TALBOT TIMES
Newsletter of the
ELGIN COUNTY BRANCH
ONTARIO GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
VOLUME XXI ISSUE TWO JUNE 2002
Extracts of Genealogical information
Chairman’s Message
Jim McCallum
Wasn’t that a party! At our March meeting we observed the 20th anniversary of our branch with a special program dedicated to honouring our many volunteers over the years. Certificates of merit and appreciation were awarded, and recognition was given to our founding members, and members with 20 year membership. Special guests were OGS President Dave Mackenzie and Region 2 Director Dennis Mulligan, who brought us messages and presented the awards. We also received good publicity from this event with a photo and article in the St. Thomas Times-Journal.
Because our Beginners’ Genealogy night in February was such a success, we decided to hold another one in addition to our regular meeting. This was conducted on April 15 with a large number of “new faces” in attendance. Our regular April meeting featured Gordon Hillman on English research, and you will find a review of some of the websites he pointed out to us in this newsletter.
Our sales table was taken to the Region 1 meeting in Chatham in April, and I will be operating it at Seminar 2002 in Alliston in May. We are excited about several new publications, including the first two volumes in a series of Indexes to the General Register (from Land Registry Office records), transcriptions of the 1861 Bayham and 1861 Malahide census, and the Elgin County volume of the Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Register. By Seminar, we also hope to have our three marriage transcriptions (1853-1857; 1858-1869; 1869-1873) on a CD. We are grateful to Lynne Riddell at Mailboxes, Etc. in St. Thomas for her knowledge and assistance in producing our publications.
The Elgin County Archives has recently published the 1864 Tremaine Map of Elgin County, including the index that Elgin OGS member Bob Moore created several years ago. We were excited to have been a small part of that publication by granting the Archives permission to use the index. We look forward to a continued “partnership” with the Elgin County Archives.
As we break for the summer (well, the work never stops, but there are no meetings during July and August!), I wish you all much success in your genealogical pursuits. We are still working on our fall schedule of speakers, but hope to have a panel on the history and records for cemeteries in St. Thomas; wills and estate files, and possibly a computer workshop.
WHERE WERE THE METSALA TWINS ?
By Eliina Metsälä's great-granddaughter?? (need name of the author)
It all started a few years ago when my mom told me a family story about her grandmother Eliina. A simple story about the time when Eliina emigrated from Finland to America, as many others did to seek a better life. The story went like this - when Ellina came to America she had twins. They died in Canada on a train headed to Wyoming to join her husband. The train was stopped and the twins were buried. That was it! The entire story as told! My mother was young and never asked for details. After hearing this, I was intrigued about these family members I knew nothing about. Questions came to mind…were they really just buried along a train track? What did they die of? What were their names? What must Eliina been thinking during this sad moment? Who was there in Eliina’s time of need? It was very unsettling that nobody in my family knew more about what happened. This is the moment the quest began to discover “their” story!
I started on the Internet. As I cruised around the information superhighway on various web sites for over a year, I was able to uncover and obtain several pieces of information on Eliina. I started at ground zero because I knew nothing about Eliina, not even when she was born! Throughout the year I felt I was making progress with each discovery. I would find information such as her maiden name of “ Metsälä ”, which eventually led me to her passenger manifest under this name instead of her married name of “ Koivisto ”. The passenger manifest also gave me information we NEVER had, the names and sex of these twins. Now, I finally had names to help me. Eino and Johannes were 8 months old when they boarded the ship, the Teutonic, in Liverpool, England with their mom on February 24, 1906. They arrived on Saturday, March 3, 1906 at Ellis Island, New York.
After I confirmed the family arrival in the U.S., the next question was where in Canada these boys died. Again, the wonderful Internet, my new best friend. Also, I needed to tackle another unknown…. the Canadian side of the information superhighway. I had it in my head that the death of these boys had to be written up in a local newspaper somewhere in Canada. Perhaps the deaths were from an epidemic contracted aboard the ship/train??? It just seemed that when you have a story like this, someone had to care enough to make mention of it, even if it was about an obscure Finnish immigrant. Maybe it was just wishful thinking that someone cared enough to help my great-grandmother in her time of need.
In the meantime, while I kept pecking away at Canadian cities from St. Catharines to Windsor, I joined a Finnish Genealogical mailing list called Finngen. I posted my great-grandmother’s story to see if someone could give me an assist with the quest. To my surprise, total strangers provided me with several bits of information and leads, including access to the Canadian Archives, train records, or just offered moral support and understanding. One individual, though, came through and broke my quest wide open. My first hero, Bill Martin of Thunder Bay Ontario, saw my posting and said that he would look up on microfilm from the Archives of Ontario to see if the death of the twins was registered. First, I was just floored that he was so generous to do this for me, but over the past year, I had begun to realize that the genealogy world was filled with many people like him. Oh, did I mention that Bill was going to do this lookup while also dealing with a diagnosis of MS from the Mayo Clinic? Kind of leaves you speechless! Well, he found a death registration of the Metsala boys in St. Thomas around the right date. When that message came to my Inbox, I just started crying and jumping up and down. My husband thought I was crazy! I immediately stayed up ‘til 3 in the morning trying to find any genealogical information in Elgin County. I happened upon a web-site called Elgin County Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. I saw that they would do free look-ups for the area, so I posted a message. I received the message of my life within one day of posting my inquiry. I will never for get what it said: “Genealogy - your obsession found!!!!! I found your TWINS!!! They are buried at the St. Thomas West Ave. Cemetery…”
To see those words in that message was just pure joy and emotion! I will never forget it for as long as I live! I wish I could have also jumped through my computer to give my second hero, Brenda Edmonds, a big hug. I was on cloud nine for days. I felt relieved that the twins were buried in a cemetery and not on the side of the train tracks. Although the train almost literally runs through the backyard of the cemetery, I was glad that they were laid to rest in a proper setting in a section called “Strangers Grounds”.
Within weeks, my mother and I made arrangements to visit the cemetery to see it in person. Lesley Cairns, the St. Thomas Cemetery Administrator already knew we were coming and Brenda met us there. I had to see her give her that hug. Even though it was pouring rain, we were able to see the area where the infants were buried.
There wasn’t a definite spot because it was the Strangers Grounds, but a general area where their unmarked graves were. This was disappointing to me, but I knew it was better than nothing. During our visit we were also able to see the death entry in the cemetery’s logbook and take pictures of it. There is an interesting
note regarding the original cemetery logbook. The name listed in the book was “Twin sons Metlalo”. This miss spelling was further translated incorrectly to the Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid Index web site. I had previously checked this site out about six months ago and might have found them sooner had their not been the error. You see this type of error so many times doing genealogy - this was probably an error in the language differences - (All’s well that ends well though!)
During our meeting at the cemetery office, we all tried to understand what could have happened to Eliina and the boys when the train stopped. They mentioned that there was a St. Thomas, Ladies Benevolence and Temperance Society, which, in effect, was the welfare system for the city. We speculated that perhaps Eliina and the twins were under the Societies care during that time. Brenda was going to check into that possibility. Perhaps it would lead to more answers.
After visiting the cemetery, I still had this gut feeling that the local newspaper had written something about it. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I wrote to Brenda again and asked if she had the time to check the local newspapers. A few weeks later, my intuition proved true and I received the good news I had been waiting for. Brenda had found four articles written in the St. Thomas Times Journal regarding Eliina and the infants. Although, in my mind I had hoped she would find something, I was still dumfounded that almost 100 years later, we were able to retrace Eliina and the twin’s journey with such details to give life to her story. And what a story!
As we know, Eliina arrived in New York on Saturday, March 3, 1906. That evening she boarded a Wabash train headed to Wyoming. On Monday, March 5th the newspaper ran its first article noting that a woman and two children were sick and had been taken off the train Saturday night. By Sunday one of the twins had already passed away from pneumonia at the Amasa Wood Hospital. It was noted that they were not able to speak to the woman because nobody knew her native language. They thought she was a Russian Jew.
Five days later on Saturday, March 10th another front-page article outlined that they had discovered that the woman in Amasa Woods Hospital with pneumonia, was a Finlander and that the second child had died. Officials had been trying to ascertain her identity for several days, but all the woman could do was write out something that resembled “Rock Springs” and “Box 382”. They wired a message to the Rock Springs address and discovered the woman’s name was Eliina Mettälä. Further, the husband, John Maki, was going to come to St. Thomas to settle the controversy over who would be responsible for the cost of burying the children. While John Maki made the trip to get Eliina and take care of funeral arrangements, he was not her husband as the article states. John was her brother in-law and still did not know that his two nephews had already passed away. Her husband, Isaac Koivisto, already in Rock Springs and new to the country did not have enough grasp of the language to make the journey.
The third article appeared on Monday, March 12th. It detailed one of the many efforts officials of the hospital and the Wabash train company did to communicate with Eliina. In one noteworthy incident, the officials stopped a train carrying immigrants to see if any of them could help with the language barrier. They found one young Swede who, when it was suggested that he stop over for the night to assist officials and catch the next train tomorrow, thought there was a deep laid Russian plot in the works. He would not leave the train. When they couldn’t coax him to leave the train, he did write some information on a piece of paper and gave it to officials who took it back to Eliina for a response. Through that, they were finally able to get the information they needed regarding her identity.
The final article on Wednesday, March 14th sadly tells of John Maki’s arrival to bury the children and escort Eliina to join her husband in Wyoming. The children had a proper funeral service at the Williams and Sons Funeral Home officiated by the Rev. H. W. Reede. The Thos. Hortop liverymen provided conveyances (this was found from the funeral parlour records). After the funeral, the Wabash train officials prepared a basket of eatables for their 1,500-mile train trip home. John Maki paid $6 to bury the infants and the city of St. Thomas paid the rest. The train company paid hospital expenses.
So now that part of Eliina’s story has been discovered. Many unknowns are now known and we, her lineage, can acknowledge her trial and enfold her story into the fabric of our own history. We’re grateful and relieved to know that she was taken care of in her time of desperation by the kindness of so many people in St. Thomas. Thank you!
Even though Eliina’s entry into North America began traumatically, she survived the painful beginnings in her new country. In the years that followed she gave birth to two more children, Sadie (February 1907) and Waino (August 1909) in Rock Springs. The family left Wyoming in 1911 and settled in Cromwell, Minnesota, to live out their remaining years farming. Her life in America was lived out simply in a rural community of fellow Finns. She only spoke Finnish and probably lived very much like she would have, had she never left Finland. This painful saga from her early years was a story that faded with time, but I am sure when her memories were stirred of thoughts of her first born, she pondered often. She definitely had what us Finns commonly call SISU or “guts” to take the tragedy of life and move on.
This quest, without question, could not have been accomplished without the generosity of Brenda Edmonds through the Elgin County Branch of the OGS and Bill Martin of Thunder Bay, Ontario. I cannot put into words what they mean to me. Their unselfish generosity literally humbles me to the core. I cannot repay them, but all I can do is “pass it on” to other people who may need help with their quests. Many people go through life not knowing anything about their ancestors, I feel fortunate and privileged to have been given this opportunity to learn about Eliina’s history.
The quest of discovering this story did not stop with finding the twins and articles. As with all genealogy, you get hooked and can’t stop!!! I have been fortunate to discover recently all eight of Eliina’s siblings we never knew existed here and in Finland. We have been to a family reunion in Durango, Colorado to meet our new cousins. We just found descendants in Finland with whom we hope to meet someday. And to think, I always thought I had a small family. Now it’s hard to keep track of them.
Lastly, since the beginning of the journey, it had been a goal to acknowledge Eino and Johannes’s existence with a memorial stone. Soon there will be one!
HISTORY OF THE VILLAGE OF DUART
Rodney Mercury, July 17, 1924
Written by Robert Currie
Samuel Gilmore was the first white settler in Orford Township and homesteaded on Talbot street, three miles south of Duart, in 1815. His son Abraham had the distinction of being the first while child born in Orford.
Crown deeds, granted by Colonel Talbot, show that Duart and vicinity was first settled in the years from 1820 to 1830 and called for the various allotments of land by the payment of four barley corns. The entire neighborhood was settled by Scotch settlers and was known as the settlement of the Macs.
Duart, mainly situated on the farms granted to Thomas Caswell and John Cunningham, is intersected by St. Andrew’s Road, a connecting link between Talbot street and the Longwoods road. The Caswell farm lies to the east of St. Andrew’s Road and that portion of the village was named by James Tait, Duneden. On the west side, at the raising of a large log inn, the building was christened by the breaking of a large bottle of Scotch whiskey against its timbers, “Kilmarnock Inn” and thus the western part was known as Kilmarnock.
On the completion of the Grand Trunk to Windsor, in the late 50's, T. A. McLean, who had erected a large sawmill in Duneden in 1852, visited Ottawa to secure a post office for the settlement. The post office department granted the request, but stipulated that but one name must be used for the two portions. Mr. McLean, remembering his old home in Scotland, promptly took advantage of the situation and secured the post office under the name of Duart, thus uniting the two villages under one name.
Mails were conveyed to Duart by horseback from Bothwell, and continued to supply the village from that point till the Canada Southern, passing through Muirkirk, in 1872, gave a closer connection.
A mail route was established from Muirkirk through Duart to Clearville and from there, west to Palmyra, on Talbot street. For several years a keen rivalry existed between William Curtis and Alex Simpkins for the couriership of the route. One would secure it for a term, only to be succeeded by the other the next term, with his opponent running a stage in opposition. Daily, a race took place between the nags of the two old men, to the amusement of the villagers, with “Skip and Fly” generally coming out victorious.
James Tait was the first postmaster, and established the office in a frame house on the Burchiel farm, one mile north, where it remained till his son, D. M., erected a store in the village, and it was housed therein.
Prior to the building of the Canada Southern, Duart was supplied with goods by rail from Bothwell and Thamesville on the Grand Trunk, and by water from Port Clearville, sailing boats calling biweekly at that port from up and down the lake. Vast quantities of cord-wood, oak staves, squared timbers and grain from the vicinity found an outlet through this port to foreign markets.
The first public school in Duart, a log structure, was built in 1837, and stood on the corner opposite the post office. Archibald Currie was the first master in charge of the school. The stipulation was that at least ten pupils must be in regular attendance, and, at times, the settlers found it difficult to maintain the quorum.
This building was burned and replaced by a frame building in 1847, with Duncan Crawford as teacher. Beside the two mentioned James Campbell, Archibald Galbraith, Samuel McColl, Duncan McColl, Donald Currie, and J. C. McDonald were among the teachers that taught in the schoolhouses.
In the year 1855, after Orford Township was surveyed, school sections 3 and 4 united a built a large structure on Argyle Street. Duncan Crawford opened this building by teaching two days therein in the same year. The majority of the teachers who taught in this school were born either in Duart or Orford township, which speaks well for the intellectual ability of the native-born.
In 1889 the present imposing brick school was erected, and has supplied the schooling requirements for the scholars up to the present, and, if maintained as in the past, will supply for many years yet to come. It stands today, a monument to the trustee who had charge of its erection - William Kennedy.
From 1857 to 1877 the township fair was held in Duart. One the site of the present schoolhouse was laid out the horse and cattle ring, the sheep pens and a shed, built of slabs, for the roots and vegetables. The Ridge Road, one-half mile west, supplied the race track. “The Crystal Palace” stood on the opposite side of the road from the fairgrounds, with displays of homespun yarns, loom-made cloths and woven carpets and mats. The fair was moved to Highgate in 1877.
A township hall was built in Duart in 1868, and the village was the centre of the township till about 1890, when Highgate got a hall and with it the transaction of the township affairs. Many a bitter fight for the reeveship was waged between the two villages. A. J. McDonald and Dan Campbell for Duart, and John Reycraft and Jonas Gosnell for Highgate.
The first frame hotel was built in Duart in the early 60's by Duncan Crawford, and was later known as the Robinson House. At the opening of the hotel a banquet was held. At the head of the table was served a roasted sucking-pig. Upon the master of ceremonies attempting to carve the pig, at the first plunge of the fork, the pig began to squeal vociferously. The carver left the table in flight and could not be induced to complete his task. Unknown to him, Cyrus Oakes, Orford’s ventriloquist and father of “The Babes in the Wood”, was one of the guest at the banquet.
James Leitch converted a store on the opposite corner into another hostelry shortly after the erection of the first. The proprietor was famed for the race-horses he possessed and met all comers on the race track west of village.
The Convenanted Baptists built their first meeting house in Duart in 1851, with Elder Campbell the first presiding elder. A modern structure was erected in 1896. In 1870 the Presbyterians erected a church in the village under the charge of the Ridgetown congregation with Rev. William Cavin supplying. In 1880, Rev. Archibald Currie resigned the Ridgetown charge and was the first pastor of the Duart Presbyterian Church as a separate congregation. The village also possessed Anglican and Methodist churches.
In 1880 Duart was a thriving village, having three general stores, a grocery, a hardware store, a drug store, a harness shop, two tailor shops, two dressmaking establishments, a large grist mill, a saw mill, a cabinet and undertaking establishment, a brewery, a carriage shop, a heading and snath factory, three blacksmith shops, four churches and two hotels. Today alas, it knows beside the school and two churches, but one general store, the post office and the cemetery.
Among the brilliant men who made their mark Duart can claim many. Of prominence among these are: Rev. D. C. McIntyre, Rev. T. A. McIntyre, Archibald Blue, John Bryden, J. A. Walker, K.C.; Duncan Walker, D. K. Cunningham, Rev. John Gillies, J. B. McKillop, K.C.; Rev. Murray Tait, Dr. Nelson Tait, Norman C. Ford, Dr. Edward McCallum, Professor William Argo, Doctors Arch. and Alex. Crawford, Doctors George and David Gesner, Clarence Davey, Charles Peets, Edwin Tait, Dr. A. J. Reycraft, and Herbert Graham, M. P.
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