Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Chapter 25 – My Pennsylvania Ancestors – Part II

Chapter 1 of the book “Freedom by Degrees, “Emancipation in Pennsylvania and its Aftermath” by Gary B. Nash and Jean R. Soderlund published in 1991, begins with the following sentence: “In 1811, ironmaker Colonel Thomas Bull of East Nanmeal Township, Chester County, registered with the county clerk a six month old black girl Haney. In doing this, Bull ensured that he could keep Haney as his servant [his slave] until she reached 28, which, if she did serve that long, would make her one of the last blacks in Pennsylvania to serve under the terms of the state’s gradual abolition act of 1780.” The chapter goes on to describe Colonel Bull’s other slaves, his “clinging to his slaves,” and “his continued interest in their labor. . .” The chapter further notes that “Bull resisted emancipation” and “It was for Thomas Bull and others like him that the [Pennsylvania] Assembly passed an abolition law that actually freed no slaves and could have kept blacks in bondage as late as the 1840s and beyond.” During his life that we will describe in detail in a future chapter, Thomas Bull was the manager of the Warwick Furnace, an iron forge in Chester County that was a major employer of slave labor before and after the Revolutionary War. Despite the fact that Thomas Bull was almost 70 years old when he registered Haney in 1811 as required under the terms of the [Pennsylvania] abolition act of 1780, he still steadfastly held to the institution of slavery and its symbol of his elevated social status. Despite the fact that Pennsylvania’s abolition act of 1780 was mostly an ineffective political compromise, it strangely achieved its intended results far faster than might have been expected under the terms of the act. At the peak of the slave trade in Pennsylvania in the year 1765, there were approximately 8,000 slaves. By 1780, the number had dropped to 3,750, and in 1810 only 795 were recorded. In 1810, the Chester County census counted only 7 slaves most of whom must have been owned by my 5th great grandfather, Colonel Thomas Bull (1744-1837).

At first I thought that it was strange that no other writings that I reviewed about Thomas Bull, including a detailed family biography titled “Bulls of Parkeomink, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and their Descendants” writing by James Henry Bull in 1907, made any mention of the fact that he was a slave holder. Then again, until recently, it was seldom mentioned in history books that such great Americans as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were also slaveholders. We definitely did not read about George Washington as a slaveholder in my 6th grade social studies class in the late 1950s nor about Thomas Jefferson bedding his young slave girl and her giving birth to their son. Today we generally accept the fact that the majority of the population in our country in the 1700s and early 1800s looked at the institution of slavery as quite normal, therefore to judge my great grandfather harshly by our current standards because he was an advocate for slavery is probably unfair. That is not to say that the signers of our Declaration of Independence many of whom were slaveholders, did not wallow in the epitome of hypocrisy what with their signing a document proclaiming that “all men are created equal. . . with certain unalienable Rights . .” including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (that document excluded of course the 500,000 black slaves living in our country as of July 4, 1776, and by “all men” what they really meant was all white European men that owned property and of course, women were excluded.) Some no doubt were troubled by this double standard although it does not appear likely that our Thomas Bull fell into that category. During the American Revolution thousands of slaves escaped from their American masters, masters who were both British Loyalists as well as American Patriots. These black men, women and children who ran away were hoping to gain their freedom by joining with the British military forces for protection. Unfortunately while some of the men found work serving as unpaid laborers for the British and a few actually served as soldiers, the rest including the women and children struggled to stay alive battling a lack of food and smallpox outbreaks in the camps. After the defeat of the British at Yorktown in 1781, almost all of the surviving escaped slaves were rounded up and returned to slavery although a relatively small number of slaves were given their freedom and removed on ships to places like Nova Scotia. It is estimated that only around 5,000 black men fought with the Americans during the war and even then many of these men were slaves that served in the war at the direction of their master. On the other hand, it is believed that over 100,000 African Americans (about 1/5 of their total population) fled their masters to join the British. The ultimate irony that we can draw from all of this is that had the British defeated the Americans in their War for Independence, slavery in the American colonies may have ended many years earlier and the American Civil War likely would not have taken place. While today it is “politically correct” to include the study of African Americans in our school textbooks, this inclusion is nevertheless long overdue and should not be the subject of criticism.

This chapter will continue the history of my early ancestors who immigrated to Pennsylvania during the period of William Penn in the late 1600s. I will begin by related the story of the Bull Family. For the record, the daughter of Thomas Bull married the son of William Farmar Dewees and as you may recall, the biography of William Dewees is included in Chapter 21, My Pennsylvania Ancestors – Part I

The Bull Family
Bull Generation #1 – John Bull (1674-1736):
The map to the left was prepared by Thomas Holmes and published in 1687 only a few years following the grant to William Penn of Pennsylvania in 1681. The map shows several interesting aspects of the history of Pennsylvania. First it shows how quickly Penn was able to parcel out the land. In only six years he had granted hundreds of thousands of acres of land to hundreds of new settlers. Secondly, this map is a “roadmap” of Pennsylvania as it existed in 1687 although there are no roads shown on the map with the exception of the streets in the new village of Philadelphia. Actually, the “roads” are shown in great detail on the map; however in this case the roads are called rivers, creeks, and streams. As we have learned and discussed in prior chapters, these rivers and streams were critical in the development of our country and the spread of our population. Philadelphia was built at the confluence of the Delaware River (shown running across the bottom of the map) and the Schuylkill River (shown in the center of the map running bottom to top.) The Schuylkill River served as the major transportation artery into early colonial Pennsylvania and its tributaries with their fast moving waters were used to power the early grist mills that ground the wheat and corn to make flour to feed the early settlers. The first tributary of the Schuylkill River shown on the map is the Wissahickon Creek where we learned in Chapter 21 that the Rittenhouse and the Dewees families constructed our country’s first papermills and the Farmar family constructed a major grist mill known today as “Farmar’s Mill”, a National Historic Site. Further upstream on the Schuylkill River we also learned of iron forges constructed along the river’s tributaries and in particular we learned of Valley Forge located at the confluence of Valley Creek and the Schuylkill River where my great grandfather William Dewees operated a forge and where George Washington encamped his army during the winter of 1777-78.

John Bull is mentioned in historical records for the first time in 1717 when he purchased land in the “Manor of Gilbert’s”. The Manor of Gilbert’s (shown on the enlarged section of the Holmes’ map to the right) was a huge plot of land (over 10,000 acres) that was set aside by William Penn for his own development. He named the land Gilbert after his paternal grandmother, Joan Gilbert, and it embraced the whole of the present day townships of Upper and Lower Providence and parts of Perkiomen and Worchester townships in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The Manor of Gilbert’s was bisected by the Perkiomen Creek, another tributary of the Schuylkill. The intersection of the Perkiomen and the Schuylkill is located a short distance upstream from Valley Forge (identified as “Mountjoy” on the 1687 map) and not far from the land of Jasper Farmar shown in the lower right hand corner of the map.

The origins of the Bull family and John Bull in particular, is not known. Some Bull Family genealogists believe that the family emigrated from Radnorshire in Wales. The only evidence that is offered in support of this is that many of the earliest settlers in this region of the Perkiomen Creek were from Wales. Furthermore, Edward Lane who sold to John Bull in 1717 some of his 2,500 acres of land in the Manor of Gilbert plat that he had purchased from William Penn in 1701, was also known to have encouraged immigration and the sale of his land to early Welsh settlers most of whom were Quakers. I do not believe that this evidence is sufficient to state definitively that the Bull family origins were Welsh. It should also be pointed out that most of the Welsh settlement in Pennsylvania took place on the western side of the Schuylkill River in an area generally referred to as the “Welsh tract” which included parts of present day Chester County, Delaware County, and Montgomery County but east of the Manor of Gilbert area in present day Lower Providence township. The Welsh Tract consisted of around 40,000 acres and it is believed that by the year 1700 about one third of the 20,000 settlers in Pennsylvania had emigrated from Wales and spoke Welsh. It is very possible that John Bull was Welsh but I believe that it is more likely that he was from mainland England and possibly from Bristol, where Edward Lane is known to have lived. We further know that John Bull was a member of the St. James Episcopal Church [Church of England] located in present day Collegeville, a church that was founded by Edward Lane shortly after 1701, probably on land that Lane had donated. We really know little of the life of John Bull other than he was a farmer, a large landowner (some 400 plus acres on the Shippack Creek, a branch of the Perkiomen Creek), and a devote member of his church. The above sketch of St. James Church shows how it appeared when John and Elizabeth and their family attended services there in 1721. The original log building that first served as their church had burned and John Bull probably assisted with the construction of the new stone church shown in the sketch. John’s wife’s name was Elizabeth and her maiden name is unknown. The couple had six children including my 6th great grandfather, Richard Bull who was born on the family farm in 1714. One of their sons, John Joseph Bull, my 6th great granduncle, is believed to have married an Indian woman who converted to Christianity and together they moved to Ohio where they became missionaries.

John Bull died in November of 1736; Elizabeth is believed to have died on the same day as her husband possibly both of them succumbing to the same illness. Together they were buried in the old church cemetery next to the St James Episcopal Church located just to the east of the town of Collegeville in the small hamlet of Evansburg along the banks of the nearby Skippack Creek. Richard’s gravestone simply states: “Here lyeth the Body of John Bull, who died November 1736. Aged 62 years.” The engraving on the gravestone of Elizabeth has been worn almost smooth by time and is illegible.

Generation 2: Richard Bull (1714-1799)

Richard Bull, the third child and second oldest son of John and Elizabeth Bull was born in 1714 at his parent’s home located along the banks of the Shippack Creek in the present township of Lower Providence in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. As is the case with most of my early colonial ancestors, I learn of the life of Richard Bull primarily by reviewing the early church and land transaction records as well as any other available public records and from these small pieces of information I attempt to determine the value of Richard Bull’s life and his role in history. For example, on August 1, 1736 Richard Bull was among a group of 37 male members of the congregation of the St James Episcopal Church who filed a petition requesting the appointment of a minister for their small church in Collegeville. The church was located only a short distance from their home. Also signing the petition was Richard’s father, John Bull, his two brothers, Thomas, age 31, and William, age 17, and Richard’s neighbor and future father-in-law, Henry Pawling, and his future brother-in-law, Henry Pawling Jr. Richard was 22 when he signed the petition. From this document I draw the mental picture of a close family who probably all worked the family farm together six days a week and then every Sunday, the entire family together with Richard’s nephews and nieces, the children of his brother Thomas and his wife, all climbed aboard the family wagons for the short trip to the small church in the nearby village. It was probably at this Sunday service where Richard first met his future wife, Elizabeth Pawling, the daughter of their neighbor, Henry Pawling. The Pawling family had moved to the land immediately to the south of the Bull property when Richard was only two years old so it is very likely that Richard had grown up knowing young Elizabeth Pawling, who was five years his junior.

Only three months following the Bull family signing of the church petition requesting a minister, both Richard’s father and mother died suddenly. This was in early November of 1736. According to a biography titled “The Bull Family” written by James H. Bull in 1919 it was written that “Richard Bull first settled on the property left to him by his father’s will in Tredyffin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.” This one simple sentence in this extensive narrative of the Bull family caused me much confusion until I finally concluded that the author of the biography was probably unfamiliar with the geography of Pennsylvania and thus unaware that the Bull family property was actually located in the township of Lower Providence in Montgomery County located immediately to the north of Chester County. The vast majority of the Bull family trees uploaded to Ancestry.com show almost all of the children of Richard and Elizabeth Bull as having been born in Chester County and a few of the trees even list Richard Bull’s birth location as Chester County. I have concluded that Chester County is not where the family lived after the death of John Bull. They continued to live on the family farm along the Skippack Creek and they continued to attend the St. James Church until sometime shortly after 1760. Part of the confusion is caused by my not being able to find any St James’ church records for the period of immediately after 1740, although that is not to say that they do not exist. Richard Bull is listed as a vestryman of St James’ Church in 1740, however there is no record of his marriage to his childhood friend and neighbor, Elizabeth Pawling whom he married sometime between 1741 and mid-1743, and there are no records of the baptisms of his children born between 1744 and 1758. Of course, had the Richard Bull family actually moved to Chester County during this period, the records would be at another church. There were however, only two other Church of England congregations in this vicinity in the early 1700s, St David’s located near the village of Radnor in Delaware County about 20 miles to the southeast (noted as Mark C on map), and the Church of St Peter located in the northwest corner of Tredyffin Township in Chester County (noted as Mark B on map), located about 12 miles southwest of St James’ Church and their home (noted as Mark A on map below). Neither of these other churches record the Bull family as members of the congregation during this time period. The only real evidence that I could find that supports the believe that the Richard Bull family remained in Montgomery County after his father’s death and after 1740 is a listing in a newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, that is dated October 11, 1750 wherein Richard Bull advertises a reward of twenty shillings for the return of his “large bay horse” that was stolen from his field “last Saturday night.” The newspaper ad goes on to describe the stolen horse but more importantly it states that “Whoever will bring said horse to Richard Bull’s, or Henry Pawling’s [his brother-in-law], both of Providence township. . . .” therein stating that Richard Bull at least in 1750, continued to live in Montgomery County and not in Chester County as suggested in the narrative “The Bull Family” by James H. Bull. I dwell on this matter not only because I wasted a lot of time trying to discover where Richard Bull and his family lived between 1740 and 1760, but also to point out how important it is not to accept everything that is written in historical narratives as fact. One other interesting historical tidbit that I learned while researching these early “Episcopal” churches in colonial Pennsylvania is that prior to 1776 these churches were not called Episcopal churches as they are today. Prior to 1776, St. James’, St. David’s, and the Church of St Peter were all part of the mother Church of England which accepted the King or Queen of England as the head of the church. Naturally at the approach of the American Revolution, the concept of the King of England being the head of an American church became an extremely unpopular concept. One of the leaders of the revolt in this regard, was a soon to be general in George Washington’s Continental Army, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, who as a member of the congregation of St. James’ Church in Radnor, made sure that anyone who did not support the American cause was to be quickly run out of the congregation of his church. The American Church of England was later to be called the Episcopal church whereas in Canada and in England today the Church of England is called the Anglican church.

We can only speculate as to why in 1760 Richard Bull sold his land in Lower Providence Township in Montgomery County, his home for 46 years, and moved his family south to West Whiteland Township in Chester County, near “The Church of St. Peter in the Great Valley” (noted as Mark B on map), where he purchased over 400 acres of land which in 1760 was still in large part covered with forests. It is possible that Richard made the move for financial reasons as perhaps he was able to sell the farmland in Lower Providence Township at a huge profit. It is also possible that he moved so that he could change churches as he may have been dissatisfied with the leadership at St David’s. The only way that we will know his motives for certain will be to ask him and for the time being that will have to wait until later (much later I hope.) In 1763, Richard Bull was selected as a vestryman at the Church of St Peter and he served in that role until 1771. It is also recorded that in 1775 the Richard Bull family donated 76 English pounds for new pews for the church. The Church of St Peter in the Great Valley is shown in the above photograph taken shortly after the end of the Civil War. The construction of the original stone church was completed in 1744 and looked when completed much the same as the photograph although somewhat smaller. The church’s location was only two miles northeast from the site of the Paoli Massacre, a Revolutionary War battle fought in September of 1777 and both British and American casualties of that battle are known to have been buried in the churchyard. There is also strong circumstantial evidence that the then-abandoned St Peter’s church building located less than three miles west of Washington’s encampment at Valley Forge in 1778 was used as a crude hospital for the Continental soldiers. The church is still in existence and is in use each Sunday. It is set in a rural area on the valley hills surrounding the Valley Creek that winds its way northeast to the area of Valley Forge where it joins the great Schuylkill River. While Richard Bull left the area of the church and moved westward in the early 1770s, it should be noted that his oldest son, Thomas Bull, my 5th great grandfather, remained a member of the Church of St Peter and served as a vestryman of the church from 1787 through 1799 and occupied the prominent No. 2 pew. This pew may have been purchased by Richard Bull for his son in 1775 as it is not clear Richard Bull was still living near the church as late as 1775.

It is astonishing that Richard Bull after only a little over a decade of living in the “Great Valley” in West Whiteland Township once again put his land up for sale. In the November 2, 1774 issue of “The Pennsylvania Gazette” his ad reads in part: “To be sold by the subscriber, a plantation, of 150 acres of good limest one land, lying in the Great Valley, about two miles from the Sign of the White Horse, 28 miles from Philadelphia, and 20 miles from Chester; it having about 80 acres cleared, all well fenced and in good repair, also two good dwelling houses, barn and stables, and other convenient outhouses, and about 20 areas of good watered meadow, and more may be made; also a good or chard; the whole well timbered and watered; the right is indisputable . . . .” It goes on to note than an additional 100 acres is included and the purchase can be made by applying to Richard Bull, “living on the premises.” His land finally sold in 1775 and his son John Bull purchased a portion of his father’s land.

Richard Bull’s move with his two sons Henry and William to the Raccoon Valley located northwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania must have been premeditated. While the historical records are confusing and contradictory it appears that land was purchased in this area by the Bull family as early as 1763. In a history of the Bull Family it was noted that land was “warranted in the name of William Bull” on March 13, 1763 although this is conflict with information published on the historical website written by Perry County, Pennsylvania which states that the land was purchased by his brother Henry in 1763. In 1763, William was only 5 years old and his brother Henry was just 16 years old and I believe that it is safe to assume that it was their father who negotiated and purchased the land in the name of one of his sons, probably Henry. The location of their land is near the present day village of Donnally Mills and according to MapQuest the distance from their home in Chester County to their new land in Perry County is approximately 120 miles (Mark A to Mark B on map). Historical records seem to agree that on this new property between the years 1765 and 1767 a 3-story grist and saw mill was constructed of limestone followed afterwards by a stone dwelling. Since we know that Richard Bull was still an active member of the Church of St. Peter through 1771 which is the last year that he served as a vestryman and we also know that he occupied his home until 1775 at which time his land was sold, it appears that he may have traveled back and forth and spent some of his time at Donnally Mills assisting his young son getting his business started before finally moving himself, his wife and possibly his youngest son William (now 17) to Donnally Mills in 1775. Richard Bull was 61 years old in 1775 and pretty old to start his life again in what was mostly a wilderness area in the years just prior to the start of the American Revolution. The trip or the hard life in this new land may have cost Elizabeth Pawling Bull an early death, for there are no records of Elizabeth after 1775 and she is not buried with her husband in the Bull Hill Cemetery in Donnally Mills. Richard Bull however, was resilient for he lived until he reached the age of 85 finally passing away in 1799. The mill constructed by Henry Bull in the late 1760s still stands to this day (see photo). It was originally called Bull’s Mill although the name was changed to Donnally’s Mill when Henry sold the mill to Michael Donnally in 1836.

Before I continue this history story to the next generation on the interesting life of my 5th great grandfather, Thomas Bull, I think that it is worth diverting for a few paragraphs to narrate the history of Thomas Bull’s maternal grandparents and his great grandparents, the Pawling Family.
Generation #1: Henry Pawling (Birth date unknown - died 1692),Grandfather of Elizabeth Pawling, the wife of Richard Bull:

Henry Pawling arrived in America at an interesting time in American history as well as New York City history. On August 27, 1664, Henry, described in an historical account as “a gallant young Englishman of means, education, and enterprise”, was on board one of the four British war frigates that sailed into New Amsterdam’s harbor and demanded the surrender of the city and the land called by the Dutch as their New Netherlands. Two months later in October, the Dutch director-general, Peter Stuyvesant, formally ceded control of the city to the British commander and as we know, the city was later renamed New York after the current Duke of York (future King James II) and brother of the English King Charles II. Henry Pawling’s engagement in the takeover of the Dutch-controlled lands in North America marked the beginning of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. This war unlike so many wars caused by religious intolerances and struggles over the control of land, was a conflict caused primarily by mercantile competition and control over overseas trading routes. Furthermore, the Dutch controlled land in America represented for the British merchants, a much desired and lucrative trading partner once the Dutch were removed. The war itself which consisted mostly of naval battles, latest only until 1667, and except for the British retaining the City of New York under the terms of the Treaty, the Dutch immerged from the war as victors. The Dutch Republic was for the next few years at the “zenith of its power” with the world’s most powerful navy. In 1673, the Dutch briefly recaptured New Netherlands during the Third Anglo-Dutch War however, under a treaty signed in 1674, the city was again relinquished to English rule. Henry Pawling was to remain in America for the remainder of his life.

There are no records of where Henry Pawling lived in England. Some genealogists list him as hailing from Padbury in Buckinghamshire County, England although most historians now believe that our Henry Pawling is not the same Henry Pawling from Padbury who purchased land from William Penn in 1681 and shortly thereafter immigrated to Philadelphia. If Henry spent any time in London which no doubt he may have, he was very fortunate to have escaped the Black Plague which began in the spring of 1665 and at its climax killed seven thousand people in a single week. He also missed the Great Fire of London which started in September of 1666 just as the Plague was subsiding and burned for four days destroying much of London before it finally burned itself out. The date of Henry Pawling’s birth is unknown although the vast majority of the family trees on Ancestry.com list his birth date as 1650. Considering however, that he arrived in New Amsterdam in 1664 as a soldier and possibly as an officer, it seems extremely unlike that he was only fourteen years old at the time. Furthermore, if he were born in 1650 he would have been only 42 when he died in 1692 which is certainly possible in the 17th century, although the 1692 death date and the 1664 arrival date strongly hint to a more likely birth date of around 1640 or earlier. On the other hand, if Henry Pawling was born in 1640 he would have been 36 years old when he married 21-year old Neeltje Roosa on November 3, 1676 and 52 years old when his last child was born. I guess that I will have to be satisfied that I will never know the birth date of my 8th great grandfather. Fortunately, we do have many colonial records of Henry Pawling’s life in America.

Henry Pawling’s name first appears in the records when he was appointed to help layout lots in the town of Esopus (also known as Wiltwyck and later changed to Kingston) in November 1668. The village of Wiltwyck [“Kingston”] was located on a site of land where the Rondout Creek meets the Hudson River. This land was thought to be first used by Dutch fur traders in the early part of the 17th century. The first major settlement of Kingston occurred in 1652 when 60-70 settlers moved down from Fort Orange (Albany) and set up farms along the fertile flood plains of the Esopus and Rondout Creeks. In 1658, the Dutch authorities in New Amsterdam responded to Indian threats by sending soldiers to the settlement to aid in the construction of a stockade fort around the village (see sketch of the stockade to the left.) In 1660, the Aeldert (Albert) Heymans Roosa family, newly arrived from Holland, preceded up the Hudson River and settled in Kingston. With Albert Roosa were his wife and eight children including the future wife of Henry Pawling, my 8th great grandmother, Neeltje Roosa who in 1660 was about seven years old. In 1662, the Roosa family moved to the new settlement of Hurley (then called Nieuw Dorp) located along the Esopus Creek about four miles west of the stockade at Kingston. In 1663, the local Indians attacked the village of Hurley and the stockade at Kingston burning many homes, killing at least eighteen men, women and children, and kidnapping ten more (some report as many as 45 were captured) including two of the children of Albert and Wyntie Ariens Roosa. Albert was among the military party that subsequently subdued the Indians. Fortunately, the two Roosa children captured by the Indians were eventually returned. After the English gained control of New Netherlands in 1664, the new British governor, Richard Nicolls, placed a Captain Daniel Brodhead in command of the Kingston area. Apparently Brodhead mistreated the Dutch citizens in the area for in February 1667, the Dutch “burghers” revolted against the tyrannical conduct of Brodhead and his soldiers in what became known as the “Mutiny of Esopus”. One of the leaders of the revolt was my 9th great grandfather, Albert Heymans Roosa. He and others were subsequently arrested, tried, and found guilty and they were sentenced to be banished from the colony. Their sentence was later rescinded and Captain Brodhead who admitted to his ill-behavior was suspended from his command (and three months later he died.) It was in this volatile environment that our Henry Pawling was instructed by the governor to go to Kingston.

It is generally accepted that Henry Pawling was intelligent and well educated, and a “very influential man and a leader in public affairs” and a man of property. He probably was respected by his Dutch neighbors and hopefully by his father-in-law, Albert Heyman Roosa, and he obviously learned to speak fluent Dutch although he is known to have encouraged the Dutch Reformed church to offer services in both English as well as Dutch. It is believed that he was also able to speak the local Indian dialect. He was first ordered to proceed to the Kingston area in 1668 to help layout lots and to induce the English soldiers now living in the colony to settle in the area. He was also a member of a commission organizing the new villages of Marbleton, Hurley and Kingston and in 1669 while still serving as a British officer, he was made an “officer over the Indians” presumable with the responsibility of hearing Indian grievances and keeping the peace between the local Indians and the colonists. In 1670, Henry was commissioned to be “captain of the foot company”, the militia, for the towns of Marbleton (Mark C on map), Hurley (Mark B), and Kingston (Mark A) which was to immediately assume the responsibility for the security of the villages. At the same time the Crown soldiers that were garrisoned at Kingston were disbanded and encouraged to purchase land in the area.

Obviously the young and maybe impressionable Neeltje Roosa would have viewed Henry Pawling as an ideal choice for a husband despite his being a decade older. Everyone in the community knew Henry (although they may have known him as Henderick Palingh). Furthermore, Neeltje’s father was a sergeant in the militia and served under Captain Pawling, as did her older brother. Henry and Neeltje married on November 3, 1676 and they made their home in Marbleton about eight miles west of Kingston. Together they were to have eight children including their 7th child and youngest son, my 7th great grandfather, Henry Pawling Jr. who was born in 1689. Henry Pawling Sr. served as High Sheriff of Ulster County for four years beginning in 1684. Prior to his death in 1692, he was granted four thousand acres of land in Dutchess County (on the east side of the Hudson opposite Kingston)noted on early maps as the “Pawling Purchase.” Unfortunately he died before he was able to profit from the grant. The property was left in his will to his wife. Neeltje outlived her husband by over 50 years. Henry and Neeltje are excellent examples of how in America, people of two different cultures, English and Dutch, speaking different languages and attending different churches could marry and prosper, have children, and spread their inherent individual strengths into future generations.

Generation #3: Henry Pawling Jr. (1689-1739):

We learned in Chapter 21 of our family history blog, that my ancestor William Dewees lived on and owned during the American Revolution a portion of what today is the Valley Forge National Historic Park. I was pleasantly surprised to learn in my research of the Pawling family that my 7th great grandfather, Henry Pawling Jr., also owned a portion of the land that is presently within the Valley Forge National Historic Park. His property was located on the north side of the Schuylkill River. Several portions of the park have as their northern border, Pawling Road, obviously was named after the Pawling family who were very early settlers in this part of Pennsylvania.

Henry Pawling Jr. was born in his parent’s home in Marbleton, New York in the year 1689. He was under three years old when his father died and as there is no evidence that his mother ever remarried, Henry was probably raised by his mother and may have lived at his mother’s home until at the age of 24 he married 21-year old Dutch girl, Jacomyntje Kunst, on June 26, 1713. It is not clear exactly which village the Pawling family lived in Ulster County although genealogists list their first three children as having been born in Kingston including their third child and my 6th great grandmother, Elizabeth Pawling who was born on March 21, 1719. The only actual colonial record of Henry Pawling Jr. in Ulster County is his inclusion on a listing of soldiers in the “Marbleton Company of Foot” in an Ulster County Regiment of Militia in 1715. That that he served in a militia raised from Marbleton citizens suggests that their home was probably in Marbleton and not Kingston.

There is consensus that by September 1719, the Henry Pawling Jr. family had moved to their new home “in Lower Providence Township, on a plantation of five hundred acres at the confluence of the Schuylkill and Perkiomen [Rivers]. . .” Henry Pawling Jr. was only 30 years old when he moved his family from Ulster County, a distance of almost 180 miles. His older brother, John Pawling made the move with his family into Pennsylvania at almost the same time as Henry. The size of Henry’s land purchase (500 acres) and the location and quality of the land, described by one English diarist as “one of the most beautiful and healthful I have known either in England or America”, suggests that Henry Jr. was the beneficiary of some of his father’s wealth. If so blessed he nevertheless was able to prosper by his own efforts for it is written in a Pawling Family History that “. . Henry Pawling devoted himself to agriculture and reaped a competence. The inventory of his real and personal estate includes: eight slaves, eight horses, twenty-five cattle, thirty-one sheep and fourteen pigs.” Once again it is interesting to find another one of my ancestors as a slave owner and it is interesting to see that the slaves were included in a listing of livestock.

The Henry Pawling family, like the John Bull family their immediate neighbors to the north were early members of the St. James Church located near the present day city of Collegeville. Henry was listed as a vestryman in the first recorded meeting of the vestry in October of 1737 and he served in that capacity until his relatively early death in 1739. Henry is buried in the cemetery at St James Episcopal Church. The date and burial location of Jacomyntje is unknown although she may also be buried in a now unmarked grave in the cemetery at St. James. As we noted above their daughter Elizabeth married Richard Bull, the son of John and Elizabeth Bull. Thomas Bull, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Pawling Bull married Ann Hunter, the daughter of John Hunter and Ann Parry Hunter. Before we review the biographies of Thomas Bull and Ann Hunter, it is worth spending a few paragraphs discussing the parents and grandparents of Ann Hunter.

Generation #1: John Hunter (1667-1734):

John Hunter is the grandfather of Ann Hunter, my 7th great grandfather, and my great grandfather Eugene Ferree’s 4th great grandfather. We know almost nothing about the early childhood of John Hunter other then he was born in England in the year 1667 most likely to affluent parents in the gentry class. While some family historians have placed the year of his birth as 1664, the markings on his gravestone stated that he was 67 years old when he died in 1734 and I have seen no reason to question this statement. Historians also seem unable to agree as to exactly where he was born and how he ended up in Ireland. One common belief is that his “father was a prominent member of the Established Church of England” and “Upon the accession of King James II [who was a Roman Catholic] he moved to Rathdrum, Wicklow County, Ireland, to escape observation.” If this were the case, the move to Ireland would have taken place sometime after James II was crowned King of England in 1685. Even if we accept the fact that the family moved to Ireland around that time, it is unlikely a result of the fact that James II was a Roman Catholic. The Church of England was very powerful during that period and despite James’ attempts to encourage religious tolerances during his short reign such as allowing Catholics to serve as officers in the army and in civil serve positions, it seems doubtful that the Hunter family would have felt threatened by the Catholic King to the extent that the threat was a primary motive for relocating to “escape observation” especially to a county that was predominately Roman Catholic. In fact, one strong ally of King James II during this period was William Penn, himself a victim of religious intolerances. It seems a great deal more likely that the Hunter family head may have benefited from a grant of land in Ireland perhaps as a result of his father’s services in the military or in public service. This was a very common occurrence in this period of history and as you will recall both the William Penn family as well as my own Jasper Farmer family, were granted huge estates in Ireland for services rendered to the Crown. [See Chapter 15 of this Baker Family Tree history blog for more information on this subject.] There also seems to be a general consensus that the Hunter family lived in Northern England possibly in Yorkshire County where John Hunter’s brother Peter lived prior to his move to Ireland in the mid-1670s. I could find no convincing evidence however, to support the belief expressed by some family historians that John Hunter originally hailed from Medomsley in Durham County, England and was related to the prominent and ancient Hunter family that owned the estate known as Medomsley Hall. If there is a relationship, it has never been proven.

There are a surprising number of writings about the life of John Hunter although unfortunately many of the accounts are anecdotal in nature and many of the writings were probably based on earlier erroneous statements by others. While it is not unusual to find contradictions in historical accounts especially on the life of an individual who lived 300 years ago, in John Hunter’s case we find an unusual number of contradictions. The year of his birth, when and why he moved to Ireland, when he married his wife, the extent of his military career, when and why he emigrated to America, and the age and birth location of his children are all in question. In this historical account I have tried to offer my best interpretation as to the facts although I readily admit that there are valid reasons that others may disagree with my conclusions.

King James II was crowned King of England and Ireland in April of 1685 and almost immediately many prominent groups in England, namely Protestant members of the English Parliament and nobility as well as the clergymen with the Church of England, were unhappy with both James’ expressed and demonstrated belief in “absolute monarchy” (the King cannot be wrong), and with his attempts to increase the influence of Catholics both in public administrative offices as well as in the military under the guise of creating religious liberties for his English subjects. James II was as a Roman Catholic very much out of step with his countrymen who were overwhelmingly Anglican (Protestant) and very distrusting of Roman Catholics and the influence of the Pope. Furthermore, his efforts to raise his own army very much disturbed many in the English Parliament and finally in June of 1688, a small group of Protestant nobles invited William of Orange, the husband of James II’s daughter Mary, to come to England from Holland with an army to remove James II from power. William and Mary were both Protestants. Prince William arrived in November of 1688 and James rather than do battle with William’s army elected in December to escape to France. In France, James with the support of the French monarchy quickly raised an army to retake the English throne. In March of 1689, James with his French troops invaded Ireland where he immediately gained control of the island with the support of the native Irish who were predominately Roman Catholics. My great grandfather John Hunter as a Protestant Englishman living in Ireland, was obviously threatened by James and probably in anticipation of the invasion by James and his French army, may have removed himself in early 1689 to England to join the English forces or he may have stayed in Ireland and joined a Irish Protestant regiment organized to resist James’ invasion army.

We do not know for certain which regiment John Hunter attached himself to but it may very well have been Wynne’s Regiment of Enniskillen Dragoons, a regimental unit of horse soldiers that was initially formed in northern Ireland of Irish Protestants who had fled James’ invading forces. It is also possible that John Hunter went to England and joined Dragoons units such as the 4th and 5th Royal Dragoon Guards that were originally organized in England by King James II before he fled to France. The 4th and the 5th Dragoon Guards were known to have accompanied William of Orange when he went to Ireland with his army in June of 1690. What we do know is that John Hunter rode into battle on July 1, 1690 with 3,500 other cavalry soldiers alongside William of Orange and helped William defeat James and his French and Irish Catholic allies at the Battle of the River Boyne. John Hunter was only 24 years old when he rode into battle waving his broad sword over his head and it is hard to imagine that at this point in his short life, it was not the most exciting day of his life. The Battle of Boyne was the largest battle ever fought on Irish soil. It consisted of James’ army of 25,000 (of which 19,000 were Irish Catholics troops) against William’s army of 36,000 composed of Dutch, Danish, Swiss, and Huguenot troops as well as English, Scottish and Protestant Irish forces. At the conclusion of the battle that left behind around 2,000 casualties, a surprising small number considering the number of combatants, James’ army was left in defeat and James, the former King of England, escaped to France never again to return to England and reclaim his title. In fact, James was to be the last ruler of England to be of the Catholic faith. The Battle of the Boyne is significant in English history not only because of the defeat of James and the French, but also because it established for the next 200 plus years English control of Ireland’s politics and land ownership.

Many of the family biographies of John Hunter write that John Hunter’s military career culminated with the Battle of the Boyne and they further credit him with commanding a squadron of Dragoons during the battle. His young age of only 24 and his obvious lack of military experience make both of these assumptions a very unlikely possibility. It is far more likely as reported by other historians that John Hunter remained in the military for the next twenty years fighting the French and Irish in Ireland following the Battle of the Boyne, and later in the 1690s under the command of King William III against the French in Europe, and following the death of King William, fighting with the English army under the famous British commander, the Duke of Marlborough, in the War of Spanish Succession during the first decade of the 1700s. It was as a result of his achievements during these long years of war that John Hunter eventually rose to the rank of Captain.

During the period of my 7th great grandfather John Hunter’s life he was to be witness to a major change in the military power of England. Furthermore he was not just a witness to the changes but he was an active participant beginning with the “Glorious Revolution” in 1688 with the overthrow of England’s last Catholic King, King James II, the ascension of King William III, and the rising power of the English Parliament. King William III, the former William of Orange, sovereign Prince of the Dutch Republic and the other lowland countries, was to bring with him to the English throne (along with his wife Mary) the Dutch military forces which afforded him the power to defeat the French and Irish armies under King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. John Hunter is believed to be a standard bearer in the battle possibly in the cavalry unit known as “Coy’s Horse”, a regimental unit in King William’s army. When this regiment returned to England with King William after the battle, John Hunter remained in Ireland and joined the 5th Royal Regiment of Irish Dragoons which for the next year continued to battle the French and Irish forces in Ireland (sans King James II and William III) until the French and Irish forces were defeated at Aughrim on July 12, 1691. The Battle at Aughrim is known to be the bloodiest battle ever fought on Irish soil with 7,000 casualties and 38,000 participants.

It is assumed that after the last battle in Ireland, John Hunter remained with his Regiment garrisoned in Fermoy in County Cork until they were deployed in April 1694 to France to fight with King William’s army. While it is not entirely clear when John Hunter married his wife Margaret Albin, my 7th great grandmother, most sources believe that it was during this period of relative peace in Ireland in 1693 that they married and had their first child, a daughter Mary, who was born in 1694 possibly after John’s deployment to Europe. John Hunter remained with the 5th Dragoons fighting the French until peace was signed ending the inconclusive war in 1696 and the Regiment and John Hunter returned to Ireland.

Presumably John Hunter remained attached with his Regiment during the period of relative peace with France following the end of what is known today as the “Nine Years War” (1688-1697) or King William’s War here in North America, although no doubt much of his time was probably spent with his wife and growing family on their farm in Wicklow, Ireland located south of Dublin. By the time that war was again declared with France and his Regiment was marched back to mainland Europe in 1702, the Hunter family had grown to four children including my 6th great grandfather, John Hunter Jr. who was born in Wicklow Ireland in 1698.

This new war, later known as the War of Spanish Succession because of the endorsement by King Louis XIV of France of his grandson’s claim to the Spanish throne, a claim that would greatly increase France’s power in Europe, began in 1701 and officially ended with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The war was a world war in every sense of the word with the forces of the Grand Alliance consisting principally of the armies of Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, Prussia, Portugal, and Austria aligned against the armies of France, Spain, and Bavaria. It is estimated that over the course of the war over 500,000 men were engaged and tens of thousands of men were killed. Most of the major battles were large, savage, and costly in human life. History records that the Royal Dragoons of Ireland participated in all of the major battles of the war and in the “History Records of the Fifth (Royal Irish) Lancers” [or the Royal Dragoons of Ireland as they were known at the time] written by Walter Temple Willcox and published in 1908, John Hunter’s name is mentioned several times including the notations that he fought with the Irish Dragoons from 1694-1697 with the rank of Quartermaster, he held the rank of Cornet at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704 where he was wounded (and received extra pay as a result), and he fought with the rank of a lieutenant at the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709. It is fortunate that my 7th great grandfather was not killed during this period considering the wholesale loss of life at the numerous battles fought over the course of the War of the Spanish Succession. At the Battle of Blenheim in 1704 there were over 30,000 casualties, at the Battle of Ramillies in 1706 there were estimated 23,000 casualties, at Oudenarde in 1708, 18,000 casualties, and at the last major battle of the war, and the most costly battle, the Battle or carnage at Malplaquet fought in 1709, there were 32,000 casualties in the one day battle that involved 160,000 combatants. The hip wound that John Hunter suffered at Blenheim while leaving him with a slight limp for the rest of his life, was far better than a loss of life that struck down so many of his fellow comrades. John Hunter may have left the Irish Dragoons after 1709 and the only further mention of his name in the records is as a Captain of Foot in 1713 near the end of the war. It is this title of captain for which he is best known in the family history accounts but it is abundantly clear that he did not hold the title of Captain at the Battle of Boyne in 1690 as is reported in some Hunter family history stories. John Hunter retired from the military sometime in 1713 and he returned to his farm in Ireland. He was 46 years old in 1713 and he was undoubtedly exhausted from his years in the military: his old wound probably still bothered him on a daily basis and he must have resigned himself to the fact that he was too old to ride his horse into battle waving his sword and firing his pistol at the enemy. The European community and British people were also exhausted both emotionally and financially from the long years of war. The years of war however had a profound effect on the balance of power. The power of France to dominate Europe had been broken and the greatness of England had been established. George I was crowned King of England in 1714 and the period of “The First British Empire” was at its beginning.

Every narrative about the life of John Hunter always mentions his enduring friendship with Anthony Wayne. The store is worth repeating not only because of the length of their friendship but also because Anthony Wayne was the grandfather of “Mad” Anthony Wayne one of George Washington’s prominent and favorite generals during the American Revolution. The two men probably meet sometime around 1689 when they both joined the Protestant forces in Ireland who were engaging the invasion army of James II. Both men fought together at the Battle of Boyne in 1690 and later in Europe in Dragoon units fighting under King William III and later under the Duke of Marlborough. As friends they probably retired back to their farms in Wicklow, Ireland about the same time to raise their families. While there is some disagreement as to whether or not they actually immigrated to America with their families on the same ship, there is no disagreement that they settled near one another near Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, or that their families attended the same church and shared the same pew, and that they and their families and many of the descendants are all buried near one another in the church graveyard. As one website described the relationship, it was “A Friendship that Endured” despite the extremes of their lives in war and in emigrating to a new world late in their lives. It is a remarkable story of friendship.

All of my ancestors emigrated from Europe or England to America and most of them emigrated in the 17th and 18th centuries. In almost all cases the reason that they emigrated to America was to seek religious freedom or to escape religious persecution in their homeland. In a few cases the reason for their emigration was economical such as the circumstance of an indentured servant or a family trying to escape poverty. In one case, one of my ancestors was transported to America as a prisoner, and another as a military officer who elected to remain behind in America rather than to return to his home in England. The reason that John Hunter elected to emigrate with his family to America in 1722 is not readily apparent. He was not seeking religious freedom for he and his family were members of the Church of England and while Ireland was predominately Roman Catholic where he lived, the political and financial power in Ireland at the time was in the hands of Englishmen who were all Protestants. Furthermore, he was not forced to leave Ireland purely for financial reasons as he obviously had the capital to afford the expensive trip to America, purchase 1,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania, and build a large family homestead. The reason for the family leaving Ireland is complex and probably speculative.

John Hunter was 55 years old when he embarked on the ship headed for America with his family and their friends, the Wayne family, in 1722. The youngest Hunter child, James, was only eight years old when he left his home. Their oldest daughter, Mary, had left for America a few years earlier with her husband William Hill, and while they had heard little from Mary in the interim, what she wrote about her new life in America was mostly positive. Mary and William had married in 1717 shortly before their departure. John Hunter was probably disgusted or at least disillusioned with the conditions he found in Ireland upon his return from the war. The country was in the midst of both political and social unrest. The tariff and trade restrictions placed by the British government on the export of Irish grown cattle and wool had lead to a gradual economic decline in Ireland that was aggregated even further by unreliable weather conditions that resulted in food shortages particularly among the poor Irish Catholics. The famous Irish author Jonathan Swift [“Gulliver’s Travels”], a contemporary of John Hunter and an outspoken critic of the English Parliament’s treatment of Ireland, wrote a pamphlet in 1720, “A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture . .”, that attacked Parliament and proposed that Ireland refuse to export their products. Temple Scott wrote in his extensive footnotes to a 2008 electronic reprint of Swift’s famous pamphlet the following that may help to understand why the Hunter’s and the Wayne’s left Ireland, “An Impartial historian is forced to the conclusion that England had determined to ruin the sister nation. Already its social life was disreputable; the people taxed in various ways far beyond their means; the agriculture at the lowest state by the neglect and indifference of the landed proprietors; and the manufactures crippled by a series of pernicious restrictions imposed by a selfish rival.” The Hunter’s probably sold their land to an Englishman whose only intention was to subdivide and rent the land to Irish farmers. Absentee ownership of Irish land was very common in 18th and 19th century Ireland.

Some writings by family historians and genealogists claim that the Hunter family immigrated to America in 1711 and not 1722. I believe that there is enough evidence to disprove or at least cast doubt on this earlier date. Most historians believe that the Hunter daughter, Mary, and her husband William Hill preceded the Hunter family to America. If this is true, Mary Hunter would have still be a child of only 14 or 15 when she married and moved to America in 1709 or 1710. This is most unlikely and most historians believe that they emigrated between 1717 and 1720. Furthermore, John Hunter is listed as one of the executors of his father-in-law’s will prepared in 1720 in Ireland. It does not seem reasonable to believe that his father-in-law would have made John Hunter an executor of his will, if nine years earlier John had moved to America. Incidentally, his father-in-law, James Albin, died in 1722 and while this may only be a coincidence, his death may have made it easier for the family to leave Ireland. We also know that the Anthony Wayne family emigrated to America in 1722 (or 1723 as some report). Anthony and John and their families were close friends and I have trouble believing that had John Hunter moved to America in 1711, his close friend Anthony would have waited more than a decade to follow. There is also a strong family tradition that the Hunter family with the Wayne family emigrated together in 1722. John Hunter’s great grandson, Edward Hunter (1793-1883), the 3rd Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (in Salt Lake City, Utah), writing in his autobiography stated that his father told him that his grandfather, John Hunter, had crossed the Atlantic with Anthony Wayne. As I stated, I believe that John Hunter did not settle in Pennsylvania as early as 1711 and I believed that they traveled with the Wayne family to America in 1722.

The home pictured to the left was built by John Hunter for his family in 1722/23 near Newtown Square (Newtown Township) in Chester County (now Delaware County), Pennsylvania about twelve miles west of the City of Philadelphia. The John Hunter home is still in existence to this date and is currently owned by a private family. The Hunter Family joined the St David’s Church (then an Anglican church (Church of England)) located in Wayne, PA about four miles north of their home. Wayne, PA is named after General Anthony Wayne, grandson of John Hunter’s friend Anthony Wayne. The city was obviously not in existence when the Hunter and Wayne families joined the church in 1723. John Hunter is listed in the church records as having been a vestryman in 1725 and his family shared a common pew near the front of the church with the Wayne family which obviously cost the families a large donation to the church fund. John Hunter died at the age of 67 in April of 1734 and he is buried in the church graveyard. His friend Anthony Wayne followed him in death in the year 1739. They are buried near one another in the graveyard as are “four score” of John Hunter’s descendants as well as many of Anthony Wayne’s descendants. (St David’s Episcopal Church is pictured to the right).

In the next chapter of my Pennsylvania Ancestors, I will cover the life of John Hunter’s son, John Hunter Jr. and his wife, Ann Parry and her family. I will also narrate a biography of Thomas Bull who married the daughter of John and Ann Hunter. John Hunter is an ancestor of my great grandfather Eugene Hutchinson Ferree.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Chapter 24 - Henry Clinton Spaulding

In early June of 2009, my second cousin, Liz DuBois, wrote to me after she had read some of my family history stories in this blog. Liz is the granddaughter of Henrietta Spaulding, the younger sister of my grandmother, Helen Spaulding. Fortunately for our family, Liz's grandmother and later her mother were great collectors of family photographs and newspaper clippings such as wedding announcements and obituaries. Over a period of several weeks Cousin Liz was kind enough to scan and e-mail me copies of many of the photographs and newspaper clippings in the collection that she inherited. The new information that she provided inspired me to write this additional chapter about our Spaulding family ancestors to supplement what has already been written in Chapters 4 and 12 of this blog. Incidentally, Cousin Liz, is a great family geneologist in her right and I have learned a great deal from her over the past several months that we have corresponded. Thank you Liz.

The exact date of Henry Clinton Spaulding’s move from Vermont to Elmira, New York is not known for certain. What we do know is that his parents Phineas and Matilda Tichenor Spaulding are recorded in a “History of Eaton County” as having settled in 1836 in Kalamo Township in Eaton County, Michigan. Whether or not Henry’s parents lived in Chemung County, New York prior to moving to Michigan is not known but what we do know based on Henry C. Spaulding’s obituary notice in the Elmira newspaper in 1902 is that he settled in Chemung County “at a very early age.” There is also strong evidence to support the belief that Henry’s older brother, Phineas Sargent Spaulding, was a resident in Elmira for a time for his name appears in a listing of Senators and Representatives from Michigan in the “Early History of Michigan” published in 1867 and next to his name in the publication it lists his “Post Office” as Elmira, which no doubt means the location where he resided prior to moving to Michigan. Furthermore, Ancestry.com, while not necessarily a reliable source, has Phineas S. Spaulding (Henry’s brother) marrying Maria Butler in Elmira in the year 1832 which if true suggests that the Spaulding family including 20 year old Henry Clinton Spaulding was in Chemung County as early as 1832. In 1832 Henry Spaulding would have been 20 years old which would agree with his obituary notice that he arrived in Elmira at an early age. Obviously when Phineas and Matilda Spaulding and presumably their son Phineas Sargent Spaulding and maybe some of the other Spaulding children moved to Michigan in 1836, then 24-year old Henry Clinton Spaulding elected to remain behind in the Elmira, New York area.

When Henry’s future wife, Clara Wisner, arrived in Chemung County with her family is even less clear, although I did find one Wisner family source that recorded that Henry Wisner and his family relocated to Chemung County from Orange County, New York in 1834. In 1834, Clara was only 12 years old and she was at that point obviously not the object of Henry’s affection. Unfortunately, the assumption that Clara Wisner was in Chemung County as early as 1834 is shaken somewhat by the words of Clara’s own obituary announcement in the Elmira newspaper in 1906 that states “On December 30, 1840, she was united in marriage to Henry C. Spaulding in Orange County, the newly married couple moved to this city [Elmira, Chemung, New York] the ensuing year.” If Clara, her parents, and her brothers and sisters moved to Elmira in 1834, why then did she return to Orange County for her wedding? There is no doubt that Henry was a resident in Chemung County prior to his wedding and if Clara was still living in Orange County up to the date of their 1840 marriage, it begs the question as to when and where Henry meet his future wife? I believe that the simple answer is probably the correct answer which is that Clara lived with her parents in Elmira sometime prior to 1840 where she met and fell in love with Henry Spaulding. The Wisner family with their soon-to-be son-in-law Henry Spaulding decided to return to Orange County for the marriage so that they could be with the rest of the Wisner family and their other relatives. [The above photograph of Maria Smith Wisner, Clara Wisner’s mother, was taken in 1895 shortly before her death.]

We learn a great deal about the early life and the character of Henry Clinton Spaulding from his 1902 obituary notice. We learn that he was first employed as a farm laborer and went on from there to work on the Chemung Canal as a boatman. He “worked hard and faithfully” becoming a commander of his own boat which at the time was considered a “very high position, winning his promotion and success by honesty and fidelity to duty.” Clearly Henry Spaulding, irrespective of the praises expressed in his own obituary, was an aggressive individual who was at the right place at the right time. The Chemung Canal, constructed between the years 1830 and 1833, connected Elmira via a waterway to Seneca Lake to the north and from there ultimately to the Erie Canal whose construction had been completed in 1825. At this time in our country’s history travel and commerce via waterways was the fastest and least expensive way to move people and goods from one place to another. The opening of the Chemung Canal gave the small community of Elmira the opportunity to open trade with almost the entire State of New York including the new major upstate commerce centers at Buffalo, Rochester, and Albany. Almost immediately following the opening of the canal the population of Elmira and the surrounding area experienced a rapid population expansion as Elmira became the commerce hub of the Southern Tier of New York State.

The Chemung Canal contained so many locks between Elmira and Watkins Glen that travel between these two communities took about two and one half days by barge to traverse. Conversely, passenger travel by coach on the roads between the two villages took considerably less time which resulted in the canal being used almost exclusively for hauling commodities, principally lumber, coal, and agricultural products. Henry Spaulding took advantage of an opportunity with the opening of the canal and by the year 1840 he owned and commanded his own canal barge and had earned the respected title of Captain Henry Spaulding. When Henry married Clara Wisner in December of 1840 he soon realized that if he remained the captain of his own barge, the long hours spent on the canal would keep him away from his wife and their future child. Clara announced in early 1841 that she was expecting. Henry withdrew from the canal business shortly after her announcement and opened up a lumber business that he located on the canal near East Fifth Street in Elmira. In the ensuing years his lumber business expanded greatly to include not only the sale of lumber and coal, that was hauled up from Pennsylvania, but also the manufacture and sale of millwork items such as window sash and doors as well as other millwork specialties such as trim and mouldings. The business was to become immensely profitable for the Spaulding family and provide employment for his son, and later for his grandson, and after Henry’s death in 1902, for his son-in-law, and his daughter, as well as scores of others. The H.C. Spaulding Co., Inc. was finally sold in 1948 after being in continuous operation for 107 years.

The population of Chemung County, New York in 1860 immediately preceding the Civil War was 26,917 of which approximately 8,700 of the citizens lived within the village of Elmira. In 1840, just before the opening of the H.C. Spaulding (lumber) Company, the Chemung County population was recorded to be 20,732. During the intervening years between 1840 and 1860 the population grew by 30% and during the following decade from 1860 to 1870 of which the first half of the decade our country was engulfed in the American Civil War, the population of Chemung County grew by another 30%. An even more amazing statistic is that during the peak of the Civil War, the town of Elmira had grown from a population of 8,700 in the year 1860 to a population of 16,000 in 1864 plus another “floating population” of between 10,000 to 12,000 individuals consisting primarily of Union solders and Confederate prisoners-of-war. As we can only imagine this huge increase in the population was very good for all of the businesses in Elmira including the H.C. Spaulding Co., Inc. We have very clear evidence that Henry C. Spaulding prospered as a result of the Civil War. Beginning in 1862, President Lincoln and the U.S. Congress enacted a law that created the Internal Revenue Service for the purpose of taxing American citizens to help pay for the war efforts. The IRS records for Elmira show that Henry C. Spaulding was taxed in the years 1863 through 1866 and that both he and his son, Charles H. Spaulding, earned an annual income in 1865 of $4,400. Considering that almost a century later I only earned $5,200 in my first full year of work following my college graduation in 1964, I can appreciate what a huge sum of money $4,400 must have been in the mid-1860s. The large profits from their business that generated these high incomes was due in part to very profitable government contracts awarded during the Civil War. Incidentally, the income tax during the Civil War taxed earnings up to $10,000 at a flat rate of 3% and for incomes over $10,000 at a flat rate of 5%. This income tax was repealed in 1867. The government thereafter until 1913 derived 90% of its revenues through taxes placed only on alcoholic beverages and tobacco. Things have really changed and just think how easy it would be for us today if we prepared our taxes based on a flat rate, especially a flat rate of only 3%. One other thing worth noting is that the population of Elmira peaked in the 1950s at around 50,000, and has declined to the present day population of just under 30,000. Chemung County began its decline in population in the 1970s. New York State during the period of 1990 to 2000 experienced a growth rate of only 5.48% ranking it only 42 of the 50 states in population growth and 50 of 50 states in the number of its citizens that migrated from other states during the previous five years. New York State is also one of the highest taxed states in the United States which accounts for the slowness of its population growth as well as the tremendous loss of industrial business in communities such as Elmira.

In 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War, Elmira, New York was chosen as a “main rendezvous point” and military training base in New York State due primarily to its canal and railway systems that made moving goods and soldiers into and out of the area relatively easy. It is recorded that 20,796 soldiers were gathered, trained, and dispatched from Elmira during the war with about half of that number processed during the first year of the war. By early 1864 however, the number of soldiers being processed had declined greatly as had the amount of business generated for the locals by their presence. What happened next was to make Elmira infamous for the decision was made to turn one of the original army training barracks into a prison camp for captured Confederate soldiers. In July 1864, the prison camp was opened. In only a matter of months the prison became overcrowded and at one point there were over 9,000 prisoners, 2,000 more than the 30 acre confinement was designed to hold. Within the enclosure were woodened barracks housing 3,873 prisoners. The rest of the prisoners were crowded into canvas tents. The winter of 1864-65 was particularly brutal especially for the almost 5,000 Confederate prisoners living in the tents and with shortages of warm clothing, food, heat, and medicine it was not surprising that many men died of exposure or to diseases such as smallpox. In total in the course of a little over one year, 12,122 Confederate soldiers were housed in the Elmira prisoner-of-war camp, that the soldier’s called “Hellmira”, and a total of 2,933 men lost their lives. This is a total loss ratio of 24.19% giving the Elmira prison the worst record of all of the Union prison camps and almost as horrific a record as the far more infamous Confederate prison in Andersonville, Georgia where 28.7% of the estimated 45,000 Union prisoners died. Ironically, most of the dead Confederate soldiers were buried in Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery where many of my ancestors are laid to rest including my grandparents, Charles S. Baker and Helen Spaulding, as well as Helen’s great grandfather Henry Clinton Spaulding and his family. In an article written by Michael P. Gray entitled “Elmira, A City on a Prison Camp Contract,” he lists many of the businesses in Elmira that received government contracts for supplying material to the prison. The list includes a lumber order dated March 1865 to H.C. Spaulding for 22,000 feet of lumber for use in building coffins. The coffins and the remains of the Confederate soldiers in Woodlawn Cemetery lie only a short distance from Henry Spaulding’s gravestone. [The photograph above was taken of the prisoner-of-war camp in Elmira in 1864 and shows the rows of tents that provided the only shelter for almost 5,000 prisoners during the 1864-65 winter.]

Henry and Clara Spaulding had three children, their two daughters Alice and Clara who were the good friends of Samuel Clemens’s wife, and a son, Charles Henry Spaulding who was born in 1841. Charles Henry Spaulding probably started working at his father’s lumber business at an early age and as we noted previously his income in 1865 based on his tax returns was $4,400. He would have been only 24 years old in 1865. Charles married Mary Catherine Sly in 1862. Mary Catherine was the daughter of Mathew McReynolds Sly and the granddaughter of John Sly one of the earliest settlers in the Elmira area. [The photograph to the right below was taken of Mary Catherine Sly in 1870, eight years after her marriage to Charles H. Spaulding. The painting to the left of Charles and Mary Catherine’s son Henry was completed around 1870 when Henry was around six years old] The Sly family would have been considered at the time one of Elmira’s prominent families. Charles and Mary Catherine had two children, my great grandfather Henry Clinton Spaulding, named after his grandfather, born in 1863 and Catherine Spaulding born in 1867. Considering the wealth of the Spaulding family during this period, the young couple must have lived in a large home in a good neighborhood in Elmira. Unfortunately, I have been unable to learn much about the life of Charles H. Spaulding other than he was listed as an Alderman in the 5th Ward in Elmira in years 1871 and 1872. Charles’ early death in 1875 at the age of only 34 probably accounts for the lack of information about his life. The cause of his death is unknown although he most likely died of one of the many sicknesses common in this period of our history. Catherine outlived her husband by 39 years and according to her obituary she lived for many years after the death of her husband at the family homestead built by her grandfather John Sly located at the intersection of Maple Avenue and Sly Street in Elmira. This home before it was torn down was located almost across the street from the home of her son Henry Clinton Spaulding and his wife Ella McBlain Reynolds. It was also located just up the street on Maple Avenue from the home of my grandfather Charles S Baker and the home where my father was born in 1916.

Henry Clinton Spaulding must have been devastated when his young 34-year son and business partner, Charles Henry Spaulding, died unexpectedly in 1875. Henry was 63 years old when his only son died and he was probably looking forward to turning over, if he had not done so already, the day to day running of the business to his son. Charles’ only son Henry was 11 years old when his father died although I suspect that his grandfather had already begun grooming his young grandson in the ways of their business. According to young Henry’s obituary, he graduated from school with honors and was valedictorian at the school commencement in 1883. Not unexpectedly, he joined the H.C. Spaulding Co. one week after his graduation and was given a share of the business. In 1886, young Henry married Ella McBlain Reynolds and they moved into a large fashionable home which they had built at the corner of Maple Avenue and Catherine Street across from present day Brand Park in Elmira. Their wedding announcement described the gifts received by the newlyweds and provides us a look at the affluence of the families attending the wedding. “The friends of the young people bestowed presents without stint. Four large tables were completely set with the costly silverware. Among the gifts was a solid silver tea service given by Miss Catherine Sly, a complete set of table cutlery of all descriptions, from the mother of the groom, a complete china dinner and tea-set from Mrs. H.C. Spaulding.” In 1887, my grandmother Helen Mary Spaulding was born followed two years later in 1889 by her sister, Henrietta Spaulding. Unfortunately and tragically Henry Spaulding like his father Charles, died at a young age for in April of 1889 at his Maple Avenue home he succumbed to typhoid fever. He was only 25 years old when he died leaving his grandfather H.C. Spaulding at age 75 without a male Spaulding heir to carry on with the business. He also left behind his pregnant wife Ella with one young daughter, my grandmother, aged 2. At the time of Henry’s death on April 12, 1889, Ella Spaulding was one month pregnant with their second child Henrietta, who was born eight months later on December 15, 1889. It is entirely possible that Henry was not aware that his wife was pregnant at the time of his death. [The photograph above was taken around 1893 and shows Ella Spaulding and her two young daughters, Helen Spaulding on the left, my grandmother, and Henrietta Spaulding on the right.]

One final controversy that needs to be addressed regarding the younger Henry Clinton Spaulding is the date of his birth. We have copies of two obituaries for Henry from different newspapers and both obituaries list his birth date as November of 1864, although one paper lists the 12th as his birth date and the other the 13th. To confuse matters even more, one of the newspaper states that Henry “was in his twenty-fifth year” when he died and the other newspaper seems to believe that he “was in his twenty-sixth year at the time of his death.” It is possible that they could both be right if we assume that a 1-1/2 year old child is usually described as being a one year old child but in the second year of life. The only problem here is that if Henry was 25 years old when he died (and in his twenty-six year), he must then have been born in 1863 and not 1864 as reported in his obituaries. If Henry was born in November of 1863, he would have been 25 years old when he died in April of 1889, just shy of his 26th birthday in November of 1889. If he was born in 1864 Henry would have been only 24 when he died. Furthermore, based on the dates when the 1870 and the 1880 US Census were taken and taking into account Henry’s age listed in the census records, both census confirm that Henry Spaulding had to have been born in 1863 and not 1864. While neither of the following observations offer proof as to Henry’s date of birth, it is worth noting that Henry’s wife Ella Reynolds was born in December of 1863, younger not older than her husband, and his parents were married 13 months before his birth assuming that he was born on November 12, 1863 as believed.

Henry Clinton Spaulding the elder outlived both of his sons and finally died on February 25, 1902. As it stated in his elegant obituary: “. . . all in all, a man whose life was a blessing to Elmira. His death rounds out an unusually long period of well-spent years. He goes to his rest and reward followed by the grateful recognition of his manly worth and noble example on the part of the entire citizenship of the city of his love and his home.” Henry Clinton Spaulding (1812-1902) was my 4th great grandfather on my father’s side of my family.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Chapter 23 - The Pattersons of Dartmouth

Introduction
This chapter in our family’s history is a departure from the normal stories that I tell in this blog. The first major departure is that I did not write this chapter. It was written by my second cousin, once removed, Charles Arnold Patterson, known as Arnie by almost everyone, and it tells the story of his life and his family’s life growing up in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Why would this be of interest to us? Well, my grandfather, Douglas Ross Patterson, was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in 1888 one of the six children of John Riddle Patterson. John Riddle Patterson was the second oldest son of John “Jock” Patterson and the younger brother of William Patterson, Arnie Patterson’s grandfather. As I pointed out in Chapter 10, my grandfather when he was young in Dartmouth was an avid athlete as were many others in the Patterson family as you will see described later in this chapter. Grandfather Patterson however, at the young age of only 25 in 1913 chose to leave his family and Nova Scotia and he accepted a position with the YMCA in Lockport, New York. The following story titled “Memories” written by Arnie Patterson tells the story of one the Patterson families that remained behind in Nova Scotia, a story that could very well have mirrored our own lives had Grandfather Patterson not moved to the United States. The individuals described in this chapter are my great uncles and aunts and second and third cousins and it is with great pleasure that I am able to include this story in my family history blog. A special thanks to Cousin Arnie Patterson for taking the time out to share his story with us.

Memories
By Charles Arnold “Arnie” Patterson


The Pattersons have played a prominent role in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for more than 150 years. The progenitor of the clan, John “Jock” Patterson, a native of Paisley, Scotland, was somewhat of a celebrated local figure here, often seen clad in his kilts and his bagpipes crested. In that he fathered nine children with his wife, Margaret Leonard, a Dartmouth girl, meant that the reach of his clan has been both widespread and lasting. Any close examination of the history of our Patterson family would clearly indicate that they were not an academic or necessarily prosperous clan. Most were workmen, and many were involved in shipyard work as Dartmouth had a host of shipyards that build wooden ships on its Halifax Harbour front. My Memories will center largely on the Pattersons of Dartmouth. I think that I can add a new dimension to their already impressive tale, one more local and of a later date. [This photograph was taken of John “Jock” Patterson with his three sons. William, Arnie Patterson’s grandfather, is the tall boy in the middle. John, my great grandfather and my uncle Gene Patterson’s grandfather is the boy seated on the right. The third young boy standing on the left is John Patterson’s third son, Robert Patterson.]

My own father, Charlie, son of William, grandson of Jock, died in 1931 when I was only two years old. As such I did not know him although my mother, a story teller and a strong woman with an enthusiasm for life and an ambition for her four children, ages one to seven, kept my father alive with a continuing rendition of his life, especially his sporting triumphs. Our modest but very neat three bedroom home at 11 Sinclair Street in Dartmouth, near my father’s cherished Dartmouth lakes, was adorned with trophies and medals from my father’s athletic exploits. I still remember the scores of photos of him in his various sporting garb with his medals neatly displayed in our home.

As youngsters growing up we were very conscious of our family’s heritage which while not monumental in any sense, was a matter of pride and distinction for all of us. Our great-grandfather, John Patterson, at age 62 traveled with the Nova Scotia battalion that went west to fight dissident Metis Indians in what became known as the Northwest Rebellion. Jock, who had fought in the Crimean War with his Scots regiment, the Black Watch, returned to his roots as he was the battalion piper. The Rebellion took place in 1885, 28 years after his retirement from the then British service. My father’s two uncles, Charlie and Alexander, better known as Sandy, were stars of the famous Dartmouth Chebuctos hockey club that won the Maritime senior championship for eight consecutive years between1887 and 1894. Sandy later toured Europe putting on speed skating exhibitions and he was sponsored by the Starr Skate factory of Dartmouth, at the time and for more than 65 years, the largest skate maker in the world. My own grandfather, William, brother of Charlie and Sandy, was manager of the old Dartmouth skating rink. When it was rebuilt in 1884, it was known at the time as one of the finest rinks in Canada. It was noted for its outside lighting and given its location on a hill overlooking Halifax Harbour, for the lighthouse that perched on the roof of the rink. Other relatives of note were a cousin, Lee Lennerton, who finished third in the Boston Marathon in the early 1900s when the event was less celebrated then it is today. My father’s oldest brother, Archie, took part in the Boer War in South Africa as a boy bugler with the Nova Scotia regiment. My father, Charlie, was a noted hockey player and the Maritime speed skating champion in the 1910 era. He was also a crack marathon runner and a singles sculler. [In the photograph above, Arnie’s father, Charles Patterson, is shown with the rest of his championship hockey team. Charlie is in the second row, second from the left.]

Every Armistice Day, November 11, our mother would parade us to the Post Office for memorial services. One of the highlights for us was that our Uncle Arch did the bugle calls although sometimes in a shaky fashion. It did not matter to us for we were proud of Arch since he was a veteran of the Boer and First War (WW1) and he had more medals than any of the other marchers. On the Memorial monument at that location were inscribed the names of my father, Charlie, and his four brothers, all of whom had served in the Canadian army.

My father’s first cousin, Reg Patterson, a son of Charles the First as he was later identified by sports writers, was the long-time Maritime singles sculling champion. When we left the house each morning to go to school, our mother and our coach and mentor, would say, “Stand tall, be erect, and remember, you are Pattersons.” Reg, who was later killed in an explosion at the shipyards, lost his sculling title in 1937. I can remember standing on the shore of Lake Banook rooting him on when a big, bronzed man by the name of Dan Wallace of the Halifax Jubilee club, put on a burst of rowing and defeated Reg and the rest of the field. Sometime later I encountered Reg and asked him, I expect plaintively, what had happened. He said with a smile and a laugh, “Arnie, the bottom fell out of my boat.” As little boys without a father but a proud, strong mother we were heightened by her encouragement which was constant. In later life, and through most of my life, it has been a natural habit of mine to hug my children and my grandchildren and tell them how good-looking and how smart they are. My mother’s example lingers after so many years.

Jock Patterson had five sons and four daughters. The sons were William, my grandfather, John, Eugene’s grandfather, Charlie, Alexander (“Sandy”) and Robert. The daughters names were Jane Anne, Margaret Alice, Hannah, and Emily. Charlie and Sandy worked at the Dartmouth Shipyards as caulkers in their early careers and both were later prominent members of the Dartmouth Volunteer Fire Department. Charlie’s sons, George and Robert, were later the Chiefs of the full-time fire force, and both were highly regarded. John, Douglas Patterson’s father, was the superintendent of a large Dartmouth estate owned by the owner of the Mott Chocolate company which sold its products throughout the world.

I recall meeting my grandfather, William, only once. I was about five years old and my mother took me and my brothers to see him shortly before he died in 1935. As the manager of the Dartmouth rink and Exhibition Hall, he was widely known. I have seen many pictures of him and he was always very formally dressed in a black business suit and per the style of the day his whiskered face was adorned with a large drooping mustache. [The photograph to the right was made from a newspaper clipping circa around 1900. The gentleman in the rear with the mustache is Arnie’s grandfather, William. The young boy in the front is Arnie’s father, Charles.] William had married Mary Ann Warner, who was of an old Dartmouth family whom we were familiar with throughout our lives. They had seven children, five boys, and two girls. The boys were Archibald, William, Ernest, Harry and Charlie. The girls both migrated and were married in the United States. Arch was a painter with the Canadian Coast Guard whose ships were moored on the Dartmouth side of the harbour. William, who fathered an energetic clan of his own, worked at the Dartmouth Shipyards. Earnest, I believe was also a shipyard worker, while Harry, who learned his father’s ice-making skills, went to Boston where he became the head icemaker for the then Boston Arena. Like so many of his clan he was a speed skating champion. My father as I will detail later, worked at the then new Imperial Oil (Exxon) oil refinery just outside of Dartmouth. His cousin John, Doug’s brother, was later the superintendent of iron workers at this big plant and was probably instrumental in helping my father get the job when he returned from World War I. Both were recruited to play hockey for Imperial which I am sure also helped them obtain a job at the plant.

All hockey players were given nicknames such as Duke, Twitcher, Toughie, and Dutchy. My father’s nickname was Donkey. The name was given to him by British soldiers garrisoned in Dartmouth who marveled at the way he fought for the puck as a when he was a youngster. My father was also an outstanding figure skater and he put on exhibitions between periods in the hockey games. When I was a youngster playing the game I had several old timers come up to me and ask me if I was going to put a figure skating exhibition. Alas, no. I was a very average skater. My father, Charlie, was pretty much a full time athlete although he was the paid coach of the King’s University hockey team at Windsor, 45 miles from Halifax. This was a job arranged by one of his old Dartmouth friends, Walter Regan, who had moved to Windsor to open up a grocery store. Walter, the father of Gerry, later a Premier of Nova Scotia, and the grandfather of our current Member of Parliament, Geoff Regan, both Liberals, was the manager of the Windsor Swastikas hockey team. The swastika was then an emblem of the Mic Mac Indians. {The swastika was not adapted as a Nazi symbol until many years later and of course the symbol henceforth and forever took on the connotation of evil.] Regan recruited Charlie to play for the Windsor team and also got him the job at the nearby university, a post that he held for two years before the breakout of World War I.

Given his family’s background in the military, my father and his brothers were early recruits in the World War I effort and he was dispatched overseas with the Canadian Expeditionary Force where he was to spend almost four years in the trenches in that dreadful war. He was to survive although he saw and took part in some of the heavy fighting on several fronts, including the Somme. I visited the Canadian trenches at Ypres about 15 years ago, some still intact, and was shocked with the reality of the war. What a horrible way for a young man to spend four years of his life. While I regret that I had never heard any of my father’s war stories from him directly, my mother provided some commentary. There were a few times when the troops were given sabbaticals in the British Isles and my father fell in love with Scotland and apparently knew many of the old Harry Lauder songs which were popularized during the war. They were mostly Scottish tunes. We also had medals that he won in a track meet staged by the Canadian Army in France. In a letter home to his father, William, he wrote “I was named the top athlete in the meet, so I guess there is life in the old boy yet.”

As mentioned I never knew my father, but my mother’s stories kept him alive for us. As well, he left a series of letters which portrayed a sensitive and dutiful fellow. Earmarked “Somewhere in France” the letters he sent home were direct from the trenches. Here is a letter that warmed my heart. As you may know Halifax was hit with a major explosion in 1917 when an ammunition ship collided with another large vessel. Several thousand people in both Halifax and Dartmouth were killed and the north ends of both cities, especially those on the harbour front, were flattened. My mother, Mary Sullivan, R.N., was then an army nurse, and among others was summoned to help with the injured.

Here are two of my father’s letters:












My Beloved Mary,

We received word yesterday of the awful disaster that has occurred in Halifax, and I have been sick with worry for you, my love, and your dear family but God grant none of you have been hurt, and O! That I were there with you in your trouble. I am also concerned about my dear old Dad, and those of my family in Dartmouth, but not so much as I am about you my own sweetheart, you are the world to me, and I would want to die if I thought you were among those killed. But something seems to tell me that you are safe, and I will keep up heart, and pray to hear that you are all right. But, O! It will be so long until I hear from you my love, and days will seem like weeks.

Nothing in this awful war has made me as downhearted as when I heard about the explosion. There must have been hundreds killed from what I have heard. I would send a telegram if I could, but there is no place to send one from here, so all I can do is to sit sadly and wait for the news, but O! I could only be there with you now. Mary, my own, if you want any money to help anyone who has suffered through this awful catastrophe, please let me know and I can send you two hundred dollars out of my book, and it would be good to help, and I will feel glad to know that I can do a little to relieve suffering.

Dear sweetheart , if it were not for you, I would have been killed long before this, as I have often thought that it did not matter about me, whether I died or not, but then I have always said to myself, perhaps Mary loves me, as I do her, and everything may come out right in the end. Then I would cheer up and be careful not to get into any more danger that I had to.

I am worried about Jack and Edie (Mary’s brother and sister-in-law) as I understand from the English papers that the greatest part of the damage is in the north end. My dear Mary if any of your dear ones were taken away (God forbid!) be brave and bear up: but I know you will as I know you as a lovely brave woman. I only wish I could share your sorrows as I have in the past.

You asked me in your last letter which I received a few days ago , and which gave me great joy as you mentioned the show “Charlie’s Aunt” which we saw the first night we met. Yes, dear girl, it is as fresh to me as the very night itself as are the memories of you, the only girl that I shall ever love.

I cannot realize the awful scenes which the explosion must have caused, and to think that you, my love, may be dead at this very moment. No, no, I know God will watch out for you as he has me.

Yours Boy Ever,
Charlie

Good news was to follow:

My Dearest Girl,
How thankful I am that you and all of yours, and my folks, were spared in this awful explosion. Suffered more in the two months after the explosion than I had in all my life before, as I could get no word from home at all, but now everything has come out all right. I am praying and longing for the end of this nasty old war, and be back home with you again. We will make for all we have missed, won’t we, my darling.

He had received three copies of old Halifax Chronicles which gave him the details of the explosion.

There is one other letter I would like to quote from, and one that I think shows his sterling character, and perhaps even a part of the courage of a hockey player.

Dearest Girl,
My only desire is to see the end of this, most terrible war, and be back home with you. These are terrible days here, and many a good fellow is going under in ferocious battles. I am sure we will soon see the end of it all, and the Boche will be beaten, and I will come home. I feel more than content tonight as we are in a nice, clean billet with lots of new straw to lie on, and I hope to get a good night’s sleep. I just wish I could stay here until the war is over: but I suppose someone else would have do my bit if I did.

He signed his letters: ”Your Boy Charlie.” These letters and other tell me a lot about our dear father than I ever knew. Of course he did get home but not after six months in an English hospital for injuries that were not specified. When he got home he married his lovely Mary in 1920. They were to have four children of which I was the third born. Three boys and a girl, my sister Jeanne, who is the oldest and who continues to live in Dartmouth at age 87. Brothers Bill and Laurie both died a few years back. We will all very close and at one point the three of us were involved in our family radio operations. Sadly Charlie died in February of 1930 from cancer which my nurse mother always contended was due in part to gassing during the war.

My father had been prudent and we owned our own home, and as well he had bought Imperial Oil stock which strangely my mother kept, or some of it at least, until her own death 36 years later. My mother went back to nursing as a nurse with the Victorian Order of Nurses in about 1935 as I suspect funds were starting to run low. Fortunately her mother, our grandmother, lived with us and played a big role in our upbringing.

Memories – Part Two

While much of my emphasis is on the family of William Patterson, Dartmouth was a close-knit community and did not experience major growth until the late 1950s when the bridge connecting Halifax and Dartmouth was completed. At the time of the start of the bridge construction, the first of two bridges which now span the harbour, Dartmouth was a town of about 12,000 people. In 1961, this home of the Pattersons was incorporated into city status with a population in excess of 65,000. In 1995 there was another major development with the passing of provincial legislation which amalgamated Halifax and Dartmouth, Bedford, Sackville and many other adjacent communities, giving the new Halifax Regional Municipality [HRM] as it is now called a population base of about 350,000. Much of the character of the old Dartmouth has been lost as a consequence and in fact, I am currently writing a book which I will title “Vanishing Dartmouth.” While the merger has basically been beneficial, it has in effect, in part at least, erased the individual identity of our one-time old harbour town. [The photograph shows Dartmouth as it exists today. It is easy to see from this photograph how and why watersports (hockey, figure skating, swimming, rowing) developed early in Dartmouth considering that the city is surrounded by water.]

There remain many Patterson families in the area, actually 114 in HRM, close to half of which are resident in Dartmouth on its neighboring Eastern Shore. Pictou County, located about 100 miles from Halifax, also had a number of Patterson settlers in the early day and their numbers have spread throughout the province. Four of William Patterson's sons, Arch, who had no children, William, Leonard and Charlie, remained in Dartmouth. Harry, as I mentioned earlier migrated to the U.S. William Jr.’s sons were well known to us and several of these cousins were our close friends. He had seven children, five boys and two girls. One of the girls, who would today be around 86, was singled out for her appearance and agility during WWII when she served in the Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Corps, a branch of the Canadian Army. His three younger sons, somewhat my age, were closer to us. One of these cousins, David, went to high school with us, and his brother Lenny was also close. Brother Tom, a few years older, was cited for bravery a few years back when he braved a wild storm to rescue a stranded fisherman on the Eastern Shore. The two older brothers, not as well known to us, were Raymond, a decorated WW2 hero, and Twitcher, who boxed professionally for a few years and also served in the war. They were all nice, easy-going men.

My father’s other brother, Ernest, lived some distance from us and as his family were older we never knew them well. Strangely, one of his sons, a man at least ten years older than me, played in senior golf tournaments when I myself was active. His name was Ernie and we were paired several times over the years. He had been a caddy master at Brightwood, the Dartmouth course, and was a strong player. Of the uncles, Arch was the closest to us. When we were small he used to come and take us for walks down at the lakes. I vividly remember him teaching us to skip rocks on the water. As well he told us tales of our father’s sporting exploits and of his own war experiences. He also tried to teach me how to blow his old bugle, a holdover I think from the Boer War. I proved an inept student.

Johnny Patterson, the brother of your grandfather, Douglas, a first cousin of my father, was considered by us to be an uncle as he and his wife, Kitty, were especially kind to us as children. As well he used to avail us the use of his nice cottage at Soul’s Lake on the Eastern Shore for our family outings. He also gave me his old hockey gear which I was delighted to receive but it was tattered and torn and ultimately found its way into the garbage can. One of my fondest memories of Uncle John as we called him, was that on leaving our house after a visit he would clasp our hands and deposit a quarter. A quarter then to us youngsters was a big reward. A short, stocky man, Johnny was an outstanding hockey and baseball player. A defenseman in hockey in had the nickname of “Toughie” Patterson and was known for his strong play. In baseball he played the “hot corner,” third base. His brother Doug was also a strong player and both played on Dartmouth teams with my father. The John Pattersons had two daughters, Doris, an R.N., who married and moved to Sarnia, Ontario, and Evelyn, who was later the Mayor of Fort Francis, Ontario. Her husband was a native of that community. Our families were somewhat intertwined. My sister bought Johnny’s camp at Soul’s Lake after his death and owns it to this day. Also of interest is that John and my mother, widower and widow, went to dinner, movies and wrestling matches together late in their lives. He was in all respects an exemplary man.

In that he had moved to the United States in 1913 we never knew his brother, Doug, although he was peopled in my mother’s stories, and as she told it he was one of my father’s major athletic rivals despite their close relationship. I think it was in the summer of 1939 when a big blue Cadillac pulled up in the front of our house on Sinclair Street. It was Uncle Johnny and Kit and as it turned out, Cousin Doug and his new bride. His first wife had died a few years earlier. My mother then prevailed upon me to do a rendition of the famed Foster Hewitt’s Toronto Maple Leaf hockey broadcasts which I did standing in the center of the room. At the time I was only ten. When I finished I remember my newly-discovered cousin applauding. When he was leaving he presented Laurie and I with leather-covered photo album books, and these were engraved with a Mountie on the cover. So forever after we referred to Douglas as our rich American cousin. We had had no further contact with his family over the years. They lived in Lockport, New York, where Doug, succeeding his father-in-law as president of a company reputed to be one of the largest wallet-makers in the U.S.

One day in the Summer of 1985 or 86 I had a telephone message from a man who identified himself as my cousin Gene who was stopping off with his wife, Piney, and another couple, on a quick visit to his father’s home town. His father was Douglas Patterson. As I was playing in a golf tournament at the time I did not have an opportunity to call him back. The next day however, I received a call from a Dartmouth woman, her maiden name was Roome, who told me that I had a cousin who was trying to reach me. She had known him when her husband was stationed in Norfolk with the Canadian Navy. As a liaison officer, Gene had been a captain in the U.S. naval reserve stationed in Norfolk. Anyway I finally reached him by telephone although found he was leaving the next day. In that their flight was not until night, I invited them to join me at the radio station which I owned in Dartmouth. As it turned out quite by coincidence, Gene’s wife Piney’s family owned a radio station in Norfolk, Virginia, where I was to later visit.

In that I had a lot of cousins and at the time was very busy working on a radio promotion, I really expected it would be a short visit. But when they entered my office they were clad, all four of them, in golf clothes. My wife Glo and I are both avid golfers. He was rather delighted to see our logo which proclaimed the company as Patterson Broadcasters. We quickly became engaged and I knew that Glo would love both of them. I invited them to lunch at a big pub I owned, the Village Gate, located in north Dartmouth. We traded stories and at one point, this after Piney telling me that his father Douglas was a domineering man, and not totally kindly, she said “Arnie reminds me so much of him. “ We had a laugh over that. After lunch we drove to my home in Bedford but found Glo enmeshed in a major wash as our daughter Carol had just arrived from studying in Moscow. It was a rather quick visit and simply an exchange of pleasantries. Before they departed, however, I took them to Moosehead Breweries of which I had been general manager some years earlier and we picked up a 24-bottle pack of Alpine beer. This intrigued Gene’s wife Piney as her formal given name was actually Alpine.

When we were at our place in Florida that winter, I had a call from Gene inviting Glo and I to visit them at their home in Virginia Beach. When I told Glo about the invitation she showed little enthusiasm. Hoping to convince her I added “but he is my cousin.” She promptly replied “you have known him for only a few hours and it would be difficult to stay with strangers.” She was adamant. I called Gene back and told him that we could not make it. He was disappointed saying that he was surrounded by Piney’s cousins, many residing in Virginia Beach and neighboring Norfolk, and he had never had a cousin visit. He added that Piney had prepared a special dinner party for eight and then added the kicker; we could get a golf game at his fine course there as well. Glo finally consented and we went and our two or three day cemented a warm and close relationship that lasted until their passings. They visited us in Nova Scotia twice, and we toured and had family parties, and we became somewhat regulars at Mountain Lake, their Florida winter home and a classic resort. Piney was very bright and Glo loved her. Gene was highly competent and so well organized that Glo commented to me “are you sure that he is a Patterson,” implying that I was a somewhat of a loose operator. We developed a real affection for the two of them, and I think it was mutual. They are very much missed. [A photograph of Arnie with his”rich American cousin” Gene Patterson is shown on the left above.]

Memories – Part Three

In Part Three of this tome I will deal singly and simply with the tales of the Charles Patterson family or Charlie Jr. as he was known in sporting circles. Charles Jr. was the nephew and not the son of Charlie Patterson, the original Chebucto. The younger Charlie was my father who was born in or about 1890 and died in 1930. As mentioned earlier, he married Mary Margaret Sullivan, a Halifax girl who had received her R.N. studying at the Sisters of Providence, Holyoke, Massachusetts. Her three years there turned her into an avid fan of the U.S. and American-related activities. When we were young we had photos of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and later of John F. Kennedy, posted on our kitchen bulletin board. The Prime Minister of Canada and the Queen were conspicuously absent. My parents had four children, Jeanne, now 87, William, who would be 86 had he not died in 1989 at 66, myself, Charles Arnold (Arnie), born 1928, and Laurie, born 1929, suws 1999 at age 69.

Our mother, a tall attractive woman, positive and outgoing, was a major force in our collective lives. She was both a mother and a father to us. We had a nice home on a quiet deadend street on which we played street hockey and generally cavorted with neighborhood kids, of which there were many. While we were not “well off," we were largely comfortable and our father had been prudent and left some stock and insurance monies. As well we owned our own home which proved a blessing. Our mother went back to nursing in 1935 as a public health nurse and was able to provide for the family. As her mother, our grandmother, also lived with us we were well cared for. Later in life when we were all grown up mother became the nurse and later the superintendent of a large summer camp for underprivileged children that was sponsored by the local newspaper, the Halifax Herald. Interestingly, I had spent a summer as sports director and counselor for Dartmouth underprivileged kids. I had just come out of high school at the time and this preceded my mother's tenure at Rainbow Haven, the Halifax camp. [As I write this Canada is playing Russia for the world hockey championships, 2009, and at this point they are tied 1-1 after the first period. We as a family are mad hockey fans, and in earlier times I was a hockey broadcaster. Glo has been a hockey fan since her early years. Your grandfather Doug was a very good player and I remember your uncle Gene telling me he had been the goaltender when he was at Cornell. Hockey is, of course, a passion in Canada, and we Dartmouthians claim that they game first saw light here on our Dartmouth Lakes. Russia won 2-1 Ugh!!]

While we lived modestly we had a great time growing up. The Dartmouth Lakes, only minutes away from Sinclair Street, were our playground winter and summer. We lived on the lakes in the summer, swimming and later canoe racing and rowing. The three boys were all members of Mic Mac war canoe crews, while our more dignified sister, Jeanne, paddled and swam for Banook, our across lake rivals. My father too had been one of the original members of the Mic Mac Amateur Aquatic Club, founded in 1923 and which continues today as a major factor in the sporting life of the community. I spoke at the club last year as they celebrated their 85th anniversary. Bill, as mentioned, had been president of the club years ago, and continued until his death as the leader in canoe racing. He was the first Commodore of the Maritime Canoe Association, and was later the first Maritimer to be named Commodore of the Canadian Canoe Association. We have an honour coming up which I will share with our many distant cousins. This summer a small park at the foot of the lake, next to the Mic Mac club, is being named "Patterson's Corner" this largely a tribute to Bill. It will be dedicated while the World Canoe Championships, a first for Dartmouth, are being staged on our lakes.

Jeanne and Bill were six and five years older than me, Laurie a year younger, only nine months old when my father died. Jeanne was a lovely girl, tall and good looking. After high school she took up stenography. At 21 she married her high school sweetheart, Carmen Moore, who served with the Royal Canadian Navy during the war. When he returned to civilian life he returned to university and became a pharmacist. He ran his own drug store for some years on Windmill Road in the north end of Dartmouth. Sadly Carmen died about 15 years ago. Jeanne, now 86, remains resident in Dartmouth. They have three children, a son Ian, a druggist like his father, and daughters, Deanne and Valerie. Deanne, who lost her Coast Guard husband in a helicopter crash, has four children, one of which, Lindsay, a nurse in the Canadian Navy, served time with the Canadian forces in Afghanistan. Val lies in Dartmouth with her mother. [The above photograph is of Arnie’s sister Jeanne.]

Bill, our big brother, was a very special man. He was almost as much a father to Laurie and me as he was a brother. He went to work after high school, first as a salesman for a grocery wholesale firm. On Friday nights he would bring home his pay envelope and hand it to my mother. His help played a major role in his two younger brothers’ chance for a university education which we both achieved. I graduated in journalism, Laurie in Commerce. Both of us went to Saint Mary's University in Halifax which was a Jesuit institution which since our time has become a major college. These were happy, fun-filled days and ones in which we played an active role. I was editor of the college paper, a vice president of the Student Council, and vice president of my graduating class. I never excelled in religious studies. As we had the Sisters of Charity from grade one through high school, and then the Jesuits, you could say that we had a full-scale Catholic education. As I look back on the years gone I realize that our local church, St. Peter's, and our parochial school by the same name, gave us a strong sense of identity growing up and at this late date I continue to have a conscious debt to those men and women who served us so well. [The photograph to the left that was taken in the mid-1930s shows older brother William in the center, Arnie on the left and the younger brother Laurie on the right.]

Bill stayed with sales all of his life, and for a period of 25 years he was the vice president and sales manager of our radio stations, CFDR and Q104 in Dartmouth-Halifax which operated under Patterson Broadcasters of which I was president. Laurie also worked at the station for a period as one of our star salesmen but left to establish he own sales agency. After graduating in journalism at Saint Mary's I joined the reportorial staff of the Halifax Herald papers in Halifax. More than 60 years later, looking back on my journalistic and broadcasting career, I feel as if I never had a real job. It was always so much fun and interesting. In my early days I also sidelined as a hockey broadcaster on a Halifax station, later my competitor, and as well during college days broadcast horse races for the Truro station. I continue to have a love for the two sports to this day.

The best decision that I have made in my now long lifetime was to marry Glorena Meta Hoadley in 1953. She was one of the city's beauties (this description would offend her, but true) and I met her through her employment with the public relations department of the Canadian National Railway in Halifax. We were to have our first daughter, Carol, a year later, [See photo to left and a later picture of Glo below] and shortly after we moved to Toronto as I accepted a job as a writer with the Toronto Telegram. I was making a $100 a week, modest money even in that age, but we had a great time. Early on I won the posting as a City Hall reporter for the paper and through this I had access to the Mayor's hockey and football tickets, invites to the civic receptions and other such plusses which made life fun. I was living like a millionaire. I later was to have several high-profile postings in public relations with several major Canadian companies, including the Dominion Steel and Coal Company, for which I was named "Public Relations Man in Canada" for my media management during the sad Springhill coal mine disaster which claimed 76 lives. This tragedy attracted media from all over the world. During this period we lived in Montreal, a delightful city.

Home was to call and I went home as General Manager of Moosehead Breweries in Dartmouth. This was a fascinating challenge as it was a new operation, a subsidiary of a successful New Brunswick company. We were to challenge Oland's Brewing a company that had been established in Nova Scotia for more than 100 years. With a much energized sales and public relations program, largely centered in sports, we took our fledgling company from an eight percent of the market to 38 percent in four years. But again another challenge loomed. I was to enter politics as the Federal candidate of the Liberal party. While we made a strong big, I lost but I enjoyed every minute of the battle. This was in 1968 and I ran again in 1974 with the same result and to the same sitting member, a Conservative. [Photo of Arnie campaigning is on the right.] I stayed very active in politics throughout the years and in 1979 took a year off from my then radio station duties to serve as Principal Press Secretary to then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. One of the best experiences of my working career, and during that period I saw just about every corner of Canada. As I write there is a Liberal candidate's sign on my lawn as we have a provincial election coming up shortly. [A photograph of Arnie Patterson with Canadian Prime Minister appears at the left.]

I have up to this point failed to mention what a consider one of the most important things I did in my life, and this was the founding of two radio stations in my home city of Dartmouth. The first, CFDR, in 1962, a good music station which we built into a 50,000 watt operation that received a national award in 1984 as the station in Canada who contributed the most to their community. The second station was a rock and roller, light years from our other operation but housed in the same building. It was founded in 1981 and gave us a strong reach into the younger audience. Jack Cruickshank and Vince Currie were shareholders in the early years but I purchased their shares in 1971. In 1987 I sold both operations to Newfoundland Capital as I wanted to pursue other things, and added to the fact that they made a substantial offer for the stations. I loved every minute of it but after 25 years I was ready to semi-retire. Shortly thereafter I took on the responsibility of writing a column on politics, business and other aspects of life, for the Halifax Daily News. This became a 20-year pursuit. In that I was only writing once a week it was an easy task.

One other issue that I have not commented on is my family. While attainment in various pursuits, along with making money, are perhaps important, nothing is as important as the rearing of your children. You can educate them, kiss them, give them your prejudices at the dinner table, but after that they are largely on their own. I have been blessed by my two daughters, both bright and successful. Much more is owed to their mother than me, but they have been a source of pride. Carol, our oldest girl, born in 1954, is a lawyer. Noteworthy is that she is the managing partner of Baker, Mckenzie practice in Moscow, Russia, with 280 people to manage. Baker is an international firm with offices in 38 capitals throughout the world. More noteworthy is that in recent days her firm, under her leadership, has been named the top law firm in the whole of Russia. Both domestic as well as international law firms were involved in competition for the prestigious Chambers Award which went to her Moscow-based office. Her sister, Lori, born in 1959, is Communications chief for the region's major transportation service, Metro Transit, and as well has served as general manager of this operation which carries sixty million passengers a year. Both have two children. Ian and Colin are Carol’s and Lori has Liam and Andrea our only granddaughter. My main job in life now is to spoil them. [The 2004 photograph above shows sisters Carol and Lori taken somewhere in the United States.]

I will close on a note which covers three generations. Last year I was elected to the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame. As both my father's uncle Charlie and my own father, Charlie, had been inducted years ago, I became the third Charlie Patterson to be elected. My full Christian name is Charles Arnold Patterson. I have capsulated here but I should mention that one of our delights has been the 25 winters spent in Florida at Isla Del Sol, a golf community, in St. Petersburg.

For me life has been fun and I consider myself to have been very lucky.

Memories-Part Four

The Most Important Day of the Year.

I am not talking about Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter but rather about a birthday celebration, and that of Dartmouth. The citizens of Dartmouth have since 1895 marked the town’s birthday, Dartmouth Natal Day, with a wide range of events. It was a day as a child that we could hardly wait for. The affair started with the sounding of the horn at the fire station, a continuing blast. On this signal we would run down to Charman’s corner, a few minutes from our house, to watch the marathon runners trek in a six-mile event that went back to the start of the 20th century. Then off to downtown to catch the Natal Day parade. While it was not Macy’s, it with its local touches provided fun for all. The parade traveled over a route of about four miles and every section of it would be lined with spectators. Then off to the softball game, a Dartmouth team would be playing a team from out of town. The old Dartmouth Amateur Athletics grounds was the site of this event. Elsewhere there was a baby carriage contest and as well go-cart races.
The centerpiece, however, of this one day celebration, which we immodestly claimed as the best in the whole of Canada, were the activities at and around Lake Banook, this in the center of the city, and just minutes away from our house. Bill Lynch’s fair was a highlight with its Ferris wheel, the Merry-go-Round, swings, and assorted other rides. You could also buy fries, hot dogs, and hamburgs and there was a big bingo game as well as other booths featuring other games of chance. The Grace United Church women’s guild also offered lunch and dinner for the visitors and this located in an old ice warehouse. The ice, of course, is long gone. The major event though was the annual Natal Day regatta. This event involved canoe racing, rowing, and swimming races. Dartmouth had been a center for aquatic sports in the province for decades. The lakeside rivals the Mic Mac and Banook were contestants as were the North Star Rowing club from its northend harbour location, and crews from St. Mary, the Jubilee and North West Arm Rowing Club. All events were considered Maritime championship events. The two old boathouses were jammed with spectators, and the shores of the lake lined with other followers.

I should mention that the Patterson families played a major role in these activities and these covering a period of more than 100 years. Charlie and Sandy Patterson, earlier mentioned as hockey players, were also oarsmen and won the two-man rowing race at the first regatta staged in 1895. My father Charlie won the novice single shell in 1907, and a cousin, one of Charlie senior’s boys, Reg, won the senior singles event about six times. He was greatly acclaimed. All four children in our family paddled. Jeanne played for Banook, a slightly more sophisticated place than our Mic Mac, while Bill, Laurie and I were with the redshirts. Laurie was one of the top paddlers of his era. We continued to participate long after our paddling and rowing days were done. Bill was usually the chief referee for canoe events, Laurie coached junior war canoe paddlers, and I was the race announcer. Our mother was on the Miac Mac balcony watching.

As kids we would try to save money for the big day, this with the prospect of rides on the Ferris wheel, a hot dog, certainly a bag of peanuts and other delights. Our source of funds came from hunting for beer bottles, potato sacks that we could sell to Jacobson’s junk shop. We received three cents for the quarter bottles, one for the pints. And before we were active participants in the rowing and canoe events, we peddled peanuts by the bag to the spectators on the shoreline. The finale to this day of days was the fireworks display. The lake was ablaze with light. One of the most memorable fireworks display came in 1937 under the aegis of George Patterson, then a volunteer fireman. One of the spectators at Birch Cove dropped a cigarette butt on one of the bags of explosives and everything went up with one big bang. Two nearby houses were set a fire.
An event to remember.

Memories-Part Five

While this tale is already very long I will do an addendum as there are a number of stories that I did not tell.

One of them relates closely to the family and descendents of Douglas Patterson, our “rich American cousin.” When Gene and Piney were here on their third visit with us we took them to view certain sights including the boat clubs, parks, the site of John Patterson’s home, now long since a residential development with no traces of the old Patterson house. Also on the agenda was a visit to Christ Church, the old Anglican church where most of the Pattersons worshipped. We had arrived just after the regular tours were complete. But I became the guide and was telling them about the families that had their names inscribed on the church windows, and this under some depiction of Christ and his followers, when the guide, unknown to me, came up and said he had a photo to show us. It was of the 1906 or ‘07 Christ Church boys’ hockey team. Doug Patterson was in the front row. We marveled at the coincidence.

I think too that I omitted mention of my four grandchildren who I endeavor to spoil each and every day. Carol and Malcolm (Gray) have two sons, Ian, 26, and Colin, 21, both resident here where they have attended university, and Lori and Patrick (Daly) who have a son Liam, 19, going into second year at St. F.X., and Andrea, our only granddaughter, 16, who will be going into grade 11. [In the photograph to the left from the left are Colin, Liam, Ian, and Andrea.] They are the delight of our lives and we are all close-knit. All four are keenly interested in sport, Ian played varsity soccer at King’s University here, Colin played four years of varsity football at St. F.X on a scholarship, Liam, who is 26, played both football and rugby at his high school. That leaves Andrea who is as close to a full-time athlete as you can imagine. She plays on her high school’s soccer, tackle rugby, and field hockey teams. And she is also an excellent skier.
One Christmas, and we always gather in our house for the holidays, I said to Glo, this with the four kids assembled, that we were lucky. “Only one of them is funny looking.” With that Colin quickly replied “who looks like you Dada.”

That is the Dartmouth Patterson tale. Amen.