The Rasberrys of Kilbride

John and I were enjoying the fall weather this Thanksgiving weekend and decided to do a couple of cemetery geocaches up in Kibride, Ontario.  There were a couple of stones in Kibride United Cemetery that caught my eye.

The first stone was for Charles and Melissa Rasberry and included their two sons Charles and Norman.  The second stone was Melissa's original stone.

Charles Sr died in Kilbride on March 24, 1916 at the age of 79 due to la grippe (influenza) and old age.  A secondary cause was asthenia (weakness or lack of energy).  He suffered 3 weeks before he died. (1).  According to his marriage record, Charles was born in 1837 in William and Rebecca and married Melissa on March 4, 1868 in Wentworth County. (2)  The earliest record I can find of Charles is the 1851 census where he is living in Flamboro West, Wentworth County in a one story framed house with his 48 year old mom and his siblings Robert, William and Elizabeth. (3)
  By 1861, he is living in a framed house as a tenant in St Mary's Ward in Hamilton (4).  His occupation was simply labourer.
Melissa and Charles appear in the 1871 census together with their children Charles and William in Milton, Ontario. Charles is a stage proprietor and Melissa is referred to as Margaret. (5) On Nov 21, 1872 Charles published the following article on page 1 of the Canadian Champion, Milton's newspaper:

 In the birth record of their son William John (24 Feb 1871), Margaret Melissa registers her son's birth and states that Charles is a mail contractor.(6)  In 1881, Charles, Melissa and 5 kids are over in Nelson Township and he's a stage coach driver. (7)
The couple appears in the 1891 census with their 9 children ranging from ages 21 to 3 in Nelson Township.  Charles was a farmer and William, a farm labourer. (8)  Charles Jr has sadly passed away on Feb 2, 1889 as per the inscription on the stone.  After Melissa's death, 62 year old Charles married Eliza Jane Griffin on 14 Dec 1899 in Wentworth County.  He lists his mother as Rebecca Watson (9)  They appear together in the 1901 census in Nelson Township. Charles born in May 1835  is now employed for 9 months of the year as a Bridge Teacher earning $360.  Interestingly, his birthplace for the first time is England and not Canada.(10).  Finally, I see them together in the 1911 census, still in Nelson.  Charles born now in March 1835 is a retired farmer and as with the 1901 census Eliza is 5 years older than Charles, however; 4 years younger than him in their marriage record.(11)  Eliza outlived Charles another 6 years.  She died May 25, 1923 at the age of 92 years 5 months of senile dementia.  Her death record provides some nice genealogical information.  She was born in Carlisle, Ontario to John Eaton and Catherine VanDuzen on Dec 22, 1830. (12)
  Melissa, a VanNorman is of particular interest to me because the VanNorman family is one of the more well known early settlers in Burlington.  Margaret Melissa was born to Ellery VanNorman and Eliza.  The earliest record that I can find for her is the 1851 census where 4 year old Melissa and her 2 year old brother John Milton are living with their parents in Nelson Township (present day Burlington).  They lived in a one floor log house with a framed barn. (13)  Elery outlived his daughter and died Dec 28, 1912 at the age of 92.  He was born 1 July 1821 to parents Jacob and Mary Bennet, his mother coming from Ohio.(14)  His dad Jacob, was a son of Ephraim VanNorman who moved with his family from Pennsylvania.  Elery's dad Jacob also lived a long life, dying in 11 Nov 1883 at the age of 90.(15)   I might hunt down Jacob's stone and do some further research on him.  His house was at 4465 Walkers Line and one that I have driven by many times.   It was a heritage farmhouse in the gothic revivial style.  There was a request to have it removed as a heritage property so it could be demolished (16) but it was conveniently burned to the ground  over a year ago.  He also served in the War of 1812 as a private with the 2nd York Militia(17) .  Getting back to Melissa though, she died 18 Jan 1891 of typho pneumonia.(18)


Charles Henry was Charles and Melissa's eldest child.  He appears with his parents in the 1871 and 1881 census records but so far I haven't been able to find his death registration.  I was able find his death notice, again in the Canadian Champion on Feb 7, 1889 and he died after a brief illness on Feb 6, 1889:

Finally, we come to Norman Elery Rasberry.  Norman was born on Feb 24, 1888 in Nelson (Kilbride) (19).  In 1911 census, Norman is living as a "domestic" at his sister Minerva McArthur's household in Nelson Township.  Minerva's 11 year old niece Alice is also living there.(20)  I haven't found a birth record for her yet but perhaps she is William or even Norman's daughter?  I haven't uncovered Norman in the 1921 census as of yet but did find his death registration.  Norman died on Jan 4th as the results of a fractured skull obtained by a falling tree.(21)  His brother Robert reported his death.  Intrigued I again  turned again to the Canadian Champion.  Norman died at 12:35 on Saturday Jan 4 at Hamilton General Hospital from a deep skull fracture. He received the injury the day before in the bush on his brother Robert's farm, on 11th Concession in East Flamborough.  Norman was with two of his brothers at the time and a tree fell in a direction that was opposite of what was expected, crushing Norman.  His brothers carried him to the farmhouse where he was attended by the Kilbride doctor, Dr H.R. McDonald but was then transferred to Hamilton General. (22) Of note is that the newspaper stated he was 35 years old.

(1)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 220
(2)Ontario, Canada, County Marriage Registers, 1858-1869
(3)Year: 1851; Census Place: Flamboro West, Wentworth County, Canada West (Ontario); Schedule: A; Roll: C_11758; Page: 117; Line: 46
(4)Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Census Returns For 1861; Roll: C-1092
(5)Year: 1871; Census Place: Milton, Halton, Ontario; Roll: C-9956; Page: 32; Family No: 128 
(6) Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; MS929; Series: 6; Reel: MS929
(7) Year: 1881; Census Place: Nelson, Halton, Ontario; Roll: C_13257; Page: 39; Family No: 176 
(8)Year: 1891; Census Place: Nelson, Halton, Ontario, Canada; Roll: T-6341; Family No: 227
(9)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928; Reel: 100 
(10)Year: 1901; Census Place: Nelson, Halton, Ontario; Page: 8; Family No: 83
(11)Year: 1911; Census Place: 12 - Nelson, Halton, Ontario; Page: 5; Family No: 64 
(12)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 308 
(13)Year: 1851; Census Place: Nelson, Halton County, Canada West (Ontario); Schedule: A; Roll: C_11726; Page: 130; Line: 5 
(14) Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 175 
(15)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 34 
(16)https://www.burlington.ca/uploads/21066/doc_636035613937397331.pdf 
(17)Collections Canada, War of 1812: Upper Canada Returns, Nominal Rolls and Paylists, Microfilm t-10384, pages 81-83 & 87-89
(18) Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 60
(19)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; MS929; Series: 87; Reel: MS929
(20)Year: 1911; Census Place: 12 - Nelson, Halton, Ontario; Page: 7; Family No: 82 
(21)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 403 
(22) Canadian Champion (Milton, ON), 9 Jan 1930

George Kilts

John was on his was to an auction and stopped to take a pic for me at one of the cemeteries along the way.  He picked George Kilts who died August 27th, 1868, at the ripe old age of  100.  

  I quickly came across some information about George on the Geni website.  According to the Geni website (1), George was born on March 7, 1778 in Stone Arabia, T-Palatine, Montgomery Co., NY and was baptized on the 15th.  His parents were Johan Nickolaus and Maria Catharina Hilts.  He married Mary Catherine Garter. This nice thing about this website is that the person who wrote the info quoted the sources of the information!  Yay!
There were a couple of inconsistencies in the information on this website, one being his birth year (10 years later than reported on the stone) and the other was that George served as a UEL in the American Revolution, which given his supposed age is impossible.  
  Luckily Ancestry has digitized the baptism records and I was able to see the transcription of George's baptism.  It does in fact state the year as 1788.  At the time of his birth, the spelling of his last name is Kiltz.
Next I started to research his dad to see if he was a UEL.    
  His dad, Johann Nickel Kilts was born 30 May 1732 in Henau, Hunsruck, Germany, and was christened 3 Jun 1732 in Kellenbach, Germany. He was the son of Johann Conrad Kilts and Susanna Margaretha Moor. Johann died 15 Dec 1808 in Manheim, Herkimer Co., New York.  He served in the militia in the French Indian wars (1763) and during the American Revolution: 

Nicholas Kell (Kills) was listed as an enlisted man in Col. Frederick Fisher's Third Regiment ofTryon County Militia (Roberts) 
Nich's Kilts is mentioned as a private in the company of Capt. Suts under Col. Klock.  
Finally there a Nicholas Kiltz was a private under Capt. Miller, also under Col. Klock.(2)  

So, definitely no UEL connection there! I decided to return to George and see if he had some sort of War of 1812 connection. Back on his Geni page (3) the author mentions that George submitted a land petition in 1802 while he was living in Humberstone (near present day Port Colborne). I decided to see if I could look up the land petition myself. Archives Canada has done a great job of digitizing the records. My first search of George Kilts, resulted in a hit!

I browsed through C-2117(4), as it is not indexed and I was able to find the record in a few minutes. It was created and signed by him on Sept 24 in York and read by the Eastern Council on Dec 30.  The petition for 200 acres in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet (although it looks like Yonge Street), where some his friends reside. was made to Peter Hunter Esq, the lieutenant governor of  Upper Canada. It states that George came to the province of Upper Canada about 3 years earlier from Mohawk River, has a wife and child with living with him in Humberstone, and a number of cows (52?). No mention of UEL in the petition and I don't see another petition for a land grant that might have come from service in the War of 1812. Seems George was not a UEL, quite the opposite.
I did one last search for George and found him in the 1861 census(5), 84 year old George is a widow living with his son George, grandchildren Mary, Adam, and George, as well as two tenants from Scotland.


(1) (3) https://www.geni.com/people/George-Kilts/5599105463260058381
(2) https://www.geni.com/people/Johan-Nicholas-Kilts/6000000016611236328
(4) http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-119.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=npfo6qij0n1rpue06msk2mqnj1&sqn=340&q2=29&q3=2497&tt=1033
(5) https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/15250779?h=6a325c&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url

John William Mahon

John and I were travelling around and decided to stop at St David's Cemetery and do a geocache, which we wouldn't find.  I saw this stone which of course caught my eye because the little guy was so young.

John William Mahon was born on Jun 28, 1905 to John William Sr and Innes Lowrey.   His birth and death weren't registered until July 25th, by the attending Dr, and his name was not provided.  The family lived on lot 5 Concession 5 in Nassagaweya Township (Kelso).  John Sr was a farmer.  His parents were married on Feb 26, 1902.  He was their first child and they had a daughter Rachel Rebecca in November of the following year.  She is also buried in St David's cemetery beside her husband Alexander Moore.  Like her parents, she is buried with one of her children Margaret Evelyn, who died as an infant in 1931.

Major Peter Hare Jr

Seems I have infected John with my fascination with cemeteries.  Last week he was driving by Snure Cemetery and decided to take some pics for for me.  This one caught his eye:

The inscription reads:
Maj. Peter Hare Jun
Of the 5th
Battalion
Lincoln Militia
died
1856
Ae 62 yrs 1 mo. 22 dys.

I did some google searches and very quickly came up with information about Colonel Peter Hare, who commanded the 5th Lincoln Regiment. (1)
  Captain Hare was a loyalist and member of the Butler's Rangers, who participated in the Wyoming Valley Massacre and Cherry Valley Massacre during the American Revolution. (2)
This man according to the Wiki page for Peter Hare, had a son named Peter on Feb 13, 1794 with his second wife Catherine Greenwalt.  (3) Unfortunately a source is not cited.

The earliest record I find of Peter Jr is from the 1787 census of Niagara settlers where he reported singly as a head of household in the Return of Disbanded Troops and Loyalists settled in No1 Township of Niagara, which was prepared by Robert Hamilton on September 17, 1787.   Another  Peter Hare is listed in the same section as a single man, head of the household to 3 women.  This Peter had 50 acres of cleared land and produced 15 bushels of winter grain in 1786. (4)
On May 7, 1792,  Peter "Junior" was granted lot numbers 1 and 27 (200 acres in 20 chains by fifty) in the 1st Concession in the Township of No. 7 in the district of Nassau (present day Niagara). (5)

All this information points to a Peter Hare junior, who was born before the date inscribed on the tombstone.  At this point, it seems like the tombstone is incorrect or perhaps there are three generations of Peters that are being referenced as only 2 men.

To try to weed through all of this, I decided to look at bit more into Captain Peter Hare.

Captain Peter Hare

It's well documented that Captain Peter was born in New York and participated with the Butler's Rangers in the American Revolution.
  From what I can see and what seems to be corroborated by his Wiki page, Peter Hare enlisted initially with the 2nd Battalion of the New York Militia under Colonel Wempell in Captain Mynder's company. (6) At some point however he became a turncoat.
In the revolutionary war records, he was appointed lieutenant by Captain Fraser, the assistant superintendent of Canada, as was John Hare Junior, who seems to be his brother.   Peter served from May 1 1777 to Dec 24, 1777 and was payed 8 shillings on each of the 238 days that he served. (7)
  From Dec 25, 1777 to October 24, 1778, Peter served as Second Lieutenant in Captain William Caldwell's company in the Butler's Rangers and continued to earn 8 shillings per day. (8)  He became a Captain of the Butler's Rangers on February 8, 1779. (9)
  In the winter of 1780, he lead his company to Detroit to act as scouts for the garrison and they took up positions in some Shawnee villages close to the Ohio River.  These villages had seen surprise attacks by the Americans and Shawnee appreciated Hare's presence.  At one point he and the company withdrew as far as the Miami River (so they were west of present day Cincinnati) where they built a blockhouse but continued to have scouts in the villages until the Americans withdrew to Fort Pitt. (18)
  In the Return of Person under the Description of Loyalists specifying the number, age and sex of each family, we can see that Peter was 30 years old, married and had two daughters Polly, 2 and Catherine 6 months. This record shows hat he his is the captain of a company in the Corps of Rangers Niagara and is dated November 30, 1783 (10)  As a side note, a second Peter Hare is recorded in the same return under Captain Lewis Genevys Company in the Corps of Rangers Niagara!!
  Peter petitioned for land on a number of occasions for both himself and his children.

• On July 6, 1795 it states that he has drawn no land for his services or family except for 200 acres, which he has accepted as part of the family of lands due to him as per General Haldimand's instructions in 1783, but would now like assigned to him 3000 acres of waste lands of the crown.(11)  
• On Oct 12, 1796, it states that he has only taken up 150 acres and has a wife and one child, who was born before Feb 1789.  He requested that the judge make up the quota of military lands and 100 hundred for his wife and child, and it appears that it was granted in addition to the 3000 acres that he previously requested. (12)
• On Jan 7, 1797 he petitioned on behalf of his daughters Mary, aged 18 and Catherine, aged 16, as they have not received any land.  On April 7, the order was deferred until his daughters reached 21 years of age or were married. (13)
• On July 5, 1798 he was named in a schedule of lands (800 acres in Wyndham) that were transferred to Samuel Street. (14)

Peter's death on April 6, 1834 was reported in the Columbian Centinel, a Massachusetts based newspaper on May 7th.  It states that he was a colonel of the 4th regiment in the Lincoln Militia and died in Clinton, Upper Canada.  (15)

On Dec 24 of the same year, his wife Margaret filed for a widows pension.  In the application it is stated that she and Peter married on March 2, 1809. (16)

I spent a considerable amount of time trying to find any transcriptions or records for Peter Hare, specifically BMD records but I'm not having any luck yet...  There is lots of information referenced on the internet but I'm struggling to find named sources.  I found a small biography on him which stated that he was the paymaster for Indian affairs (17), but according to some of the research that I came across, I believe that the paymaster was in fact his brother John.

Peter Hare junior

I recently acquired a collection of books published by the Grimsby Historical Society, entitled "Annals of the Forty" Volume 5 chronicles the loyalists and pioneer families of West Lincoln and contains a couple of pages of information about the Hare family.  This seems to be one of the main source of information about the Hares on the internet, and it's source appears to be family history provided by Mrs Donald Clark.  Peter Hare Junior  was born in Jordan, Ontario on Feb 13, 1797.  He married Magdalena Secord, who died June 15, 1846.  He married a second time to Jane McGaw and they both died in 1856.  The book states that Peter was buried in Jordan and Jane was buried in the Baptist churchyard in Beamsville.  I visited the cemetery myself a couple of weeks ago and Peter is buried beside Magdalena, in the Hare family plot.  Magdalena and Peter had 10 children, many of which are buried along side of them in Jordan.  The one difference I see between the Annals of the Forty and the stone however is that the Annals states that Peter was Captain of the 4th Lincoln Regiment, while his stone states he was a major in the 5th regiment...

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lincoln_and_Welland_Regiment
(2) (3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hare
(4) https://sites.google.com/site/niagarasettlers/1787-census
(5) (11)(12)(13)(14) https://sites.google.com/site/niagarasettlers/petitions-hare-to
(6) Revolutionary War Records - https://www.fold3.com/image/19275530
(7)(8) (9) (10) https://sites.google.com/site/niagarasettlers/soldiers-h
(15) https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/11849752?h=77d454&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
(16) https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/11849825?h=fc8264&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
(17) http://clanwaddell.com/family/getperson.php?personID=I131742&tree=10283
(18) King's men: The Soldier Founders of Ontario - https://books.google.ca/books?id=NDije3s3oeEC&pg=PA163&lpg=PA163&dq=Peter+Hare+Mohawk+valley&source=bl&ots=HdZcjYSY2Q&sig=_XhBMaom2YLQx4rPDyuG-D9cjIk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZhJmXj-_WAhWE8YMKHWsbBikQ6AEIOjAE#v=onepage&q=Peter%20Hare%20Mohawk%20valley&f=false

Ida Draper

On our way up to Bon Echo, we stopped at the tourism office in Gravenhurst, and then over to the neighbouring Bethel cemetery to do a geocache. This stone caught my eye.  Ida May Keeler was born in Vaughan, Ontario about 1875 and married Richard P Draper on Oct 1 1895 in Orillia, Ontario.  She was living in Rama at the time and Richard was living in Morrison. (1)  Her parents were Alfred and Harriet and in 1891 she lived with her parents and siblings Frederick, Lottie, William, Margaret, Edward and Eva on a farm in Rama. (2)
Ida May Draper died March 19, 1905 of an epileptic fit an at the time of her death she lived on Grand Rd in Morrison Township. (3)
In 1901, Ida and Richard are living with Richard's mother Sophia. Richard is a saw mill labourer and they have three children: Charlie (3), Percy (8mths), and Gordon (2 mths).  (4) The ages in the census for the kids don't quite make sense so I turned to their birth registrations.


Charles Noble Edgar Draper was born Oct 6, 1897. (5)
William Perry Asahel Draper was born June 11 1899. (6)
Gordon Alfred Draper was born Jan 25, 1901. (7)
Poor Gordon died a few months later on June 28 of convulsions (8)
 I didn't look further into Charlie and Perry but I can see that they both served in WWI and  went on to marry.

Richard didn't stay a widower for long.  He married Catherine Brady (nee Cody) a 30 year old widow who was born in Philedelphia on Jan 31, 1906. (9) They had their first child Donald on May 22, 1907.  In this record, Catherine is named Jessie.  They were living in Severn Bridge, Morrison Township. (10)

Richard and Jessie went on to have sons William, Harold, and David.  All 7 boys lived with their Richard and Jessie (Josephine) in Robillard, Temiskaming, Ontario in 1921. (11)


1. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794791?h=382b1b&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
2. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794740?h=87edd8&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
3. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794786?h=21a073&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
4. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794892?h=e1c610&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
5. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794890?h=d019ed&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
6. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794887?h=4de638&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
7. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794879?h=bad028&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
8. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794876?h=24a87a&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
9. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794927?h=c51c4f&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
10. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794934?h=151db3&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
11. https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11794949?h=acb23f&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url

Horst L Schab

John and I did a geocache up in Northern Flamborough and we came across a well maintained cemetery behind a very well maintained church (Bethel Memorial Chapel) .
  A few stones of course caught my eye, this one in particular, because of his uniquely German name and the fact that he died in a plane crash a long way from Flamborough.
  I did a quick google search and came up with a little information.
Captain Horst Lothar, originally from Weingerten, Germany(1) died when a DC3 operated by Air Gaspe crashed into a tree in the mountains and burned while on final instrument approach to Rimouski airport.  It was a non-scheduled passenger flight and the single passenger and 3 crew members all died. (2) (3)
  Horst had moved to Gaspe just prior to the crash.  Among the dead were the 21 year old co-pilot N.G. Cunning of Halimand, Quebec, 25 year old flight attendant named Roger Doucet of Bathurst, N.B, and a 24 year old passenger named Emery Gaul. The plane was flying about 170 km from Gaspe to Mont Joli but at 2:10 PM, Horst radioed that he could not land in Mont Joli due to fog and would instead go to Rimouski. (4)




(1) (4) The Ottawa Journal, May 30, 1973. Page 36.
(2) http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1973/1973-37.htm
(3) http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19730529-0

1884 Smallpox outbreak in Stoco - The McDonalds

On our way home from Bon Echo, we did a very neat geocache in the Bethel cemetery. in Thomasburg, Ontario.  John decided to walk around the cemetery and pick a stone for me to research. This one peaked his interest because they died on the same day:

Thomas Nelson McDonald was born in Huntingdon Township, Canada West on Nov 22, 1857 to parents John and Jane.  He was baptized by a Wesleyan Methodist preacher on Dec 14, 1860. (1)
According to the 1881 census, he was of Irish decent and living in Hungerford with his parents and 5 siblings.  In this census record his father, a farmer, is named Nelson. (2)  According to the Hungerford directory, Noble and Nelson were yeoman living at 8th Concession, Part Lot 16 in the village of Stoco. (3)
I found Thomas' death registration fairly quickly but I searched for quite awhile and couldn't find one for Jane.  I then tried to find their marriage record but no luck there either....  It suddenly occurred to me that they might in fact be siblings. I knew from the census that he had a sister named Jane.  More searches turned up Jannie's marriage record.  She married Charles Dunn in April 1882, and Thomas was a witness. (4)
Sadly,  it seems that Thomas and Jane both died of smallpox.  In Thomas' death registration, he died Dec 15 not 14th as transcribed on his stone.  The death registration also showed that several people died of smallpox that fall/winter.  I did a google search of Stoco and as I suspected, the village fell victim to a smallpox epidemic in 1884, which killed about 67 people. (5)  From an ancestry board post, a plaque was erected to commemorate this tragedy but a list of names provided from some death registration research did not mention Jane either. (6)  It appears that the epidemic in the Hungerford area was the result of a harvest worker, Jerry Lerange (from Lower Canada) (7) bringing the disease to the area, falling ill, and infecting the family he  was staying with. Relatives came to take care of the family, which further spread the disease.  The outbreak prompted a fumigation, mass vaccination, and isolation, by the newly formed Provincial Health Board.  People trying to escape the village were turned away from neighbouring communities.  All of these measures prevented the spread of the disease to other areas. (8) (9) (10).
  I am really curious to know more about Jane Ann.....  I think I'll see if I can read some papers from the time period to see if they perhaps printed the names of those who died....


(1) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wjmartin/wm-mc_31.htm
(2) https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11596704?h=41b89c&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
(3) http://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/BelPL/BelPL002410144pf_0127.pdf
(4) http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maryc/hast82.htm
(5) http://www.tweed.ca/stoco--p369.php
(6) https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=7039&p=localities.northam.canada.ontario.hastings
(7) https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/11616714?h=70bdbf&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url
(8) http://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/en/index.php/plaques/hungerford-smallpox-epidemic-of-1884,
(9) http://www.communitypress.ca/2009/10/26/tweed-plaque-links-response-to-outbreaks-two-centuries-apart
(10) http://www.ontarioplaques.com/Plaques/Plaque_Hastings37.html