Lewis and Caroline(Catherine) Armstrong
Lewis was born Abt. 1801 in South America and is death date is unknown
Caroline (Catherine) was born Abt. 1822 in Maryland, USA and died before 1861 in Grey County, Ontario
Farm: Concession 2, Lot 27, Holland Township, Grey, Ontario, Canada
There is not a lot of historical documentation that has helped us in getting to know Lewis Armstrong more intimately. However, his Waterloo, Ontario Naturalization registration gave us a timeline concerning his whereabouts. It was noted that by Oct 1835 Lewis had met the seven-year residency criteria that enabled him to apply for British citizenship. This meant that Lewis arrived in Canada sometime in the fall of 1828. We also found that he was residing in the township of Bertie as of 10 Feb 1841 and that he was living in Peel Township at the time that his Naturalization was registered on 27 Sept 1848.
Three years later when the 1851 census of Canada was taken on 12 Jan 1852 Lewis, his wife Caroline, their sons William and Kennedy, and daughter Mary were residing on Concession 2, Lot 27 in Holland Township. Lewis was listed as being born in South America and he was to be celebrating his fiftieth birthday that year. His wife whose name was listed as Caroline on the census was recorded as being thirty on her next birthday and born in Maryland, USA. His sons William age fifteen and Candy (Kennedy), age fourteen, and their eight-year-old daughter Mary were all born in Upper Canada (Ontario), The census noted that sadly there had been the death of a female in the family in 1851, and the family lived in a one-story shanty on their farm.
According to the Agricultural Schedule of the same 1851 census, Lewis only had 5 out of the 50 acres under crops. He had 3 acres of wheat-producing 40 bushels, 1 acre produced 18 bushels of barley, ½ acre of oats produced 16 bushels, and ½ acres of potatoes produced 12 bushels.
He also had 2 of either bulls, oxen, or steers, 1 milking cow, and 1 calf.
Lewis and his family most probably arrived on Concession 2, Lot 27 in the spring-summer of 1849 after hearing the news that the government had surveyed more lots on the east side of the Garafraxa. History tells us that it was very challenging trying to establish a farm in Grey County, with short planting and growing seasons, and according to the Gazetteer and Directory of the County Grey on page 127; “Portions of Holland, especially in the vicinity of the Garafraxa Road, are stony. The soil is generally clay, and for the most part very fertile. When the time comes that these Northern townships can bear the expense of underdraining on a moderate scale, the productiveness of the soil will be immensely increased”.
For whatever reason, Lewis was unable to attain a patent for this parcel of land. A man named Joseph McLeod received a crown patent of the east part of the lot on 28 Oct 1853 and he was then granted a patent for the west part of Lot 27 on 7 Oct 1875 giving him a total of 133 acres for the whole of Lot 27. It seems that Lewis either squatted on the land or he could not meet the criteria of clearing and cultivating the number of acres that was required to qualify for the crown grant.
We lose both Lewis and Caroline after this census. We cannot find either of them in the 1861 Canada census nor are they listed in the Gazetteer and Directory of Grey County 1865-66. We can only surmise that both Lewis and Caroline passed away before the 1861 census was taken and perhaps were buried in the now defunct Negro Creek burial ground.
Regrettably, the only historical documentation that we have proving Caroline’s presence is in that 1851 census of Canada with her husband Lewis and three children. Caroline is noted as being born in Maryland, USA around 1822, which made her about twenty years younger than her husband Lewis.
There has been information found after 1851 in Ontario of women named Caroline Armstrong being noted but we cannot prove that any of them are the wife of, or the widow of Lewis Armstrong of Holland Township.
When her daughter Mary married in 1868 the name listed for the bride’s mother is Catherine rather than Caroline. To leave no stone unturned, research was also done for Catherine Armstrong but to date, nothing substantial has been uncovered. So, our search continues for the woman who travelled from southwestern Ontario to the newly surveyed northern Grey County, where she settled on an uncleared 50-acre plot with her husband and children.
Caroline would have laboured both in the fields and in their small shanty home as she toiled beside her husband and children in an effort to build a new life together in Northern Ontario.
Written and researched by: Nancy M. Lee
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Lewis and Caroline’s youngest son Kennedy married Margaret who was the daughter of a Bentinck Township farmer named Francis Deadman who resided down the road a piece on the west side of the Garafraxa. They had two children, Catherine Elizabeth who was born about 1857, and Adaline born two years later. Kennedy died four days before Christmas in 1860 and is buried in the Indigent Plot in Greenwood Cemetery .
His widowed wife Margaret is found residing with their two young daughters and her nineteen-year-old sister-in-law Mary E. Armstrong in the town of Owen Sound in the 1861 census of Canada where it states that there was a male in the family, 24 years old who died of consumption and liver complaint in 1860. This would have been Kennedy.
Margaret Deadman-Armstrong went on to marry the oldest grandson of Henry Miller of Con 1, Lot 22, Sullivan Township, Thomas Henry Miller Jr. around 1864-65. They had two children together, James born on 18 Feb 1866, and Maryann born in 1868. Margaret, her two daughters from Kennedy Armstrong, her husband Henry Miller, and their two children along with her father Francis are found residing together in the town of Owen Sound in the 1871 census of Canada .
Written and researched by: Nancy M. Lee
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We suspect that Mary’s parents must have passed away before the taking of the 1861 Canada Census since we find her residing as a single woman with her widowed sister-in-law Margaret and her two young daughters in a one-story frame house in the town of Owen Sound (see footnote vii).
Mary married American-born Richard Ringo on 31 Dec 1868 in the town of Owen Sound and settled there. They had two sons, William Louis born in 1876, and George Westley two years later in 1878. Unfortunately, by the 1891 census of Canada Richard and Mary were living apart. Mary was listed as still being married and working as a washerwoman, her oldest son William was working as a white washer and young George was still in school. Her husband Richard Ringo was residing with his parents William and Sarah not far from his estranged family in the town of Owen Sound.
By 1911 , Mary was listed as being widowed and she was living alone at 1733-9th Ave East in Owen Sound. No occupation was listed for her however, she did have a border residing with her.
In the 1921 census of Canada Mary was still on her own in her rented house on 9th Ave in Owen Sound and was renting a room to a lodger named Geo. Gifford .
Mary passed away at her home on 1733-9th Ave of a violent pulmonary hemorrhage on 4 April 1922. It appears that she had been suffering from a chronic lung condition for some years. Her lodger Mr. Gifford was the informant for her death. Mary was buried on 6 April 1922 along with her older brother Kennedy, in the Indigent Plot G-BLE- 0- at Greenwood Cemetery, Owen Sound.
Written and researched by: Nancy M. Lee
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I have always believed that each person that has walked this earth deserves to be remembered. We do remember William Armstrong who is noted living with his parents and siblings on the family farm located at Concession 2, Lot 27, Holland Township. Unfortunately, William Armstrong is a very common name and to date, I have been unable to positively identify where William went, and who, if anyone he married, and what in the end became of him. With only his young sister and his younger brother’s widow found in the town of Owen Sound in 1861, I wonder if perhaps a traumatic event happened to the family before the 1861 census was taken.
By Nancy M. Lee