The Seven Children of William and Agnes
Alexander Sandy Shaw
Alexander Shaw, known as “Sandy”, was born on the Shaw homestead
at Drummond Center Ontario on 17 April 1834, the eldest child of William
Alexander Shaw and Agnes Dunn.
Alexander originally trained and worked as a schoolteacher but later qualified
as a druggist and owned and operated a pharmacy at Almonte, Ontario.
On 04 September 1863 he married Jessie “Jean” Gunn at the Carleton Place
Methodist Church. Jessie Gunn, born in 1840, was the daughter of John Gunn
and Jesse McPherson.
Around 1870 Alexander disappeared. He may have disappeared from a riverboat
between Brockville and Montreal but one was witness to his fate and no body
was ever recovered. He may have made for Oregon and worked as a bookkeeper
for a lumber company. Alexander Shaw’s disappearance was and remains a mystery.
After she lost her husband, Jessie Gunn-Shaw and her children lived with
her in-laws (William and Agnes Shaw) on the Drummond Center farm until about
1878 when she moved back to Almonte to live with her sister. She worked for
a number of years in a woolen mill there before moving to Carleton Place.
Alexander and Jesse Shaw had at least two, and possibly three, children;
William Alexander Shaw, born in 1865, became a tailor and lived and worked
at Carleton Place, Ontario to the age of 99 years. He married Lillian Parsons
Cox and the couple had seven children; Minnie Campbell who married Rev. Alexander
Armstrong Scott; William Alexander who married Ethel Howe; Dorothy Gunn who
was unmarried; Nellie who was unmarried; Iva Jean who married George Plummer;
and Kenneth Gordon who died as an infant.
William and Lillian (Parson) Shaw’s daughter Minnie Campbell Shaw was a
school teacher in Carleton Place and then served with her husband, Rev. Alexander
Armstrong Scott, as a missionary in India for forty years. She was a teacher
and Dean of Women at Union Theological Seminary at Indore, India where her
husband was Principal. In 1935 Rev. Scott was awarded the King’s Jubilee Medal
and in 1952 he was elected moderator of the United Church of Canada. Their
sons Arnold and Kenneth moved to western Ontario. Daughter Dorothy was a
secondary school teacher in Muskoka (Ontario).
Jesse Shaw born around 1867 married Alexander Rodger Greig, the son of John
Graham Greig and Elizabeth McGown Rodger who emigrated to Montreal from Scotland
in 1861. Alex was born in Montreal and educated at McGill University. He worked
as Chief Draughtsman of the mechanical department at the Canada Atlantic Railway
and Canadian Northern Railway. He was later Professor of Agricultural Engineering
at the Manitoba Agriculture College (Winnipeg). In 1909 he was appointed
the first Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan
and held that post until 1937. From 1939 to 1943 he was Acting Professor
of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta.
(Alex Rodger Greig was a brother of James Rodger Greig who married another
of William and Agnes’ granddaughters, Sarah H. Grey, the daughter of Jane
Shaw and William B. Grey.)
Alex and Jessie Greig had one child Mona Jean (dates unknown) who married
Edward Lovell (also a Professor at the University of Saskatchewan). Edward
and Jean Lovell had no children.
James Shaw may have been a third child of Alexander and Jessie Shaw but,
if so, no information on this person has ever been found.
The death date and place of Alexander “Sandy” Shaw is unkown. Jessie “Jean”
Gunn-Shaw died in 1914.
- Ron W. Shaw (2005)
Margaret Shaw, William and Agnes Shaw’s youngest daughter, was born
on the Drummond Center homestead. Her exact birth date is something of a
mystery. Various census records and obituaries suggest it was some combination
of the following; 05 March, 04 November or 05 November in 1835, 1836, 1837.
Margaret was a schoolteacher until she married John Burnett of Renfrew in
1865. John Burnett was the son of John Burnett Sr. and Jane McFarlane.
John and Margaret Burnett farmed near Beachburg in Westmeath Township of
Renfrew County from 1865 until 1903 when they moved to join their family in
They had five sons and two daughters;
William Shaw Burnett, born in 1866, moved west and worked as a farm hand
near Portage la Prairie before joining his brother James in Minnesota and
Montana. In 1893 William moved back to Manitoba and settled in the Homewood-Sperling
area. He later purchased land near Graysville.
In 1908 William married Mary Emily May Adrian of Winnipeg. They had four
children; William James Adrian, Margaret Ethel, Jean Lavina and Irma Lorraine.
William’s grandson (Jean Lavina’s son), “Jack” Burnett Murta, was elected
Member of Parliament (PC) for the Manitoba riding of Lisgar in 1970.
John Alexander Burnett, born in 1868, joined his brother William Shaw Burnett
at Sperling Manitoba and, with another brother George, took over operation
of one of William’s farms. John later went to Vancouver, British Columbia
and died in Hamilton, Ontario. He was unmarried.
James McKillop Burnett, born in 1869, moved to Minnesota and then Fort Benton,
Montana at age 17. He worked as a cowboy with the Willard Livestock Company
until he settled a homestead in Carbon County near Luther and Red Lodge in
1891. In 1902 he married Lousia Geisdorff, the daughter of Bozeman doctor
Francis Geisdorff and his wife Anna. Louisa died in 1909 and in 1913 James
married schoolteacher Eda Dorothea Brickman.
As James developed his Red Lodge Montana ranch he was also very active in
community affairs. He played a significant role in building the first telephone
line in the Luther area, was a supporter of the Luther Methodist Church and
donated the land where Volney Creek School was built. He served on the Board
of County Commissioners from 1914 to 1920, was a charter member of the United
States National Bank and a member of the Montana Stockgrowers. Eda was a Republican
Committee Woman, served as election judge for several years, was active in
the local and state Women’s Society of Christian Service and became Worthy
Matron of her Eastern Star Lodge.
James and Louisa Geisdorf had four children; James D., an unnamed child
who died as an infant, Margaret and William John.
James and Eda Dorothea Brickman also had four children; Eda Leota, Lucille
Minnie, James Howard and Wilma “Pat” Helen.
Son James Howard was born on, and later operated, his father’s Montana ranch.
He served in the USAF during WWII, was elected to the Montana House of Representatives
serving terms between 1969 and 1982 and was a State Senator from 1991 to 1998.
James Howard holds the distinction of being the first to successfully cross
breed buffalo and cattle creating the “Beefalo”. He was a leader in the National
and State Bison Association, the Montana Stockgrowers and the Farm Bureau.
Susan Jane “Jean” Burnett, born in 1874, was a schoolteacher and, at one
time, taught at the Drummond Center school and boarded at the home of her
uncle, James Shaw.
Jean met John Duncan Dewar in Ontario but traveled west to marry him when
he purchased a general store at Greysville, Manitoba in 1904.
Jane and John Dewar had four children; William John Gordon, James “Comrie”,
William Wesley “Kenneth” and Margaret “Moira” Elizabeth.
Margaret Burnett, born in 1875, was also a schoolteacher but made several
trips to Manitoba to cook for her brother William during the busy summer months.
She married James W. McClure of Toledo, Ontario and the couple had four
daughters; Verna, Margaret Dorothy, Jean Alexandra and Laura Marie. Margaret
later married John D. Moody.
George David Burnett, born in 1877, followed his brother William to Sperling,
Manitoba where, together with brother Robert, he took over operation of one
of William’s farms. He married Annie Amelia Wilton but they had no children.
Robert Edward Burnett, born in 1880, moved west to join his brother William
at Graysville, Manitoba. He was unmarried and, although he farmed briefly
in Saskatchewan, lived most of his life with William at Greysville.
John Burnett died at Graysville, Manitoba in 1912. Margaret Shaw-Burnett
died at Perth, Ontario in 1924 and her body was taken by train back to Manitoba
- Ron W. Shaw (2005)
Jane Shaw was born 04 April 1838 on her father’s Drummond Township farm. She
trained and worked as a schoolteacher until, in 1864, she married William
B. Grey, the son of Irish immigrants Robert Grey and Sarah Stall.
William B. Grey was a painter from Carleton Place but he is also recorded
as having received the Canada General Service Medal (1866-1870) for his service
with the Carleton Place Militia Regiment during the Fenian Raids. He may have
also served as a militia soldier with the 1870-1877 Red River Expeditionary
Force in Manitoba during the Riel Rebellion.
William and Jane Grey had two sons and two daughters;
Robert John Q. Grey, born in 1864, married Margaret Isabella Stewart at
Sifton, Manitoba in 1894. The couple lived at Oak Lake, Manitoba and had
at least one daughter, Laura Bell Grey (b.1897).
Robert operated a furniture store and funeral home at Oak Lake from the
1890s into the 1930s/40s.
Robert Grey and family appear in the 1901 census (Brandon District, Sifton
Subdistrict, Village of Oak Lake) but little trace has been found after that
date. One source suggests they moved “back east” in the 1940s.
William Shaw Grey, born in 1868, moved to the area of Oak Lake Manitoba
around 1890. He married Isabella Jane Ledgerwood at Sifton, Manitoba in 1891.
Isabella was the daughter of James Ledgerwood and Jane Douglas-Ledgerwood,
originally of Pakenham, Ontario and later of Oak Lake, Manitoba and Lacombe,
In 1896 William and Isabella Grey moved to the then North West Territories
and purchased land near Lacombe (Alberta). William owned and operated the
first threshing machine in the area but was killed when the thresher rolled
over on him. He died on New Years Day 1898.
William & Isabella Grey had three daughters; Jennie Elsie Grey and Bella
Shaw Grey born in Manitoba and Sara Elizabeth Grey born in Alberta.
After William’s death Isabella and her three daughters moved to and, within
the required five-year period successfully “proved up”, a homestead near Ponoka,
Alberta (near Red Deer). In 1904, in order to ensure the best education possible
for her daughters, Isabella moved the family into the town of Ponoka. Isabella
and the girls supported themselves by keeping boarders, baking bread and
Daughter Jennie Elsie trained as a teacher and
taught school in the Ponoka district. In 1913 she married her former teacher
George Marion of Edmonton. Bella Shaw married Russ Carter and lived in Regina.
Sarah Elizabeth was also a schoolteacher, marrying Watson “Wat” Jackson of
Edmonton and later living in Vancouver.
Sarah Hall Grey, born in 1869, married James Rodger Greig in 1896.
James Rodger Greig was the son of John Graham Greig of Bridgeton, Glasgow
and Elizabeth McGown Rodger who emigrated to Canada in 1861 and settled at
(James Rodger Greig was the brother of Alex Rodger Greig who married Jessie
Shaw, another of William and Agnes Shaw’s granddaughters, the daughter of
Alexander “Sandy” Shaw and Jessie Jean Gunn.)
Following their marriage James R. and Sarah H. Greig lived at Cardinal,
Ontario and then moved to the USA. James owned and operated a jewelry and
antique store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In addition to his business,
James had many other interests including a monthly religious program on radio
station WIP Philadelphia. He was ordained in the Apostolic Church in 1914.
As James and Sarah Greig struggled through the economic depression of the
1930s, having to move several times to less expensive apartments, Sarah Grey-Greig
learned some useful lessons about the value of real estate. She built a house
in Upper Darby PA and then purchased a nearby property and converted it into
four apartments. When her husband died in 1941 she moved to Hammondsport NY
where she continued to buy houses and convert them into income properties.
Sarah did not attend a mainstream church but found tent meetings or friends
who believed, as she did, in Jesus’ power to heal any disease or infirmity.
James R. and Sarah H. Greig had two sons born in Philadelphia, James William
Greig and Harold Grey Greig.
James William Greig, although an American by birth, served in the Canadian
Expeditionary Force during World War I. He married Elizabeth Allen in 1917.
He was employed by the American Chemical Paint Company in Philadelphia until
taking a job as Advertising Manager of the Hammondsport (New York) Gazette.
When the Gazette failed during the 1930s James William purchased some of its
presses and established the Modern Press printing company. James William
and Elizabeth Allen Greig had children; James Roderick, Marion and Eleanor.
Harold Grey Greig became a chemist and is noted for developing the first
photocopy technology, originally known as “Electrofax”. He held 32 patents
in the field and worked for RCA at Princeton N.J. Harold married Ethel
Conway and had one daughter Ethel “Connie” Greig.
Sarah Hall Grey-Greig died at Hammondsport, New York, USA in 1958.
Agnes Dunn Grey, born in 1880, worked in the Canadian Government civil service
and became secretary to Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King. On her
retirement she moved to Philadelphia PA to live with James R. and Sarah H.
Greig and later moved to Hammondsport NY.
Agnes took dictation of her brother-in-law’s sermons and typed them for
the radio program. She was a follower of Aimee Semple McPherson.
Agnes Dunn Grey died at Hammondsport, New York in 1952.
- Ron W. Shaw (2005)
James Shaw, fourth child and second son of William Shaw and Agnes
Dunn, was born at Drummond Center on 22 March 1839 … his mother’s birthday.
On 31 September 1870 James married Elizabeth McGregor but only four years
later he was left a widower when Elizabeth died, of childbirth complications,
on 03 March 1874.
James was remarried on 18 December 1878 to Charlotte Moulton.
James Shaw farmed the Drummond Center Homestead all his life. He kept a herd
of Aryshire dairy cattle, sheep, hogs, chickens and, of course, horses. The
1881 Belden Historical Atlas of Lanark & Renfrew Counties described him
as “one of the leading farmers of the Township of Drummond and noted in his
locality as a raiser of high class stock. All in all, one of the most substantial
and best respected men in this section of the County.”
In addition to farming James helped found the Drummond Center Cheese Factory,
the Lanark Mutual Fire Insurance Company and the Drummond Center Telephone
Company. He was elected to Drummond Township Council and served as Deputy
Reeve. James also helped found the Drummond Center Presbyterian Church where
he was a church Elder and Sunday School Superintendent.
James Shaw fathered 11 children, all born on the Shaw Homestead at Drummond
Two daughters were born to his first wife, Elizabeth McGregor;
Ethel Elizabeth was born in 1872. She married stonemason Dan MacRae of Carleton
Place in 1897 and in the early 1900s they moved to Prelate, Saskatchewan.
The MacRaes later farmed east of Regina and, in 1930, moved to Parr View,
Saskatchewan with a later move to back to Regina. Elizabeth and Dan MacRae
had five children; Jean, Archibald Shaw, Elizabeth, Donella and Mary Fidella.
Agnes Mathina was born in 1874 and, in 1905, married Charles Brewer of Carleton
Place. In 1911 Charles and Agnes went to homestead at Prelate, Saskatchewan
but returned to Carleton Place around 1920. After their return to Ontario
Charles worked as Ranger in Algonquin Park. The couple had no children.
James’ second wife, Charlotte Moulton; bore him six sons and three daughters;
William James was born in 1879. In 1900 Will went west to homestead at Lorette
Manitoba, moved to Prelate Saskatchewan and then to Pennant Saskatchewan.
In 1910 he married Laura Dunlop at Pine Grove, Manitoba. William and Laura
had eight children; James William, Alfred Franklin, Mary Olive, Erma Charlotte,
Marion Edna, Harold Alexander, John Kenneth and Robert Gordon.
Robert John was born in 1881. Together with his brother Will he went to Lorette
Manitoba in 1900, then moved to a homestead at Tate, Saskatchewan and later
to Muddie Lake, Saskatchewan. He married Martha E. Smith in 1907 and the
couple had eight children; Evelyn Charlotte, Norman, Alex, Allen, Bertrand,
James Andrew, Verna Marion and Thelma Grace.
Alexander was born in 1883. In 1904 he left Ontario to homestead at Tate
Saskatchewan but returned east in 1906. In 1907 he married Katherine Quinn.
Allie ran a livery stable at Perth until 1910 and then operated a dray service
at Haileybury until returning to Tate Saskatchewan in 1912. He was “blown
out” by the dust bowl of the 1930s, returned to Drummond Center and became
an inspector for the Lanark Mutual Insurance Company. Allie and Katherine
had three children; James Hilliard, Melva Marion and Franklin Alexander.
Mary Olive was born in 1886. She studied nursing in Toronto, Ontario and
Watertown, New York. She married Dr. Willard S. Perrigo in 1915 and had two
children; Marion and Jane Olive.
Norman Archibald McGregor was born in 1888 and followed his brothers to western
Canada. For several seasons he worked on his brother Robert’s farm at Tate,
Saskatchewan in the summers but returned to Ontario each winter to purchase
horses which he shipped by rail and sold in Saskatchewan. In the 1930s he
secured his own farm at Love Saskatchewan. Archie married Hazel Pearl McDonald
in 1917 and the couple later moved to Prince George, British Columbia where
he ran a sawmill. Archie and Pearl had six children; Blake M. Franklin, Glenn
Archibald, Charlotte Isobel, Betty Jean, James Bernard and Dean Denton.
Blake Franklin was born in 1890 and left Ontario in 1911 to homestead at
Prelate, Saskatchewan. In 1917 he sold his homestead and moved to Empress,
Alberta. In 1921 he married Pearl Blood. In 1927 the couple moved to a rented
farm at Isham, Saskatchewan and then to Valentine, Saskatchewan in 1929.
In 1960 they purchased a house in Pennant, Saskatchewan. Blake and Pearl
had four children; Beryl Flunyd, Charlotte Orla, Alvin James and Atha May.
Joseph Homer was born in 1894. When his father died in 1922 Homer purchased
the Shaw Homestead at Drummond Center from his mother and operated the “home
farm” all his life. In 1924 he married Hazel Audrey Haig and the couple had
three children; Audrey Kathleen Forsythe, Willard Homer and Douglas James.
Charlotte Marion was born in 1897. She married Allen Moore Ewart in 1922.
The Ewarts operated a farm at Wayside, a few miles from Drummond Center.
Marion and Allen had four children; Marion Mildred, Mary Olive Jane, Jeannette
Esther and James Allen.
Esther Forsythe was born in 1902. She studied at a business college in Perth
and worked as secretary to the owner of the Boyd Caldwell & Co. Woolen
Mills at Perth and then for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit Michigan. In
1926 she married Joseph Hoard at Antwerp, New York. Esther was widowed in
1955. In 1969 she married Richard Francis at Kissimme Florida and was widowed
again in 1982. Esther and Joseph Hoard had three children; Glenyce Marie
Ann, Charles Gerald and Mary Patricia. Esther Forsythe, aged 103, lives in
a retirement home in Starke, Florida.
In addition to his 11 natural children James Shaw also raised British Home
Child Colin Sinclair Lockhart. Colin was born at 15 October 1875 at Govan,
Lanarkshire, Scotland. In 1884, at the age of nine, he was sent to Canada
by the Quarrier’s Homes and later that year became part of the James Shaw
household. Colin was a part of the Shaw family for the next 14 years until,
in the company of James’ natural sons Will and Robert, he left Ontario for
Manitoba in 1898. Colin took up a land claim in Manitoba and James sent him
sufficient funds to purchase a team of horses with which to establish his
farm. Nothing further is known about Colin Lockhart, but circumstantial evidence
suggests he died unmarried, somewhere in the Canadian or American west.
James Shaw died of kidney failure, at Drummond Center, on 05 December 1922.
Charlotte Moulton-Shaw died on 03 December 1940. James, Charlotte, and James’
first wife Elizabeth McGregor, are buried in the Drummond Center Community
Janet Shaw, born 09 August 1840 at Drummond Center, was the fifth
child of William Alexander Shaw and Agnes Dunn. She trained and worked as
a schoolteacher before marrying Donald Robertson in 1862.
Donald Robertson, also born at Drummond Center, was the son of Hugh Robertson
and Christine McDonald of Breadalbane, Scotland and the grandson of John
Robertson whom family tradition holds was one of the 700 Robertsons who stood
with Prince Charles in the rebellion of 1745.
Janet and Donald Robertson lived on Drummond Street in the Town of Perth
in a home Donald built in 1861, and which stands today. Donald worked as
millwright and carpenter.
Donald and Janet Robertson had 13 children.
Hugh S. Robertson born in 1862 was a Professor at the University of Toronto.
He was unmarried.
Agnes Dunn Robertson, born 1864,married Thomas Corlett Smith of Gananoque,
Ontario in 1882. T.C. Smith was a schoolteacher and later Inspector of Public
Schools for Lanark West. They had seven children; Edna Agnes, Christina Isabel,
Helen Margaret, Muriel Jeanette, William Donald Hugh, Lillian, and Eveline.
William Shaw Robertson, born 1865, was a pharmacist and operated a drug store
in Perth for many years. He married Elizabeth Martin Allen in 1892. William
and Elizabeth had four children; Marion Elizabeth, William Allan, Jean Alicia
Kellock and Christina McDonald.
Donald McDonald Robertson, born in 1867, was a medical Doctor and, from its
founding in 1924 through his retirement in 1939, served as the first superintendent
of Ottawa Civic Hospital. After graduating from Perth Collegiate Institute
he served as a schoolteacher for a number of years at Balderson and Hawksbury
and then, while attending McGill Medical School, worked summers aboard the
Ottawa River steamer “Empress”. He received his M.D. and C.M from McGill
in 1898 and served his internship at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal.
He then spent a year at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, Scotland obtaining
an L.R.C.P. degree from Edinburgh and an L.R.C.S. degree from Glasgow in
1900. After further postgraduate work at McGill he practiced in Ottawa until
he was appointed superintendent of Carleton Protestant General Hospital in
Ottawa in 1903, a position he held until his appointment at Ottawa Civic
Hospital. He was unmarried.
Christina McDonald Robertson, born in 1869, married William James Geddes
in 1895. No children have been identified.
James Wilson Shaw Robertson, born 1871, was a newspaper publisher in Fernie,
British Columbia. He married Lila Adelaide Miller in 1898 and they had two
sons; Clifford James and Baysil Evans Adair.
Jessie Catherine Robertson, born 1873, married Rev. George Rock in 1904.
They had no children.
Alexander John Robertson, born in 1876, was unmarried.
Margaret Jane A. Robertson, born in 1878, was unmarried.
Duncan Peter Robertson, born in 1880, died aged four years.
Frederick Albert Robertson, born 1882, was a banker and bank manager with
Merchants’ Bank and then the Bank of Montreal at branches throughout Ontario
and Quebec including the Perth branch. He served for many years as vice-president
and chairman of finance for the Perth Great War Memorial Hospital, was president
of the Elmwood Cemetery Company and on the executive of the Red Cross Society.
He was active in the local Board of Trade and treasurer of the Salvation
Army campaign. An avid sportsman he was also president of the Fish &
Game Association and the Gun Club (Perth). He married Kathleen McCann in
1918 and the couple had three children; Donald, Charles Frederick Paul and
Charles Robert Robertson, born in 1884, was an engineer working in government
service. He was unmarried.
Sarah Annie Robertson, born 1886, was unmarried.
Donald Robertson died in 1896 and Janet Shaw-Robertson died in 1919.
- Ron W. Shaw (2005)
John “Jack” Shaw was born on 02 April 1842, the sixth child of William
Shaw and Agnes Dunn.
In 1883 Jack married Lavina “Vinnie” Moulton, the sixth child of Robert Moulton
and Nancy Agnes Horricks. Charlotte’s father, Robert Moulton, was the son
of Joseph and Elizabeth Moulton who came to Canada from Wexford County Ireland
in 1819. Her mother was the daughter of English soldier William Horricks,
who arrived in Canada in 1814, and his Scots wife Christina Esther Forsythe,
a Lanark Society Settler of 1820.
<DIV align=left style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0mm; PADDING-LEFT: 0mm; PADDING-RIGHT:
0mm; PADDING-TOP: 0mm" name="Normal">Jack and Lavina first lived on the
Shaw homestead at Drummond Center and then, for a short time, on a farm at
Prestonvale. They later purchased a farm about one mile east of his father's
Jack and Lavina had nine children. The first one born in 1884 and the last
17 years later in 1901 when Lavina was 40 years old.
William Robert Shaw, born in 1884, died at the age of only ten days.
William Alva Shaw, born in 1885, was unmarried and died at the age of 21.
James Elmer Shaw, born in 1888, never married and spent most of his life
in British Columbia and died at Toronto.
John “Bland” Shaw, born in 1890, attended dairy school in Kingston and then
worked in the Drummond Center Cheese Factory partly owned by his uncle James
Shaw. In 1916 he married Laura MacGregor, daughter of James MacGregor and
Naomi Marks, and they lived on a farm just outside Perth in Drummond Township.
Laura and baby Dorothy died in childbirth in 1922.
Bland joined the Imperial Oil Company at Perth in 1924 and, in the same year,
married Ellen Fair, daughter of Philip Fair and Ellen Harper. They purchased
a large brick home in Perth and the property included a garage for the gasoline
truck and a large barn that housed the gasoline sleigh and a team of horses
While living in Perth they had three children; Helen Lavina, William Bland
and John Howard . They were transferred to Renfrew in 1938, then to Cornwall
in the same year, and finally to Brockville in 1940 where Bland was plant
manager of the distribution facility located on Water Street. Ellen died
from Cancer in 1940.
In 1942 Bland married Bessie Gilmour Thompson and they had one son, Hugh
Bland died at Perth in 1958.
Alexander John Shaw, born in 1892, was known as “Sandy”. In 1910 he married
Ethyl Louise Inwood who had been born at Drummond Centre. They lived in Perth
for many years before moving to Toronto.
While living in Perth they had six children; Doris Adeline, Phyllis Evelyn,
Hilda Lavina, John Alexander, James Orville and Ethel Marlene.
Ethyl died in 1936 and Sandy in 1981.
Thomas Howard Shaw, born in 1894, served in the Canadian Armed Forces, in
Canada, during World War One. He farmed in Saskatchewan and came east to
Perth for the winters quite often. Howard never married and died in Toronto
Richard Warren Shaw, born in 1896, married Ruby Aikay in 1935 while still
living on the Drummond Township home farm. They had only one child who died
in infancy. Richard Warren spent the last several years of his life in Toronto
and died there in 1965.
Agnes Evelyn Shaw, born in 1898, never married and spent her working life
in a secretarial capacity, first for a short time in New York City, but for
many years in Toronto ending her working days at Sunnybrook Veterans Hospital.
She died at Toronto in 1989.
Hugh Wilfred Moulton Shaw, born in 1901, served in the Canadian Armed Forces
during two wars according to the Drummond Township Honor Roll. During WW
I he served in Canada (probably due to his age as he was only 16 when he
signed up in 1916). He re-enlisted for service during WW II (in his late
30s) and served with the Canadian Army Postal Corps in England. Although
he had worked the home farm until the late 1930s, on his return from military
service he joined Canada Post, spending the majority of his career at the
main postal station on Front Street in Toronto. He married Dorothy McClure
in 1948. Hugh died in 1973.
Jack Shaw died in 1926 and Lavina died in 1934. They are buried in the Drummond
Center Community Cemetery.
- Helen Marshall (2004)
Sarah, the youngest child of William Alexander and Agnes Shaw, was
born on the Shaw homestead at Drummond Center on 15 May 1843. She is described
in some early family notes as “a beautiful fair-haired girl”.
In 1869 she married William Paul of Mt. Blow Farm, Ramsay Township, Lanark
County. William was the son of Andrew Paul, a native of Duntocher, Dumbartsonshire,
Scotland and Euphemia “Effie” Yuill (1805-1897), a native of Glasgow.
William and Sarah Paul lived on a farm near Appleton, in Ramsay Township,
and had three sons and four daughters;
William Andrew Paul, born in 1870, married Mimi Fraser and they had at least
on son, Martin, who married Elsie Wright but had no children. William died
at Pilot Mound, Manitoba.
Euphemia Agnes Paul, born in 1871, was a nurse in Detroit. She married Will
Davis but had no children.
Ida A. Paul, born in 1874, was a schoolteacher having graduated head of her
Normal School class. She never married.
Anna Glass Paul, born in 1877, was also unmarried.
Jessie Jean Paul, born about 1880, married James Wadell Rose in 1901 at the
Rose’s Appleton homestead. James was a cattle buyer and drover in Carleton
County and an elder and deacon of the Almonte Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Jessie and James had two sons and three daughters. William Edward, who was
killed at the age of 22 by a falling tree while working in the bush; Margaret
Evelyn, worked as a Federal Government records clerk in charge of WWI files
and, at one time, was housekeeper to sculptor R. Tait McKenzie. She is unmarried
and, aged 101, lives at Shawville, Quebec; Sarah “Dolly” Dorothy worked as
a bookkeeper and for the Almonte Gazette and married William J. Burns (1887-1962).
William was a farmer, wrote poetry, loved to travel and was a deacon and
session clerk for Almonte Reformed Presbyterian Church. Dolly and William
had one son and three daughters.
Franklin John Paul, born 1881, married Margaret Anderson in 1910. He worked
the Appleton farm all his life. They had one daughter, Willena Elsie/Effie
(1919-2001), who married William A. Ledingham and later married Professor
Rex Lyle Casselman. Willena and Rex Casselman lived in Ottawa and adopted
Karen Linda in 1958.
Charles Henry Paul, born in 1885, served with the Canadian Expeditionary
Force during WWI. He seems to have been gassed and his injuries kept him
in a British hospital for many years. He later worked as a banker in Manitoba
and then moved to Salt Spring Island, near Coghlan, British Columbia, seeking
a climate which might ease his war damaged breathing.
Sarah Shaw-Paul died in 1929 and William Paul died in 1930.
- Ron W. Shaw (2005)