IN VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

 

Samuel Oakley

          1896 is the earliest date that Samuel appears in the Vancouver Directory. He and his son Isaac started a furniture business at Main, near Hastings called “Oakley & Son”. Samuel and Isaac kept the business going for a few years. Isaac also continued to work for the CPR and by 1910 he and his brother Samuel opened Oakley Heating & Sheet Metal Company. Samuel Sr. continued with the cabinet making and at the time of his death, he also ran a small tool repair business at 5th and Main. 

         For a family that went through many moves across Canada and the US they were a family that helped and supported each other.  Samuel raised his first wife's brother, Isaac and found him work with the railway.  Samuel also helped to raise the family of his second wife (and first wife's brother), again finding them work with the railway.  Sam's daughter Sarah carried on the tradition by helping to raise her younger siblings after her mother died  in 1880.  Her youngest brother was only a year old when his mother died and descendants of George said Sarah was more like mother to him.

The Province May 26, 1910

           At the age of eighty Samuel was hit by a streetcar and killed after leaving daughter Sarah’s home at 12th & Spruce. He had a habit of standing in the middle of the streetcar tracks to wave down the streetcar with his cane. Being too impatient to wait for grandson Leck to walk him to the train stop had tragic results. Unfortunately, this particular evening the streetcar driver did not see Sam. The details of the accident are graphically recorded in the corners report from the inquest.  Results of the inquest were published in the newspaper:

The Province Oct 2, 1912

 

Vancouver Daily World Oct 3, 1912

The following obituary appeared in the Province October 3, 1912 

 

The Province Oct 5, 1912

 

           Samuel was the glue that held his family together.  By 1920 all the sons had moved away from Vancouver, most settling in the Kamloops area but Samuel Jr. moved back to Michigan.  Sarah stayed in Vancouver, as did sisters Beryl and Blanche.

                This map shows the various moves Samuel made after he arrived in Canada in the summer of 1855.  He first settled in Kingston, Ontario before moving to Cobourg, Ontario; Winnipeg,  Manitoba;  St. Paul's, Minnesota; Virginia and finally Vancouver.  Most of these moves included children, 4 large  paintings plus whatever other treasures he had, these moves would have been significant.  His jobs with various railroads account for his many moves and hopefully these jobs included free or reduced freight charges!.  

 

 

IN ST. PAUL, MICHIGAN & NORFOLK, VIRGINA

 

Now the family dynamics become even more complex.  By Sept of 1887, Samuel had married his sister-in-law and his children’s aunt Elizabeth (White) Nobes. She ran a boarding house in Lakeside, Michigan raising 7 or 8 children on her own.  Elizabeth was the widow of James Nobes (d. 1874), who was the brother of Samuel's first wife, Mary Ann Nobes.  As a result of Sam & Elizabeth's marriage, Samuel’s children were both first cousins and step siblings to Elizabeth’s children.  The story of her husband, James Nobes death can be found in an earlier blog post about the Nobes family.

 Samuel Oakley & Elizabeth Nobes m. 2 Sept 1887

   Lakeside Muskegan, Michigan

   Samuel aged 55 residing in St. Paul  occupation mechanic

  Elizabeth Nobes aged 45 was residing in Lakeside birthplace

  W.J. Aldrich (Minister of the Gospel) Witnesses: David Miner & Mrs. Miner

 Did Samuel Oakley make a trip to Muskegon to check on his sister-in-law and they then made the decision to marry?  Certainly blending two young families made sense.  Samuel's job with the railway was portable. With Samuel's two oldest daughters already married Sam had a number of young children to raise. 

Again I turned to city directories to figure out where and when Sam was in St. Paul.  From 1887 - 1889 a number of James Nobes sons plus brother-in-law, Isaac Nobes were in St.Paul and working for the St. P M&M Railway.  By 1888 the combined Oakley/Nobes family was living at 271 Williams.   

Tragedy struck again and Elizabeth passed away by the end of 1889. Her will was written a few days before her death and at that time she was living in St. Paul.

Her obituary reads, "after a short illness died in St. Paul, Minn. on Nov 4th, aged 48".   She was buried in Muskegon beside her first husband, her headstone simply reads “MOTHER 1841-1889”.  Cemetery records for the Evergreen Cemetery list her as Elizabeth Nobes.  

Weekly British Whig Nov 28, 1889

  

The Kingston Daily News Nov 23, 1889

What happened to the blended family after Elizabeth's death? Again I looked to the St. Paul directories.  They show that Samuel took some of the Nobes children under his wing.  As a foreman in railway carpentry shops he was able to provide employment for his step-sons/nephews.  By 1888 Frank and Vernon Nobes were living with Samuel Oakley, as well as his brother-in-law – Isaac H. Nobes (whom he helped raise).  James & Elizabeth Nobes youngest child – Nellie, (who would have been about 15 at the time of her mothers death) - by 1893 was also living with Samuel in St. Paul.  

The last mention of Samuel in the St. Paul's directory is in 1893 when he was foreman of the CGW Railway shops.  Sam made a trip to Vancouver to visit his daughter Sarah and her young family.  By 1895 Samuel and son Isaac are listed in the Vancouver directory.  In 1896 their business "Oakley & Son" furniture dealers is listed and Sam is still in the directory in 1899.

By 1898, son Samuel Norman Oakley was the foreman of the SAL Shops[1] in Western Branch, Virginia and his cousin/step-brother William Nobes was chief engineer with another railway in Western Branch, Virginia.  Not quite sure the order that Sam's moves took.  He appears in the 1901 Canadian Census in Cobourg, Ontario and by 1908 he is again listed in the Vancouver directory as a cabinet maker.

          Somewhere in that time period Samuel visited his is sons Robert and Samuel and his nephew William in Virginia. Descendants of Sam's son, George Lester Oakley mentioned that George grew up in Norfolk, Virginia and St. Paul, Minnesota, after his mother died.  

        By the time of the US 1900 census, we find Samuel with his third wife, Anne Maria Young (this was her second marriage ( her married name was Mero).  Family lore has it that Annie was the widowed aunt of one of Samuel’s daughter-in-laws.      

         After a visit to Vancouver to see his children, Samuel decided to return to Vancouver permanently. Annie refused to move to Vancouver and the two separated.  In the 1910 US census she is living in Washington, DC and refers to herself as a widow (which was not true).  Her obit in 1931 lists her last name as Oakley.

         Samuel Norman and Robert are listed in the Virginia directory through 1901.  By 1907 Samuel Norman and family are in Vancouver, daughter Bernice was born there in 1909.  By the 1921 Census, Robert and wife were living with brother George and his young family.

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[1] The Seaboard Air Line Railroad was an American railroad whose corporate existence extended from April 14, 1900 until July 1, 1967.  In the days before air travel, air line was a common term for the shortest distance between two points: a straight line drawn through the air, ignoring natural obstacles. Hence, a number of 19th century railroads used air line in their titles to suggest that their routes were shorter than those of competing roads