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HomeMy WebLinkAbout597"Duotang bound book, 23 x 39 cm, 12 pages, written in 1961, Oct. & Nov. by Mrs Ralph White the only one living of the family. " "The Life of William Harbron Written in 1961, Oct & Nov By Mrs. Rolph White, the only one living of the family. William Harbron only child of George and Mary Harbron born on May 16th 1831. at Stockton on Tees in the County of Durham was also christened and Baptized in the Church of England and was registered in the same church. When my father was three years old his parents came out to Canada and settled in Muddy York (Toronto now) that was in the year 1834. My grandfather was an architect and built our Adelaide Street and other streets, my grandmother and grandfather and their son(my father)lived there and he went to school there. But there was trouble starting in America, it was about the Mackenzie uprising and my grandfather had to be a Sentinal at the Don bridge and he spoke many times about how very frightened he and grandmother were. All houses had cellar kitchens and they plastered the cellar windows with cow manure to stop the bullets. " "2 My grandfather was not too good, said they thought he got a cold being on the Don Bridge, and he died in 1844 at the very young age of Thirty eight years. My father was then thirteen years old. Right here I want to mention the old flint lock gun (or musket) Mable Harbron (my niece) knew where it was and went and got it I don’t know if she put it in the Greenwood or Brougham Museum as that was the gun my grandfather carried when he was on the Don Bridge, and I think it should be where my father’s history is. Well my grandmother and grandfather continued to live in Toronto, after some years being a widow my grandmother married again to a Mr. Gibson , who had a family. This left my father to a lonely life. I am not first certain of the age of my father when this took place but it seems he said he was seventeen but may be wrong, anyway as soon as he was twenty one he sold two of the houses which were his by his father and he bought a farm out near " "3. Chatham, but anyway he sold that farm and bought Uxbrigde and lived and farmed there for several years but before he started farming he married. I have copies of birth certificates and also marriage ones, of my father and mother and also of my grandparents Here is the marriage certificate of William Harbron of the township of Pickering , County of Ontario Canada and of Rachel Herthy Moat of the township of Whitby county of Ontario, Canada were they joined together in marriage after the regular publication of Banns for the second day of November 1852 by one R. Syle Tucker (Bible Christian Minister) witnessed by Samuel Adamson and Samuel Herthy Fisher. As you can see by the date that would be One hundred and Nine years ago. And there were lots of hardships, father often spoke of riding horse back with a bag of wheat to take to the mill for flour, not many roads & schools and churches were very few other ...... " "4. in the houses. George Gamble was one who both taught school and preached my brother was named after him. If my memory serves me right I think five of our family were born there. It wasn’t very long before my father began to look around for another farm so he rented the farm on the seventh of Pickering on the north side of the road and joining Charles Disney farm but he soon bought it and the five younger members of our family were born there. While there father had an addition built to the house, a new kitchen with a bedroom and a l arge pantry full of shelves and cupboards and three nice bedrooms above and a cellar underneath & also a back kitchen with a back entrance to the cellar dug a well up at the house. There the out buildings were very poor so they decided a long building to the south side of the farm yard so did so it consisted of a drive shed hen house sheep pen & a hog pen. The old stables were getting very bad so Fred & George " "5. and father decided a new barn would have to be built, they at once began to cut the timbers from trees on Uxbridge farm and brought them down to the Boyer Mill to be sawed up ready had them all ready one year before to let them dry. The date where the barn was built is marked on the mason work of the barn, it was built by the Bishop Bros. of Markham and the mason work by the Anderson Bros of Claremont. I am just not sure of the date when the James Hortop farm was put up for sale. Father put in his offer for it and his offer was accepted. This made it necessary for our family to be divided . So father mother, my two oldest brothers and we two youngest daughters which was Etta (Mrs. Lloyd Ressor) and myself (Mrs. Rolph White)my husband was a chum and neighbor of my sister’s husband Lloyd. So there was lots of work to do, as that farm was 150 acres. that farm was on the 6th concession of Pickering directly " "6. south of our farm on the seventh. We went down there as soon as possible to paint and decorate. The house was a large one and needed decorating so we did it before we moved we also put in a cistern for soft water also a milk and ice house for the milk. Father went for good live stock, cattle sheep & hogs always milked eight to ten cows, and churned , made lots of butter and for years we sold it to the Ladies College in Whitby also all our poultry and maple syrup and I have made up hundreds pounds of butter into one pound prints and lots of times I drove to Whitby and took produce down to the College. Father still owned two houses in Toronto which were left to him by his father and was thinking of selling them, of course it was the land the houses were on .So the “for Sale” sign went up and the real estate buyers were numerous all wanting to make some easy money (same as today). They all said they had bought them but father had not received any money. So it was my job to drive father to see out lawyer and they decided to go to Toronto to clear things up and had ordered the “for sale” sign to be taken down, Once again it was I who went along with father and the lawyer from Whitby by boat to " "7. Toronto to meet those men but it did not take Mr. Dow long to get rid of those sharks as he called them. Well we sold them within a year, without any help if real estate buyers and received a wonderful price almost twice the price of the Hortorp farm. By this time father wasn't very young and was thinking of retiring. We daughters were all married and excepting Annie the oldest. So he bought a house & nice sized lot in Claremont , this was in the year 1906. I postponed my wedding for one year as mother had been sick with pneumonia and needed help. When mother was able to move we came to Claremont father and I had been going back everyday to do painting and general re-decorating. Our family were by this time married and in there own homes. I was to be married in Sept and I was not going to have anything but a very small and quiet one, they all thought I was foolish, all the rest of the girls had large weddings but that was the way it was. Rolph and I lived at Altona on one of Rolph's father's farms our three children were born there. Father and mother had been living there a few months when mother fell and broke her hip and not being in good health " "8. took pneumonia and she did not last long. Throughout all the years I have been writing about ,I haven't mentioned the religious side both mother and father were very strict on going to Sunday school and Church, and we didn't think any thing of walking from the seventh place to Kinsale & often back but father and mother drove the buggy we had two buggies and sometimes we took them both. We were only allowed to play certain things on the Sabbath, father always called it, never Sunday. We were all members of Kinsale Methodist (United now)Church and father worked many years as are Official on the Board collecting money from people as we didn't have envelope giving then. He also was trustee many years of school No 13, where all our family went to school. Father was a mild tempered man. Never in all my life ever heard him use a fowl or swear word, nor I ever knew him to lay his hands on us to chastize us but he would give us a serious talk. After mother died , my oldest sister, who was keeping house for my youngest brother came now to live with father at Claremont. " "9. as that house and contents was to be her house, My father lived for fifteen years after mother's death, and died on Sept 2nd in 1922, in his ninety second (92 years) and mother died on Nov.29 1904 in her seventy second year. Now just a few lines about myself. I fell & fractured my right arm up close to the shoulders one reason I am so slow in writing but the fall gave me such a shaking up. it made my heart bad and I have not been allowed to do anything all summer. Dr. put me in the Hospital part of the time, but I am thankful I am much better now but I am living on pills. But I am eighty-two years last May so I don't expect to be a person fifty years old. Well I guess the end. Am enclosing the names of the family most of you know there as they lived not far from there. Mrs. E. Edith M. White " "10. Record of family William & Rachel Harbron Joseph Harbron born May 18 1857, died Nov 25.1915 Sarah Ann born Aug 3rd 1858, died July 1936 Mary Jane, (Mrs. [?] Parkin) born Dec. 16 1863, died Jan 1904 Fredrick born April 1st 1866 died, Sept 10 1930 George Gamble born May 17th 1867, died May 16th 1943 Armelia Evelyn born Aug 28th 1874 dies Nov 18, 1938 William John born July 20 1876 , died Aug 31 1960 Nancy Etta (Mrs. F. Ressor) born Jan 16th 1878, died July 28 1958 Elizabeth Edith Mable (Mrs. Rolph White) born May 2nd 1879, still living Frances Edgar born Dec 19th 1880, still living " Mr. Rolph White of Hamilton, (formerly of Altona),his wife, Edith,(nee Harbron), and their family; Lorne, Iola, and Harold. Mr. White served in World War # 1 from 1914-1918,and he carried these pictured with him while on duty. Names of places on reverse side. Mr. Rolph White of Hamilton, (formerly of Altona),his wife, Edith,(nee Harbron), and their family; Lorne, Iola, and Harold. Mr. White served in World War # 1 from 1914-1918,and he carried these pictured with him while on duty. Names of places on reverse side.