#5 – Jack Wilson

From left: Cecil, Jack, and Hugh (1905)

John Alfred Wilson was born March 25, 1905 in Pittsburg Township, Ontario in Frontenac County.  He was the fourth child and third son of John and Mary (Thompson) Wilson.  In 1911, Jack was aged 6 and living with his parents John (37) and Mary (38), his brothers Hugh (9), Cecil (8), Charles (4 – my grandpa), William (3), his sisters Marjorie (5), Theresa (1), and his grandmother Mary (Gibson) Wilson (74).  He is listed as Swedish because his grandfather, John Wilson, came to Canada from Sweden.

From left: Charles, Cecil, Marjorie, Theresa, Hugh, Jack (seated), and William (about 1915)

In 1921, Jack was 16 and living with his parents John (47) and Mary (49), his brothers Cecil (18), Charles (14), William (12), his sisters Marjorie (15), Theresa (11), and his grandmother Mary Wilson (84).

At age 24, in April 1929, Jack passed through Detroit on his way to Dearborn to join his brother Hugh who was living on Park Street.  In the 1930 census, Hugh was rooming on Park Street and was a salesman at a creamery.  My grandfather Charles had arrived in 1928 and in 1930 was living on Columbia Street in Dearborn and was a truck driver at a creamery.  Jack, in the 1930 census, was employed as a crane operator at a foundry.  He was living with Fred and Mary Curtis on W. Lafayette in Detroit.

On September 2, 1930, Jack married Bessie Winnifred Eastwood (her mother’s maiden name was Curtis).  In the 1940 census taken on April 11th, Jack and Winnie were living on Military Street in Detroit and he was a crane operator at a brass factory.  According to this census, Jack had completed 8th grade while Winnie had completed 2 years of high school.  In 1935, they had been living in the same place.

Jack and Winnie’s Wedding, September 2, 1930

On April 29, 1940, Jack’s mother died at the farm in Pittsburg Township. On May 16, 1940, Winnie gave birth to a son in Detroit.  The family moved back to Canada soon after to run the farm.  On September 23, 1945, they had a daughter.  According to William J. Patterson’s Lilacs and Limestone: An Illustrated History of Pittsburgh Township, 1787-1987, Jack won Farmer of the Year in 1963 from the Frontenac Soil and Crop Improvement Association.  Jack died June 11, 1987 and Winnie died in February 2001.

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Sunday’s Obituary – Mary Thompson Wilson

Since we’re talking about Mary Thompson Wilson, here is her obituary from 1940.  It’s presumably from a Kingston (Ont.) newspaper, but I don’t know for sure.

Daily Blogging Prompt: Sunday’s Obituary

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Treasure Chest Thursday : A Tiny Tablecloth

This small table covering was embroidered by Mary Thompson, my great-grandmother.  In the center are the cursive initials M.T. and below them is the year 1892.  Below is a picture of Mary from 1898, the year she married John Wilson of Amherst Island, Ontario.

See also this earlier post.

Daily Blogging Prompt: Treasure Chest Thursday

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Mary Thompson, 1872-1940

Mary Agnes Thompson was born in March 10, 1872 on Amherst Island, Ontario. She was the daughter of Archibald Thompson and Eliza Dunning, both from Ireland. Records show she had one sister and nine brothers.  Mary married John Wilson in Deseronto, Ontario on November 1, 1898.  The witnesses to the wedding were her brother Cecil and her sister Agnes.  The Thompson family seems to have moved to Deseronto sometime between 1891 and 1898 since they were still living on the island in the 1891 census.  John and Mary lived on Howe Island, Ontario for the first 5 or so years of their marriage. 

The small tablecloth pictured at left was made by Mary Thompson in 1892 when she was around 20 years of age.  Click on the image to see it a little bigger.

Today happens to be Mary’s (it’s hard to call someone who died 39 years before you were born “Great-Grandma”) 139th birthday.  She  died on April 29, 1940.

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Wilson Family Homestead

Robert Way House
Location: Lot 19, Concession 2
Original owner: Robert Way
Date of construction: 1848-1858ca
Present owners: Mr. & Mrs. J.A. Wilson, R.R. 2, Kingston

Architectural Description: 
The Way House is a frame farmhouse that is now covered over with aluminum siding.  The 1 1/2 storey centre gabled kitchen tail was probably the original house.  Under the siding it is constructed of logs.  It is attached to the south end of the main block.  The main block is also 1 1/2 storeys.  The roof of the main block is end gabled and of medium pitch.  There is a single new brick chimney at the west gable end.  All the windows in the main block are new.  In the main (north) facade there is a 1 light per sash window on either side of the plain trim door.  The awning over the door and the shutters are new.  On the east side of the main block there is a large picture window in the lower storey and two 1 light per sash windows in the upper storey.  There is a small recent porch addition on the lower storey.  There is one window on the south side of the main block and on the west side there are two upper and two lower storey windows.  The east facade of the kitchen tail has been largely obscured by a closed in porch.  There is a medium pitched centre gable with a window in it.  On the south side there is one window above the garage.  The west facade of the kitchen tail also has a medium pitched centre gable with a window in it.  There is a lower storey window and a porch addition.  It is quite difficult to tell what the original house looked like since it its covered with siding and so many changes and additions have been made.  The interior walls of the kitchen tail are very deep which leads one to believe that it is probably constructed of logs.

History:
The property on which this house was built was orginally owned by Donald MacDonell.  Robert Way, the original owner of the house, bought the property in 1848.  The 1860 Wallings Map shows a house on this lot owned by Robert Way.  In 1868 Robert Way sold the property.  Until 1902 when the Wilson family bought the property it was owned by John McRorey.  The Wilson family has owned the house since 1902.

-Previous information from a survey done sometime before 1987

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John Andrew Wilson, 1874-1930

John Andrew Wilson, the son of John Wilson and Mary Ann Gibson, married Mary Thompson on November 1, 1898. They lived on Howe Island where their first two children, Annie Maud and Hugh, were born. They then moved to the mainland – to Pittsburg Township, Ontario – in 1903. Annie Maud died in July 1904. John and Mary had eight more children. John died in 1930 and Mary died in 1940. Their son John (Jack) ran the farm after 1940.

More about the Wilson homestead at Pittsburg in the next post.

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