Canada West Revisited

Annie was no Alien!

I have long thought that Coll who held the title to Annie and Jim's farm must have been Annie's relation, and I was fairly certain Annie's mother had been named Flora. From the 1901 census, I was pretty sure Annie had had a brother named Ronald (who else would be Matt's uncle?), but I was still missing the rest of the picture. So, this past June I made another pilgrimage to Canada West. I still didn't find the graves of Jim and Annie Coubrough, but--are you ready?--Annie had parents! I have not yet sorted out all the MacDonalds I found, but she also had several brothers and possibly a sister.

In the summer of 1853, Dawn Township was a dense forest of oak, ash, maple and elm trees on land of even denser clay soil. It was dark and formidable, but the topsoil under the trees looked black and rich for farming. The trees on the riverbank grew all the way to the edge of the dark water. There were no roads and few signs of civilization. But the sun shone bright in a clear sky, and hope shone brighter in the eager faces of the little group of families who had just landed all their worldly possessions on the shore of that river ⁽¹⁾. A few of the men had been here before and seen the future of this land; most saw it for the first time. Some were ex-military men who had accepted land as reward for service to the crown; some had come with enough cash to buy the fruits of someone else's labour. All looked forward to days on their own hearths thinking the comfortable thoughts of men who had made better lives for their families.

Among the faces that morning is that belonging to an elderly man named Neil MacDonald. His wife, Flora, their sons Archy, Coll, Donald, Ronald, and William, and Archy's wife Isabella are there, too, but still the family is not all together: Neil and Flora's oldest daughter Annie still lives in Nova Scotia (or is it New Brunswick? These colonial names are so hard to keep track of!) with her husband Jim Coubrough. Jim is still in the Army, so they will have to stay in the east for a while yet. Meanwhile, the rest of the family will set about making new lives, starting with the last stage of the long journey to the new farms. On the map at the Land Office the new farms are all close to each other; on the ground, miles and miles of ancient hardwood forest would have to go before the land could be farmed. And before that, there are more miles of that same heavy woods between the river landing and the farms. ⁽²⁾

Eventually, Jim must have had enough of the Army and he took his discharge at Halifax, probably late in 1857 or very early 1858. ⁽³⁾ He and Annie arrived in Dawn Township sometime in the in the late winter or early spring of 1858: In January 1858, one Coll MacDonald bought the land that Annie and Jim would occupy for the rest of their lives. Also, Annie's third child, Mary Ann, was born in the township in May of that year. Jim and Annie seem to have come to Canada sometime late in 1853 or very early in 1854: Their first child Mathew was born here (possibly at Halifax) on January 8, 1854.

But why Dawn Township? The location of family or friends is often a heavy influence in a family's choice of a new home, a factor no less important to our ancestors than it is to folks today. This may well have been the reason Jim and Annie chose Dawn Township as their destination when they moved west. Judging by the dates of their land purchases, it seems likely that Annie's family came to Canada at about the same time as Jim and Annie. They must have just kept going west while Annie and Jim stopped off on the East coast for a few years.

According to the 1861 census, Neil MacDonald was 76 years old, so he must have been about 68 or 69 when they came to the township. Flora was only three years younger, so they were no spring chickens for such a big move. Their children were all grown, but they seem to have brought most of the family along. Only Archy and Annie (probably the oldest two) were married at they time they came to Dawn Township, and there were few or no grandchildren. Annie's son Mathew would not be born until January the following year (1854), and Archy's daughter Isabella was either an infant or not yet born. She was given as being 8 years old in March, 1861, but I am not sure of her exact birth date.

I have no idea what brought them all to Canada West, but at the time the Macdonald came here, there was a fair bit of political and religious unrest in Scotland, as well as crop failures and a potato famine similar to that in Ireland, but less widespread. Probably though, like most of their fellow emigrants, they were just looking for a better life. Or they may have been part of one of dozens of resettlement schemes implemented at the time. Some of Annie's family-or someone closely connected to them-had a fair bit of ready money, since they appear to have paid cash for quite a few acres of land.

A Lambton County Land Office record dated July 30, 1853, shows a bill of sale from one Malcolm Cameron to one Neil MacDonald for "all 200 acres" of Lot 11, Concession 12 ⁽⁴⁾. On October 27^th of the same year, there is a record of a "Mortgage 26 July 1853 Neil MacDonald to Malcolm Cameron £145," or a little less than $600. July 30, 1855 shows "As of Mortgage - 25 July 1855 Malcolm Cameron to Robert A. Hill - all 200. Discharge of mortgage by R.A.H." It is this last that makes me think that the Macdonald might have been part of a resettlement scheme.

The family

The 1861 census lists several MacDonald families, but I am not sure if they were all ours. The only ones I am fairly sure of are Neil and Flora and their family.

Neil seems to have decided to give up farming not all that long after they arrived: A record dated October 14, 1854 says "Bill of Sale 8 October 1854 Neil MacDonald et ux to Coll MacDonald - all 200." The same land office records indicate that these same 200 acres were then split between Neil, who kept 70 acres, and his sons Archy, 30 acres, and William, 100 acres.

According to the 1861 census, William was one of the younger sons. I am not sure of his exact age: The 1861 census says he was 28 years old (so born about 1833), but the 1901 census says he was born in 1829. This earlier date is more likely correct as he was living on his own in 1861, but his two brothers Donald and Ronald were both still at home.

When the census was taken in the spring of 1861, Neil and Flora lived in a one-storey log house on the N 70 acres of Concession 11, Lot 12. Also in their house were Donald, age 30; Ronald, 29; Isabella, 8; and Flora, 4 years. Of Neil's 70 acres, 24 were under crop and 46 were wild. The farm was valued at $350, with tools worth $18. In 1860, he had taken 67 bushels of spring wheat off 6 acres of land, 40 bushels of barley off 3 acres and 90 bushels of potatoes from one acre. He must have been growing spuds for the whole clan! He also had 12 tons of hay, and 2 "bull or oxen over 3," 4 "steers or heifers under," 6 milch cows, and 7 pigs, worth a total of $168. His womenfolk produced 200 pounds of butter, 2-200 pound barrels of salt beef, and one of salt pork.

Isabella and Flora were likely the daughters of Neil and Flora's son, Archy. The census has him listed as living on the South 30 acres of the same lot as his parents, less than half a mile from their house. He had 15 acres under cultivation: 3 in cropland and 12 in pasture. None of it seems to have been in crop in 1861, though it was valued at $300. There was also no produce noted for the year 1860, so Archy may have been sick for some time before he died. The census noted that Archy was a widower, and that he had died in 1860 from a "kink in the side." A "kink" was a violent fit of coughing, so perhaps he had tuberculosis, or some other illness, which also might explain why he farmed such a comparatively small piece of land. Archy is listed as being 40 years old, and I have assumed that this was his age when he died in 1860, meaning he was probably born about 1819, and, thus, the oldest son.

Son William was single and lived by himself in a one-storey log house on the East 100 acres of the same lot as his parents. He had 15 acres under cultivation, 6 of which were in crop, and 8 in pasture. His land was valued at $500, and his tools at $10. In 1860, he had harvested 100 bushels of oats off 4 acres of land, so he seems to have cleared a couple more acres by the following year.

When Jim and Annie moved to Dawn Township, probably early in 1858, they settled on a piece of land which they bought from Annie's brother, Coll. Annie retained the title in her name, and eventually willed the farm to her daughter, Flora Jane Atwell. Coll held the mortgage on the land until 1887 when they finished paying it off.

Neil and Flora passed on before the census was taken in April of 1871. Probably they went close together, in about 1862. It was in the fall of that year that Coll sold the home farm, so his parents had likely both gone on by then. Coll himself had married, fathered two children, and become a widower by 1869. In October 1864, he had married Mary Ann Graham, daughter of John and Mary Ann Graham of Florence. They had two daughters--Mary Flora, born 1865, and Margaret Ann, born 1867--before poor Mary Ann died in 1869. Coll remained a widower until he died in 1904. With two little girls in the house, though, he needed someone to look after them. Who better than another orphan? By 1871, Archy's daughter Isabella, 18, was her uncle's housekeeper. If her grandparents had died as early as 1862, she may have come to work for her uncle soon after he was married. Isabella's little sister, Flora, age 15, was also earning her living, probably as some sort of household help, in the home of Mary Ann Graham's brother, Matthew.

There is a lot of conflicting information about the ages and birth dates of Neil and Flora's children. The best I have been able to work out is that Archy was the oldest, probably followed by Annie, then Coll, Ronald, Donald, and William.

Archy's daughters Isabella and Flora were likely married, but I don't know to whom. They are not listed in the 1881 census under their maiden names.

Coll's daughters, Mary Flora and Margaret Ann, were both still at home in 1881, but Mary was gone by the 1901 census. I don't know if she died young or if she married. Since she was not buried with her parents, it was likely the latter. (Of course, depending on one's point of view, it might be the same thing!) In 1901, Margaret, 24, was still living with her father in Dresden. She may have married after her father's death in 1904.

Ronald never married and eventually went to live with his nephew Matt Coubrough, where he was at the time of the March 1901 census. In that survey, he gave his birth date as February 28, 1828. The March 1861 census lists him as being 29 years old, putting his birth in 1831 or 32. The vital statistics record of his 1909 death, reported by another nephew, Neil McDonald, gave his age as 87, which would have put his birthday in 1822. This would have made him older than William and Coll, and probably Annie, whose birth date was variously given as 1820, 1824, and 1826, with 1824 being the most common. I think the date he gave in 1901 was probably close to right.

The 1871 census gave a Donald MacDonald, age 45, as being married to a woman named Anne, age 29. They had children named Flora A., 7; Archibald, 4; Margaret, 2; and Roderick, 9 months. I don't know if this is our Donald or not, but it seems likely. If so, the age 45 puts his birthday in 1825 or 26, rather than the 1830 indicated by the 1861 census. In 1881, Donald was aged 54, indicating a birth date of 1826 or 27. In all cases, though, it would seem likely that the information given in the 1861 census was given by Neil or Flora, and is possibly more accurate, though it is hard to tell at this remove.

William was married about 1862 to a woman named Katherine who was about 15 years younger than her husband. They had several children, including one Neil, born in 1865, who was likely the one who was Billy Atwell's partner in the sawmill they ran. William's birth date was given as 1826, 1829, and 1832, and 1833. His tombstone says he was 80 years old when he died in 1906.

If Annie had any sisters, there is no evidence of them under their maiden names. There was, however, a MacDonald home with two families in the same house. The man listed as the head of the household was a John McDonald, 36, Widower. Also in the house was Catherine McNeil, 66, Widow. She was listed as a member of John's family, so perhaps she had been his mother-in-law. In the same house were Donald McDonald, 58, and his wife Jenet, 34. Jenet's maiden name was probably McDonald, though not likely closely related to her husband before marriage. Her children (in 1861) are Alex, 12; Flora, 9, Archy, 7; Hugh, 5; and Malcolm, 1 year. It seems probable that Jenet's mother was named Flora, so she could have been Annie's sister, but there is no reliable evidence for this. The only thing making this seem reasonable is that I have heard from a couple of different living Coubroughs that all the McDonalds who lived in Dawn Township were related to our Annie.

Editor's corner

To go back to my Canada West pilgrimage…. On earlier trips to Dawn Township, I had seen quite a few MacDonald gravestones, so I went back to look again. It was in the Gould Cemetery that pieces of the MacDonald puzzle began falling into place.

Gould Cemetery is a small one, on a low hill, facing west toward the setting sun. In early June, the ground was red with wild strawberries. Roses and fruit bushes along the fence were in full bloom. In the late afternoon, huge maple and oak trees give cool shade. Some years ago, in an effort to help preserve them from vandals, the gravestones were moved and set in concrete in a double row down the centre of the cemetery. An attempt seems to have been made to keep markers in their original relationship to each other, but the graves themselves don't seem to have been moved. The cemetery, a quiet, restful place, is less than a mile from Neil and Flora's farm, but about 5 miles from Dawn Centre, (Rutherford) where Jenny & Billy Atwell, Jim & Annie Brown, and Jim & Annie Coubrough lived. It is the only cemetery in Dawn Township.

I had previously seen that the grave of little Annie Atwell lay near that of Coll and Mary Ann MacDonald, but I had not then realized that they were related. Leaning against the back of the base of Coll's huge red granite marker are small white marble stones reading "N. McD" and "F. McD." It was these small stones and their proximity to Coll's that triggered my realization of the relationship between Coll, Neil, Flora, Annie, William, Ronald, little Annie, Flora Jane, and the younger Neil who was Billy Atwell's business partner. That business (probably a sawmill) seems to have been a family affair. The three partners were all connected to each other through Billy's wife, the former Jenny Coubrough. Young Neil was Jenny Atwell's cousin (son of her mother's brother, William), and Lachlan MacNeil was the husband of the sister of the wife of Jenny's brother; i.e., Lachlan was married to Maggie Brown, younger sister of Matt's wife, Liz.

Just as a matter of interest, a small white marble slab, next but one to little Annie, marks the resting place of William Brown, who died October 8, 1879, aged 4 years, 11 months and 24 days. This little William, son of William and Fanny [McGuire] Brown, was also a first cousin of Elizabeth J. Brown, his father being the younger brother of one James C. Brown, of Dawn Township.

A cemetery index at the Dawn Township office showed that Annie's little sister, Barbara Ann Atwell (March 29-June 3, 1886), was also buried in Gould Cemetery, but I couldn't find any marker for her. Both girls died of whooping cough, poor little Annie having been sick for two of her three short weeks.

Something I noticed in the old records was that they nearly all use the "McDonald" spelling. But when Coll and William signed the title deeds for the land they bought, including Annie's farm, they both wrote "MacDonald". Tombstones I saw used both. It seems to have been a matter of the "flavour of the day" as to which was correct.

Reunion 2001

This unprecedented event is still in the planning stages. So far, about 20 people from all corners of the world have promised to attend: Scotland, England, Saskatchewan, the USA, New Zealand, Australia,, South Africa, and Alberta. It is still going to happen in early August, but we may have to change the date due to availability of hotels. we're not sure yet of what the exact prices will be, but it will likely be in the neighbourhood of $60 per person per night for hotels, plus food, etc. We are trying to keep costs as low as possible, but we want everyone to have fun, too. I would also like to thank all the people who have offered to help. Especially Lynda Lenfesty (daughter of Judy Greenwood), who, being here in Kingston, will be my chief victim. We will let you know what we need you to do-- as soon as we figure it out! Watch for a flyer with more details in late fall or early winter, or e-mail me at myrna@coubrough.com if you would like to receive one.

Question corner

Here are some of the other things I am working on:

1. Now that we know Annie really had parents, we can perhaps eventually go back a bit further. In the meantime….

2. On the trail of the Australian connection, it seems there were several separate migrations, though I have not yet connected any of them to anyone else. A James Conbrough emigrated with his wife and four children from Dundee on the clipper ship Duntrune, leaving Glasgow on September 1, 1883, and landing at Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Queensland, in December of the same year.

3. In a recent search of the 1881 British census, I found that quite a few Coubroughs lived in Ireland, and even a couple (two women) lived in Wales. Some of the Irish folks were directly connected to families who were definitely Scots, but none of them so far seem to be from any of the Canadian or US lines.

5. Still looking for the parents of John MacDonald Coubrough. He may be the son of Robert Coubrough and Margaret Clark MacDonald … or he may not. It seems certain that John's father was Robert Coubrough. Which Robert is another matter entirely. The 1841 census for Thornliebank, Eastwood parish, Renfrew county, Scotland, has a Robert Coubrough, apprentice cloth lapper, ⁽⁵⁾ age 20, married to a Margaret MacDonald, age 15, who could have been John's father. The name, age, and profession are right, as is the mother's first name.

6. The Robert Stevenson Coubrough who settled in Guelph, Ontario, in 1910, was married to a woman name Eliza Maria Carpenter. They had 5 children. Robert S. was the son of James Coubrough and Margaret Stevenson, who were married in Glasgow in 1852. James, born about 1825, was the son of another James and one Janet Brown, but I haven't found much else about this branch. Robert S., born in 1864, was one of at least four children. I am convinced that there were more: The children's names indicate that there should have been at least two sons older than Robert, but I've only found one....

As an aside, one of the things that consistently amazes me about this project is how little some folks know about their families. One of my more egotistical hopes for this project is that perhaps fewer people will grow up not knowing the names of their grandparents.

7. Still hunting the parents of Malcolm Coubrough who married Jean Buchanan in 1796. Their first son was called Malcolm, so that may have been the grandfather's name, but I can't find any that fit.