Mary Ann Clark (1858-1941)
Mary Ann’s Family Story
Mary Ann’s parents, James and Mary Ann emigrated from Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1848 and first settled in Hanover township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania and appear in the 1850 census. Their daughters Margret and Rachel accompanied them, as did Mary Ann’s father, James Gillespie, and James’ brother Hugh. Her sister’s reported in the 1911 census that they moved to Canada in 1855, before May Ann’s birth. In 1861 the family lived in the west ward of Brockville where her father worked as a laborer. The family belonged to the Free Church (Presbyterian).
I never knew my great grandmother but some family stories and history about Mary Ann was passed down through family lore. Many years of research have confirmed and extended the story.
By 1871 the family had moved to Kitley Twp, near Frankville, ON, and Mary Ann and two younger sisters, Martha and Maria, lived with their parents. Her father, James, was again described as a laborer. He died the following year at the age of 49 years.
By 1881, several family members had returned to the family household led by Mary Ann’s mother or, as I suspect, she may have chosen to record the family as a unit although they worked elsewhere. She may have been concerned that they would not be recorded in their ‘servant’ capacity. Margret and Rachel, older sisters, Martha a younger sister and Mary Ann are all listed as ‘servants’ and are believed to have been employed by local families in domestic service. Robert, a brother, was a blacksmith in Fallbrook, a village in Bathurst Twp, Lanark County, Ontario. John, identified as a laborer, was living in the family home.
Marriage to John Ashby
On the 11th of July 1883 Mary Ann married John Ashby in the Presbyterian Church manse in Lanark Village, Lanark County, ON by Rev. James Wilson. Samuel We often wondered how the two found each other but with Mary Ann’s brother Robert living in Fallbrook, she may have moved there to help in their home as his children arrived. The family story is that Mary Ann was a clerk in the McKerracher store in the village and John made frequent visits to the store!
When Mary Ann married John Ashby she had a daughter, Agnes Clarissa or “Clara” Clark born 20 Nov 1879. Mary Ann is listed as single on her marriage record and listed as a resident of Bathurst township. No record of Clara could be found in the 1881 census but she appears in the Ashby household in the 1891 census. Clara’s death certificate lists her father as Robert Clark, born in Scotland.
Fallbrook
In the 1881 Belden atlas we are told that Fallbrook contained a hotel, store, gristmill, sawmill, shingle mill and two carding mills.
From the Tay Valley Township website we learn that Fallbrook has maintained its role in local history via the stories of illustrious sons. Early families in this industrious community were Ashby, Bain, Blair, Buffam, Ennis, Donaldson, Foley, Keays, Playfair, McKerracher, Smith and Wallace.
Three well-known residents were Robert Anderson, William Lees Junior and Walter Cameron. Anderson developed the Lanark Greening Apple, a variety of big, hard apples. His trees sold throughout Lanark County. Lees was Head of Council, Justice of the Peace, Warden of Lanark County, MPP for South Lanark and founder of several nearby mills. Cameron, a blacksmith, woodcarver and storyteller, became a legend in his time.
Life Was Not Easy
My mother, in her notes described her grandmother, Mary Ann, who live nearby and often visited the Mather farm near Fallbrook as:
“a very strong woman both physically and mentally. I’ve always understood that she was a real pioneer, helped Grandpa build the two-story log house which still stands and is lived in. She was a midwife and nurse to many of the neighbours, grew a most bountiful garden, loved to read books, and could do all kinds of handiwork, knitting, crocheting, etc.
After their marriage John and Mary Ann went to live on the 10th line of Bathurst near the mouth of Bennett Lake, about two and a half miles from the village of Fallbrook. This was a portion of Ashby land, south of the lake and river. Their first home was a small cabin on the property.
Robert and Elizabeth, twins were born in 1884 and were shortly followed by William in 1885. John was born in 1888 and Harriet in 1889. My grandmother Isobella was born in 1891 and Archie in 1893. Family stories indicate they were still living in the small one-room cabin at that time.
Tragedy Strikes
Mary Ann gave birth to Archie on the 12th of February 1893. On the 10th of March, Harriet, aged four, died within hours of becoming ill with diphtheria. On the 16th of March, Ruth, aged 9, and John aged 5, rapidly became ill and passed away. My mother told a story of how her grandmother hung a patchwork quilt from a line strung across the cabin. The quilt was soaked in carbolic acid solution, a disinfectant, to separate the sick children and the remainder of the family. The diphtheria bacteria spreads through respiratory droplets (such as from a cough or sneeze) of an infected person or someone who carries the bacteria but has no symptoms. The throat infection causes a gray to black, tough, fiber-like covering, which can block your airways.
Walter Cameron, in the book The Blacksmith of Fallbrook: The Story of Walter Cameron by Audrey Armstrong, 1979 is quoted:
“John Ashby on the tenth line, I think he buried three children with scarlet fever or diphtheria, one of those contagious fevers, anyway. And nobody’d go near them, the fever spread so fast. So he’d make a box and take it down and bury a child in the graveyard and then when he’d get back there’d be another one ready to go. Imagine that! And then one day his wife was carrying water up from the lake and putting it into a tub to wash and while she was down getting a couple of pailfuls, a little boy (sic) drowned in the tub. Oh, they were the hard times!
In 1900, tragedy struck again. Charlotte, aged 13 months, drowned just outside the doorway. The Lanark Era reported:
“The home of Mr. and Mrs. John Ashby, of Bathurst, (near Fallbrook), was plunged into sorrow on Monday by the death by drowning of their thirteen-month-old daughter. The little one had been out of its parent’s sight scarcely three minutes, but during that time had fallen into a firkin of water outside the door, and when discovered life was extinct. More than their share of trouble has fallen to the lot of Mr. and Mrs. Ashby, as only about four years ago three of their little ones were taken away in a brief period by diphtheria. The funeral took place yesterday afternoon to the cemetery at Playfair.
Small hand carved stones mark the graves of the three children and it appears that no stone mark the graves of John and Mary Ann. Robert who lost his twin sister, never married in later life and may have been traumatized by this event. My grandmother, the sixth child in the family, suddenly found herself the third surviving child and eldest daughter.
Life Goes On
Other children followed Archie and joined Robert, William, and Bella. Russell and Sarah, twins in 1895, Margaret in 1897, and Charlotte, the youngest who drowned while her mother carried water from the lake for wash day.
Life was hard. A new story and a half home of logs replaced the earlier cabin. A large garden was maintained, and babies birthed throughout the community. In addition to family duties, Mary Ann was a midwife for the community. Her daughters received only a basic education and went to work for local families, first assisting with childcare, later assuming the role of domestic help in the homes of families with more resources.
One of my favorite ‘finds’ about Mary Ann’s life came from a social column in the Lanark Era in 1910.
“Mrs. Wm. McCaw (Margaret Jane) and Miss Clark (Rachel) of Brockville, Mrs. John Ashby (Mary Ann) of the 11th (sic) line of Bathurst, and Mrs. Geo, Cavanagh (Marie Emily) of Frankville, the latter accompanied by her husband and two children, spent Sunday and Thanksgiving Day with their sister, Mrs. Wm. F. Heffron (Martha). It is twenty-six years since these five sisters met together, and on Monday they visited photographer Stead and had a group picture taken.
Although there may have been some strained relationships in the family, I believe that Mary Ann had few opportunities to travel. Her home and family were the focus of her life. Martha, who lived a short distance away was probably in touch from time to time but the others lived at a greater distance. Rachel, an older sister, would die the following year and may have been in poor health at this time.
Mary Ann in Later Life
In 1910 Mary Ann and her four sisters met together for the first time in 26 years and arranged for a photo to be taken. I wonder if any of the descendants have preserved a copy of that photo?
In 1923, her son William, a survivor of injuries during World War I, passed away. In 1925 her daughter Margaret died of pulmonary tuberculosis. In 1926 Mary Ann was left a widow but continued to live in the log home that she and John built – a house that continues to be a home today.
As the years went by and her health failed, Mary Ann went to live with John and Bella Mather who lived just a few miles from the Ashby home. Mary Ann passed away in the Great War Memorial Hospital in Perth, Lanark County, ON in 1941 at the age of 82.
“Mrs John Ashby
There passed away in the Great War Memorial Hospital, Perth, on Wednesday morning, February 26, Mary Ann Clark, widow of the late John Ashby of Fallbrook. Deceased was an esteemed resident of the community of Fallbrook, where she was well and favorably known.
The late Mrs. Ashby was in her 83rd year. She was born in Brockville, a daughter of the late James Clark and Mary A. Gillespie.
In 1883 she was united in marriage with John Ashby of Fallbrook, who predeceased her in 1926.
Deceased was the mother of twelve children, four of whom died in early childhood. A daughter, Margaret, predeceased her in 1926; also a son, William, a Great War veteran, in 1923. Surviving members are: Robert on the homestead; Archie and Russel, in Alberta; Mrs John Lake, Glen Tay; Mrs. D.C. Nichols, Carleton Place, and Mrs. John Mather of Balderson, with whom the deceased lived after her health began to fail and she needed extra attention. Surviving also are one sister, Mrs. George Cavanagh of Vancouver; twenty-six grandchildren and nineteen great grandchildren.
Mrs. Ashby was a member of St Peter’s Anglican church at Fallbrook.
The funeral which was largely attended, was held Friday, at 10:30, from the home of her daughter, Mrs. John Mather, Balderson, assisted by Rev. Mr Dickinson of the Balderson United Church. The pallbearers were three grandsons, Harry Mather, Lyle Nichols, Beverley Nichols, and three nephews, Arden Lake, Delbert Lake and John Ashby.
The funeral tributes were very beautiful, and many expressions of sympathy were received by the bereaved family.
The Perth Courier
Perth, Ontario, Canada
March 6, 1941, pg. 3
Born of Irish parents who fled Northern Ireland during the famine, only to leave their relatives in the United States to start again in Canada, Mary Ann knew hardship from early childhood. Later, married and raising a family in a settler cabin, she experienced losses that a mother should never have had to bear. Possessing life sustaining skills, a strong spiritual belief, and a will to survive to the face of hardship, she provided for her family and assisted neighbours when she could. Her strong work ethic and household skills helped to sustain her daughters through many trials of their own.
