Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
May 2, 2024
“These
were their settlements. And they kept good family records.”[1]
Don’t
forget to look for the title which is embedded in the chronicle.
“An Industrious Peacable Man”
FAMILY ALBUM
This is a photo of the former Hill Grove Baptist Church. Probably Dad
took it. If you descend from Charles R and Phoebe J (McMonagle) Holmes, your
grandparents and/or great-grandparents attended this church. I’m pretty sure
this is the Free Will Baptist one, and that my grandmother’s Colpitts family
attended the other one. I don’t remember how wide the pews were, but likely the
family filled two of them with their nine children. The cemetery is on the left
side of it, and you can see quite a few stones. The Blakney barn is on the back
right of the building. The church covers the Holmes farm in the photo. My
grandmother, who took eight piano lessons, played the pump organ for the
services. On the day she had her stroke, she was so upset that they wouldn’t let
her leave the hospital, as she was to play for a service that evening.
GRATITUDE
I am just so grateful to all of you who respond to my
emails and blog, and add like icons, and that kind of thing.
MY GENEALOGY GOALS
- Chronicle
several times, and publish on Thursday morning.
- Keep
writing my next article for Generations, which is about the will of
Daniel Holmes.
- Spend
a bit of time on Moore family research: “Three Peas in a Moore Pod.”
- In
the evening, after chores are done, edit the Charles and Phoebe family
genealogy.
- Index
old newspapers for NBGS. On hold.
- Index
Riverbank Visitors for NBGS. Put old newspapers on hold while I do this.
I found
this photo in a Blakney Genealogy website. I won’t be using it in the article;
it’s just interesting to me. This Rev. David Bleakney is the man to whom Daniel
Holmes sold a two-acre lot for the cemetery, and the ancestor of Charlie and
his family. This is for those of you who knew Charlie, especially if he
squirted you with cow’s milk.
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1924 to
1928
Those
are the years that our great or great-great grandparents spent renewing
relationships that had somehow fallen by the wayside but with organization,
letter writing, and challenging travel – by hook or by crook – they managed to
come together again. They reacquainted and rediscovered their family ties. And
then, one by one, they died, and many of those ties died with them.
2024 to 2028
Stories and mysteries are
important. Do you have any to tell? They certainly make the genealogy more
interesting. Last
week I mentioned a mystery phone call, and Jeanni took the bait. This involves
the two churches in the community of Hill Grove. Hill Grove is not big enough
even to be called a village or town, it’s just a small rural community, blink
and you are past it. I must have told the story before. Part of this would be
considered family lore. I have been unable to confirm the existence of the
second church with records, yet. Probably the archives at Acadia University
would have them. It must be
fifteen or twenty years now; time passes so quickly. My aunt received a phone
call from someone, a Mr. Pickett I do believe. That’s a local up home name. He
wondered if she knew anything about the “other” church in Hill Grove. Indeed,
she did. Way back when, c. 1905, after various sects (for want of a better
word) of Baptists merged into the United Baptist Convention, the two churches
also merged. I am not sure just when, why, and how, but Charles R Holmes
brought the other church building up the hill and placed it behind the farm
house. He removed the small entry room and stuck it up against the barn – the
horse barn, I think. That building remained there until perhaps the mid ‘80s. I
have a picture of my pregnant self standing in front of it. Next to the
repurposed church, which became a wood shed, was the unattached two-seater. According to Mr. Pickett, the
convention had been paying taxes on the church property for all that time.
Obviously, they had never updated the land record. Jeanni
also mentioned the census record, where the two ministers lived in the small
community. The record was the 1871 Census of Salisbury Parish, District #2, p.
25. Cousins
who know the area can put the people in context with place.
Family
# 69 John Blakney and family, farmer
Family
# 70 Caleb Davis and family, farmer
Family
#71 James and Augusta Holmes, farmer (James, son of Daniel and Charlotte)
Family # 72 Abner and Hattie
Jones and son, 6 month old Ormond, farmer (Hattie, daughter of Daniel and
Charlotte)
Family # 73 Ben’j R Herrett and
family, Baptist Parson. Benjamin is the father of Eulalia Herrett, second wife
of Elias Kinnear who married first, Bessie, daughter of Daniel and Charlotte)
Family # 74 Miles Lewis, Baptist
Parson
Subsequent
censuses do not show any clergy in the page our ancestors are on, or the pages
before and after. I suspect the clergy were, by that time, circuit riders
within the area.
TENTATIVE EXCERPT FROM MY DANIEL ARTICLE
This is a brief
portion of a FACTS section in my article, the one that I finally found. I am
happy to establish the kind of man who raised Daniel, and also to find the
source.
In a
land petition by Samuel Holsted dated Amherst 16th March 1815,
Charles Baker, Justice of the Peace, gave a character reference for Samuel
Holstead. “I do certify that the above Petitioner is a neighbour of mine that I
have been long acquainted with him that he is an industrious peacable man, and
that I believe all that he has stated to be true.”[i]
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QM-PS5R-7?i=453&cat=82415
A petition made by Samuel Holsted, and
followed up with further statements in regard to his character, was dated
Amherst December 26th 1819. It is lengthy, and I have only included
excerpts that pertain to Holsted’s life following the war and Daniel’s
situation in his early life. The Petitioner is Samuel Holsted.
“. . .
Your Petitioner is one of the American Loyalists who came to this
Province at the close of the Revolutionary War in America, and since then has
resided herein .
. . has a Wife and thirteen children. Had to encounter on settleing many
hardships and difficulties not known or experienced at this day – but by the
blessings of Providence has made himself and family by hard Labour and industry
comfortable
.
. . one Samuel Holmes of the Township of Amherst having married a daughter of
your Petitioner, and not having land suitable to settle on, it was agreed that
the said Samuel Holmes the Son in Law of your Petitioner should lay out the
said quantity of Land specified in said order at Bay Vert, which was
accordingly done . . . The
daughter of your Petitioner and the wife of the said Holmes, having deceased
leaving two children, and Holmes the Father moving out of the Country leaving
no support for his Children; at your Petitioners charge have they been
supported, and lately one of the children departed this life, and the other is
with your Petitioner to be brought up and supported, without any means of the
said Holmes left for that purpose . . .
Personally
appeared Samuel Holsted the within Petitioner and made oath to the foregoing
facts. before
Charles Baker J.P.
11th Feby 1820
We the undersigned Magistrates for the County
of Cumberland Certify that we are well acquainted with Mr. Samuel Holsted the
within Petitioner, and know him to be an Industrious and respectable Farmer of
said county; and we firmly believe the facts stated in the forgoing Petition to
be true . . .
Charles
Baker J. P.
Wm.
White J. P.
Henry
Purdy J. P.”[ii]
APPENDIX
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QM-N9R4-H?cat=82415
FAMILY HISTORY LESSON
So sorry I don’t have much of a history less for you this week. Between
my work for the AGM and several lengthy naps, I didn’t do much family research.
Here is some of what I learned at Find A Grave for the Hill Grove United
Baptist Church Cemetery.
The earliest Find a Grave listing is for Amelia (Smiley) Graves 1824 –
1862. # 208981688.
This note is added at Find a Grave: “No burial records exist for her.
However, she resided in this area her entire life along with her husband,
Solomon. He and her son, Hiram, are buried here so it is probable that she is
as well. It’s possible that she may have died in 1861. I don’t think so. If Daniel Holmes sold the land to the
minister (not the church) in 1872, I doubt they buried her there in 1862. But,
who knows?
Amelia is the daughter of Alexander and Eliza (Cain) Smiley, who are
buried in the pioneer Blakeney Cemetery on the Old Post Road. It has
deteriorated to the point that many of the headstones are long gone. There is
also the cemetery (non-denominational, I believe,) opposite the Maplewood
Cemetery.
This ends
week eighteen of our centennial virtual celebration.
[i] FamilySearch. Nova Scotia, Department of Crown Lands. “Land
Records, 1763-1914.” Image group number 008540529. Images 454, 455. Accessed
April 29, 2024.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QM-PS5R-7?i=453&cat=82415
[ii] FamilySearch. Nova Scotia, Department of Crown Lands. “Land
Records, 1763-1914.” Image group number 008540525. Images 610-612. Accessed May
1, 2024. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QM-N9R4-H?cat=82415
