ANDREW (1775 - ?) married Jane Kilfoyle. Together, they left Old Leighlinbridge, Ireland, with their family in 1818 and came to Richmond, Ontario. They then founded “The Derry” in the north end of Montague Township about nine miles from where their son John settled.
The Derry was a slight rise in a fairly low, poorly drained area of swampy, wooded land. The farms, when cleared, were initially productive but they required careful soil management to sustain their output. This, together with the limits set to the area by the swamps, has led to a continuing exodus of young people to other area. Today, only Livingstone (Andrew’s great grandson), his son John and grandson Richard bear the Kidd name in The Derry and in the line of descendants of Andrew.
One explanation for this original settlement in The Derry when there seemed to be clear disadvantages and when other lands were open for settlement, is that the swamps were thought to contain peat for fuel and for cash crop sale. The peat was not of good quality and crumbled when dried so that plan did not work out if indeed it did enter into the choice of farms.
The country was heavily wooded with little except wilderness to the west and north so there must have been hardship and worry in the early days of settlement. “Bees” were a means of combining a number of neighbours into a common effort, i.e., house or barn building or harvest. Clearing bees were common when bush was cut and burned to get land for seeding. When illness struck, neighbours came in groups to help out. Frequently, bees involved trials of strength, races, banquets of the simple fare and dances.
A story is told of a little girl in The Derry who wandered away from home one summer Sunday afternoon. She was never heard of again. Her name was Mainse from the farm west of the Kidd land. Some people blamed the Indians and an older brother visited Indian bands for years searching for her. Finally, he lost his mind.
Suspicions of roving Indian hunters speak of the fears and loneliness that must have crept in on the scattered farms, especially during the sub-zero cold and deep snow of winter storms. Then the fire was carefully banked with ashes each night to keep it alive, since its loss meant a long trip to a neighbour and the careful return with coals in a pot to start another.
In spite of the hardship of work, or perhaps because of it, it is remarkable that so many of the early families survived to their late sixties and seventies and occasionally older. There was considerable birth and infant mortality and some deaths occurred from communicable diseases such as diphtheria or scarlet fever. Pneumonia caused some deaths also, but, in general, the Kidds had fairly long life expectancy.
Not too much information is at hand on Andrew’s children except John, the oldest, but they farmed in The Derry and the adjoining districts near Ashton, Franktown and Carleton Place. Most of them had children and some families were large so many descendants came from them.
Some of the children must have been a little unusual judging from their names as “Big Tommy”, son of Thomas, “Little Tommy” son of George, and “Fighting Frank”, son of Jane. Some of this generation moved to Western Canada.
JOHN (1798-1851) the oldest of Andrew’s family emigrated in 1818 with Thomas Kidd, a cousin. John’s wife, Mary Garland, died giving birth to son Andrew, soon after landing or while on shipboard during the Atlantic crossing which as said to have lasted about twenty weeks. The prevailing head winds in the westerly wind belt, together with frequent storms, caused many delays in the trips across and especially in the struggle up the river to Quebec against both current and wind, but a voyage of this duration must have been most unusual. The hardships endured by the crowded passengers can only be left to the imagination.
John left baby Andrew in the care of a woman in Quebec and went on to take up Lot 12 in The Derry, in the sixth concession of Beckwith. Two years later he returned to Quebec for Andrew. They travelled back by boat to Richmond Landing and then overland to The Derry. John was said to have carried his son on his back along with his clothes and provisions through the bush roads.
Established in his pioneer farm, John found another wife in Margaret Garland, a young girl of about fifteen years of age. They proceeded to raise a family of fifteen including Andrew, all of whom reached adult years and raised families in turn, except Wesley, a “wanderer”; George, unmarried, who drowned while logging; Eli, who married but was childless; and Jane who died at twenty-two at the birth other first child. Their children also included: John, William, Maria, Eliza, James, Richard, Joseph, Thomas, Margaret, and Edward.
WESLEY left home and was not heard from again except that a member of another branch of the family many years later heard stories of a “Wesley Kidd” in Washington and Oregon in the Pacific North West of the United States. The stories told of a “mountain man” of note as a “great bear hunter”. This may have been Wesley as the name was uncommon, and the period of time of this hunter would have been within Wesley’s expected lifetime.
ELI married Jeanette McKea and moved to Bruce County in Western Ontario, close to his half-brother Andrew. Eli and Jeanette had no children. They are buried in Elsinore Cemetery. He was somewhat different from most of the Kidd men who tended to not be above average in size, in that he was a big and very powerful man. Stories of his feats of strength include the one about carrying the 400-pound butchered pig some distance to a shed for cutting up. He was described as a very handsome and popular man.
RICHARD was also notably different from the others since he was regarded as somewhat of a “black sheep” in his youth. He was tall, slim and very active and athletic. This ability was not only directed to feats of agility said to equal that of circus performers but was also employed in physical combat. It was said that at one time, he “could lick any man in Beckwith”. He married, became quite religious and evidently lived down his youthful escapades. Probably his wife played a large part in his reformation.
JOHN (1829 -1902) married Betsy Gibson from Peterhead, Scotland, and moved to Bruce County, to Brandon, Manitoba, and then on to Fairmede. Their family of twelve spread the Kidd connection through Western Canada.
WILLIAM became a school inspector in Kingston, Ontario. His two sons, Frank and William, became doctors of medicine.
MARIA married Solomon Gibson who went to California to seek his fortune in the Gold Rush of 1849. He brought back enough raw gold to make rings for his bride and sister-in-law Mary McDiarmid, Joseph’s wife.
ELIZA married Joshua Simpson who became crippled by rheumatism, but their eight children were raised well. James became a doctor of medicine, moved to Juneau, Alaska, and founded his own hospital there. Another son was given the name “Kidd”. This is the only time in Andrew’s descendents that the name was used in this way.
JAMES married Catherine Stuart who had been a teacher in The Derry. Their family of eleven included twins Harold and Herman and grandchildren twins Eleanor and Marjorie. Twins were rare in Andrew’s descendants. Another grandchild, Donald, was born deaf, but overcame this disability to become a doctor of medicine. Two other sons of James, Reverend Charles and Reverend William became ministers in Gananoque, Ontario, and Alberta.
JOSEPH married Mary McDiarmid and remained in The Derry. Their family included: John who died while at university; Anne who died at twenty years; Dr. Edward who wrote the book, “The Derry”; and Livingstone who contributed a great deal of very valuable information for this outline. Livingstone, his son John and grandson Richard, still keep the Kidd name in The Derry near Ashton.
Others of the family of John and Margaret Garland: Thomas, Margaret, and Edward were involved in fanning. They moved to other parts of Ontario, Western Canada and the United States.
As members of the families became older, several engaged in other activities. Their children entered a wide variety of occupations with medicine and teaching attracting a considerable number of those who entered the professions.
Fairly large families occurred frequently so the name has become widespread. In 1941, the Toronto telephone directory listed six Kidds. Now, the number has passed one hundred, not including the suburban directories.
ANDREW (1819 - 1893), John’s eldest son by Mary Garland, left The Derry as a young man of 29 or 30 and moved to Bruce County in Western Ontario. In 1856, at about 35 years of age, he married Mary Ann White, aged 15. Mary Ann’s mother, Sarah Miller had left Ireland on the Great Eastern and after a 6-week trip, arrived in Pennsylvania. She married a White who had come from Ireland at age 23. They moved to Carleton Place and then to Ellengowan. Of this union was bom Mary Ann, Sarah Jane (Mrs. Wilson Nelson) and three sons: William, James and John. John died early.
Andrew and his wife, Mary Ann White, had their first child, William, in 1856 when Mary Ann turned sixteen. Andrew first chose a farm at Ellengowan four miles south of Paisley in an area which is now a rich agricultural district, but he left it and moved to Lot 8, about 160 acres in Amabel Township. This location held promise of being rich land also, but as the heavy work of clearing thickly wooded acres proceeded and the fields were tilled, a new problem appeared: Glacial action had left gravel and erratic boulders which emerged as cultivated crops broke down the original leaf mould from the trees. The stone piles lining the fences and in the centre of the fields attest to the annual stone-picking on farms in this township. Hilly sections and swamps reduced the workable land on the farm as well.
It is not known why Andrew left his first farm to move to Amabel, but a saying among the pioneers, “where the trees are big the soil is good” may have been the reason. Certainly uncleared acres of farm had big tress, but their roots could find the rich soil among the stones. These trees provided cash returns through the years in timber for lumber, hardwood for firewood, cedar for fence posts and maple syrup and sugar.
Little information is available about Andrew except that he was of medium height, dark-haired and a happy man who sang hymns while at work. He and Mary Ann had five girls and three boys in their family. The girls were all fine looking and it was said that house parties, “did not really get started until the Kidd Girls arrived”.
As the family outgrew the frame house which had replaced the early log cabin, a new stone house was built. The walls were mainly of split granite which had been supplied by the erratic boulders deposited by glacial action in the soil overlaid on the limestones. These stones contrast and so, with the tinted mortar, provided a bright and colourful appearance.
When the house was only a year old, a fire raged through the swamp on the adjacent Thompson farm. The August weather was hot and dry and the wind blew sparks and brands directly over the house. It was said, “they swarmed over the roof like flies”, by the neighbours who came from far and wide”. Water pails were passed by “bucket brigade” and the house was saved.
Mary Ann was an active gardener and grew red, purple and white raspberries, rhubarb, asparagus, gooseberries, red and black currents as well as annual vegetables. Cherries, plums and pears were grown and a second apple orchard was planted to raise the number of varieties to some twenty-four.
Her flowers included shrubs such as white, purple and Persian lilacs, orange blossoms, spireas and others, asters, golden glow, white, yellow and pink roses and many annuals. The herb garden grew thyme, garlic, tansy, wormwood, chives and sage.
SARA ANN, eldest daughter of Andrew and Mary Ann, married widower John Moore, and moved to Victoria, British Columbia. Their son, Ivan, became a pharmacist and their second son, John Harvey, a surgeon.
EDITH became a teacher, married John Geddes and farmed near Elsinore, a few miles from the Kidd farm. Their daughter, Jean, became a teacher also, and married Wilfrid Chambers, an actuary. Their son, Morris, is also an actuary and their daughter, Lorna, was a member of the National Ballet.
JANE died unmarried at thirty-one. She had been working as a dressmaker in Port Elgin where she contracted pneumonia and soon died. As sad story is still told of the long line of sleighs and cutters passing slowly along the wintry country roads as her family and friends brought her home for burial. With all bells removed, the cortege passed, silent and stark against the snow.
JEANETTE married John Thompson, a business man in Southampton who pioneered automobile sales and service there. Allan and Fred, their sons, continued that business and their daughter, Mary, was a lifetime career nurse.
STELLA married Adam Busch, a woodworker, who changed to farming at Bergoyne and Arran Township. Their son, Earl, continued on the home farm. Their daughter, Gladys, married a farmer nearby and their youngest son, Roy, moved to Barrie, Ontario.
LEESON became a teacher, married Mary Crane and moved to Saskatchewan, then to British Columbia. Their family often included Marjorie, Florence, Edith, Stella, Eyrtle, Ruth, Elva and Glendine and two boys, Robert and Bruce.
JOHN became a wagonmaker, but he seems to have had a wandering urge, like his uncle, Wesley. He went to the Pacific coast and joined a group of some twenty who travelled in a small, sailing schooner up the cost to Alaska in the Gold Rush of 1898. John was cook for the group. A letter from him to his sisters tells of the passage through Behring Strait and the ocean storms they met in their little vessel They wintered in Nome and many died of exposure and poor supplies. John survived and found some gold. Small nuggets were sent home as souvenirs. In his later years, he married Mrs. Flora Maugan and lived near Annacourtis in Washington State where each year he cooked a special banquet for local municipal council. He had a summer home on Gamis Island.
WILLIAM also known as Bill or Billy, (1858-1929) the eldest son, stayed on the home farm. He married Edith Nelson (1872-1949) and later moved to a small farm and market garden near Southampton and finally into the town. William was musical and, while young, became a fiddler for community dances and a horn player in a local band. He was an active Orangeman passing through all available degrees of the Orange, Scarlet and Black Lodges. Edith was involved in music as a church organist and choir member.
When William inherited the farm he was to pay his mother and Stella, his youngest sister, $500 a year for four years. He and Edith worked hard and saved carefully to discharge the obligation. They sold butter, eggs, cattle, poultry, fruit, maple syrup, logs and firewood. Potatoes were sold in Hepworth loaded on freight cars for $1 for a 90 pound bag. Northern spy apples were hand picked and packed for $2 per barrel. The firewood was felled, cut, and split and piled to dry, all by hand. It was sold in Southampton after many a long, cold winter trip beginning before dawn. Edith did most of the barn chores. All of the $2,000 was paid in a little over three years.
William had the first silo on the D. Line and was the first in the area to grow alfalfa or “alfy” as it was called by Anthony Thompson, a neighbour from the south.
William’s family consisted of two sons:
Russell, a secondary school principal who married Ethal Fair, a secondary school teacher. They did not have children.
Gordon (1909 -), a public school principal, married Margaret Ryan (1913 -), a business secretary, and had two children: Ryan (1938 -) and Sheelah (1940 -). Both Sheelah and Ryan became teachers. An indication of the strength of Irish tradition lies in the fact that all of the family branches of the Canadian Ancestries of Ryan and Sheelah can be traced to Ireland, in the lines through five Canadian generations.
Ryan married teacher Eleanor McKenzie (1937 -). They had two children: Gordon (1964 -) and Sean (1973 -).
Sheelah married professional engineer Robert Gaunt (1941 -) and carried on the Irish tradition in their children’s names as do their children in turn. Sheelah and Bob have a daughter, Erin (1973 -) and a son, Michael (1975 -).
Several branches of the Kidds in Canada are not included in this summary because information is not yet available. Work on the collection of more material is proceeding so that a future compilation will be more complete. The present summary is being made to ensure that what is not collected will be available to anyone interested in this family tree.
The general comments on the Kidds may also be of interest. Their life expectancy seems to have averaged in the middle seventies. This average was reached in spite of the risks, hardships and limited health services of former years, particularly in the pioneer period. Their stature tended to be not above average and their hair and eye colours were commonly dark. These characteristics resulting form the generations in Ireland suggest that the Irish ancestors of the Kidds may have had their roots as far back as such early inhabitants as the Firbolg people.
In conclusion, the Kidds in Canada descended from Andrew seem in general to have been hardworking and responsible citizens. They helped clear the forest lands of Ontario and worked on the prairies in the opening of the western provinces. As the generations passed, a considerable number also contributed in service and leadership roles. Several have had families above average in number so the Kidd name has become more common in many parts of the country. These increasing numbers should ensure that their name will continue to be involved in the development of Canada during the years ahead.
Gordon Kidd
R. R. #3
Georgetown, Ontario
April. 1979.
Dostları ilə paylaş: |
