Dictionary of Canadian Biography
For
several days, the rain came down in buckets, which caused the ice to go
out of the brook. A jam at the bend resulted in many of the ice cakes
ending up high and dry in the field below Gramp’s house. Cliff and I
were crawling over them when we noticed embedded in the ice, some
stones with designs on them.
We were very curious about the pattern which resembled a tiny fern. So
off we rushed to find Gramp.
While we waited with great expectations, he took it in his hand and
examined it very carefully before speaking to us.
“I think you two should form a steinhammer club and maybe one of you
will become as famous as
George Frederic Matthew. “ Then he turned and walked away.
If way back then we had been able to access the internet and the
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, we would have found out that
George Frederic Matthew was born in Saint John in 1837. His parents
were George Matthew and Deborah Eliza Harris. He married Katherine Mary
Diller in New York City. They had six sons and two daughters. He died
in 1923 and was buried at Gondola Point. But I am getting ahead of my
story.
George was very interested in natural history and geology. In 1857, at
age 20, he helped found the Steinhammer Club with others who were
interested in learning about the rocks and fossils of the Saint John
area. Stein meant rock in German.
Although he maintained his career at the Custom House, he became
internationally known for his studies in palaeontology.
Information on many other New Brunswickers can be found in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
James Robert Inch was born
in 1835 in New Jerusalem, Queens County, New Brunswick. He was the
eighth child of Nathaniel Inch and Ann Armstrong. He married Mary Alice
Dunn. His parents with three children had migrated from Ederney Bridge
in Northern Ireland to New Jerusalem in 1824. He began his career in
Education at Keswick, then on to Mount Allison. Next he was appointed
chief superintendent of education in New Brunswick.
Another educator was Anne Quinlan
who was born in 1839 in County Tipperary. Her parents were William
Quinlan, a Roman Catholic shoemaker and Susan Medill who immigrated
from Ireland when she was a child and settled in Chatham. After her
three months of teacher training in Saint John, she took up teaching
duties in Chatham and soon became one of the town’s most respected
educators. As many as 60 pupils would be in her class.
Educator, botanist, author, editor, and publisher George Upham Hay was born in Norton
Parish, Kings County in1843, the youngest child of William Hay and
Eliza Fahy. A History of New Brunswick, for use in public schools,
1903, was one of his publications.
William Henry Price,
physician and author, was born in Butternut Ridge in1839. His parents
were William Henry Price and Charlotte Alward and his wife was
Catharine Jane Watts. He practised in the United States where in 1880
he wrote “Baby’s Guide to Health”. The following year he returned to
Butternut Ridge where he doctored until retirement in 1901. He
subsequently embarked on hog farming, beginning with 200 pigs.
Henry A. Braithwaite was a
woodsman and guide born circa 1840, the son of Alfred Braithwaite, a
native of England. From his boyhood, Braithwaite followed the life of a
woodsman, his mentor being the legendary Maliseet guide Gabriel Acquin.
Eliza Parks Hegan’s father,
a native of Belfast, was one of Saint John’s leading dry goods
merchants. For some years he was in partnership with his brother-in-law
William Parks.
The Dictionary of Canadian
Biography holds lots of genealogical and biographical
information. It is available at research institutions or online at www.biographi.ca.
***
Query 1433
Hunt Family: I am
putting together a History Book of the Hunt Families of Balmoral, Athol,
Restigouche, Saint John, and Campbellton of New Brunswick and of Gaspe,
Québec. Information on the family names to include George Hunt
and Emily Mary Reynolds Hunt, Margaret Ann Hunt Massie, Theodore
Jardine and Margaret Hunt, James Doucet and Elizabeth Hunt, William
Henry Hunt and Lena Cyr, William Ingram and Lizzie Hunt, Charles T.
Coffin and Widow Emily Mary Hunt, James Love and Mary Hunt, David
Randall St Clair and Viola Stella Hunt, John James Chedore and Margaret
Hunt, Celina-Amelia Hunt and Mansfield Barton, Mary Mable Hunt and
J.Augustin Fontaine, Thomas A. Hunt and Angelique Savoie, Annie
Lavigne and Edward Lavigne. If you can add to our families
history please send your replies to
GLORIA DEAN
1285 Pinehurst Ave.
Oshawa, Ontario
Canada, L1H8J8
E-mail platinum46@hotmail.com
Query 1434
Foster - Tufts: I am
looking for the siblings and parents of John Foster who may have been
born in Northern Ireland. He married Sarah Tufts in1832 in New
Brunswick. He died in St. Martins, New Brunswick about 1869. John
Foster’s grandson was Premier Walter Foster.
JO FOSTER KEEFE
1550 Union St., Manchester
NH, 03104, USA
E-mail j.keefe@clrm.com
Query 1435
Dawson - Steeves: Thomas
Dawson was born about 1776 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He married
Rachel Steeves of Hillsborough, New Brunswick. Where was the marriage
and when? I am interested in knowing the names of his parent with birth
dates and places of birth. Possibly his parents were Pennsylvania UEL,
James Dawson and Margaritt (last name unknown). It has been suggested
to me that they are buried in Maces Bay and Dipper Harbour
respectively.
JIM DAWSON
1740 Notre Dame Place
Sarnia, ON
Canada, N7S 3S3
E-mail jedawson@sympatico.ca
