# A Life Reflected > Biographies Written Specially for You and Those You Care About. We offer a range of Services for writing and publishing life stories, from short reminisences or sketches to full biographies. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### About this site URL: https://alifereflected.com/about/ Last updated: 2026-05-17T20:38:22.000Z ***A Life Reflected*** is an independent ad-free publication. We offer a range of [services](https://alifereflected.com/services/) for writing and publishing life stories, from short reminisences or sketches to full biographies. All articles are authored and curated by a real human being. [Contact us](https://alifereflected.com/contact/) to find out more. ### Follow us on the Fediverse or Bluesky See [Follow Us](https://alifereflected.com/follow/) to get started. --- ## Denise J. Choppin, author & publisher ![A headshot photo of a white-haired woman looking into camera with head cocked.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/Denise_Choppin_-profile_pic-.png) Denise J. Choppin, publisher & author. Denise is the creative force behind this site. A bookseller for decades, Denise has been a writer for many years. She has published a variety of works, primarily with a focus on history and biography. A graduate of the University of Perugia in Italy, she grew up in Ontario Canada, and lived and worked in Italy, Canada, and the United States. Fluent in English (her mother-tongue) and Italian, she can comfortably read French, Spanish, and is able to comprehend most written reference materials in other European languages. For many years Denise has worked on family histories for clients, whose diverse backgrounds required research in the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, MexicFollow us on the Fediverse or Bluesky See Follow Us to get started.o, the West Indies, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine, to mention a few. --- ## Copyright & license Non-commissioned historical and biographical essays published on this site are released under a Creative Commons [Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-ND 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/?ref=alifereflected.com). This permits reproduction and distribution of the work in its original, unmodified form for any purpose, including commercially, provided Denise J. Choppin and A Life Reflected are credited as the author and source. The work may not be adapted or modified without permission. This licence covers the author's original text only. It does not affect the copyright status of primary source materials quoted within the work — including historical documents, newspaper extracts, and third-party photographs — which remain subject to their own terms. Readers wishing to reproduce such materials should satisfy themselves as to the rights status of those sources independently. Work commissioned by clients is governed by a separate client services agreement and operates under entirely different terms. Upon full payment, copyright in a commissioned work is assigned to the client, who owns it outright with no ongoing fees, royalties, or restrictions on use. The author retains authorship and the right to be credited. Commissioned work is not subject to the site's general Creative Commons licence. We respect the copyright of content creators and publishers. If, however, we have inadvertently infringed thereupon, or misattributed ownership, please [contact us](https://alifereflected.com/contact/) to have the issue resolved. --- ## Colophon - Publisher/Author: [Denise J. Choppin](mailto:livereflected@gmail.com) - Editor: [Murray J Brown](https://www.mjbrown.com/?ref=alifereflected.com) - Cover art: *luminothérapie* by [Monch](https://www.monch.fr/mondes-part?ref=alifereflected.com). Used with permission. - Blog engine: [Ghost](https://ghost.org/?ref=alifereflected.com) - Operating system: [Debian Gnu/Linux](https://debian.org/?ref=alifereflected.com) - Hosting: [Digital Ocean](https://digitalocean.com/?ref=alifereflected.com) (Toronto, Canada) ### Contact Us URL: https://alifereflected.com/contact/ Last updated: 2025-01-03T11:53:22.000Z ![Vingage letters and mail scattered upon a desk.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/vintage-letters-and-mail-2.jpg) You can contact us via: - email at [*livesreflected@gmail.com*](mailto:livereflected@gmail.com) - telephone or SMS text at **905-271-9179** Rest assured that your emails, texts, and phone calls will be answered *promptly* by a REAL person! ### Frequently Asked Questions URL: https://alifereflected.com/faq/ Last updated: 2026-05-11T16:09:48.000Z Here are some answers to questions you may have: - [**What is your philosophy and approach to legacy biographies?**](#phil%5Flegacy) - [**Why do you offer biography services rather than memoir services?**](#bio%5Fvs%5Fmemoir) - [**Should I find a ghostwriter to author my memoir?**](#ghostwriter) - [**Do you use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in producing these projects?**](#ai) - [**Why should I choose *A Life Reflected* for this project?**](#why%5Fus) - [**Will I have control of the process?**](#control) - [**What about confidentiality?**](#confidentiality) - [**How long will this take?**](#how%5Flong) - [**How exactly does a personal (legacy) biography get done?**](#legacy%5Fprocess) - [**How exactly does the historical biography get done? How do I choose the subject individual?**](#historical%5Fprocess) - [**If I'm preplanning funeral arrangements, can this project by incorporated with that process and with my obituary?**](#funeral) - [**Can we create a QR code to incorporate into my funeral services and memorial cards?**](#qr%5Fcode) - [**Can we "anonymize" the names, dates and places?**](#anonymize) - [**How can we assure "permanence" of the online biography?**](#permanence) - [**What about legal issues and liabilities? Could I be sued?**](#liability) - [**How does A Life Reflected handle factual claims, sources, and uncertainty?**](#facts) - [**Can I commission a properly bound book and/or have my story online?**](#bound%5Fbook) - [**What are the copyright terms for work published on this site, and how does that differ for commissioned work?**](https://alifereflected.com/faq#copyright) - [**How much will this cost?**](#cost) - [**How do we get started?**](#get%5Fstarted) We are happy to discuss these and any other questions you may have. Please [contact us](https://alifereflected.com/contact/). ![A photo of cloured beads scattered on a wooden step.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/coloured_beads_on_step.jpg) --- ### What is your philosophy and approach to legacy biographies? We believe that our philosophy should be something that resonates with you. An essay on that subject can be found [here](https://alifereflected.com/philosophy/). --- ### Why do you offer biography services rather than memoir services? According to the renowned author Salmon Rushdie: > “The difference between memoir and (auto)biography, as far as I see it, is that a memoir is there primarily to tell one particular story, whereas a biography tries to be a full account of a life.” Typically, a memoir is written in first person. Sometimes a memoir can go sideways, usually from too much memory, too much detail. Our job is partly to clear away things that might get in the way of the story, and most importantly in documenting who you really are. As your narrator, it is important that the writing has emotional resonance. --- ### Should I find a ghostwriter to author my memoir? There are many ghostwriters in the world. Many are wonderful but many are not. The issue with ghostwriting is that (a) it's *very costly*, and (b) you are relying on the ghostwriter to utterly capture your voice and your tone. This is extremely hard to accomplish, and often falls short of what you might hope for. Our service is not that of ghostwriting. We will produce a properly written biography. Your biography will be a stylized recollection of personal experiences, and will be about your character, your story, your emotions, and your values. It will NOT merely be a glorified resume of accomplishments. We do not create dialogue. Anything in quotes will have been sourced from a personal interview, from a verified historical document, a letter, a transcript, a newspaper article or interview. --- ### Do you use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in producing these projects? All writing is done by a human being and is professionally edited by a real person. However, a Large Language Model (LLM) may be used for research purposes (although factual statements are manually verified), organizing notes, and/or proof-reading. AI may also be used to automatically format text for stylistic reasons, such as replacing straight quotation marks ("") with typographic (“”) quotation marks; all other text editing and formatting is done manually. --- ### Why should I choose *A Life Reflected* for this project? There are many ghostwriters and memoir service providers available. What differentiates us is that **we are** **not** a large corporation, **we are not** affiliated with any particular organization, **we do not** farm out any of the project to outside entities. You will be dealing with a real person who will honour your wishes and work with you with respect. --- ### Will I have control of the process? Yes. We will work together throughout the project, checking in frequently with updates and seeking your approval. --- ### What about confidentiality? We take your privacy seriously. Most of our contracts include a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). --- ### How long will this take? The timing depends greatly upon the scope How do we get started?of the project and current workload. Setting down a time-frame is part of the initial consultation. --- ### How exactly does a personal (legacy) biography get done? The short answer is several interviews are conducted. Those interviews are transcribed and then composed into a formal document. The long answer is that we will be embarking on a wonderfully intimate journey, with *no judgment, no preconceived notions, no conflicts*. We will have a first meeting (possibly a telephone appointment if distance is a factor) to discuss the project in general terms. If things look promising, we will present you with a general proposal outlining the work do be undertaken, including the book’s length, tone & manner, research and interviews to be conducted, delivery timelines, payment schedules and other business details. When you sign the proposal, the project is officially underway. We will then conduct a series of recorded interviews (usually three or four) and from these a rough outline will be presented. At this stage, you will review and make any revisions. From here we will work back and forth on a few drafts until the work is mutually satisfactory. --- ### How exactly does the historical biography get done? How do I choose the subject individual? Whom to honour with a historical biography is completely up to you. Remember, *your soul has its own ancestors*. According to Paul Tsongas (author, politician, active in historical preservation, 1941-1997): > ”*We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching.*” Here is an eloquent quote from Linda K. Hogan (poet, storyteller, b. 1947): > Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. “Be still,” they say. “Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.” You will choose the ancestor you wish to honour. Then it will be our job to scour historical sources, documents, and a variety of resources to document the person and provide historical context. Here are some [examples](https://alifereflected.com/historical/) of completed historical biographies. --- ### If I'm pre-planning funeral arrangements, can this project by incorporated with that process and with my obituary? Sometimes this part of the conversation is uncomfortable, but it is an inevitability. The questions you might ask yourself are whether your family and friends will remember you and in what way? Will your values endure? Unfortunately, most of us will not be memorialized in a Wikipedia page, and, sadly, you will most likely be a foggy memory in a generation or two — if you are remembered at all. Not only can this be a part of your arrangements, we can also time the release of the work to coincide with a moment of your choosing. --- ### Can we create a QR code to incorporate into my funeral services and memorial cards? We can provide you with a QR code for quick internet access to your biography. --- ### Can we "anonymize" the names, dates and places? Depending on your wishes, and depending on the sensitivity of some projects, it is sometimes a good idea to change the names, dates and places of people discussed in your biography. The internet or public version can be completely or partially anonymized and the PDF files you will receive can contain the true information. --- ### How can we assure "permanence" of the online biography? First of all, congratulations on having read this far. You have taken the first step to giving some permanence to your life story merely by considering it. Aside from the durability of a physical book, an online biography has a certain amount of "automatic" retention. As we all know, things posted on the internet tend to linger whether we want them to or not. There are methods of making a web page become more enduring. We recommend that you look into archiving your posted biography at the [Way-Back Machine](https://web.archive.org/). ### What about legal issues and liabilities? Could I be sued? It's a sad reality that we live in a litigious world and people can be sued for all sorts of things, including libel. While we cannot provide you with legal advice, we can offer suggestions on how to avoid writing that is potentially actionable. --- ### **How does A Life Reflected handle factual claims, sources, and uncertainty?** All biographical and historical work published on this site is grounded in primary sources — census records, vital records, newspaper archives, ship manifests, court documents, published church and institutional records, and family-provided materials — supplemented where appropriate by reliable secondary sources. Every factual claim is traceable to an identified source. Historical research is inherently incomplete. Where the documentary record is uncertain, contested, or silent, this is stated explicitly in the text. Speculative inference is framed as such and distinguished from documented fact. The author does not present unverified family tradition or oral history as established record without noting its status. Readers who identify errors, have access to additional primary source material, or wish to contest a factual claim are warmly encouraged to make contact. Corrections supported by documentation will be made promptly and transparently. --- ### Can I commission a properly bound book and/or have my story online? We will make your story publicly available on this site if you choose. At the completion of the work, you will receive a PDF file ready for printing or publishing. The choice of binding materials is highly personal. We can recommend binderies to handle the creation of a physical bound book. --- ### What are the copyright terms for work published on this site, and how does that differ for commissioned work? Non-commissioned historical and biographical essays published on this site are released under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-ND 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/?ref=chooser-v1). This permits reproduction and distribution of the work in its original, unmodified form for any purpose, including commercially, provided Denise J. Choppin and A Life Reflected are credited as the author and source. The work may not be adapted or modified without permission. This licence covers the author’s original text only. It does not affect the copyright status of primary source materials quoted within the work — including historical documents, newspaper extracts, and third-party photographs — which remain subject to their own terms. Readers wishing to reproduce such materials should satisfy themselves as to the rights status of those sources independently. Work commissioned by clients is governed by a separate client services agreement and operates under entirely different terms. Upon full payment, copyright in a commissioned work is assigned to the client, who owns it outright with no ongoing fees, royalties, or restrictions on use. The author retains authorship and the right to be credited. Commissioned work is not subject to the site's general Creative Commons licence. --- ### How much will this cost? Costs vary considerably, given the breadth of options available to you. In our initial appointment we can set a budget that will work for you. --- ### How do we get started? Just [contact us](https://alifereflected.com/contact/) and we can begin the process. ### Privacy Policy URL: https://alifereflected.com/privacy-policy/ Last updated: 2025-01-03T17:30:05.000Z *Yes, it's a lot to read through, but nowadays it is important to make you aware of your privacy on our site.* ![](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/Woman_at_her_window-1.jpg) **COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION** As a visitor to the site, you can engage in many activities without providing any personal information. However, when you register (via email or telephone) to use our site and order products or services, you will be invited to become a member (i.e., subscriber). In order to provide our services to you, we may collect the following personal information offline: - Contact information such as your name, phone number, address, and email address - Billing information such as the number, expiration date, card type, and billing address of your credit card; your Paypal account address, your e-transfer email address - Details about your purchases The following member information may be collected online: - Profile data, including your username and email address **UPDATING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND PRIVACY PREFERENCES** Upon request, we will provide you with information about whether we hold, or process on behalf of a third party, any of your personal information. To request this information please contact us. You have the right to access and correct or delete your personal information and privacy preferences at any time. This may be accomplished by logging into the system and accessing your account, where you can view and make changes to most of your personal information immediately. For security purposes, certain personal information can only be changed by contacting support. We will respond to your request promptly within a reasonable timeframe. **HOW YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS USED** We collect your information in order to provide services to you, comply with our legal obligations, and to improve our products and services. We do not sell, rent or share your personally identifiable information to or with third parties in any way other than as disclosed in this privacy policy. We may use this information to: - Process your financial transactions. - Send you order confirmations. - Register your rights, if any, to technical support or other benefits that may be made available to registered users. - Respond to customer service requests, questions, and concerns. - Administer your account. - Send you requested product or service information. - Administer promotions you enter and notify you of the results. - Investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities and/or violations of our Terms of Service. - Meet our research and product/service development needs and to improve our site, services, and offerings; and - Customize your experience, including targeting our services and offerings to you. We may store information that we collect through cookies, log files, transparent images, secure database entries, and/or third-party sources to create a summary of your preferences. We may tie your personally identifiable information, and/or your membership usage history, to information in the summary, in order to provide tailored promotions and marketing offers, to improve the content of the site for you and/or to determine your preferences. In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. Where required by law (e.g., to comply with a subpoena, warrant, court order, or legal process served on us), and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, avoid litigation, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, and/or respond to a government request. We may also disclose information about you if we determine that such disclosure should be made for reasons of national security, law enforcement, or other issues of public importance. **INFORMATION SHARING WITH SERVICE PROVIDERS / AGENTS** We may use one or more outside payment processing companies to bill you for our goods and services. To the best of our knowledge, these companies do not retain, share, store, nor use personally identifiable information for any other purpose. We may also share personal information with certain companies that perform services on our behalf. We only share the personal information which is necessary for them to perform those services. We require any company with which we may share personal information to protect that data in a manner consistent with this policy and to limit the use of such personal information to the performance of services for us. We do not sell or otherwise provide personal information to other companies for the marketing of their own products or services. **DATA RETENTION** We will retain your information for as long as your account is active, your information is needed to provide you services, or as required to fulfill our legal obligations. If you wish to delete your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you with services contact us. We will respond to your request within 30 days. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. **CHOICE / OPT OUT** We will contact you when there are changes to the Terms of Service or privacy policy, as applicable. In addition, we will still send you service-related announcements including, but not limited to, a registration email, benefit notification emails, emails automatically triggered by actions you took on the site and bill-related notices. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you wish not to receive them, you have the option of deactivating your account. **PROTECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION** The personal information that you provide in connection with the use of the site is protected in several ways. - Access to your member account profile is available through a your email address. This is the only sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) that is collected or stored on the site. - When you sign-in, a verification message will be sent to your email address by which you can authenticate your identity and access the site. (No password is required to access the site as a customer.) - Your personal information resides on secure servers that only our selected staff personnel can access via password. - Your personal information is encrypted whenever it is transmitted to us. We strive to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. While we take into account the sensitivity of the personal information we collect, process, and store, and the current state of technology to use these measures protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our website, please email us. **COOKIE AND TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES** The site may automatically collect information as you browse, such as Internet Service Provider, browser type and version, operating system and device type, average time spent on our site(s), pages viewed, information accessed, the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet and other relevant statistics. Such information is sometimes referred to as web analytics and/or clickstream data. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve services we offer you, to improve marketing, analytics, and provide site functionality. Technologies such as: cookies, beacons, tags, and scripts are used by us and our affiliates, analytics services and service to provide site features and functionality. These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis. A cookie is a small, unique text file that a website can send to your computer when you visit a site. We may use session cookies, which terminate when a user closes his or her browser, and/or persistent cookies, which remain on the user's computer until manually deleted. Most web browsers can either alert you to the use of cookies or refuse to accept cookies entirely. If you do not want us to deploy cookies to your browser, you can set your browser to reject cookies or to notify you when a website tries to put a cookie on your computer. Rejecting cookies may affect your ability to use the site. **CHANGES IN PRIVACY POLICY** We reserve the right to amend the privacy policy from time to time at our sole discretion and will provide notice by email or on the home page of the site when we make material changes to this privacy policy prior to the change becoming effective. If as the result of such changes, you want to alter the ways in which we are allowed to use your personal information, you can do so by following the procedure described in the section entitled “Updating Your Personal Information and Privacy Preferences”. You will be deemed to have been made aware of, and will be subject to, any material changes to the privacy policy after such notice has been posted with the following exception: If at the time you provide personal information to us you are given the opportunity (as you currently are) to limit how such information will be used to communicate with you, either by us or by third parties, we will not change your preference in this regard without your express consent. **LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY SITES** Our site includes links to other websites whose privacy practices may differ from those of ours. If you submit personal information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit. **SOCIAL MEDIA WIDGETS** Our website may include social media features, such as the Facebook Like button and widgets, such as the “Share This” button or interactive mini-programs that run on our site. These Features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our site. Your interactions with these Features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it. ### Our Services URL: https://alifereflected.com/services/ Last updated: 2025-01-23T01:59:14.000Z We have several options from which to choose: - [Legacy Biography](https://alifereflected.com/services#legacybio) - [Historical Biography](#historical-bio) - [Legacy Interview](#legacy-interview) - [Editing Services](#editing-services) - [Family History Research](#family-history-research) ## The Legacy Biography ![Image of a footpath through a forest with grasses and sparse underbrush.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/forest_path.jpg) This service provides a living individual with the option to commission a variety of biographical works, ranging from short sketches and reminiscences, up to a full biography. Similar to a memoir, these legacy biographies are not ghostwritten works but are written in third person. Let's help make you known well. It isn't the same as being well-known. A sample of a legacy biography can he found [HERE](https://alifereflected.com/legacy/chasing/). ## The Historical Biography ![Wooded cemetery with sunlight streaming through the trees.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/InSearchOfAncestors.jpg) This service provides a biographical portrait of a deceased individual or ancestor. Research is conducted to reveal facts available to document the person's lifetime and these facts are blended with the historical context of the individual's life. A sample of these historical biographies can be found [HERE](https://alifereflected.com/historical/thomas-william-renton-1832-1920). ## The Legacy Interview ![Image of an antique microphone.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/antique-microphone-1494086213g4X.jpg) For those of you who would prefer to author your own memoir, we can conduct a series of interviews to help bring structure and meaningful issues to light. The interviews are then sent to you as a standard audio file. ## Editing Services ![A profile view image of a newspaper man in shirtsleeves, vest, and hat, with cigarette and pencil behind ear typing on a vintage typewriter.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/journalist2.jpg) If you have already written or are in the process of writing your own memoir, we will be happy to help with editing. Our dedicated editor, [Murray J Brown](https://mjbrown.com/?ref=alifereflected.com), can assist with grammar, punctuation, spelling, wordsmithing, and styling a document. Whether you have a conceptual draft that needs development or a final manuscript that just needs checking or light editing, he will work with you to refine it as needed for your target audience. ## Family History Research ![Photo of man walking on image of a tree engraved in sane beneath a blue sky.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/man_walking_on_image_of_tree_engraved_in_sand_with_blue_sky.jpg) In addition to biographical works, we have considerable experience in researching family history. Please ask about how this can be blended into your biography. ### Our Philosophy URL: https://alifereflected.com/philosophy/ Last updated: 2025-01-03T11:06:53.000Z ![An image of a house on the waters' edge at dusk with clouds in the sky and the setting sun shining through surrounding trees.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/Second_Life_Landscape_13-4.jpg) **Landschaft* in Second Life. Public Domain. **Everyone has a story.** **And everyone has at least one story that will stop your heart.** **Don’t let your story, don’t let the essence of you, be forever lost.** How many times have you heard someone say “I wish I had asked her when she was still alive”? Or “I’ll never know the answer to the question because I never got around to asking him”? How many things have you wanted to share? But there was no time, never the right moment. Others did want to know, but they were caught up in the heyday of life. Have you ever read a typical newspaper or online obituary? Most contain a few paragraphs of basic bibliographic information (he was born there, married, had children, enjoyed golf and will be missed by his children, grandchildren and so on) — think on it: An entire life reduced to less than 200 words. Imagine if all you were allowed to say was about **two words for every week**. Surely you have more to say than that. Biographies… well, most seem to be an expanded resumé, a catalogue of achievements either in work or personal life. Better than merely 200 or 300 words, but still lacking the essence of you. Nobody is *just* a manager, *just* a dishwasher, *just* a consultant, *just* a pianist, *just* a computer programmer*, just* a painter*, just* a parent, *just* a child. We are all much the same, yet we are all unique. We sit behind desks, in front of a screen, scrolling through social media; perched on a milk crate; driving to work; attending meetings — a ragtag assortment of misfits, single mothers, retired grandparents, captains of industry, immigrants, hopeful artists, truck drivers, scientists, accomplished chefs — all different, yet alike. Despite not actually belonging anywhere, we all fit in. This is not vanity. Your story matters. Imagine a dark stage. In the darkness, one by one, a light comes on representing each person who felt happy in your company, to whom you said a kind word. A person you inspired. Someone you made laugh. A child you comforted. Whether you realize it or not, you have had an impact. The stage in our imagination would transform from darkness to blazing light. And someday, when you are no longer here with us, your words will have even more impact. They will be a gift. Your story, or parts of it, will have meaning for someone, likely more than you know. We are all unicorns hiding in plain view. ### Follow Us URL: https://alifereflected.com/follow/ Last updated: 2025-12-18T19:12:30.000Z ![An artistic depiction of a social network.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/12/fediverse-2.jpg) Articles posted on this site are syndicated on the following social networks: - Bluesky: [**@denise.alifereflected.com.ap.brid.gy**](https://bsky.app/profile/denise.alifereflected.com.ap.brid.gy?ref=alifereflected.com) (Users need to follow **@ap.brid.gy** to interact with this site**)** - Facebook: [**LivesReflected**](https://www.facebook.com/LivesReflected/) - Fediverse (e.g., Mastodon): **@denise@alifereflected.com** ### Joining these alternative social networks If you do not already have an account on either of these social networks, you can join as follows: - Bluesky: Visit [bsky.app](https://bsky.app/?ref=alifereflected.com) on the web or read this [guide for using the mobile app](https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/how-to-join-bluesky-sign-up-twitter-alternative?ref=alifereflected.com) - Fediverse: Visit [jointhefediverse.net/learn/](https://jointhefediverse.net/learn/?lang=en-us&ref=alifereflected.com) or [joinmastodon.org](https://joinmastodon.org/?ref=alifereflected.com) on the web ### Technical overview This site runs on the [Ghost blogging platform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost%5F%28blogging%5Fplatform%29?ref=alifereflected.com) which now supports connectivity to the Fediverse via the [ActivityPub](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActivityPub?ref=alifereflected.com) protocol, and to Bluesky via the [Brid.gy](https://brid.gy/about?ref=alifereflected.com) app. ## Posts ### The Toronto Manleys: Morris Manley, Dolly Sterling, and Mildred “Canada’s Greatest Child Vocalist” URL: https://alifereflected.com/historical/the-toronto-manleys-morris-manley-dolly-sterling-and-mildred-canadas-greatest-child-vocalist/ Last updated: 2026-05-05T19:55:21.000Z ## Origins Obscured: The Early Life of Morris Manley The birth of Morris Manley is itself something of a mystery, a fitting beginning for a man whose life was spent in the business of illusion and performance. The 1930 United States census records his birthplace as Chicago, Illinois, and his birth year as somewhere between 1875 and 1877\. But the truth appears to be rather more complicated — and considerably more romantic. The weight of evidence suggests that Morris was born in England around 1875–1877, possibly in the industrial heartland of Birmingham, Warwickshire, though Wales has also been suggested as a possibility. His parents were Morris Manley Senior and his wife Annie, a Welsh father and an Irish mother — a pairing not uncommon in the industrial towns of Victorian Britain, where Welsh and Irish working-class communities frequently overlapped. The quintessentially Welsh “Lloyd” appears as a middle name for his sister, offering a quiet clue to the family’s Celtic origins. Whatever the exact circumstances of his birth, Morris, and his sister Jane Lloyd Manley (known throughout her life as “Jennie”) found themselves, at some point in the 1880s or early 1890s, in the care of Samuel and Sarah Edith Baltzer of North Ridge, in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. The circumstances that brought two English children to a rural Ontario farming community are uncertain. Their parents, Morris Senior and Annie, do not appear in Canadian records; whatever fate befell them — death, poverty, or simple abandonment — their children were left to be raised in a new country by strangers who became family. A Windsor, Ontario newspaper of July 14, 1900, makes the situation plain: Morris Manley, it notes, was “adopted and raised by Mr. And Mrs. Samuel Baltzer.” A Windsor Star item of the same date tells us he was then living in Mount Clemens, Michigan, just across the border from Windsor and Essex County; and that “Mrs. Baltzer has not seen her brother for a number of years,” suggesting Morris had been away for some time before this reunion. Sarah Edith Baltzer, née Johnson, had been born in Iowa in 1847 (some 30 years earlier than Morris) and she and Samuel had established themselves in the North Ridge community of Essex County. The 1891 Canadian census finds young Jennie, then 16 years of age, listed as a “lodger” in the Baltzer household, born in England, and Methodist in religion. She was not yet formally described as an adopted daughter, although clearly in the family’s care. By the time of Jennie’s marriage in 1896, however, she is recorded as the “adopted daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Samuel Baltzer.” The formalization of the relationship appears to have deepened over time. Morris himself does not appear in the 1891 census with the Baltzers. He may still have been in England at that point, or lodging elsewhere in the region. What is clear is that by the mid-1890s he had established himself as a professional entertainer working the American Midwest. This suggests that his entry into performing began very early, perhaps as a teenager, and perhaps as a way of making his own way in the world while Jennie settled more conventionally into the Baltzer household. What did Morris look like? The Hamilton Spectator of September 1904 offers our earliest physical description: “a big, good-natured looking comedian.” The photograph published alongside a Beloit, Wisconsin newspaper review in November 1906 shows a well-dressed young man in his late 20s with dark, somewhat curly hair, sitting in a thoughtful pose with his hand to his chin, holding what appears to be a rolled piece of sheet music. He appears compact and well-groomed, with the self-possessed ease of a man comfortable in front of a camera, or an audience. The newspaper descriptions of his performing style reinforce the physical impression: energetic, physically expressive, with a “good, clear, rich voice” that carried well in large halls. He was, in his prime, a man who filled a room. ### The Making of a Performer: Kansas, Missouri, and the Medicine Show Circuit The earliest documented record of Morris Manley as a performer comes from the Kansas City Journal of July 22, 1894, which places him performing a “tableau” called *The Empty Harness* alongside a partner named Burt Johnson. He would have been approximately 17 years old. It is a striking debut, not in a grand theatre, but in the rough-and-tumble world of variety entertainment that preceded vaudeville’s golden age. By February 1895, he was working the small towns of rural Kansas with the Shaker Concert Company, a touring troupe that played Grange halls — the community meeting places of farming communities — across Johnson County. The Gardner Weekly Message of February 22, 1895, gives us our most detailed early portrait of young Morris in action: > “Morris Manley, the dialect comedian, whose equal has never been seen in Gardner. His version of an old ‘down eastern farmer’ at the circus was indeed funny, were his many specialties in black face, Irish, Dutch, etc.” He was, even at 17 or 18, a complete entertainer — comedian, character actor, dialect specialist — performing alongside the company’s “talented pianist, Mr. James Pickens,” who could play blindfolded with gloves on his hands and a sheet over the keys. These early Kansas dates were not glamorous engagements. The Grange halls of Johnson County were functional farm community buildings — wooden floors, kerosene lamps, rows of hard chairs filled with families who had driven in from surrounding farms. Admission was minimal or free. The Shaker Concert Company moved from town to town by whatever transport was available, more likely by wagon or local rail line than by any established theatrical circuit. Morris was learning his craft from the ground up, in the most unforgiving of schools. These early years also brought Morris into contact with a distinctly American phenomenon: the medicine show. The Spring Hill New Era of October 3, 1895, records him performing for The Hygienic Electric Belt Specialty Company at the Grange in Spring Hill, Kansas, where he was billed as “The New York Favorite” for his comedy. The electric belt — a patent medicine device marketed as a cure for everything from nervous disorders to rheumatism — was one of the most popular quack remedies of the 1890s, with tens of thousands sold across the United States before the medical establishment finally discredited them. The medicine show format was simple: provide free entertainment to draw a crowd of farmers and townspeople, then sell the product on the strength of the goodwill generated. For a young performer without established circuit connections, it was employment, and it was training in the most demanding school imaginable — holding the attention of a skeptical, unsentimental rural audience who had come primarily for the curiosity of the thing rather than for any love of theatre. The Paola Times of March 14, 1895, records him in another small Kansas town as a “blackface comedian” — a format that was, unfortunately, standard entertainment fare of the era, and one Morris clearly included in his repertoire alongside his Irish and Dutch dialect characters. He was building an arsenal of performance styles that would serve him for the next four decades. How did Morris travel between these early engagements? Almost certainly by rail. The 1890s were the golden age of American railroad expansion, and even small Kansas towns were connected by branch lines to the regional network. A performer on the small-town circuit would have travelled by the cheapest available means — day coaches, sometimes overnight in the seat, luggage piled around him, moving from Gardner to Spring Hill to Paola as the bookings dictated. Later, as his career advanced and the distances grew greater, the railroad remained the essential artery of vaudeville life. The great circuits — the Orpheum, the Keith-Albee — were built as much around railway timetables as around theatrical geography. An act booked into Winnipeg one week and Houston the next was, in practical terms, spending as much time on trains as on stages. The 1940 census, found Morris and Dolly (more on Dolly and Morris’ life continues below) in their Queens apartment with no employment income, closing the book on a lifetime of railway journeys: platform after platform, town after town, the conductor calling out names that had once meant an audience and a paycheck. By 1896, Morris had graduated to the Wonderland Theater in St. Joseph, Missouri, where the September 12, 1896, edition of the St. Joseph News-Press records him performing as a “singing comedian.” He was returning there the following August as well, suggesting he had become a regular and welcome presence. The Wonderland was a step up from the Grange halls — a proper theatre with a paying audience — and his regular bookings there indicate that he may have developed a following. In December of that same year, 1896, his sister Jennie was married on Christmas morning in Kingsville, Ontario, to Alfred Baltzer, by the Reverend W.H. Shaw. Her new husband’s world of Essex County farms and electric plants was settling around her just as Morris’s world was expanding in the opposite direction. By 1903, Morris was performing at the Temple Theatre in Windsor, a legitimate vaudeville venue that served audiences on both sides of the Canada-United States border, given Windsor’s position directly across the Detroit River from one of America’s great industrial cities. The Hamilton Star Theatre followed in September 1904, where the review gives us that vivid physical description of a “big, good-natured looking comedian” with a “good monologue, and a lot of parody” who had “the boys whistling the chorus of his waltz song, ‘Where the Summer Breezes Blow.’” The gallery — the cheap seats, the working-class section at the back and top of the house — responded with particular warmth: he “made a hit with the gallery boys,” the reviewer noted, a phrase that carried specific meaning. Gallery audiences were the toughest and most honest judges in the vaudeville house. They paid the least and expected the most, and they had no patience for pretension. Morris, the former medicine show entertainer from the Grange halls of Kansas, knew how to talk to them. The Windsor Star of June 27, 1910, informs us that Morris by this point “owned a fine little roundabout automobile,” a light, open two-seat motorcar, very much a fashionable and somewhat expensive possession at the time. It suggests a man of comfortable means, pleased with his success and happy to show it. Whether he used the automobile for short local journeys or simply as a status symbol is not recorded, but the image of Morris Manley — the orphaned English boy from Essex County, the former medicine show comedian — motoring through Windsor in his own car has a certain satisfying completeness to it. ## Dolly Sterling: Partner in Life and Art At some point in the early years of the 20th century, Morris Manley acquired a partner who would prove as central to his story as his own talent. Dorothy, known always as “Dolly,” was born in Des Moines, Iowa in October 1888, the daughter of Sidney Marshall. She was perhaps a decade younger than Morris, a gap that would show up in later census records with some awkwardness, but which apparently presented no obstacle to either romance or professional partnership. She performed under the name Dolly Sterling. Whether Sterling was her actual maiden name, a stage name, or some combination, is a question the record does not fully resolve. Her death certificate gives her maiden name as Marshall, but a formal US copyright filing from 1909 names her as “Dolly Sterling” in a legal context, suggesting the name may have had genuine documentary standing. It is worth noting that a Miss Lulu Marshall, billed as a contralto, appears alongside Morris in a Lansing, Michigan newspaper notice of July 20, 1905\. Whether Lulu was related to Dolly, perhaps a sister who performed with Morris in the period before Dolly joined the act, or maybe a stage name of Dolly herself, remains an intriguing unanswered question. What did Dolly look like? The Beloit, Wisconsin newspaper photograph of November 1906 shows a young woman with abundant dark curly or wavy hair, handsome rather than conventionally pretty, with a direct and confident gaze, the look of someone entirely at ease being photographed. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of March 30, 1919, published a separate theatrical portrait of her performing independently in Pennsylvania, showing her with an elaborate up-swept hairstyle fashionable for the era, well-dressed and poised. The Muskegon Chronicle of 1908 called her “chic and pretty,” a reviewer’s shorthand for a woman who carried herself well and knew how to dress for the stage. What is beyond doubt is that by November 1906, Morris and Dolly were performing together at the Bijou Theatre in Beloit, Wisconsin, billed as “Manley and Sterling.” By May 1907, they were at the Family Bijou in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the “Family” designation indicated wholesome, all-ages programming, confirming their act was considered respectable entertainment suitable for women and children, as well as men. Their act centred on a comedy sketch that Morris had written himself: *Kid Hickey, A Story in Slang*, a romantic comedy playlet set in Happy Hollow, Hot Springs, Arkansas, in which a boxer in training saves the life of an heiress and ultimately marries her. The humour came from the contrast between rough boxing slang and the romantic dramatic situations. Morris almost certainly played the pugilist and Dolly the heiress. The Muskegon Chronicle of November 3, 1908, gives us the most detailed contemporary account of their act: > “Miss Sterling is chic and pretty and Manley’s command of slang is something to conjure spirits of Bob Fitzsimmons and John L. Sullivan with.” The reviewer noted, with a critic’s frankness, that “if Dolly Sterling would only use her pretty voice a little more the audience would be better pleased,” suggesting she was playing the comedy rather than the singing in this particular piece. On the same Muskegon Bijou bill were Happy Bill Briggs, described as “a good old minstrel comedian with a line of songs,” and Ella LePage, a performer known for impersonations, whose style the critic considered slightly dated. The Brobsts, a family act featuring Mr. Brobst as “a fine pianist and cellist,” performed a piece entitled A Musical Breeze. These were the working companions of Morris and Dolly’s professional life: a shifting roster of specialty acts and comedy performers, thrown together by circuit bookings, shared dressing rooms, and train compartments across the Midwest. The same review offers a valuable profile of Morris at this stage of his career: > “A vaudeville writer and song composer who is also a capable actor is Morris Manley… Mr. Manley is the composer of almost a score of popular songs.” Among the songs listed were “Automobiling With Molly,” “Pansy Blossom,” and “If I Could Only Have My Way” — all predating the WWI patriotic material that would make his name in Canada. *Kid Hickey* sustained them for years. It played Winnipeg’s Dominion Theatre in February and March 1909, a gruelling engagement in the dead of a prairie winter for a couple accustomed to the relative warmth of the American Midwest. Winnipeg was the major entertainment hub of the Canadian prairies, and the Dominion was its premier vaudeville venue. The Manitoba Morning Free Press described *Kid Hickey* as a “playette” and the Winnipeg Tribune elaborated on its plot. Sharing the Dominion bill during this engagement were the Marriott Twins, a bicycle spinning and juggling act — a classic vaudeville specialty that would have provided vivid visual contrast to Morris and Dolly’s comedy playlet. How did they get to Winnipeg? Almost certainly by rail; the Canadian Pacific line from Chicago through the Twin Cities and across the prairies, a journey of many hours in a day coach or, if the booking warranted it, a sleeping car. February on the prairies meant temperatures that could fall to -40° C, and train delays from blizzards were a routine hazard of prairie touring. The audiences that turned out for Dominion Theatre shows in such conditions were hardy souls. Winnipeg residents who took their entertainment seriously enough to venture out in Canadian winter weather, dressed in their best, for an evening of professional vaudeville. *Kid Hickey* next played Houston, Texas in June 1910 — the opposite climatic extreme, summer in the deep south — and Lima, Ohio’s Orpheum in October of the same year. The Orpheum circuit was one of the most prestigious vaudeville operations in North America, eventually encompassing 45 theatres in 36 cities. Playing an Orpheum house meant Morris and Dolly had been assessed and approved by the circuit’s booking agents — a mark of professional standing that opened further doors. The Orpheum’s audiences tended to be middle-class and family-oriented. The circuit’s founder had aimed to make vaudeville “suitable for refined young ladies,” and the standard of decorum in Orpheum houses was considerably higher than in the rougher variety theatres. By 1909, they had also copyrighted a second piece, *The Picture Man*, a “dramatic composition in one act,” registered with the US Copyright Office under both their names — “Morris Manley & Dolly Sterling, Des Moines, Ia.” — confirming Dolly as a genuine creative collaborator, not merely a performer. The copyright was registered from Des Moines, Dolly’s hometown, suggesting they were visiting her family — perhaps the same “Mr and Mrs Marshall of Demoine Iowa” \[sic\] mentioned in a July 1909 Windsor Star notice — when the paperwork was filed. ### Dolly Alone: The Pennsylvania Interlude There is a chapter in Dolly’s story that sits slightly apart from the Manley family narrative, and it deserves its own consideration. By 1917 or thereabouts, Dolly appears to have been working independently, touring without Morris, and without daughter Mildred (about whom much can be found below). The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of March 30, 1919, places her at the Academy Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, performing as “Dolly Sterling,” her professional name, not her married one. She was not billed alongside Morris. She was performing alone. What was happening in the Manley household at this moment? Morris was active in Toronto and Halifax, composing and performing his wartime material. Mildred, at approximately ten or eleven years old, was at the height of her child performer career in Toronto, her bookings managed from College Street. The family enterprise, in other words, had divided into three streams: Morris the composer-performer, Mildred the child star, and Dolly — the pivot point of the whole operation — apparently pursuing her own performing career in Pennsylvania while also managing her daughter’s bookings, and accompanying her on the Toronto concert circuit. This is speculation, but informed speculation. A woman of Dolly’s abilities — pianist, actress, comedian, co-author of a successfully touring playlet — would not have been content to sit at home on College Street managing correspondence while the stages of North America called. The Pittsburgh engagement was almost certainly not her only independent booking; it is simply one of the many that has surfaced in the surviving record. One finds other Pennsylvania dates, other theatres, other cities where Dolly Sterling appeared without the “and Morris Manley” billing that had defined her professional identity for a decade. What did she perform alone? The Academy Theatre was a legitimate vaudeville house, and Dolly’s established reputation would have secured her a reasonable billing. She may have reprised elements of the Manley and Sterling act — comic songs, perhaps a solo version of some of their material — or she may have developed something entirely her own. A Pittsburgh portrait shows a confident, well-turned-out woman who knows exactly what she is doing in front of a camera. One suspects she knew exactly what she was doing on a stage, too, with or without her husband in the wings. The question of why she went to Pennsylvania specifically, rather than touring with the Canadian circuit alongside Morris, or staying in Toronto with Mildred, may have a simple answer: the bookings were there, and she took them. Or there may be a more personal dimension to her independent touring that the surviving record simply does not illuminate. Marriages under the pressures of professional entertainment life, with its constant travel and financial uncertainty, were not always straightforward, and the distance between a wife performing in Pittsburgh and a husband composing patriotic songs in Toronto invites reflection, even if it defies definitive interpretation. What we can say with confidence is that Dolly was, throughout her life, a working professional in her own right, not merely an appendage to Morris’s career, but a performer and creator who also happened to be his wife, and his daughter’s accompanist and manager. ## **“**Canada’s Greatest Child Vocalist”: The Making of Little Mildred Mildred Manley arrived in a world already defined by performance. Her father was a touring comedian and songwriter; her mother was his professional partner and a pianist of genuine ability. The stage was, quite literally, their home. She appears first in the records as a two-year-old, named in a Windsor Star social notice of June 22, 1910: > “Mr and Mrs Manley and daughter Mildred have arrived in Kings\[ville\] for a few weeks vacation.” One imagines the small family arriving at Aunt Jennie and Uncle Alf Baltzer’s home on Pearl Street in Kingsville, during a brief respite from the touring circuit, the toddler perhaps unsteady on her feet in the summer heat of Essex County. What did Mildred look like? Every contemporary source agrees on one point: she was blonde. The Halifax Evening Mail of 1919 describes her as being “of the purely blonde type.” A 1927 New York review makes an arch reference to “gentlemen prefer blondes.” A 1928 Rome, New York review describes her simply as “blond and low down.” Her sheet music covers — the one for “I Want My Daddy” most famously — depicted her as a pretty, fair-haired child with an open, appealing face. As an adult performer she was described as “dainty” and “beautiful” in one Mount Vernon advertisement, while reviewers noted her “debonaire demeanor” and physical charisma. A 1925 Brooklyn review coined the comparison to Eva Tanguay, not for her blonde hair but for her explosive energy and uninhibited stage presence. Mildred was, by every account, a performer who lit up a room. By 1914 or 1915, the family had settled in Toronto, where Morris found a new purpose for his talents. The First World War had transformed the cultural landscape of English Canada. Patriotic concerts, recruiting rallies, fundraising events, fuelled the demand for entertainers willing to serve the cause was enormous, and Morris, the adopted son of English immigrants with a flair for emotional songwriting, was perfectly placed to supply it. He established himself initially at 83 Victoria Street, Toronto, and later at 1044-1046 College Street — a working and middle-class residential street in the west end of the city, a short walk from the Doric and Park Theatres at Bloor and Lansdowne. From these addresses he published songs and managed a remarkable family enterprise. The Star Weekly of November 27, 1915, ran a professional advertisement that captures the moment precisely: > “Little Miss Mildred Manley, the wonderful child vocalist and entertainer who has captivated Toronto audiences by her clever work. This little girl has been labeled by press and public ‘Canada’s Greatest Child Singer.’ In three weeks she made the latest patriotic song, ‘Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies,’ the biggest hit of the year. Under personal direction of M. Manley, 83 Victoria street. Main 1522\. Open for concert and banquet engagements.” Morris was, in the language of the modern entertainment industry, his daughter’s manager. He had created the product, written the material, and was now actively marketing her. It was the medicine show business model, elevated to a considerably higher plane. The Toronto Star of December 31, 1915, places seven-year-old Mildred at the Hippodrome, one of Toronto’s major entertainment venues, for a Sportsmen’s Patriotic Concert. It also featured baritones, sopranos, a cellist, a violinist from the prestigious Keith circuit, military bands, and a nationally known preacher, the Reverend S.B. Nelson of Hamilton. The ticket prices were graduated: reserved seats at 50 cents, 75 cents, and one dollar, with rush seating at 25 cents. These were respectable prices for a middle-class Toronto audience, the kind of audience that filled Massey Hall, attended Sons of England concerts, and sent their sons to the 208th Irish Battalion. Her accompanist at many of these early Toronto events was Charles Musgrave. By October 1916, the Toronto Star identified Musgrave specifically as a “popular accompanist” appearing with Mildred at a Sportsmen’s Farewell at Oddfellows’ Hall on College Street, just steps from the family home at 1044-1046 College Street. He “kindly volunteered his services” for the Hippodrome patriotic concert of December 1915 as well, alongside Bandmaster F. Reeves. These were men who believed in the cause, as well as the child performer they were accompanying. The scale of Mildred’s public profile is perhaps best captured by the Massey Hall concert of October 1916\. Massey Hall opened in 1894 as a gift to the people of Toronto from the industrialist Hart Massey. Built in a late Palladian and Moorish Revival style with outstanding acoustics that would later make it famous as “Canada’s Carnegie Hall” and the oldest continuously operating concert venue in North America, it seated over 2,000 people. At the Sons of England Annual Grand Concert, “over two thousand people joined in the chorus of ‘I Want My Daddy,’ as sung by Little Mildred Manley.” The song’s theme — a young girl missing her father away at war — performed by an actual young girl at the height of the war’s casualties — was devastating in its emotional sincerity. The hall that would later host Glenn Gould’s debut, Oscar Peterson’s early performances, and the legendary 1953 jazz concert of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach, had been moved to mass communal singing by an eight-year-old girl from College Street. By 1918, Toronto’s movie theatres had discovered her commercial value. The Star Weekly of July 27, 1918, records her appearing as an “Extra Added Attraction — the entire week” at both the Doric Theatre (Bloor and Lansdowne) and the Park Theatre (Bloor and Gladstone), performing live as a supporting act to films starring Jack Pickford, the Toronto-born younger brother of Mary Pickford. The pairing of live child performer and silent film was a standard commercial strategy of the era, and the fact that the Toronto theatres used Mildred repeatedly suggests she was a genuine draw. The Halifax Evening Mail of September 27, 1919, gives us a sense of how Mildred was regarded beyond Toronto. Advertising her appearance at the Big Exhibition in Halifax, the paper quoted three press sources: the New York Variety called her “a wonderful entertainer” with “dialect stories” that were “great” and “a voice as strong as a girl twice her age”; the Toronto Daily Star declared her “the greatest child entertainer ever seen in Toronto”; and the Detroit Journal labelled her “The Human Doll,” noting that she was “of the purely blonde type” and that “the simple word ‘wonder’ positively applies to her and her acting.” She was eleven years old. She had been performing professionally, in major venues, for at least four years. Morris himself was not merely the man behind the piano. The same Evening Mail ran a separate notice for his own Halifax appearance, billing him as a “Great Comic Entertainer” and “Canada’s Greatest Song Writer,” noting that the New York World had praised his “good, clear, rich voice,” and that audiences were “calling for more when his repertoire was exhausted.” Father and daughter were both in Halifax in the autumn of 1919, appearing on different bills in what had clearly become a well-organized family entertainment enterprise: Morris composing, publishing, and performing; Dolly accompanying and managing bookings; and Mildred the star attraction. A May 1919 advertisement in the Star Weekly, which ran for at least two consecutive weeks, makes the business arrangement explicit: > “Little Mildred Manley, Phenomenal Child Vocalist and Entertainer. Can be engaged for Concerts, Garden Parties, Fall Fairs, etc. For terms, address Mrs. Morris Manley, 1046 College Street, Toronto. Phone Parkdale 5834.” The Star Weekly of December 15, 1917, offers one domestic glimpse into Mildred’s Toronto life: she appears on the membership list of a children’s club — most likely associated with the newspaper itself — at her address of 1044 College Street, listed simply as “Mildred Manley, aged 10.” No billing. No “Canada’s Greatest Child Vocalist.” Just a ten-year-old girl joining a newspaper club, like any other child on the street. ### Transition: From Toronto Child Star to New York Performer At some point after 1919, the Manley family left Toronto for New York. The precise date of the move is not recorded, but by 1930 they were firmly established in Queens, and the trajectory of Mildred’s career in the mid-1920s suggests the transition was complete by 1924 at the latest. The entertainment world Mildred entered as a young adult was very different from the patriotic concert halls of wartime Toronto. Vaudeville was changing. The rise of cinema, the spread of radio, the relaxation of postwar social norms were all reshaping popular entertainment. And Mildred was changing too, from the angelic child performer of the war years into something altogether more exciting. The Daily Freeman of Kingston, New York places her dancing at the Kingston Opera House as early as November 1924\. By the 1924–1925 season she had appeared in *Innocent Eyes* at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway — one of New York’s most storied theatrical venues, built by the Shubert brothers in 1911 on the site of William K. Vanderbilt’s old American Horse Exchange. This was where Al Jolson had made his Broadway debut on opening night, and where *West Side Story*, *Funny Girl*, and *Cats* would later play to generations of New York audiences. *Innocent Eyes* was a Shubert production, and Mildred, at about 16–17 years of age, had appeared in it as a star. The Brooklyn Daily Times of October 7, 1925, confirms the engagement, describing her as having “starred last season in ‘Innocent Eyes’ at Shubert’s Winter Garden,” while noting she was now appearing on a high-grade vaudeville bill alongside performers from the prestigious Keith circuit. That same 1925 Brooklyn review gives her a new nickname — “the miniature Eva Tanguay.” Tanguay was the most uninhibited, energetic, and famously explosive star in vaudeville history, known as “The I Don’t Care Girl,” a performer of such volcanic stage presence that comparisons to her were among the highest compliments the vaudeville world could offer. The reviewer was not suggesting a physical resemblance, but rather that she possessed the same quality of raw, unrestrained performing energy — the ability to fill a stage and hold an audience by sheer force of personality. To be called, at age 17, a miniature version of the greatest female vaudevillian of the age was no small thing. By February 1927, she was performing on the same bill as Frank Farnum (born William Smith in Boston in 1878), a vaudeville veteran who had started his performing career at age twelve and had appeared on Broadway in Ziegfeld revues before eventually turning to Hollywood. A reviewer described Mildred’s performance that evening with genuine admiration: she “demonstrates why fer gentlemen pre' blondes… she’s not a comer. No, suh! Mildred has arrived.” The nickname “the ball of fire” had attached itself to her. In April and again in autumn 1928, she held a residency at the Rio Rita Restaurant in Mount Vernon, New York (“First Street at Fifth Avenue Bridge,” described as “Mount Vernon’s New and Beautiful Restaurant”) where she was billed as “Star of ‘Innocent Eyes’” and performed “every evening this week and next.” The Knickerbocker Orchestra provided the house music. The Mount Vernon Argus ran her photograph. At the Rio Rita, the admission was through the restaurant itself; a Sunday dinner for $1.25 brought the audience that heard Mildred perform — a comfortable price for a middle-class establishment offering filet of sole, roast milk-fed chicken, and Italian cream cake alongside the entertainment. By December 1928, the Rome, New York Daily Sentinel had reviewed her performing the blues: W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,” delivered in a voice that could capture the specific agony of sitting “in a jailhouse with my back to the wall.” The reviewer called her “blond and low down… fascinating without being too vulgar,” a careful qualifier that tells us something about the territory she was now working, the borderland between respectable entertainment and something rather more charged. She was 20 years old, and had travelled a considerable distance from the patriotic parlour songs of College Street. The following year, in October 1927, she gave birth to a daughter, Linda. ## Mildred, Richard, and Linda It was somewhere in this world of late-1920s New York entertainment that Mildred Manley encountered Richard Giannone. Born in the Bronx in 1903 (appearing in some records as Riccardo or Riccardi, reflecting his Italian family heritage) Richard was a musician working the New York club circuit. His 1942 draft card describes him as 5’ 6” (168 cm) tall, 135 pounds (ca. 61 kg), blond with hazel eyes — a slight, fair-complexioned man, surprisingly similar in colouring to Mildred herself. By 1942 he would be playing at Minsky’s 51 Club at 51 West 52nd Street, the nightclub operation of the famous Minsky burlesque family, situated on “Swing Street,” a stretch of 52nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues that was the beating heart of New York’s jazz and nightclub scene in the early 1940s. ![Photo of a young girl with arms outstretched, above which is the song's title, and beneath which is the name of the composer, whose photo appears at the lower left.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2026/04/WHENYOUDANCE04292026.jpg) Cover of sheet music for When you dance with your Soldier Boy by Morris Manley, Courtesy of Turtle Creek Books, Mississauga, Ontario Their daughter Linda was born on October 26, 1927, in Manhattan. By 1930, she appears in the Manley household at 27th Street, Queens, listed as “Linda Lewis,” age two, alongside Morris, Dolly, and Mildred, who is herself recorded as “Mildred Lewis, age 21, first married at age 18.” Whether “Lewis” was a husband’s name, a middle name used for documentary purposes, or some other arrangement remains unclear. What is clear is that Richard Giannone was not part of the household, and that Linda, for the first years of her life, was raised within the Manley family in Queens. The 1930 census gives us a vivid domestic snapshot: Morris, now in his mid-50s, listing his profession as vaudeville performer; Dolly, about 41, doing the same; young Mildred with her daughter; and baby Linda. They rented their home. The great vaudeville circuit that had carried Morris and Dolly from Beloit to Winnipeg to Houston was effectively dead, killed by the talkies and radio. The census of 1940 found them still in Queens, at 32-48 34th Street, with Dolly now listed as head of household. Both she and Morris gave “vaudeville actor” as their occupation despite having had no work in 1939\. Their income came “from other sources” — savings, perhaps, or some form of entertainment industry residuals. Both had completed only eighth grade, a fact the census dutifully recorded alongside their glamorous-seeming profession. It is worth pausing here to consider what that 1940 census entry actually represents: two people in their 60s, living in a rented Queens apartment, clinging to professional identities about which the world no longer cared. The Orpheum circuit was long gone. The Dominion Theatre in Winnipeg had stopped booking vaudeville acts. The Bijou theatres of Beloit and Muskegon and Ann Arbor had become cinemas. *Kid Hickey, A Story in Slang* had not been performed in 20 years. And yet Morris and Dolly Manley remained, in their own understanding of themselves, vaudeville performers. It was who they were. Dolly Marshall Manley, at age 54, died on October 22, 1943, at St. John’s Hospital in Queens, of ulcerative colitis leading to a ruptured sigmoid colon and generalized peritonitis — a painful death. Her death certificate contains one puzzling detail: although her parents were said to have been born in Iowa, it states she had been in the United States for only 18 years. If accurate, this would imply she spent a substantial portion of her life in Canada. Perhaps the Toronto years were longer or more significant to her official residency status than previously appreciated. She was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. Her husband Morris, still alive, served as her executor. Morris himself died, tentatively, around 1947 in New York — the date remains unconfirmed in the documentary record. If accurate, he outlived Dolly by only a few years, dying as vaudeville’s last audiences were themselves aging out of existence. Mildred Manley died on February 3, 1949, in Manhattan. She was approximately 40 years old. Her funeral was held four days later at a Brooklyn funeral home chapel. Brooklyn was where Jennie and Alf Baltzer had spent their honeymoon in 1896, and where Mildred had performed on vaudeville bills as a young woman. She was survived by her daughter, Linda, then 21 years old. ## Linda’s Story: A Life Beyond the Stage Linda Giannone Thompson, who had begun her life as Linda Lewis in the Manley family household in Queens, built her life far from the world of vaudeville and Broadway. She married Dudley Thompson on June 6, 1951, at Highland Farms, New York. By April 1955, she and Dudley, a Lieutenant in the US military, arrived at New York from Frankfurt, Germany, on a Seaboard and Western Airlines flight, accompanied by their approximately one-year-old son John R. Thompson. Dudley’s military service accounts for Linda’s eventual burial at the United States Military Academy Post Cemetery at West Point, New York. In the 1990s, Linda and Dudley were living in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC (Silver Spring, Rockville, North Potomac) suggesting a life connected to the capital’s government and military world. She died on May 13, 2023, survived by her son John and his wife Lisa, and a daughter Ann and her husband Benjamin. She was 95 years old, a remarkable longevity that took her from the Queens household of her grandfather Morris Manley, “Canada’s Greatest Song Writer,” all the way to the 21st century. Her father Richard Giannone had lived a parallel but separate life. He married Angela Spano in the Bronx on June 29, 1935, and they had a daughter, Amelia, born around 1940\. Richard identified himself as a musical director in the 1950 census, though he was then unemployed and seeking work — a familiar story in an entertainment industry that had been restructured by television and the decline of the big band era. He and Angela eventually moved to the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove, Illinois, where Richard died on October 17, 1986\. Angela, born around 1913, was a former dressmaker who had kept the family afloat during Richard’s lean years; she lived on until January 12, 2013, dying at approximately 99 years of age. Their daughter Amelia predeceased her mother, dying in Chicago in 2007. ## The Baltzer Connection: Family in Essex County While Morris was building his career across the stages of North America, his sister Jennie lived a quieter but no less full life in Kingsville, Ontario. Her 1896 Christmas morning wedding to Alfred Baltzer (son of Michael and Susan Baltzer of Arner) had been reported in the Kingsville Reporter with the warmth of small-town journalism: > “We extend our hearty congratulations to Alfred Baltzer & Miss Jennie Manley who were united & made ‘one’ on Christmas morning… They are spending their honeymoon in Brooklyn N.Y. & on their return will reside in Gosfield South near Kingsville.” Brooklyn again — a curious thread that connects the Manley family’s story at multiple points. Alfred worked for many years as a master mechanic and electrical engineer at the Kingsville electric light plant. He and Jennie had at least five children: Edith (who married Earl Murtaugh), Maurice, Lloyd, Karl, and Edwin Carlton. The name Maurice (an alternate form of Morris) given to one of Jennie’s sons suggests a warm affection for her brother, whether biological or adoptive. Alfred died on January 8, 1943, in Kingsville, just nine months before Dolly Manley’s own death in Queens. Jennie survived him by more than a decade, dying on July 6, 1955, in Essex County, the last survivor of the generation that had come, somehow, from England and Wales to the farms of southwestern Ontario. A 1931 Kingsville anniversary notice describes the Baltzers as pillars of their community: active in the Masons, the Eastern Stars, the Odd Fellows, the Order of the Eastern Star, and the United Church. Alfred and Jennie had spent 35 years building a life together in the same small county where they had married on Christmas morning in 1896\. One wonders whether Morris, in his years of touring, ever came back to Kingsville to see them; almost certainly he did, given the pattern of visits documented in the Windsor Star through the first decade of the century. The adopted English boy and his sister had taken very different roads through life; but the roads had not, it seems, taken them very far from each other. ## A Life in Songs: The Morris Manley Catalogue Across his career, Morris Manley composed and copyrighted at least 17 known works, a figure that almost certainly understates his actual output, given that many pieces from his early career may never have been formally copyrighted or have survived in accessible archives. The earliest documented composition is The Ottawa Fire (1900), published by R.S. Williams & Sons of Toronto (one of Canada’s most established music publishers), a descriptive piece in the popular genre of topical songs about current events. By 1901 he had copyrighted *A Funny Affair*, a one-act comedy co-written with a collaborator named Ivy Rose, and registered from Chicago. The waltz “Where the Summer Breezes Blow” had audiences in Hamilton whistling the chorus in 1904\. “You’ll Have to Show Me, I’m from Missouri” played on the famous state motto, reflecting his deep familiarity with the American Midwest. “Pansy Blossom,” “If I Could Only Have My Way,” and “Automobiling With Molly” were all cited as established hits by 1908. The WWI period produced his most celebrated work. Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies (1915) was turned, in three weeks, into “the biggest hit of the year” through Mildred’s performances. “I Love You Canada” (1915), co-written with Kenneth McInnis, was one of the more overtly patriotic pieces. “I Want My Daddy” (1916) brought 2,000 people to their feet at Massey Hall. “What the Deuce Do We Care for Kaiser Bill?” (1917) captured the defiant home front spirit of its moment. Later came “Up in the Air Over There” (1918), “Hello Canada!” (1919), and “The Missus and I and the Baby” (1919), the last of which seems to smile warmly at his own domestic life. The Toronto Public Library’s Digital Archive holds physical copies of six of these compositions, and the Wikisource platform has transcribed several of the lyrics. They await the researcher who will give them the full attention they deserve. ## The Supporting Cast: A World of Performers The Manleys did not work in isolation. Around them, on every stage and every circuit, moved a world of professional entertainers who shared their billing sheets, their dressing rooms, their railway carriages, and their professional lives. Some were footnotes; a few were famous. Charles Musgrave appears as Mildred’s accompanist at multiple Toronto events in 1915 and 1916, described as “the popular accompanist,” a man sufficiently well-known in Toronto musical circles to be identified by name in press notices. His family firm, Musgrave Bros., printed Morris’s sheet music, and the relationship between the Manleys and the Musgraves was clearly close, personal, and professional in equal measure. The Marriott Twins, bicycle spinners and jugglers, shared the Dominion Theatre bill with Morris and Dolly in Winnipeg in February 1909\. Their athletic specialty act provided vivid contrast to the romantic comedy of *Kid Hickey*. Such variety of tone and format was the essential grammar of vaudeville programming: the audience should never be asked to feel the same thing twice in succession. Frank Farnum, born William Smith in Boston on June 5, 1878, and performing under his stage name from at least his early 20s, shared a New York bill with Mildred in February 1927 when she received the “ball of fire” review. Farnum had begun his vaudeville career at age twelve, appeared on Broadway in Ziegfeld revues in 1921, and briefly married the silent film actress Alma Rubens. By the time he and Mildred shared a stage he was approaching 50 years of age and transitioning from vaudeville headliner to Hollywood character actor — a journey that would eventually accord him the distinction of appearing in more Academy Award Best Picture winning films than any other performer in Hollywood history, including roles in *All About Eve*, *Sunset Boulevard*, and *The Apartment*. He died of cancer in 1961 at the Motion Picture and Television Country House in Woodland Hills, California. Jack Pickford, born John Charles Smith in Toronto on August 18, 1896, was the younger brother of the silent screen goddess Mary Pickford. His films were paired with Mildred’s live performances at the Doric and Park Theatres in July 1918\. It is a curiously historical conjunction that a Toronto-born Hollywood star’s films were being shown in Toronto movie houses at which a Toronto-raised child performer appeared live on the same bill. Pickford had been given his start in Hollywood by his famous sister, appearing in over a hundred films and achieving genuine star status with his portrayal of Tom Sawyer in 1917\. But his life was marked by tragedy and dissipation: his first wife, actress Olive Thomas, died in Paris in 1920 after ingesting a poisonous substance; his subsequent marriages to Broadway star Marilyn Miller and actress Mary Mulhern both ended in divorce; and by the late 1920s alcoholism and the transition to sound pictures ended his career. He died in Paris on January 3, 1933, at 36 years of age, at the same American Hospital where Olive Thomas had died 13 years before. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Reverend S.B. Nelson of Hamilton — described as “known all over Canada as a strong, virile speaker,” shared the Hippodrome bill with Mildred in December 1915 — was pressed into service as a recruiting orator, his patriotic rhetoric providing the spoken-word frame around Mildred’s musical performance. Miss Van Loon and her Holland Girls String Orchestra, possibly a Dutch immigrant ensemble or simply a Dutch-themed act capitalizing on the visual novelty of an all-female string orchestra, appeared with Mildred at Scarborough Beach in May 1916\. Miss Esther Pugsley, soprano, appeared alongside Mildred and Dolly at the Streetsville garden party of June 1919\. She was one of the countless local musicians and performers who populated the concert circuit of small-town Ontario without ever achieving wider fame. Will J. White and Jules Brazil appeared at the same event, similarly undocumented beyond this single notice. And somewhere in the background of all these Toronto years stands Miss Lulu Marshall, contralto, who appeared alongside Morris at the Bijou in Lansing, Michigan, in July 1905, a year before Dolly first appears in the documented record. The Marshall surname she shares with Dolly’s family invites speculation. Was she Dolly’s sister, a family connection through whom Morris first met the woman who would become his partner and wife? It is possible. It may be a coincidence of surnames. Like so much in this story, it is a question the surviving record declines to fully answer. ## Reflections: The Family at the Curtain What are we to make of the Manleys? Morris Manley arrived in Canada as an orphaned or abandoned English child, found a home with farming people in Essex County, and transformed himself — through will, talent, and decades of practice in medicine shows, Grange halls, minor theatres, and finally the great vaudeville circuits of North America — into “Canada’s Greatest Song Writer.” His songs inspired 2,000 people to sing together at Massey Hall. His daughter’s voice carried them. Dolly Sterling Manley sits at the piano in the background of many of these moments — the accompanist, the booking agent, the business manager, the co-author of *Kid Hickey*, the woman who managed the enterprise from College Street while Morris composed and Mildred performed, and who also, on her own terms, took herself to Pittsburgh and other Pennsylvania stages, reminding the world that she was a performer in her own right. History has been unkind to her, as it so often is to the women who made things work behind the scenes. And Mildred — the “Human Doll,” the “ball of fire,” the blonde child who sang about missing her daddy to thousands of weeping strangers at Massey Hall, who grew up to deliver the blues in New York nightclubs and perform works by W.C. Handy, while the audience called her low-down and fascinating — is perhaps the most poignant figure of all. She was marketed as a wonder from the time she could walk; she was placed on Massey Hall’s stage at eight years of age to make audiences weep; her face appeared on sheet music covers before she was old enough to understand what any of it meant. That she emerged from that childhood to build a genuine adult career, to be reviewed seriously on her own terms, to be described as having “arrived,” rather than merely being promising, is itself a kind of triumph. She died, at about 40 years of age, in Manhattan in February 1949, and was buried from a Brooklyn chapel four days later. Her parents were already gone. Her daughter Linda was 21 years old, and would go on to live another 74 years, eventually dying in 2023 and buried at West Point — a long, long way from College Street, Toronto, and the piano at which Dolly Marshall Manley once sat, accompanying her extraordinary daughter into the light. The curtain, when it finally fell, fell quietly. --- This biographical essay was compiled from primary sources, including US and Canadian census records, newspaper archives from the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Windsor Star, Hamilton Spectator, Manitoba Morning Free Press, Winnipeg Tribune, various American papers, the US Copyright Office Catalogue of Copyright Entries, the Toronto Public Library Digital Archive, and family and vital records. Where information remains unverified or uncertain, this has been noted in the research record. The author welcomes additional primary source material. Copyright © Denise J. Choppin. All rights reserved. ### Maria do Espirito Santo Ferreira Rezendes (1895–1963) URL: https://alifereflected.com/historical/maria-do-espirito-santo-ferreira-rezendes-1895-1963/ Last updated: 2026-01-30T18:38:09.000Z An Azorean Life Remembered In ancient Rome tombstones often had carvings saying things like “*Stop, Traveller and Read*” with etchings of biographies, eulogies and other information on the person being remembered. To be forgotten was a dire punishment in the ancient world — statues would be destroyed, written words struck from the records, paintings effaced. The practice in Rome was called “*Damnatio Memoriae*” (although written in Latin, the phrase originated in Germany in the 1600s to describe the intent) meaning “*condemnation of memory*” and was intended to erase the person from the historical record in the most complete way. We do not need to intentionally practice a condemnation of memory, since many, if not most, of our ancestors (and ourselves as well) will be forgotten within just a few generations — unless we make a conscious effort to gather and document what we have available before it is irretrievably lost. Here is a recollection or a remembrance of a woman who lived almost seven decades, from the turn of the last century until the mid-20th century. ## Introducing Maria ![Maria do Espirito Santo Ferreira Rezendes](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2026/01/MARIARESENDEX-1.jpg) Maria do Espirito Santo Ferreira Rezendes Some believe that people are influenced or even deeply affected by the places where they grew up and the people who went before them. Furthermore, some believe that those rooted traits are passed down generationally. If that is the case, then quite a number of people living in Canada, Brazil, and the United States could perhaps find the origin of something within themselves from learning of Maria. The portrait shown above is likely the only extant photograph of Maria and was probably taken in the 1950s, when she was in her fifties. There is no way to tell exactly where the picture was taken, nor for what reason. It is impossible to tell for certain whether this picture was cropped, or whether another person may have been seated on the other side of the table, just past the flowers. Maria herself is largely unadorned. She is wearing a very plain front-buttoned dress and has earrings. There may be a ring on her finger, where her hand is resting on the table, but it’s hard to see. Her dress appears quite long, the length perhaps reaching her feet. Based on her seated position relative to the back of the chair, she is likely over 5 ft (1.52 m) – 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) tall, but no more than that. Probably average for the time. She does not appear heavy-set; in fact you can just make out the back of the chair through a gap hear her waist. So, she is rather slim in build. Unsmiling, her face stares back at us from decades in the past. Her hair, dark and shot through with white or grey, appears pulled back. Perhaps it is long. There are deep lines running from her nose to her lips. We euphemistically call these “laugh lines”, and perhaps Maria did laugh and smile a great deal. Perhaps not. Her dark brown eyes are deep-set, with dark skin around them. Perhaps this darkness comes from age, or perhaps she is simply very tired. ### What We Know About Maria’s Original Family Marie was born around 1895 in Povoação, on the island of São Miguel in the Azores. Her parents were Jose Mestro De Rezendes and Francisca Ferreira, both of whom were from São Miguel and who may have been born around 1850\. One of possibly twelve children, Maria’s siblings were: Maria Dos Anjos (b. 1876); Ernesto (b. 1887); then Olinda, Pedro, Alverinho, Jose, Ilda, Belmira, Angelina, Ermilinda and Francelina (all likely born between 1876 and 1895). Nothing more is known about Maria’s parents or siblings. ### Maria Marries Although there is no record of her marriage, marry she did, to a man named Francisco Correia Da Ponte (b. May 29, 1886). Franscisco came from a large family as well; he was the eighth of eleven children. The couple had five children in quick succession: Miguel or Manuel(b.1915), Maria Resendes(b. 1916), Olinda Resendes(b. 1917), Angelina Resendes(b. 1919),and lastly Honorina Resendes(b. 1920). ![A B&W photo portrait of a neatly groomed man dressed in a suit and tie.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2026/01/MIGUEL1915.jpg) Possibly Manuel or Miguel Resendes da Ponte (b. ca. 1915) All the girls would leave the Azores, probably after the death of their father in 1942. Her daughter, Maria, would immigrate to Brazil, and all the other daughters left for Canada settling down in Toronto, Ontario. “Our” Maria had several grandchildren, most of whom were born in the Azores between 1945 and 1950\. None returned to the island, other than perhaps for a visit or two. Did Maria ever visit her daughters? We can’t know for sure, but there do appear to be records of her having gone for a time to Brazil. For how long we don’t know. Perhaps the photograph was taken there in honour of her visit. A picture of grandma for the distant family to keep and cherish. ### The Azores: The Land That Shaped Maria Without going too deeply into the general history of the Azores, it is worth noting that its history (at least in terms of European history) begins in the 15th century when the Portuguese began charting and exploring off the west coast of Africa. It may have begun even earlier, as there are maps from as early as 1373 that reference these islands. In any case, despite the details being somewhat murky, it seems accurate to say that the islands of Santa Maria and São Miguel were initially explored with an eye towards settlement around 1425 and by 1470 the first village, Anjos on Santa Maria, was established. The Azores appear in the record books from then on. Of note is the landing of Columbus’ ship the Nina, seeking repair work which was completed on São Miguel. It is very possible that Maria’s ancestors witnessed the arrival of Columbus, but who knows if they even cared, if it was yet just another ship pulling into port. Little did they know that they were witnessing an event that would change the world forever. São Miguel was colonized in 1432 at the site of Povoação, Maria’s home town. It quickly became the centre of activity for all the Azores. It had a thriving business in cultivating oranges. In fact, in the mid-19th century, São Miguel was the largest exporter to oranges to England, and the east side of the island was covered in orange groves. Sadly, a disease (known more generally as the Great French Wine Blight) decimated the entire orange crop and most of the vineyards in the late 1800s, so Maria would not have known breezes wafting the perfume of oranges, but her parents would have. ### The Ethnic Makeup of São Miguel Genetic studies have been conducted on the population of the Azores. Referencing the Y Chromosome (from the male line), nine different haplogroups have been identified; most of which are common in Europe. The most common haplogroup is “J”, being of 13.4% of Azoreans, but is much less frequent in mainland Portugal (only 6.8%). Other haplogroups found in the Azores but almost never in Portugal are prevalent in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. On the mothers’ side, the majority of mtDNA originates from the Iberian Peninsula and predominately from Portugal. Interestingly, the greater presence of Moorish and African mtDNA is found in the São Miguel and Eastern areas of the islands, which would correspond to the larger concentration of slaves brought there (as opposed to other areas of the Azores). As there is no information at the moment on the DNA of the descendants of Maria, we cannot know if her ancestors were predominantly from mainland Portugal or from Africa. ### Disasters Throughout the centuries, the Azores and São Miguel have seen more than their fair share of natural disasters. Within the living memories of Maria’s families, some of these events would resonate and likely be told to children and through reminiscences: - In 1811, a volcanic eruption occurred at the shore at Ferraria, São Miguel, and it created a short-lived island which was named Sabrina Island. The islet sank back into the sea in a few years. The eruption destroyed many homes. - In 1848 an earthquake hit, but caused no deaths in São Miguel. - In 1852 another earthquake hit the area and damaged homes. - By the time Maria was a child, in 1907, she would have been witness to the aftermath of an underwater eruption at the Monico Fracture. On April 1, the eruption involved a radius of 300 m just south-southwest of São Miguel. It spewed out ashes from the waters onto the land. - In 1911 there was another underwater eruption in the same area. These are only a few of the disasters that struck the Azores more generally. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes…. Maria would have seen the effects of many during her lifetime. ### Birds and Animals Maria Would Have Known The Azores are home to very few “exclusive” species, but there is a bullfinch that is found only on São Miguel that is now critically endangered. It has a short distinctive song, something like a flute or a whistle, and it is likely that Maria would have heard this melancholic call. There is only one endemic mammal: the Azores Noctule. The Noctule is a bat and is highly unusual because it hunts insects during the day. Almost certainly Maria would have known about this creature. ### The Perfume of Maria’s Life Smells have the power to transport us back to the past, to places we are deeply connected to. Maria’s world would have been scented by the humid salt air of the sea, the lush green aroma of the flora, sweet notes of flowers, and all tinged with a volcanic whiff of sulphur. Rich, earthy, pungent and sweet. ### The Folklore of Maria’s World The Azores are rich in stories and Povoação, in particular, has some intriguing tales. Maria would certainly have heard these legends and may have told them to her children. ***The Legend of the Goat*** This story recalls the arrival of the settlers in Povoação. It relates when the newcomers arrived in the area, they tied a goat to a stake as a test for the safety of the island. They returned after a few days to where the goat had been tied; it was found alive, and this meant that the island was indeed safe. ***The Legend of Nossa Senhora da Enxara*** A young girl was playing near a river where she met a beautiful lady who gave her a gold earring. When the girl told her mother about what had happened, the mother followed the girl back to the place where she met the lady, and there found the image of the Virgin Mary on a stone. Excited villagers then moved the stone to a nearby chapel, but the stone kept returning to its original spot, which the people took to mean that the Virgin wanted a chapel to be built there. ***The Legend of the Furnas Lagoon*** The Legend of the Furnas Lagoon (in Povoação) speaks of a wealthy village that was swallowed by the earth, with only a lagoon remaining in its place. There were two survivors — a boy and his grandfather escaped death because they had noticed the nearby spring water had become salty, and so suspected a disaster was about to occur. ***The Legend of Euphemia*** The Legend of Euphemia tells of the daughter of the Greek God Atlas. According to Greek legend, Euphemia was the most beautiful of Atlas’ daughters. The other daughters, commonly known as the Pleiades (Maia, Electra, Taygete, Celaeno, Alcyone, Sterope, and Merope), found their way into the heavens to be forever pursued, but never captured, by the hunter Orion. However, the Azorean myth tells a different story. Euphemia was one of fifteen sisters and was to be married to a son of Neptune. But Neptune went to war with Atlas and during the war Euphemia died. When she found herself in the afterlife, she converted to Christianity and would appear on earth to proselytize her newfound faith. In São Miguel, it is said she lives in the “boiler” or valley of the volcano that gave birth to the Seven Cities, and that her abode appears and disappears amidst clouds and mists. Not particular to Povoação, but well known throughout the Azores, are some other fascinating stories. ***The Legend of the Seven Cities’ Lagoons*** Many years ago, around the area of the Sete Cidades parish, there lived a beautiful blue-eyed princess named Antilia. The girl enjoyed walking through the kingdom and one day met a green-eyed shepherd. The two often walked together and fell in love. Antilia’s father, the king, was displeased when he learned of Antilia's lowly companion and forbade her to see him again. She begged her father, asking to see her love one last time. Taking pity on his daughter, he agreed that they could have one final walk together. When the two met, they both cried so hard and for so long that their tears ran down the valley; Antilia’s tears formed a blue lagoon, and those of the shepherd a green one. And so to this day, there are two lagoons in the mountains, always close but never touching. ***The King and the Disappearing Island*** According to legend, there used to be a mysterious island where there lived a bitter and cruel king. He had become that way because he was unable to have children. One night, he looked into the sky and watched as a star came down from the heavens. It turned into a lovely woman. This star-woman told the king he would indeed have a daughter — as beautiful as the sun — but he had to do a few things first. He had to stop being cruel and become a patient man. Furthermore, he was to build a palace among seven cities, and these cities were to be surrounded by insurmountable bronze wells. And within this palace he must keep the princess away from everyone for 30 years, and not even he could see her. The lady from the sky warned the king: If he did not follow her conditions, he would die, and his kingdom would be destroyed. Despite these dire warnings, after 28 years of not seeing his daughter, the king could no longer resist, and he tore down the walls. As soon as the walls came down, the earth began to shake, and the island sank forevermore into the sea. ***The Mistérios*** The last legend related here is that of the Mistérios. These creatures are the spirits of those who lived in the islands that were wronged or died tragically. The Mistérios are pale, ghostly and appear in the middle of the night. Roaming the islands, they seek justice or revenge, and anyone who crosses their path must be wary of looming misfortune or an impending death. ### Maria is no More There does not appear to be a verifiable record of Maria’s death, nor confirmation of her final resting place. All that seems to be said is that she died sometime in 1963, still in the Azores. She would have been 68 years old. Maria is now a figure lost to time, and she has slipped through the world, now unseen. Although it is a pity not to have more information about Maria, what we do know is that her legacy has touched two other continents; her spirit still flows through the world, more than a century after her birth. And so we remember and honour Maria do Espirito Santo Ferreira Rezendes. ### The Story Matters URL: https://alifereflected.com/the-story-matters/ Last updated: 2025-12-19T04:11:37.000Z **Everyone has a story.** **And everyone has at least one story that will stop your heart.** **Don’t let your story, don’t let the essence of you, be forever lost.** How many times have you heard someone say “I wish I had asked when they were still alive”? Or “I’ll never know the answer to the question because I never got around to asking them”? How many things have you wanted to share? But there was no time, never the right moment. Others did want to know, but they were caught up in the heyday of life. > "You're never too young to record your life" Have you ever read a typical newspaper or online obituary? Most contain a few paragraphs of basic bibliographic information (they were born there, married, had children, enjoyed golf and is missed by their children, grandchildren and so on) — think on it: An entire life reduced to less than 200 words. Imagine if all you were allowed to say was about **two words for every week**. Surely you have more to say than that. > "There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you" > — Zora Neale Hurston Biographies… well, most seem to be an expanded resumé, a catalogue of achievements either in work or personal life. Better than merely 200 or 300 words, but still lacking the essence of you. Nobody is *just* a manager, *just* a dishwasher, *just* a consultant, *just* a pianist, *just* a computer programmer*, just* a painter*, just* a parent, *just* a child. We are all much the same, yet we are all unique. We sit behind desks, in front of a screen, scrolling through social media; perched on a milk crate; driving to work; attending meetings — a ragtag assortment of misfits, single mothers, retired grandparents, captains of industry, immigrants, hopeful artists, truck drivers, scientists, accomplished chefs — all different, yet alike. Despite not actually belonging anywhere, we all fit in. This is not vanity. Your story matters. > "When reading, we don’t fall in love with the characters’ appearance. We fall in love with their words, their thoughts, their hearts. We fall in love with their souls" > — Anonymous Imagine a dark stage. In the darkness, one by one, a light comes on representing each person who felt happy in your company, to whom you said a kind word. A person you inspired. Someone you made laugh. A child you comforted. Whether you realize it or not, you have had an impact. The stage in our imagination would transform from darkness to blazing light. And someday, when you are no longer here with us, your words will have even more impact. They will be a gift. Your story, or parts of it, will have meaning for someone, likely more than you know. We are all unicorns hiding in plain view. ### Social network sharing URL: https://alifereflected.com/social-network-sharing/ Last updated: 2026-05-06T14:49:09.000Z Articles on this site ([alifereflected.com](https://alifereflected.com/)) are now posted automatically on [Bluesky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluesky?ref=alifereflected.com) and the [Fediverse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse?ref=alifereflected.com) (e.g., [Mastodon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon%5F%28social%5Fnetwork%29?ref=alifereflected.com)) social networks. You can follow us on these social networks by searching for the following user ids: - Bluesky: [**@denise.alifereflected.com.ap.brid.gy**](https://bsky.app/profile/denise.alifereflected.com.ap.brid.gy?ref=alifereflected.com) - Fediverse (e.g., Mastodon): **@denise@alifereflected.com** Additionally, selected articles will also be posted (manually) on our Facebook page: - Facebook: [**LivesReflected**](https://facebook.com/LivesReflected) ### Joining these alternative social networks If you do not already have an account on either of these social networks, you can join as follows: - Bluesky: Visit [bsky.app](https://bsky.app/?ref=alifereflected.com) on the web or read this [guide for using the mobile app](https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/how-to-join-bluesky-sign-up-twitter-alternative?ref=alifereflected.com) - Fediverse: Visit [jointhefediverse.net/learn/](https://jointhefediverse.net/learn/?lang=en-us&ref=alifereflected.com) or [joinmastodon.org](https://joinmastodon.org/?ref=alifereflected.com) on the web ### Technical overview This site runs on the [Ghost blogging platform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost%5F%28blogging%5Fplatform%29?ref=alifereflected.com) which now supports connectivity to the Fediverse via the [ActivityPub](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActivityPub?ref=alifereflected.com) protocol, and to Bluesky via the [Brid.gy](https://brid.gy/about?ref=alifereflected.com) app. ### Emalyn Smith Burney: An Endling URL: https://alifereflected.com/historical/emalyn-smith-burney-an-endling/ Last updated: 2025-10-29T00:39:49.000Z > I can’t go on. I’ll go on. > — Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air Emalyn first came to my attention in a sensational newspaper article from the Berlin News Records, April 26, 1913 (now Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada): > He Died Again but Shock Killed his Grandmother > Butte, California, April 26, 1913 > > While mourners and relatives grouped about the open coffin of Mr. J. R. Burney’s three-year-old son Thursday, listening to the funeral service, the body moved. The child, clad in a shroud, sat up and gazed about the room. His eyes caught those of his grandmother, Mrs. L.P. Smith, 80 years of age, > > The aged woman stared at the child as if hypnotized. Then she sank into a chair dead. As she fell, the child dropped back into the coffin, from which it was quickly snatched by the mother. > > The physician said there was no hope for the boy and death came a few hours later. Yesterday there were two coffins in the Burney home. Double services were held and the child and its grandmother were buried side by side. All this sounds quite sensational, but the reality, although deeply tragic, was somewhat more grounded in reality. What seemed to have happened was that the child had choked while eating a banana. Then, during the funeral services being held in the home, the grandmother, along with a pallbearer, were leaning over the boy and saw the child’s eye “relax” or twitch. At this point the grandmother fainted. A doctor by the name of W.W. Gatliff was called in. He stated that what had been witnessed was a post-mortem relaxation of the eyelids, confirming that the child was still dead, and had been since the preceding Tuesday. Other newspapers reported that what really happened is that the grandmother asked to hold the body of the toddler. His arm fell to the side and the grandmother thought he had returned to life. But the grandmother did indeed die during or shortly after all the commotion. The newspapers were a little less forthcoming with the names of those involved, and perhaps — as we shall see — with reason. ### Why Emalyn? And What is an Endling? Right now, before you read this sketch, Emalyn is less than a rumour, less than a footnote, less than a footnote to a footnote; she is utterly forgotten and unknown. Yet she once walked the streets of California. She was a woman with a story. She pushed forward in another time and place. Who knows what she might have done beyond what we will read here, what she may have become? In the spring of 1996, the scientific journal *Nature* coined a new word: “e*ndling*”. The article was rather poetically entitled “*The Last Word*”. Created to describe the last known individual of a species (or subspecies), once an endling dies, that is the moment of extinction. Although Emalyn is not technically an endling — our species is far from extinct — her branch on the family tree withered and died through a progression of profound tragedies. Almost everything about her has been obliterated, lost, destroyed, or discarded — as though she never existed. Today I cannot imagine anyone other than myself and perhaps some distant reader, caring about Emalyn’s story. Yet she existed. She was a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a mother. She lived. It is highly unlikely that there is anyone alive today who knew her. What can we call those who came before and those we can barely know? Even today, what do you call those who make up chance encounters — people who pass by on the street, in their cars, at the grocery store? Maybe those who quickly glance our way and move on? What about those people who circle our periphery, who somehow remain in our thoughts, shadows of memory yet no longer in our reach? I don’t believe we have a word for these people. If however, this word existed, it could be applied to Emalyn. During her life, she interacted with hundreds or even thousands of people. Some encounters would have been merely a light brush, others profoundly meaningful. Yet almost all traces of her are lost; she is a relict in every sense of the word — both current and archaic. She is an endling. What follows is a sliver of history, a recounting and gathering of what scant traces of her remain. Let us, now, try to honour her life. ### Rebellion, Ruin, and Redemption Who was Emalyn? It has taken a long time to answer that question, a siren calling through time. Writers, historians, and biographers strive to understand the heroes and the villains, but almost no one cares about those who don’t fit neatly into either category. Author Stephen King, in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, defined one winning formula as the “*Three R’s—Rebellion, Ruin, and Redemption*”. We all know stories that follow that path (in fact, Oprah Winfrey’s book club recommendations almost always reflect this). Did Emalyn rebel? Did she transgress the norms of her world? Perhaps. There are hints of it in her story, and also in the path taken by her mother. Did she come to ruin? Absolutely. Did she attain redemption? We may never know. ### Did I Choose the Story, or Did the Story Choose Me? All we really “know” about Emalyn is that tragedy followed her throughout her life like a hungry wolf. We don’t know with certainty her date or place of birth; the date and place of her marriage; nor where she finally ended her days. There isn’t even any certainty about her name. She is variously documented as Emalyne, Emalyn, Emmalyn, Emmalyn, Emaline, Emmaline, Emma, or Emily; and her middle initial is sometimes shown as “R”, but what it stood for is long forgotten. Her signature did however appear in probate documents, and she signed “Emalyn R”. In this narrative we will call her Emalyn, accordingly. The chronology is sparse: 1877 - Born possibly in December 1877, in California. Some documents give Kentucky as her birthplace, but California is more likely. - She had an older brother named John David, who was born in California on the August 17th, 1875 1903. - Her father, Lewis Payton Smith died on December 17, 1903. 1904 - Her brother, John David died on March 29, 1904, when he was 28 years old, and she was about 25 or 26 years of age. 1905 - Married, likely in California, circa 1905, at \~28 years of age, to John Royden Burney. 1906 - Gives birth to a son, Royden “Roy” Edwin, in 1906. 1908 - Gives birth to a daughter, Annella or Annela Sue, on May 28, 1908. 1910 - Gives birth to a son, Charles Payton (or Peyton), on January 5,1910. - Her husband John Royden Burney dies in an accident on January 9. - Her daughter Annella dies on February 14, 1910, due to an “infantile disease”. 1913 - On April 22, the youngest son Charles Payton dies (more on the circumstances later). - On April 23, her mother, Mary Jane Smith (née Jones) dies from shock. 1914 - Her remaining son, Royden, is raped and murdered sometime in December 1914. 1915 to ? - She went to Quincy (California) or to Nevada, perhaps, and from there nothing further is known. ### The “Original” Family The boy with the fluttering eyelids was named Charles Payton Burney, although records variously call him Charles Peyton or Payton. He was born in Glenn County California on January 5, 1910, and died on April 23, 1913, shortly after his third birthday. Charles Payton makes his first official appearance in the records during the census of May 3, 1910\. He was four months old. His home address is given as 5A Butte City Road, Township 5. The household comprised: - Mr. John Burney, husband and head of household, a farmer, aged 30 - Mrs. “Emma” Burney, wife, aged 30 - Royd Burney, son, aged 4 (elsewhere called Royden or Roy E. Burney) - Mary Smith, mother-in-law, aged 74 - John De Ber, a hired hand, aged 20 (unmarried, originally from Michigan) In 1910, the neighbours of the Burney family were, for the most part, farmers. Most were born in California with a few exceptions (one each from Georgia, Finland, Kentucky, Indiana, Connecticut, New York, Texas, Illinois, Oregon; two each from England, Ireland, and Nebraska). Other than farmers, there is a Justice of the Peace (William Henry Gardner, age 49, b. 1861), a schoolteacher (Josie Kendrick, 32 years old, b. 1898, unmarried) and a divorced laundress (Nelly W. Hughes, age 32, b.1898) supporting 4 children (2 boys and 2 girls). ### John Royden Burney John Royden Burney was born likely in March, in California, between 1872 and 1874, and died June 9, 1913, less than two months after the death of his youngest son. John was buried in Afton Butte, California in the Marvin Chapel Cemetery. He was a farmer and a registered Republican voter in Butte, California. There is not much history about John Royden. He makes an appearance in the 1900 California census of 1900, where he provides his age as 18\. He is a day labourer and indicates that his father was born in Arkansas (or possibly in Maine) and his mother in California. John said he could read, write and was renting a place to live in Sierra. He lived alone. We will come back to John Royden later. ### The Beginnings of Tragedy Where is the beginning of anything? Is the end of one thing the start of another? Emalyn’s family origins can be traced to Kentucky; Lawrence County, Illinois; Butler County, Ohio; Crawford County, Illinois; New Jersey; and Wales. The men and women who came together over a period of time (reliably) beginning in the mid-1700s were prolific and daring, as many were in those times and places. ### Four Generations Before Emalyn There are many bits and pieces of speculative genealogy available that trace the families associated with the ancestors of Emalyn, but the most credible trail starts with a Welshman named Moses Jones. Supposedly, Moses left Wales sometime in the mid-1700s to come to the New World. Or not. It is more likely his son, Aaron, made the perilous journey to start life anew, far from home. ### Three Generations Before Emalyn Aaron Jones may have been born somewhere in Wales on August 16, 1774 or 1776\. He married a twenty-year-old girl, Mary Shepherd (from New Jersey) in 1798, possibly while in Virginia. According to a newspaper article from the Palestine Registry dated February 15, 1962, which was entitled *“Frontier Hardships Plagued Early Settlers”*, Aaron’s grandson, William recounted that the former was one of the first settlers of Flat Rock, Illinois. It is William who provided the connection to Wales, stating that “he” came to Virginia with his family. (It is unclear whether the “family” he referred to is that of Aaron’s parents and siblings, or that of his wife, but, according to some sources, Aaron came with his father Moses prior to the Revolutionary War). Around 1798, he and his family went to Clough in southern Pennsylvania, and from there to Oxford, Ohio in 1831\. He then, along with several unnamed family members went to Crawford County, Illinois and acquired land around the area which would later become Flat Rock village. As is often the case, dates, and places become blurry over time and in the census of 1880, Aaron’s son Hiram claimed that both his parents were born in Virginia. In any case, Aaron was a soldier in the War of 1812, fighting in an Indiana infantry regiment. Not much is known about Mary Shepherd, other than she was of “Scottish” descent. Aaron and Mary had at least seven children, all living quite lengthy lives and having many children. At this point the family appears relatively prosperous. Aaron died in Illinois on January 29, 1847, and his wife in December of the same year. Both were buried in the Jones’ family cemetery in Flat Rock, Crawford County, Illinois. ### Two Generations Before Emalyn ![Portrait of a man in vest, jacket, shirt and collar, but no tie.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/ISAACJONES-98eb69ec4c8e3d90-da45b3be46eee690.jpg) Isaac Jones (mid-1800s, date unknown). Aaron’s son Isaac was born in Oxford, Butler County, Ohio on July 24, 1804\. And here things become confusing. According to some sources, he married a woman named Mary Badgley (or Badgeley) on April 10, 1834, in St. Clair, Illinois. Mary herself was born on December 12, 1809 (and later died on December 31, 1841, in Crawford County. But that doesn’t work. Mary could not have been born before her son. There is another hint of a marriage in the records — this time to a Mary Purcel in Ohio on June 17\. 1830\. This Mary Purcel was supposedly born in 1794 and died in February 1834\. According to letters exchanged by various descendants, Mary Purcel had four children, all of whom died in childbirth or shortly thereafter. There is considerable overlap in the dates, so it is difficult to untangle who were his wives, and who were mothers of which of Isaac’s children. Further confusion emanates from references to another mysterious wife named Jane Arpas. What is clear is that Isaac later married a woman named Charlotte Reavill with whom he had several children. In any case, Aaron appears to have been upwardly mobile. In 1840, he is living in Crawford, Illinois. By 1860, he was a farmer living in Bond, Lawrence, Illinois and holds $4560 in real estate and another $1000 in various assets. By 1870, his real estate is valued at $5500 and personal assets at $2000. Isaac and his wife (or wives) had several children: - Mary Jane (1835-1913) — Emalyn’s mother and the daughter of Mary Badgeley. - Elizabeth (1837-1840) - Abner (1838-1916) - Rachel (1838-1840) — Possibly an erroneous birthdate; also, could Emalyn’s middle initial come from this source? - Julia Ann (1840-1845) - Lewis Travis (1843-1930) - William (1845-1845, died in infancy) - John D. (1845/1847-1899) - Adeline or Cydaline (1849-1877) - Nancy Ann (1851-1875) - Harriet Isabelle (1854-1855) - Emeline or Emma (1855-1889) — Here begins a more definitive note of tragedy. The young woman died from drowning or from a protracted illness. Perhaps our Emalyn was named for this aunt. - Isaac Junior (1858-1939) - Rose (Rosey or Rosa) Ann (Annie) (1861) And here, in this family, we begin to see the tendrils of sorrow start to grow. Wives dying, their children dying young, drownings. Isaac’s third wife, Charlotte, died on Oct 26, 1870\. She had been digging up potatoes with some kind of hoe, cut her toe and it became infected. She underwent *two* separate amputations, but to no avail. Mary Jane, Emalyn’s mother, certainly knew her stepmother and some, if not all of her step-siblings, but Charlotte’s death may have occurred after Mary Jane had already left for California. Rose, Isaac’s youngest child, went to California to stay with her step-sister, Mary Jane, for a couple of years, but she returned to Illinois to care for her other sister, Emma until the latter died in 1889\. Rose later married and moved to Kansas. ![Portrait photograph of two women, one seated, in formal attire.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/ROSEANNANDSISTERBIG-5c8a269721173788-7eec53996442482b.png) Rose Ann and Unidentified Sister (ca. 1880). I found another photograph of Emalyn's mother, Mary Jane, in a photo album from Kansas during research for this article: ![Portrait photograph of two women, one seated, in formal attire.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/ROSEANNANDMARYJANE-b73d95699e1c9df0-005bff7b08a7994f.png) Rose Ann and Sister Mary Jane Smith, California (ca. 1880). Looking at the original family portrait of Emalyn’s mother, note the dress. Mary Jane is wearing the same dress in both pictures. Note the brooch — it too is the same. The picture (above) with the unidentified sister shows the brooch yet again.Could this clearer and younger photograph show Mary Jane before her trek to California? If so, how dramatically she aged. But this may not be Mary Jane, as Rose Ann doesn't look that much older. In any case, the two pictures of Rose and Mary Jane were clearly taken about the same time, while Rose was in California. There were no photography studios in Glenn County at the time, only itinerant photographers passing through. One would imagine that when one passed through town, Rose and Mary Jane decided to have the pictures taken so they could be shown to the family back East. And the only reason we have any pictures of Mary Jane and Emalyn is because Rose brought those pictures back with her, took them with her to Kansas, and her family saved them for decades. Thank you Rose. Over the years, Rose’s family and other descendants of Isaac Jones knew very little about Mary Jane and Emalyn. A family letter mentioned that: > Mary \[Jane\] married Peter \[sic\] Smith who died on a ranch near Butte City, leaving one son over twenty who died shortly \[after\] and a daughter Emma \[sic\], of whom I could learn little, moved away And with that tiny paragraph, Mary Jane and Emalyn disappeared from their family back east. ### One Generation Before Emalyn Emelyn's mother Mary Jane Smith (née Jones) was born in Lawrence County, Illinois on December 23, 1835\. By 1856, she had married Lewis Payton (or Peyton) Smith in the same county. Or at least it’s probable they married. The records in Lawrence County list Mary Jane and Lewis Smith as having applied for a marriage license in 1856, but that it was “not used”. After scanning several pages of marriage licences in that county and in that time period, there is no other couple where the words “not used” appear. What this means is unclear. Did they not marry, did they marry elsewhere? Did Mary Jane run off to California with Lewis? Perhaps Lewis went off to California first and then had her join him? And here lies one hint of rebellion or transgression. Or maybe it's nothing at all. By 1880, the couple are in Butte County, California. Sadly, we have no photographs (other than those above), showing Mary Jane or her family and friends, but we *do* have the names of her 1880 neighbours — the women who were close to her in age: Margaret Smith (31), Catherine Kerrick (38), Sarah Morse (50), Ella Pate (26), Harriet Butler (35), and Lucinda Grinstead (43). One wonders if Mary Jane was friends with these women. Did they get together for sewing, swapping recipes, trading stories, offering advice and consolation? Did they recall their families who might have been far away? Did they talk of dreams and ambitions, or was the conversation more work-a-day — the weather, the health of the animals, child-rearing, and planting lore? Returning to focus on Mary Jane, once again, the details are lacking. She and her husband, Lewis Payton, may have had a son named David. This David may have been born after 1856 and died prior to 1875. In any case, the first documented child of the couple was John David, born in Butte County, California on August 17, 1875\. John David is listed in the California Voter Records from 1880, where he is described as a labourer. He is 5’ 9” tall, with a fair complexion, blue eyes and dark born hair. John David never married. What ultimately happened to John David is unclear. He was supposedly incarcerated in the Allegheny (Pennsylvania) County Workhouse on December 1, 1900 (prisoner no. 94811), where his crime is that of being a “suspicious person”. Not long after this, on March 29, 1904, Emalyn’s brother, John David died. ### Emalyn’s Father: Lewis Peyton Smith The documentation is still sparse on the origins of Emalyn’s father, but what seems reliable is that he was born on August 10, 1827, somewhere in Kentucky and that his parents were from the same state. On August 10, 1839, a Lewis P. Smith is granted 40 acres land in Lawrence County, Illinois, along with Serena Smith and Harvey Smith. Harvey appears again; there is a mention in the Lawrence Illinois census of 1850 of a Lewis P. Smith, born in Kentucky, age 46 (but this is likely a date error), who is farming land in Bond, Illinois. He is there along with Helen Miller (age 23) and Harvey Smith (age 19), both also born in Kentucky. On the July 1, 1851, we find Lewis P. Smith again being granted the same piece of land from 1839, but now no longer including others on the deed. How Lewis came to Lawrence Illinois is unknown, but it was there that he married Mary Jane Jones in 1856\. Lewis’ parents are unknown and there is no information on whether he had any siblings. As mentioned above, another unusual fact is that the Illinois State Marriage Office does record Lewis and Mary Jane as having a marriage license, but (again) it was denoted as “not used”. Lewis comes to life in the records after his marriage. In the Federal Census of 1860, we find him living and farming his own land in Bond, Lawrence County, Illinois along with his wife Mary. The census gives his first name as “Paten” or “Paton”. In 1874, on March 20, the Marysville Land Office gives Lewis 160 acres in the Mount Diablo section of Plumas County, California (accession no. AGS-0355-430 in the Land Office Registry as surveyed on July 2, 1862). What is of note is that some of the documentation refers to land given to Lewis by Ulysses S. Grant. This is certainly of interest because it suggests that Lewis fought on the side of the Union during the Civil War, and also provides some validity to his having been married in Illinois in 1856. If he was indeed born in 1827, he would have been of soldiering age in the 1860s. Kentucky was initially neutral during the Civil War, but then things became exceedingly complicated as one might expect — it was the birthplace of both presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. In any case, the State and its population was split, with somewhere between 25-40,000 Kentuckians serving as Confederate soldiers and 74-125,000 as soldiers for the Union. It is likely that Lewis was on the Union side, but one wonders if the lack of family information might stem from some deep divide in political sympathies. We may never know. In any case, the 160 acres in that particular area of California was almost certainly granted pursuant to the 1862 Homestead Act. This Act gave precisely 160 acres of public land to a head of household in exchange for a small filing fee ($1.25/acre) and a promise of residence of five years during which time very modest improvements were to be made. If Lewis had been a Union Soldier, he could have deducted time served from the five-year required residency. In any case, many of the potential “farmers” who were granted land did not have the financial wherewithal to purchase the tools needed to farm, livestock, seeds, let alone to build decent habitations. There was, of course, some abuse of the system, and many homesteaders became miners and loggers (not to mention speculators, cattlemen, and railroad owner/operators). ![A U.S. Bureau of Land Management map of Butte County, California.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/LEWISSMITHLAND-e39f0234dfa96ab9-7acea1e7250982c0.png) Lewis Smith Land Grant, Butte County, California. Based on Lewis’ obituary, it seems possible that he may not have farmed the land he was granted. According to the *Chico Weekly Enterprise,* Lewis came to California at the “height of gold fever” and crossed the plains in 1850 by ox teams. Perhaps the news article was a little off in dating the time Lewis actually came to California, since he was still in Illinois in 1856 and was only given land in 1874\. Unless, of course, he came previously, returned to Illinois and then back again to California. ![Stock photo of an ox-driven wagon train.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/WAGONTRAIN-fd4f7cf01f53dc0e-e938bcfb71403e91.png) Wagon Train with Oxen. Public Domain Regardless of the dates, the Chico paper recounted how Lewis had been mining in different parts of the Sierras, going as far south as Amador County. After his time mining, he came to Butte County and began farming. ### Mount Diablo: A Place of Many Names Prior to his ‘settling’ down, it is likely that he was active in some fashion in the Mount Diablo area, which had other names prior to the Spanish moniker: > Tuyshtak, meaning “at the dawn of time”; > > Sukkú Jaman, a Nisenan name meaning “dog mountain”; according to tribal elders, it refers to a place where “dogs came from in trade”; > > Supemenenu is a southern Sierra Miwok name; > > Oj·ompil·e is the northern Sierra Miwok name. The Spanish also had other names for the place: > Cerro Alto de los Bolbones or Volvones (the Spanish called the local people ‘Volvon’); > > Contra Costa (a name created in 1850). And, of course, > Monte del Diablo, meaning “*thicket of the devil”* (*monte* meant thicket, but was later mistranslated as mountain). ![An 1866 postcard from Mount Diablo, from Benicia, Solano County.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/Mountdiablo-9fa09532e6ad4ab9-ed542519af9ab770.jpg) Mount Diablo, from Benicia, Solano County (1866) — Lawrence & Houseworth. Public Domain. ### A Place of Sacred Origin… Sacred to various California native peoples, both the Miwok and Ohlone believed this place to be the point of creation of the world. Their stories are believed to be over 4000 years old. One story begins when the Mount Diablo and Mount Tamalpais (Reed’s Peak) were both surrounded by water. Coyote, the Creator, and his assistant, Eagle-Man made human beings there. Another story tells of Molok the Condon, who brought forth from the mountain his grandson, Wek-Wek, the Falcon Hero. At least 25 tribal groups knew of or lived around the mountain, and three distinct languages were spoken. Most of the area was home to the early Volvon (sometimes spelled Wolwon, Bolbon, or Bolgon) who spoke Miwok. Not unlike the Biblical story of the deluge, the Miwok believed there had been a huge flood and the first people of the world were forced onto Mount Diablo to save themselves. When the water receded, they walked down into the valley in search of food, but found only mud, sank into it and died. Then ravens landed on top of each spot where a person had sunk into the mud and changed themselves into the Miwok, the People of the New World. According to the Ohlone, the old world was also destroyed in an epic flood. Coyote then stood on top of the mountain, along with Hummingbird and Eagle (some versions say it was Hawk) and offered to teach the remaining humans how to survive. Another version tells that Eagle found a beautiful woman and flew her to the mountain top to mate with Coyote. She then bore the original Ohlone people. ### **…** Becomes a Place of Evil… In 1805, the Spanish became aware of the mystical power of the place when, according to their stories, some Native captives escaped custody and vanished into thin air in a thicket on the top of the mountain. It was first mapped in 1824, and found its way onto official documents in 1827. The now familiar name is also believed to have been assigned by none other than General Mariano Vallejo (Emalyn will have a future connection of Vallejo, but more on that later), a leader during the transition of California from Mexican to American land. He officially reported the name and location of the land to the California Legislature in April 1850\. People had already begun associating the place with the devil. It was said it emanated odours of sulphur, satanic bears lived there, the gold was poisonous, and there could be found huge cave-like openings that spouted the flames of Hell. In Vallejo’s report we find the earliest “official” version of the eeriness of the place. He told of a 1806 military expedition from San Francisco that intended to subdue the Bolbones. The native people met the Spaniards at the mouth of a hollow in the western side of the mountain. The Natives were about to win the battle. Then: > “\[A\]n unknown personage, decorated with the most extraordinary plumage waving his arms as if to cast a spell on the intruders” appeared on the battlefield. The soldiers departed in terror and the “unknown personage” went away towards the mountain. The Spaniards later learned that the entity was called ‘*Puy’* and that it went through this unusual and terrifying ‘*ceremony’* every day at all different times. The Spaniards believed that ‘*puy’* was the native word for ‘*devil’*. Should we consider that this sounds like an interesting way to justify a military loss? Another story tells of a friar wanting to suppress evidence of gold in the area or to prevent the native peoples from keeping it. The friar mixed the gold with poison and fed it to some dogs who then died in agony. He then preached to the Natives about the evil of gold so they would not touch it (seems rather convenient and contrived). Still the stories persisted. Soldiers told of chasing horse thieves onto the area where they vanished into flaming openings in the mountain. Even in the 20th century, campers tell of physical phenomena which could possibly lend credence to the earlier tales. A camper in 1910 told of an eerie roar coming from all around but which he believed was due to warm air rushing up the mountain sides. Another camper saw a wraith at sunrise but chalked it up to the sunlight coming through a fog. One wonders if Lewis Payton, Mary Jane and their two children knew these stories. Did Emalyn and John David whisper them at night? ### Union and Butte, Colusa County, California Come 1880, Lewis appears in the California Voter Census and is living in Union and Butte, Colusa, California. The census provides this little tidbit of personal information: It says he is a farmer, just under 6’ tall, with a dark complexion, grey eyes and grey hair. In the Federal Census of the same year, he appears in the same location, still as a farmer, along with his wife Mary and children. His eldest is listed as John D. (David), age five, and his youngest is “Emily”, age three. Also living with them is a 28-year-old labourer named John Johnson, whose father is Canadian and mother a Californian. Although their level of prosperity or struggle cannot be ascertained from the census, we can find some information on their neighbours: In general, the immediate neighbours were farmers, and mostly quite young. Other than California natives, there are six people from Iowa, five from Kentucky, three from Missouri, three from Ireland, three from Canada, two from Ohio and one each from New York and from Wisconsin. The neighbourhood women closest in age to Mary Jane were: Elicia Kendrick (age 30), Lizzie Owen (age 35), Kate Mehling (age 20), Elsie Edmunds (age 22), Alice Young (age 36) and Margaret Crouch (age 33). ![A photograph of a young girl in a Communion Dress (ca. late 1880s).](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/ELICIAKENDRICK-d5aaa031a9916919-8b7fe4998aa8af13.png) Neighbour Etta Elicia Kendrick (b. 1877) in a Communion Dress, Butte (ca. late 1880s). Of the more notable neighbours, we find three Chinese men — a 40-year-old cook named Sing, a 30-year-old named Chong, and a 25-year-old named Frank (the latter two being labourers). Returning to Lewis, evidence confirms he was a grain farmer for most of his remaining years in Butte. ### The Missing Time (1881-1890): The Family Portrait Tragically, almost all the records for California, including the 1890 census records, were destroyed during a fire in the 1920s. These records would have been key in determining more about Emalyn’s story, but there is likely no hope of discovering anything more about this period in her life. The family portrait shown at the beginning of this essay is likely the only thing extant from this period of time. To revisit the family portrait, the children’s ages are the easiest to guess. John David appears to be around nine years old and Emalyn around six years of age. This would place the portrait as having been taken in 1883. If the family sat for the portrait in 1883, Lewis Payton would have been 57 years of age, and his wife Mary Jane, 49\. If you look at Mary Jane’s neck, she looks rather “weathered” for a woman in her late forties. Lewis Payton however does not look eight years older than his wife. Perhaps time was kinder to him physiologically. In any case, in 1896 he is described in a voter’s list as being just under 6’ tall, with grey eyes and hair and a dark complexion. The eldest son, John David, seems to have a resemblance to both parents, despite what appears to be a widow’s peak in his hairline (but this may merely be how he combed his hair). Both father and son appear close, with John David’s hand holding his father’s, and they both appear dark-haired and dark-eyed. In 1896, John David is included in the Butte County voters list, and he is described as being 5' 8 (1.73 m) tall, with a fair complexion, blue eyes and dark brown hair. Mary Jane also has dark hair and possibly dark eyes. She appears somewhat tense, but perhaps this is just awkwardness at being photographed. She is likely rather tall, given that she is only slightly shorter than her 6’ (1.83 m) tall husband. Presumably they are dressed in their “Sunday best”, and if that is the case, there appears to be a hint of shabbiness to their clothing. Both the children’s outfits look a little too small for them. Which brings us to Emalyn. She is clearly the focal point of the portrait, although the intent was more likely to have showcased the Paterfamilias. Lewis Payton has no adornment whatsoever. Mary Jane sports a tiny brooch at her neck. John David has what appears to be the chain of a pocket watch. Yet, Emalyn stands out. She is wearing a fancy collar and has a large pendant handing from her neck. She stands slightly in front of the family, looking clearly at the camera she appears resolute, confident and almost defiant. Her hair is lighter than that of the others and may have been red (more on why this might be later in the essay). She appears to have had a forceful presence, and this side of her nature will become more apparent once her father dies. But at this young age, Emalyn had no clue of the level of tragedy she will face in the coming years. ### The Death of Emalyn’s Father (1903) Just a week prior to Christmas, Lewis Payton Smith died on December 17, 1903, at the age of 76\. According to the *Chico Weekly Enterprise*, he succumbed to pneumonia at his home six miles west of Butte City. Emalyn is about 24 or 25 years old, and her mother is 68\. A doctor by the name of William Walker Gatliff attended the final moments; we will run across him again after another few years. Lewis is the first of the family to be buried at Marvin Chapel Cemetery in Afton, Glenn County. The cemetery is associated with the Methodist Episcopal faith and is the first and only indication of the family’s religious affiliations. Just a week before his death, the family had made a few unusual purchases from the local grocer. They bought spices: cinnamon, mace and nutmeg, along with raisins and some sort of cooking pan. They also bought a larger than usual quantity of ham. Poignantly, it would seem that a Christmas dinner was being prepared. On the day of Lewis Payton’s death, someone went to the local store and purchased hairpins, ribbons, veiling and crêpe, perhaps to prepare for a funeral rather than for a Christmas celebration. Aside from some coffee, tea, oil and tanglefoot (an insect repellent), there is no record of any further purchases being made. And here begins what might be a series of surprises for Emalyn, or perhaps the arrival of the inevitable. ### A Year of Reckoning (1904) Things clearly had not been going well for the family, but whether Emalyn knew this cannot be determined. But her mother, Mary Jane, likely knew for reasons that will become clear. The family was in financial trouble. One month after Lewis Payton’s death, on January 14, 1904, Emalyn’s brother John David is appointed executor of his father’s estate. By the end of March he too is dead. Despite Mary Jane being alive, on May 11, 1904, the young Emalyn is appointed Executrix and accordingly put down $500 as surety. It is on this paperwork where we can first see her signature and know that she refers to herself (at least officially) as “Emalyn R. Smith”. ![A photo of a probate document dated April 11, 1904, bearing Eamlyn's signature.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/EMALYNPROBATE-2dd42e38f70e76e0-fa9eeceea46c0eb0.png) Probate Document for Emalyn R. Smith (April 11, 1904). Emalyn declared that the combined value of the household furniture and farm implements is $235\. Real estate, meaning “improved” land of either 3.2 or 3.7 acres (the document is smudged here) was valued at $8400\. Although the 160 acres on Mount Diablo would likely have been of lesser value than land in Butte, this is a marked come down. At 10am on Monday, April 25, we can place Emalyn in the courthouse of the town of Willows (the county seat) for her hearing. *We know exactly where she was standing at that moment.* ![Photograph of a county courthouse.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/GLENNCOCOURTHOUSE-ba3ff572f88cb371-86909a0589f880d6.png) Glenn County Courthouse, Willows, California. Public Domain. Her father, Lewis Payton owed a lot of money. Starting with the smaller amounts, the family owned $32 to the aforementioned Dr. Gatliff (house calls at $8/each, and prescription drugs provided in July, November, and December). Then we find the owner of the general store, Frank Miller, who is owed $184 (note, alarmingly, this number is just slightly less than the value of all Lewis Payton’s household goods and farm equipment). Moving on to the larger debts, the 1900 Federal Census that listed Lewis Payton, wife Mary Jane, and children John David and “Emma R” lived at a farm that was mortgaged. The local Willows bank was paid $5214 from the estate. This was in payment for the following: - A loan taken out by Lewis Payton and his wife Mary Jane in May or August 1900 for $4125 at 8% interest that was supposed to have been paid in 12 months (and wasn’t). - Later that year, Lewis Payton and his wife borrowed another $114 at 12%. - In June 1903 (now without his wife co-signing) another loan of $175 is granted, this time at 10% interest and the entirety is to be paid in one year and in gold. - The next month, July 1903, another loan is arranged for $60 at 12% interest. By the time summer rolls around, in August, Emalyn petitioned the court to sell 220 sacks of barley weighing 2134 lbs., along with 350 sacks of wheat weighing 4610 lbs. She requested to be allowed to sell the produce privately and prior to the estate being settled, as the barley and wheat were perishable and would diminish in value the longer she waited. According to historic commodity selling prices, on average in the United States in 1909, wheat was selling for about $1/bushel/60 lbs. Barley, specifically in California in 1904 was fetching $0.60/bushel/48 lbs. This means that, at best, Emalyn had $77 worth of wheat and $27 worth of barley for a total of a little more than $100. The numbers did not look encouraging. ### The Creditors (1903-1904) Dr. William Walker Gatliff In addition to the bank, Emalyn and her mother owned money to Dr. William Walker Gatliff. ![A family portrait of parents with one child standing between them on a pillar.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/GATLIFFFAMILY-4d2567d26f188720-8bca960a2a783c70.png) William Walker Gatliff and wife Martha (Mattie), with daughter Loraine (b. 1892). William Walker was born in Missouri in 1857\. His Kentuckian father, Elias, died in the Civil War fighting on the side of the Confederacy in 1863\. William grew up with his mother. Rachel (also from Kentucky). At the age of 12, he and his mother migrated to Hood Texas where he studied medicine. He later he received his degree in St. Louis. He began his medical practice in the State of Washington, and came to Butte County California in 1887. ![A photographic portrait of a well-dressed man.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/GATLIFFALONE-a524ef15a3faae57-aee02343aa32a428.png) William Walker Gatliff Initially riding by horseback day and night to attend to his patients, he later established a drug store and, by 1918, he owned a 320-acre stock ranch in the area. Emalyn likely would have known the young Loraine Gatliff. As Emalyn’s tale unfolds, we will see that her interactions with William Walker will, sadly, continue. William “Frank” Miller, General Merchant Frank Miller was owed quite a lot of money from Emalyn and her mother. William Franklin Miller was born in Kentucky in1848\. His parents, Marshall and Amanda crossed the plains in 1849 in a time of excitement of the Gold Rush, and they bought the infant Frank with them. His mother, Amanda Walker, died in California sometime around 1850, where she and her husband operated a ferry between Fremont and Vernon. ![A photographic portrait of a man seated in formal attire.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/WILLIAMFRANKMILLER-f7f10123c5faf186-3d023062aafe10a6.png) William Frank Miller His parents, Marshall and Amanda (or perhaps of the second wife Eleanor) also had a daughter named Amanda K. Miller who was born in 1853\. Tragically, in July 1855, while attending the funeral of a neighbour, the parents learned that seven-year-old Frank had accidentally shot and killed his little sister in Nevada City, California. In July 1859, Frank’s father Marshall dies in a small settlement called Coyoteville. Young Frank, now around twelve or thirteen years old, is on his own and begins working in the mines for around 18 months. He tries out different types of work, along with his elder brother until 1863, when they settled in Butte County. Ranching for a while, they sold their land in 1873 and opened a general store. And this is the place where Lewis, Mary, John and Emalyn did their shopping. ![A photograph of the remains of an abandoned general store.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/BUTTESTORE-1a46d5799d25be5d-4cb253d3f5e4229f.png) Butte General Store, The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain. ### Income and Expenses Before we get into the debt owed to the local general merchant, let’s explore a few “typical” numbers from the early 1900s in California. According to US Government records, the average family of four in California in 1903 would have spent around $340/year in food alone. Here are some typical wages in California at that time: - Blacksmith $2.25 - Baker $2.75 - Railway Conductor $3.75 - Stair Builder $4.00 - Brick Layer $5.00 - Labourer $1.75-2.50 In 1900, the average annual wages were: - Surgeon $1625.00 - Banker $1600.00 - Saloon Keeper $1500.00 - Hotel Keeper $1250.00 - Lawyer $1200.00 - Journalist $950.00 - Photographer $700.00 - Waiter $500.00 - Bartender $425.00 - Servant $144.00 plus board For perspective, in 1900 a shave would have cost 10 cents, a haircut 25 cents, and a shampoo 15 cents. Common grocery items in 1900 include: - Salt hog (bacon) 13 cents per pound - Butter 25 cents - Tea 50 cents - Coffee 23 cents - Sugar 6 cents - Flour 2 cents - Rice 8 cents - Potato 88 cents per bushel Based on the claim against the estate, in 1903 Emalyn’s family spent the following amounts: - $130.30 on food items - $29.30 on tools and hardware - $27.80 on clothing (some fabric \[organdy\] and ready-made shoes, socks, undergarments, collars) - $17.40 on cooking and cleaning items (pots, pans, jars, brooms, lye, soap) What is notable is what they did *not* purchase. There is no tobacco, no alcohol (except for a single purchase), no milk, no eggs, no cheese, no fruit and no vegetables. The only type of meat they purchased was ham and bacon. No chicken, no beef, no fish. Since the majority of their purchases appear to have been made at the (only) local store, we can deduce that the family grew and preserved their own fruits and vegetables (further confirmation of this is that larger amounts of sugar, salt, and vinegar were bought in the early fall); they probably milked their own cows (although didn’t seem to churn butter or make cheese); kept chickens for eggs and meat; and maybe fished on their own in nearby streams. The pie chart below provides some insight on where the money was spent on food: ![A pie chart depicting food expenses.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/FOOD1903-6e44feaeb796257e-ab1205afdc2c61f4.png) Emalyn’s family's food purchases in 1903. A poignant note on the subject of food: Shortly before Lewis Smith dies, someone made some unusual purchases: raisins, mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon. It would seem that a Christmas cake was being prepared. Then, on the day of Emalyn’s father’s death, the family purchased ribbons, veiling, and crêpe: these were likely items to be used for mourning. ### Emalyn and John Burney Marry (ca. 1905): A Few Good Years ![An AI-generated image of a young women in her late 20s or early 30s.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/EMALYN30s-ead7992a13746b00-a623050333242cbb.png) A computer-aged portrait of Emalyn in her late 20s early 30s. There is no record of Emalyn’s marriage to John Burney, and we have no idea whether they had known each other for some time or not. Emalyn was about 28 years old in 1905 when, presumably, she married John. This is rather unusual in itself, as in that time and place, most women would have been married already. Did she marry for financial reasons? Had her father previously opposed the match? Was she pregnant? We will never know. Of note is that as of April 1904 Emalyn was still signing as “Smith”. Sometime in 1906, less than two years after her father’s death, Emalyn gave birth to her first child, a boy they named (Edwin) Royden “Roy” or “Royd”. There is no birth record. In order to more closely pinpoint the date of his birth, referencing his admission to the orphanage (more on this later), Royd was seven years and eight months old between October and December 1913, putting his birth between February and April 1906, with his conception around the late spring or early summer of 1905\. This is a year after Emalyn is trying to sell off her father’s wheat and barley crop. Next, on May 28, 1908, a daughter is born: Annela (or Annella) Sue Burney. ### Things Start Going Wrong (1910): Another Death On January 5, 1910, another son is born: Charles Payton (sometimes spelled Peyton) Burney. It would seem that things are going well. But not for long. On February 14, 1910, little Annella Sue dies of an “infantile disease”. In the 1910 census enumerated on May 3, only the two male children remain in the household with their parents and the grandmother Mary Jane Smith. John is renting a farm on Butte City Road and has a hired man named John De Ber (a Michigan native) living there. The census data is a little muddled, indicating that both John and Emalyn (called Emma here) are 30 years old, born in 1880\. It lists John’s father as having been born in Maine — which is incorrect — but this did provide a clue as to John’s original family. His stepfather was in fact from Maine. ### Things Start Getting Much Worse (1913) And here we come to the sensational newspaper article at the beginning of this history. Young Charles Payton (variously referred to as Charles, Payton, or Peyton), on April 22, 1913, chokes on a banana and dies. What happened afterwards was likely this: A pallbearer, Mack Staten, according to the local newspaper (this was likely a young boy named Max Staton, born in 1900 in Glenn County and living in Butte City) was among those moving the deceased young boy from the house to convey him to the burial site in Marvin Chapel, Afton. The grandmother, Mary Jane, asked to see the child one last time, and when she looked over the body, either the eyelid fluttered or more likely the child’s arm was slightly jostled and fell off his chest. ![A streetfront photo of an undertaker's business, with horse-drawn hearses.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/FETTERS-61f3748f166004e8-27c20655d853add9.png) Fetters and Williams, Chico (1885) — Furniture Dealers and Undertakers Chaos ensued. The Staton boy was startled, but the grandmother Mary Jane began screaming and crying out that the boy was not dead, that he had returned to life. Everyone is upset and Dr. Gatliff was called to the home. The doctor confirmed that the boy was still dead, and had been deceased for a few days. If it was an eye movement or an arm moving, either was probably caused by the body being moved combined with rigor mortis no longer playing a factor (after a certain amount of time, rigor mortis disappears, and the limbs become more supple). Some accounts mention that the grandmother had been “ailing” for “some time”, but what is certain is that the shock put her over the edge and she died. Now Emalyn is mourning both her son and her mother, and a double funeral is now underway. The funeral is held in Chieco at Fetters and Williams (both a funeral parlor and furniture dealer) pictured above. In May 1913, the local newspapers report that Emalyn is in Chico, in the care of a physician. But the year is not yet over. Not even two months after the death of her son and mother, on June 9, Emalyn’s husband John Burney is killed in an accident. What seems to have happened was this. John had recently purchased either a new vehicle or a new piece of mechanized farm equipment around the beginning of June. Around 9pm on Sunday night John, along with a hired ranch hand named “Red” or “JJ” Morgan or Martin (accounts differ on his name) was going home from Butte or the Baker-Shaw Ranch (accounts contradict the direction). They had been travelling about 30 miles per hour (ca. 48 km/h), when the wheels of the vehicle missed the bridge (the Sprague Bridge, five miles north and 18 miles (ca. 29 km) west of Butte City, near the W W Ludy Ranch) and the whole thing “turned turtle”. The field hand was able to leap free prior to the vehicle landing ten feet below, but John was caught beneath it. “Red” then ran over to the nearby Couch Range to get help, but — according to some accounts — found John already dead. Once again Dr. Gatlin was called to the scene and, later, the coroner deemed the death accidental. John’s last words were: > “For God’s sake get it off me. It’s killing me”. One puzzling note is that one newspaper reported that John was survived by six (!!) children, his wife, and his mother who lives in Quincy. Emalyn is back at the Marvin Chapel cemetery, final resting place of her father, her mother, her brother, two of her children and her husband — all gone in the span of ten years. All that remains of her family is her eldest son, Royden or Royd E. Burney, born in 1906 and now about six years old. Not much information is readily available pertaining to John Burney’s and Emalyn’s situation, but the last census from 1910 indicates that they are living in a rented or mortgaged farm. Emelyn’s mother is living with them. There are no extant records of Emalyn’s marriage to John, but presumably they were wed between 1904 and 1905\. John, as indicated earlier, is a bit shadowy and records about him are sparse. How they met is impossible to determine from the records. Had they known one another prior to the death of Emalyn’s father? Did John farm nearby or was he working in Quincy? Did Emalyn marry for love or was expediency driving her? Here seems a good place to explore the name “Royden”. It’s an old English place name, usually a surname, meaning “growing with rye on a hill”. It’s a very old name, originating from Essex, Norfolk, and Sussex. Interestingly, there doesn’t appear to be any forebears on either side of the family with the name “Royden”, and yet there must be some reference as it is not a particularly popular given name. In any case, it seems that Emalyn’s financial situation became even worse than before. Things were so bad that she gave up her son to an orphanage in Vallejo raise him. It seems that not even John’s mother was willing or able to help Emalyn or young Royd. According to newspaper notices, “Edwin” Royd Burney, age seven years and eight months, was admitted as a border to the Good Templar’s Home for Orphans in Vallejo California sometime between October 1 and December 31, 1913. ![A photostat of an admissions document.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/ORPHANAGEADMISSION-351112971b2ecc10-b57d4577dd331d14.png) Admission Notices of the Orphanage from Oct 1 to Dec 31, 1913. Emalyn had consigned her last child and blood family member to the International Order of Good Templars' Home for Orphans, located in Vallejo California just prior to Thanksgiving and Christmas 1913. Another sad Christmas. ### The Good Templar’s Home for Orphans, Vallejo California ![A photo of an institutional residence, with children and staff gathered beneath trees on the lawn.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/ORPHANAGEFOTO-d55e01b14b5914a3-27b8c0ad1797b305.jpg) The International Order of Good Templars' Home for Orphans The Good Templars Home was founded in Vallejo in 1869 and operated until 1919 or 1922, and it took in children from throughout the State of California, with the majority coming from the northern part of the State. After it closed, the grounds became a golf course, and in the 1930 a subdivision called “*Vista de Vallejo*” was built on the nearby hilltop. Not yet known for scandal, in November 1910 the Vallejo *Evening Chronicle* described what would be viewed as a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner prepared for the Home’s residents. The paper reported that the affair: > …was well worth looking upon. The heavily laden tables were covered with snow-white tablecloths and spread upon them was a wealth of roast turkey, cranberry sauce, fruit, candy, cakes, pies, and other good things. There was an abundance of everything; two huge turkeys being set aside to be used later. The Home contains 112 children at the present time and every one of them was made happy… through the generosity of our people. Those having charge of the arrangements for the dinner desire to thank the employees of the Mare Island Navy Yard and the people of Vallejo for their liberality. What began in New York in 1851 as a temperance society, the Order of Good Templar’s bough 103 acres of land in 1867 from the son-in-law of General Mariano Vallejo and began building the three-story mansion in 1869\. The grand opening took place on October 1, 1870 and by the end of 1871 more than 100 children had been admitted to the institution. Over the course of operation, the Home would take in more than 4500 boys and girls, ranging in age from 18 months to 16 years. Some children were fully orphaned (both parents deceased) or “half-orphaned” (only one parent deceased), along with boarders (such as Royd) whose parents found themselves in financial straits. In addition to these benevolent activities, the Home also busily acquired more land, which enabled them to create a prosperous farm which included livestock, a dairy, trees, vegetable gardens, along with wheat and hay fields. By 1872 they had opened a school which expanded in 1881. Supported financially by frequent and substantial donations, the Home assigned chores to the children, provided Sunday school lessons and church services. The children were also allowed to attend community events and even had free admission to a local movie theatre. In 1899, an official report on the school maintained that the children were “all well and happy”, management was “good” and as there was the expectation that donated farmland would be added to their holdings, the whole affair would be debt free. By this time there were about 200 children living there. But, to the disappointment of management, the land transfer was delayed, donations dwindled, and over several more years the number of children there dropped to just a little over 100\. By 1908 they were more than $15,000 in debt, buildings were dilapidated, and sanitary conditions deplorable. Management oversight was deemed “lax”. One change later that year was to name a new superintendent, W.H. Dunning. Then, in August 1909, Dunning ended up in jail, accused of “lewd” conduct with about one dozen boys. Two months later he went to trial. Dunning was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in San Quentin Prison, but, then as now, he was paroled much sooner, in July 1917. The directors then assigned Edwin Neale as superintendent, and this is when Royd was sent to the Home. Not to get ahead of the narrative, but after the scandal involving Royd (and others), Neale was determined incompetent and was forced to resign (seemingly because the State threatened to cut funding unless he was replaced). To wrap up the background on Neale, he did stay in the business (so to speak) and in March 1915 he opened the Vallejo Boys’ and Trade School (on what is now Broadway Street). A much smaller school, he poached several boys from the Orphanage, which by 1920 no longer existed. His wife, who worked with him at the Orphanage, divorced him. To conclude the background story on the Orphanage, another superintendent, Fred. G. Anthony was arrested in March 1919, this time for lewd conduct with girls. He, too, was found guilty and sentenced to prison at San Quentin. By the middle of 1919 only 27 children remained at the Orphanage, and the directors decided to shut everything down. But the institution still made news in 1921, when Anthony got an appeal and a split California State Supreme Court decision for not having received a fair trial. The issue centred around Antony having been accused of lewd and lascivious conduct with a twelve-year-old girl, but the Solano County District Attorney, Arthur Lindauer, brought into evidence other sex crimes that Anthony had *not* been charged with. Lindauer questioned Anthony about why he did not mention a room where he had raped and nine-year-old and a thirteen-year-old girl. The question implied that Anthony was a rapist and was therefore prejudicial. The case was dismissed in May 1922, after the girl who originally testified against him refused to take the stand again. She further stated that she never heard of Anthony, did not remember the twelve-day trial in 1919\. Other witnesses from 1919 could not be located. Anthony was then a free man. In 1923, the orphanage was rented to the Vallejo Mare island Golf and Country Club, but the mansion was torn down after the Golf Club moved. By the 1930s, homes were built on the property. All that remains of what once was is an underground cistern and some rubble from the original concrete foundation. There is also an old mulberry tree remaining, the last living thing from the time before when the orphanage grew 100s of fruit and walnut trees. Perhaps Royd and thousands of other children sat under its shade in the California sun, eating the ripe berries as they fell on the ground below. ### A Very Bad Year (1914) Emalyn became elusive in 1914\. After consigning her son Royd to the orphanage, she only appears once in print before the next tragedy unfolded. *The Oroville Daily Register*, Wednesday, September 16, 1914, informs that: “Emalyne R. Burney (‘of Chico’) is a visitor in Oroville”. A mere four days later, the mutilated and nude boy of eight-year-old Royd, who had been missing for thirteen days was found an attic crawl space of the Good Templar Orphanage. After September 1914, Emalyn starts to disappear from the records. It is its eerie stillness, as if life had been stopped in mid-breath. Only two more references are made to her specifically: - *Vallejo Tribune*, Monday, September 21, 1914, which wrote that Emalyn “arrived in Vallejo from Chico Saturday afternoon, took charge of the remains, which were shipped to Butte City where the funeral was held yesterday.” - *Oroville Daily Register*: On September 22, 1914: “Unable to maintain her home, Mrs. Burney went to live with her mother-in-law in Nevada.” The Burney Women — and The Elusive Mother in Law These are steely-eyed women indeed. Aside from a clear facial resemblance, note the wagon-wheel hair clip that both sported. ![A headshot photograph of a well-dressed woman with upstyled hair.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/MARYJANESIGLERBURNEY-88676fead819a148-4ef3d55b6121ac28.jpg) Mary Jane Burney née Sigler — likely John Burney's mother (b. 1856, d. 1941). ![Photographic portrait of a woman (ca. 1880-1900) in fine clothers with hair styled.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/MARYELIZABETHCHASE-ecee5aa64d2b93bc-95f781c07b207f79.jpg) Mary Elizabeth Chase Sigler (1832, Michigan - 1900, California), likely Emalyn's Grandmother. ![Colourized photograph of a couple seated in fine clothing (1859).](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/CARSONPBURNEYANDFARRIS-41b878cfe1d5cfe3-78bf779cfac36def.png) Emalyn's likely grandparents: Carson Porter Burney (b. 1920 Alabama, d. 1905 California) and Wife, Margaret Elizabeth Ferris (b. 1825 Tennessee, d. 1881 California). Colourized photograph, original taken in 1859 just prior to the overland migration to California. ### The Murder Most Foul of Young Burney — and the Cover-Up It was a Saturday afternoon at the orphanage on September 5, 1914\. Little Royd Burney, described as a bright, mischievous, cheerful and healthy youngster. His nickname was “Little Red Head”; he had a shock of red hair, and was the only child in the orphanage with that hair colour. He was further described as being “well-built” for his age — 8 years old at the time. That afternoon Miss Jessie White or Farley (records differ on her surname), matron of Royd’s dormitory (located on the third floor), had shooed him and the others to play outdoors. Royd and his friend, Clyde Harvey (see footnote #1), raced for the swing. Royd lost the race and went back into the building by way of the back stairs for a drink of water. Royd was not seen alive again. His absence was first noticed by Jessie around 4pm, at dinner time. Superintendent Edwin Neale was advised, but showed no pressing concern, stating: > He’ll come home when he’s hungry. Later that night a cursory search was made within the orphanage (the girls' area was not included) and Neale did put out word to local ranchers and the police. Jessie White had only been in Vallejo for four months, having been previously in Chicago. When called on to testify she added that some of the smaller boys thought Royd might have gone into the “slips” where he had been found on a previous occasion. She characterized Royd as being “unusually bright”, inclined to being mischievous, and generally quite a happy boy. Royd had been in a few scrapes before. In fact, the Thursday before his disappearance he had been sent to bed early as punishment for climbing out onto the institute's roof. Perhaps Royd's history (wandering off to the "slips" — whatever that was — and going up to the roof) contributed to the initial unconcerned attitude of Superintendent Neale. Thirteen days later, on the September 18, a horrible stench was emanating from an attic crawl space behind and above the girls' wardrobe room. A workingman named Harry Cook crawled into the space, where he found a pair of tiny overalls and an unions suit, both of which he threw out behind him. He raised a light to peer more deeply into the space and cried *“he’s there!”*. What he found was the naked body of Royd, lying on his right side with a pillow under his head. Others went into the space. Royd’s body was resting upon the hard plaster between the laths of the ceiling. It appeared that the body had been dragged into the space, and another worker, Charles Dutreaux, noticed a protruding nail where he retrieved 10 small red hairs. Superintendent Neale, now in full damage control, opined that the boy was “venturesome”, had probably crawled into the space, found himself trapped and afraid. Neale then surmised that Royd took off his clothes, laid down on the plaster and went to sleep. Once Royd awoke in the dark, he became afraid and died of a heart attack due to heart disease. He also went on to say that Royd’s mother, Emalyn, had taught her son to strip himself naked before going to bed, which was why the boy was found naked! Neale was apparently schooled in the “let’s blame the victim” theory, but that notion did not find many supporters in Vallejo. In any case, a coroner’s inquest was called, and all witnesses were interviewed. The conclusion was that the death was due to a “cause unknown” and that further investigation was warranted. Meanwhile, an autopsy was performed on young Royd’s body. Back in 1914 the science of forensics was nowhere near where is it today, but they were able to make some determinations despite the advanced stage of decomposition of the body. In fact, it was the decomposition that gave an indication that Royd had been strangled. The conclusion reached by the coroner was based on the fact (or theory) that where the skin is broken decomposition will be more rapid. Royd’s skin was, for the most part, intact everywhere except around the neck and the left side of his face where there was an indication of rapid decomposition. It was further theorized that the broken skin was the result of a strong person choking the boy. District Attorney Joseph Murray Raines (1879-1964) would be tasked with proving this theory. And also finding the guilty party. ### The Rafters The hole that led to the space between the rafters and the ceiling originated in the girls' wardrobe room, a place where their best Sunday dresses were stored. This access had been created by electricians years prior. It was four foot high and was located above a dining room. Boys were not allowed anywhere near this area, and the room through which one could access the hole was always locked. Only one key was known to exist for this room, and it was kept by Mrs. Birdie Gall, the girls' matron. The only other way into the space was through two windows. Jessie White (or perhaps Jessie Farley — the records are conflicted) later testified that the area of the wardrobe where the hole was located had been searched at least three times since the moment of the disappearance. Various pieces of information did surface during testimony by individuals summoned by the coroner B.J. Klotz and which was held (oddly) at McDonald’s undertaking parlour. About a dozen persons were called to testify, some of whom contradicted each other. Another key witness, Mrs. Bertie (or Birdie) Gall (or Galt, depending on sources) was the girls' matron and her offices were located on the second floor. She was on the stand for a very long time, particularly when she testified that she burned the Royd's clothes and the hair that had been found in the area because she thought the authorities had already examined them. Next to testify was Superintendent Edwin Neale. He reiterated that from the start he believed Royd had run away or had been kidnapped by “hoboes”. He emphasized that he had done the right thing by alerting nearby ranchers, police, and a probation officer named Kelleher to search, particularly in the area of Lake Chabot. Next up was Dr. E.A. Peterson who performed the autopsy. It was he who identified the rusty nail with red hairs belonging to Royd. There was also a small spot of blood on the nail, which Peterson identified as human. No other blood was found. Neale's wife (who later divorced him) was asked to testify, but she declined stating that she had only been associated with the Orphanage for two months and had been out of town the Friday preceding the disappearance of the boy. She did however state that only she and Birdie Galt (or Gall) had keys to the area in question and that she had left her set in the office while away. ### Charles Dutreaux Further details were provided by Charles Dutreaux. It was Charles who noticed the nail with “several” strands of red hair and marks of blood on it. Charles and Harry Cook (more on Harry later) had been in area of the second floor on Saturday around 4pm, but he claimed he would have heard something had anyone gone through the room. He further testified that he, Cook and a laundryman named Joe Veracruz were the ones who noticed the foul odour emanating from the hole. Around the time they noticed the smell, Superintendent Neale appeared and asked “What’s all the excitement about?”. The three men explained and Neale said “make a thorough search, boys”. He then described how Harry Cook found the body and how he, Dutreaux, had been previously unaware of the opening. But there is more to the story of Charles Dutreaux (he is sometimes referred to as Charles Dutro). In November 1914 (described as an employee of the Orphanage, but he may also have been living and working part-time as a painter in Solano as records from 1900-1916 seem to attest, and based on details from a near fatal automobile accident in 1912) he was held in jail, accused of “contributing to the delinquency of a minor female”. The newspapers at the time speculated that there was strong evidence against him and that he would likely be sent to San Quentin to join the former superintendent (see above) W.H. Dunning for what the papers called “unprintable” crimes. What brought Dutreaux to this point were the comments made by some children and led authorities to believe that he was responsible for the abuse of several young girls by “certain employees”. One of the victims was a thirteen-year-old girl named Loretta Wilder. The encounter was witnessed by another youngster named Eleanor Green. Superintendent Neale, as would seem to be his habit, immediately blamed the victim, stating that she “had been in trouble before”. But let’s see what else happened in 1914 to Charles. On December 27th he is given “emergency” clemency through the efforts of the Justice of the Peace, Berry Gregg (who also happened to be his lawyer), so a marriage can take place. The bride is a 20-year-old girl from Pinole named Margaret Van Proyen (or Van/Von – Proozen, Prooyen, Proyem, or Boryen, depending on the sources). According to Gregg, Charles and Margaret had been “dating for some time” and that the bride-to-be will “make an honest man of him”. Margaret had already been married in 1907 (at age 17) to a certain Louis Wishaar, a 20-year-old man from Giant. Sometime before 1920 Margaret changed her name to Kathryn (although she sometimes spells her name as Catherine, which was the name of her sister) and married a man named Hurst. There is no record of Margaret/Kathryn ever having married Charles. In 1956, we find Charles again, this time in Concord California and charged with drunk driving and violation of probation (for a previous drunk driving charge). He didn't stay at the scene of the accident, but fled and was caught shortly afterwards. In January 1964, Dutreaux and his wife had been babysitting two small children in their “low-rent” apartment in Pacheco in the Mount Diablo (!) area. The children were three-year-old Michael Domingues and his sister, a two-year-old named Debbie. The two children had been sleeping together on a couch in the living room of Dutreaux and the young girl was found dead. The brother was taken to hospital for observation, but was found stable. The children had been left there two weeks prior, and Dutreaux explained that both had diarrhea the day before. He had checked on the children at 3am, found them fine, but by 5am the girl had died. Dutreaux's (likely second) wife, Louise Ann (age 55) commented that Debbie “was not feeling too good — you know how kids are”. At the time, the grandfather (Fred Trujillo, b.1919), of the children — who, incidentally, was jailed in Tulare County in 1940 — had been living in an apartment adjoining that of the Dutreaux's. The mother, Juanita Naomi or Neomie Trujillo (b. 1940) was a resident of San Francisco and worked at a department store. The father, Samuel Domingues (b. 1938), was with the US Army, stationed in Hawaii. They had married in September 1959. To further document this little girl, she was born July 4, 1961 as Deborah Anna Dominguez or Domingues (spelling varies depending on the sources) and died on January 27th, 1964, and finally buried in the Golden Gate Cemetery of San Francisco. The medical examiner charged her father, Samuel, $295 for his services and, poignantly, on the documentation there is an instruction to comb her hair straight and not to make any curls. Her mother is not mentioned on the tombstone, but her father is. In March 1964, once again in Concord, Charles applied for a license to sell beer. And then Charles disappears from the record. ### Emalyn's Trail Goes Cold No one was ever convicted of Royd's murder. His body was so badly decomposed that a coroner’s jury was unable to determine cause of death. John Neylan, chairman of the state Board of Control, said the boy was killed, but investigators were unable to develop enough evidence to file murder charges against anyone. Neylan also said the home’s superintendent, Edwin Neale, was incompetent, and the orphanage ran the risk of losing state funds unless he was replaced. Neale resigned under pressure, but, as mentioned earlier, he continued to ply a living with orphaned children. Emalyn became elusive beginning in 1914\. After consigning her son Royd to the orphanage, she only appears twice in print before the next tragedy unfolded. We find Emalyn in Chico on May 2, 1914 in the “care of a physician”. The Oroville Daily Register, Monday, September 14, 1914, informs that: “Emalyne R. Burney (“of Chico”) is a visitor in Oroville). A mere four days later the headlines screamed: “The mutilated and nude boy of 8-year-old Royd, who had been missing for 13 days was found an attic crawl space of the Good Templar Orphanage”. Emalyn had lost everything. Her parents, her sibling, her home, and all her children. Her extended family of uncles and aunts are no longer in touch. Likewise, her in-laws appear equally uninvolved. She was alone. And so the sky hums with songs no one remembers. After September 1914, Emalyn began to disappear from the records, with an eerie stillness, as if her life had been stopped in mid-breath. Only two more references are made to her specifically: Vallejo Tribune, Monday, September 21, 1914, which wrote that Emalyn “arrived in Vallejo from Chico Saturday afternoon, took charge of the remains, which were shipped to Butte City where the funeral was held yesterday.” Oroville Daily Register: On September 22, 1914: “Unable to maintain her home, Mrs. Burney went to live with her mother-in-law in Nevada”. Only there is no mother-in-law to be found. There is no census return, no property deeds, no wills, no probate… nothing. There is no evidence whatsoever that Emalyn went to Nevada. Her mother-in-law likely lived on the Nevada-California border, but even the California records are silent. ### The Old Woman on the Milk Carton Did she live on? Below is an artificially aged picture of Emalyn which imagines how she might have appeared in old age: ![An AI generated picture of an artificially aged woman's face.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/EMALYNOLD-80b4d4122c950339-0b01552a1915c43c.png) An AI generated picture of Emalyn that imagines how she may have appeared in old age. Did she change her name? Did she remarry? Did she die alone and unceremoniously laid in a pauper's grave? Or did she re-invent herself and go on to live a happy life? And so the sky hums with songs no one remembers. --- ### Doll and Ruby Easson: Twin Sisters and Endlings URL: https://alifereflected.com/historical/doll-and-ruby-easson-twin-sisters-and-endlings/ Last updated: 2025-10-12T14:44:08.000Z ## A Tap on the Shoulder ### Damnatio Memoriae According to some authorities of history and population studies, about 117 billion people have been born on this earth. How many are forgotten? I would guess almost every single one; yet in my imagination, a few still stand and some still walk. In the ruins of ancient Rome you can sometimes find tombstones with engravings saying words like “Stop, Traveller and Read”, which often included additional insights into biography, eulogies or other tidbits about the person being remembered. To be forgotten was a dire punishment in the ancient world ­— even worse was to be *intentionally* forgotten: statues destroyed, written words struck from the records, paintings scratched away, effaced. In Rome this practice was called “Damnatio Memoriae” (actually the phrase originated in Germany in the 1600s to explain the intent of it) and it meant “condemnation of memory” — an erasure of the person in the most complete way. Doll and Ruby Easson almost slipped away, an *unintentional* Damnatio Memoriae event. They are only a sliver of history, but still fellow travellers in time. They are figures lost to time, slipping away from the world unseen, only revealing themselves in tiny shreds, channelled through crumbs of history, census data, newspaper clippings. At one point, these two women walked the same streets as I, and lived in the same house. They pushed forward, in those times and places; but what they ultimately became seems utterly lost. ### How I found Doll and Ruby, Or How They Found Me What do you call those people you never met but in whose footsteps you tread? Perhaps I did meet them back in 1961, but if so, I don’t remember it. While working on another project, I was researching voter list archives and, for no particular reason, I decided to check records pertaining to the house in which I now live. A little backstory: I moved here with my parents in 1961\. In the 1970s I moved away for a few decades and when my parents died, I moved back into the house. So, this story has its origin in 1961, but ripples back and forth through time. Our house has been owned by two families. The first owners were an older, married and childless couple, Herbert and Ann Darbyson. Then my family became the second owners. The house was built in 1956 and the Darbysons had lived here for five years. Our paths crossed with Doll and Ruby, only we didn’t know it. ### Four Odd or Minor Coincidences 1. I do recall briefly meeting Mr. and Mrs. Darbyson. My recollection is that they were old, but then, to a small child (I was 3 years old at the time), everyone over twenty seemed decrepit. What I had been excited about was the front screen door. Back in 1950s and 1960s suburbia it was typical to have the owner’s surname initial featured in curlicue script on the lower half of the front door screen. Their initial was, of course, “D” for Darbyson. I recall being delighted, commenting that the door had “my letter” on it (my name, in case you’ve forgotten, is Denise). We moved in, and over time my parents made changes to the property. Then, returning here in 2006, I made more. Still many things remained the same throughout the decades — some as a matter of preference, some as nostalgia, some because of the expense of a change. 2. After selling the house to my parents, the Darbysons (as I just learned through the voters’ lists) moved to *Denise Street* in Mississauga. 3. A few houses north from the Darbysons there was a home owned by the Hill family — this will become significant as the story unfolds. 4. Back to the voter’s list. At my address, in the late 1950s, there were two other people living there with the Darbyson couple: Doll and Ruby Easson. At the time of my parents’ home purchase (1961), my father was a computer systems analyst — a decidedly unusual profession for the time. And I discover that the previously unknown Doll and Ruby were computer operators — an even more unusual occupation for a woman! This is weird. If you knew my Mother, you would know that she would have normally been aware of all the details of the previous owners of the home — their names, their professions, any idiosyncrasies. And she would certainly have told me all about them. The fact that she never mentioned Doll and Ruby confirms that she had no idea that they lived here. ### How a Passing Curiosity Develops into a Moderate Obsession I suppose that the reaction to this discovery and the odd coincidences would, for most “normal” people, be something along the lines of “Well, isn’t that interesting? So, what’s for dinner tonight?". But not me. I began to ponder my having crossed the paths of these hitherto unknown women for years, for decades, unknowingly. Where they walked, I walk. What they saw, I see, what they smelled and touched, I smell and touch. And some of their experiences, these place-specific ones, are very different now and some are still exactly the same. Then there is the pathos: Doll and Ruby died childless, and alone. Ruby was the first to go in 1985 and Doll followed her in 1993. ### The Endlings The term “endling” was coined in correspondence in the scientific journal “*Nature*” in 1996\. It denotes the last known individual of a species (or subspecies) and usually refers to a creature from the animal kingdom. Once an endling dies, the species is extinct. Ruby and Doll are endlings. They are not even footnotes to a footnote. They are not even slivers of history. Almost all traces of them have been obliterated, as though they never existed. Time, it seems, has removed any remnants of their existence. When they died, did either of them finding themselves staring into the abyss of the meaninglessness of their lives, of their achievements? Did anyone take note or mourn their departure, other than the notice to creditors in the local newspapers? Doll and Ruby were both cremated, so there is not even a stone to visit or to lay a bouquet of flowers upon. Did Doll collect Ruby’s ashes, and if so, where did she release them? Or did she keep an urn in her last home? When Doll was burned, who collected her remains and what winds received them? Or were the ashes of both women discarded ignominiously, consigned to the trash? And this is where I start to entertain a moderate obsession. Indeed, who were these elusive women? ### Daylighting Doll and Ruby The past is never gone, it’s just buried or camouflaged. Urban planners use the term “*daylighting*” which they apply to rivers and streams that over time have been buried or imprisoned underground (usually as a result of development). These bodies of water, that at one time flowed visibly above ground are confined to drains and tunnels, only discernible as a whisper in a manhole cover or near a drain, are restored to the flow upon the surface, beneath daylight again. Exhuming the story of Doll and Ruby was difficult. As far as I know, there are no diaries, no journals, no written records of their existence. There are only the smallest shreds of evidence, passing by like ghosts or small birds circling overhead. The character of Thorin Oakenshield in J.R.R. Tolkien's *The Hobbit* said: > There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. ### The Mystery of Doll and Ruby First of all, they were twins; I don’t know if they were identical or fraternal twins, but twins they were indeed. Secondly, they had several different varieties in their given names. Doll was known as Dolly, or Bessie, or Betsey, or Betsy. Ruby went by Robina or Rubina. Some believe the opposite of Damnatio Memoraie: that people can live forever so long as the names were remembered. Some cultures believe that names are important: If children are given common and popular names, the gods will not notice them. It is the unusual names that would draw attention — either good or bad. Doll and Ruby had several given names and three different surnames, a combination of the usual with the unusual. A temptation to fate indeed. I was unable to find proper documentation of exactly when and where they were born, but I did find some clues in various documents and obituaries. The two girls were born, likely in Dundee, Scotland between 1908 and 1911. For the moment it seems impossible to find a reliable (or any) record of their birth; not only because of the general difficulty in finding these things, but also because they weren’t born as “Easson”, but rather with the surname “Hill”. More on this later. ### The Easson/Hill Family Here is what I’ve managed to discover about the twins and their heritage. These early generations are a little shaky on documentation, but Doll and Ruby’s grandparents were likely Alexander Hill and Margaret Mitchell Easson. Alexander (b. 1820) and Margaret (b. 4 June 1835) were married in Dundee (Angus) Scotland on New Year’s Eve, 31 December 1856\. Alexander was 36 years old and his bride was significantly younger, at 21 years of age. Granny Margaret Mitchell Easson was possibly the daughter of a Thomas Easson, also from Dundee. Thomas was born sometime between 1798 and 1806\. He was an agricultural labourer. Thomas married a woman by the name of Jean Morrison, but there isn’t much information about her. What further confuses the family history is that their surname is recorded at times as “Cassen” or similar variants[\[1\]](#%5Fftn1). In any case, Thomas appears in an 1841 census as living on Union Street in Maxwelltown, Dundee, along with a spouse named “Lenia”, five years his junior, and children Margaret (age six), Elizabeth (age four) and James (age two). “Lenia” could be a severe spelling error of “Jean”. In any case, the date for Margaret matches that of her birth. Thomas’ death isn’t clear — there is a span of years from prior to 1851 up to 1873 when he may have died. ### Alexander Hill and Margaret Mitchell Easson It looks like Alexander and Margaret had ten children. Once we reach 1851, the unmarried Margaret is once again found in the census records. Living in Dundee in Jamaica St. (in the Hilltown area), she was a weaver, living with her mother Jean (age 40), her sister Elizabeth (age 14), brother James Douglas (twelve) and two grandchildren of Jean: Robert Douglas Hill (aged eleven) and Elizabeth Douglas (age nine). Only Margaret was working. In this same year, her husband-to-be, Alexander, was living at 185 Hills Land, as a “lodger” with Thomas Hill (perhaps his father-in-law). In the 1861 census, Margaret was living at 182 Hilltown, Dundee and was a “weaver’s wife”, but Alexander does not appear to be living with them. Those who are listed are James (age two), Robert (age 73, which is certainly wrong), Archibald (less than six months old). In the 1871 census, we find Margaret living with an aunt named Jane Watt (60 years old), but in a different area of Dundee. Margaret is listed as a spinster (meaning “weaver”; this did not refer to her marital status). In 1881 Margaret (age 56) is living with her husband Alexander (age 70) at 201 Hilltown in Dundee. He is listed as a hand loom weaver. With them are their children Peter (16), Margaret 14), Thomas (nine), David (six), and Elizabeth (four). Come 1891 Margaret and Alexander were living at 191 Hilltown in Dundee. Both were weavers; Margaret is listed as a “carpet weaver”. Living with them are their children Thomas (age 19), David (17), Elizabeth (15). Margaret’s last appearance in a Scottish census was in 1901 where we find her and Alexander still at 191 Hilltown, but only the grandson Peter is still with them. It is not known where or when Alexander or Margaret died. ### Doll and Ruby’s Parents William Hill was born to Alexander and Margaret sometime between May 20, 1869 and 1872\. William is elusive. There is no mention of him in various Scottish census data. He may have been living with other relatives. At some point, William immigrated to Canada, but the record of his passage is lost to us. Whether he married in Scotland or in Canada seems impossible to confirm, but his marriage likely happened in Scotland. In what would appear to be a family tradition, the woman he married had several variants of her name: Sometimes Bessie or Betsey or Betsy or Elizabeth Cuthbert Adamson (and occasionally is mentioned as Anderson). Her birth-date is also hard to pinpoint — sometime between 1868 and December 24, 1873\. We’ll call her “Bessie” from here on. Bessie’s parents may have been Robert Adamson and Ann Anderson from Dundee, but there is no firm documentation. “Cuthbert” may have been a family name, or perhaps the name of an early first marriage, but it seems impossible to determine now. Finally there is some documentation to establish the whereabouts of Bessie and her children — and the first time we see a record of the twins, Doll and Ruby. On June 7th, 1912, the manifest of the ship Athenia lists a Presbyterian family who disembarked in Quebec, on their way to Collingwood (!!) Ontario. There we find a married Bessie Hill (40), son Albert (eleven), daughter Annie (no age), son Willie (seven), son Ralph (three) and daughters Robina and Bessie (perhaps 4½ months or years old - the manifest is smudged here). ### The Athenia and 440 Dead Horses ![A photograph of a steamship docked in port.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/_Athenia__in_port_of_Saint_John_Harbor-9f8bb118feb0ad01-4bf7c66aca96b4f2.jpg) SS Athenia in Port at St. John Harbour, Photography Isaac Erb. Public Domain There is more than one ship named “Athenia” — the very young Doll and Ruby sailed on the one built in Glasgow in 1903, and her maiden voyage to Canada took place in 1904\. Built for the Clyde-Canada service, she was 478 ft long, could do 14 knots, and had accommodations for only twelve first class passengers. This capacity was deemed unsuitable, and in 1905 the line added space for 50 second class and 450 third class passengers. Her first voyage at that capacity was in May 1905, heading from Glasgow to Montreal via Saint John, New Brunswick. Just a few years after Doll and Ruby made their crossing, the Athenia (which had been commandeered by the military during WWI) was torpedoed, and sank just north of Ireland on August 16th, 1917\. She was on her way from Montreal to Glasgow and in the process of repatriating the crew of HMHS Letitia. While steaming at 20 knots, she was hit about six metres from her stern: 15 crew and passengers were lost, as were 440 horses. A small “aside”: Although it is tragic that 15 lives were lost, I felt a terrible sense of sadness about the horses. I imagine that they were penned up below decks and drowned trapped. And for what? For nothing. But I digress. Although Doll and Ruby were far too young to remember the voyage or the ship, it is still poignant to think that yet another trace of their existence is forever gone. There was no husband travelling with the family. ### The First Change of Surname It is sometime after 1921 that their surname changed to Easson, the maiden name of William’s mother. The family makes its first Canadian appearance (other than on the Athenia) in the 1921 Census of Montreal. They are living at 2969 Notre Dame in Maisonneuve. Here we find some oddly inconsistent information: - Eason William Hill, age 49, born 1872 in Nova Scotia, who immigrated to Canada in 1910\. He informs the enumerator that his father was born in Scotland and his mother in Nova Scotia. He is a Roman Catholic (‽), a “worker”, and has a five-room rental apartment that costs $22/month. His income is $1600/year. - Bessie Hill, age 48\. Born in Nova Scotia in 1873, a Presbyterian born of a Scottish father and a Nova Scotian mother. - Albert Hill, age 21, born in Nova Scotia, but immigrated to Canada in 1912\. His father was born in Scotland and his mother in Nova Scotia. He is Presbyterian, an engineer by trade and makes $600 a year. - Anna Hill, age 20, born in Nova Scotia in 1901, immigrated in 1912\. She is a stenographer and makes $800 a year. - Bessie and Rubina, born 1910 in Nova Scotia, and are school children. Two other siblings of Doll and Ruby are missing from the record: - William “Bill” Hill (likely “Willy” from the Athenia manifest); - Ralph is also absent. ### Nova Scotia, Collingwood, Montreal, Dundee — Where in the World? Either the census enumerator was sloppy, or the family was lying, or possibly both. The name “*Easson*” does not appear in the records yet other than as William Hill’s first name, written "*Eason*". There doesn’t seem to be any record of a William/Bill Easson/Eason/Hill in Collingwood between 1910 and 1912\. Perhaps he went there; perhaps his family joined him there. In any case, they did not stay and ended up in Montreal. Despite the information given in the census, by 1917 the family had been using “*Easson*” as their surname. In June of that year, the Montreal Star noted that at the Maisonneuve School, Ruby achieved a mark of 93% in Kindergarten, and there is an “Olive” Easson in the same class who clocked in at 86%. In June of the following year, both Doll and Ruby Easson are listed as having graduated Grade 1. ### Yet Another Surname Iteration It took a little sleuthing to find this elusive family in the 1931 census records. Living at 7028 Champagneur Rd., their surname had now morphed into “*Hilleasson*”. Ruby and Doll were now listed as Robina and Bessie, both age 21 and were “computer operators”. Both were earning $960 a year, and it would appear that they were the only income generators in the family, now reduced to the twins and their parents, William and “Betsy”. Their sister Ann, now married to Herbert Darbyson (the couple we would later buy our house from) was living next door at 7026 Champagneur. The census further specifies that the father William arrived in Canada in 1910, while his wife and twin daughters came later in 1912\. William calls himself a “coppersmith” but has been unemployed for at least one year. ### Early Computer Operators Ruby worked at a tobacco manufacturer, most likely Imperial Tobacco, although there were a couple other smaller tobacco outfits in Montreal in the 1930s. Doll was doing the same type of work but at a chain store (there were several department stores in Montreal at the time, so it would be hard to speculate which one employed her). ![An illustration depicting a cigarette factory.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/Imperial_Tobacco-_Montreal-5cf3683f6d7a150b-6c04d8da1d3ff3fb.jpg) Archives de la Ville de Montréal. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Computers in the 1930s (and earlier) were people who computed (often using a mechanical tabulating machine). Although, it seems likely that Doll and Ruby did have some early involvement with electronic computers, as that became their work in the 1950s and 1960s. ![A photo of an early woman computer operator wiring the machine.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/10/COMPUTEROPERATOR-421713b395284733-c5f7732f92636d82.png) Woman Computer Operator, Getty Images. Public Domain. In that time, many women were engaged as computer operators, which involved physically connecting cables and wiring. Although important, when women performed the job it was viewed more as “*clerical*” in nature rather than technical. ### Moving In With Their Sister The twins’ older married sister Ann, who had been living next door to the Eassons, moved to 4390 Coronation Avenue in Mount Royal, Montreal, and there we find Doll and Ruby on the voter’s lists for 1940 and 1949\. Again, they are listed as computer operators. Then, in 1956 the four of them (Herbert and Ann Darbyson with Ruby and Doll Easson) moved into what would later become my family’s home. ### Living in Mississauga Back in 1956, this area of Mississauga was known as Port Credit. Port Credit had a long history dating back from the early white settlement of the land along the Credit River. This particular street where the house was built had been part of the property of the Goldthorpe family, who had a very large tract of land that was gradually sold off to developers over the decades. When Doll and Ruby found themselves here, the road was still unpaved with packed gravel on tar, as was the driveway. The trees, some of which still grow here today, were much smaller. ### Their Impact on the World Stephen King once wrote: > Multiple choices and possibilities of daily life are the music we dance — you think you’ll live quietly and won’t make waves. Only each child is a wave. Every breath we take is a wave. There are different kinds of fossils. We usually think about the obvious — dinosaur footprints, or small burrowing creatures immortalized in shale. But there are things that some call human trace fossils — a worn step, handwriting on an envelope, a surface become glossy from the touch of many hands. But there is nothing left of Doll and Ruby; they were cremated. There is no tombstone, there are no letters, no possessions left, only this weak attempt to try and daylight their world, now almost entirely lost. I visited my 98 year old neighbour, who is the one person who has lived on this street longer than me. I asked her about Doll and Ruby. She smiled and said “*yes, I remember the twins, they were lovely people. They sang in the church choir*.” When I asked her if she could remember anything else — how they behaved? what they looked like? — my elderly neighbour sighed and said that it was too long ago. She didn’t recall anything other than they lived here. And so I am a witness to the death of memories. Returning to the question at the start of this essay: What do we call those we almost or could have known? Those we pass in cars, at the grocery store, on the street? What is the name for the periphery, for those who circle us and somehow stay with us; a shadow in our orbit, a stranger not quite in reach? What do we call these stray threads of history? And how to we build evidence? Everything we see has a history. Every little thing arrived at a given place where it now lies, and it had been crafted or made at some time to fill a certain role or purpose. Everything was touched by someone, and may still be touched by someone now. I am that *someone* now for Doll and Ruby. For 13 years of childhood and adolescence, I slept in their room, and then for the last 20 years I have slept there again. Now, walking through my home, I know that many things have changed, but many have remained unchanged. I go where they went, touch what they touched. And until recently, unknowingly. The overall footprint of the house is unchanged. Gazing at the front of the house, there are still three trees there that Doll and Ruby would have seen — a honey locust, a silver birch, and a black locust. All much larger now, but still witness trees from when our paths crossed. The front step is unchanged, as is the wavy architectural glass next to the front door. Coming inside, there are two more panels of architectural glass, and some old light fixtures in the ceilings. The main ceilings are still that hand-crafted swirly plaster. The wood floors in the bedrooms are unchanged. The brick fireplaces are still here. The bathroom cupboards and old fashioned subway tiles are the same, as are the carved wooden valances over the windows. Moving down to the basement, the flooring is the same, and there is one wall that still has a 1950s faux-wood patterned wallpaper. The window wells have not changed. The railing to the basement is the same, as are several glass door handles. The back door is what is was back then, as is the door to the back of the garage. Going into the back yard, there is a little of the old patio left, and about half of a privet hedge remains. Still standing is a very old crabapple and a maple tree. There is still the old clothes tree. The milk chute is still there. So are a few lilac bushes and forsythia. Every spring, I smell the same scent of lilac and privet that Doll and Ruby would have breathed in. *And this is everything*. The other homes where Doll and Ruby lived are gone, or demolished, or so completely renovated as to render nothing recognizable. ### What Became of Doll and Ruby As I mentioned at the beginning of this essay, the twins, along with their sister and her husband, moved into a side-split home on Denise Street in Mississauga. It appears that they lived there until at least 1968\. At this time Ruby was working as a “clerk”, whilst Doll was retired. By 1972 they had moved to Fontenay Court in Etobicoke, and Ruby was still working. There is one final address for Ruby: 3036A Bloor St. in West Toronto. Their sister, Ann, died in 1985, predeceased by Herbert Darbyson in 1975. Doll died on February 10, 1987 at the Toronto General Hospital. It was a cloudy day that only reached 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Ruby died on October 21, 1993 in Don Mills, Toronto, while living in an assisted living facility named Meadowcroft Place. It was warm, at 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and was cloudy. ### Who Were They Anyway? Had they lived in at atmosphere of simmering emotion? Or had they decided not to marry and end up used to life’s little disappointments? Were they brilliant, technically minded women? Were they highly insecure and afraid to be on their own? Did they postpone their lives for so long that they were never truly lived? Did they view their retirement as a place of magnificent empty hours filled with the light of possibilities, or was it the start of terminal ennui? Three quotes come to mind: Margaret Atwood described the absence of women’s histories as the: > shadowy corner in a painting where there’s something going on that you can’t quite see. Alan Bennett, in his play *The History Boys*, mused: > It's subjunctive history. You know, the subjunctive? The mood used when something may or may not have happened. When it is imagined. And, finally, Mary McCarthy in *The Group* wrote: > She decided she wanted a cool, starchy independent life, with ruffles of humor like window curtains. Could these quotes describe Doll and Ruby? And here marks the death of their unshared memories. I feel as though I’m yelling into a well, with no echo coming back. Returning to Latin, there exists a term we use (infrequently) today : a *postulant*. It derives from the Latin "*postulare*": someone requesting entry. Somehow this whole episode feels like a tap on the shoulder. --- \[1\] This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Ede' or 'Eade'; v. Eddie. A corruption of Eadison, (common in Angus), Ayson. Connected with the Toshes or Toschachs of Glentilt "were the old family called the sons of Adam, first Ayson, latterly Esson" (Fraser-Mackintosh, Minor septs of Clan Chattan, p. 179). Aytlie filius Thome had a charter c. 1360 from Robert the Steward, afterwards Robert II, of the lands of Fornochtis in Strathearn, and in 1365 he appears as bailie of Stratherne (Inchaffray, p. 129). 'Johem ayson iuuene' was one of those outlawed in 1392 as part guilty of the slaughter of Walter de Ogilvy, sheriff of Angus (APS., I, p. 159). A family of Aysons possessed Tullimet in Strathtay (Skene CS., III, p. 309; Athols, p. 710). Robert Hayeth of Fornocht appeers in 144 5/6, and the Aysons of Fornocht appear in record down to 1504 when the estate was sold to Lord Drummond (Inchaffray, p. 298). Walter Ayson held sasine of a tenement in St. Mary's Aisle, Stirling, 1471 (Sc. Ant., X, p. 62), and John Aysone was witness there, 1481 (Cambus., 212). James Aissoune was mairchand and burgess of Stirling, 1588 (Sc. Ant., VI p. 144), William Aysoun was member of council there, 1598 (SBR., p. 282), and as Aissone or Aissoune the name occurs seven times in Stirling and vicinity between 1611—64 (Stirling). The name also occurs in Dunblane in seventeenth century (Dunblane). The land of Alexander Aysone in Dunfermline is mentioned in 1491 (DBR., 314), and in 1494—5 he is referred to as Sande Ason and as Alexander Assone (ibid., p. 51, 62). Some Isons ere mentioned in latter half of sixteenth century as resident in and about Wick in Caithness. Alexander Ysoun in Lapok, Caithness, and William Ysoun, his son, were cruelly slain by Sutherlands in 1566 (RPC., I, p. 447). William Ysone, younger, was indweller in Weik, 1622 (ibid., XII, p. 651), and Agnes Isone is recorded in Thurso, 1662 (Caithness). Retween 1497—99 a man is referred to as Alexander Avisoun, Aysone, and Ayesoun (RSS., I, 111,113, 375). John Ayson witnessed sasine of lands of Balnacerd, 1514 (Grandtully, I, p. 48), Robert Aissoun was a notary in Crieff, 1607 (Laing, 1526), and Patrick Easone appears at Myln of Cragyvan, 1633 (SCM., III, p. 97). John Asson or Easson was member of Scots parliament for St. Andrews, 1681 (Hanna, II, p. 482). Aasone 1500, Asone 1498, Aysoune 1515, Ayssoun 1627; Aesone, Aison, Easson. — The Surnames of Scotland (1946) by George Fraser Black (1866-1948) ### John Collier: Florida Pioneer, Cracker and Polygamist URL: https://alifereflected.com/historical/john-collier-florida-pioneer-cracker-and-polygamist/ Last updated: 2025-08-21T16:30:35.000Z John Collier Sr. was certainly a fascinating man. A true Florida pioneer, he was the personification of a “*cracker*” — but in the positive historical sense (more on the “*cracker*” origin story follows). As we shall see, his personal relationships are legion and deeply tangled. Let’s call him “*John*” from this point forward and tell his story. ### Why Write About John? John had at least three wives (with some overlap in the dates of the relationships) plus a common-law spouse, resulting in 18 to 19 children (likely more)[\[1\]](#ftn1), many of whom had large families themselves. All told, it is almost a certainty that he has *hundreds* of descendants and that many people walking around today can legitimately call him their ancestor. And, as recently as 2025 — in fact about 200 years from John’s birth, a new baby girl was born - his newest descendant. In addition to his genealogical contribution to the world, he lived in an interesting time and his experiences, although unique in themselves, provide a glimpse into a world long gone. Before getting into the history of the time, let’s place John in context. John was born sometime between 1815 and 1823, most likely in Georgia, and possibly in Dooly County, Georgia. Located in the central part of the State, the population of the county was just over 2000 individuals in 1830 as per the US census taken that year. The 1830 US Federal Census for Georgia lists several Colliers (also variously spelled as Colier, Colyer, Collear, Kolyer). It lists several individuals named William, John, Robert, Meredith, Morrel, Tahos, Benjamin, Edward, Edwin, Henry, Isaac, James, Jesse, Nathaniel, Richard, Sarah, Sterling and Thomas. Some privately published family histories assert that John’s father was named Henry[\[2\]](#ftn2) and that his mother was a woman named Nancy Bird (or Byrd), but there is no documentation to support this. Equally dubious is that his mother was named Esther or Easter Turner (although the name "Easter" appears among his descendants). What is however quite likely is that he had an older sister named Piety Collier. Some records state she was born in Camden County Georgia, perhaps a few years before John. ![Colourized photo of a woman seated.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/08/PIETYCOLLIER-4121e6b6ae17bb9d-8c9d33d0957e9d5c.png) Piety Collier Crews, Date Unknown. Let’s assume for now that John was born in 1820\. In his late 30s, in 1859, along with his own household and several extended family members, he made the trek from Georgia into the wilder country of northern Florida. The date of 1859 is cited in several family histories about the Colliers, but, as we will see further into this narrative, he and that large family may have made the move much earlier. According to family histories and mentions from other sources, John (with his own family) along with his married sister Piety Crews (and her nine children[\[3\]](#%5Fftn3) ­— although this is improbable; see below) loaded up their possessions into oxcarts and began the arduous trek into Florida towards what is now Hardee County. There is a problem with the date and the number of Piety’s children who made the trek to Florida. According to birth records, Piety’s first three children were born in Georgia, and her fourth child, Charles Carney Crews, was the first one born in Florida in 1844\. Also, in the 1850 census, one of John’s children, Calvin Collier, was living next to Piety’s family and he had two children, the eldest Sarah born in Florida in 1844\. Based on census records, it is more likely that John and Piety’s families made the trek sometime between the late 1830s and 1844. The two clans traveled over sandy trails, bogs and miles of absolute wilderness. Wanting to establish themselves as cattle ranchers, the men would have ridden on horseback, driving their cattle along with some herding dogs. The women would have cooked sweet potato and corn brought from Georgia and likely supplemented their meals with wild turkeys and deer shot in the forest, scrubs, and marshes. After a little more than a week of traversing the countryside, John and the others arrived at Fort Hartsuff (not to be confused with Fort Hartsuff in Nebraska). There lived some relatives by the name of Whidden who had homesteaded in the area at a point just northeast of today’s Wauchula, near where the Heard Bridge crosses the Peace River. ### Florida: The Original Wild West Domestic cattle and horses were not indigenous to the Continental United States. It was in 1521 that they arrived with Ponce de Leon who had tried to establish a colony in southwest Florida. The native Calusa tribe didn’t extend a welcome to the Spaniards and attacked them; so Ponce de Leon abandoned the idea of settling the area and his Andalusian stock were left behind. These animals went feral, eventually becoming the ancestors of the wild cattle that became part of Florida rancher history. And so began the “modern” history of Florida and its ranchers. St. Augustine (arguably America’s first city) was founded in 1565 and this was where the local population began raising herds for both the garrison and a few growing towns. In the 1600s, Florida’s local missions began more intensively raising cattle; in fact they began exporting beef to Cuba. Meanwhile, the local Seminole tribe was displeased with the encroachment of the Spaniards and drove out almost all the European settlers during the 1700s. At this point it was the Seminoles who became the primary Florida ranchers and developed a method of allowing huge herds to roam wild in the wetlands, as well as in the palmetto plains and grass prairies. By the 1800s, Florida was the center of ranching in the continent, and this attracted more settlement from the nearby southern States, and particularly Georgia. The demand for beef increased exponentially with the onset of the Civil War, and accordingly so did ranching. Initially these Floridian ranchers provided beef to the Confederate Army, but as the finances of the South diminished, the Floridians found a more lucrative market with the Union forces. In fact, Florida had a large number of Union towns, Union sympathizers and Union soldiers. But that is another very long and involved story. ## John Collier was a “Cracker” Nowadays, the term “*cracker*” is derogatory, often referring to a poor white man who is poorly educated. The word conjures a picture of lackadaisical families scratching out a marginal existence with worm-ridden children running about barefoot in the swamps. ![Image depicting two cowboys on horseback.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/08/CRACKER1895-bf45ba1de4ce1011-057a33b36ab02bce.png) Cracker Cowboys of Florida - 1895 Frederic Remington. Public Domain. According to the Century Dictionary, by 1766 “*cracker*” was used in the Southern U.S. as a derogatory term for: > "*one of an inferior class of white hill-dwellers in some of the southern United States*". But this is not the complete origin of the term. Particularly during the Civil War, Floridian cattlemen had to drive huge herds to market and, unlike their later Texas counterparts with their lassos, they used a particular kind of whip. These whips were part of an inherited tradition from the original Spanish vaqueros. The whips were from 12 to 18 feet of braided buckskin that was fastened to a handle about 1 foot long. These special whips made a distinct cracking sound, likened to that of a gunshot, and could be heard for several miles. And so we have the original name for the country’s first cowboys: *crackers*. ![An image of a cowboy on a horse.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/08/CRACKERCOWBY-e188d761e961430b-e6001d50452c0ae8.png) Cracker Cowboy - Remington. Public Domain. ### The Peace River Valley The area where John took his family had been a rather inhospitable place in the early 1800s and at that time was largely unexplored by the white population. Other than a few forts and a trading post, there were no white settlements and most of the land was occupied by the Seminoles (and other related tribal groups). There had been skirmishes and conflicts as the whites further encroached into Seminole land. Many died on both sides. By 1850, in John’s time, what few Seminoles that had remained in Florida were pushed into the interior where the land was far less desirable. By 1854 the US Government made an agreement that the Seminoles were to remain south and east of the Peace River. Settlement immediately south of Fort Meade and west of the Peace River was then opened to white migrants; and so began the flood of migrants from northern Florida and southern Georgia. Around this time and until the late 1880s, the area was home to tens of thousands of wild cattle[\[4\]](#ftn4), all of whom had descended from the ancient Spanish herds. Consequently, between the time of the Civil War and the end of that century, the Peace River Valley could be imagined more like a true “*Wild West*”. Cattle and hog thievery were rampant; one of John’s descendants (John Junior) and member of the Crews’ clan had been involved in a lurid murder that began with some stolen hogs, but that is another (certainly colorful) story. Cattlemen like John were forced to hire rustlers to keep track of their herds (ironically the herds that had been stolen from and abandoned by the Spanish and the Seminoles), and branding became an absolute necessity. John and his family had several registered brands. Still, thieves were certainly creative, and many cattle arrived at the market with their ears cut off to prevent their identification. John and his fellow crackers, decades before Texas cattlemen, would spend weeks or months on cattle drives, moving their herds through marshes and woods, going from central and northern Florida to the ports of Jacksonville, Savannah Georgia and Charleston South Carolina. The trail would have tested their endurance, having to deal with terrible heat, frightening thunderstorms and dangerous hurricanes, not to mention panthers, wolves, bears and other rustlers. There was a huge demand for meat, so buyers at the markets didn’t look too closely into the cattle with severed ears. Even if there was some legal method to trace ownership, justice was rarely formally pursued. The ranchers, like John, would therefore take the law into their own hands. Family and clan banded together (like the Coller/Crews/Whidden clan), and enforced their interpretation of the law ­— *The Cracker Way*. Unsurprisingly, this created long lasting feuds, brawls, gun fights, bushwhacking snipers and lynchings. In fact, one of John’s descendants was lynched by a mob, but there seems to be no record of why it occurred. ### Here Come the Colliers and the Crews Clans There is some confusion on the dates of John’s migration to Florida, but what is rather well documented is that his sister Piety, along with her husband Dempsey Crews, arrived in about 1844-1845\. They originally settled in the Lake Butler, Lake City area, staying there until the end of the last Seminole War (in which the Crews men participated) in 1858\. Come 1859, Piety and Dempsey, along with their nine children (so far), packed up their belongings and headed south towards what today is Hardee County. It was during this trip that they may have been joined by John and his large family. As mentioned earlier, the Colliers and the Crews arrived at Fort Hartsuff after about one week on the trail. For a short time they all camped on the land held by the Whidden family (kin of the Crews). ![An image of a log cabin with a man sitting on the covered front porch.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/08/CRACKERCABIN-2b649a05c6b2f0ac-fa63996c7106a987.png) Florida Cracker Cabin, Public Domain. This area (Fort Hartsuff and Fort Green) had only been recently opened to white settlement, but already there were around twelve families there. Despite the agreement with the Seminoles, where the whites were not supposed to settle south of east of the Peace River, a family named Thompson had already violated the agreement and had settled near Popash. John and his Crews kin saw no reason why they should be bound by any government agreement, and so they continued on to settle near what is now Zolfo Springs. And so, despite treaties, John and his relatives became the first pioneers of the area. ### John and the Family Settle In In the early 1860s, John and the Crews developed a sprawling homestead south of the Peace River. They built log cabins and created fenced pens for their cows. They planted sweet potato and corn, and they also cultivated a small amount of sugar cane and had a patch of cotton. They had chicken, hogs, and most importantly, cattle. ![A map of De Soto County.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/08/DESOTOMAP1892-d3c30794873a9729-ab0290bc2b6a57b5.png) De Soto County Map, Rand McNally 1892\. Public Domain. Let us imagine for a moment the population of this family settlement. John had at least 18 children, and his sister 17\. His son-in-law had 14\. And, over time, other branches of extended family would join them on this land. But there were more people there. We don’t know for certain if John had slaves, but his sister did. She brought eight slaves with her — a 35-year-old woman named Hagar[\[5\]](#%5Fftn5) along with her seven children. One of these children may have been Richmond Crews (b. 1841) who later married the divorced or separated Irene Collier Crews (see note \[1\] below). The Whiddens also had two slaves. Sometimes today we imagine slaveholders only as wealthy landowners (think Scarlet O’Hara in *Gone with the Wind*) but that was often not the case. John was no aristocratic Southerner, and he was most certainly working class. Not many families in the area were slave owners, but those who were tended to have only a few, and primarily only women. **The Civil War Begins** In 1861 the war between the North and South began, and John, like most of his neighbours, was either a Union supporter or didn’t care. Most of those in the area did whatever they could to avoid mandatory service to the Confederacy and hoped to wait things out. In any case, the cattle business was severely affected by the war and, in 1863, Fort Myers was seized by Union forces. John’s family, along with the Crews and the Whiddens all enlisted in Company B, Second Florida Cavalry for the United States Army. After the Civil War, trade normalized, and a boom began. Florida became the leading cattle exporter of the United States, sending cows to Cuba, Key West and Nassau. And John was right there, making money and providing for his large family. ### John’s Personal Story ![A portrait photograph of a bearded man with a wide-brimmed hat.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/08/JOHNCOLLIER-3d900ab1be731113-8b2fcb00a82cd639.png) John Collier Sr. John, his movements, and his marriage(s) are hard to follow. He moved around, had several relationships, and had many, many children. Aside from census returns, he was documented by Kirk Munroe, a relatively famous adventurer and reporter. Munroe was on expedition in 1882 along the Kissimmee River and ran into John at a location called Basinger while John was moving from Brevard to Manatee County. An entry in Munroe’s diary from February 19th reads > “Old man Collyer \[sic\] with 3 wives and 14 children came over the river with teams (presumably horse, oxen or cattle) moving to Charlie Apopka Creek. They are camped near the house.” On February 20th Munroe wrote: > “John M Pierce and Mann went with Collyer to Istokpoga Creek today and on return reported a steamer in site of Micco’s Bluff”. Although these are only two lines, and brief ones at that, they do place John in specific places at specific times, and John must have made some sort of impression with Munroe. Perhaps it was the three wives and 14 children. ### Was it Adultery, Bigamy, Trigamy, or Polygamy? In November of 1885 the County Circuit Court of Manatee charged John with adultery. A woman named Samantha Jacobs swore that she > “knows that Collier does not live with his wife and a woman named Minerva Crawford visits at the Collier place. The same Crawford has six children and claims that John is the father of four”. Miss Jacobs also said she > “has one child and John Collier is the father”. She went on to testify that John > “induced me to live with him under the promise of marrying me when he obtained a divorce from his 1st wife”. It’s complicated. That year (1885) in the Federal Census we find Minerva Crawford living in Florida as a head of household with six children and at least one child appears to have been fathered by John: Virginia (born 29 January 1875). The outcome of the court case seems lost to time, but what is certain is that Samantha Jacobs must have forgiven John; and rather quickly at that. They married on February 18th, 1886, just a couple months after the court case. The two had at least one daughter named Dora Collier (Hall?) who later recalled living with many children about four miles west of today’s Avon Park. **The Women in John’s Life – and all those Children!** We already know a little about Minerva Crawford (presumably the mistress or common-law spouse), and Samantha Jacobs, and we shall look further into their place in this narrative. Meanwhile, who was John’s first wife, and who might have been his second wife? **Caroline Luiza Hall** The probable first wife was a woman named *Caroline Luiza Hall* who was born in South Carolina, likely around 1823\. They were possibly married around 1840 in Georgia. Her ancestry is largely unknown. Some speculate that she was the daughter of Instance Hall, but this is almost certainly incorrect. Carolina Luiza was living in Florida in 1850 in District 7, Gadsden, Florida, USA along with children listed as “*Green, Nancy, Calvin, Irene, John and Sarah*”. She was alive and living with John in 1860 in Township 9 Range 13, Lafayette, Florida along with 9 children ranging in age from 9 to 14\. A middle child, John Jr, is the first one born in Florida in about 1850. The children are listed as: *Wm G (no age given), Mary E. (14), Colvin (13), Serena (12), John (10), Sarah (8), Catherine (7), James B. (no age given), George M (1 – born in 1859)* *It is also possible that Caroline Luiza was a black woman.* Caroline Luiza more or less disappears from the records and possibly moved away from all the extended and tangled family. **Mary Lockyear** On October 9th 1869 John married Mary Lockyear, Locklear or Locklier. Mary was born in South Carolina or Florida between 1843 and 1846\. In 1870 they are living in Township 34, Manatee, Florida with 6 children, her older sister Eliza and an 18-year-old mulatto named William Perry. In 1880 she is living with John in Brevard, Florida, along with 5 children: *George Colyer (23), P.E. Colyer (son, 15), Alice (10, Nancy (8) and E.G. (daughter age 6)* The gap in age between John and Mary is substantial. Some records indicate that she died in Florida in January of 1886. **Samantha Jacobs** Finally we come to the youngest of John’s wives: Nancy Ann Samantha Mary Mandy Jacobs. Born in Echols, Georgia in August of 1856, on the 18th of February 1886 she married John (a widower of one month). ![An image of a marriage certificated issued by the State of Florida.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/08/COLLIERJACOBSMARR-aabcdd3ff0a24d15-bec3f653ad2da4d5.png) Marriage Certificate of John Collins and Samantha Jacobs. Less than seven months later, she gives birth to their daughter, Dora Lee. She may also have been the mother of Calvin Perry Collier who was born in 1884\. Finally, their last child together, Berry Henry, was born in 1888. Perhaps slightly prior to John’s death, Samantha married Matthew Talley in August of 1896\. She had three more children with Talley, beginning with Ludy Daisy born in January of 1897, followed by Charles in 1900 and James in 1902. It would appear that Samantha outlived all John’s women, as she passed away in 1937. **Minerva Crawford** Minerva Crawford, the “other woman” named in the lawsuit, was born in Florida in 1848 to Emanuel Jesse Crawford and Martha Whidden (of the Whidden clan associated with the Colliers and Crews families). Her two children with John were supposedly Jennie born in 1874 and Estella born in 1872\. She also had a relationship with a man named Wells Murphy, a North Carolina man born in 1826 and married to Sarah Whidden (yes, the Whidden clan again) and from whom he had six children born between 1869 and 1879 (including a daughter with the improbable name of Pocahontas). Prior to his marriage to Sarah, he had been married to her sister Martha Ann Whidden (1832-1868) with whom he had nine childrenbetween 1851-1868. Minerva had one child with Wells, William Henry Crawford (1869-1942). ### John is No More John died sometime between 1892 and 1897 and his will was dated January 6th of the former year. In it we find mention of some of his children: Green, Elizabeth, Calvin, John Jr, George, Bryant, Pleasant, Isabelle, Martha, Perry, Dora and Berry. He was buried in the Bowling Green Cemetery in De Soto County Florida but it is worth noting ­— and consistent with the inconsistencies of this life ­— that the tombstone inscription has some erroneous dates on it. His estate was valued at $15,000\. Not a princely sum, but not too shabby either; that amount might be close to around $600,000 in today’s currency. Likely a very far cry from his more humble Georgia origins and certainly an improvement from his assessed estate value in 1860 of $100\. --- [\[1\]](#ftn1) John Collier’s children are as follows: 1\. William Green Collier, born March 22, 1840-43; died Feb. 16, 1920; married Mary Ann Wiggins, July 8, 1869. 2\. Mary Elizabeth Collier, born 1842-43; married \_\_\_\_\_\_ Green. 3\. Calvin C. Collier, born June 22, 1842-43 according to pension papers; died Aug. 17, 1922; married (1) Katie Parnell, Oct. 11, 1866; (2) Beulah I. Whidden Sparkman, Oct. 10, 1897. 4\. Irene Collier (sometimes called Serena, Irena or June, born 1845-47; married (1 - 1850) Lewis Jenkins; (2) Richmond R. Crews, Oct. 9, 1869\. *Crews was a former slave of Piety Collier Crews (Mrs. Dempsey D. Crews, Sr.). Irene was also a convict in a Florida penetentiary in 1870.* 5\. John Collier, Jr., born June 22, 1846 according to pension statement; tombstone has June 22, 1853 but must be in error; died Feb. 1, 1934; married (1) Sallie Lewis, Dec. 12, 1865; (2) Mattie Kemp, Oct. 16, 1902; (3) Letitia Guest Skipper, Jan. 2, 1915. 6\. Henry “Bunk” Collier, born Dec. 25, 1855-56; died July 17, 1920; married Ann Gillespie, Sept. 25, 1872 (in 1885 Manatee County census his wife’s name is given as Texas).7\. James B. Collier, born 1857. 8\. Catherine Collier, born April 20, 1858 according to Bible but could be as early as 1853. 9\. George M. Collier, born March 18, 1859 according to Bible but tombstone has 1858; died Aug. 11, 1937; married Mrs. Susan North, Nov. 22, 1883. 10\. Wiley Bryant Collier, born June 18, 1860 according to Bible; died Jan. 4, 1921; married Jane E. Whidden, May 12, 1881. 11\. Ellen Collier, born Jan. 18, 1862 according to Bible. 12\. Pleasant E. Collier, born July 22, 1864 according to Bible; died ca. 1918; married Rachel Jacobs, Nov. 27, 1885. 13\. Alice Collier, born Aug. 1, 1870 according to Bible. 14\. Isabelle Collier, born 1872; married Joseph Hall, Dec. 22, 1891. 15\. Martha Collier, born May 28, 1874, according to Bible. 16\. Virginia Collier, born Jan. 29, 1875; married Jefferson Davis Thompson, April 17, 1893. 17\. Perry Collier, born Jan. 31, 1884. 18\. Dora Collier, born Sept. 3, 1886; married \_\_\_\_\_ Hall. 19\. Berry Collier, born March 3, 1888. [\[2\]](#ftn2) John’s sister Piety named her firstborn son Henry Collins (Crews), which would give some credence to the father’s forename being “Henry”. [\[3\]](#ftn3) Piety and her husband Dempsey Dubois Crews had the following children: Henry Collins (1936-1874), William Madison Micazah (1841-1922), Elizabeth (1843-1916), Charles Carney (1844-1917), Dempsey Dubois (846-1895), Lydia Bea (1849-1920), Willis (1852-1944), Crawford (1856-1911), John Bryan (1857-1911), Mary Irene (1858-1918), Willoughby (1862-1870). [\[4\]](#ftn4) These wild cattle were prized for their hardiness and resistance to parasites, and became the ancestors of the modern Texas Longhorn. [\[5\]](#ftn5) Interestingly and almost prophetically (given the later miscegenation within the family), in the Old Testament Hagar was the Egyptian servant of Sarai (later Abraham's wife, Sarah) who became Abraham's concubine and the mother of his firstborn son, Ishmael. ### The Pathos of Pots and Pans URL: https://alifereflected.com/legacy/the-pathos-of-pots-and-pans/ Last updated: 2025-12-17T12:30:53.000Z This little essay is not a biography per se but does touch upon the task of disposing or re-homing the possessions of those who passed away. ## How I Came to Sell Her Cookware As some of you may know, I am a bookseller dealing in antique and second hand books. As such, I am often contacted by set dressers wanting a certain type of book or ‘look’ for their sets. While conversing recently with a set designer, she mentioned that the film’s historical crew were in the process of set dressing for a film that takes place in the early 1950s. The settings where the scenes take place are middle- to lower middle-class apartments and they were seeking original vintage aluminum pots and pans for the kitchen areas of the film. Consequently, I sold a small set of late 1940s *Wear-Ever* pots and pans for a movie set. ## So Much Stuff and the Wear-Ever Pans My mother died more than 20 years ago. As an only child, I inherited all her belongings, which included her kitchenware. Some I continue to use, many ended up in the basement or the garage. Some items I sold or donated. I’ve released, re-homed, sold, donated, or gifted books, clothing, knickknacks, appliances, furniture and more. Yet I still have a ridiculous amount of her possessions. Among those items I kept were her *Wear-Ever* aluminum pots and pans, which she acquired when she married in the early 1950s. They are certainly not artifacts worthy of velvet cushion reverence. I have never once used them since she died. I hated those pans, even when I was living with my parents as a child and teenager. I hated the flimsiness of some, the harsh metallic surface of others. She used those pans for 60 years, *every single day*. She used metal utensils to stir whatever she was preparing, and I recall how the sound and feel of metal against aluminum would set my teeth on edge, just like fingernails scraping a blackboard. Even now, writing and thinking about it gives my teeth a kind of shivery muscle memory of distaste, like biting down on tinfoil. She cooked *everything* in those pans. Including tomato-based meals, which I had learned early on in home economics class was a ‘no-no’. When I told her she should never cook tomatoes in aluminum, she cast me an uninflected glance of disinterest combined with low-level disdain (one of her specialty looks — not easy to achieve, yet devastatingly effective). She quickly retorted that she had been doing it for years, I had been eating her meals, and everybody seemed perfectly alright. Then she would turn her gaze back to stirring whatever she was preparing. So, I sold the pots and pans, along with a jaunty *Wear-Ever* aluminum kettle that I had only used for storing and scattering bird seed. Maybe I got a good price for them (as collectables), maybe I didn’t. But that isn’t the issue. ## It’s a Tug, a Pang, and Guilt What is oddly and startlingly at issue is the degree and intensity of the regret, guilt and emotional turmoil the selling of this cookware has created. I didn’t use the pans. They were gathering dust and spider webs at the back of the garage. I would never use them and I don’t know anyone who would. I certainly was not honouring the memory of my late mother by storing her pans in the garage. Who knows whether she even liked the pans? Me, I have a silly amount of — can we say “affection”? — for some of my cookware; but I like cooking, and my mother didn’t. What she did have was a possessive and acquisitive nature, and she considered her property to be ***her property***. Knowing this trait (which she elevated to the level of an ethos) did not prevent me from disposing many of her other possessions. Some gave me a twinge of regret, a whiff of nostalgia, but nothing more significant. These damned pots and pans have been tugging persistently at my soul since I watched them get packed into the back of the buyer’s car and driven away. Maybe it’s the quotidian nature of these objects that keeps nudging my heart. Perhaps, in part, it was the transience of their existence. ## Ubi Sunt In medieval European poetry, there is a rhetorical style called “Ubi Sunt”, which is Latin for “Where Are They?”. These poems typically put forth a series of questions about the fate of the strong, the beautiful, and the splendid, and they ponder the transitory nature of life and the ultimate death of all things (people, animals, gods, and objects). The Anglo-Saxon poem, "The Wanderer", is a good example of the genre: > *Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago? Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa?* > *Hwær cwom symbla gesetu? Hwær sindon seledreamas?* > *\[…\] Hu seo þrag gewat,* > *genap under nihthelm, swa heo no wære* > Where is the horse gone? Where the rider? Where the giver of treasure? > Where are the seats at the feast? Where are the revels in the hall? > \[…\] How that time has passed away, > grown dark under cover of night, as if it had never been. > (Robert Diamond translation) ## Flotsam, Jetsam, and Lagan Sometimes I think of the companion terms, flotsam and jetsam. They are two very distinct things. Flotsam is wreckage from a ship, which is often later found washed up ashore, or things lost overboard. Jetsam, on the other hand, is more intentional; it is what is specifically thrown overboard, often to lighten a vessel’s load. There is also a lesser-used term: lagan. It refers to jetsam that is marked with a buoy so it can be found later. When my Mother died, her exit was relatively rushed. Her things were left behind, exposed, and in a certain sense, became flotsam. ## What We Leave Behind I think, ultimately, we will all leave behind things both valuable and this debris, and our wills and last instructions take our flotsam and treat it as lagan. On the other hand, with so much “stuff”, both that which may be valuable and that which is just debris will be intermixed. Even with a detailed will, not everything will be itemized. Your books, your collectables, your furniture, your wristwatch, your money, your battered slippers, your moth-eaten sweater, your money, your childhood plush toy, a packet of old letters, your bills paid in full, keys to who knows which lock: All will be found, and possibly be puzzled over. Some items will be tossed, some distributed, some tucked away in that place in your home — the garage, the basement, the spare room, the junk drawer — where you accumulate things for any number of reasons. It could be nostalgia, a sense of “this might come in handy one day”, “I might sell this for good money someday”, “my kids (or grandchildren) might want this at some point”. Or you might simply be overwhelmed and put off the decision-making until some future date. My mother’s pots and pans were not flotsam or jetsam. She used them until she died. They were also not lagan, in that I received no specific instructions about them. Likely she would have wanted me to use them, even knowing quite well that I never would. Perhaps she didn’t care, but given what I know of her, she probably would have. After all, she touched and used them *every day*. And this, I believe, is what tugs at my heart. ## Destiny for a Diva My mother was a musician, a performer by nature, and a bit of a diva. She relished the spotlight, would never miss an opportunity to perform. She would feign modesty or allow herself to be “faux-cajoled” into playing a piece on the piano or singing a soprano operatic aria. She craved the attention and was never happier than when she was performing. Perhaps… perhaps… just maybe, she will find a small bit of satisfaction knowing that her workaday *Wear-Ever* pots and pans play a part in a performance. If I can convince myself of this, my heart may let go of the aptly named *Wear-Ever* cookware. ### John Moore Perkins: The History of a Missionary in Liberia URL: https://alifereflected.com/historical/john-moore-perkins-the-history-of-a-missionary-in-liberia/ Last updated: 2025-01-31T12:17:55.000Z From time to time I research and write histories about the ancestors or family members of various people. I am not personally related to John Moore Perkins, but I did write his biography for an individual who is part of his extended family. Perkins’ background and story is fascinating: ### John Moore Perkins (1865-1949) John was born on the 15th of October in either 1865 or 1866 (official documents cite either year) in Keppel Township near Owen Sound in Grey County, Ontario, Canada. His middle name, Moore, is the maiden name of his mother (not an uncommon practice at the time). His parents were Elias Perkins (1831-1912) and Mary Ann Moore (1841-1923), both among the earliest settlers of the area. They were farmers and devout Methodists, originally from Devonshire, England. The couple would eventually have eight children between 1861 and 1874 — including a set of twins; John would be their fourth child. At the time of John’s birth, his father would have been a man in his prime at 35 years of age, and his mother a young woman of 24 years. His older siblings were: - William James, born in 1861, likely named after his paternal grandfather, and would later immigrate to Manitoba; - Amelia Jane, born in 1862, would later immigrate to Saskatchewan; - George Alfred (Evan’s 2nd great-grandfather), born in 1864, and who would continue to live in Grey County. After John was born, the Perkins’ had four more children: - Levi Perkins, born in 1867, would remain in Ontario; - Francis “Frank” Albert, born in 1869, would immigrate to Saskatchewan; - Frank’s twin, Richard Lewis, would die in the spring of 1877 at the age of seven; - Rosa May, born in 1874, would die young, although the exact date is uncertain. Various records and histories of the area seem to imply that John’s family was a close-knit group who remained connected to their extended family. John’s uncle George Perkins, who, along with his wife and children, were originally living in the same log cabin, and later in separate homes on adjoining acreages. These varied sources all confirm that Elias Perkins and his family were devout Methodists, and pivotal in establishing that Church in the Owen Sound area. One can only imagine the sheer amount of back-breaking work needed on a pioneer farm in that area and at that time, but it seemed that the household devoted much of their energy to matters of the spirit. There isn’t much documentation on John’s early life, but a local history book mentioned that he attended school at the S.S. # 6 in Cruikshank/Keppel. Later documents state that he completed one year of college, but with no indication of where, when, or what he studied. Moving forward to 1881, the Canada Census shows that John, now 16 years old, was living at the original homestead in Keppel, with both parents and his siblings (excepting the twin and the youngest sister both deceased by that time). In 1891, the Census finds John, now 26 years old, living as a “domestic servant” with the Newman family in the River Ward of Owen Sound. The members of this family were all born in Ontario, and had Irish origins. They were Methodists, farmers and had a nursery. The family consisted of a married couple with their 4 children ranging in age from 3 to 8 years, and also present was a teenaged girl relative and an 87-year-old grandparent or grand uncle, both with the surname Galbraith. John’s other siblings either stayed with the Perkins’ nuclear or extended family, or set out to establish their own lives with their spouses. John was the only one among them who stayed in the area but lived with another family. Was it for work? For religious duties? Because of a rift? It is unlikely that the answer will ever be uncovered. Sometime between 1891 and 1901, John married a girl named Meriam. There is a source that provides March 20th, 1900 as the date of their marriage, but the location is unknown. Meriam is an elusive figure. We have a documented birthdate of February 2nd, 1876, making her about 10 years younger than John. Some sources state that Meriam immigrated to Canada sometime in 1900\. The 1901 Canada Census records show John and Meriam living with Elias and Mary Perkins, and they were the only remaining children of Elias still living with him. The census says that both John and his young wife were missionaries, and that she was born in the United States, of German heritage. Her maiden name was perhaps Speare, but that may have been a middle name. Given naming conventions of the time, if Speare was a middle name then it is likely the maiden name of her mother. There was an Alden Speare, Methodist missionary, who had some involvement in Liberia (more on Liberia later), but whether he was related to Meriam is only speculative. Shortly after the census was taken, we find Meriam and John in Liberia, West Africa in November 1901 (as indicated in the “The Gospel in All Lands Volume 22” published by the Methodist Episcopal Church). One month prior, in September, John and his wife had “approved and passed examinations” at the Centennial Conference Germany. It is unclear whether this conference took place in Germany, or whether it was a part of the German Episcopal Church based in Milwaukee or California. Alden Speare (above) was a California Methodist, so this event may have been held the United States. Nevertheless, John and Mary headed off to Liberia, as Methodist missionaries and were a part of a group of ten — presumably five couples. They were assigned to Barraka, Liberia, where things went quite badly. Of the ten missionaries, eight died of malaria and tropical fevers in the first three months, including the young Meriam. Some sources tell that the Methodist Church had not completely approved of the mission, fearing a poor outcome. About two years later, on February 17, 1903, John married again, this time to Jessie Janet or Jennette Arms. Jessie may have been about four years older than John or about his same age. Born in either 1862 or 1876 on a farm in Bridgeport Wisconsin, Jessie had at some time earlier received the call of God to become a missionary. She had been working in a dressmaking and millinery business, later enrolled in Lucy Rider Meyer’s Deaconess Training School in Chicago, and it was there where she felt compelled to go to Africa, specifically Liberia. She began this missionary work through the Episcopal Board in 1895 for her first term, then returned for a second term in 1900\. This second term is where John Moore Perkins had been present with his first wife Meriam. John and Jessie, the only two survivors of tropical disease later married in the Maryland area of Liberia. The timeline becomes a little confusing from this point, but on January 26th 1904 the couple were appointed to Barraka, or the Barraka Station, as representatives of the Methodist Centennial German Conference. It appears that in 1906 John and Jessie had returned to the United States (or possibly Canada) on a furlough, for they are recorded as having attended the Azusa Street Holy Ghost Revival in Los Angeles. This massive and historic revival is considered the birthplace of Pentecostalism. The revival began on April 9, 1906 and continued more or less ongoing until 1915. ![Grainy black & white photograph of a group of people posing for the camera.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/ASUZA.jpg) Azusa Street Revival Leaders — John and Jessie likely associated with thse people. Photograph in public domain. The Los Angeles Times reported on the event with horror and derision, calling the attendees “holy rollers” and other derogatory names. This revival not only lasted for years, it ran continuously night and day, with the participants speaking in tongues, witnessing miraculous healings, shouting, and being “saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost”. Many who attended were evangelized and sent off to various places in the world to preach the faith according to what they experienced and learned in Los Angeles. John and Jessie were a part of that outcome. Even though they had both been Methodist missionaries, they were now part of a very different movement. There are also conflicting stories, about how and where John and Jessie changed their faith; some believe it was a revival held in Toronto rather than the famous Azusa Street affair that changed their views. Nevertheless, the couple were baptized in the Holy Spirit and had begun speaking in tongues. ### **The Christmas Miracle** The tale of the arrival of John and Jessie, and the man who greeted them has been largely mythologized by the Church now known as the Assembly of God. Now known as “The Christmas Miracle” the story unfolds as follows: Jasper Klabioh Toe was living in a village in the interior of Liberia, unhappy with the faith and traditions of his people. He had followed the animistic religious rituals of his family, but felt that he must find the true Creator. On a night in December 1908 he looked up to the sky and asked for help to find God. He then experienced a vision wherein he was told to go to Garraway Beach where he would see a “big box on the water” with steam coming out of the top, and a “little box will come out of the big box” carrying people who would tell him all he wanted to know. According to the narrative, Jasper reached Garraway on Christmas Day of 1908, just in time to meet with John and Jessie. The story now switches back to North America (either Canada or the United States), where John and Jessie, now evangelized and with new objectives, meet with disapproval from the Methodist board which withdraws its support. Despite the financial setback, with no official backing, they somehow managed to acquire the means to sail to Liberia, along with several other Pentecostal believers, all intent upon evangelizing the country. Here the story continues with the group continuously praying for guidance. At this point John received instructions from the Holy Spirit that they must leave the ship at the coastal town of Garraway. The Captain of the vessel, informed of the missionary’s request, told them that Garraway was not the usual port of call, and furthermore was too dangerous, being populated with cannibals. John and his group were warned that whoever goes to Garraway disappears forever. Yet John was undaunted. The Holy Spirit was very precise and God had told them where to go. At that point, the Captain allowed the group (or perhaps just John and Jessie; the story is unclear on this) to row onto the beach. Jasper was there waiting and was filled with happiness in seeing exactly what had been foretold. The story continues to say that John and Jasper communicated with hand gestures, a few tribal words and broken English. Jasper wanted the missionaries to follow him into the interior, through the jungle and back to his village. In this manner John and Jessie Perkins came to settle in Newaka, built a mission station, open a school, and a few months afterwards, filled with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, held their own revival. Miraculous salvations and healings occurred, and young people from Newaka were inspired by the Perkins’ to go forth to other villages and evangelize Liberia. There are several problems with the foregoing narrative. Aside from the rather patronizing nature of the story, the notion that Jasper would not recognize a ship or a small boat is preposterous. John and Jessie had both been in Liberia before, so would probably have had some ability to communicate with Jasper. Lastly, in addition to the native population of the country, Liberia had been colonized by African-Americans (called “Americo-Liberians” at the time) who spoke English fluently. Furthermore, almost all the missions in the country from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s were geared towards the Americo-Liberian population rather than the native groups. Another problem is with the name of “Newaka”. Other than in the Assembly of God’s writing, there does not appear to be any place in Africa or elsewhere called Newaka, although it may have existed at that time or has since been renamed. Yet another awkward inconsistency is that according to ship documentation, the vessel that took them to Liberia (see documentation below) was scheduled to land at Garraway Beach. Returning to the “Creation” story of the Assembly of God Church in Liberia, Jasper Toe would become a leader in the Church there, working alongside H.B. Garlock, missionary and regional director for Africa. Continuing with the mission work of John and Jessie: In the early 1900s many of the faith, particularly the women, felt compelled to act as missionaries after they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Single women would enter into the work and marry missionary bachelors or widowers. After and during the Asuza Street outpouring, many individuals departed for foreign lands. Zealous but unprepared, some without financial support, education or general preparation, while some would have received theological and mission training encompassing some language and culture studies. Others, like John and Jessie were already veterans from other denominations. John and Jessie would no longer have been welcomed by the Methodists after their new beliefs had taken root. Unlike the Methodists, the Pentecostals gave both men and women the empowerment to act as Ministers or to minister in a broader sense. Women could preach in the streets (not from the pulpit however), and act as teachers, healers, writers, and editors. They continued in Liberia as Pentecostal missionaries, and by 1918 became members of the newly official Assemblies of God. Known for their hard work, they established the first Assemblies of God mission station there and then set up an elementary school program. All together they spent 40 years in Liberia, with John eventually rising to the post of Field Superintendent of Liberia. By 1935, Jessie’s health had become so poor that the couple had to return to the United States. Despite no longer being active missionaries, they continued to recruit others. Jessie was quite active, despite becoming blind three years prior to her death in 1941 in Pasadena, California. Why did John and Jessie become missionaries, particularly adhering to the Pentecostal faith? We will likely never know the specific answer to this question, but what is generally known is that the Pentecostal Church was committed to sharing their faith and spreading the gospel to everyone on Earth. They believed that Christ was returning very soon and the duty of a Pentecostal was to save as many people as possible in the brief amount of time that remained. The Azusa Revival galvanized many. Melvin Hodges, writing about the event said: “*Pentecostal outpourings, whether in the homeland or abroad, have always produced converts with flaming zeal and sacrificial spirit… The emphasis on present-day working of miracles and the healing of the sick has been the means in the land of God of awakening whole communities and convincing unbelievers of the power of God.*” Infused with zeal, many early Pentecostals left their homes holding a one-way ticket. They believed that the Rapture was fast approaching, hence their time to complete the work was short — what need did they have for a return ticket? This early Church was not very interested in the future, given that the End Days were at hand. In those early days, missionaries were not so much interested in speaking *to*God but rather *about* God, and to carry his message to the entire world. For this reason, language preparation and general training was not that important — they had to leave NOW. The Rapture could occur tonight or next week, and millions of Africans (and other nationalities) would perish in eternal damnation if they were not given a chance to repent. Because many experienced “speaking in tongues” (glossolalia) while attending the Revival, they further assumed that they did not need any language training. They believed that God had given them the power to communicate in African languages, and many were sorely disappointed to discover that this was not the case. Others took a slightly more pragmatic view. Returning to the specific details of John Moore Perkins, another Church historian later wrote about how John convinced the ship’s captain to set him ashore at Garraway Beach. He said that John declared “Those Africans are dreamers, and God does surely speak to them through dreams”. He urged the Captain to follow the dream of the Holy Spirit, as should be done in Africa, despite regulations. “God had told \[the missionaries\] to disembark there. So the \[Captain\] put their party in a surf boat and beached them at Garraway where \[a local African\] Jasper Toe met them with his face all aglow.” God had told Jasper to wait at that spot for missionaries and take them to his village when they arrived. “When they heard his story they were certain that God was leading them to Barroba (a district in Maryland county in Liberia)… This miracle was a great \[assurance\] to John Perkins and his party as the story of Peter and Cornelius (a Bible story of visions and resurrection)” (H.B. Garlock). John Perkins’ party was without the backing of a denomination or mission board. His group included six other Pentecostals, all without any “legitimate” connections. According to this narrative, all eight met with Jasper Toe. And so began the work. John and his wife would have experienced hardships, but likely found those related to spiritual warfare the most troublesome. Many missionaries feared demonic attacks once they began their work in the field. Afraid of Satanic powers, missionaries would report of conducting public burnings of fetish objects, and would pray to save the Africans’ “darkened souls”. In terms of more worldly hardships, John and Jessie would certainly have experienced isolation, loneliness, deprivation, the lack of necessities such as shelter, clothing and food, all while trying to forge a new life in their ministry. Finances would have been quite meagre (as will become evident). Despite privations, John Perkins wrote cheerfully back home: *“Expenses here are naturally quite heavy. But it is simply marvellous how the Lord, in spite of war and famine, continues to supply our needs”.* Both John and his wife had come from farm households so would not have been strangers to physical labour. Yet it would have likely taken some time to become accustomed to the daily life of an African village. Another missionary, writing from Liberia at the time, commented: *“There is filth and disease on every hand, but God is abundantly able to keep what we commit into His hands”.* Yet returning home on furlough, as did John and Jessie, would have been just as disconcerting, as they would have experienced a disconnect between their reality in Africa and the suppositions of the supporters back home. Another Liberian missionary wrote: *“It is most difficult to describe the difference between living in a fine new house in America, having all modern equipment with living or trying to live and eat and sleep in a low mud hut in Africa, filled with darkness and smoke, to say nothing about goats and chickens and sometimes plenty of insect life.”* John Perkins personally experienced an event where a colony of driver ants overran the missionary compound and attacked the mission’s chickens. John and six “boys” burned them just before the ants reached the house. Driver ants, native to East Africa, are the largest ants on the planet and can measure up to 2½inches in length. Their colonies can have a population of up to 2 million individuals. They can sting, but generally use their powerful jaws to attack. In fact, in East Africa, the jaws of driver ants were used as emergency sutures. John was not the only missionary in Liberia to have an ant problem. One woman wrote home asking for a new Bible, because the ants had eaten hers! Privation, financial woes, insects, disease: So many missionaries died in Liberia it was known as “the white man’s graveyard.” Given all these stressors, John and Jessie would have had to manage challenging relationships. John alludes to something along these lines when he writes about the mission in 1910 and his “family of fifty boys”. This would have been a little more than a year after his second terms in Liberia and the third for Jessie. In 1911 the Perkins related: *“We have about 66 in the mission now, and more coming all the time. The work is very heavy, and we would surely be glad of reinforcements… We are still in the mud house but expect, God willing, to move into our new mission house this week even if it is not completed.”* Sometimes missionaries would “go native” but Jessie Perkins kept a Western style home. One can almost sense the relief when John returned from a trip and later wrote: *“I reached home alive, and was so thankful to sit down to a real table, covered with a clean tablecloth where I was not afraid of finding undressed fish and white grubs with red heads.”* Here are a few more miscellaneous pieces of documentation on the lives of John and Jessie. In “A Busy Day in Africa”, written by John Perkins in August 1930, he related: *“I arose at 4 a.m. and after some time for devotion I started in. It being breadmaking day, I lit* *the fire for Mrs. Perkins… As we were expecting to make jelly the next day, I had to superintend* *the picking of guava and other fruit so as to be ready to start work early the next morning.”* In the Pentecostal Evangel April 27, 1935, John wrote: *“During a time of ministry reverses, when Liberians were turning back to idolatry and questioning the efficacy of the Christian faith, I request\[ed\] that we pray definitely for Mrs.* *Perkins, who is very tired and run down in health.”* In “On and Off the Trail”, Pentecostal Evangel July 1911, John wrote: *“\[When a missionary from Scotland died\] Mrs. Perkins directing the splitting of the plank and the making of the coffin.”* Referring somewhat indirectly to relationships among the missionaries, both John and Jessie wrote an article entitled “Off Again for Africa” which appeared in the Pentecostal Evangel, November 2, 1929: *“Above all pray that a fresh anointing and enduement of power from on high may be given to us all for the work there, that peace and harmony and co-operation may prevail among the workers, and that the Lord will send a mighty revival.”* And on the same topic in “A Great Convention of Liberia”, Pentecostal Evangel, April 25, 1931, John wrote: *“Brother and Sister Swartz had everything in readiness, and the compound looking fine. From* *the very beginning peace and harmony reigned, so that there was scarcely a jar throughout the eight days we were there.”* Relating his feelings about his spousal preaching partnership, John wrote in “Three Days in the Heathen Town”: *“After we had showed \[the Liberians\] a goodly number of pictures \[of the life of Christ on a screen\] they begged us for more. The next morning we spoke of going on to another town, but they would not hear of that, so during all the time we spent there the majority of people remained in town, following us about, filling the house where we stayed almost continually and listening with rapt attention to all we had to tell them. First one of us would talk and then the other. After a searching Bible lesson on the secret sins of the heathen, they began to confess their sins, and poured out some awful confessions.”* In a report of the Mission from 1908 to 1916, T.M.L. Harrow related that: *“Here at the town of Newaka the people compelled us to sit down with them and… cleared us a hill near their town, and built us our first mission house of materials brought from the surrounding forests – bamboo undressed country plants, and thatch or leaf for the roof. The native women plastered the walls with cow dung.”* Three months later the Perkins and other missionaries came up from the coast. The report continued: *“The nine of us, practically strangers one to the other, found ourselves ‘at home’ among the heathen.”* Returning to the subject of his spouse and with perhaps a hint of poignancy in never having had any children, John Perkins wrote in a private letter: *“She has never been known to refuse a difficult task. On four different occasions in answer to calls from sick missionaries she had started in the darkness over trails which were almost impassable even in daylight. For twelve long weeks while I was suffering with that dread disease, malaria, Mrs. Perkins scarcely left my bedside. She loved especially to work among the women and girls of Africa, where she was known as a real mother.”* Yet another excursion, and John wrote in “A Trip”: *“I am just back from Dorobo, where I dedicated a new chapel last Sunday. We call Dorobo a cannibal tribe; for they used to be very fond of human flesh, and shortly before we came to this part, they had eaten a man. Now two of our best workers are from this tribe, and many of the people are Christians, Praise the Lord. The gospel of Christ is still the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.”* Another source from the Assemblies of God papers tells: *“The miracles Pentecostals expected and for which they prayed captured the attention of unbelievers. The Perkinses reported: People brought a very sick child for medical treatment, but as the child was already far beyond human help, all that they could do was to pray for the child. The Lord wrought a real miracle, by touching the child back to life right before their eyes, and this helped the situation \[of Christians who had begun to abandon the gospel\] wonderfully... Just as in Bible times, one healing touch from God, does more to convince the heathen about the reality and power of God than a thousand sermons.”* ## Some documented travels of John Perkins **2 June 1905** Sailed from Cuxhaven, England to New York City on board the “Pennsylvania” with his wife and a total of $30 in cash. **October 1906** The Perkins were in Owen Sound, visiting family and holding talks about their mission in Africa. **7 December 1908** Left Liverpool to Garraway on the SS Olenda, traveling first class **1909** Declared to have been in Iowa in 1909 **7 April 1910** Published in the Owen Sound Sun on 5 July 1910: “*The following letter is received from Mr and Mrs John Perkins of Owen Sound in the Mission Field of Liberia. The letter was received by the former’s father, Elias Perkins, of this town… Borobo Bush Country, Las Palmas, Liberia, April 7th 1910\. … We have been especially privileged for the last 5 weeks of following in the footsteps of our Blessed Master. With the coming of Bro. Harrow and wife, Mrs Perkins and I have been able to leave our station work for a little and have the desire of our hearts fulfilled in being able to preach this Blessed Gospel of Light and Life to many hungry souls in other towns. During the intervals of our visits to different towns we were loyally entertained by Miss Hisey and Miss Mendenhall at their Mission Station at Gropaka, some 15 miles from here. We certainly had a most interesting and delightful time both in visiting them and preaching the Gospel to heathen people, many of whom according to their own testimony had never heard the story of Jesus and his love before. Our magic lantern and Bible pictures were the chief attraction… never before have we witnessed such deep soul, interest… they think nothing of sitting or standing for hours at a time listening to the simple story of Jesus…Oh what a privilege has been and still is ours! Kings from different towns have sent men long distances over… trails (to us almost impassable) to carry us in hammocks to and from their towns in order that their people might see the wonderful pictures of Jesus and hear our strange sweet story of His love… God willing and as soon as possible we shall write and send you a series of short interesting articles describing more in detail our experiences during these five weeks of great and blessed opportunity… Sincerely yours and glad in His service, John and Jessie Perkins.”* **22 August 1913** John and Jessie visited family in Owen Sound **21 December 1914** Sailed from New York to Liverpool on the Orduna **23 April 1920** Arrived in Liverpool from Cape Palmas, Liberia on the ship Onitsha **18 May 1920** Arrived in Montreal on the Valencia from New York, having departed there on 23 April. John declared that he was coming for “a change and a rest”, with his passage paid by “friends”. He did not intend to stay in Canada, but planned to visit E. Perkins in Owen Sound. His reference in Liberia was W.N. Johnson of Las Palmas. **23 April 1920** Arrived in Liverpool from Cape Palmas, Liberia on the ship Onitsha **25 May 1920** Owen Sound Sun Times article “Spent 20 Years on West Coast as Missionary”: *Reverend John Perkins and his wife returned Thursday last … neither is in very good health… but with the change to the healthiest of climates their health should rapidly improve. Mr. Perkins served as a missionary for 20 years and Mrs. Perkins slightly longer. It is five years since they last left Owen Sound on their last journey to Africa and for some time previous to that they had visited many parts of Ontario and the United States. Mr. Perkins is a son of Elias Perkins … and is a native of Keppel Township having been born near Murphy’s Mill.* **12 August 1921** Crossed the border at International Falls, Ranier, Minnesota. Declared himself a Pentecostal missionary who planned to stay a few months in Duluth. He was described as 5’10” tall, medium complexion, grey-brown hair and blue eyes. The customs officer noted that John had a speech impediment. John declared to have left the United States in 1920. The Owen Sound Times reported that John and Jessie visited his brother in Assinaboia, Saskatchewan and went for a ‘spin’ in a Ford car. They commented on the destruction of the wheat crop due to hail. **January 1922** The Perkins tour around Seattle and Spokane Washington, and comment on the beauty of the mountains. **24 July 1923** The Owen Sound Sun Times reprinted the contents of a letter from John Perkins, where he expressed his thanks for the efforts of those in Owen Sound to help him buy a horse. He had the horse picked out and is awaiting the funds. John mentioned that he wanted to move their 12 HP sawmill about two miles down the river. He wrote of all the things they will do with the horse and then comments “I feel with a good horse and a plough I could do more work than a score of these lazy people with big heavy hoes. It makes me tired to see them pretend to work.” He also related that they were building new structures on cement floors in an effort to curb the ants who live in the ground and feed on wood. John now paused in his reporting and to tell of the sights he sees at the mission while writing. Three boys are planting corn, and another group weeding. Three more boys are wheeling in earth from a great ant hill and three more are fitting the siding for the house. Two small boys are cooking rice and bread-fruit and the girls are ironing. Other girls have gone to the beach carrying letters and have brought palm kernels with them to use to buy fish. He mused that having grown up on a farm in Ontario prepared him for hard work, and commented that this doesn’t sound much like missionary proceedings. He continued in saying that they still needed shelter where the heat is 120 degrees in the sun and 90 in the shade, along with over 150” of annual rainfall. He recalled that over 15 years prior, he and his wife had planted many fruit trees and at that time could reap an abundance of food – oranges, butterpear, breadfruit, breadnut, bananas, guaves, sour-sop, pa-paws, cocoa, coconuts, coffee, plantain, beside a variety of ‘country vegetables’. John commented that the natives suffer from scarcity and lack of food, but that the mission had food to spare. At the mission they ate green corn, country peas, greens, eddoes, okra, red peppers, cucumbers, sweet potato, cassava, and lettuce. They had lots of pineapples and sugar cane, used in the making of abundant sugar that they were presently using to make guava jam and jelly. At this point in the letter he quoted passages from the Bible and related a story of a local convert. Then he moved onto an event mentioned earlier in this narrative. There was a commotion in the night among the chickens who were being attacked by driver ants. Once John and some boys went to aid the chickens, the ants began biting them furiously so they got torches and began fighting them with fire. While struggling with trying the burn away the ants, John’s clothes became filled with them, and he had to go into the house three times to change. He said he believed there were two million ants in the yard and that he could been bitten to death and eaten alive. The ants began climbing the pillars into the house, so John applied fire from their torches under the floor as the ants scurried up the house posts. They killed many ants, and finally, by 9 in the morning, the ants retreated. At this point, John followed their trail until he discovered their home in the ground, and poured boiling water into it. Despite this traumatic night, John added that the ants were sometimes a blessing, because they devour any spider, lizard, snake, roaches or insects, if allowed into the house. **8 September – 6 November 1923** The Owen Sound Sun Times reported on a letter received from John Perkins, following up on the money donated for the purchase of the horse and where he shared some news from Liberia. He recounted that they had picked out a horse and once the money arrived they would make arrangements to go and get it. In the meantime, the horse died, so another was found and all was well. ![A grainy black & white photo of a White man and woman with an African woman and child.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/WITCHLIBERIA1.png) John Perkins, his wife with "witch" woman and her son. Public Domain. He went on to relate a story about two ‘witch women’ refugees. They were fleeing their villages where their neighbours wanted to harm them. The first of the two women was named Codie, who, along with her young boy, were driven from the town and forced to hide in the bush. The second woman heard that the Mission was sheltering Codie, and so arrived with her little girl. John remarked that they had little space to spare, but put the women together into a small room and removed the children from their mothers. Codie was “as bad as the Devil can make her” and is “indifferent to God”. Mrs. Perkins gave Codie a dress to wear, and she promptly burned it. In his letter, John enclosed a picture of Codie, and asked that all Christians pray for her salvation. It is likely that the picture at the beginning of this narrative is a reproduction of that photograph. Some ‘heathen’ people who had children attending the Mission became alarmed when they learned that Codie was there, and they called in soldiers. The soldiers said they would drink palm wine and drive her away unless John did so first. Discussions continued, and when John confirmed that he would not allow Codie to cook, the others seemed more comfortable. The second witch, Neaddie, who arrived with her little girl had been ‘very bad’ but had tired of her old life and wanted the missionaries to pray and make her a real ‘God-Woman’. John stated that if she were to come to God it would be all worth it, despite it being ‘not pleasant’ to have them around. If the children became sick, the witch women would be blamed. A leopard killed two goats in a nearby town and people said that Neaddie witched the leopard. The soldiers returned and threatened to beat her, but she had heard they were coming and hid in the bush. John continues his narrative, and commented that the rainy season was coming and that they have established a new station among a cannibal tribe. While awaiting new missionaries from America, “Moses and Lilly” had begun teaching there. **28 October 1935** John and Jessie were in New York City. **29 October 1935** Arrived in Boston October 29, 1935 with Jessie on the SS Lashaway. John was described as 5’7” tall, fair complexion with brown hair and blue eyes, and with a scar between his right eye and nose. He declared that he was born in Cruikshank Ontario, was 69 years old. He was travelling with Jessie, aged 73, fair complexion, black and grey hair, brown eyes, 5’4” tall. They declared themselves to have been residents of Cape Palmas, Liberia and provided George Perkins of Owen Sound as their reference. They were headed to Phoenix Arizona to stay at the home of Lulu Clifton, a friend, who resided at 215 N 12th Avenue, and were planning to stay one year. **Late 1935 – Early 1936** John and Jessie were travelling from New York to Arizona, stopping in Des Moines Iowa, Springfield Missouri, **3 August 1936** The Owen Sound Times reports that Rev. and Mrs. Perkins were visiting Owen Sound, hoping that her failing health would improve so they could return to Liberia. The article mentioned that the couple spent the winter in Arizona and California but now felt they needed some “frost” to feel better. John told the reporter that he went to Africa in 1900 with the Methodist Church, but that time was filled with sorrow and suffering. After only three months his wife died and he became ill with recurring fevers. In 1902, he married his present wife. He added that he and his current wife, since 1908, had been at Newaka Barobo where he was in charge of 20 white missionaries and many native teachers. From Newaka they kept in touch with about 40 out-stations, working with 8 tribes, all of whom spoke different languages. The most distant station was 200 miles away. He explained that you travel on foot if you are able, or the native boys will carry you in a hammock through narrow trails in the jungle ‘beset’ with elephants, leopards, baboons and wild hogs. He further explained that Newaka is about 60 miles from the coast. He told of their early contact with a cannibalistic tribe, who since that day no longer practised cannibalism and that his two best preachers came from that tribe. Mrs. Perkins helped in other ways, working with women and children in the school, focusing on reading and writing. Some industrial work is done making cassava into tapioca. Over the course of their time in Liberia, they recounted witnessing the deaths of over 20 fellow missionaries. This had been their first furlough in seven years and Mrs. Perkins was showing the “ill effects” of six continuous years in the field \[Liberia\], just north of the equator. **6 November 1936** Crossed the border from Detroit to Windsor Canada to visit his sister, Mrs. McKay. He declared his residence in Phoenix Arizona, living with a friend named Lulu Clifton **18 December 1936** John arrived in Phoenix at the home of Lulu Clifton. He and Jessie toured the Grand Canyon and the Roosevelt dam. He wrote in a letter that Lulu and friends feed them so much good food, and that they were no longer used to eating such good meat. John related that once he mentioned to his father that he only had a little monkey-ham to eat in Africa and his father immediately sent him money, afraid that he was starving. **3 September 1946** Crossed into Detroit to visit his foster (!!) sister Lawrence Lee. He declared his residence in Pasadena, California. **Pasadena** Lived at a rooming house after his wife’s death ## Final Notes The Los Angeles Times, 11 Mar 1941 reports on the death of Jessie Perkins, 78, formerly a missionary in Cape Palmas Liberia. She died in her home at 581 N. El Molino St. in Pasadena. The article says she began her missionary work in 1808, but that is clearly a misprint. It also noted that she had worked in Liberia for 40 years. Her husband John is still alive at this time. According to the California death certificate, for one month she had been experiencing dementia with anorexia and vomiting. She had been living at the above address for a little more than a year, and elsewhere in California for 3-1/2 years. John died on September 24, 1949 in Los Angeles California. John and Jessie are buried side by side in Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, Los Angeles County, California, USA. ### Thomas William Renton (1832/4 -1920): An Early Hamiltonian from Scotland URL: https://alifereflected.com/historical/thomas-william-renton-1832-1920/ Last updated: 2025-01-28T20:36:15.000Z ## **Thomas William’s Family History** Thomas Renton has a story. And, like everyone else, his story has meaning. We speak today of being “upwardly mobile”, but Thomas was the personification of this concept more than a century ago. As we will read, Thomas came from very humble origins. He was the son of an agricultural labourer in the borderlands of Scotland, eventually becoming a respected and prominent citizen in his adopted country. We will likely never discover what prompted him to migrate to Canada in the 1850s, but Hamilton Ontario is where he found his destiny. He was witness to the beginning of Canadian Confederation and saw Hamilton’s march of progress from a backwater town to a vibrant and progressive city, rivaling that of Chicago and other major American centres. His life in Canada was both eventful and, at times, likely prosaic. He witnessed war first-hand, participated in the growing and important industry of the railway, and he lived through several personal tragedies. He was extremely proud of his children, going out of his way to document their accomplishments. He had a large family, and his numerous descendants (in Canada, in the United States, and even as far afield as Africa), can claim him as their own. So, let’s dive into Thomas’ story. Thomas’ parents were **Robert Renton** and **Isabella** (variously spelled Isabel, Isabelle, or Isobel) **Fair**. Records indicate that Robert was born in Edinburgh in 1811 on Calton Street. There is only brief documentation on his mother, Isabella. She was born in Sprouston, Roxburghshire, Scotland on July 23, 1809. At some point, Robert found himself in Westruther, Berwickshire, Scotland on June 17, 1832 where he married the delightfully surnamed Isabella Fair. Thomas’ birthdate is consistently given as August 18, but the year varies. Some records say 1833, others 1834 — perhaps to circumvent the possibility that Isabella was pregnant at the time of her marriage. Most records seem to give 1832 as his actual year of birth. After the marriage records from 1832, the couple next appear in the 1841 Scotland census[\[1\]](#%5Fftn1). Young Thomas is eight years old, the eldest of five siblings (Janet[\[2\]](#%5Fftn2) age six, born in Stichill; Jean age four, born in Stichill \[who dies in 1908\]; and the seven-month-old twins Isabel and Helen, born in Berwick \[who also dies in 1908\]). Prior to the census, Robert would have had a younger brother named Robert. This child was born sometime in July 1836, but died on January 4, 1836. Father, Robert, is an “agricultural labourer” and the family lives in Spottiswoode Eagle Lodge. In addition to those surnamed “Renton”, a 12-year-old girl named Helen Wanless is also living among them, and she is listed as an “agricultural labourer” “Eagle Lodge” was the name used during Thomas’ lifetime. The two buildings, built in 1796, now called East and West Clock lodges, both flanked the entrance to Spottiswood House. Thomas almost certainly lived in what is now called the West Clock Lodge on the “Scottish Side” of the manor. Spottiswoode is of historical note because of Alicia Ann Spottiswoode. She grew up in the manor and was later to become Lady John Scott (1810-1900). She was deeply interested in promoting Scottish culture, history, language and was likely the writer of a more refined version of the famous song “Annie Laurie”. She grew up in the Manor and was born and died there. It is more than likely that Thomas would have known Lady Scott during his childhood and early adult years. And, given her interest in all things Scottish, it is quite possible that she would have called on Thomas’ family to ask about traditions and songs. “Haud \[hold\] fast by the past” was Alicia’s motto. Who knows if that motto resonated with young Thomas? ![An early 19th century photo of a woman reading a book whilst seated in a floor-length dress.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/image.png) Figure 1: Photograph of Alicia Ann, taken between 1843-1847, by David Octavius Hill – Image credit National Galleries of Scotland The only other family living in another nearby Lodge was a young couple (also agricultural labourers), Andrew and Ann Scott (ages 29 and 30 respectively) with their three-year-old daughter Isabel and a one-year-old infant Margaret. Neighbours Andrew and Ann were the same ages as Thomas’ parents Robert and Isabel. ![A photo of a stone cottage with shingled roof and clock on the massive chimney spanning the width of the building.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/image-2.png) Figure 3 : Eagle Lodge, now called West Clock Lodge. Old Milestones by the A697, West Clock. © Milestone Society Geograph Britain and Ireland– 2014 – Please note image copyright Milestone Society ![A photo of a stone cottages with shingled rooves, each with chimneys spanning the width of the buildings, one with ornate windows and the other a clock.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/image-3.png) Figure 4 : East and West Clock Lodges Papers of Frank Morton, amateur garden photographer, Edinburgh, Scotland c. 1970 – Note Copyright Courtesy of HES (Frank Morton Collection) While Thomas lived in Westruther, the area was diminishing in population. Just before he was born in 1831 the population was estimated to be 830, almost the same in1841 at 829, and by 1851 it had slipped to 791 individuals*.* Unlike the village, come 1851, the family had grown. Three more siblings were born in Berwick: George born in 1845 and who died in 1859, Elisabeth born in 1847 and who died in 1918, and William born in 1850. Thomas, however, is no longer living with the family. An 18-year-old, he was now living in Blainslie[\[3\]](#%5Fftn3), Roxburghshire, in the household of an 81-year-old woman named Margaret Scott. Within this household lived Margaret’s 54-year-old daughter, Agnes, her 46-year-old son William, and her 67-year- old sister Jane Dickson. Thomas gives his occupation as that of an apprentice joiner. A joiner was a little different from a carpenter. At that time, a joiner would have been involved in using timber to create structures that would have been used in a building: things such as staircases, windows, doors, and furniture. A carpenter would have done similar work, but on-site, whereas a joiner would typically work in a shop setting. One wonders if there was a family connection with his old neighbours at Eagle Lodge. Meanwhile, by 1861, Thomas has a few new siblings: Alexander born in 1858, Andrew in 1856, Jane in 1852, and Mary in 1854. It is unlikely Thomas met his little brothers Alexander, Andrew and his newest sister Jane. Around 1852-1853 Thomas left for Canada. His mother, Isabella, would be dead by May 1865\. His father, Robert, leaves this world in January 1890. It is unlikely that Thomas ever saw his Scottish family again. ## Thomas Settles in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada – mid 1850s Thomas was part of a massive migration of immigrants from Scotland to Canada. Encouraged by the British government, Scots from the lowlands decided to leave their homelands and venture off to various provinces in Canada. In fact, between 1815 and 1870 roughly 170,000 Scots crossed the Atlantic and represented about 14% of British migration to Canada. At this time, rather than settle in the Maritime colonies as previous immigrants from the Highlands had done, this Lowland and Borderland group went to the Province of Canada (Ontario or Upper Canada as it was called then). By 1871, out of every 1000 Canadians, 157 were Scottish. Most were farmers and tradespeople, but many were business professionals, teachers, and clergymen. These newcomers were predominantly Presbyterian. Looking back, it appears that the prime motivator in immigration from the Lowlands was economic. Severe economic depression, with low wages, poor housing and unemployment occurred in the late 1840s and early 1850s — exactly around the time Thomas made his decision. It is likely we will never know why Thomas chose to leave Scotland, and why go to Canada in particular. It may be that he heard stories from nearby families who had relatives in Canada, or perhaps he was influenced by the encouragement of government officials. Perhaps he knew people who read reports such as “Views and Canada and the Colonists”, published in Edinburgh in 1851 by James Brown[\[4\]](#%5Fftn4). In it Hamilton is generously described as being “handsome” and boasting steamboats and stages connecting to all other important towns with a railway being built, and prosperity everywhere you looked. There does not appear to be any record of Thomas’ voyage to Canada, but typically one would have travelled overland to Edinburgh and depart (usually early in March) for Liverpool. Arriving there about 15 days later, a traveller would have embarked for New York City (likely arriving at the beginning of May). From there, the journey would have continued with another vessel travelling up the Hudson River, through the Erie Canal. Then, finally, around mid to end May, the traveller would cross over into Canada at Niagara Falls. Assuming Thomas embarked at Liverpool, one wonders what was going through his mind. Was he excited? Filled with apprehensions? When the ship pulled away from the dock, did he gaily wave at those on the pier, even though he may not have had anyone there he knew? Did he grip the railing and stare at the shores of a land he would likely never see again? Or did he resolutely turn his gaze outward towards the sea, towards a new land of promise and adventure? It is assumed that Thomas went to Hamilton directly from Scotland and did not settle elsewhere. The land, the people, and the climate would have been far different from where Thomas had grown up. Both colder and hotter than the Borderlands, the highest temperature ever recorded in Hamilton was a sultry 41.1 °C (105.6 °F) on July 14, 1868\. The coldest was -30.6 °C (-23.1 °F) on January 25, 1884\. Thomas would have seen snow back home in Scotland, but likely never the amounts that would routinely fall on Hamilton during a typical winter. It was an interesting choice. The city had only recently been incorporated in 1846 and at that time had a population of roughly 6830. The growing city was hit by a smallpox epidemic a few years before Thomas’ arrival. The aftereffects of that event would surely have been in the minds of the population, especially since a new hospital was created directly because of the disaster. Thomas arrived in what was quickly becoming a bustling city. In 1846, at the time of incorporation, there were many roads leading into the city from various communities, and there were both stagecoach and steamboat services to Toronto, Queenston, and Niagara. Eleven cargo schooners were owned in the city and an equal number of churches were providing spiritual guidance to the inhabitants. The city had a public reading room which gave citizens a place to access and read newspapers from other Canadian cities as well as from the United States and Europe. This was no backwater village. Hamilton had shops offering all sorts of goods. It had four banking establishments. Tradesmen of all sorts lived there. There were sixty-five (!!) taverns with three breweries. A thriving import trade existed with ten importers of dry goods and groceries, and five importers of hardware. There were two tanneries, three coachmakers, and a marble and a stone works. By 1855 the Grand Lodge of Canada opened its impressive building. The West Flamboro Methodist Church was constructed in 1879 (and was later purchased by the Dufferin Masonic Lodge in 1893). A public library was built and opened in 1890 and a department store named “Right House” was doing business in 1893. Jumping ahead a little further, Hamilton boasted the first commercial telephone service in Canada – in fact, it was the first telephone exchange in all the enormous British Empire. It was the second exchange in North America, dating from 1877-1878\. The city streets had urban electric street cars and two incline cars. More significantly to Thomas, in November 1853, the first train on the 43-mile leg of the Great Western line, from Suspension Bridge to Hamilton, arrived. No doubt, given Thomas’ later career choices, this would have been a memorable event for him. In 1860 the city began a beautification program to make the downtown core a “place of beauty as well as a place of commerce”. Things progressed nicely until 1862 when the City of Hamilton declared bankruptcy. People began to leave, and tenants abandoned their rental properties. Even the streetlights were no longer used by a desperate city trying to save money. The water in the Gore Park Fountain, so happily built during the beautification project of two years prior, was turned off to save on water pumping costs. Eventually the city began to reach some financial stability, and the lights came back on — but only until midnight! And, in the midst of this economic chaos, Thomas married. ## Thomas Marries — July 5th, 1862 In the midst of the city’s dire financial crisis, on Saturday, July 5th, 1862, the 30-year-old Thomas married Miss Mary Ann McLeod. They were wed in the manse of Knox’s Church, with Robert Irvine D.D. officiating. Robert Irvine was the Reverend of the Presbyterian “Free” Church, and he published many of his sermons and memoirs. Below is a sample of his work published in 1853 which exemplifies the tone of his preaching. ![A photo of a published sermon.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/image-4.png) Figure 5: One of Robert Irvine's many published sermons Mary Ann McLeod was the daughter of William Campbell McLeod. Thomas’ father-in-law was born in Farr, Scotland around 1815\. His profession was that of a boilermaker. According to some online genealogies, William had gone to Quebec with a work crew in 1842 with the goal of building the first bridge over the St. Laurence River, then went to Hamilton in 1853\. At some unspecified later date he ventured off to join the California Gold Rush, lost a great deal of money, and went back to Glasgow to return to his primary profession. Although there may be some truth to the family lore, it is unlikely he went bridge-building in Quebec in 1842\. The first bridge over the St. Laurence River, the Victoria Bridge, was erected between 1854 and 1859\. The California Gold Rush took place between 1848-1855, further throwing off the suggested timeline. There is however a record of a William McLeod arriving in Quebec in 1842, but there is no certainty that that person was Mary Ann’s father. It does not appear that William returned to Scotland after leaving it for Canada. William is documented in Dundee, Angus in 1851\. He then appears in the Canadian census at Hamilton in 1861 as a boilermaker. In 1871, he is a widower, working as a boilermaker in Hamilton. In 1881, still a widower, he is living in Hamilton with the family of another married daughter. He eventually died there on January 8th, 1889. Thomas’s mother-in-law, Mary McKay (or MacKay) was also born in Farr and married William in September 1833\. She has proven quite elusive, and no other concrete information seems available other than her death in Hamilton on March 28, 1866. Thomas and Mary Ann had twelve children together: - Mary, born April 11, 1863 - Isabella Fair, born September 18, 1864 - William McLeod, born March 20, 1866 - Robert, born December 26, 1868 - Elizabeth Tindill Lizzie, born in August 1869, possibly premature (or, less likely, in 1872) - Thomas, born 10 February 1871 and who died on February 18, just 8 days later - George, born June 21, 1872, and who died March 23, 1873 - Jane, twin of George and who died August 13, 1882 - Georgina, born January 23, 1881 - Fleming Fair, born September 5, 1881 - Norman McLeod, born November 21, 1884 - Innes (or Ennis) Myrtle, born January 24, 1887 It is worth noting that Mary Ann was almost continuously pregnant from late 1862 to early 1872\. No children were born for another ten years. Then, from 1881 through 1887 she had another four children, and given the dates, her penultimate child was likely born premature. ## Military Involvement in the Fenian Raids Briefly, the Fenians were a secret society of Irish patriots and had come from Ireland to the United States. Some Fenians wanted to take Canadian territories by force and essentially offer it up to the British in exchange for Irish independence. Several attacks occurred from around 1866 to 1871, and, for the most part, the Canadian military was woefully unprepared and disorganized. Still, the Fenians did not prevail. However, their legacy may have played a part in the push for the Confederation of Canada, once Canada began to be concerned over potential threats of American military and economics strengths. According to various sources (sadly none were properly documented), Thomas was part of the Hamilton Field Battalion (or the 11th Field Regiment). As a gunner[\[5\]](#%5Fftn5), he was reputed to have been the first of the company to fire a shot, although there is no clarity around which battle he was involved in. It is possible that he was active in the Battle of Ridgeway fought nearby in 1866, and he may have been under the command of Lieut. Col. Booker, but this is all speculation. ![A painting depicting a pitched battle in 1866 between British and American infantry forces.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/image-5.png) Figure 6 : Battle of Ridgeway, June 2nd, 1866 - The Sage, Sons & Co. Lithographer – Image Credit: Library and Archives In any case, the Hamilton Field Battalion was a voluntary militia (as were most at the time in Canada West). From what meagre records exist, they seemed to have spent much time marching in “shining” uniforms, doing field exercises, and gathering in public venues to regale the Hamilton public with speeches, poetry readings, light dramatic performances, musical interludes and honouring one another for military prowess. Thomas may have truly seen action. He may have been the one to recount tales of battle to his family, friends, and associates. His military actions may have been retold by friends and family. In any case, according to several obituaries, Thomas had strongly felt opinions on military issues (thought precisely what they might have been is unknown). ## Thomas and the Grand Trunk Railway During Thomas’ lifetime, the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada was *the* major railroad in the Province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec). It connected Toronto to Montreal and at a later date it would be part of the Canadian National Railways, providing transportation across all of Canada. ![A black and white photo of the GTR Railway station in Hamilton (ca. 1903) with a train waiting.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/image-6.png) Figure 7 : Grand Trunk Railway, Hamilton, circa 1903 Often abbreviated as the “GTR”, it had been incorporated in 1852, and it was then that the much-needed rail service was built to connect Toronto to Montreal. At the time of Confederation, in 1867, it was the largest railway system in the world, with 2055 km of track. By the late 1880s it was a massive concern, running from Sarnia to Portland Maine without interruption. ![A colourized photo of the GTR Railway station in Hamilton (ca. 1903) with gardens and a train steaming past.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/image-7.png) Figure 8 : By Valentine & Sons Publishing Co. - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28515890 Despite its unflagging march of progress, it also had several headline making accidents. On 29 June 1864, one of their trains plunged off the Beloeil Bridge into the Richelieu River, killing 99 people. Later, on 15 September 1885, the entire world learned about the GTR when Jumbo, the famous circus elephant, supposedly charged one of its trains near St. Thomas, Ontario and was killed. Some accounts state that the elephant charged, others tell a different story. Jumbo and the other animals had finished their performances that night, and as they were being led to their box car a train came down the wrong track, possibly due to a signalling error. Jumbo was hit and mortally wounded, dying within minutes. Thomas would most certainly have heard about this tragic event and may have held some strong opinions on its cause. ![A circus poster featuring Jumbo the elephant and various other attractions.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/image-8.png) Figure 9 : Jumbo and his keeper Matthew Scott (Circus poster, c. 1882 – Public Domain) ## **Thomas in the Canadian Census** There was a census enumerated in 1861, but Thomas does not appear in it — not in Hamilton Wentworth, nor anywhere else. It’s not unusual for individuals to have been missed, but it is unfortunate that we have no traces of him from 1851 until his marriage in 1862. He first appears in the 1871 Hamilton census, listed as a Presbyterian with the occupation of millwright. The census records over time of his family are condensed below: ![](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/Thomas_Renton_Household_in_Hamilton_Wentworth_Census_1871-1911-3.png) **Table 1: Thomas Renton Household in Hamilton, Wentworth Census Records, 1871-1911* Additional information provided in those records indicates that in 1871 and 1881 he was millwright. Then, from 1891 he is listed as a Railway Agent Inspector. By 1901 he is shown as a Railway Signal Inspector. In 1911 no occupation is given. In 1871 and 1881 he indicated that he was a Presbyterian. Then, in 1901, his religious affiliation changed to “Brethren”. The 1911 census gives his year of immigration as 1856 and provides an address of 474 Bay Street. Regarding his address, according to various documented sources, he lived at only two addresses in Hamilton, one being 474 Bay Street North (indicated above). The other address is only documented once, in 1884, where he is living at 239 Bay Street North. Regarding his occupations, there is one citation in 1892 referring to him as a Foreman at C.K. Domville — a department of the Grand Truck Railway. This affiliate was involved in producing crossing frogs[\[6\]](#%5Fftn6) and switches. Another interesting piece of information is provided in the 1901 census. It gives Thomas’ annual income as $400\. According to Canadian Government historical records, in 1901 annual wages (for men) across Canada ranged from $205 in fisheries to $676 for “professionals”, with $387 being typical for “miscellaneous” occupations. This puts Thomas squarely in the middle class of his time. His immediate (male) neighbours were earning between $175.00 and $300 per annum, with only one other man nearby — a mason — earning $400/year. Various other neighbours — labourers and teamsters in this census — were averaging around $300/year. The few women who worked were earning around $150 annually, ## Hamilton Events During Thomas’ Residency Of course, much more happened during the almost 70 years that Thomas lived in Hamilton. Here is a sampling of events that may have had meaning to him, or that he likely witnessed. If we could sit down with Thomas today, I’m sure he would vividly recall these events. **1850**: First street lighting using gas. **1854**: Cholera epidemic with more than 600 deaths **1855**: Hamilton's core has a sewer system, graded streets and planked sidewalks. Stumps, boulders, and rocks were removed from the streets, animals were banned from wandering freely on the new thoroughfares *(This marks the likely start of Thomas’ time in Hamilton)* **1858: THOMAS STARTS EMPLOYMENT WITH THE RAILWAY** **1859**: Last public execution[\[7\]](#%5Fftn7) **1860**: First tap water in the city. **1860**: On September 20th, the *Crystal Palace* opened at *Victoria Park* and was the area's largest fall fair for many years. The local *Hamilton Herald* newspaper was quoted as saying on 22 Sept 1890, "*The Carnival of Venice, The Paris Exposition or the World's Fair in Chicago will be nowhere tomorrow when the great Central Fair is opened at the Crystal Palace Grounds in this city*." Despite the high praise, the structure was demolished in 1891 **1867**: Confederation of Canada. **1868** – Hottest day then ever recorded in Hamilton at 41.4 °C. **1877**: On June 20, first commercial telephone service (Fire Department) in Canada began in Hamilton, Ontario. **1877**: Hamilton population hits 32,641. **1878**: The first telephone exchange in the British Empire opened in Hamilton. **1879**: On May 15, Hamilton was the site of the first commercial long-distance telephone line in the British Empire. **1879**: The most spectacular of all fires in Hamilton was the blaze that destroyed the five-storey D. McInnis & Company merchant stores on the southwest corner of King and John Streets. The McInnes fire marked the beginning of Hamilton’s more modern fire department. **1881**: First public telephones installed. **1883**: Sidewalks on main streets are now paved with asphalt. **1884**: The coldest temperature then ever recorded was −30.6 °C (-23.1 °F) on January 25. **1890**: First bowling alley in the city opens at back of the *J.W. MacDonald Tobacco shop* at 66 James Street North. **1892**: On June 29, the first electric streetcar was operated in Hamilton. The first two electric routes were King Street East and James Street North (right by Thomas’ home!). **1893**: The Right House, Hamilton’s first large department store opens on King Street. **1893**: The Sir John A. Macdonald statue arrives in Hamilton from London, England on October 30\. The dedication ceremonies took place on November 1, with Prime Minister Sir. John Thompson in attendance. **1896: The Hamilton Spectator, Monday, August 25 — Thomas reports the theft of pair of oars left in a tent near north side of the bay.** **1898**: The first automobile driven in Canada was by textile manufacturer John Moodie, one of the founders of Canada’s first automobile club, the Hamilton Automobile Club. At its inception in 1903 there were only 18 cars in town. **1903: Thomas was in a train accident on March 18 at MARDEN, but not badly injured.** **1903: Hamilton Spectator, June 1903 — Thomas complains of young men and boys hanging about the foot of Bay St, breaking doors and locks to his boathouse.** **1906**: Hamilton Street Railway strike takes place. Violent ensues and marks one of the few times in Hamilton’s history that the Riot Act is read and enforced. **1907: In October, Thomas goes abroad (location unknown) with his daughter Innes.** **1913**: Increased population and prosperity results in a building boom. As a publicity stunt and raffle, workers and contractors built a house in a day in 1913 which was later memorialized in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not cartoon. **1916: The Hamilton Spectator Thursday, Jun 22, 1916 — There is a fire at Thomas’ boathouse at the foot of Bay St, $50.00 damage.** **1920**: There were 6,000 cars on Hamilton streets — a ratio of one car for every 15 people, higher than that of New York, Chicago, Boston, or Toronto. ## Thomas’ Children Thomas had 12 children, several of whom married and had offspring of their own. Here is a brief timeline pertaining to these children: ### Mary Renton (Hamilton 1863 – Toronto 1942) Thomas’ first child, Mary, was born on April 11th. In 1884, she married Andrew Gibson Whyte. ### Isabella Fair Renton (Hamilton 1864 – Burlington Beach 1910) Isabelle was born on September 18th. In 1886, she married William Hawkins. Their son, William Hawkins would later marry a direct descendent of Robert Land, a famous Hamilton pioneer. ### William McLeod Renton (Hamilton 1866 – 1938) William was born on March 20 and later married Florence Elizabeth Warner. ### **Robert Renton (Hamilton 1868 – Toronto 1915)** Robert was born on December 26\. He married May Hill in Toronto in 1902 Thomas was clearly proud of his son Robert, and shared this story with the Hamilton Spectator: > *FOES CELEBRATED: Thomas Renton Tells How Xmas Was Spent in Trenches. Thomas Renton, 414 Bay street north, this city, has forwarded to the Spectator an account of how the British and Germans joined in celebrating Christmas day in the trenches, the account having been written by Mr. Renton's nephew.* > > *Corp. Renton of the Seaforth Highlanders writes: Christmas — I never thought we would spend Christman the way we did. We were in the trenches on Christmas day. On Christmas eve, the Germans front of us started singing what appeared, to be hymns, We were shouting for encores (their trenches are only about 150 yards in front of us); kept the singing up all night.* > > *On Christmas Day some of them started to shout to us to come across for a drink. It started with one or two going over half-way and meeting between the two lines of trenches; then it got that there was big. crowd of German and British all standing together shaking hands and wishing each other a merry Christmas. Tney were giving us cigars and cheroots \[sic\] in exchange for' cigarets \[sic\], and some of had bottles of whisky. They seemed to be a decent crowd that was in front of us.* > > *They were all fairly well dressed and the majority of them could speak broken English. Some of them could speak it as well as myself. They said they were not going to fire for three days. They kept their word, too; there was no rifle fire for two days after Christmas. There were two dead Frenchmen between our lines. We could never get out to bury them till that day. The Germans helped us to dig the grave. One of their officers held a service over one of the graves. It was a sight worth seeing, and one not easily forgotten--both Germans and British paying respects to the French dead.* > > *I received Meg and Aggie's parcels to-day, also one from the provost of Coldstream, I think I have eaten more this Christmas than what I would if I had been at home* > > *It would be all right out here if not for the miserable weather. But it can't last always*.". The Hamilton Spectator reported: > *Died in Toronto, from injuries from a fall (down the stairs – ed. Note) - while visiting his brother in law. ROBERT RENTON BURIED. Caretaker of Fern Avenue School, Toronto, Laid to Rest. Hamilton, Nov. 27.-The remains Robert Renton, a former wellknown \[sic\] resident of this city and employe \[sic\] of the Grand Trunk Railway, who died in Toronto, were brought to this city on Thursday afternoon for burial. Deceased was the second son of Thomas Renton, formerly signal inspector on the Grand Trunk Railway for fifty years, who is now retired.* > > *Deceased was formerly a patternmaker for the Grand Trunk Railway Company, with whom he served his apprenticeship. He was well known around Hamilton Bay, where he was very instrumental in saving life, for which he received Royal Humane Association's certificate. He was a member of the Lodge of Strict Observance, A. F. and A.M., of this city, also past preceptor of the Black Knights of Ireland, No. 292; past master, of the Loyal Orange Lodge, 342 and 913\. Toronto. Deceased moved from this city nineteen years ago, going to Toronto, where he was for ten years in the service of the Grand Trunk Railway Company and nine \*years with the Board of Education. He was president of the Caretakers' Association and district of the I.0\. 0\. F. lodge of Toronto. The late Mr. Renton was 47 years of age. The funeral took place yesterday afternoon from the residence of his father, Thomas Renton, 474 North Bay street. R. McCory, of the Brethren, conducted the service. The pall were: James Massie.A. Robinson, and D. Robinson, of this city; and John Hall, Thomas. Ralston, and K. Stewart, of Toronto*.” ### **Elizabeth Tindill “Lizzie” Renton (Hamilton 1869/1872 – Stoney Creek 1958)** There is some confusion on the actual year and date of Elizabeth’s birth — some records indicate August 10, another August 20\. She married a man named Thomas Douglass Harrison Jr. ### **Thomas Renton (Hamilton 10 February 1871 – 18 February 1871)** ### **George Renton (Hamilton 21 June 1872 – 23 March 1873)** A twin who died in infancy. ### **Jane Renton (Hamilton 21 june 1872 – 13 August 1883)** A twin who died in childhood. ### **Georgina Renton (Hamilton 1881 – Hamilton 1948)** Georgina was born on January 23, and in 1904 married George Grant Halcrow. ### **Fleming Fair Renton (Hamilton 1881 – Toronto After 1940)** Fleming was born on September 5, and in 1910 married Alice May MacLean. The last official documentation is a Toronto voters’ list from 1940. A Hamilton Spectator article on Fleming Renton reports: > Fleming has a history in Toronto as well as Hamilton. He worked at the Hughes School that used to be located on Innes Avenue, at 237 McRoberts Ave. At the time when the school was new and considered “modern” it needed a qualified caretaker to manage its steam heating and other systems. In 1917 the Daily Star wrote about what was needed for the task: “All of the appointees have engineer’s certificates and mechanical skills.” This described Fleming who was already employed as an assistant engineer at the Harrison Baths, a public pool and bathing family in the same city ward. > > This was a perfect situation for Fleming who as a very young man had been a strong swimmer. On august 12, 1898 he was written up in newspapers for his remarkable and heroic rescues of three Hamilton swimmer who almost drowned had he not intervened (see article above). Here is a quote from the Hamilton Spectator: > *DESERVES RECOGNITION sixteen-year-old boy Flem \[sic\] Renton son of Thomas Renton Bay street north is gaining quite a reputation as a life saver On Monday accompanied by his brother Robert he rescued two men named Sutton and Williamson from drowning off Willow Point. Yesterday the lad again distinguished himself by saving the life of Charles Winn Macnab street north. Winn went for a sail in a small skiff and while trving to tack near Bayview the boat upset. He shouted for help and bls cries were heard by young Renton who rowed to the scene just in time to save the boy’s life as he was exhausted when pulled into row-boat”.* > > Fleming married Alice May McLean, a local Toronto girl from 64 Lansdowne Ave, on March 30th, 1910\. The wedding was solemnized by Re. Bernard Bryan, the founding Rector of the Anglican Church of the Epiphany in Parkdale (Queen St. West and Beaty). > > Fleming’s firstborn, Thomas, was born at Alice’s home on Lansdowne one year after their marriage. At the time, Fleming’s brother Thomas was working as the caretaker for Fern Avenue Public School in Parkdale, and he likely put Fleming in touch with the Hughes School. > > Alice and Fleming moved to 189 McRoberts and stayed until 1915\. They then moved to a larger home at 215 McRoberts Ave. ![A photo of an article in the Hamilton Spectator, July 4, 1912.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/Fleming-_Hamilton_Spectator_1912-07-24-1.png) Figure 10 : Hamilton Spectator – July 4, 1912 ### **Norman McLeod Renton (Hamilton 1884 – Hamilton 1919)** Norman was born on November 21, and died, unmarried, on the April 26, 1919 ### **Innes or Ennis Myrtle Renton (Hamilton 1887 – Hamilton 1919)** Innes was born on January 2, and on December 23, 1919, she married John Thomas Anderson. ## **The Death of Thomas — Hamilton, June 6, 1920** From the Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Deaths, 1920; Series: 273, Thomas died of heart disease on June 6, 1920\. His residence was given at 474 Bay Street North, where he had been living for either 50 or 60 years (the document is smudged, so difficult to read) and had been living in Ontario for a total of 67 years. The certificate lists his mother as “Mary Warden Fair” but this is likely inaccurate. The death was registered by his daughter, Mrs. George Haleron of 379 Bay Street North. According to Kingston newspaper British Weekly Whig, Thomas died while sitting down to dinner with extended family — and at 6PM had a heart attack. The papers go on to say that he was G.T.R. Grand Truck Railway Employee, and had lived in Hamilton for 67 years, working 50 years at the railway. Calling him “*bright and interesting”* — would reminisce of early days there and “*closely identified with his business, fraternal and military objectives”.* They further mention that he came to Canada at 19 years of age, had always lived in Hamilton, only living in 2 houses. Additionally, it was mentioned that 55 years prior to his death Thomas had been a gunner in Hamilton Field Battery and was the first local man to fire a shot in the Fenian raid. They also cited that he was one of the oldest Masons in the city, becoming a member on June 25, 1875, of the “Strict Observance” lodge. --- [\[1\]](#%5Fftnref1) 1841 Census, Parish of Westruther, Berwickshire, Enumeration Book 4, Page 6; Index, Scottish Indexes ([https://www.scottishindexes.com/41transcript.aspx?houseid=75604033](https://www.scottishindexes.com/41transcript.aspx?houseid=75604033&ref=alifereflected.com): accessed 21 Nov 2024); Original Source: 1841 Scotland Census, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. [\[2\]](#%5Fftnref2) Janet was born on 29 July 1834\. She later married a Thomas Swanson and they both emigrated to Australia in 1866 on the vessel “Prince of Wales”. Janet died at the age of 40 in September 1874 at Tiatuchia, District Council of Lower Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. [\[3\]](#%5Fftnref3) Blainslie is a very tiny village, near Galashiels, and not far from his family home. [\[4\]](#%5Fftnref4) Views of Canada and the colonists embracing the experience of an eight years' residence; views of the present state, progress, and prospects of the colony; with detailed and practical information for intending emigrants by James B. Brown. 1851\. A reference well worth reading in detail. [\[5\]](#%5Fftnref5) A gunner would have been one of the men who loaded a cannon prior to firing it. [\[6\]](#%5Fftnref6) “A railroad frog is a device that helps the wheels rolling from one track to another. It is also called the “common crossing”. As a part of the railroad switch, it takes the area where two rails cross. Crossing nose and wing rails are main parts of the frog.” — Courtesy [https://railroadrails.com/information/what-is-railroad-frog/](https://railroadrails.com/information/what-is-railroad-frog/?ref=alifereflected.com). [\[7\]](#%5Fftnref7) On June 9, 1859, John Mitchell (a.k.a. John Meehan) was hanged in a public ceremony in Hamilton. He was reported as saying, “I ask pardon of Jesus Christ for the sins of my past life,” and turned to look at the thousands of spectators who came to witness the execution performed on gallows that had been built for the occasion and painted black. Mitchell had been convicted of killing his girlfriend, Eliza Welsh, after he fell into a rage. Here is The Hamilton Spectator’s account: > *For the first time within a period of 20 years, the spectacle of a public execution was witnessed in this city today. John Mitchell, alias, Meeham, convicted of the murder of Eliza Welsh, at the last assizes of the County of Wentworth, underwent the dread penalty of death on the scaffold this morning, in presence of a large concourse of people.* > > *At precisely seven o’clock the mournful procession of twenty moved from the gaol to the scaffold. The condemned criminal walked with a firm step and bold carriage.* > > *When placed on the drop the very Rev. E. Gordon, V.G. said: “Do you acknowledge the justice of your sentence?” With some hesitation he answered, “I do; and I ask pardon of Jesus Christ for the sins of my past life.”* > > *The Very Rev. Father and Father Cayan then knelt and engaged in prayer. Whilst this was being read, the executioner stepped forward and adjusted the rope around the neck of Meeham. The nervous twitching of the lips and muscular motion of the face, showed the amount of trepidation of the last awful moments of the dying man. Turning his eyes towards the sea of upturned faces which were gazing at him, he knelt on the fatal drop. All was now ready, and while the clergymen were praying, the Sheriff gave the signal.* > > *The dead bolt was shot and the fatal drop fell at ten minutes past 7 o’clock. The neck was broken by the fall and in a very few moments all was over.* > > *Fifteen minutes after the gaol physician having pronounced him dead, the body was cut down and prepared for interment*.” ### Sophia Holness: An Intrepid Woman, from a British Workhouse to Canada (1850–1922) URL: https://alifereflected.com/historical/sophia-holness-an-intrepid-woman-from-a-british-workhouse-to-canada-1850-1922/ Last updated: 2025-01-02T02:22:49.000Z Born on June 2, 1850, in Blean, a village in Canterbury, Kent, England, Sophia Holness lived a long, eventful life. The civil parish of Blean was heavily wooded, filled with ancient trees. The name of the village derives from the old English word “blea”, meaning rough ground and given the course of Sophia’s life, the descriptor of the town is oddly fitting. The main church of the village was that of “St. Cosmus and St. Damian in the Rough Ground” (the saints were two Arab physicians and early Christian martyrs), built in 1233. Blean was also the location of a large workhouse, which Sophia would certainly have seen in her childhood. There is only census data from 1881 for this institution which shows a population of 154 individuals. Interestingly, there was a Frederick Holness, age 18 (therefore born around 1863) residing there; he is listed as a “pauper” and a labourer from Chislet, Kent. Another resident was William Holness, a 61-year-old pauper and labourer, also from Chislet. Sophia’s parents were Ambrose Holness (born February 19, 1817, in Blean) and Emily Jane Packman (born between 1815 and 1816 in Luddenham, Kent). The couple were married on Christmas Day, 1834 in Harbledown, Kent. Ambrose was a farmer and labourer. He and Emily had 13 children together, with Sophia being the ninth child, with seven brothers and five sisters. It would appear that all the children lived into adulthood, except for two boys named Alfred, one dying at the age of three, and the other at the age of nine, both before Sophia was born. Ambrose appears in the census records of 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 as living in Tyler Hill, where his occupation is given as that of an agricultural labourer. However, he was listed as a “woodman” on the 1867 marriage certificate of his daughter, Frances Ann. He died in Blean in the winter of 1904 at 87 years of age. Sophia’s mother, Emily, was born in Luddenham, and died in June 1893, aged about 78\. After marrying at about 19 years of age, she bore Ambrose 13 children between 1835 and 1860\. As most were born about two to three years apart, she was almost continuously pregnant for 25 years of her adult life. Sophia first appears in the official records in the census of 1851 as a one-year-old infant. ![A photograph of a page of the 1851 census.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/SOPHIABIRTHDOC.jpg) 1851 Census — The Holness family is at the top of the page. The parents Ambrose and Emily are listed on the preceding page of the census (not shown here). She next appears in the official records at age eleven on April 7, 1861\. She was living with her widowed grandmother, Mary Holness (née Atwood), at St. Nicholas Hospital, an almshouse in Harbledown, Kent. Founded as a home for lepers, St. Nicholas Hospital (and Church), was an ancient structure dating from 1084, which later operated as an almshouse. Grandmother Mary died eight years after she entered into the almshouse records of 1861\. There is no information on whether Sophia stayed there with her grandmother until that time. ![A photograph of a page of the 1861 census.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/SOPHIA1861.jpg) Census 1861 – St. Nicholas Hospital – Sophia and Mary are noted on the last two lines All Sophia’s siblings who reached adulthood ended up marrying, lived mostly in Kent, and had many children. They all appear to have kept in contact with their parents. In fact, Sophia’s sister, Elizabeth Caroline, was later to have her father Ambrose move in with her family when he was much older. ![A black and white headshot photo of a woman wearing a high collar, with hair in a bun.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/SOPHIAEMMASIS.jpg) Sophia’s sister, Emma Emily. ![A headshot photo of a man with beard below the chin, wearing a cap.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/SOPHIATHOMASBRO.jpg) Sophia's brother, Thomas. ![A headshot photo of a woman in a ruffled dress and huge feathered hat holding a flower.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/SOPHIAFRANCESANNSIS.jpg) Sophia's sister, Frances Ann Over the course of about 20 years, Sophia’s circumstances took a turn for the worse. In October of 1880, there was an "Order of Removal" for Sophia Holness and her two illegitimate children to the Guardian of the Poor at Bridge in Kent. The two children mentioned would have been five-year-old Ada Florence, born 17 October, 1876, in Canterbury, and two-year-old Alfred Patrick, born sometime in 1878\. Alfred Patrick did not live much longer, dying on January 18, 1888, at about ten years of age in Canterbury. Assuming that Ada is indeed Sophia’s first child, she would have become a new mother at 26 years old. The father of the children is unknown, although Sophia herself variously referred to him as Alfred or Albert or Albert George Holness. He could have been an uncle or a cousin, but there little chance of uncovering the truth now. Or did she just randomly pick a “common” family name and was the father unrelated to her in any way? Had she any previous pregnancies in her teenage years or early twenties? Might that explain why she appears to have been shunned by her family? Was she even shunned at all, or was it her choice to live a life at the edge? ![A photo of a legal document.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/SOPHIAPOLICE.jpg) Police Record, Sophia's Order of Removal In 1881 Sophia was admitted to the Holborn City Road Workhouse from the January 19–24\. She was there with Ada (here indicated as born in 1875) and Alfred (born in 1878). Of note is that Sophia was released on the January 24 to or by someone named “S. Thakes” (?), whereas the two children were released earlier — on January 21 to or by “Mitcham”. Sophia, at her own request, spent that time in the workhouse. Such a request was not unusual for the time. As opposed to the Dickensian image of workhouses in England, by the 1880s there had been considerable reforms to the Poor Laws. Inmates consigned themselves of their own free will, often as a remedy to lack of housing, lack of money, lack of food and heat. Not completely dissimilar to shelters nowadays, those wishing to stay there would register and be allowed to stay for only a certain amount of time. What was different is that in Sophia’s time those who went into the workhouse were expected to work to earn their keep. Women typically were engaged in laundry, sewing, cooking, nursing, housekeeping, and so on. ![A photo of pages of an admissions log book.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/SOPHIAWORKHOUSE.jpg) City Road Workhouse Admission Document (1881) Sophia later returned in February to the associated Holborn Union Workhouse Shepherdess Walk. While there she gave birth to another daughter, Maggie Lillian, with the assistance of a 40-year-old widow midwife named Elizabeth Jane Talbot. It would also appear that neither Ada nor Alfred were with her. There is a vague hint in some documentation that Arthur Pont may have been the father. Pont was the husband of Sophia’s sister Elizabeth. Assigned to the laundry, Sophia was placed under the supervision of the chief laundress, a 41-year-old Scottish widow named Jessie Proudfoot. The total number 1290 persons resided at this institution during Sophia’s stay, including several “officers”. In the laundry, she worked with many other women, among whom she would have been one of the youngest. The most junior woman was a 21-year-old, and the eldest was 81 years of age. There were three women in their 20s, four in their 30s, and three in their 50s. The majority were much older women — thirteen in their 60s, eighteen in their 70s, and five in their 80s. These, then, were her companions during some of the most important times of her life. After this point, documentation mentioning Sophia becomes thin. Her next official appearance was in the 1901 census. She was now the “head” of her household, living in Oare St. Peters, Kent, residing at “Nutshell Cottage” with her 16-year-old son, Albert George Ernest, born April 26, 1884, in Ramsgate Kent. He was then working with cattle on a farm. Sophia called herself a “widow”, although it is quite improbable that she was ever married. It is also unlikely that her children had the same father. ![A photo of a page of the 1891 census records.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/SOPHIA1901.jpg) Oare Kent Census 1901 Sophia did not remain much longer in England. On August 28, 1908, Sophia, along with her daughter Ada Florence, set sail from Liverpool on board the SS Victorian (a ship of the Allen Line), destined for Quebec City and Montreal. She was travelling unaccompanied (i.e., without a spouse), yet called herself a “wife”. In addition to her daughter, she also brought two other children with her, Lester Harris and Stella (Harris?). They arrived in Quebec on September 4, 1908. Imagine Sophia’s emotions. She likely knew that she would never see England again. Was she relieved or sad, or a little of both? Did she look back at her homeland as the ship was sailing away, and did her gaze linger until England disappeared from the horizon? Or was she facing her new world with excitement and determination? Picture her arrival in Quebec in the autumn. The leaves would have started to turn and, shortly thereafter, she would see her first true Canadian fall with red sugar maples blazing. Later she would experience her first Canadian winter. Although England can be cold and damp, she must have been astonished at the depth of the temperatures in Canada, and that of the snow. Returning to her charges, Lester was none other than the son of her workhouse-born daughter Maggie. His full name is Lester Charles Baden Harris, born in England in 1900 to Charles John Harris, husband to Maggie. However, the ship’s passenger manifest indicates that Lester’s mother was Sophia Holness and that he was going to Toronto. ![A postcard of the R.M.S. Victorian steamliner.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/SOPHIASHIP.jpg) R.M.S. Victorian — "real" photo in Public Domain ![A photo of a page of a passenger manifest.](https://alifereflected.com/content/images/2025/01/SOPHIAMANIFEST.jpg) Ship's Passenger Manifest, SS Victorian Sophia’s son, Albert George, had emigrated to Canada in the previous year, 1907\. Her daughter, Ada, had been working in 1901 as a live-in servant for an elderly couple, James and Hannah Payne, at 9 King Street in the St. Alphage district of Canterbury. Afterwards, Ada joined her mother in emigrating to Canada (her story continues in another narrative). Her daughter Maggie had married a man named Charles Harris. In addition to Lester, she had a son named Clifford Albert John Harris, born in England in 1902 and who died in Barrie, Ontario in 1987\. Tragically, Maggie’s husband died by committing suicide at age 71 on February 13, 1948\. He jumped off a bridge, fractured his skull, and was buried in Etobicoke Ontario. Albert George enlisted in Toronto with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces during World War I. His entrance examination notes that he was 5’6-1/2” tall, his chest measured 39 inches when fully expanded (with a 5” expansion!), his eyes were brown, his hair and complexion were both “dark”. Given that Sophia’s family was quite fair, this suggests that Albert’s father was not a Holness relative. Military records named his mother Sophia as his closest relative, and that they were living at 37 French Avenue in Toronto. This address is not to be confused with the Scarborough location. Sophia would have been living in the French Avenue of the Junction area of West Toronto. In 1911, Sophia made another brief appearance in the records. Although she was likely not present, her name is given as the mother of the bride, Ada, who was married in Collingwood Ontario on July 7 to a widower named Neil Young. Ada gave her father’s name as Alfred Holness, and her mother as Sophia “Hornby”. Perhaps the clerk wrote the name incorrectly, or perhaps Ada was shielding the details of her illegitimacy. In addition to the maiden name of “Hornby”, there are some mentions in other records of “Harman” as an alternative surname. Sophia never returned to England. At the age of 71, on March 2nd, 1922, she died in Toronto. Her last address was 3243 Dundas St. West where she had been living with Albert. The cause of death was given as angina pectoris and arteriosclerosis. The funeral home was located just down the street at number 2926 Dundas and she was buried two days later at Prospect Cemetery, 1450 St. Clair Ave W., Toronto (Adult Single Grave 22 95). ### Chasing the Sock: A Brief Biography of David A. Black URL: https://alifereflected.com/legacy/chasing/ Last updated: 2025-01-02T13:42:12.000Z *This is a sample biography — limited viewing only — names, dates, and locations have been changed to protect the privacy of our client.* --- Filled with coincidence, convergences and just plain chance, David has led a fascinating life. Perhaps his most defining characteristic is optimism. Sometimes his optimism is grounded in fact, at other times it seems founded in wishful thinking. He sincerely believes in the good and the abilities of others, and much of his life experiences would attest to that. But, conversely, many disappointments have been rooted in misplaced faith in others. On the subject of faith, David is a devout and faithful Christian. In fact, his Christian belief system is a large part of what he considers to be foundational in his life. But more on that later. He is remarkably adaptable and unafraid of diving headfirst into new ventures and new ideas. Once committed to a plan, he can be counted on to champion it with complete enthusiasm. He internalizes and externalizes the things he commits to: An example of this is his complete adaptation from a Canadian to an American (specifically Southern or Texan, depending on the circumstances) accent. This is not an affectation; he truly immerses himself into whichever milieu he commits himself to, and consequently becomes, wholeheartedly and enthusiastically, a manifestation of his own choices. Like many people, David is split into different halves of the same traits. While he is fundamentally persuasive and focused on others, he truly needs and values his personal time and space – even to the point of describing himself as being something of a hermit. He is energetic and happy, but at times can be tired and feels the weight of his age. He can be vain about his appearance, but is also fundamentally modest, preferring to showcase the positive aspects of others rather than spotlighting his own. Still, David isn’t always saintly and has been known to be an instigator. Visionary, strategic, entrepreneurial, inquisitive, persuasive, trusted; all these descriptors fit the traits and characteristics of David. ### Why “Chasing the Sock”? When he was quite young, David’s father bought the family a black Labrador puppy they named “Rocky”. David recalls how much his father enjoyed watching the dog and the children chasing around the farm while the dog carried a sock. The dog would race everywhere, trying to evade the children racing after him, and after a vigorous running session, the dog and all the children would come back to the porch. They were tired, worn out, tongues lolling (well, at least the dog), and completely exhausted and utterly happy. As the story of David’s life unfolds, it seems as though he has been enthusiastically and determinedly chasing a sock in one sense or another. He has chased after many goals, sometimes reaching them, at other times tantalizingly close, and occasionally failing to achieve his goals. But he always succeeded spectacularly or failed with equal panache. His “sock” has changed many times over the years, but it seems as though his enthusiasm for the chase has never abated. ### Michael and Violet — David’s Parents David’s parents were Michael Arnold Black (1907 Innisfail – 2004 XXX), a dairy farmer and Violet Nora Cooper (1920 XXX, Saskatchewan – 1960 XXX, Alberta). David’s father Michael married Violet in October 1947\. Relating the story of how his parents met, David tells of how Michael had a friend (or perhaps an uncle) who had planned on going to Calgary to “get a wife”. Micheal commented, “if you find one for me bring her back”. David doesn’t know exactly how this came to pass, but he somehow met Violet and brought her home. Interestingly and surprisingly, Violet was pregnant at the time by another man, and ended up having twins who were born in Calgary sometime after she was wedded to Michael. Violet already had a nine-year-old son (one of David’s half siblings) and she decided to give up the twins for adoption. Returning to their farm that night, Violet cried inconsolably. The next morning, after milking the cows, they returned to Calgary to reclaim the twins. When entering the hospital, Michael and Violet saw a couple leaving with two babies. Once inside the hospital they were told the twins had already been placed in an adoptive home and that nothing further could be done. David said that this episode “bothered them forever”. Violet was never to see her twins again. Later, in 1995, one of David’s sisters contacted the appropriate government agencies to discover if the twins could be located and learned that this could only happen if all parties wished it. It turned out that the twins had been seeking their biological family and the Black children were reunited with the twins. They also found another half-sister four years later. ### Early Family Life David was born on October X, 1954, in XXX, Alberta, Canada, a town not far from the family dairy farm in Carstairs. Their home was an older one, possibly built in the 1920s, although it had a few additions by the time David was born. Looking out the window, one could see a line of spruce trees and a large kitchen-garden of about ¼ acre. In that garden David only remembers growing potatoes; they typically planted about 10 rows, building up the hills, weeding, and then finally digging them up, placing them on tarps and hauling them into the cellar. He and his brothers did most of the work, but he does recall his sisters also doing some hauling, and ultimately storing away a year’s worth of potatoes. The family was a large one. David had two sisters, three half-sisters, two half-brothers, three brothers, including his twin and 1 stepsister. As one might imagine, the household was noisy and boisterous. He remembers that the home had an old diesel furnace on the floor of the cellar. This furnace somehow created a draft, and the local doctor believed that this draft was the cause of David’s younger brother having had several bouts of pneumonia. The doctor told David’s father that unless he changed the furnace, and if the boy came down with another case of pneumonia there would be nothing that could be done. So, the furnace was changed to propane, and perhaps oddly, there were no more episodes of pneumonia after that. Sadly, David’s mother Violet died in her 39th year, only five months before David would have turned six. Sick for some time, Violet and Michael had been members…