May 23, 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.
“Victoria, By the Grace of God”
FAMILY ALBUM
Bob was
the son of Angelo “Mac” Minella and Lillian Holmes Underhill Minella; brother
of the late Lillian Minella Thomas, and Janet Minella Nolte. He was the husband
of Dorothy Mae Owens. (Photo, left) Bob is buried in Fort Scott
National Cemetery in Kansas. Find a Grave Number 999337. Lest we forget.
GRATITUDE
There were some comments on Mum’s memoirs, and some on the
photo of Chip in the dune shack. Thanks to all of you who commented.
- “Love
the Pembroke table Chip is sitting at- the Teakles had very similar one
that was passed to my son Ryan.” Cathy Higgins.
- “My
first thought was that the two windows in the dune shack photo were
actually paintings. Scenes overlooking our favorite place on Cape Cod. The
National Seashore is our piece of heaven on earth. We don’t have a dune
shack but we do enjoy driving out on the dunes when we can.” Annmarie
Holmes
- “The
photo - the resolution on that is fabulous!! A wonderful
photo. I first noticed the table - it looks like a more rounded
version of a very old table that was given to us by dear friends when we
married . . . I use that table (one leaf up) as my desk, dings and all
from a long life with us after a very long life with Bill and Vera
White. It was even in the barn and used for painting things for
them! I treasure it. There are so many fascinating things on
the walls and shelves. Why napkins in the glasses? And yes, where
was the coffee? The oil lamp looks like the one we had on a window
sill in Indiana, too. Lots of . . . memories.” Jeanni Worster
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.
CONGRATULATIONS
To Jamie and Linda Arnold, and to Newman and
Eleanor (the proud parents), on the arrival of septuplets: five lads and two
lassies – the females look like their mother. These pups are in the Carrie
Steeves line. Linda says that Eleanor is a good mother.
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
I really ought to
stick to the facts, but once in a while, a bit of opinion eeks out in spite of
myself. My mother was handed down an opinion from her grandfather, who hadn’t
much use for his younger brother, Howard Fenwick Holmes: the first Fenwick and
namesake of about a half dozen others, more or less. He used both names or
either name in his records. I’d say I picked up on that opinion, and caused HFH
to become a Holmes favourite of Paula’s. It’s
okay, Paula; I’d say we can still call him a scallywag, but perhaps not in CCC.
CONNECTING
THE DOTS
You may wonder why I am giving so much attention to lots 6, 7, and 8.
Well, it’s part of the article I am writing, for one thing. It also relates to
ownership by four of Daniel’s children: Hattie, James, Charles, and Bessie.
Maggie and her husband didn’t live there, but they died and are buried there.
The 1926 Holmes Family Association met there. And, perhaps, the dots are
connecting up to maybe breaking down the McMonagle brick wall. That is a
Charles R Holmes and Phoebe Jane McMonagle brick wall. You may not know what a
genealogical brick wall is – it is an unknown piece of family history that
annoys genealogists so much that they take their virtual sledgehammers to it
every so often. Definition by Vasseur. Then, there is this niggle that
runs circles around in my brain. I expect you might be confused, but it makes
complete sense to me.
Some facts: Lot six was granted to Alexander Cain, whose wife was Ann
Scott. Daniel Holmes bought it and eventually sold it to Abner Jones, husband
of Hattie Holmes. Abner sold it to Elias Kinnear, husband of Bessie Holmes.
Elias sold it to Charles R Holmes, husband of Phoebe McMonagle, who has an
unknown connection to Hugh John McMonagle. Lot
seven was granted to Hugh John McMonagle, husband of Alice Cain who was the sister
of Alexander Cain of Lot six. Daniel Holmes purchased it, and sold it to his
son, Charles, husband of Phoebe McMonagle, who sold it to Samuel Burnett, who
sold it to Walter Mitton, and we know it as Blakeney property. More work needed,
but not for the article. Lot eight was
sold to James Kay. He sold it to Daniel Holmes, who sold it to his son, James H
Holmes, husband of Augusta Corey. I am not puzzled about James Kay, at least
for now. Ann
Scott Cain of Lot six was the sister of Robert Scott, who married Olivia
Holsted, the sister of Phoebe Holsted who married Samuel Holmes, Jr, father of
Daniel Holmes. When
Charles purchased lot six from Elias Kinnear, he took out a small mortgage from
Rev. Elisha Clark Corey, a distant cousin of Augusta Corey. Both descend from
the immigrant ancestor, Gideon Corey. This brings me to our potential Corey
connection. From my limited study, it seems that many people borrowed their
mortgages from family members. I don’t say that it was necessarily so, but
common. Several
of us in the Charles R Holmes line descend distantly from a bunch of Coreys –
all DNA trails lead back to Gideon Corey. I have not yet found the connection,
but there’s enough of us Holmeses and Coreys with common DNA to know there is
one.
Edwin McMonagle and his wife, Elizabeth Unknown, lived on lot seven,
across from the mill on the Salt Springs Brook; I find no record of ownership of
property or vitals for these two at all. As I can trace Charles R Holmes
through records and DNA, I know that there are no Coreys in that direct line. Hugh
John McMonagle left an inheritance to Phoebe McMonagle Holmes and her sister,
who also disappears. You didn’t generally leave an inheritance to someone you
don’t relate to. Cecil
C Holmes, son of Charles R Holmes, erred in naming Phoebe’s mother “Phoebe
Pierce” on her death certificate. But, that name must have meant something to
him. Was Phoebe Pierce McMonagle, wife of Hugh McMonagle Sr, her grandmother?
Was there an illegitimacy there which involved a coverup? Edwin McMonagle and his wife, Elizabeth,
are my brick walls. I assume, with no proof, that Elizabeth might be a
Blakeney. And I assume that either Edwin or Elizabeth have Corey DNA. Edwin
died between the 1861 census and his wife’s second marriage to George Fowler of
lot number 4. There is no record of their burials. Elizabeth didn’t live too
long, as George Fowler married for a third time.
FAMILY HISTORY LESSON
This week’s history lesson took me down a bit of a rabbit trail. I refer
you to “A Homestead on the Old Post Road” for a review. See pages 197 to 201
for Howard Fenwick Holmes.
I was going through the land record indexes for someone else (Charles R
Holmes) and came upon this one between James Hoyt Holmes and Howard Fenwick
Holmes. Does it make a difference in what I said about him in the past?
Possibly, between the lines. I hope to discuss this with James Retson.
Back when I was researching Fenwick for the book, I came upon James
Retson’s website in which he told about the early settlers to Rat Portage. So,
I went back to revisit the article, and found it under a different URL: https://www.retson.ca/holmeshowardfenwick1857.pdf
He updated his article in 2020. He writes in both past and present
tense, and I type it out as is. I usually refer to Howard Fenwick Holmes as
Fenwick, but I’ve seen both names used.
“Howard Fenwick Holmes
1878 – 1917
By
James C. Retson
Last Revised
September 24 2020
Howard Fenwick Holmes, son of Daniel Holmes and
Charlotte Hoyt was born in 18 Apr 1857 at Petitcodiac, New Brunswick. He
married his wife Maud Marion English in 5 Jun 1878 in Woodstock New Brunswick.
At their marriage in 1878, Howard was living in Victoria Co, New Brunswick
while Maud was living in Woodstock, NB.
They came to Rat Portage in 1882. He became a Town
counsellor in 1883 and 1884. He opened his hardware business on Main St. in
1890. He was a member of the First Electric Light and Telephone Company in
1890.
In 1894 he became agent for Hamilton Powder Company.
This company was created in 1862 to buy the assets of the former Canada Powder
company, which had formed in 1852. Their major product was black powder, used
for blasting. In 1878 the company was purchased by Dr. Thomas C. Brainerd, a
U.S. businessman in the black powder industry. In order to provide the massive
amounts of explosives needed to build the Canadian Pacific Railway, a new
dynamite factory was opened in McMasterville, Quebec. Other black powder plants
were acquired in Quebec and the Maritimes and, in 1890, the company opened the
first explosives plant in the far west, near Nanaimo, British Columbia. In 1910
Hamilton Powder and Dominion cartridge merged with the Acadia Powder Company,
Ontario Powder Company, Standard Explosives company, Western Explosives Company
and Victoria Chemical company to form the Canadian Explosives Company (CXL).
During the 1920s they diversified into paint and varnish, coated fabrics and
plastics, and in 1927 they changed their name to Canadian Industries Limited.
Canadian Industries Limited, also known as C-I-L is a Canadian chemicals
manufacturer. Products include paints, fertilizers and pesticides and
explosives. It was formed in 1910 by the merger of five Canadian explosives
companies. It is currently a subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries.
He lives on Water Street, right behind the Museum.
(McDonald’s Directory of Rat Portage and the District of Rainy River, 1894.)
He sold his Rat Portage Hardware Co business, located
on the west side of Main Street to C. E. Neads around 1897.
In 1901 he is a contractor. He apparently became
estranged from Maud sometime after 1901, the last record of them living
together, he had his left arm amputated and he may have suffered from
alcoholism.
Maud died 25 April 1907 and is buried in Portage Vale,
Kings County, New Brunswick.
There is a record of him arriving in Buffalo, New York
on 6 Nov 1913 but may not have been permitted entry. Another record has a
Howard Fenwick dying in Jackson, Florida 20 April 1917.”
We don’t need some of this information except for
background. Mum told me some of this, prior to my reading Mr. Retson’s
information. She told me that he lost an arm, he was an alcoholic, and that he
abandoned his wife, without seeing any records. She never knew him, so what she
learned would have come from her father and grandfather. She said that her
grandfather called him “the black sheep.” For that reason, Paula Holmes is
especially fond of HF. I think she has a particular fondness for black sheep.
That is my review, and here is what I have learned. I
now have my doubts that he actually abandoned his wife. [1]
What I learned about Fenwick this week:
What will help you to know:
- I don’t often write these deeds out for you, but
I thought it might be helpful for you to read a Deed, with its repetition
and legal jargon. The format and details are similar in all the deeds I
have read so far, even the American portion of this particular deed.
- “et ux” is the abbreviation for the Latin “et
uxor” and means “and wife.”
- James Hoyt Holmes is the brother of Howard
Fenwick Holmes; both are sons of Daniel and Charlotte Holmes.
- Portage Vale was in the Parish of Cardwell.
- High Street no longer exists.
- Edward Chandler was an important man in this era
of the history of New Brunswick, and owned land from Dorchester to
Petitcodiac, and maybe further.
- “L. S.” is the abbreviation for the Latin “Locus
Sigilli,” and means “place of the seal.”
- “S. S.”
is the abbreviation for the Latin “scilicet,” and means “namely” or “in
particular.”
- This property
was on land that belonged to their father, previously.
- Starts
here, you can enlarge it. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9KL-R275?cat=1469012
- I inserted the actual images into the email; if you want to see them, ask.
What information this deed gives:
Their
residences; their occupations; their boundaries.
Left Margin: Deed 90130
James Holmes et ux. To Howard F Holmes
Registered Sept. 21st 1910 at 1 P.M.
A D Richard, Registrar
Page 286
Know all men by these presents that James Holmes, formerly of the Parish
of Salisbury in Westmorland County in the Province of New Brunswick, but now of
South China, in the county of Kennebec in the State of Maine in the United
States of America, Farmer, and Augusta Holmes his wife, for and in
consideration of the sum of One Dollar to them paid by Howard F. Holmes of the
Parish of Cardwell in the County of Kings, in the said Province of New
Brunswick, Mining Prospector, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, do
hereby grant, bargain and sell unto the said Howard F. Holmes his heirs and
assigns: All that certain piece, lot and parcel of land and premises situate in
the Village of Petitcodiac in the Parish of Salisbury in the said County of
Westmorland in the Province of New Brunswick, bounded and described as follows,
to wit, Commencing on the South side of and adjoining High Street (so called)
and on the West side of and adjoining Cross Street at the intersection of the
said Streets thence Westerly along High Street one hundred and seventeen feet,
thence Southerly at right angles to said High Street one hundred and
eighty-seven feet, thence Easterly to said Cross Street, and thence Northerly
along said Cross Street to the place of beginning, and containing one half of
an acre More or less and conveyed to the said Grantor James Holmes by a Deed
from the late Edward Chandler and wife, registered in the Office of the
Registrar of Deeds & in and for said County of Westmorland as No. 80879, in
Libro D-7, of Records, folio 538. Together with all the appurtenances thereto
and all the interest, estate, right, title, dower, right of dower and property
therein of the said James Holmes and Augusta Holmes, his wife, To Have and to
Hold the said lands and premises with all the privileges and appurtenances
belonging thereto and unto the said Howard F. Holmes his heirs and assigns to
the use of the said Howard F. Holmes his heirs and assigns Forever.
Page 287
In Witness Whereof
the said James Holmes and Augusta Holmes his wife have hereto set their hands
and seals the Fifteenth day of August A.D., 1906. Signed,
sealed and delivered in the presence}
James Holmes L. S.
F.
W. Sewall } Augusta Holmes L. S. In
the United States of America, State of Maine, S. S. I, F. W. Sewell, a Notary
Public for the said State of Maine duly commissioned and sworn, residing and
practicing at Wiscasset in the County of Lincoln in the State of Maine
aforesaid in the said United States of America, do hereby certify that on this
Fifteenth day of August A.D., 1906, before me the said Notary Public at
Wiscasset aforesaid, personally came and appeared James Holmes and Augusta
Holmes, his wife, the Grantors named in the foregoing Deed and acknowledged
that they each executed said Deed as their acts and deeds to and for the uses
and purposes therein mentioned and expressed.
And the said Augusta Holmes, the said wife of the said James Holmes, being
by me examined separate and apart from her said husband, acknowledged that she
signed, sealed, executed and delivered said Deed freely and voluntarily and
without any fear, threat or compulsion of or by her said husband. In Witness
Whereof the said Notary Public thereunto set my hand and seal at the Town of
Wiscasset aforesaid in said County of Lincoln in the said State of Maine in the
United States of America on the day and year in this certificate above written.
{F. W.
Sewell’s F.
W. Sewell
Notarial Seal} Notary
Public
Left Margin:
Deed 90131
Howard F Holmes to D D McDonald
Registered Sept. 21st 1910 at 1 PM;
A D Richard Registrar
Page 287
This
Indenture made this Seventeenth day of May in the year of Our Lord one thousand
and nine hundred and seven, Between Howard F. Holmes of the Parish of Cardwell
in the county of Kings in the Province of New Brunswick, Mining Prospector, of
the first part, and Donald D. McDonald of the Parish of Salisbury in the County
of Westmorland and Province of New Brunswick, Medical Doctor, of the second
part; Witnesseth, that the said Howard F. Holmes for and inconsideration of the
sum of Fifty Dollars of lawful money of Canada, to him in hand well and truly
paid, at or before the ensealing and delivery of these presents by the said
Donald D. McDonald, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged hath granted,
bargained, sold, aliened, released, conveyed and confirmed and by these
presents do grant, bargain, sell, alien, release, convey and confirm unto the
said Donald D. McDonald, his heirs and assigns: All that certain piece, lot and
parcel of land and premises situate in the Village of Petitcodiac, in the
Parish of Salisbury in the County and Province aforesaid, bounded and described
as follows:- to wit, Commencing on the South side of and adjoining High Street,
so called and on the West side of and adjoining High Street at the intersection
of said Streets, thence Westerly along High Street one hundred and seventeen
feet, thence Southerly at right angles to said High Street one hundred and
eighty-seven feet thence Easterly to said Cross Street and thence Northerly
along said Cross Street to the place of beginning and containing one half of an
Page 288
acre
more or less. Together with all houses, outhouses, barns, building, edifices,
fences, improvements, profits, privileges and appurtenances to the same
belonging or in any means appertaining; and the reversion and reversions,
remainder and remainders, rents, issues and profits thereof - and also all the
estate, right, title, right and title, homestead, dower, right of dower,
interest, use, possession, property claim and demand, either at Law or in
Equity of him the said Howard F. Holmes, of, in, to or out of the same, and
every part and parcel thereof, with the appurtenances. To Have and to Hold the
said lot, piece or parcel of land and premises, hereby granted, bargained and
sold, or meant mentioned or intended so to be, and every part and parcel
thereof, with the appurtenances, unto the said Donald D McDonald his heirs and
assigns, to the only proper use, benefit and behoof of the said Donald D
McDonald his heirs and assigns Forever. And the said Howard F. Holmes for
himself his heirs, executors and administrators doth hereby covenant to and with
the said Donald D. McDonald his heirs and assigns that he is lawfully seized of
the before granted and bargained premises, and hath good right to bargain and
sell the same in manner and form as before written, and that he will Warrant
and forever defend the same unto the said Donald D. McDonald his heirs and
assigns, against the lawful claims and demands of all persons whomsoever. In
Witness Whereof, the said Howard F. Holmes has hereunto set his hand and seal
the day and year first above written.
Signed,
sealed and delivered in presence of}
Uz S. King.} Howard
F. Holmes (L. S.)
New Brunswick, S. S. I, Uz King, a Notary
Public by
Royal
Authority duly admitted and sworn, residing and practicing in the Parish of
Salisbury, County of Westmorland and Province aforesaid, do hereby certify that
on this Seventeenth day of May A. D., 1907, personally came and appeared before
me, the said Notary, the above named Grantor Howard F. Holmes at the Village of
Petitcodiac in the said Province of New Brunswick and acknowledged the above
instrument to be his act and deed, and executed by him for the uses and
purposes therein contained. In Testimony Whereof, I, the said Notary, have
hereto set my hand and Official Seal at Petitcodiac Village aforesaid this
Seventeenth day of May A. D., 1907.
{Uz King’s } Uz
King
{Notarial Seal} Notary Public
ORIGINAL GRANT OF LOT SIX ON THE CORN HILL TO
ALEXANDER CAIN
(A corner of which we call “The Farm”)
Thank you, Queen Victoria. We still own a small portion of your generous
gift.
This ends
week twenty-one of our centennial virtual celebration.
[1] FamilySearch. New Brunswick, Westmorland County Registry Deed
Books, 1785 – 1919. Book I 8, 89910-90224. August 1910 – October 1910. Film #
004302230. Images 289 – 291; pages 286 – 288. Accessed May 15, 2024. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9KL-R275?i=288&cat=1469012
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