Isaiah Chuckee and Catherine Miller
Isaiah was born Abt. 1821 in Africa and his death date is unknown
Farm – Concession 1, Part 2 of Lot 21, Holland Township, Grey County, Ontario, Canada
The earliest documentation concerning the African known as Isaiah Chuckee was from Paul White in his book, Owen Sound; The Port City. Isaiah Chuckee was a young runaway slave who had been born in Africa and put on a slave ship bound for the Americas. For some reason, Isaiah was not included when the rest of the ship’s human cargo had been unloaded upon docking at their destination, instead, he was kept on a man-of-war ship for years. While docked in New York, Isaiah jumped ship and made his way to Toronto and freedom. Eventually, Isaiah secured employment as a crew hand on W.C. Boyd’s Georgian Bay schooner ‘The Fly’ and arrived in the Owen Sound area around 1840/41.
Isaiah must have been an industrious man as by 23 Feb 1843 his name is found on a list of settlers petitioning for an extension for qualifying for a land grant. According to the First Concession of the Township of Holland pre-grant settlers He was listed as receiving his location ticket on 10 Jan 1845 and having 5 acres cleared on Conc 1, Part 2 of Lot 21 on the east side of the Garafraxa in Holland Township.
Isaiah married Catherine Miller who was his neighbour Henry Miller’s daughter on 20 April 1846, the Rev John Neelands married them. Later that year their son John Isaiah Chuckee was born.
Strangely, we find Isaiah residing not on his 50-acre lot in Holland Township when the 1851 census of Canada was taken but instead living with his in-laws Henry and Priscilla Miller on their farm on the west side of the Garafraxa Road in Sullivan Township where Negro Creek crossed on Conc 1, Lot 22, Division 1. Along with Catherine, Isaiah, and son John aged 5, we now see that they also had an older son named William who was 7 years old, and Catherine’s nephew Henry aged 15 was also residing on her parent’s farm.
Finally, on 25 Sept 1854, Isaiah was granted his Crown Patent for his 50 acres on Conc 1, Part 2 of Lot 21 in Holland Township. Before a year was out, on 28 March 1855 Isaiah sold all his acreage to his old boss W.C. Boyd for £40. Boyd then sold it to George Billings for $200.00 in Dec 1857 and then a few months later on 8 Jan 1858 James Douglas bought the land for $700.
We are not sure what happened to Isaiah other than he is lost to history by the taking of the Canada Census in January 1861. We have not been able to find any historical records with Isaiah’s name documented after the sale of his land in 1855.
Isaiah was kidnapped and taken hostage from his home in Africa. Chained inside a slave ship that sailed across the ocean to an unknown land. He then had the strength and wherewithal to escape the bonds of slavery and somehow find his way to freedom to a life of his own choosing in Ontario, Canada. He deserves to be remembered by all of us and one day we hope that we will be able to properly and correctly document his ending.
We look forward to hearing from anyone who has any additional documented historical information concerning Isaiah Chuckee.
Written and Researched by Nancy M. Lee
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Catherine was the matriarch of the Chuckee clan and the oldest daughter of Henry and Priscilla Miller. The Miller farm was located at the crossroads of the southwest corner of today’s Hwy 6 and Moto Park Road where Negro Creek crosses. According to her father’s Naturalization record, he arrived in Ontario finding freedom and I believe that Catherine came to Ontario with her parents, older brother Thomas Henry Miller Sr., his oldest son, and her younger sister Rachel in the spring of 1836. According to that document her father was residing in the township of York as of Feb 1841 and until at least Sept 1843 and I assume that Catherine and the rest of the family were with him.
We know that her father Henry had settled on a 50-acre plot of land on Conc 1, Part 1 of Lot 22, in Sullivan Township by June 1842. We believe it was after he received his Naturalization papers that the family fully moved to their newly acquired farm and began the ardent task of cultivating it.
Her future husband, the African-born Isaiah Chuckee had settled on a 50-acre plot of land on Con 1, Part 2 of Lot 21 in Holland Tsp on the east side of the Garafraxa (today’s Hwy 6) at Negro Creek in early 1843, directly across the road from her parent’s farm. They were married by the Rev. Neelands on 20 April 1846 .
According to the 1851 census, there was no dwelling built to live in on her husband Isaiah’s land, so they and their two sons resided with her parents on their Sullivan Tsp farm. Their oldest son William age seven was erroneously noted as having the surname of Miller, Catherine, Isaiah, and their younger son John were listed with the surname of ‘Chakee’.
In the spring of 1855 Catherine’s husband Isaiah sold his 50-acre farm lot , and before the year was out, she found herself in a heap of trouble. Catherine was sentenced to 155 days on 26 Dec 1855 for manslaughter . I feel that there must have been extenuating circumstances for Catherine to receive and serve such a light sentence for such a serious crime in the Grey County Gaol in Owen Sound. Others who were sentenced during the same period received much harsher sentences for what seemed to be lesser crimes.
Catherine was released from gaol after serving her sentence in May 1856 and her daughter Clarissa Jane was born in Nov 1856. A second daughter Sarah Ann was born sometime in 1858 or 1859. Even though Catherine is noted as being a married woman, there is no sign of Isaiah in the census of 1861 where she and all four of her children are residing with her parents in the one-story log house on their Sullivan Township farm. The enumerator incorrectly listed all of Catherine’s children with the surname of Miller
Her father, Henry Miller in his May 1869 last will and testament, bequeathed her Park Lot #45 in the Beattie Sub-Division,1st Range west of the river in Owen Sound. Catherine moved her family further north to Owen Sound where she is listed in the 1871 Canada census as a widow residing with her three older children, William age twenty-five, Clarissa aged seventeen, and Sarah aged sixteen. There is also a five-year-old girl named Elizabeth, and a one-year-old baby named Harriet. The next numbered family household lists her younger son John, his wife Harriet, and a three-year-old child named Mary who is noted at the top of the next page as being part of the family. There is an obvious error in this census as Catherine’s son John was also noted as an inmate in Kingston Penitentiary in this same census year. I also believe that John’s wife Harriet and the small child Mary were living in the same household as Catherine and the other Chuckee family members.
By the time the 1881 Canada Census enumerator knocked on the door, Catherine and her daughters Clarissa and Sarah Ann were all working as washerwomen and there were five small children residing in the home plus a sixteen-year-old girl named Mary who was noted as working as a servant. This could be three-year-old Mary that was found with the Chuckee family in the 1871 census. However, I believe it is more likely to be Catherine’s older brother Thomas H. Miller’s daughter. There is a twelve-year-old Mary Jane Chuckee that is found residing with John Chuckee’s widow Harriet in this same census year that is most likely the young Mary from the 1871 census.
Five years after the 1881 census, Catherine passed away on 11 Sept 1886 after suffering for fourteen days with dysentery. On her death registration, her age is noted as thirty-seven. However, it is more likely that she was closer to sixty-five at the time of her death.
Life was definitely hard for Catherine working as a washerwoman while trying to support her family. The Chuckee Family struggled with many adversities. Her youngest son John was charged with manslaughter after admitting to beating his eleven-month-old child to death and sentenced to serve seven years in Kingston Penitentiary in October 1868 , where he died of Scrofula of the mouth in July 1871. Her daughter Clarissa, unfortunately, gave birth to two daughters four years apart in the Grey County Gaol for the lack of having anywhere else to shelter (August 1874 and November 1878). Sarah had at least two children on her own who we have unfortunately been able to document died as toddlers. There are also five Chuckee grandchildren who are buried in the Indigent plot in Greenwood Cemetery and sadly, there are four of them whom I have been unable to positively identify parentage.
Written and researched By: Nancy M. Lee
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Description text goes here
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John Isaiah Chuckee was born in 1846 most probably on the Miller homestead in Sullivan Township near Negro Creek.
Although his father Isaiah owned a 50 acres farm on Conc 1, Lot 21 in Holland Township, his parents and siblings all resided with his maternal grandparents on the west side of the Garafraxa Road (today’s Hwy 6).
On 11 Oct 1867, John married Harriet F. Mortley, the daughter of an English immigrant who was a neighbour of his grandparents.
After his grandfather Henry Miller’s death in 1869, the family moved into the town of Owen Sound.
In the fall of 1868 he was convicted of the manslaughter of his eleven month old child. He was sentenced to seven years in Kingston Penitentiary and died there on 18 July 1871 of Scrofula which is an infection of the lymph nodes in the neck associated with tuberculosis
After John’s conviction, his wife Harriet began cohabitating with his older brother William and went on to have two children with him.
Written and researched by Nancy M. Lee