With
thanks to his grand-daughter Mary E. Utting for her generosity in sharing this
bit of family history.
(my
editing for brevity and the removal of personal comments)
My grandfather, Samuel Oberlin Waldock, (never have figured whence came the Oberlin), was born in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, England, the son and grandson of flour millers. Indeed, my great-great grandfather’s father-in-law, William Risley, was also a miller. I found that my great-grandfather Waldock was born in Astwick, Bedfordshire, which is not too many miles west of the Cambridge area in which he lived later. In Astick, there is the flour mill his father George had owned, still standing. There was a big house with a millpond behind it.
Because Samuel was the second of five children, he did not receive any property from his father, John Risley Waldock. The eldest son, John George Waldock was to inherit the estate. Therefore, Samuel emigrated to Canada to seek his fortune. He made at least two trips to Canada before settling there. At first he must have worked for other millers, because according to birth records of his children in the Ontario Archives, they were born in different areas until my mother came along in 1890. So that is about the time he bought the mill in Glenville.
His eldest child Florence, was born March 3, 1882, so he must have married Mary Jackson in 1880 or 1881. I have not been able to locate a record of the marriage. Mary was born “on a farm near Strathroy”. I have been able to pinpoint that was Middlesex County from her death records in the archives, but cannot identify her parents.
Tuberculosis, the great killer at the turn of the century, afflicted this family. Minnie, the second child, contracted it in 1897 and died within a couple of months. She was the family scholar, and at age 13 entered high school. In order to do this, she had to go into another town (Newmarket or Aurora), to board, coming home weekends.
My grandmother was the next to succumb. Her last child Joy, was born in 1898. About a year before Mary’s death (November 27, 1905), Samuel sold the mill in Glenville and moved to Aurora, an action that evidently upset my grandmother. I am not sure how long she was ill, but she was very ill when they moved. It must have been shortly after her death that Samuel purchased the Kettleby Mill and moved his family there. My mother Agnes at 15, was the oldest child left at home and had to assume the household duties.
(She told me about the time she was churning butter and knocked over the churn, spilling the contents everywhere. My grandfather, who was not known for his loving ways, did feel sorry and tried to stop the tears that resulted. She also told me of making short pants for her brother Leonard, who was very fussy about the length. Evidently he felt they should be shorter and threatened to cut them off himself if Mother would not do so).
The women gradually died of tuberculosis as follows: Rhoda in 1908, Violet in 1914, Joy in 1924, and finally Janetta in 1939. My mother contracted the disease and spent some time in a sanitarium at Gravenhurst, Muskoka. She began an interest in nursing about this time, evidently working in a sanitarium.
Samuel was ashamed of his family’s illness, which I gather was typical of the time. When my mother came home to Kettleby and was resting on the front porch, he chided her, saying “Do you want to flaunt it?” I gather he did not visit his dying daughters either. It bothered my mother greatly that he had this attitude, and she complained about it often toward the end of her life.
Though they told Mother she would die within the year if she returned to work in her 20’s, she lasted till age 99, dying of a stroke about four months before her 100th birthday.
I am not certain when Rose came on the scene. My mother said that Rose was a mail-order bride; my cousin said he understood that she was the housekeeper Samuel hired and that he then married her. Mother also said he asked Mrs. Mount to marry him (before she was married to Mr. Mount), but she turned him down. Mother thought she might have been afraid of the tuberculosis. Whatever her origin, Rose had been either orphaned or abandoned by an Irish Catholic family and grew up a foster child in a Protestant household. Forever after, she loathed Catholics, which was probably okay in my strict Methodist grandfather’s household. But, she also hated Waldocks. The family always avoided confrontations with her, and I understand that my grandfather tried to appease her, because he hated quarrels.
Samuel’s older brother emigrated to Canada and at some point lived in Medicine Hat. His father as an elderly man, joined him there. My mother said her grandfather visited them, and she immediately became the favourite, because she was name Agnes Annie after her father’s only sister. In Bassingbourn, I found the gravestone of John’s wife Ann and this daughter Agnes Annie, who married a cousin and died young. It was in an abandoned churchyard. Mother wanted her grandfather to stay with them, but her father said he had to stay with the son who had inherited his money. This obviously was during the Glenville years.
Mother said that my grandfather prospered in later years at Kettleby. He purchased a small truck and delivered flour to stores throughout the area. I suspect he left just in time, before the Depression really hit and before Pillsbury and General Mills took over the flour industry.
Memories………..
“I was amused at the mention of my grandfather’s toupee. Of course I was too young to realize that he wore a hairpiece, but my mother often mentioned it in later years with some amusement. My cousin said that he did not realize Grandpa wore one until he saw him on his death bed and wig wasn’t on his head.”
“I also recall my mother talking about belonging to the Sons of Temperance. She said their motto was “Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine”. One time, the meeting got so boring that she and some others escaped through a window.”
“I recall stopping to see Mrs. Mount, who intrigued me because the adults said she used red tissue paper to put colour in her cheeks. I also found the outdoor plumbing interesting.”
“Later on when I was a teenager, I recall going to the Hughey house. Old Mrs. Hughey’s two daughters, Viola and Gertrude, were friends of my mother’s, particularly Viola, who gave mother some piano lessons in Kettleby. She used to tease my mother by saying she wanted to learn The Waltz of the Flowers to please a young man named Frank Creedon (Sp?) Mother always denied this, saying that was a sister’s beau. Viola married Harry Sibley, son of my grandmother Mary’s best friend in Glenville. Gertrude was married to a Russell Hunter, and they had one daughter Marion.”
“One of my best memories of Kettleby was of a big picnic at Mrs. Hughey’s when I was in my early teens. Mr. H was then about 90 and had a bit of dementia, I believe. The Sibleys, the Hunters, Russell Hunter’s brother and wife, my aunt and uncle and cousin, my mother and stepfather, and I were all there, and everyone brought food. I particularly recall the salmon sandwiches, which mother said were standard fare at her childhood Sunday School picnics. My cousin Ken discovered some peanut butter and tomato sandwiches and persuaded me to try them, though I was skeptical. The tomatoes were fresh out of someone’s garden, of course, so that helped, but to this day, that is the only way I make peanut butter sandwiches.”
“I think that Harry Sibley might have lived in Kettleby after Viola died of a heart attack in middle age. He remarried, and I believe he was there with second wife. In later life Gertie had severe dementia; her husband died fairly young after retiring early because of coronary problems.”
Samuel
Oberlin Waldock born
August 31, 1852 Bassingbourn,
Melbourn,Cambridge,England
died May 4, 1935 Toronto,
Ontario, Canada
Married
Mary
Jackson born July 16, 1860 Middlesex
County, Ontario, Canada
died November 27, 1905 Aurora, Ontario, Canada
Children:
1)
Florence Eva born March 3, 1882 Minden,
Haliburton County, Ontario, Canada
died March 26, 1913
2)
Minnie Lillian born October 3, 1883 Eckfrid
Township, Middlesex County, Ontario
died July 31, 1897 King Township, York County, Ontario
3)
Violet Grace born July 12, 1885 Darlington
Township, Durham County, Ontario
died October 14, 1914
married
Unknown Chipman
4)
Frederick born February 26, 1887 Darlington Township, Durham
County, Ontario
died December 26, 1888 Creemona, Ontario
5)
Rhoda born February 28, 1889 Nottawasaga Township, Simcoe
County, Ontario
died January 26, 1908
6)
Agnes Annie born November 24, 1890 Glenville, York County, Ontario
died August 3, 1990 Bryan, Brazos, Texas, USA
married
George Arthur Utting
7)
Janetta born October 11, 1892 Glenville, York County, Ontario
died May 8, 1939 San
Diego, California, USA
8)
Leonard born November 29, 1894 Glenville, York County, Ontario
died January 12, 1980 Victoria, British Columbia,
Canada
9)
Irva Joy born March 15, 1898 Glenville, York County, Ontario
died January 25, 1924