Menu
- Home
- Search▼
- List▼
- Add▼
- My Relate▼
- Admin▼
ViewsWatchersBrowse |
Edward Francis White
b.28 Mar 1870 Collingwood, Grey, Ontario, Canada
d.6 Oct 1930 Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio, United States
Family tree▼ (edit)
m. 24 Dec 1853
(edit)
m. 1 Jan 1901
(edit)
m. 4 Sep 1909
Facts and Events
== Excerpts from THE WHITE FAMILY ==S8 By E. F. White / b. 1870 I was born on March 28th, 1870, on the south half of lot 19, concession 10, the township of Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, in a log house a few months before the construction of a better house of lumber. The farm is on the east side of Beaver Valley, one of the most beautiful valleys I have ever seen. It is a splendid farming section growing wheat, oats, rye, barley but is not far enough south to grow corn for the grain, though it is grown a great deal for fodder purposes. The valley is especially adapted to the growth of plums, apples, pears, and down nearer the lake of late years peaches. When first settled in the forties about the only thing they could grow in the way of fruit was wild plums, crabapples and there were same wild grapes. The wild pigeons up until about 1875, were very plentiful. I've often heard Mother tell that many a time she had put two dozen into a pie. The White boys as they were called at that time, with their sister and her husband, Edward Atkin, took the two lots number 18 and 19 about 1848 and commenced to clear and build homes for themselves, William on the south half of lot 18, Samuel on the north half of lot 18, Thomas Boothby on the south half of lot 19, and Edward Atkin on the north half of lot 19. This gave each of the four families, one hundred acres. Further in this account will be given more information about the White family and mother's Father James Smith and his family. James Smith settled on the lot at Ravenna north west corner where he spent several years before moving first to Richmond Hill and then to Winnebago Illinois. It was while they were living at Ravenna that Father met Mother, and they were married on Christmas Eve December 24th, l853. As Father wrote in his memorandum book, T. B. White. and M. Smith, married Dec. 24, l853 in -Collingwood, Township, Upper Canada, British North America. Mother was born January 14, 1835 in Dearborn County, Indiana, U.S. about seven miles from Lawrenceburg and near Elizabethtown which was their post office. Father Thomas Boothby White, was born November 18th, 1824 in Ludborough, Lincolnshire, England. He with two brothers William, and Samuel and brother-in-law Edward Atkin, and their sister sailed from Hull England, on March 14th 1844, and spent four years in the Gore of Toronto before taking up land in Collingwood Township. While in the Gore, Father worked for a man named Sleightholm whose two boys I later met at the Ontario, Agricultural College at Guelph, Ontario, 1889 -- 1891. Father first built a log house for which he went to the trouble of squaring all the logs and making it an unusually fine house for the time and place. He had expected to be married , but something went astray with the engagement and sometime later the house caught fire and burnt to the ground After that experience he simply rebuilt an ordinary log house. I have heard Father Bay that in 1851 the first wheat he had was very hard to protect from the red and black squirrels which that year literally infested the woods They were after it in the field, in the shock, and when-he got it into the barn, he had to cover it with boards and slabs to try to keep it from the squirrels. later after thrashing it he hauled it on a drag with oxen, to Meaford where he got fifty cents a bushel payable in trade, and tea cost a dollar and twenty-five cents a pound. When rather went up to the farm to clear, he took with him an English grammar which he practically memorized. When he needed a pair of trousers, he made them himself cutting them with an ax on a block of wood Father rented his farm for some years to William Vamplew, whose wife was their sister Mariah and devoted himself to carpentering living part of the time near Heathcote, where Elizabeth the eldest girl was born, then moving to Collingwood Town, in Simcoe County. While in Collingwood, Father took an active part in affairs generally. At one time he was teacher in the Sunday School in the Episcopal Church, chairman of the public school board, and captain of the volunteer fire department. It seemed as though he was firmly convinced that a better place to bring up a family was on the farm and so in March 1870, with six children, Elizabeth, Susan, George James, Thomas, and Annie the youngest they moved to the farm. It was very much against Mother's wishes because she did not like the loneliness of the farm life and believed there were advantages for the children in the town. When they drove by the little old log school house and Tom found that was the place they would have to attend, he cried at that prospect. Father told him not to mind, that he would see they had a better school. Very shortly afterwards, he was chairman of the school board that put up a good frame school building that still stands today (1926). The first thing I remember was being down between the sills of a large kitchen and dinning room that they were building to the new frame house. It must have been within three years. Then I remember going to Sunday School in the old log church at the corner and being taught my letters from bright colored placards. I remember when a younger brother Alexander, died on January 14th, 1876 Mr. and Neil Coleman were there the night before and I remember the almost frenzy that Mother was in. (Alexander b. May 31, 1875) The next morning I remember going to the foot of the stairs, leaning out of the door while still on the stair, asking how he was, and being told that he was dead. A great thing occurred that year. Father went to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. He wrote a good many post cards home, writing very fine and getting almost a letter on each card. Many of these, if not all, are in my possession. After moving to the farm, the following children were born: Edward Francis (self), Robert Henry, Alexander(who died), Myrtle and Herbert Hill. In 1880, Father built what was known as the "new barn". It was considered a remarkable barn for that time, being fifty feet high and having a hip roof that gave a great deal of added space higher up inside. The driveway was at the end, and ample space higher up was of comparative little use if the crops had to be pitched up there by hand. Years afterward, George Geekill (sic), the new owner of the farm, altered the driveway to the side and installed a hayfork unloader which rendered the space available with less labor. It was a bank barn with stables on the first floor. Father used to fatten cattle for sale each winter looking to that for one of his main sources of revenue. The Spring after the new barn was built, George who attended the Ontario, Agricultural College at Guelph, for two years from the fall of 1878 went to Manitoba, remarking that he wouldn't be home for five years. from Manitoba, he went further west finally getting into business at Wallis, Idaho, and at present being on a ranch at Hollister, Idaho. He never visited the old home afterwards, though after Mother, Myrtle, Bert and I were living in 1907 at the southwest corner of Summit Ave and Eighth St. Cincinnati, he spent a few hours with us one evening while passing through the city. It seemed to me very strange that after being away twenty-seven years he couldn't spend longer with us. But we couldn't persuade him to stay longer, George was a clever capable and ambitious man but had not made good in his own eyes and had never married. It was a keen disappointment to Mother that he did not stay longer with us but a great satisfaction that she even had a few hours visit with him. That night when Bert and I went with him to the depot, he told us that he had the unusual faculty of retaining his sense of direction even when in the dark in a strange city and no matter what turning the carriage he was in might go through. While George went to College in Guelph, one of his professors was J. Hayes Auton, teacher of science. He was there when I attended in 1889 -- 1891, and was an enthusiastic traveler. I realize now for many years that Father was anxious and willing to do the very best for his children. but as children we did not understand this because we felt he could do anything he wanted to and we did not realize that there were many limitations to what he could do, no matter how willing he was I don't remember very much of what Father told us of his boyhood or of his parents. I remember once his telling me of his Father, of a Sunday being dressed in knee trousers and of his being a finely-built upstanding sort of man with a good leg. Father seems to have had a boyish pride in his Father's good appearance. The only thing that I remember about the Mother, was that she was the stricter of the two and was more aggressive in her requirements. I have her picture which is one reproduced from one borrowed. I think from Mrs. David Whyte of Thornbury, Uncle William's daughter. Father, told me one day he was working in the stable of the local parson somewhere rather out of sight fixing harness when the parson returned from a fox hunt, and in speaking of something that had happened to the stable-man, he used some very forcible and profane language, Father's head popped up in astonishment and the parson seemed rather abashed when he looked into the eyes of one of his Sunday School pupils Father told me that the farmers were required to keep sections of their hedges cut low enough to be jumped by the fox hunters and that the hunters had the right to go through the fields. Father told me once about when he later was working on a farm, he was hauling something with a horse and cart, the farmer whom he was working for found him riding on the rear of the shaft and had him up before the magistrate. At the trial the magistrate asked him if he didn't know that it was against the law for a person to [be] driving a cart to ride on the Queen's Highway. Father asked, "Was I riding on the Queens Highway?" The magistrate turned to the complainant and asked the question. With chagrin he replied that it was a private road, where he saw him. And so Father was dismissed. Father had been riding on the Queen's Highway, but had not been seen. And it was a lucky question on his part, suggested by the question of the magistrates. Another story that he told was of a foot race of the bigger boys at a Sunday School outing to decide who should carry the flag at a small parade. Father got to the place first but Joe Brown, who many years later often visited us at our home, -- I think he was a brother of Aunt Millie, Uncle Williams wife came behind Father and jumped a ditch and claimed the honor intimating that the race ended where he landed. But the parson ruled against him. Another story that Father told me was of his once being hunting. A rabbit ran across the road and into the grain and after it had disappeared Father pulled the trigger and shot into the grain. To his surprise when he went to look, he found the rabbit dead. Father told me that as a little boy he remembered chasing butterflies and pretending that they were the French. So the war with the French was vividly in the minds of the children. As a young man, Uncle William had joined a society called the Jacobite who were supporters of the fallen Royal House of Stuart, But at that time it could have been only sentimental in its activities and I gathered from Father that he felt Uncle William had made a mistake. But nothing ever came of it. To come back, in the spring of 1890, I joined the battery B of Artillery connected with the College and we went to camp for two weeks in June at Niagara on the Lake. As I remember, Tom McCrae was first lieutenant of our battery, John McCrae was the second lieutenant of A battery. John McCrae later became famous as the author of "In Flanders Fields" My brother George had been a member of Battery B. in 79, and 80 and in 81 had gone with them to camp or at least to take part with them in competitive shooting at Kingston where as a result of his good marksmanship, they won the Governor Generals medal. I remember that he had won two medals personal1y for marksmanship. In 1891, 1 met the Father of Torn and John McCrae, who had been Captain of the battery when George was in it. At the end of my second year at College that is 1891, I received my diploma and after camp went home to the farm at Clarksburg. Lodges of the Patrons of Industry had been organized all over Ontario and they had one in School house Number Five, our old School.
[edit] Other NotesBased upon information in his death certificate, I did a Google search for "Powell & White" publishers and found a number of books published by them. They were located in the Commercial Tribune Bldg. in Cincinnati. Image Gallery
 References
|
