A Watkins Picnic in McKellar, Parry Sound, Late 1930s

This photo was taken in the late 1930s at a Watkins family picnic in McKellar Township, Parry Sound District. All of the people in the photo were members of either the William Henry Watkins and Mary Elizabeth “Minnie” Jackson family or the Helen Silence Watkins and Samuel Thompson family. William Henry Watkins and Helen Silence Watkins were children of Henry Watkins and Emma Robinson, who were early settlers in McKellar Township.

Watkins Family Picnic, McKellar Township, Parry Sound District, Late 1930s
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Eleanor Thompson, Beulah Thompson, Kenneth Moore, Evelyn Watkins Moore, Wilmot Watkins, Ina Watkins, Mary “Minnie” Jackson Watkins, Winnifred “Winnie” Thompson, Bernard Thompson, Sarah McKeown Watkins, Ethel Watkins Thompson, Reuben Thompson, Emma Thompson Taylor, Edgar Watkins, Helen Watkins Thompson, Sadie Kirkham Watkins (holding Arlene Watkins), Malcolm “Mac” McDowell, Olive Thompson McDowell.
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William Stewart, Eloise Thompson, Clarence Watkins, [in back] Cyril Thompson, Melville Watkins, Murray Watkins, [son of Bernard] Thompson.

Charles Stewart’s Land at Stewart Lake on the Balsam Road in McKellar Township

My great-great-grandfather Charles Stewart was one of the early settlers in Parry Sound District’s McKellar Township. He farmed on the Balsam Road, northeast of McKellar village.

Charles Stewart’s land (outlined in yellow) was northeast of McKellar village on the Balsam Road, near Lakeview Cemetery (orange mark).

Charles Stewart’s last will and testament of 1909 specified his McKellar Township real property:

• Lots 22-23-24 Concession 13;
• Lot 21 Concession 12; and
• Southwest part of Lot 22 Concession 12.

Charles Stewart owned Lots 22-23-24 Con 13, Lot 21 Con 12 and SW part Lot 22 Con 12 (outlined in yellow). Charles Stewart was buried in Lakeview Cemetery (orange mark).

Here are some details from his will:

William Jackson’s Corner Stone

My great-great-great-grandfather William Jackson Sr. and his son William Jackson Jr. were stone masons, and they dressed the corner stone of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Source: McKellar Memories by Evelyn Watkins Moore, 1989.)

The corner stone was laid on September 1, 1860 by Edward, Prince of Wales. In February, 1916 the Parliament buildings burned in a fire. On September 1, 1916 the corner stone was re-laid, this time by Edward’s brother, the Duke of Connaught.

In 1860 the Jacksons were still living near Ottawa – they lived in Marlborough Township, Carleton County – so maybe they were in the large crowd that attended the first laying of the corner stone. By 1916 William Jackson Sr. was long gone, but William Jackson Jr. was still alive – he died in 1917 – and living in McKellar Township, Parry Sound District, Ontario. No doubt the Jackson family followed with great interest the news of the Parliament buildings fire and the subsequent rebuilding, especially the re-laying of the corner stone.

I found newspaper articles about each of the ceremonies, and have transcribed parts of them below.

My Great-grandmother Carrie Peters

Carrie Peters Stewart, her son, grandson and great-granddaughter

My great-grandmother Catherine “Carrie” Peters and I appeared in a four generation photo together.  I have a few photos of her and some of her books, but I didn’t know much about her, so over the years I’ve searched for information about her parents and early life in the Parry Sound District of Ontario, Canada.

Carrie Peters was born in 1875 in McKellar Township, Parry Sound District, Ontario. McKellar Township had been surveyed only in 1869, so these were still early years in the settlement of the township. Her parents had both grown up in Marlborough Township, Carleton County, Ontario, and then had lived in the Collingwood area before settling in McKellar Township. Her mother Catherine Robinson’s parents were from County Cavan, Ireland, and her father Forbes Peters was from Galloon Parish, County Fermanagh, Ireland.

Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Births and Stillbirths. Series: MS 929; Reel: 20.

Carrie’s father died when she was just five years old. I had wondered why Forbes Peters died in Orangeville, far from home. Eventually I discovered that Forbes’ mother Annie and his youngest sister Mary (who had married George Creasy) were living in Orangeville around that time. Likely Forbes had gone there for medical treatment for the abscess that was to cause his death.

Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Deaths. Series: MS935; Reel: 26.

Carrie’s mother, Catherine Robinson, was left with the three young children she had with Forbes, as well as two older ones that she’d had with her first husband, William Hannah, who had also died young. She soon remarried again, to her third husband, James Saunders, with whom she had two more children.

Altogether my great-grandmother had seven siblings / half siblings. Here’s a list of all the children:

• Older half-siblings (their father was William Hannah):
  1. William Hannah b 1863
  2. Elizabeth Hannah b 1864
• Siblings (their father was Forbes Peters):
  1. Mary Ann Peters b (& d?) 1872
  2. Ann Peters b 1873
  3. Catherine “Carrie” Peters b 1875 (my great-grandmother)
  4. Rheubin Fermin Peters b 1878 (& d bef. 1891?)
• Younger half-siblings (their father was James Saunders):
  1. James Saunders b 1883
  2. Mary Edna Saunders b 1886.

The 1881 census shows the recently widowed Catherine Peters and all of her children living in McKellar Township near their many Robinson relatives.

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1881. Census Place: Hagerman and McKellar, Muskoka, Ontario; Roll: C_13244; Page: 21; Family No: 92.

The 1891 census shows Catherine with her third husband, James Saunders. Only her daughter Carrie Peters and the two children she had with James Saunders are with them in the household. Carrie’s sister Ann Peters had recently married George Spiers, brother of Ann’s and Carrie’s half-sister Elizabeth Hannah’s husband. Carrie’s brother Rheubin Fermin Peters, who would have been 13 years old in 1891, is not listed in the household, so possibly he had died young. (The only two records that I’ve ever been able to find for him are his birth record (October 7, 1878 in McKellar Township) and the 1881 census, when he was two years old.)

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1891. Census Place: McKellar and Hagerman, Muskoka and Parry Sound, Ontario; Roll: T-6355; Family No: 23.

The 1891 census shows that Carrie was living near her future husband, Johnston Stewart. She and Johnston married three years later, on December 17th, 1894. The witnesses to their marriage were Carrie’s half-brother, William Hannah, and Johnston’s sister, Sarah Jane Stewart.

Carrie Peters and Johnston Stewart

Carrie Peters and Johnston Stewart had two children, a son and a daughter.

Johnston Stewart died in 1943 and Carrie Peters died in 1960. They were interred in Hillcrest Cemetery in the town of Parry Sound.

Johnston Stewart & Catherine Peters gravestone, Hillcrest Cemetery, Parry Sound