HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-01-06, Page 19to
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C. The Horton boys did what
• ey wanted to do.
Hillary farmed in Colborne,
t hewanted to shoe horses,
d opened the, first
acksinith, shop in the area
.race, first •a - liar--
- ssmaker, became - the
ortgage-master of
, nerich; but took a notion he
ould ' like to ' sit - in
rliatnent and was elected
ree times. Henry tried- his
ck in' the goldfields of
stralia 'and California
• fore settling down as a
ocer.
Honed these developments..
:me about quickly; the boys
:il first to grow up. • _
Hillary, the eldest, was only
when the family arrived in
ron from Kent, England, in
33. Horace, born at
alisfield on October 9, 1823;
T-- as-10-wherthez-firet-set-eYm
•on Lake: Hilron. Henry was
id to be "about 85" when he
ed here on October 29, 1911,
d that would make him
ly seven in 1$33:There was
daughter, Ellen, who died
:.
nuary 8; 1862, and if her age
correctly stated on the
- xnetery memorial, 39i she
ould be just short of 11 when
e family arrived here.
Henry . Herten, father of
ese children, and his wife,
arlotte, left - England ;in
''. 32 and spent a:go4part of a .
• ar in Montreal. it is likely
ey visited the office of ..*e
..,, • .
ade '401nPerkt0Yntr/k.i'of,
e Huron Tract. It has been
ated that they ,iiirriliod . in •
oderieh " in December;
vidently - favorable::
eathei had permitted land
avel and the transport of -
: mily belongings; Henry
as well-to-do. .-
Stalisfield is a village and
filial) in a beautifully
oodedand undulating
istrict -seven miles south of
aversham, which is the post
TiceifOrStalisfield Green. It-
'. ' • in the modern District of
wale. Chief crops in the area
e wheat, barley and oats.
e population in 1931 was 213
the 'civil area, 268 in the
arish.:
In 1855, when the population
as 362, ' there ' we're two
talons there, James and .
lionitia; Wheelwrights.
..-.7. resent population is
timated at 200 with no
trtons.
,The Chief Legal and
" Administrative Officer of
Swale took the trouble to look
up certain old directories and.
writes, from ' $ittingbourne:
"There are apparently no
Hortons living in the
Stansfield locality at present,
but from !Peel information I
• have ascertained that • a
branch of the family- moved
about '140 years ago -from
Stalisfield to Chilham,
another attractive 4village in
Kent, well known to many
tourists, and for many
generations have managed a
carpenter's now . builders
and undertakers business at
•
1 M.
"About 140 years ago"
coincides with the time of the
Horton migration to 'Canada,
so theremay have been• some
economic or agricultural
condition which' dictated or
encouraged migration.
--
GODERICH
What would an English
familyofLsix, --arriving in
• backwoods Goderich in the
. winter of 1833 do for ac-
Cornmodation? Houses, such
as they were, had been built
mainly around the river -
month harbor. Perliaps the
• Hortons fetiiid-tetnporary
shelter with • Colin Ross,
likewise from Kent, who had
• brought his family to
Goderich earlier in the year.
At.: any- rate,. -Henry Horton
soon built a -house on -East
Street, probably of logs. The
;:'•-etiiinda;-CoMpanYht.41eed to
the Cambria Road cminer is
FdateVirl 'March 1835. Henry'
• appears te 'have settled on
king way from the majority of
inhabitants, but, at least he
was on the road which con-
nected Goderich Township -
and Colborne, and Still does.
A few years Jater, Henry
bought from the Canada
Company two lots on
Colborne -Street, presumably
as an investment. One he
• held'3-ears before
finding a buy a d taking a
• mortgage back. - he ' other
apparently was sold by one of
his executors, John Horton, in
1885:
In an earlier article ,it, is
stated that 1. Horaee Horton
attended school in Goderich,
so probably the other 'children
of Henry did also, and later
may have been students of
GoderIch. Grammar Sehool,
though.Henry is not listed as a
supporter.
PAID CASH TO BARON
Henryrto the
36 when he arrived here, '
followed ' the trade of
blacksmith. When in June,
. 1940, he-boltgh Lot .5, Lake
Shore West, in Colborne he
Baron411 111
paid the van y - 113
. pounds sterling, about $540.
One may wonder why i lot
so near Goderich remained
unoccupied for a dozen years,
but the whole area, including
the present Ridgewood Park;
was owned • by Vincent -
Oildemeester baron van
Tuyll van Serooskerken of
Holland, who had finally
come out and started turning
his inheritance into cash, by
'sale or mortgage.
There is an oddity in his
deed to Horton; be signed it
"Tuyll de Yendora. This
appendix. has not been in-
'
terpreted,' No historian. likes instead of tackling a clearing
to skate around even a small 0 ton, probably kept on helping
mystery, so this one ":was ri his father at the blacksmith
referred to the "central' f".., shop in Goderich.
bureau veer genealogie" At the time of his death in
The Hague. The curator 1881, aged 59, it was stated in
replies that -"de, Yendore. a newspaper article that he
may refer to a place or estate. i "came to Goderich in 1833
but we do not, know, of :•'!“ and took up land on the lake
branch of, the van ,Ttiyll van. shore." Not quite that fast. It
Serooskerken family who Tin?,• was seven years after arrival
it in *holt name" of the family in Goderich that
. As they lie seen from the Henry bought Lot 5 for his sell,
Colborne map in the Belden Hillary, and two years later
Atlas of 1879, these lots on the/. that he acquired from Edwin:
lake shore were divided on R. Gooding the 100 -acre "east
north -south line, the part on Part". This remained *in
the public road comprising Henry's name until 1865.
100 acres, the westerly part , In 1850 Hillary borrowed
lesser area.. The baron's from his father, on a mor -
westerly lot comprises •gg tgage, paying it off after six
acres on the Atlas map, but years. He had been married
100 in the deed to HOrtoniii. before 1850, for his wife's
Hillary was only 18 when the name appears in the mor -
west lot was purchased, and tgage transaction as Mary
Ann: It would be .interesting
, to learn her family name.
L. In 1863,_ Henry deeded - to
Hillary the "100 acres east"
on which the Sunset Golf
• Course is now laid out. The lot
to the south became the
:•!, Clutton farm, and next on the
north was 'Linklater's.
At the organization Meeting
of school Section 5, January
15, 1857, Hillary was elected a
• trustee and also secretary-
treastirer. Other trustees
1 were James Dustow and
;Li- Prince Morris. - The contract
for building the school was let
to James Linklater at 28
pounds, 15 shillings, and the
*tool wa% built on Lot 11,
le •
Horace Horton, se,cond of Henry's sonS,W�rked Wit as
harnessmaker onHamilton „
Street, was a member of the
town's first council, served twice as mayor. He organized
and beaded a loan company and was three times eleeted
to the House of Commons from Centre Huron. He
married Hannah Gibbons, second daughter of Sheriff
Robert Gibbons, and they had six children:- four
daughters' and two sons. •
1. Henry Hortee,great-great-grandfather left wheelwright, undertaking
Kent, etnigrate%t :.StalisfieId in 1844 and moved and blinding business. The Ufl
th his wife and four to Sh9ttenden (a 'hamlet in forge at Old Wives Lees 1ildren ,
in 1832, crossing the Chilha-Perisl, about ' seven ceased because ,of
liotio'!thilliidf a continent H was a mechanization on the farms, as
frdeSeeridantkilare are an on yard adjacent to coneerns.
• lifijklteneItionil - based
. LEEBURN CHURCH'
Stalisfield,In Kent, the
flint -stone Church of St. Mary
had 120 sittings. Whether or,.
not the. Hortons occupied any
of them is not known, but in
Huron the family has been
mainly Presbyterian,.
• allowing for some daughters
going elsewhere with their
husbands.
When the Presbyterians
and Roman Catholics began
preaching • at Leeburn,
Hillary's house (his .second)
was. thrown open "so that the
truth could be preached to a11'.
. ,So HillarPs 'family became
meinbers of -the Leeburn
congregation. Henry, the
Goderich grocer. ' was a
trustee of Knox Presbyterian,
1875-1889, and the name of his
brother Horace*oppears in
annual •reports through the
years. Archibald Horton,
• ' father of James Horton;
Goderich, was an elder of
.
• On January 19,_1871 (Mrs.
Clutton's scrapbook reveals)
a meeting was held at the
home • of Hillary Horton for
• the • purpose of beginning a
Sabbath school, and it was
decided - that a _building
suitable for evangelistic and
• religious • services be ',ob-
tained. A former blacksmith
shop on the Straughan farm,
across the -road from Horton's
ave not continuep with the
was- fixed up and made
dertAking side; however, serviceable by June.
he building and'decorating The first Leeburn church
de has flourished. was an was' built in /875, evidently a
pprentice with another firm •teinporary structure, and in
aearpenter and completed -1860 the congregation built
IS about the, time of my
tiler s eat . the church still in . existence
• 'older -sinter, now-itigida3vile, v'
igrated
as a chapel on the grounds of
igrated to, Canada in 1968 school
6110; Canada West.' wheelwrightand carpenter god the remaining business
• d established a business . operated as two separate
, th
fa
heti itif.*: Olen*, • of ' Myrtle Rouse, where he lived. ` In 1844 to
IIILUXU
los ‘Otv
a
:A-. •
the
s.
sr kilo
16 thc
liege On
„
only seven "He died in 1869-5 and was :1956, leaving the building and
4,..t•tre: 4
sucCeeded" " his' only son, undertaking side to his only .„
'11°P,Pn!*, Sthiiese..ithe "axpanded-.the I- son, Erib(rny father). In the
AftrIt0..,buSlies04T0644 a' yard in meantlme, his brother K.
VlIage and a .:foige-eVille had died; and the "
of - flye at Coit Wives Lees (another 1 forge wase cloaed on his death
Ott parish) ,1 -11V was - finally, demolished
y At or-,:Ataditiiiity to'‘'inie-adjoining the about ten -fifteen years , ago. wi
Otiej.,f,11iji,,'Vird VShVetidan. fie also `, ;my,. father continued2...the
emberof .4, 4 , 0 .4
ge undertaker, - buginegs: until his death th
).4rCh. alte4,:t4,06e.40#1.4 wheelwright. Side
13#1CistOred.. • 'ceaSed;
.--malnstaywas the f
the 1:1--nited Church summer
nd• is living in Toronto. I Henry • Horton, who brought
ve a brother aged 34 who his family from Kent in 1833,
orks In London. We are the died May 1, 1876, "suddenly,
nly male_Horton descended in the presence only of his
om Thomas Horton;
eldest son, Hillary," the
- • HtFon Signal stated in its
"I hope this information brief obituary. "An active
11 prove 'of interest; and man' exceedingly in -
did Int best for deVeloprileht
Oritario,We have a iturnber , of the tovin," His wife died six
it : a photographstnewspapert4iti. . c; It iop p; . , copy
alb. hi andwe da , n l Elleni. non it Hillary,
months
nr yiiti6th2
e eldest son, died
earlier,.the daughter
'''•On-Api'll 9th, 1881, at the early
it* Ward 104aiiitt a litteeitite:
4 ' t 9
Ko OVER , .. the
•bk: Hildaer nextand rthe., Week vislflrnr 4;p1s-house was always noted .hospftality," the Huron
dependent in character; he
e Horton- name is -Still alive
' Allege heart, and was ono of
kindest and most
iiii*Pto•*ng•Wl!Itboughtful. of men„, •Every
was sure to:-/ind- a
I 044.440S: iiiiidness
° �rs will long be
his' cheery face
-
and kindly voice being
medicine in themselves for
the invalid, and in social
circles • his genial presence
will be missed. He opened a
blacksmith shop, the first in
the neighborhood, and
worked at the business for
some time. He was not a
strong politician, and med-
dled little in municipal or
parliamentary affairs.- He
leaves eight sons and one
daughter....' The funeral
sermon was preached on the
16th by Rev. Dr. Ure at
Iseeburn Presbyterian
church."
The narrator might well
have mentioned -Hillary's
wife, Mary Ann: at least as a
survivor, if not byreason of
her undoubted contribution to
Hillary's reputation for
hospitality.)
Hillary perhaps * did pot
(continued on page 10A)
Oti**4,,r Of- " x<4 •
ttla
• ,
lit 1, '111
)
house numbered 145 East street is believed
second built ftr Henry Horton, the Huron faintly of that name, who cime,trom
Kent in 1833. It was later the home of his youngest son, Henry, who kept a grocery store at
Hamilton street and the Square, and dim is the residence otliiattl R.ICorriyeau.
'Horace-H-0ton, second eldest of Henry's three sons, biiikthis, house on George's
Crescent about 1877, when he was M.P. for Centre Huron. it the residence of J.M. • '
Doitnely, Q.C. Lower: Hillary Horton's house on.the hontestendkne of Dm* itnig?
• gone, but the little house In thepfetnre,in-tiiiSniiiet-dOlf ProrsittiOniktite filo
unmarried daughters, Edith and Elizabeth. • • • • "' -? •
Three Horton Houses..Upper: the •