On to Ontario and the Ancestors

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On Sept. 26th we crossed from Yarmouth, NS to Bar Harbor, Maine on the CAT ferry. It was fast but it was rough. It rides on top of the waves like a cork I think. I much preferred the nice, big, slow boat to Newfoundland. It must have been a new moon when we arrived in Bar Harbor at about 7:30 at night as it was pitch dark when we found a campground.

Next day we set out to make it to Albany, New York. We decided on the Interstate Highways and encountered a lot more traffic than we are used to. We stopped to shop in Freeport, Maine at the famous LL Bean store. We carried on our merry way and were driving in the middle of the three lanes when all of a sudden we heard a thump. Larry thought a tire went but we had been sideswiped by the car to our left. Luckily she just hit the side jacks on the camper and did no damage to our truck or camper. The State Trooper figured she had about $4,500 damage. She says we weaved into her lane which was not true. She must have been daydreaming or not attentive and weaved into us as she passed us. At any rate, we are a little nervous now on these huge, busy highways.

We arrived in Albany, looking for a campground. We have campground listings in WoodAlls but they don’t give us an address to plug into Ms. Nuvi. After several tries and turns, we saw a Motel 6 advertising $49.99 and since it was getting dark we pulled in. It was our first night out of the camper in almost 40 nights. We did enjoy the nice warm bathroom to shower in for a change. So not a great day, but could have been worse. We did see a lot more color to the trees in Maine.

We arrived in Niagara Falls early enough in the day from Albany to see the falls and take a ride on the Maid of the Mist. What a fabulous natural wonder is the Niagara Falls. But what a shame they made the downtown area near the falls into a cross between Disneyworld, a comic book and a freak show. It is ridiculous. We had heard it was commercialized but we weren’t prepared for that. When we came over the hill on Main Street, Larry thought he was looking into a movie theatre. I guess kids would like it.

On the 29th we headed to Niagara on the Lake. It is beautiful. For anyone wanting to go to Niagara Falls, you should stay in Niagara on the Lake and drive the short drive - something like 15 km to Niagara Falls. There is a great bike path running along the Niagara River and Parkway between the two. The area is one vineyard after another. What a great idea - take your bike on a wine tasting tour - it won’t matter how much tasting you do! Barb and Mark - you would like it there. Great place to golf too! We want to come back someday.

We again braved the super-highways QEW and 401 and a couple others and passed by St. Catherines, Hamilton, Burlington, Kitchener-Waterloo and Stratford to Seaforth and Goderich. Seaforth was our destination to explore the area Great Grandfather’s Thomas (GGG) and Joshua(GG) lived and farmed. We passed through Seaforth to Goderich on the Huron Coastline, where the Land Registry is located for Huron County. We obtained township maps and information and had a look at Lake Huron.

Arriving back in Seaforth we called the town office to find a campground and were told to call Ross the Undertaker. How much luckier can you get when you also want information about cemeteries in the area! We toured around Seaforth on our way to supper, and low and behold, we found Great-Grandfather Joshua’s house. No doubt about it - it matches the picture Jerry sent. She is one grand old house! Larry talked to the present owner who has been there for 35 years and he confirmed the match, but doesn’t remember anything about the Dennisons.

On Saturday we spent half the day walking in cemeteries. In Baird Cemetery, we found headstones for Pat’s GGG Grandfather Gilmour and two wives (one of whom was a Baird) and on the other side of the headstone was her GG Grandfather Gilmour and wife - all who originally came from Scotland. We were not able to find any land locations but there are still Bairds living in the area. The cemetery is near Brucefield in a heavily treed area which was particularly beautiful this time of year.

From Baird Cemetery we headed back to Maitlandbank Cemetery at Seaforth, a distance of 16 km, about 10 miles to find Joshua and Elizabeth Dennison’s gravesites. Larry and I find it quite interesting that unknown to us for so many years, our ancestors lived so close to each other.

We then drove north and were able to find the farm of John Dennison - thanks to directions from June and Keith and Jean (Dennison) and Dick Girard of Sarnia. Also thanks to Jerry for the old pictures without which we could not have been sure of what we were looking for. We had no trouble finding the farm and had a nice visit and tour of the farm and the house from present owners, Murray and Sherry McCall. Murray’s father bought the farm in 1944 from John Dennison and Murray said Joshua Dennison was the last man to go out the front door - his funeral was held there - and the door just happened to be boarded up after that. They are doing a huge addition on to the house - kitchen, dining, family room, porch, bathroom (the shower alone is 6ft x 10ft) complete with elevator to a cinema room. They got brick from Medicine Hat to match the old house and are also redoing all the old part of the house in new hardwood et al. They fly a 1966 Cessna 172 so Larry and Murray had a nice flying and farming visit. Murray isn’t sure if John Dennison built the house originally, but he is going to find out from the Land Registry Office. By the way, Jeannie and Ken, Sherry’s sister lives north of Melfort - names are Alex & Gail Glanville. Do you know them?

From John’s farm we drove to the land that Thomas Dennison farmed, Larry’s GGG Grandfather. There are no buildings on the land - just a creek beside it and a lot of corn on it.

We drove north of their nearest town, Walton, to Brussels Cemetery where we were lucky to find the tall pointed headstone of Thomas Dennison. Lucky because the cemetery was huge and a lot of the old stones could not be read.

Back in Seaforth we tried to go to the Museum, but being Saturday, it was closed. However, we had a most successful day tracking down some ancestral history. Not only that, we saw a lot of agriculture across southern Ontario. They are growing lots of corn, and some soybeans and white beans. They haven’t any harvest done yet. The beans are desiccated and the corn isn’t hurting they said. They have had 5 inches of rain in the last two weeks. There are a lot of cattle and dairies, so most of the corn goes for feed. Many farms have big, old brick houses, square, grey board wood barns and the trees were turning beautiful reds and golds. Murray said it is a tough go farming there too. Besides his land (we don’t know how much he has), he used to run 500 cattle and a trucking business with seven trucks.

We shifted gears and headed back to Stratford for the night where we took in the live theater production of Don Juan at the Avon Theatre. It was great. And so too was the warm shower the next morning - in a heated bathroom for a change. We are cozy in our little truck camper, but these early morning showers without heat in October are getting a little coooooolll. That day we again took advantage of being in Stratford and we lucky enough to get rush tickets to the musical Oliver.

So this will be the last installment in this travel blog. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed doing it. We left Stratford homeward bound on October 1st via Sarnia, on to the Straits of Mackinac, through to Duluth, then to Grand Forks, up through Manitoba and to Yorkton where we will spend Thanksgiving with the kids. We can’t wait to see them.

As I write this, we in Marquette, Michigan on Lake Superior. The trees are at their glory in full fall color. We arrived full circle yesterday when we crossed our path on Highway 28 at Seney, Michigan.

We have put over 12,000 km on the truck and it will be another 2,500 km before we get home. We have traveled through eight provinces, eight states, saw four great lakes and spent over fifty nights in our little eight foot camper. At 13 years of age, Kelsey has become a good traveler and even enjoyed some parts of the trip. The campground stops and walks were her favorites.

Canada is one great big beautiful country. We saw a lot of country and relearned a lot of history. Each province has its own special qualities and the people are great everywhere. It has been one fantastic, unforgettable trip, and we feel lucky and proud to live in this great country!

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Photos

Niagara River
The trees are turning

Fruit of the Vine
Most of the grapes were picked in the Niagara region. These must be for ice wine.

Joshua's House
We were just lucky to come across it. It's a beautiful old house.

Gilmour Gravestone
They use both sides. Pat's GGG Grandfather and two wives on one side and her GG Grandfather and wife on the other side.

Thomas Dennison Gravestone
He died in 1900

Beautiful Trees
On the way to Baird Cemetery