Woebegone

 

Uncle Peg’s Chronicles

August 11, 2022

"Woebegone"

Number of pages in Outline Descendant Report: 80 (up from 77 last chronicle)

I am back. I've had a wonderful time of fun, fellowship, and a little boy. I managed to fit in a wee bit of research and writing. 

I spent the long, last weekend of July with my cousins. We gathered in Sussex and travelled about, seeing the farm site, the Holmes/Burnham Saw Mill Trail in Petitcodiac and the New Brunswick Agricultural Museum in Sussex. More about those later. We dined well at a variety of restaurants - great ambience and company. My cousins, children and grandchildren of Jim and Phyllis Holmes, gathered to lay their mother to rest beside their father. It was a bittersweet weekend, replete with laughter, memories, reacquainting, and tears. You can view photos on my Facebook. 

James Robert (Jim) Holmes -Floyd Holmes - Charles R Holmes - Daniel Holmes - Samuel Holmes Jr (with his first wife, Phoebe Holstead) - Samuel Holmes Sr.     

When I left, I told somebody - don't remember who - that I was going to stop at the Portage Vale Cemetery; that perhaps, someone would be there and I could teach them some history of the area. Sounds a bit arrogant to me now. No one has ever stopped to talk to me at my annual visit. I am sufficiently humbled. Two people talked to me. I learned some history.

Tombstones of Peter and Sarah Ketchum (brother and sister) - collateral relatives. Portage Vale, NB. New glamping site in the background.

The first was a man and his wife in a truck, who stopped and talked briefly. He is from Toronto; his wife hails from Portage Vale. He said I was the first person he had ever seen at the cemetery. We chatted old Portage Vale for a while and then he recommended a book. I tried to keep the name of it in my head: "Bamboo Cage," by Weiss. He drove off and I wondered how I would ever remember it.

Then, a young man came over the road from what I know as the Davidson house. It's been a long time since it was owned by Davidsons, but that is the history I have researched. He is from British Columbia, but I think he said his ex-wife was from the area. This house was for sale for a long time, he told me, and they couldn't find another so they gave this one a tour and it was the one for them. He is looking into the history of Portage Vale and shared with me what he had found and what he wanted to find. I told him I could place him in touch with several genealogists in the area who could probably help him, and gave him some pointers later in an email.

My fellow NB Loyalist genealogists - Sandi, Richard, Cliff, and John - are pleased to meet and/or correspond with him about our research, and we look forward to a gathering at an upcoming weekend at the cemetery, a tour of the Davidson house in which one of our grandparents lived, and lunch at the Cedar Cafe.

After some time, I located the book: https://www.amazon.ca/Bamboo-Cage-W-Lieutenant-1942-1943/dp/0864925298

It is the story of Flight Lieutenant Robert Wyse. It was not he who was from Portage Vale - he was from Miramichi, NB - but his wife. I did some work on Ancestry, looking at the genealogy. There is mention of his time imprisoned in Java in Indonesia during the war. He and his wife, Laura Idella Teakles, are buried in the Portage Baptist Cemetery. I plan to buy the book. We have Teakles in our tree, and Cathy Higgins of our group is a Teakles descendant.

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We gathered in Corn Hill, at the Nursery and Cedar Cafe, for lunch and a tour of the museum. I know that a few of the museum items hail from our Hill Grove farm, but I only know one item specifically, which I donated to them a few years back. It's a big steel pot with steel things to put on the udders to measure the fat content of the milk before it goes to market. 

After lunch, we headed down to the farm, which is a bit woebegone now without any houses. We are still able to make our own fun. We took a few photos there, and, as Karl said in an email, it was like herding cats, getting us together. Here are nine of the fourteen Holmes cousins descended from Floyd Holmes of the Charles line, as well as three grandchildren. Three cousins couldn't be there, and two are now deceased.

First photo: Margie, Doug, Mary Jane, Karl, Anne Marie, Cindy, Michael, Peggy, and Brenda.

Second photo: Sarah, Chris, and Tegan.

We laid Aunt Phyllis to rest and headed out to see the sights of Petitcodiac, including the burial place of Daniel and Charlotte, before going to the site of the Holmes Burnham Saw Mill Trail. 

Left to right: Sarah, Chris, Pauline, Karl, Margie, Anne, Peg, Brenda, Cindy - and behind, Mike, Julie, Tegan, Doug, and Cheryl.

The highlight of Sunday for me was our visit to the New Brunswick Agricultural Museum in Sussex. This was special in that Clem P''s antique and vintage tool collection is now safely housed behind glass at the museum and we had a tour by his son, David. Clem's wife is Marilyn, sister of my Aunt Phyllis. He and Marilyn both passed away in 2021. The tools are all in place; they still have to figure out the names of all the tools and make signs on them.

I spied a marvelous picture on the wall. It's not agriculturally significant, but significant to those of us who have Loyalist roots in New Brunswick. 

Those are a few highlights of our action packed weekend. It was nice to take our lawn chairs out back in the evening and chat a bit before hitting the hay. I headed home after the museum visit, while the Holmes family headed to Fundy National Park.

Julie and Winston arrived on Tuesday - and I've been busy ever since - happily busy. Erin joined us for the weekend. They go back this afternoon.

~

I didn't work on CCC, but  I found snips of time to do a bit of genealogy. I had a discussion with Doug, my CCC IT consultant, and he wanted to know what I want him to do. Aside from things that crop up once in a while and drive me crazy, I asked if he could work on the index. I will send off "Yorkshire" for him to work on. He'll figure out what I don't seem to be able to, and help me with it. 

For genealogy, I focused on getting James B Holmes into the Francis Holmes Family Tree and update, add to, and correct it. 

I've decided that the genealogy should really take equal time to CCC, and more time needs to be spent on CCC and perhaps a bit less on the Chronicles. Starting in September, I hope to have a consistent plan in place for the genealogy, which will start with our immigrant ancestor, Francis Holmes, born c. 1675, and end with the newest baby. I need some method to my madness, and eventually, everything I do must be checked and rechecked. 

James B Holmes is the half-brother of Daniel Holmes, and the brother of Ann, Benjamin McElman, Betsy Marinda, Margaret Mariah, Lyman White, and possibly Theodore. He is the son of Samuel Holmes Jr and his second wife, Elizabeth "Betsy" McElman. 

Here's a sample of someone in James B's tree: Christopher David Adams (1885 - 1955): He married 1st, Katie Vivian Butler, and 2nd, Mary Harriet aka Marie Smith (parents of both unknown).

"Chris" Adams - William Adams and Betsy P Holmes - James B Holmes and Rebecca Fox - Samuel Holmes Jr and Betty McElman.

I found seven children:

Mary Elizabeth (1922 - 12922)

Bertha (1924 - 1924)

William Byron (1926 - 1998)

Velma May (1927 - 1927)

Homer David (1928 - 2013

Viola Mae (1930 - 1930)

Vivian Marie (1925 - 1925)

Isn't that a sad list. Most of the girls were born prematurely; one died of cholera infantum.

I have sources for each child listing the name of the parents. I also have a mystery, and that comes in an obituary of Homer David Adams Sr.  "He is survived by one son, Homer D Adams, Jr . . . preceded in death by his half-sister.

Who is his unnamed half-sister? Is she a daughter of the mysterious Katie Vivian Butler? I want to know. If I could find Chris Adams on the elusive 1910 and 1920 censuses, I might find my answer. I moved on to his siblings, hoping they might be neighbours, but no luck there, either. And what happened to Katie Vivian Butler Adams?

~

You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Julie and W go home today. It's hard to stuff all my lovins for him in such short visits, but I did the best I could. We had lots of hugs and cuddles and chases and fun with doggy and kitty. Last evening, he learned that he could rid himself of unwanted food by passing it to Piper; he could also tease Piper by offering her the food and then taking it away and putting it in his mouth. Julie and I laughed; Piper drooled.