A New Start
James passed away in 1875, his wife Margaret almost
20 years later. James at the time of his
death was 77 years of age and was buried in the Granton Cemetery in
Biddulph. Margaret died in 1893 at 88
years old and was buried beside James. In the same plot is their granddaughter,
Hugh & Mary Jane’s first child – Margaret Lucinda, born in 1872 in
Granton. She survived only three weeks;
Mary Jane was later to remark about the tragedy of helplessly watching her
first born child slowly bleed to death through her belly button.
Margaret and son, James were still living together
in the 1891 census. Daughter Mary Ann
Radcliffe and family living a short distance away.
As can be seen by this map Blanshard Township is
located next to Biddulph, Middlesex, which is where Mary Jane Caswell and her
family were living.
The next map shows where the Donnan farm was
located as well as a number of Radcliffe holdings. One of the Radcliffes was to become Hugh’s
brother-in-law. Were the Radcliffes also
from the same area in Ireland?
JW Donnan – son of James
and Margaret Donnan
Concession 12, Lot 24 Blanshard Township
1879 maP Post Office Granton
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James will was filed provincially which usually
indicates that land was owned in more than one county. Perhaps the border between Perth and
Middlesex, cut through the Donnan farm.
In memoirs written by John Caswell (Mary Jane’s brother),
he wrote a chapter about checkers which included information about working on
the Radcliffe farm as a carpenter’s apprentice, helping to build a barn. Hugh’s
sister Mary Ann, married Samuel Radcliffe[1] and I
believe the “brother-in-law” referred to in John’s memoirs, was Hugh Donnan. Samuel Radcliffe’s farm was the closest of
the Radcliffe farms to the Donnans.
“Just let us take a look into the house
of Mr. Radcliff, Johns master and we see John and his master at twelve midnight
sitting around a checker board with Radcliff having two single men and three
kings on the board and John with three single men and two kings. Radcliff feels
that he is the best or ought to be the best as he is the oldest man, although
not the oldest player for in fact they both took their first lessons from the
carpenter who was building the barn. They had spent many pleasant hours
together during the long winter nights.
A brother-in-law of Radcliffs used to come over and spend the evening
with them so that they came to be a lot of experts in each fellows game.”
“Newspapers in those days or even books
were almost out of the question on the farm so checkers took their place in
this house. For one year at least stormy
or rainy days were sure to find the checker board on deck somewhere on the
farm. In fact a couple of games were
usually running on evenings and wet days and there were scarce a pail bottom
around the stable on which you could not find a checker board scratched out. Little sticks of any sort were cut in different
lengths or shapes and filled the bill for checkers. We often had paper on one side of the board
and sticks on the other side.”
“In fact, these were not the only places
where checker boards could be found, for while John was only about fifteen
years and Mr. Radcliffes brother-in-law (Hugh Donnan?) was a man of about
twenty four, these two got to be quite chummy and often in our strolls around
on Sunday we would end up at some big stump on which a checker board could be
drawn and other times a large flat fence rail answered the purpose. Although our better man told us that to play
checkers on the Sabbath was wrong, for each of us had been learned better - we
had parents that were a credit to the church which they belonged to. Yet Satan or some other evil spirit would say
there is no harm in a social game of checkers any day, so of course it seemed
to suit our taste and accordingly the checker board became our Sunday sport and
could be found almost anywhere out of sight of the home at that farm. But, the writer is pleased to say that his
friend John’s checker playing on Sunday ceased and the good example placed before
him by his father, prevailed.”
Hugh Donnan & Mary Jane Caswell were married
July of 1871, in the Granton Presbyterian Church, by the Rev. A. Findlay[2]. As an “it’s a small world” aside – when Hugh’s
grandson Stan Todhunter (and my father) married Doreen Powell this connected
the Donnans to Rev. Findlay as my mother was related to Lucinda Foster Pattullo
wife of Rev. Findlay.
I suspect some of the attraction that Mary Jane
found in Hugh was that it would get her out of her mother’s home, where many of
the tasks of running the household fell to her, as her sisters had left home
and married many years before. Life was
not easy for any of the Caswells, but it was particularly harsh on the Caswell
daughters. Various accounts written by
the sons of Mary Jane Caswell refer to her pride in her 10 sons,[3] never a
mention of the daughters. Another story
related how Mary Jane expected her daughters to serve her breakfast in bed
each morning. She was even fined in
court for taking a stick to her brother, not to mention a buggy whip to an
Indian in full war paint! A force to be
reckoned with.
[1]
Spelled Radcliffe, Radcliff
and other variants in records and notes.
[2] Allan
Findlay studied for the ministry at Knox College, Toronto, entering when only
16 years old, and was licensed in 1865. His first mission was Burns Church,
East Zora. His first charge was Granton (in the presbytery of Stratford), into
which he was inducted on January 31, 1867. He had been ordained the previous
day at Knox College. In Granton he remained for 7 years. On his resignation in
1874 he was invited by the Home Mission Committee to take charge of the work in
the Muskoka Region, and he settled in Bracebridge, in charge of the wilderness
to the north.
[3] And there comes Mary Caswell, never
more happy than when she led her ten (10) sons into the church and fills up two
or three pews, and then sits to see that they behave, and get strength to train
all these boys.
http://www.archive.org/stream/grantonpresbyter00granuoft/grantonpresbyter00granuoft_djvu.txt
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