Dickson and Leslie Family Histories
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to a hiding place in the Walsh haymow in Spry Bay Leslie, and rebuilt the church two years later at its present site which was donated by Captain Henry Godfrey Leslie (Maple Hill Henry). Politics and other considerations at that time worked against any particular friendly feelings between the Henleys and the Leslies, despite the fact they occasionally intermarried. After William Gasper Leslie died, his widow, Mary Ann (Boutilier) Leslie moved to Beaver Harbour where she raised the sons of her daughter Sarah. She sold the house in Spry Bay to her brother in law John Charles Leslie, who used it in the butcher business he operated with his son, Henry Cooper Leslie. The eight children of William Gasper Leslie and Mary Ann (Boutilier) Leslie were: 5.1 Charles Edward Leslie, born 1850, Master Mariner, lost at sea, married Sarah Thompson. 5.1.1 Violet Templeman Leslie, born June 11, 1882 or 1883. 5.2 Sarah Ellen Leslie, born 1856, married Charles Edward Jewers, Beaver Harbour. 5.2.1 John William Jewers, born October, 1884. 5.2.2 Roy Leslie Jewers, b. March, 1887, buried Beaver Harbour. 5.2.3 Beatrice Jewers. When her husband died, Sarah Ellen became a hostess on a tour ship going from Halifax to the West Indies, leaving the boys in Beaver Harbour with her widowed mother. 5.3 William Leslie, born 1858, Master Mariner, lost at sea. He was engaged to Libby Newcombe, daughter of Frank Newcombe. 5.3.1 Bertha Newcombe, married Alex Hart, lived in Halifax. 5.4 Margaret Matilda Leslie, born April 21, 1859, died young. 5.5 Jean or Jane Leslie, born 1861, died Sept. 5, 1912, second wife of her cousin Peter Jamison Leslie, see 1.8. 5.6 Emily Matilda Leslie, born 1863, married James Whitman of Beaver Harbour, February 19, 1885. 5.7 Allison Leslie, born 1867, barge captain. On January 7, 1934 he suffered a fatal accident in Boston, while at the helm of the coal bargeTrenton, when the wheel was wrenched from his hands by heavy January seas and he was struck on the head by one of its spokes. He died at Haymarket Relief Hospital. He married Almira Clementine Lawlor of Spry Bay, January 27,1887. 5.7.1 Binny St Clair Leslie, born May 25, 1887, died July 11, 1914 of typhoid at Portland, Maine. 5.7.2 Bertha Maud Leslie, born September 25,1889, married (1.10.1) Ethelbert Leslie, son of Hezekiah Leslie. 5.7.3 Esther Laurella Leslie, born September 30, 1893, died April 24, 1972 in San Diego, California, married D. M. Quigley, July 20, 1920. 5.8 Annie Leslie, born 1869, married William McLean. 6. John Charles Leslie, born May 5, 1835, died October 17, 1921. John Charles Leslie, 1835-1921 John Charles Leslie married Maria Cooper, born on December 17, 1838, died December 13, 1932. He was a farmer, merchant, and butcher, and operated a carding mill at Spry Bay. He injured his knee when young and thereafter always walked with a stiff leg. John Charles Leslie was a very large and strong man with a quiet disposition. One fall, mackerel fishing at Canso, Nova Scotia, he was in a game of cards at a house occupied by fishermen of Canso who were regarded as a tough bunch. When some of the fishermen undertook to pick a quarrel with John Charles Leslie over the Maria (Cooper) Leslie1838-1932 game, with his last card in his hand, he brought his fist down with such force that he smashed through the solid oak table top. Every man and boy in the house shut up quick! 6.1 Sarah Elizabeth Leslie, born Dec. 10, 1860, died June 29, 1866. 6.2 Mary Ellen Leslie, born January 30, 1861, died Sept. 22, 1864. 6.3 Gasper James Leslie, accountant, warden of St James Church at Spry Bay, born August 20, 1862, and died July 25, 1930 of septic arthritis. Known as G.J., or Uncle Gap, he married twice. First, on December 8, 1891 at Port Morien to Jane Warren Murrent, born December 27, 1862, died September 1, 1912. 6.3.1 Robert Anthony Campbell Leslie, b. Oct. 6,1892, at Port Morien, then called Cow Bay, was the Spry Bay School Board secretary for 27 years, died Jan. 21, 1977, married, November 9, 1932, Marion Alberta Boutilier born June 24, 1906, daughter of Robert Anthony Campbell Leslie Francis Archibald Boutilier and 1892-1977 Mary Etta Lawlor, Mushaboom. Marion (Boutilier) Leslie 6.3.1.1 Robert Lawrence Leslie, born April 5, 1936, a road surveyor, married Gloria Diane Monk, on August 30, 1975, at Upper Musquodoboit. 6.3.1.1.1 Kelly Diane Leslie, born February 22, 1977. 6.3.2 James Edward Stansfield Leslie, born June 23, 1894, was married twice. His first wife was Helen Henry, who died at Upper Musquodoboit on October 19, 1918, aged 17. He married Ella Hazel Henley, of Spry Bay, in June, 1926. He died July 2, 1956, at Somerville, Massachusetts. 6.3.3 Marguerite Maria Browning Leslie, born July 1, 1899, married Robert Lawrence Leslie Bernard J. Kelly of Toronto, on February 28, 1922, at St Andrews Church, Toronto. They later separated and she went to live with her aunt Eva Tuttle in Portland, Maine. The second wife of Gasper James Leslie (6.3), whom he married at Spry Bay October 8, 1913, was Harriet Jane Higgins Leslie, widow of T. Theodore Leslie who was the youngest son of George Lawrence Leslie. 6.4 Celestia Leslie, born August 20, 1865, married Elias Pye of Ecum Secum. They had a son and several daughters. 6.5 John Robert Leslie, born April 15, 1867, died December 26,1944. 6.6 Henry James Cooper Leslie (Masonic Henry), born September 10, 1869, farmer, butcher and merchant, staunch Liberal and Mason, died February 10, 1922 of tuberculosis and was buried with Masonic honours at Spry Bay. On September 10, 1902, at St. Luke's Anglican Church, Halifax, he married Flora May Kennickell of Canning, N.S., born January 17, 1877, died August 13, 1948, a great great great granddaughter of Deacon Benjamin Cleveland Jr, born August 30, 1733, whose cousin, Rev. Aaron Cleveland, graduated from Harvard in 1735, was the first minister of the Congregationalist Church (now St. Matthews United), Halifax, 1750-1754, and died in Philadelphia August 11, 1757. Deacon Benjamin Cleveland Jr married Mary Ederkin of Windham, Connecticut, on February 20, 1754, and their daughter was Roxalena Cleveland, born January 23, 1757, died October 1834, who married Hugh Pudsey Sr. Their daughter was Olive Pudsey of Hull, England, who married John William Taylor. Their daughter was Cynthia Ann Taylor, born 1819, who married Wellington Neary, and their daughter was Emma Neary of Grand PrŽ, Nova Scotia who married Adolphus Kennickell, and whose daughter, Flora May Kennikell, married Henry James Cooper Leslie. 6.6.1 Dorothy Marie Leslie, born June 10, 1906, lived in Halifax 1925 to 1976 where she was employed first with the Federal Civil Service, then, for twenty five years with the Provincial Civil Service. She is now retired and Dorothy Marie Leslie living in Kentville. 6.6.2 Charles Avery Leslie, born November 17, 1914, served in the R.C.A.F., was a bookkeeper for the Grand PrŽ Fruit Company and when that company closed down continued as bookkeeper for another orchard business which he set up with two of the staff of Grand PrŽ Fruit. On November 11, 1948, at the Manse in Grand PrŽ, he married Josephine Best of Lower Grand PrŽ. 6.6.2.1 Gordon Stratton Leslie, born February 21, 1949, at Halifax, works at the Kentville Research Station. 6.6.2.2 Joan Cynthia Leslie, R.N., born January 31, 1950, married Keith Spicer of Hantsport, September15, 1971. 6.6.2.3 Edward Charles Leslie, born Feb. 19, 1951. 6.6.2.4 James Leslie, born June 17, 1952, works at Hantsport Pulp and Paper Co. 6.6.2.5 David Phillip Leslie, born March 10, 1954, married Karen McKinley of Wolfville November 15, 1975. 6.6.2.5.1 Rebecca, born February 14, 1979. 6.6.2.5.2 Andrew, born October 5, 1981. 6.6.2.6 Connie Leslie, born April 8, 1955. 6.6.2.7 Ruth Leslie, born September 30, 1956. 6.6.2.8 Geoffrey Leslie, born Sept. 16, 1960. 6.6.2.9 Nancy Leslie, born July 16, 1963, now in the U.S. 6.7 Mary Catherine Leslie, born October 15, 1871, became the second wife of J. William Bollong of Pope's Harbour, in August, 1901. He had several young children from his previous marriage. J. William and Mary Catherine Leslie Bollong were living in Fontana, California in 1950. 6.8 Annie Lillian Leslie, born September 13, 1873, married Aldon Veniotte of Lubec, Maine, Dec 22, 1896. 6.9 Eva Rebecca Leslie, born June 26, 1877, married a Tuttle and lived in Portland, Maine. Fraser-MacGregor Among the early settlers at Pictou, Nova Scotia, were Alexander Fraser born in Scotland in 1735, and Alice Flora MacGregor, born in Scotland, 1752. Family lore is that both were on the Hector, though the only MacGregor on the passenger list was John MacGregor. Either the existing list is incomplete, or Alice Flora MacGregor arrived on some other ship. The brig Hector, in its famous voyage of 1773, started from Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, where she embarked three families and five single men, then sailed north to Loch Broom, Rosshire where 33 more families and 25 more unmarried men, plus the recruiting agent, John Ross, were taken on board. The ship set sail from Loch Broom July 10, 1773, arriving in Pictou Harbour 9 weeks and 4 days later, on September 15. There were 189 passengers including 27 children under two years of age, 44 children between 2 and 9 years. Eighteen people died enroute, mostly children, and mainly from smallpox and dysentery. Since 1767, Pictou, as part of the Philadelphia plantation, had been haphazardly settled by the fourteen Scottish grantees of the Philadelphia Company. In 1772, settlement of Pictou was actively promoted in Scotland. Land was offered on easy terms with free provisions for one year, and one way passage on the Hector at a price of £3/5 per adult. Most who accepted the offer came from Ross and Sutherland, and most were tenants, escaping high rents, bad harvests, and strictures against the wearing of the tartan and the playing of the bagpipes, considered to be signs of rebellion. By Highland standards the Pictou colonists were not poor. In 1775, when the Revolution broke out in the American colonies, Alexander Fraser left Pictou and joined the Loyalist forces at Halifax, serving until 1783, when he was discharged and granted land at Sheet Harbour. Legend has it that he walked from there up to Pictou, married Alice Flora MacGregor and brought her back through the pathless woods, a distance of over thirty miles, carrying her over streams and swamps, and for a great part of the distance on his back. Another version is that went back to Scotland after the American Revolution, fetched Alice Flora MacGregor, returned with her to Pictou, thence through the pathless woods to Sheet Harbour. This would account for her name not being on the passenger list of the Hector. Flora died at 75, in June, 1827, and Alexander died at the age of 95 in July, 1830. Their tombstone stands in the Church Point Cemetery, Sheet Harbour. 1. Alexander Fraser II, a trader. See Fraser-Webber. 2. Simon Fraser, born 1785, trader (Quoddy census of 1827). On December 7, 1823 he married Elizabeth Moser, eldest daughter of Henry Moser of Necum Teuch. Simon Fraser died at Moser River in 1883, aged 98. On the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, it is generally believed that Simon was the explorer who discovered the Fraser River in B.C. Family members recall being warned to keep out of the way of their wild, Uncle Simon when he was home from his western explorations. Elsewhere it is held that Simon Fraser, the explorer, was born in Vermont, grandson of William Fraser of Culbokie and Margaret (Macdonell) Fraser of Glengarry, possessor of the "Bailg Solair" of fortuitous goods, including a third century Gaelic manuscript of Ossian legends, and that he lived, after 1817, in Glengarry, Ontario. William and Margaret (Macdonell) Fraser had nine sons, two of whom, Archibald and John, fought under Wolfe at Quebec in 1759, and John became Chief Justice of Montreal District. Another son, Simon, settled near Bennington, Vermont, where his son, Simon, said to be the explorer, was born in 1776. 3. John Fraser, a shipwright in Sheet Harbour in 1838, died November 23, 1860, married Mary, who died September 25, 1874. 4. James Fraser, a shipwright in Sheet Harbour in 1838. 5. Maria Fraser, married Thomas Curry at Sheet Harbour, January 8, 1824. 6. Duncan Fraser. The children of one or more of the above Fraser men were: ?.1 David Fraser, built the 291.93 ton brigantine Peerless, largest vessel ever constructed in the Sheet Harbour area. She was carvel built, 112' long, 29.4' wide, 12.7' deep. ?.2 Alexander Fraser, Justice of the Peace, born 1819, died January 18, 1873, married Lucy Behie. ?.2.1 Orestes P. Fraser, born September 3, 1855, died January 31, 1918, married Alice, July 5, 1861. ?.2.1.1 Burnham Fraser, died at Lunenburg before 1954. ?.3 James Fraser, believed to have moved to Pictou. James Fraser and/or Alexander Fraser may have owned the Magdalene Island Boat Company which Robert Jamison Leslie is said to have bought from his Fraser relatives. ?.4 Jane Fraser, married William Sutherland, shopkeeper at West River, Sheet Harbour. ?.5 Mary Fraser, married John McPhee, lived at Sheet Harbour. Fraser-Webber Alexander Fraser II, a trader, married Barbara A. Webber, October 31, 1817. He died February 14, 1830. Barbara died fifty years later, on October 5, 1880. They are buried at St John's Anglican Cemetery, Necum Teuch (pronounced Neecum Taw), Halifax County, where there is a prominent tombstone to their memory. The soldiers' grant at Sheet Harbour had proved to be unsuitable and some of the grantees and/or their families moved as squatters eastward to Hale's Grant, and applied to the government to have Hale's escheated and regranted to the petitioners. In 1827 both Alexander Fraser II and Simon Fraser, sons of the original grantee, were listed in the census as residing at Newdy Quoddy, apparently part of the Hale Grant. Hale's Grant was escheated on January 8, 1821, and on October 1, 1828, Alexander Fraser II and his brother Simon Fraser were each granted 200 acres in Hale's Grant. The daughter of Alexander Fraser II and Barbara A. (Webber) Fraser was: 1. Sarah Ann Fraser, born at Quoddy, Halifax County, 1824, died, August 25, 1914 after half an hour's illness, married Henry Godfrey Leslie. See Leslie-Fraser. Sarah (Fraser) Leslie, 1823-1914 Henry Godfrey Leslie , 1818-1896 Leslie-Fraser Henry Godfrey Leslie, second son of George Gasper Leslie and Mary Elizabeth (Wentzell) Leslie, was born August 29, 1818, at Eagle Head, Queens County, Nova Scotia, died August 27, 1896, and is buried in the Anglican churchyard at Spry Bay. Henry Godfrey Leslie stood 6 feet 5 inches, weighed 220 pounds and was of powerful build and strength. His daughter, Sarah Conrod, said he could stand with arms folded and there wasn't a man of his acquaintance who could knock the cap off his head! Henry Godfrey Leslie was a man of many talents. He could sing all night and never sing the same song twice. He was so big and strong that he could grasp and lift a large cannon ball with one hand, using only his fingers, the palm of his hand on top of the ball. He was a farmer, a ship builder, master mariner, traded fish for rum, molasses and salt from the West Indies and ran the first Post Office at Spry Bay from his home, Maple Hill House. The road from Halifax, known as the Back Road, passed Spry Bay about one mile north of the village. The mail came by horse and wagon from Halifax, the horses being changed at several places along the route. At the place where the Maple Hill Road met the road from Halifax there was a wooden mail box built on a post, where the coach driver would daily exchange Halifax and Spry Bay mailbags. In later years the main Halifax road was built through Spry Bay, coming down over Walsh's Hill past the school house. The post with the mail box is long gone, but the spot where it stood is still known locally as the Mail Box, and the Maple Hill road goes from the Anglican Church to the Mail Box. The Leslies were Liberals and the Post Office changed hands at Spry Bay whenever the government changed, going to the Henleys, who were Tories, when that party was in power. The Post Office at Spry Bay was one of the latest home post offices to close. It had been operated by Henry Godfrey Leslie's grand-niece Marion Leslie for twenty years, when it finally closed in June, 1971. Henry Godfrey Leslie married Sarah Fraser January 21, 1843, and their children were: 1. John Gasper Leslie, Master Mariner, born 1844, lost at sea in 1867. He studied navigation at Spry Bay, as did every school boy at the time. At the age of 19 he built a full rigged sailing ship with some friends and sailed it to England, where he passed his exams for a Master's ticket at the age of 21. John Gasper Leslie was bright and far-seeing, a strong Liberal in politics, and an anti-confederate. He wrote a long letter on Confederation of the Provinces in 1866 which it was said compared second to none of the political orators of that day. In 1867, he spent a year of prospecting and research in Labrador and was drowned coming home in a schooner. 2. George Alexander Leslie, (Alec), born December 23, 1845, lived at "Brookside", Spry Bay, and died at the age of 55, April 25, 1901, at the residence of his brother R.J. Leslie, 8 Summer Street, Halifax. He is buried at Camp Hill cemetery in Halifax. On September 6, 1874, he married Margaret Fraser, sixteen year old daughter of Thomas and Margaret Fraser of Ecum Secum. She predeceased him. George Alexander Leslie was a capable business man and a great friend to poor people, giving employment to everybody and anybody whenever he could. He was appointed Justice of the Peace in Halifax County on July 20, 1869, along with Theodore Conrod of Popes Harbour. He was also the issuer of marriage licenses at Spry Bay, appointed by the Lieutenant Governor on February 14, 1871. He was the proprietor of G.A. Leslie and Co., which later became a partnership with his brother, David Thomas Leslie. The Leslies operated a general store, lobster factory, ship yards and trading company at Spry Bay. They built the barquentine, Bonnie Leslie in 1885, which is thought to have been the last ship built there. Her launching is still talked about at Spry Bay, where it is recalled that the celebrations continued for a week after the event, children being kept at a safe distance. On her maiden voyage, the Bonnie Leslie set sail on a trading venture to the West Indies and was lost off Nantucket, with all hands, including Captain Josey. The original Joseys who settled on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, were said to be seafaring men from Portugal, world leaders in global navigation. The name of the first to arrive may have been JosŽ. Emanuel Josey, married Ellen Hilchey around 1860 and they had 15 children. As has been seen in previous pages, these Joseys have been closely related to the Leslie families. George Alexander Leslie went to California in 1897, returned to Halifax, and died there four years later. He and Margaret (Fraser) Leslie had four children: 2.1 John Leslie, or Jack, who went to Butte, Montana. 2.2 A son who served in Phillipines with the American army. 2.3 Daughter married and living in California. 2.4 Daughter living with her sister in California. 3. Esther Leslie, born June, 1847, died February 23, 1902. 4. Mary Jean Towne Leslie born August 25, 1850, died 1924, Woodville, Nova Scotia, buried in the old cemetery on Main Street, Wolfville. 5. Sarah Elizabeth Leslie, born August 29, 1852, married James Conrod. 5.1 Roland Conrod. 5.2 Clair Conrod. 5.3 May Conrod. 5.4 Bert Conrod. 6. Henry Jamison Leslie, born September 6, 1854, died 1859. 7. James William Leslie, born January 27, 1857, died 1863. 8. David Thomas Leslie, born January 1859, died at Wolfville. He married Edith May Linton who died in 1939. Before marriage, Edith May Linton worked for the transatlantic cable company at Canso and received the first transatlantic message on the cable. David Thomas Leslie and his partner, William LeViscomte, had lobster packing factories on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Cedras Island off Baha, California. 8.1 Henry Leslie, buried in Fairview cemetery, Halifax. 8.2 Esther Rosina Leslie (Rose), born May 18, 1903 married a Goodman of Las Vegas, Nevada. 8.3 Edgar Thomas Leslie, born November 8, 1904, died c. 1986, married a Myers from Jeddore, who predeceased him. 8.4 Jean O'Dell Leslie, married twice: first to a World War 2 flyer named Fullerton who was killed in the war, later to Dr. DeWitt of Wolfville where they lived until their death in the late 1970s as the result of a car accident, in which her sister, Rose, was seriously injured. 9. Robert Jamison Leslie, R.J., born February 28, 1862, died at sea December 5, 1905. See Leslie-Starratt. The name Jamison was given to boys of the area as a tribute to the Jamison family. Rev. Robert Jamison, born June 8, 1808 in Ireland, prepared for the ministry of "another Christian body" but ultimately from conviction and choice entered the Anglican Church. He was a school teacher in Dartmouth when, in August, 1840, he was ordained Deacon by Bishop Inglis and sent as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) to the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. Jamison selected Ship Harbour as the center of his 120 mile long parish. By boat, and by footpath through the woods, in all weather, he kept up regular services and remained on the Eastern Shore for 44 years. He and his wife Matilda both died in 1884. Robert and Matilda Jamison had five children, born between 1838 and 1848. Two became doctors, one a minister, and these three served the physical and spiritual needs of the people of the Eastern Shore with their father for many years. 10. Annie Margaret Isobel Leslie, (Annie Belle), was born September 15, 1864. On July 15, 1900, she married, and later divorced, William Smithson Quigley, factory manager for the Leslies at Spry Bay, son of Nelson and Clara Quigley of Eastern Passage. Annie (Leslie) Quigley died in California in 1966. Her ashes were flown back Nova Scotia, and when they were committed to the ground in the Anglican Church cemetery at Spry Bay, her nephew, Kenneth Leslie wrote: Aunt Annie's Death Far you went and far you stayed, yet here was your heart by these grey waters, rocks and sky; and through the distant pavement you could feel the cool sweet feel of woodland paths; and breathing lethal smoke you remembered well this clean salt fog. Back to their place of birth the last lone birds have flown, Tom, Bob and Alec, Sarah and little Jean and now comes Annie home. The circle closed in Nova Scotian earth. The children of Annie Belle (Leslie) and William Smithson Quigley were 10.1 John Robert Godfrey Quigley, married Rosa Gonzales and died in Mexico City about 1960. 10.1.1 Patricia Quigley, lives in Mexico City. 10.1.2 Rosanna Quigley, lives in Mexico City. 10.2 Charles Malcolm Quigley, married Carmen Mas, and died in Los Angeles in 1966. 10.3 Sarah Kathleen Quigley, married Henry Miller. 10.3.1 Alexandra "Sandy" Leslie Fraser Miller, married Charlie Rupert Steen III, a professor of history at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. 10.3.1.1 Anne Leslie Steen, born 1972. 10.3.1.2 Margaret Steen, born 1976. 11. James William Leslie, born January 27, 1867, died prior to 1871. Land grants in Nova Scotia The European Protestants were settled at Lunenburg in 1753 in order to provide a substantial Protestant block between the French Roman Catholic farming community, centered on Minas Basin, and the French-held fort at Louisbourg, Cape Breton. In spite of the Lunenburg settlement, it transpired that the British at Halifax still felt so insecure that in 1755 they deported the French Acadians from the western part of Nova Scotia. In 1758, the fort at Louisbourg fell to the British army and navy, supported by troups from New England. Following the Acadian expulsion, Thomas Hancock was appointed agent to secure settlers for the lands seized from the Acadians. He was a wealthy Boston merchant whose nephew, and adopted son, was the American Revolutionary statesman, John Hancock. In 1759, Thomas Hancock named Colonel Alexander McNutt to act for him in the recruitment of settlers. Born in Londonderry, Ireland, McNutt had come to Virginia in 1750, where he was elected a colonel of militia. He had raised 300 men to fight in the French wars and was at the siege and capitulation of Louisbourg. By 1760, McNutt had arranged for a thousand families from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Virginia to take up land grants in Nova Scotia. McNutt was then encouraged to secure more immigrants, this time from Northern Ireland, with the promise of 100 acres for himself, for every 500 acres granted to Irish immigrants. He went on a recruiting campaign to Northern Ireland and in 1761 the Jupiter and the Hopewell left Londonderry, for Nova Scotia with passengers who were granted land on Cobequid Bay, the Shubenacadie River, and Minas Basin. In 1762, McNutt brought in a boatload of Irish indigents, after which the Lords of Trade and Plantation in England ruled that no further immigrants from Northern Ireland would be permitted. However, other Irish indigents had already been recruited and two hundred sailed in 1762 in the Nancy and the Hopewell, arriving in Halifax in November of that year. Nova Scotia grantees, recruited by Col. McNutt, received 100 acres plus 50 acres for each other family member. They agreed to clear one third of their grant in ten years; all of it either to be cleared or fenced in 30 years. An annual rent of one shilling per acre was to be charged after ten years. Starratt-Armstrong Peter Starratt, born in Scotland, emigrated to Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, then to New England, where he married Eleanor Armstrong of Maine. They moved to Granville, Nova Scotia, and farmed near Paradise, Annapolis County, around 1780. Two of their sons were killed there in 1820 by the caving in of the river bank while they were building a dam over the stream known as Starratt's Brook, near the present railway bridge. 1. John Starratt, born 1746, married Hannah Bancroft, born 1759 in Reading, Massachusetts. They had 13 children and Hannah (Bancroft) Starratt died May 19, 1846, at Wilmot, Nova Scotia. 2. George Starratt, born 1747. See Starratt-Balcom. 3. William Starratt, born 1749, married a Miss Weber. 4. Mary Starratt, married John Brown. 5. Anna Starratt, who married a Mr. Robinson. 6. Lois Starratt, who married Zaccheus Phinney. 7. Eleanor Starratt, who married John McGregor. Starratt-Balcom George Starratt, born 1747, married Sarah Balcom in 1785. 1. Elizabeth Starratt, b. Nov. 28, 1785, m. Robert Charlton, May 7, 1806. 2. Mary Starratt, born December 17, 1787. 3. Simon Starratt, born November 13, 1790 died 1871, married Abigail Bent on January 5, 1824. Abigail was born in 1794, the daughter of William Bent and Abigail (Lovett) Bent who were married December 29, 1796. Abigail (Bent) Starratt died Jan. 17, 1830 at Wilmot, N.S. 3.l George Starratt, born January 2, 1825, died March 19, 1829. 3.2. Euphemia Starratt, born August 14, 1827, died June 1, 1836. 3.3 Amanda Starratt, married Edmund Bent, born November 19, 1824. Simon Starratt's second wife was Mary Corbitt whom he married August 10, 1831. 3.4. William Elder Starratt, born June 10, 1832, m. Susan Freeman. 3.5. Alvin Starratt, born December 20, 1834. 4. Joseph Starratt, twin, born November 4, 1793. See Starratt-Bent. 5. Benjamin Starratt, a twin, born November 4, 1793, married Christina Rowland. They had five children. 6. Anne Starratt, born August 31, 1796, married Rufus Bent, had 9 children. Parker-Dodge Deacon Thomas Parker and his wife Amy had a son, Hananiah Parker, whose son John Parker, married Deliverance Dodge late in the 1600's, probably in Massachusetts. 1. Andrew Parker. 2. Sarah Parker. 3. Hananiah Parker II. 4. Mary Parker. 5. John Parker II, who probably died young. 6. Edie Parker. 7. John Parker III. 8. Lt Josiah Parker, born April 11, 1694 at Reading, Massachusetts. See Parker-Stone. Parker-Stone Lt Josiah Parker, born April 11, 1694, at Reading, Massachusetts, married Anna Stone. 1. Anna Parker, born September 9, 1719. 2. Deliverance Parker, born May 28, 1721. 3. Mary Parker II, born July 3, 1723. 4. Josiah Parker Jr. born April 11, 1725, married Hannah Gardner, born November 25, 1751, at Charleston. 5. Lois Parker, born August 20, 1717. 6. John Parker IV, born July 13, 1729, Lexington, Massachusetts. See Parker-Moore. 7. Thaddeus Parker, born September 2, 1731. 8. Joseph Parker, born November 28, 1733. Parker-Moore John Parker IV, a tall, large-framed militiaman, was at the capture of Louisburgh, 1758 and at the taking of Quebec, in 1759. Elected captain of militia in Lexington, he commanded the Minutemen there on April 19, 1775. His cousin, Jonas Parker, was the first man killed in the American Revolution, having been bayonetted during the skirmish which followed the confrontation between British regulars and the local militia on the Common in Lexington, which lies on the road to Concord, Massachusetts. Captain John Parker was the one who said he did not wish for war, but "if we must have war, let it begin here!". In the early hours of April 19, he placed his tiny force of less than eighty men out in the open on the Lexington Common and gave the order that no one was to fire until, or unless, they were themselves fired upon first. Meanwhile, the advance party of the British force, a detachment of light infantry under Col. Pitcairn, moved on Lexington and made contact with Parker's men on the Common. Orders to the British advance party were likewise not to fire unless fired upon. Nevertheless, and it has never been ascertained by whom, a shot was fired, and a general action ensued in which several militiamen were killed and a number wounded. The British, with some 800 men in the field, then reformed ranks and proceeded to their objective, Concord, where they destroyed some stores and military equipment, then started the return march to Boston. They were harried by the militiamen all the way back to Lexington and British losses were starting to assume serious proportions when their day was saved by British reinforcements from Boston, who mounted a cannon on a hill behind Lexington and quickly reduced the opposition. During the battle Col. Pitcairn was dislodged from his horse, which cantered over to the militia lines. Pitcairn's saddle holsters and pistols were removed and given to General Israel Putnam, who kept them for his own use throughout the war. Captain John Parker led his men to Boston where they took part in the Battle of Bunker Hill and the siege of Boston although Parker himself was too ill to ride. Shortly thereafter he died of tuberculosis. Captain John Parker married Lydia Moore, third daughter of Thomas and Mary Moore of Lexington, Massachusetts. 1. Lydia Parker, born November 8, 1756. 2. Anna Parker II , b. Jan. 11, 1759, m. Ephraim Pierce, March 16, 1781. 3. John Parker V, b. Dec. 7, 1761, married Hannah Stearns, Feb. 17, 1785. 4. Isaac Parker, born May 11, 1763, m. in Charleston, South Carolina. 5. Ruth Parker, b. Dec. 7, 1765, d. March 12, 1838. See Bent-Parker. 6. Rebecca Parker, born June 28, 1768, married Peter Clarke of Watertown. 7. Robert Parker, b. April 15, 1771, m.Elizabeth Simonds, Oct. 22, 1795. Bent-Rice In 1638, John Bent embarked from Penton-Grafton, 70 miles south west of London, England, on a journey which took him to Sudbury, Massachusetts. His son was Hopestill Bent, and Hopestill's son was Micah Bent. In 1737 Micah Bent married Grace Rice, daughter of David Rice. By 1760 they had settled in Bentville, Nova Scotia. The children of Micah Bent and Grace (Rice) Bent were: 1. David Bent, born March 18, 1739. See Bent-Felch. 2. Micah Bent II, returned to Massachusetts. 3. Peter Bent, died soon after the family moved to N.S., in 1760. 4. Hopestill Bent II, returned to Masssachusetts. Bent-Felch David Bent, born, 1739, married Mary Felch, daughter of Ebinezar Felch of Massachusetts, lived in Bentville, Nova Scotia. 1. Mica Bent, a twin, married Abigail Harrington and was lost at sea. 2. Ebenezer Bent, the other twin. 3. David Bent II , born 1764. See Bent-Parker. 4. Joseph Bent, who married Anna Longley, born 1792. 5. William Bent, b.1769, m.Abigail Lovett, dau. of Phineas Lovett, 1796. 6. Asa Bent, married Lois Tupper, Mary Tupper, and, in 1832, Ann Busby. 7. Stephen Bent, married Amy Tupper in 1797. 8. Silas Bent, married Mary Newcomb. 9. Sarah Bent, married John Poole. 10. Dorcas Bent, married Isaac Longley. 11. Mary Bent, married Solomon Harrington. 12. Elizabeth Bent. 13. and 14. Unnamed twins died at birth. Bent-Parker On November 14, 1787, David Bent II married Ruth Parker. 1. Asaph Bent, born 1788, who married Sarah Fales. 2. Theresa Bent, born 1789. 3. Isaac Bent, born 1791, married Miriam or Arminella Young in 1815. 3.1 Abigail Bent II. 3.2 Louisa Bent. 4. Rufus Bent, married Ann Starratt in 1820. 4.1 Sarah Ann Bent, who married James Moore. 4.2. George Bent, married Mary Ann Inglis, lived at Belisle. 4.3 David Bent IV. 4.4 Zenas Bent. 4.5 Elizabeth Bent II, probably died young. 4.6 Mary Bent II. 4.7 Edwin Bent. 4.8 Caroline Bent, who married Eli Boehner. 4.9 Elizabeth Bent III, of Somerset, Kings County, Nova Scotia. 5. Abigail Bent, born 1795. 6. David Bent III, born 1798, married Elizabeth Ann Bent in 1834, and/or Suzan Stronach, lived in Forest Glen, Annapolis County. 6.1 George Bent II. 6.2 David Bent V. 6.3 Susan Bent. 6.4 Ruth Bent II. 7. Rebecca Bent, born 1800, married Joseph Starratt. See Starratt-Bent. 8. Ruth Bent, born 1803. 9. Miriam Bent, born 1804. Starratt-Bent Joseph Starratt married Rebecca Bent on September 27, 1826. She died May 15, 1846, at Annapolis. 1. Benjamin Starratt, born June 20, 1827, married Clara Fowler. Joseph Starratt at age 75 They had two children. 2. George Starratt II, born March 1, 1829. See Starratt-Dugwell. 3. Abigail Ruth Starratt, born July 30, 1832. 4. David Bent Starratt, born March 28, 1836, had two children. 5. Stephen Starratt, born 1838, died January 23, 1863. 6. Ferguson Starratt. 7. Ruth Starratt, possibly, who married Abel Wheelock. After Rebecca (Bent) Starratt died, Joseph Starratt married Susan Marshall. Dugwell-Blackadore John Dugwell, born 1763 in Kent, England, came to Nova Scotia and worked at His Majesty's Careening Yard, Halifax, Nova Scotia. On December 3, 1787, he married Mary Blackadore, daughter of Charles Blackadore, from the United States, who was working at the dockyards in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1784 and for many years thereafter. Charles Blackadore signed his daughter's marriage certificate in the Halifax Methodist Church. John Dugwell's will was probated July 8, 1836. 1. Christopher Foster Dugwell, born October 16, 1788, d. May 26, 1789. 2. Catherine Foster Dugwell, born October 11, 1789, married John Smith, shipwright, Halifax, on January 21, 1820. 3. Mary Dugwell, born November 29, 1790, died September 19, 1791. 4. John Christopher Dugwell, born June 18, 1792, married Elizabeth Lee on December 21, 1814, daughter of Thomas Lee, saddler, Halifax. John Christopher Dugwell was a shipwright at the naval dockyards, Halifax. 5. Hugh Winchworth Dugwell, born August 12, 1793, married Sarah Marriott, December 17, 1823, at Harrietsfield. She died May 17, 1827, at 28. In his father's will, Hugh Winchworth Dugwell was bequeathed two parcels of land situated at Harrietsfield, Halifax County, on which he was living at the time the will was written. 5.1 Hugh Dugwell, born November 23, 1826. 5.2 Henry James Dugwell, who died July 10, 1827. After his first wife died, Hugh Winchworth Dugwell married Mary Martin, of Harrietsfield, December 10, 1828. 5.3. John P. Dugwell, owned a house on School Road, Richmond, Halifax, and was employed by the Inter Continental Railway. He died in 1901, predeceased by his wife, Mary Dugwell. In his will he left the house to his housekeeper, Amelia Martin. A codicil to the will left $1.00 to his step-brother, Hugh, because, when their father, Hugh Winchworth Dugwell, died, John had to assume all liabilities of the estate and handle all the business which should have been shared by Hugh. Another codicil left to Mrs. Robert Leslie, (his grand-niece Bertie Starratt, daughter of Emily Dugwell and George Starratt II), of Summer Street, Halifax, the religious picture which hung over the mantlepiece in his sitting room and to Percy Bentley, son of Eicklam Bentley, Upper Stewiacke, the picture on the north wall of the parlour entitled Farm Yard. 6. Joseph Dugwell, born 1795, m. Catherine Guthes, Feb. 16, 1828 at St.George's,Halifax,d.Nov 25,1830 7. Sarah Dugwell. 8. Henry Dugwell. See Dugwell-Harlow. 9. Elizabeth Susanna Dugwell, born January 1802, died June 22, 1820. 10. Mary Ann Dugwell, married John MacKintosh December, 1834. 11. Joanna Dugwell, married Samuel Lewis. Dugwell-Harlow Henry Dugwell worked in His Henry Dugwell Majesty's Shipyards in Halifax. On October 21, 1834, at Liverpool, Nova Scotia, he married Mary Harlow who suffered and survived typhoid fever when she was 33 years old and her daughter Emily was four. (Mary Harlow's sister, Augusta Harlow, married a Captain McDonald, had a son Edward who married Emma Saunders and had a son, Stan.) 1. Emily Dugwell, born 1836, was a talented artist. She married twice. See Bentley-Dugwell and Starratt-Dugwell. 2. Henry Dugwell II, born May, 1838, died November 14, 1842. Bentley-Dugwell Emily Dugwell's first husband Mary (Harlow) Dugwell was the Rev. Samuel N. Bentley, whom she married on April 29, 1857 at Halifax. They had two sons: 1. Rev. Henry D. Bentley, born 1858, Baptist minister, married Jean Dunovan, later farmed in Saskatchewan.. 2. Dr. Samuel N. Bentley, born 1860, was a surgeon for the railroad in Lincoln, Nebraska, and later was a banker in Ravenna, Nebraska. He married twice. His second wife was Ella Poole Dr. Samuel N. Bentley Rev. Henry D. Bentley Starratt-Dugwell After Rev. Samuel N. Bentley died, Emily Dugwell, a widow with two young sons, married George Starratt II. They had four children: 1. Rebecca Bertie Starratt, born 1863, died 1940. See Leslie-Starratt. 2. Frank Aubrey Starratt, born in Paradise, Nove Scotia, February 3, 1865, died June, 1943. Describing his funeral, his nephew Kenneth Leslie wrote, "a lot of pygmies burying a giant". Frank Aubrey Starratt graduated Acadia Uni- versity, attended University of Chicago, was ordained at Grafton, North Dakota, on May 17, 1893. George Starratt II at 31 Rev. Frank Starratt served at Grafton, Pearsall, Texas, Stone- ham, Mass, N.T.I., taught at Colgate Theological Seminary 1909-1920, moved his family to a farm at Sherburne, New York. In the 1930s Rev. Starratt ministered, among other places, at the First Baptist Church, Montclair, New Jersey with Kenneth Leslie and Albert B. Cohoe. 4.1 Edith Starratt, a teacher. 3. Frederick W. Starratt, born February 7, 1871. 4. Wilfred Harlow Starratt, (Uncle Will), a dentist in Boston, born February 7, 1871, Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, died April 24, 1945, Woodville, Nova Scotia, buried at Charlottetown, P.E.I., with the family of his wife, Eleanor Roberts. Rev. Frank Starratt,1865-1943 After R.J. Leslie died, Dr. Wilfred Starratt left his practice in Boston, returning to Nova Scotia to run R.J.'s businessess for Bertie. Tea with the professor by Kenneth Leslie for Emily (Dugwell) Starratt Hang history and its seven thousand years, be merciful, this moment bends its knee! You rave of Stalin's hopes, of Caesar's fears, while I pour heaven out of a pot of tea. Tomorrow knows but what today will tell in night's confessional, 'now' stays to mock not long enough to ring its passing bell, not long enough to mark it on the clock; and yet this 'now', that, narrowed to a name for what is not, was never, nor can be, holds in its crystal cup the liquid flame, eternal brew of world and you and me. Your ifs and ands, your wisdom, heavy and old, walk on my heart. Your tea is getting cold! Emily (Dugwell) Starratt, at 25 Leslie-Starratt Rebecca Bertie Starratt, named for her grandmother, Rebecca (Bent) Starratt, was born and raised in the gentle village of Paradise in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, studied at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts and taught at Spry Bay, Halifax County. Among her pupils, was a friendly, handsome, and disarmingly charming mature student, R.J. Leslie. Robert Jamison Leslie, was a ship- master at 18 years of age and sailed for several years from foreign ports. He was Rebecca Bertie Starratt, two years older than his teacher when he portrait by her mother, arrived at the Spry Bay schoolhouse, but he Emily (Dugwell) Starratt. wanted to learn what he needed to achieve some of his life's goals, one of which was to conquer the lovely young school teacher. After she taught him all she knew, he enrolled at Dalhousie University in Halifax. When they announced their intentions to get married, Bertie's parents persuaded her to go back for another year at Wellesley, hoping no doubt that she would sever her Spry Bay connections. Bertie completed her year at Wellesley, R.J. completed his at Dalhousie, and then they were married. Rebecca was always called Bertie, occasionally spelled Burtie, except at Wellesley where the registrar listed her as Bertha. She had a lasting respect for learning, and donated her books to the Spry Bay School. When they lived in Quebec City, 1904-5, while her husband was a Member of the Quebec Legislature, she took her children to many lectures and concerts. Bertie also maintained high spiritual values. She was a strong family person. Robert Jamison Leslie loved life, loved people, and had a strong sense of family responsibility. He cared for and looked after those who depended on him. He owned a fish factory and general store on the Magdalene Islands, Quebec. He was also a partner in Leslie, Hart & Co., Halifax, traders, and was part owner of the Magdalene Island Steamship Co. Ltd. whose vessels plied from Pictou, Nova Scotia, to Souris, Prince Edward Island, and Amherst Island, in the Magdalenes. In the Provincial general election of 1904, while R. J. was in Scotland securing another ship for his line, he was nominated and elected Liberal Member to the Quebec Legislature for the Magdalene Islands and GaspŽ Peninsula. This election brought the Liberal Government of Premier Gouin to power. Leslie Village and the Leslie Post Office, at the north end of Grindstone Island in the Magdalenes, were named for R. J. The children of R. J. and Bertie (Starratt) Leslie were: 1. Wilfred, born 1885, died 1886. 2.-3. Twins, died at birth, 1887. 4. Eric Leslie, born in Halifax on March 12, 1890, died December 1968, attended Acadia University, and Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, where he graduated in Engineering. Artist, architect, and engineer, Eric Leslie designed and constructed four of Canada's most modern apple cold storage plants for the United Fruit Company of Nova Scotia, and the apple grader which was adopted across Canada. He was an out- standing athlete with the Kent- ville Wildcat Baseball Club and Eric Leslie, 1890-1968 hockey team. He served with the Royal Canadian Engineers in World War I, receiving permanent gas- inflicted injury to his lungs He married Mabel Winnifred Gaze, of England, a graduate of Cheltenham Ladies College, and an accomplished pianist, who nursed him in the hospital in England. When they returned to Canada, Eric became a prominent fruit grower in the Woodville area. 4.1 Angela Marjorie Winifred Leslie, born April 3, 1919, married William Henry Pierce, then Alfred Leonard Kosh, born April 20, 1918, died June 5, 1961. She now lives in British Columbia with her daughter and grandson, having returned from England where Angela had lived most of her adult life. 4.1.1 Valerie Leslie Kosh, a doctor's receptionist, born August 31, 1942, married Roy Edward Stephens, born May 22, 1941, of Coventry, Rolls Royce Marine technician. Angela Leslie The Stephens family lives in Coventry, England. 4.1.1.1 Jacquelin Ellen Stephens, a dental nurse, born November 29, 1961, married John Grossley, born January 23, 1958, an accountant. 4.1.1.1.1 Stephen Grossley, born June 11, 1988. 4.1.1.2 Samantha Victoria Stephens, a hospital sister, born December 29, 1964, married Graham Robert Coles, born Feb. 22, 1959, a technician with British Gas. 4.1.1.2.1 Thomas Edward Coles, born May 10, 1988. 4.1.1.3 Charlotte Emma Stephens, born November 9, 1973. 4.1.2 David John Kosh, born Octoiber 21, 1943, was a translator with the British Embassy in Geneva, then Far East sales manager for a Zurich firm, married Lotte Rieschard. 4.1.2.1 Dominic Kosh, born Oct. 14, 1962, Zurich banker. 4.1.2.2 Danielle Kosh, b. March 11, 1964, physiotherapist. The second wife of David John Kosh is Maria Eujenia Loggese PhD, born November 20, 1949, research scientist with Oerlican, Zurich. 4.1.2.3 Ulisses Alfredo, (stepson) born February 1, 1980. 4.1.2.4 Jason Antony Kosh, born January 16, 1988. 4.1.3 Alfred Edward Kosh, born July 14, 1948, married Angela Lansbury. They had one son who died at birth. Alfred later married Lynette Ann (Knight) Berry. 4.1.3.1 Antony (stepson), born October 31, 1972. 4.1.3.2 Laura Berry (step-daughter), b. Oct. 31, 1972. 4.1.3.3 Kathleen Elizabeth Kosh, born September 16, 1979. 4.1.3.4 Judith Angela Kosh, born January 11, 1981. Alfred Edward Kosh, later married Anne Eve, born June 16, 1957. They live in Minehead, Somerset, where Alfred runs a fishing boat charter business and Anne is a secretary. 4.1.4 John Arthur Kosh, born December 25, 1949, metropolitan transport inspector in Perth, Western Australia, married to Sonja Theresia Werdler, a teacher, born October 17, 1952. 4.1.4.1 Anita Sonja Kosh, b. Nov. 4,1969, children's nurse. 4.1.4.2 Ines Natalie Kosh, born December 10, 1973. 4.1.5 Sally Kosh, born July 8, 1953. 4.1.5.1 Arun Barry Kosh, born April 1, 1974. His father is Barry John Flick, Coventry businessman and professional cricketer, was the coordinator of the U.K. families suing Pan Am over the Lockerby crash in which his younger brother was killed. Sally Kosh and Arun now live in British Columbia, Canada, where she is part owner of a small restaurant. 4.2 Jacquelin May Leslie, born December 1, 1920, artist and Registered Nurse, nursed many years in outpost and native hospitals in northern Canada and on the west coast, now living in Toronto. 4.3 David Leslie, born May 11, 1923, a Spitfire pilot with the RCAF during World War II, lived in England for some time after the war, married nursing sister Olga Di Angelo and later operated a dry cleaning business in Syd- ney B.C. and in San Diego, California. He died of a heart attack, Feb. 23, 1988. Jacquelin Leslie 4.3.1 Stuart Alan David Leslie, born in Toronto, August 29, 1960, owns and runs a dry cleaning business in Sidney, British Columbia. 4.3.2 Heather Louise Leslie, born Toronto, December 4, 1961, a student, living in Sidney. 4.4 Nanette Leslie, born Jan. 12, 1925, served in the RCAF during WW II, lived in England after the war where she worked as a private secretary, returned to Canada and married Walter George Bowditch, born September 22, 1922, rancher, town councillor, and Mason. They live in Success, Saskatchewan. 4.4.1 George Henry Bowditch, born May 30,1955, district rep. for Saskatchewan lotteries, married Debbie Bowler, Swift Current, David Leslie 1923-1988 born October 6, 1956. 4.4.1.1 George Leslie Eric Bowditch, born November 17, 1984. 4.4.1.2 Todd Jeffrey Bowditch, born April 20, 1987. 4.4.2 Emily Grace Bowditch, born Jan. 28, 1959, married Bryan Reich, post office super., Swift Current area. 4.4.2.1 Monty Blair Reich, born Aug. 26, 1977. 4.4.2.2 Jeffrey Bryan Reich born July 4, 1980. 4.5 John Keast Leslie, born March 21, 1931, m. Stefania Stanczyk, born Poland, was an inmate with Ann Frank at Bergen-Belsen concentra- tion camp during World War II. John Keast Leslie John Leslie is a marine biologist with Fisheries Research Board, at Canada's Inland Waters Center, Burlington, Ontario. 4.6 Richard van Amburgh Leslie, born March 21,1931, an electronics technician, inventor, president of Canadian Technical Marine, mar- ried Kathrine Kastorea, they live in British Columbia. 4.6.1 Susan Winifred Leslie, born Ottawa, June 20, 1958. 4.6.2 Jayne Heather Leslie, born Richard van Amburgh Leslie Toronto, Dec. 28, 1960. Robert Jamison Leslie Kenneth Malcolm Leslie 1895-1952 1892-1974 5. Kenneth Malcolm Leslie born October 31, 1892, died Oct. 7, 1974. See Leslie-Moir. 6. Robert Jamison Leslie II, (R.J.), born May 15, 1895, died July 22, 1952, graduated from Dalhousie University in 1915. While doing post- graduate work at Harvard University, Boston, he enlisted in the American Army where he served in the Intelligence Branch, and took part in the Italian campaign. He was wounded three times, discharged with the rank of Major, and awarded the MBE. He returned to Nova Scotia to engage in apple growing and became deeply involved in the marketing of apples, both at home and abroad. He founded the Nova Scotia Apple Producers' Cooperative and was general manager of the Nova Scotia Apple Marketing Board. Standing six feet six, he was a brilliant, impressive and convivial person. In 1928 he married Martha Ann Williams, born November 10, 1898, daughter of Thomas Griffiths and Irma Gheens Williams of Louisville, Kentucky. Educated in private schools, she had literary ability, musical talent, much personal charm, and a good sense of humour. She died in 1936. An avid tennis player and golfer, Robert J. Leslie was Nova Scotia tennis champion in both singles and doubles. He had played 18 holes of golf Monday, July 21, 1952 and died of a heart attack the next day, at the age of 57. The daughter of Robert J. Leslie and Martha (Williams) Leslie is: 6.1 Ann Cornwallis Leslie, born March 21, 1932, at the Corn- wallis Inn, Kentville, N. S. She studied Biology and Psychology at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, managed the Colorado Springs office of Coors Distri- buting Company, co-ordinated events for Tourcrafters,Cincinnati, and is a certified travel agent. On November 15, 1953, she married David Dobbs, born June 28,1923 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a son of Loyle Duncan Dobbs. During Ann Cornwallis (Leslie) Dobbs World War II, he served in Eng- land as a lab technician with the 160th General Hospital, where open-heart surgery was pioneered, and after VE Day served in France, was discharged as a Technical Sergeant, obtained his B.Chem degree at the University of Minnesota, did graduate studies in Agricultural Biochemistry, worked in research and chemistry, established the first commercial ion-exchange plant for the separation of rare earths, has been engaged in scientific information in the pharmaceutical field and is a senior information scientist with Merrell Dow Research Institute in Cincinnati. David and Ann Dobbs live in the historic, planned village of Mariemont, Ohio, where Ann was co-founder of Mariemont Village Assembly and participates in other community activities. Their children were all born in Cincinnati, Ohio. 6.1.1 Debra Leslie Dobbs, born May 2, 1955, B.S.Ed. Miami University, Ohio, M.A. in Special Education at Portland State U., Oregon, taught English and Special Education. On July 2, 1953, she married Dr. James Edmund MacMillan Jr, psychiatrist, born February 16, 1953, graduate of Harvard University, M.D. at Ohio State. The children of Jim and Debra (Dobbs) MacMillan were born in Hood River, Oregon. 6.1.1.1 Cody Dobbs MacMillan, born April 15, 1985. 6.1.1.2 Ariel Dobbs MacMillan, born January 15, 1988. 6.1.2 Michael David Dobbs, born Sept. 25, 1957, Eagle Scout, El. Eng. graduate Purdue University, computer/printer designer with Hewlett Packard. On November 28, 1981 he married Brenda Dianne Terry, entomologist (biological control of insects), born May 4, 1960, Indiana. 6.1.2.1 Kari Michelle Dobbs, born April 15, 1985. 6.1.2.2 Jamison Duncan Dobbs, born May 24,1988. 6.1.3 John Robert Dobbs, born October 18, 1961, Eagle Scout, studied Communication, Wisconsin and Northern Kentucky Universities, graduated in Graphic Arts, Central Academy of Commercial Art, is art director and account executive with Business and Industrial Marketers Inc. On December 28, 1984, he married Barbara Jane Beal, Medical Technology graduate of University of Cincinnati who works in the University Hospital virology lab. 6.1.3.1 Brian David Dobbs, born January 24, 1986. 6.1.3.2 Christopher Steven Dobbs, born Nov. 22, 1988. 7. Marjorie Leslie, born August 20, 1898, died January 22, 1984, studied library science at Acadia University, Wolfville, worked for the New Jersey school health system, was a salesperson at Lord and Taylors on Fifth Avenue, New York, spent her last years in Kentville with her sister Emily Eaton and niece, Dr. Leslie Eaton. After Robert Leslie's wife died, Marjorie was largely responsible for raising his daughter. Emily (Leslie) Eaton, 1902-1984 and Marjorie Leslie,1 898-1984 8. Emily Leslie, born February 1, 1902, died April 8, 1984. Emily was a searcher, a visionary, an exponent of organic, bio-dynamic gardening, and natural foods. She attended Acadia University and was the first of the family to embrace Scientology which was also followed by her daughter, Dr. Leslie Eaton and sister, Marjorie Leslie. Emily Leslie married Stuart Eaton, born at Lower Canard, Nova Scotia. Son of Frank M. Eaton and Bessie (Burbidge) Eaton, Stuart Eaton studied engineering at Acadia University and attended Nova Scotia Technical College. Following World War I he was employed with the National Map Company in New York City. In 1925 he bought a farm and orchard at Woodville, Nova Scotia, adjoining the property of his brother-in-law R.J. Leslie, and became one of Nova Scotia's largest individual apple producers with an average annual crop of 30,000 bushels. He became manager of the R.J. Leslie orchards, was president of United Woodville Ltd., a director of Nova Scotia Fruit Growers Association, a member of Woodville Baptist Church, took a leading part in community affairs and died of cancer, October 18, 1959. Stuart Eaton served in Europe in both World Wars. In WW 2 he was in charge of the education and rehabilitation of the wounded and battle-fatigued servicemen, and rose to the rank of Major. Their daughter is: 8.1 Leslie Jean Eaton, Doctor of Chiropractic, born August 7, 1926, attended Acadia University, Wolfville, and the Logan Basic College of Chiropractic, St. Louis, Missouri, and has been in practice in her profession in Kentville since June 6, 1951, married Dr. John Wooten, in 1951, divorced 1964. Dr. Leslie Eaton continues her practice in Kentville. Dr. Leslie Jean Eaton Robert Jamison Leslie and Bertie (Starratt) Leslie lived at 8 Summer Street, Halifax, and summered in the Magdalene Islands where their large house held a commanding view of the harbour at Amherst Island and still stands as a landmark. As a young woman, Bertie enjoyed riding her horse along the endless white beaches of the Magdalene archipelago. She raised five brilliant children who surrounded her with love into her old age. Beauty is something you can weigh in scales By Kenneth Leslie, for his mother, Bertie (Starratt) Leslie. Beauty is something you can weigh in scales and wrap up into parcels, it is known not well in dreams, in evanescent tales of misted rapture, of bugles faintly blown. 'Tis meat as well as music. From the ground it grows up in a tree, stands in a wall. The earth belongs to beauty, it is earth-bound, seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or not known at all. I found it first and best in father's store, measuring yards of calico, weighing out nails, sprawled among nets and cod-lines on the floor, venturing cut-brier, rifling candy pails. Beauty was mother's porridge in a bowl. Milk, oatmeal, and molasses built my soul. R.J. Leslie loved the Magdalene Islands. He sailed on his company's last trip each year, carrying provisions to see the islanders through until spring. The Islanders looked forward to this annual event because when R.J. was around good times were had by all. The vessel in use in the winter of 1905 was the Lunenburg, registered December 8, 1891 as ship no. 100,166, built at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, by Titus Langille for the Lunenburg and Halifax Steam Packet Company. In 1898 she was bought from that company by James A. Farquhar, master mariner, of Halifax, for $13,500, and was fitted out and sold by him on January 23, 1900, to Robert J. Leslie and Guy C. Hart of Halifax, merchants, for $19,500. The Lunenburg had one deck and a round stern, was schooner rigged with two masts and had a vertical compound steam engine developing an estimated 56 h.p. She was 124.9 ft long, 23.5 ft wide, and 12.5 ft deep with a displacement of 266 tons and registered tonnage of 113. Sunday morning, December 3, 1905, the Lunenburg left Pictou with seventeen men on board. The trip from Pictou to Souris, P.E.I., was uneventful and they left Souris at 4 p.m. on Sunday with fine weather. As night came on a storm arose and the vessel steamed cautiously until about 58 miles had been recorded on the taffrail log. The captain thought he had ten miles to spare on the run so didn't take depth soundings. Weather became thick and the sea was rising. They were off Amherst Island before daylight on Monday, December 4, intending to proceed through the passage between Entry Island and Amherst Island. The wind was blowing at gale force from the north-east. There was a tremendous sea running but it was the blinding snow storm which caused the Lunenburg to lose her way and run aground on a sandbar off Amherst Island, about two miles from the roadstead, at ten past two in the morning. Captain Pride signalled for help but the sea prevented boats from putting off from the shore. At 10 a.m. the captain called for volunteers to attempt a landing in one of the lifeboats with the first and second mates. After an hour's hesitation, the second engineer and two firemen volunteered. All five reached shore. Shortly thereafter the Lunenburg began to break up and the captain decided to chance another landing in a lifeboat. Again he had difficulty persuading the cold and shivering men to risk their lives in launching a boat from the weather side of the steamer. A crowd of worried observers had gathered on the stormy shore, incapable of offering assistance. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the twelve men still on the Lunenburg finally boarded the lifeboat, R.J. being the last to leave. The others were a passenger, Samuel Vigneau of the Magdalenes, chief engineer Ronald McDonald of Pictou, steward Harding Gerhardt of Lunenburg, cook James Josie, purser J.W. McConnell of Port Hilford, cabin boy Beverly Hamm of Lunenburg, seamen Vital Chaisson, Peter Doucet, Joseph Bourgeois and Samuel Vigneau, all of the Magdalene Islands, and Captain Pride of Sherbrooke. As they approached the shore, breakers forced them to alter course back out to sea and, when they were about six hundred yards from the wreck, a wave broke over them. The boat was swamped and turned over like a barrel. Holding to life lines, all aboard came up with the boat which then tossed about in the icy turbulence for about three hours. Not a man said a word about what their fate might be, except Hamm, the cabin boy, whose concern was for his poor mother. R.J. Leslie was continually cheering the party with the assurance that help would come from the shore, but it was not to be. One by one, the men dropped off. One of the last to drop was R.J. In the end there was only the captain left, who had lashed his arm to a thwart. One report had it that the sea had righted the boat and he was inside when rescued. He was picked up, unconscious, by a dory from the shore at five o'clock in the afternoon five miles from the wreck and a mile from the shore. The men ashore, risking their lives to take a dory out to rescue the lone surviver of that second lifeboat thought they saw R.J. Leslie clinging to the boat. Watching from the shore in that raging storm all they could make out was R.J.'s large fur coat, but on that occasion it was being worn by the captain. A grandson of one of the rescuers, who was a small boy on the scene at the time, states unequivocally that nobody would have taken the risk had they known it was not Leslie. Amherst Island went into mourning. They built a cairn on the hill to commemorate R.J. Leslie and when his body washed up on shore they kept the coffin at the cairn until spring, when it was shipped to Halifax for burial in Fairview Cemetery. The Halifax newspapers carried the story of the Lunenburg disaster on their front pages, with ramifications and accounts from all quarters, through many issues. R.J.'s wide gold wedding ring was returned to his widow and has been passed along in the family, now being worn by his great-grandson, Andrew Moir Dickson. The widows and children of the deceased got on with their lives. Bertie Starratt Leslie moved into her new Halifax home, at 56 Young Avenue, with the children, Eric, Kenneth, Robert, Marjorie and Emily. In the Halifax street directory for 1914, the family is listed at Princes Lodge. She later lived on the farm in Woodville. Twenty years later his son, Kenneth, wrote: To my father, drowned at sea They said that days would doctor my great ill, would grow as good as new what grief had set; and so I waited while they worked their will; but twenty slow years had availed not yet to end the long drouth nor to quench the pain that scorched away the green blades of my sowing, sending but fickle gusts of teasing rain to sprout for withering what might be growing. This day the dry road has a phosphor gleam the grassland flows to water for your child, your salty laughter breaks my sullen dream and all the world runs wet and deep and wild. You stood your trick on deck through my long sleeping, hands on the wheel, eyes to the weather keeping! Leslie-Moir Kenneth Leslie, born October 31, 1892, died October 7, 1974, first attended the one room Arnold School in Halifax, where he played rugby and cricket. He was mistaken for a telegraph boy when he entered Dalhousie University at the age of 14, still wearing short pants. He graduated in Philosophy and taught in a one-room school on the Prospect Road for a year. On the long walk to the school every Monday morning, and back to his mother's home in Halifax on Friday night, he would compose poetry and songs, in his head. When he got to his desk he would write them down. Kenneth Leslie went to Colgate Theological Seminary, Hamilton, New York, then to the University of Nebraska for a Masters. He sent his thesis on "A Modern View of Mysticism" to Harvard, was enrolled in their PhD program, studied under Josiah Royce expecting to graduate in 1916 but was not able to pass the language requirements. He sang well and played the violin. When performing at concerts in Halifax, his favourite accompanist was Beth Moir. A graduate at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Beth Moir also attended Emerson College in Boston. There she learned the Emerson method of oratory and fitness as well as the Delsartian system of calisthenic exercises consisting of graceful and dramatic poses. This was popular among the more enlightened young ladies of the time. During World War I, Beth Moir performed for charities and fund raisers for the war effort, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the boys overseas, and sang in a number of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas for which she won rave reviews in the Halifax papers. Her parents eventually put an end to her performances, feeling that being on the stage was not entirely decent. Beth also taught calisthenics at the YWCA until her parents discovered that the girls at the Y did their exercises in bloomers without skirts. Even her marriage, on September 27, 1916, to the engaging young poet, musician, aspiring minister, did Beth Moir 1895-1952 not meet their approval. Kenneth Leslie served briefly as assistant pastor to Rev. Albert B. Cohoe at the First Baptist Church, Providence, Rhode Island, and later worked at the Moir's chocolate factory in Halifax. After the Halifax explosion it was his responsibility to go through the factory and get the workers out. He tried farming at Granville, in the Annapolis Valley with Gravenstein apples and Holstein cows, several horses, a windmill to bring up water for the livestock, a huge dog named Mike, oil lamps, cold water from the pump which was heated on the stove and carried upstairs for bathing, a crank telephone, a crystal radio, a fence along the river so the children wouldn't fall down the slippery mudbank, an old crank Chevy, and hired help who were always ailing and had to be nursed by Beth, who also made butter to sell, tended chickens, pigs and a kitchen garden, and coped with Leslies and Moirs. After a few years of farming, Kenneth Leslie started a buttermilk store in California, organized and played fiddle in a jazz band, went to live in Greenwich Village, New York, and wrote songs. His "Cape Breton Lullaby" has been recorded by several famous artists, and he wrote many other popular songs, some in collaboration with his brother Bob. He peddled these on Tin Pan Alley, with the help of Beth, who made the arrangements, scoring manuscripts by h Download 270.35 Kb. Share with your friends:
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