The Scott Family
The Scott saga in Cramahe Township begins with Reuben Scott (1792-1872).
Reuben Scott was the son of Aaron Scott (1750-1807) and Ann Hawley (1748-1846). His birthplace is usually cited as “New York” (so indicated on his death record), and his date of birth variously listed anywhere from 1790 to 1792. One Ancestry.ca reference that purports to know his exact birthdate (4/10/1792) and lists his birthplace as Cornwall, Addison Co., Vermont. This latter record is probably accurate, because a death notice in “More Notices from Methodist Papers 1830-1867” by Rev. Donald A. McKenzie, Hunterdon House, Lambertville, NJ, 1986, reads as follows:
“WINTERS, Mrs. Anne, nee Hawley, was born in New Milford, Conn., in 1748, married Aaron Scott when she was about 16, and joined the Congregational Church along with her husband. About 1772, they moved to Vermont, and in 1801 to Madrid, St. Lawrence County, NY, where they joined the M. E. Church. Mr. Scott died there in 1807, leaving his wife with ten sons and four daughters. Three years later, Mrs. Scott came to Canada with her four youngest sons, settling in Midland District. In the early part of her 69th year, she married Christopher Winters, and moved with him to Haldimand. After 20 years and six months of marriage, he died, and she went to live with her youngest son, Reuben Scott, Colborne. She died there Nov. 14, 1846, survived by five of her children. —Feb. 9, 1847, p. 27 O.”
If Ann’s son Reuben was born prior to 1801, as all records indicate, this definitely puts his birthplace in Vermont.
Reuben Scott first appeared in Cramahe censuses in 1817, although the 1842 census indicated that he had been a resident for 28 years, suggesting that he arrived in about 1814. If this date is accurate, it suggests that he was probably employed by someone else prior to 1817. Early Cramahe records listed only heads of households.
In the 1817 census, Scott’s household consisted of a single male and a single female. This would have been Reuben himself and his wife Sarah Louise Keeler (ca. 1795-1864), whom he married in 1815 in Cramahe. This marriage date lends credence to the idea that he was present, though not recorded in censuses, prior to 1817. As outlined elsewhere, Sarah Louise Keeler was “Old” Joseph Keeler’s second cousin (i.e., their fathers were first cousins and their grandfathers were brothers). Like Old Joe, Sarah was from Rutland, Vermont. It isn’t known what brought her to Cramahe and her meeting with Reuben Scott in 1814-15, but it probably had something to do with her relatives.
Reuben Scott wasn’t in the 1818 census, but in 1819, 1820, and 1821, he was living with 1 female over 16 (his wife), and 2 males and 1 female under 16. Only two of the children referenced were born prior to 1819. These were his son James Porter Scott (1817-1858) and daughter Jane Theoda Scott (1818-1886). Who was the second boy? Possibly a child who died young?
By 1822, the Scott children included one boy and one girl under 16. Undoubtedly James and Jane; the mystery boy from the previous three censuses had disappeared by this time. There were two female family members listed who were over 16 in this census; this would have been Reuben’s wife Sarah and someone else of uncertain identity. This was not Reuben’s mother, as she had recently remarried and was living in Haldimand Township. It might have been Sarah’s mother Mary Brooks (1768-1868), although there is no record of her ever living in Canada. She was born and died in Worcester, New York. Still, she might have been living with her second daughter Sarah in Cramahe for a time. Or this might have been some other family member (sister, aunt, cousin, etc.).
The 1823 census listed two males over 16, two males under 16, two females over 16, and one female under 16. By this time James and Jane were six and five years old, so they account for the younger female and one of the younger males. The other young male would have been a new son, Eli Keeler Scott (1822-1853). The mystery female from the 1822 census apparently was still present, and now we have a mystery male over 16 as well. Reuben’s elder brothers Asahel (1778-1851) and Ephraim (1784-?) were also residents of Cramahe Township in the 1820’s. There is no way to know who this second older male was, but given the presence of relatives in the area, there are certainly candidates available. For instance, Asahel had a son (Collin, 1807-1893) who was over 16 (barely) in 1823.
In 1825, there were three males over 16, two females over 16, two males under 16, and two females under 16. The male children were James and Eli. One of the females was Jane. The other was a new daughter, variously called Margaret or Mary Ann (1824-1893). We still have our mystery older male and older female, and now we have a second mystery male over 16.
After 1825 there is a gap in the available records. The next census was dated 1839. By that time the household consisted of two males over 16, four females over 16, three males under 16, and two females under 16. James, Jane, and Eli were all over 16 by 1839. Mary Ann was 15. Two other boys had been born since the 1825 census: Reuben Bartlett Scott (1826-1899) and Joseph Stuart Scott (1829-1876). So the older males were father Reuben and one of his older sons (the other apparently having left home by then). Three of the four older females were mother Sarah, daughter Jane, and Reuben’s mother Anne Hawley, who had moved in with him and his family in about 1837. Was the other one perhaps the same woman who had been present since 1822? The younger children included Mary Ann, Reuben, and Joseph, but this leaves us with one male and one female unaccounted for. Who were they? More children who died? Cousins?
Numbers in 1840 were the same as in 1839.
By 1851, the household consisted of Reuben and Sarah, their son Joseph, and their daughter Mary Ann. Also present were Mary Ann’s four children Edwin, Ralph, Emma, and Helen Abbott. There was also an 83 year old widow named Mary Hinman living with them. Who was she? She was listed immediately after Sarah in the census, and before Sarah’s children, so I don’t think she was just a servant. There were a lot of Hinmans in Cramahe and Haldimand Townships at the time, but there isn’t an obvious connection between them and either the Scott or Keeler families. It is really suspicious, however, that Sarah’s mother’s name was Mary, and she was born in 1768 and so was 83 years old in 1851. But there is no reference to her remarrying anyone named Hinman and her gravestone lists her last name as Keeler. Regardless, it’s tempting to think that the mystery woman who had been living with the Scotts since 1822 was in fact Sarah’s mother. This would mean that from 1837 to 1846, both mothers-in-law were living in the household.
The 1861 census included Reuben, Sarah, Mary Ann, and Mary Ann’s children.
By 1871, Sarah was dead and all of the children were also either dead or living elsewhere. Reuben was living with a 52 year old widow named Jane Jones, perhaps a housekeeper?
From 1818 to 1833 Reuben Scott owned the northern half (100 acres) of Lot 33, Concession 1, west of Colborne. He bought this property from Joseph Keeler (his second-cousin-in-law) and sold it to Dugald Campbell. At about the time he sold his property west of Colborne, he transferred his interests to Lot 28, Concession 2 (now East Colborne), where he bought what would later be called Reid Block G from Titus Merriman in 1832. To give you an idea of where Reid Block G was, picture Parliament Street in East Colborne. It runs north from Hwy 2 for about 300 meters, then angles northeast. Block G consisted of the properties on either side of the street along this northeast-running section from just before the bend in the road to the edge of Lot 28. The edge of Lot 28 corresponds with Spencer Street.
Scott erected an iron foundry on this property (or maybe he purchased it with the foundry already in place; information contained in the original purchase documentation not in hand). This foundry was located just east of the modern Parliament Street at the point where it starts to angle northeastward, and is the reason Parliament Street was called Furnace Road prior to 1897.
In 1834 Scott extended his property in Lot 28 to include all the property in that Lot south and west of Reid Block G; this land was also purchased from Titus Merriman. In 1844 Scott extended his holdings along Furnace Road to include some property in Lot 27, Concession 2, which he purchased from Isaac Welton.
Scott divested himself of these properties in the 1850’s. He sold the southwestern part of Lot 28 back to Titus Merriman in 1853 and he sold (gave?) Reid Lot G and the adjacent property in Lot 27 to his son Reuben Bartlett Scott in 1858.
Reuben Scott briefly owned two other properties in the Colborne area as well:
1832-1837: Reid lots 185 and 186. These are at the northeast corner of Hwy. 2 and Durham St. Purchased from Palmer Crandell and sold to Charles Powers.
1848-1849: 10 acres in the SE corner of Lot 29, Concession 1. Now taken up by the eastern edge of the Ogden Point quarry. Purchased from Charles Fiddick and sold to Cuthbert Cumming.
Reuben Scott’s occupation was listed as iron founder in 1842, millwright in 1851, sawyer in 1861, and foundry machinist in 1871. I suspect he was a farmer prior to his purchase of the foundry property in 1833.
Reuben and Sarah Scott had six children on the record, and the censuses described above suggest the possibility of a couple of other children who may not have lived very long. The six known children were James Porter, Jane Theoda, Eli Keeler, Margaret (or Mary Ann), Reuben Bartlett, and Joseph Stuart.
James Porter Scott (1817-1858) lived to the age of 41, and spent all of his life in the Colborne area. The 1851 census listed him as “Enumerator and Township Clerk”, and his name has been listed as township clerk on Land Office records dated between 1851 and 1855. There is a J. P. Scott listed as a fire assurance agent in an 1851 Gazetteer. The only property he owned was made up of Reid Lots 185 and 186, the land on the northeast corner of what is now Hwy. 2 and Durham St. that his father had sold to Charles Powers in 1837. James owned this property from 1841 to 1855 and one assumes he lived there with his family.
James Porter Scott married Louisa Maria Colton (1826-?) in 1841. She was a younger sister of William Henry Colton, who owned the property between the Methodist Church and the Keeler House at number 9 Church Street East. James and Maria had three children: Mary Louisa (1844-1871), Egbert D. (1848-?), and Elizabeth A. (1851-1931). After James died in 1858, his widow and children lived with her parents, the Coltons.
Mary Louisa Scott married Job Male (1846-1932) in 1864. They had one child, Mary L. (1865-1903), then it looks like Mary, age 27, died in 1871 of “inflammation”. Almost immediately, Job appears to have remarried, this time to Mary’s younger sister Elizabeth. “Almost immediately”, because Elizabeth appears in the 1871 census, the same year that Mary died, as Job’s wife. Job and Elizabeth had another six children, all girls: Ida (1872-?), Helen Madie Maud (1876-?), Media (1878-?), Mabel Vinnie Claire (1880-1972), Hazel (1883-?), and Lillian Grace Maria (1891-1973). This means Job Male had seven daughters and no sons. In case anyone’s interested, the chances of this are 1 in 256. Elizabeth Scott Male lived the rest of her life in Colborne, dying of a cerebral hemorrhage (stroke) in 1931. She was the proprietor of a “fancy goods” (ladies’ undergarments) store in Colborne in the mid 1880’s.
James Porter Scott’s second child, and only son, was Egbert D. Scott (1845-1926). He married Hester Ann Reddick (1844-1877) of Brighton Township in 1868 and had one child to whom a reference can be found, Loretta Marie, who was born on 2/18/1877. Hester died eight days later on 2/26/1877, and Loretta died in September of the same year. Egbert then disappeared from Cramahe records. There is an Egbert D. Scott who emigrated from Canada to the United States in 1877. It is almost a certainty that he is the same man, except that his death certificate lists his father as William Scott and his mother’s maiden name as Dorwin. However, this Egbert was born in Canada, he immigrated to the United States the same year our Egbert’s wife and child died, he emigrated just as our Egbert disappeared from Cramahe records, and the woman he married in the USA in 1879 was Lavinia Colton (1845-1918), a cousin of our Egbert’s own mother. This is just too much coincidence for these to be two different Egbert Scotts, despite the discrepancy in parent names on the death certificate. Assuming that they are one and the same, we know that Egbert went from Cramahe to Bureau Co., Illinois, where Lavinia lived, and was recorded living there in the 1900 census. By 1910 he was living in St. Joseph Co., Michigan, and he died there in 1926. Egbert owned two pieces of property in the Colborne area, both of them pretty much after he moved to Illinois:
1877-1884. Scott lots 19-21. These are small lots on the north side of Scott Street, about midway between Durham and Spencer Streets. He purchased them from Hiram Spencer and sold them to Elijah Morrison.
1878-1886. A small piece of property on the east side of Parliament Street pretty much at the north end of Spencer Street. He received this from his brother Reuben Bartlett Scott and sold it to Job Male, his brother-in-law.
Egbert was listed as a farmer in the 1871 Cramahe census, but as a machinist in a birth record and a death record, both from 1877. In all of the US censuses, he is listed as a farmer, except the one for 1920, when he is living with his farmer son-in-law and was himself a farm labourer.
Reuben and Sarah Scott’s second child was Jane Theoda Scott (1818-1886). Nothing is known of her except in a single genealogy on Ancestry.ca that lists her birth and death dates. It isn’t known if she married or where she lived as an adult. She was absent from Cramahe by 1851, when the first census was done that listed family members.
Eli Keeler Scott (1822-1853) was the third child in the Reuben Scott clan. He lived to be only 29 years old and seemingly never married. He died in Toledo, Ohio in 1853, and apparently was gone from Cramahe before the 1851 census was taken. He purchased Reid lots 193, 194, 194A, and 195 from James D. Goslee in 1843. These are the properties along Hwy. 2 between Parliament Street and Durham St, except the lot immediately adjacent to Parliament Street (Reid Lot 196). He sold these lots to various people between 1845 and 1852.
Child number four was a girl, who is called Margaret or Mary Ann in different references. Censuses strongly favour Mary Ann, so that was the name she generally used, and she will be called Mary Ann Scott (1824-1893) here. She married John Abbott (ca. 1822-1850?) some time before 1845 and had four children: Edwin Orlo Abbott (1845-1909), Ralph Randolph Abbott (1847-?), Emma Abbott (1849-?), and Helen Jane Abbott (1850-?). These are the four Abbott children who were living with Reuben and Sarah Scott in 1851 and 1861. The Abbott family was living in Steuben, New York in 1850. Since the Abbott mother and children were living with her parents in 1851, John Abbott likely died in about 1850. Of course he may just have been living somewhere else (perhaps still in Steuben?), but if so, no record can be found. He was certainly dead or divorced by 1861, because Mary Ann remarried in that year to Wellington Reddick (1819-1890) of Cramahe Township. They apparently had no children; subsequent Cramahe censuses had Mary Ann living with Wellington and various step-children, not with the Abbott children or with any new Reddick children of her own. By 1870, Edwin Abbott was living back in New York, the trail ran cold on the other Abbott children.
The fifth of Reuben and Sarah Scott’s children was Reuben Bartlett Scott (1826-1899). He had by far the largest family of any of his siblings and he was involved in many more land transactions than all the rest of them put together, so let’s save him until the end. For the moment, let’s skip ahead to child number six, Joseph Stuart (or Stewart) Scott (1829-1876).
As a young man (1851 census), Joseph Stuart Scott worked as a lumber sawyer, but by 1871 he was a physician, working in Castleton. There is no record of him in 1861, perhaps he was off somewhere studying medicine at that time. He also appears to have taken over his elder brother’s duties as Township Clerk: He has been recorded as such on Land Office transactions between 1857 and 1860. Scott married Mary Elizabeth Irish (1832-?) and they had a son, Stuart Scott (1861-1933). Mary was the daughter of Peter Irish (1802-1886) of Cramahe. One genealogy lists Joseph’s wife’s name as Mary E. Doolittle. This is either in error, or Joseph was Mary’s second husband so that Doolittle was her name when she married Joseph Scott. Joseph and Mary lived in Brighton Township for a while, because their son Stuart was born there in 1860. Stuart would grow up to follow in his father’s footsteps as a physician, living in Lloydstown, Ontario at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Dunn (1863-1933) in 1886, and in Newmarket, Ontario from 1890 to his death from pneumonia (he was also diabetic) in 1933. Stuart had a single child, Ralph Douglas Scott (1888-1959), born in Lloydstown.
Joseph Scott owned the following properties in the Colborne area:
1852-1854: Reid Lots 217 and 218. Purchased from Peleg Wood and sold to William Wilson. These lots are along the south side of Hwy. 2, just a little west of Parliament St.
1856-1859: Reid Lot 385. Purchased from William Coulson and sold to S. Q. Smith. This was a lot south of the Grand Trunk Railway and west of the station. It was at the corner of William Street and a street that no longer exists called Thomas Street, about midway between Division and Ontario Streets.
1857-1859: Reid Lot 236. Purchased from Joseph Keeler III and sold to Joseph Scott’s brother Reuben Bartlett Scott. This lot is on the south side of King Street about midway between Division and Victoria Streets in downtown Colborne. Reuben then returned the lot to Joseph a month later and Joseph sold it to Robert L. Gault the same day.
1858-1874: Reid Lot 244. Purchased from Joseph Keeler and sold to Henry Smith. This is on the west side of Victoria Street about midway between King Street and North Street.
Joseph Scott probably never lived on Reid Lot 385, south of the railway, but the other properties he owned were certainly all candidates for a residence. And notice that they were owned more or less sequentially. Reid Lots 217 and 218 are just across the highway from East Colborne, much of which was owned at one time or another by other Scotts. Reid Lot 244 is in a residential area in Colborne proper and Scott owned it for the longest time of any of his properties. Lot 236 is now commercial, what was there in the 1850’s is unknown.
Now back to Reuben Bartlett Scott:
Remember that Reuben Bartlett Scott’s father had been running an iron foundry in what is now East Colborne since the early 1830’s. Reuben Jr. probably worked for him first as a labourer (so listed in the 1842 census, when Reuben Jr. was 16 years old) and later as a machinist in this foundry. In censuses, gazetteers, and Land Office records for 1858 through 1878, he was described as a machinist, with the 1871 census specifying foundry machinist and the 1861 census and one Land Office record specifying simply founder. Reuben Sr. transferred ownership of his lands in East Colborne, including the land on which the foundry sat, to Reuben Jr. in 1858. Reuben Sr. was 66 years old at the time, and I suspect he turned over control of the business to his son as well. Reuben Jr. passed the foundry property on to his own son Walter Winfield Scott in 1877. Since Walter’s occupation was also “machinist”, I presume that the foundry business was still running at the time. I think the business as well as the property was passed to Walter, because in the 1881 census his father’s occupation was listed as exporter, no longer either machinist or founder; the last mention of Reuben Jr. in the iron business was dated 1878. Walter passed the property back to his father when he, Walter, moved away from Colborne in 1882 (see below). Reuben then sold the property to his brother-in-law Job Male in 1888. The next census, 1891, lists Reuben, rather unexpectedly, as a soap manufacturer. Gazetteers for 1893 and 1895 refer to him as a Justice of the Peace. The foundry must have stopped functioning about this time, partly because of the information outlined above, and partly (and admittedly weakly) because the road running past the foundry stopped being called Furnace Road and started being called Parliament Street in about 1897.
The Scotts at one time owned much of what is now East Colborne. Over the years Reuben sold of bits and pieces of this land to various people:
1852: JohnAllen
1869: Almira Merriman
1871: Job Male
1877: Walter W. Scott 1877: Sarah J. Young 1878: Egbert D. Scott 1884: Egbert D. Scott
1884: MaryTurney 1887: Job Male 1888: Job Male 1890: Abraham L. Scott
1891: Charles Drewry 1892: Wallace R. Scott
1893: ElizabethA. Scott
1893: Walter W. Scott 1893: Ambrose Male 1897: Minnie A. Scott 1897: Abram A. Gould
Besides the East Colborne properties, Reuben Bartlett Scott owned various other lots in Colborne: As already discussed, he received Reid Lot 236 from his brother Joseph in 1859, and returned it to him 1 month later (see above). This looks like some sort of monetary juggling act because Joseph sold the property to Robert L. Gault the same day he got it back from Reuben. Reuben Bartlett Scott is credited with building the unique octagon house at 45 Parliament Street in East Colborne.
The Reuben Scott family standing in front of their octagonal house, ready to depart for the Methodist Church. Reuben and his wife Maria are standing in front of the window to the right. This house was built in 1850 and still stands on Parliment Street in Colborne, Ontario. Correction: Marie, widowed by 1900 is in the front door.
Starting in 1876, Reuben B. Scott started dealing in properties in the downtown area in Coborne. In 1876 he purchased the western half of Reid lot 164 from Anna Sinclair. In 1877 he extended this property to the west with a section of Reid Lot 163 purchased from David H. Minaker, and a bit further west still with bits of property, also in Reid Lot 163, purchased in 1878 and 1879 from William Coxall. Scott sold all of this property in downtown Colborne to Alexander F. Peterson in 1884, but the same year he purchased the eastern half of Reid Lot 164, just east of the part he had purchased in 1876, from Mary A. Hawkins. This is the property he transferred to his elder sister Elizabeth in 1885, and she had a dress shop there. At the moment it isn’t possible to pin down the modern stores that correspond to these properties. In 1868 Scott purchased Reid Lot 57, on the west side of Percy St. one lot south of Cedar Street, from John Bly, and owned it until 1877, when he sold it to Lucinda Harris.
Reuben Bartlett Scott married Maria Angeline Huyck (1831-1911) of Adolphustown in 1848. They had twelve children, and seem to have had a penchant for naming them after famous figures of the recent past. One of their sons was Abraham Lincoln Scott. This reference is obvious; A. L. Scott was the first of Reuben Bartlett Scott’s children born after Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. Another son was Walter Winfield Scott. Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor were the two American generals who were the heroes (from the American point of view) of the Mexican War of 1846-1848. Interestingly, Winfield Scott first became famous at the Battle of Queenston Heights in one of the American attempts to invade Canada during the War of 1812. I wonder if Reuben and Maria knew that. A third son was Edward Blake Scott. Edward Blake was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and the Premier of Ontario in 1871 and 1872.
Here are their children:
- Elizabeth Ann Scott (1849-1915). Elizabeth married at the age of 44 in 1893 and had no children. Her husband was Nathan Tupper Lowe (1843-1930), a mechanic from Nova Scotia by way of Deseronto, Ontario. Elizabeth appeared in Cramahe censuses through 1881. She was a milliner in Colborne from at least 1881 through 1889, but it isn’t known where she went in 1891. Perhaps she was in Deseronto? She was back in Colborne to get married in 1893 and she and her husband were listed in the 1901 Colborne census. By 1911 they had moved to Welland Co., Ontario, and that is where Elizabeth died of rectal cancer in 1915. Nathan was a carpenter in 1901 and a farmer in 1911. Elizabeth purchased part of Reid Lot 164, on the north side of King Street between Maybee and Victory Lanes, from her brother Reuben in 1885. This is in the heart of the business district of Colborne, where one assumes her dress shop was located, not her residence. She sold it in 1888 to Mary A. Scott. There is no reference to a Mary A. Scott in Cramahe, so this was either her mother Maria Angelina Scott or, more likely, her sister, Maria Amelia Scott. No record of the transaction can be found. Since Elizabeth continued as a milliner in Colborne at least into 1889, perhaps “Mary A.” worked with her in this shop. The property was sold to Ellen Rieve in 1895. Elizabeth also received a small property along Furnace Road (Parliament Street) on the west edge of Lot 28 from her brother in 1893, the year she married. This is probably where the Lowes lived while residents of Colborne. It seems her estate still owned the property until sometime after 1921.
- Walter Winfield Scott (1851-1910). Like his father and grandfather, Walter Scott was a machinist. He was a resident of Colborne until 1881 or 1882, at which point he moved to Peel, Ontario. By 1891 he was living in Brockville, Ontario, where he remained through the 1901 census. He died of apoplexy on his way to the hospital in Hamilton, Ontario in 1910. Walter married Nancy Jane Reynolds (1856-1929) of Cramahe Twp. in 1874. There were six children, the first four born in Colborne, the fifth in Peel, and the sixth in Brockville. They were Adeline Maria (1875-1958), an unnamed child who must have died in infancy (1877-?), Bertha May (1878-?), Ida Louisa (1880-?), Ethel Maud (1882-?), and Eva L. (1896-?). As discussed above, Walter Scott owned, and operated, the iron foundry on Furnace Road (now Parliament Street) from 1877 to 1882 when he left Colborne and turned it back over to his father. He also owned Scott Lot 13 on the southwest corner of Furnace Road and Scott Street from 1877 to 1882. This was an easy walk from the iron foundry, so probably he and his family lived there. Nancy Scott continued to own the property after Walter’s death. She sold it to Charles L. Eddy in 1919.
- Jane Louisa Scott (1855-1892). Like her elder sister Elizabeth, Jane Scott was a milliner in 1881, and was probably another of the Scott girls working in the dress shop that we hypothesize existed on King Street in the 1880’s. Jane married Edward H. Lapp (ca. 1861-?) in 1883 and by 1891 Jane and Edward were living (with her sister Maria) in Deseronto, Ontario. They had no children and Jane died in 1893. Jane received Scott Lot 5, along the south side of Scott Street, from Sarah J. Young in 1879 and sold it to Thomas R. Latell in 1882.
- Maria Amelia Scott (1857-1924). Maria was a schoolteacher in 1881. She married Lorenzo Noel Werden (1861-1926), a mechanic, in 1892. Although they were married in Colborne, both Maria and Lorenzo were residents of Deseronto at the time. They had no children. Neither one can be found in censuses for 1911 or 1921, but they both died in Toronto in the 1920’s. Maria Scott owned a piece of property just east of the north end of the modern Spencer Street for about five days (9/26 to 10/1) in 1887. She also owned a lot across the street in Lot 28 after 1888 (received from Job Male). Sisters Elizabeth, Jane, and Maria Scott all seem to be tied together: Jane and Elizabeth were milliners. Maria wasn’t listed as a milliner, it is believed that she purchased the dress shop previously owned by her sister. All three of the sisters are missing from 1891 censuses, but appear shortly thereafter marrying men from Deseronto. The implication is that they moved together from Colborne to Deseronto sometime around or just before 1890.
- James Peter Scott (1859-1933). James Scott eventually followed the family tradition of working in the metal business. The 1881 Colborne census lists him simply as merchant. An 1882 Gazetteer had him dealing in “groceries, confectionary, and flour”. Later censuses refer to him as a dealer in scrap metal and his death certificate refers to him as “retired, formerly in metals.” He married Minnie Agatha Ives (1868-1959) of Colborne in 1894. Interestingly, there are several genealogies that state that he married her in ca. 1883 in Napanee; one of these also says he married her in 1894(!). Their marriage record clearly says they were married in Colborne in 1894. This 1883 reference might just be a mistake perpetuated from one genealogy to another, or Scott might have had a previous marriage. If so, there is no reference to his first wife’s name. He married Minnie when she was 15, then again 11 years later. James and Minnie had four children, all girls: Agatha J. (1896-?), Helen A. (1900-?), Susanna Ives (1906-?), and Luella Isabelle (1906-?). The last two of these were twins. James Scott was present in Colborne censuses through 1881 but not in 1891, however he married in Colborne in 1894 (this doesn’t mean he lived there; he may have returned to marry a girl from Colborne). By 1901 he and his family were living in Toronto, and he remained there for the rest of his life. Though a resident of Toronto at the time, he died of a heart attack in Muskoka District, Ontario in 1933. Although James Scott doesn’t appear to have ever owned any property in the Colborne area, his wife bought 48 acres in the southwestern corner of Concession 1, Lot 27 (just east of East Colborne) from her father-in-law in 1897. She continued to own it until after 1921.
- Martha Eliza Scott (1861-1931). Martha married John Elmslie Flewwelling (1851-1940) from Wellington Co., Ontario in 1882. Flewwelling was the editor of the Northumberland Express. He had been married before to Mary Jane Isaac (1855-1881) but she died the year before her husband remarried. John and Martha Flewwelling took up residence in Wellington Co., Ontario, and their first child was born there: Beatrice (1885-1900). Their second child, Claude Edward (1888-?), was born in Belleville. Sometime between 1888 and 1894 the Flewwellings were divorced, because as of 1900 John Flewwelling was living in Oskaloosa, Iowa with his two daughters from his first marriage, and the census for that year referred to him as divorced. Their son Claude was born in 1888 so the divorce almost certainly didn’t occur more than 9 months before that. The 1915 Iowa census says John had been present in the United States for 21 years, so it probably didn’t occur after 1894. Flewwelling continued to appear in Iowa censuses in 1910 and 1920, by then with yet another wife, Lue Ellen BeDillon (1868-1955). His occupation in Iowa was newspaper editor. Interestingly, Claude Edward Flewwelling was living in Toronto in 1911 with an “Emily” Flewwelling, listed as his mother. “Emily” was of about the same age as Martha Scott, so the census must have got her name wrong. The interesting point is that the census listed her as widowed, not divorced. Was this just another mistake, or did she not admit her divorced status to the census takers? That possibility speaks to the social norms of the era, because there are not many divorces in the records from those days, and there was much more stigma involved then than there is now. Martha died in 1931 in Colborne. Beatrice was never a resident of Cramahe Twp., but Claude was there in 1901 living with his uncle Frederick Joseph Scott and family. There is no record of Martha that year. Beatrice was dead. Claude married Maude Susannah Bidwell (1895-1976) in Toronto in 1920 and, although he does not appear in the 1921 Colborne census, his child William Edward was born there in January of that year and died there six months later of convulsions secondary to gastroenteritis. Claude Flewwelling served as a staff sergeant in a field ambulance unit during the First World War.
- Sarah Ella Scott (1864-1916). Sarah appeared in Colborne censuses through 1911. She died in 1916 in Toronto of mitral stenosis (a form of heart disease). She never married. There is something written in the 1891 census under occupation, but it is illegible. No other census recorded an occupation, and in fact the 1911 census specifically said “none”.
- Abraham Lincoln Scott (1867-1954). Abraham Scott (called Lincoln Scott in some censuses) lived in Colborne until 1896 and was employed there as a soap maker, probably working for his father. He married Sylvia Ann Avery (1869-1959) in 1890. There are no genealogies listing their children, but from birth records and censuses it is evident they had at least four: James Winfield (1892-?), Ralph Bartlett (1894-?), Nellie Pearl (1896-?), and Grace (1901-?). The A. L. Scott family was living in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1900, and Lincoln County, Ontario in 1911 and 1921. The 1900 Massachusetts census listed Abraham as a machinist; in the 1911 and 1921 censuses he was a farmer. Abraham Scott died in Colborne in 1954. James, Ralph, and probably Pearl Scott were born in Colborne. The 1921 census gives Grace’s birthplace as Ontario. I would guess this was probably Lincoln County. I can’t find any records of what happened to James, Pearl, and Grace. Ralph was working as a fruit grower in Jordan Station, Ontario when he married Rose Ellen Jones (ca. 1895-?) in 1917 in Toronto. Abraham Scott owned Scott Lot 31 (on the east side of Parliament Street about half way between the point at which it veers northeast and where it crosses Scott Street) from 1890 to 1899. He received it from his father and sold it to Alexander Morrow.
- Wallace Reuben Scott (1869-1939). Unlike any of his brothers, Wallace Scott remained in Cramahe Twp. for his entire life. He married Beatrice May Fitzgerald (1870-1933) in 1893 and had no children. The 1891 census and his marriage record in 1893 listed him as a soap manufacturer. In 1901 he was a “trader” and in 1911 and 1921 he was a farmer. He is buried in Colborne, and he died there as well. Wallace Scott received Scott Lot 28 (on the southeastern corner of Scott Street and Parliament Street) in 1892. He also owned properties south along the eastern edge of Parliament Street after 1916. Lot 28 was probably where he lived.
- Annetta Gertrude Scott (1872-1942). Generally called “Nettie”. Married George Benjamin Mallory (1874-1962), a Cramahe farmer, in 1902. They had three daughters: Harriet Maria (1902-1974), Helen Eudora (1904-2000), and Cora Beatrice (1909-1977).
- Frederick Joseph Scott (1875-1940). Fred Scott married Nellie Winifred Windover (1883-?) in 1905. They appear to have had only a single child, Clarence Edward (1906-1907), who died in infancy of “marasmus”, i.e., starvation, in Colborne. Sometime between the death of their child and 1911, Fred and Nellie moved to Toronto and, lived there for the rest of their lives. Fred died there in 1940. Prior to moving to Toronto, Fred was a farmer. In the 1911 Toronto census he was listed as a foreman, but it isn’t clear of what. There are no land transactions involving Frederick Scott, but his son’s death record suggests that he lived on Parliament Street in 1907.
- Edward Blake Scott (1878-1948). The last of Reuben Bartlett Scott’s children, Edward, lived in Colborne through 1891. 1901 found him in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he married Cora Belle Pressey (1874-1959). They had a daughter in Worcester in 1903: Hazel Pressey (1903-1984). The 1911 Ontario census listed Cora’s immigration date as 1906, so this is probably when she, Edward, and Hazel moved from Massachusetts. In 1911 and 1921, the family, along with Cora’s father, were living in Toronto. Also present in the household in 1921 was one of Edward’s nieces (daughter of his sister Nettie), Harriet Maria Mallory. A son was born in Toronto: Edward J. (1912-?). Hazel and Edward are the only children to whom a reference has been found and there is no genealogy listing any others. In 1911 Edward’s occupation was listed as buyer, and a word that looks like “meters”. In 1912 and 1921, he was listed as a “traveler”.
There are other Scotts in various Cramahe censuses, but it’s a common name, and they don’t seem to be related to the Reuben Scott clan.