Let’s start from the very beginning. And by “the very beginning”, I mean the very end. Nothing summarizes things quite so well as an obituary, after all.
John Elston died in Morris Township, Huron County, Ontario, Canada, of ‘cerebral apoplexy’ on September 10th, 1912. The Wingham Times remembered him like this:
Death of a Morris Pioneer
This week the Times again chronicles the death of another of the pioneers of this section in the person of John Elston who passed away at his home on the 2nd line of Morris on Tuesday evening. The deceased gentleman had not been in robust health for some time. He was born in Lincolnshire, England, and came to Canada in 1850. In 1853 he purchased the homestead on the 2nd line of Morris and moved up to this country in 1860. Mr. Elston was a good neighbor and he made a large circle of friends during his long residence in Morris. He had always taken an active interest in the Wingham fall fair and had for many years been a director of the Society and at the time of his death was Honorary President. In religion he was a Methodist and in politics a Liberal. His wife died in 1877 and three children died some few years ago. He is survived by four sons and four daughters, viz:–John Elston, Prince Albert, Sask; Mrs. Hubbard, Wayne, Mich; Mrs. McKague, Coulter, Man; Robt Elston, West Hope, North Dakota; Jas. Elston, Austin, Man; Wm Elston and Misses Annie and Nellie Elston, at home. The funeral will take place this (Thursday) afternoon to the Bluevale cemetery.
This summary more or less agrees with the local history books: In A Harvest of Memories1, John is said to have immigrated to Canada in 1852 and settled in Morris in 1861. The 1861 Census of Canada (taken early in the year) places John in Blandford, Oxford County, with his wife Mary and their three oldest children, living next door to Mary’s brother Robert and his family. John and Mary’s fourth child, Susannah, was born in about 1863 in Morris (according to her death record a mere 23 years later).
By 1871 John and Mary were firmly established on their farm with 100 acres of land and two barns on Concession 2. According to A Harvest of Memories, the farm grew “fall and spring wheat, oats, peas, potatoes and hay, as well as producing maple sugar” (I knew I liked this guy). In terms of animals, they had “two colts and fillies, two working oxen, five milking cows, five other horned cattle, nine sheep, and eight pigs.” With that many animals and nine children, at least things wouldn’t have been lonely. Or quiet.
The family lived in a log home, which stayed on the property until 1944. I wonder if John imagined that more than 100 years after his death his great-great-grandchildren would live in the brick home he and his sons built on the property in 1895?
John himself, like his wife and many of his children, found his “forever home” in the Bluevale cemetery, which I will write about in another post.
Related:
- Descendants of John Elston and Mary Martin
- John Elston in Oxford/Brant (ca. 1851 – 1861)
- John Elston’s Lincolnshire roots
- Who was John Elston?
- Elstons in the Bluevale cemetery
This page is a work in progress.
Elstonology 