses that the homesteaders thus vouching for the truth of his statements about the improvements to the land. After completion of this final form and payment of a $6 fee, the homesteader received the patent for the land, signed with the name of the current President of the United States. Another option was to purchase the land from the government for $1.25 per acres after living on the land for six months, building a home, and starting to grow crops.

I don’t yet know which method Anson and Grace chose. But it must have been successful, because, by the time of the 1910 Census, Anson owned their farm, although it was mortgaged at that time. The 1910 Census also shows that Grace’s oldest brother, James, his wife, and seven children farmed next door to them. James owned his property too, but in coming years would move his family to the next county over (Lane). It must have made the huge move easier for Grace to have her brother join her in her new home.

In 1908, Grace and Anson’s daughter Essie married Edward S. Allen, a native of Colorado; she was 24 and he was 30. By 1910, she and her new husband, Edward, were living in Pueblo, Colorado, where he was a shipping clerk for what looks to be the Commission House.

After the census in 1910, Grace and Anson’s middle daughter, Gertrude, married Leo Levi Baker. They were both 20 years old.

In or about 1912, Grace and Anson, and those of their children who remained at home, bought and moved to a ranch near Merna, Wyoming. Anson formed a partnership with his sons to run cattle on the ranch. At least by 1914 (per the Big Piney Examiner), Grace and Anson’s daughter Grace and her husband Leo lived in the nearby community of Daniel, Wyoming, and by 1920, farmed and ran cattle on a ranch down the road from A.J. (as Anson was now known) and Grace, and their sons Benjamin, Anson B., and their daughter Josephine.

Bentley & Sons Cattle Brand, Big Piney, Wyoming
In the Public Domain
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On October 6, 1917, Grace and A.J.’s son George married Nan Ethel Wallace, in Kemmerer, Wyoming; he was 31 and she was 25. They lived in Wyoming through at least the mid-1920’s, then per the Pine Dale Roundup, lived in Oakland CA, and later, near Reno, Nevada.

A.J. and his sons dissolved their partnership in 1918, when the youngest, Benjamin, went to fight overseas during WW1. He served in the Army as a first sergeant in France through the end of the war. He returned to Wyoming after the war.

During the time the family lived near Merna, WY, there were hundreds of mentions of them in the local paper, The Big Piney Examiner. Most were small two-line mentions, describing one or more of the family “calling on” someone, attending a dance, going to summer school in Laramie (Josephine), riding for cattle, snowshoeing to the Post Office, or arriving from someplace on a coach.

On July 1, 1920, Grave & A.J.’s son Benjamin married Kathryn Cavanaugh in Quinter, KS in the presence of only immediate family and friends. They honeymooned in Colorado, then returned to their own ranch near Merna, Wyoming. Benjamin was described by the newspaper as “a prosperous young cattleman of the Cottonwood Valley and recently returned from overseas where he served as a sergeant in the army.” The article noted that his bride was “a charming young woman who has taught school in western Kansas for several years.”

By the time of the 1920 Census, Grace and A.J.’s daughter, Essie, her husband, and their three children had also moved into a farm, or ranch, in the same county as her parents.

On November 16, 1921, the doctor was called to the ranch because Grace had suffered “a stroke of paralysis”. Daughter Josephine’s wedding to Marshall Gordon Dunham, jr., was postponed due to her mother’s serious illness. The couple were finally married a very small ceremony at the house of her parents, conducted by Rev. Herbert C. Kimmel of the Big Piney Community Church on New Year’s Day morning, 1922, at 8:00 AM, followed by a “sumptuous wedding breakfast.” The newspaper said of the couple,"both parties are well and favorably known here, and have a host of friends who wish them a happy and prosperous wedded life….” They lived in the same county as her Josephine’s parents’ ranch for much of the early and mid-1920’s.

Throughout the 1920’s Grace travelled, sometimes alone and sometimes in the company of one of her daughters, several times a year to visit her children and grandchildren, spread across the country, staying anywhere from two weeks to an entire season during the course of her visits.  Her trips to visit family took her to nearby towns in Wyoming, and as far away as California, Kansas, Colorado, and Idaho. I did not see a newspaper article mentioning an occasion in which A.J. travelled. He did host his sisters when they came to visit them in Wyoming, from Michigan and Kansas.

In 1923, when A.J. was 67 and Grace was 59, they gave up ranching and moved into Pinedale, WY, where A.J. opened a store, “The Bentley Fruit, Vegetable, and Grain Cash Store.”  In August of that year they celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary. He operated that store for five years. Within that time, he also became a city councilman.

1923 Ad for The Bentley Fruit, Vegetable, and Grain Cash Store in Pinedale WY
in the public domain, Click to make Bigger

In or about February 1925, Grace and A.J.’s son, Benjamin, and his family moved to Olympia, Washington, where he found work as a longshoreman. His sister Essie and her family also moved to Olympia at or around the same time frame.

Tragically, Grace and A.J. received word in late February, 1926, that Benjamin had been killed in a freak accident at work. He had been hit by a timber being loaded onto a ship. It had knocked him into the water, and despite dredging the river, his body had not been found. His body wasn’t found until nine days later.  Examination by the coroner showed that he had been killed by the blow and not by drowning. The family was devastated, and in the weeks that followed, they pulled closer together – several of the ones who lived out-of town came to stay with their parents and siblings for several weeks.

It looks like his brother’s death brought home to Anson Buck how short life could be. He married Thelma Olynn Porter on September 14, 1926, at the home of her parents in 1926. Directly after the service the couple went to Pinedale, WY, where they received guests and congratulations at their parents’ home on September 15.

In October of that year Grace traveled to Twin Falls ID, with her daughter, Gertrude, to visit with her daughter Josephine’s family and to see Benjamin’s widow and his three children (Thomas, Dora Berenice, and Benjamin, Jr.). The number of Grace’s visits to family and the duration of the visits increased after Benjamin died.

In June 1928, Grace went back to Kansas, wither her daughter, Gertrude. She visited her grandchildren (Benjamin’s children) in Utica, KS, and her brother, James, whom she hadn’t seen in several years, and took a side trip back see their old home.

In early January, 1929, at age 72, A.J. decided to close his store and made a deal with Jasper Paulsen to take the property. He liquidated his stock throughout the month, and closed his store on January 17, 1929. Thereafter, he moved to Twin Falls ID, where Grace was spending her winter with their daughter and son-in-law, Josephine and Marshall Dunham. He was contemplating opening a new store in Swan Valley ID in the Spring.

Unfortunately, he lived only a month after closing his business. A.J. Bentley died on February 18, 1029, of bronchial pneumonia.

Grace survived him by only ten months. She had gone to Sparks NV to visit her son George’s family in the winter of 1929. On December 13, Grace’s daughter Gertrude received a message that her mother had had a stroke, and another the next evening, telling that Grace had died on December 14, 1929, at age 65. On December 26, 1929, the Pinedale Roundup newspaper noted that Grace was survived by her three daughters and two sons: “Mrs. E. S. Allen, Olympia Washington; George Bentley, Boise, Idaho; Mrs. Leo L. Baker, Daniel, Wyoming; Mrs. M.G. Dunham, Twin Falls, Idaho; and Anson B. Bentley, Twin Falls, Idaho. Ben F. Bentley preceded his mother in death three years ago. There are living fourteen grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Bentley.” 

Anson's and Grace’s estates were finally settled in 1948.

-          Essie and Edward Allen’s children were: Dorothy G, born about 1910; Virginia E., born about 1915; Hugh S., born about 1917; and Wlliam S., born about 1920.

-          George and Nan Ethel (Wallace) Bentley’s children were: George W., born about 1920, and Marjorie Nan, born about 1922.

-          Gertrude and Leo Baker’s children were: Harland Bentley Baker, 1915-1956, and Leo M., born about 1920.

-          Benjamin and Kathryn (Cavanaugh) Bentley’s children were: Thomas L., born about 1921; Dora Berenice, born about 1924; and Benjamin, Jr., born about 1926. Kathryn subsequently married Edward W. Gegg in Kansas and had another child named Don, bout about 1930.

-          Josephine A.  and Marshall Gordon Dunham’s children were: Marshall Gordon Dunham, jr., 1922-1958; Barbara, born about 1925; Daniel, born about 1937; and Joyce, born 1938.

-          Anson Buck and Thelma (Porter) Bentley didn’t have any children that I found. Anson B. later married Leona May Workman on 24 April 1934 in Coalville Utah. Their children were Verda Ann, born about 1935; Virgie Lou (Virginia, maybe?), born about 1937; and A Blaine, born about 1939.  I lost Anson & Leona after 1940, there may be more kids.

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I’d like to find out more about Grace's and Anson’s Michigan and Kansas years.

I’d like to know how they met, why they decided to move to Kansas, and why they moved to Wyoming.

I’d like to know what happened to the kids in the rest of their lives.

I’d like to know if Grace ever saw her sister Anna (my great-grandmother) again after she moved to Kansas & on to Wyoming.

If anyone knows more about Grace and Anson and their life, or their kids, and are willing to share, please contact me by leaving a comment below or emailing me at the email address listed on my Contact Me page.

(If you want a fuller cite for anything below, just ask. All are digital copies.)

Canadian Census for 1861, 1871 & 1881; U.S. Census for 1880, 1900, 1910, 1220, 1930, & 1940, Michigan State Census for 1894; Kansas State Census for 1905; Michigan Marriage Records; Idaho Death Certificate; Idaho Findagrave Memorial # 101419295 and # 101419340; Washington Findagrave Memorial # 102686392 & # 5870615; Wyoming  Findagrave memorial # 40044921; Washington State Death Certificate; Western States Marriage Index Marriage ID #235344 & ID #235344; U.S, Findagrave Memorial  # 9332098;  Bellingham, Washington, City Directory (U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011) for 1927, 1929, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1942, 1945, 1947, & 1949; U.S. Social Security Index; WW1 & WW2 draft registrations for George, Benjamin, & Anson B.

Big Piney Examiner, Big Piney, Wyoming for June 25, 1914 (p.3); February 24, 2016; November 23, 1916;  January 17, 1918; January 3, 1918 (p.7); April 8, 1920; July 1, 1920 (p.3); January 5, 1922 (p.1); July 31, 1922;  October 4, 1923 (p.1); and February 21, 1929 (p.1). (Found at NewspaperArchive.com)

Pinedale Roundup, Pinedale, Wyoming, for November 17, 1921 (p.7); June 28, 1923 (p.1)August 23, 1923 (p.7); November 15, 1923; August 20, 1925;  March 4, 1926 (p.5); September 2, 1926 (p.1); September 16, 1926 (p.1)October 7, 1926 (p.7);  March 31, 1927; June 16, 1927; June 7, 1928 (p.7); January 3, 1929 (p.7); January 17, 1929 (p.7); July 11, 1929 (p.7); December 26, 1929 (p. 8); December 19, 1929 (p. 1 & 7); and July 15, 1948 (p.2). (Found at NewspaperArchive.com)

The Morning Olympian (Olympia, WA), Thursday, September 2, 1926, pp. 1 and 6 (found at GenealogyBank.com).

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 

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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
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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.
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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.)

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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.