| Notes |
- The following letter was written by Mrs. Stella E. Asling Riis of Drumbo, Ontario, to my grandmother, Florence Haggerty (nee Huff), dated October 4, 1946.
I was very pleased to receive your letter of September 29th which came this morning. I sent Dr. Will N. Barnhart a sketch of the Morrow family history which he had requested me to do, but unfortunately I did not keep a copy of what I wrote; but I will send you the facts and hope I will cover it fully.
First then, James Cron (from whom you and myself are descended) came into Canada with Jessup's Corps after the Revolution. He settled in the Township of Augusta, County of Grenville. His name appears in the certified list of the United Empire Loyalists in the Archives Department, Ottawa. He had three children, Mary, John and Isabella. Mary married John Galbraith.
Mr. Galbraith was born in the Parish of Balfron, Stirlingshire, Scotland. He came to Vermont in 1785 to look after lands which his father had purchased in 1751. He remained in Vermont for some time and travelled about considerably to open up markets for his father's woolen goods, he being a landowner and woollen merchant in Scotland. Then finding that the title to the lands was clouded in 1794 he left Vermont for Canada. On 4th November 1794 the following entry appears in his diary:
"Eighth Township of Upper Canada (which is shown on our maps to be the Township of Augusta in the County of Grenville); "God has preserved me from the dangers of the journey. He preserved us on Lake Champlain when to all human appearances there was little hope of our reaching land."
Mr. Galbraith remained in Augusta for several months and became acquainted with James Cron and his daughters. John seems to have fallen in love with Mary at first sight and in a month they were married. They came to Oxford County and settled in Blenheim Township, which is now near Princeton. He located Lot No. II in the first concession of Blenheim. Mary received a grant of lot No. I in the 3rd. Con. of Blenheim as the "daughter of James Cron, a United Empire Loyalist.
James Cron's younger daughter Isabella, married John Harnden. Mr. Harnden was a widower and had a son Plyn who was about twelve years of age at the time of his father's second marriage. Isabella told her stepson about their home in Scotland, and to Plyn we are indebted for the facts regarding
the Crons - we who are descended from Isabella Cron; for my grandmother Mary, who was daughter of Isabella Cron and her husband John Harnden, married John Morrow, and he is the ancestor you are wanting to know about. So I will tell you first about the Crons. Their home was Greenfield-Kirkpatrick-Fleming, two miles from Annan in the south of Scotland, not far from Gretna Green, famous for run-away marriages. Isabella Cron like her sister Mary received a grant of two hundred acres, as the daughter of James Cron, in Markham, and that is where Grandma Morrow was born in the year 1813 [probably 1812]. When she was two weeks old her mother, [Isabella] Cron Harnden, was holding her little daughter on her lap when news came that her husband had been drowned while carrying despatches across the Niagara River. She fainted, fell forward into the fireplace [and] was burned to death. So little Mary was left an orphan at two weeks. She had a brother John who was a little older than she. We do not know who kept little Mary for the first two years of her life but there was a young man, Peter Bastedo, who had come from Niagara to work land which had been given him by the Government in the War of 1812 and this
land was near the Galbraith's home. So Peter made the long journey to Markham and brought back the orphaned baby in his plaid as he rode horseback and delivered her into the hands of her kind Aunt Mary Galbraith.
So it came about that my grandmother was brought up in the County of Oxford. When little Mary was six Peter Bastedo began paying court to Margaret, John Galbraith's oldest daughter. Peter had won the little maid's heart when he brought her in his plaid on that long trip on horseback. All her life she loved Peter. Now he had come to see Margaret whom they called Peggy. Little Mary couldn't keep the news that Peter had arrived, so she went about the house singing: "I mustn't tell, I mustn't tell that Peter and Peggy are in the Loom-house! (Peggy was there busily spinning). Peggy and Peter were married in 1820.
Margaret's older brothers, James and John, received fine educations for those days. They were Dominion Land Surveyors and surveyed a good part of the counties of Ontario and Victoria. Their younger brother William was also a surveyor. John later studied medicine and was a doctor in Amador, Michigan.
When Grandma Morrow was about twenty she went to Hamilton to learn millinery. She was there two years. Then she went to visit her cousins (Peggy's older brothers). She also visited her cousin Mary (Peggy's younger sister[)] who had married Squire John Marcellus Truax and who had six hundred acres of land in the Township of Reach, County of Ontario. While visiting these relatives she met John Morrow, who had come from near Castle Blaney, in the County of Monahan, N. of Ireland. Grandma was golden haired and blue eyed. She was stylishly dressed having just come from Hamilton. John Morrow was very much taken with her and they were married not long after at Squire Truax's. John Morrow was only sixteen when he came to Canada. He brought with him a watch and some books. He worked for a time on the Welland Canad, then took up farming. His brothers followed him not long after. They were Robert, Joseph, Samuel and William. William was a school teacher. They were all well educated.
Mother gave me a letter written by John Galbraith to his father John Galbraith, wherein he mentions the marriage of my grandmother Mary Harnden and John Morrow. I gave this letter to my sister Madge (Mrs. Fenwick W. Ritchie)[.] She died a few years ago and her daughter Mrs. Fenwick White Keltie of Kilmacolm, Scotland, now has it; but I saved a copy of it which I will now quote:
Pickering, May 25, 1834.
To John Galbraith,
Tp. Of Blenheim,
District of London,
Honoured father:
Having had no word from your place for some time I write to let you know we are all well, and wish you would be sure to write down soon and let us hear how you all are at home.
Nancy was at Brock about ten days ago. She saw James and William and understood that the Truax family were well. On her way back she was to see Mary Harnden who was married about a month ago to John Morrow, an Irishman of the Township of Reach. She said Mary was apparently contented and said she had been better contented and had better health than she had before. She was married at Mr. Truax's. Her husband lives eight or nine miles this side of Truax's where he has a farm and appears, Nancy says, to be in good circumstances, having a considerable improvement, six or either milk cows, sheep, oxen etc. in proportion. He belongs to the Presbyterian Church. Nancy says that she understood that Squire Truax's eldest daughter was to be married in a few days.
We have had a very early forward season excepting a cold storm ten or twelve days ago. I believe it has done no damage to anything of any consequence. I had forgoten [sic] to mention that John Harnden, Mary's brother, was married last winter.
If Peter Bastedo should be coming down to Brock with a team I should be glad if you would send down a piece of chain which Nancy forgot at your place when she was up last fall as I am often in need of it.
I hope you will not fail to write me soon. Nancy has been expecting you down ever since she was up at your place.
I remain
Your affectionate son
John Galbraith.
About twelve years later Mr. Morrow sold cattle for which he received $300. Some men who evidently had witnessed the transaction that night broke into his house, attacked Grandpa and Grandma, got the money and fled. Aunt Margaret (afterwards Mrs. Hiram Barnhart) who was eleven years old, bound up her parents' wounds, then taking her young brothers Stewart and William she walked two miles through the woods to the nearest neighbor. She told them what had happened. Immediately the alarm was sent though [sic] the countryside and the members of the gang were arrested by daybreak. Aunt Margaret's testimony in Court was so clear and understandable; she being likewise able to identify the leader of the gang, that the robbers were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. This broke up the Markham gang which had been terrorizing for a long time that part of the new country. Aunt Margaret had a very wonderful memory. She remembered a sermon a preacher delivered and when she saw him again seven years later she quoted his text and gave him the different "heads" of his sermon. For her fine mind and heart she was beloved everywhere, and Dr. Barnhart told me that when his mother died her funeral procession was two miles long. Immediately after Mr. Morrow was robbed he left the Township of Reach and bought a farm at Ashburn, not far from Whitby. There my mother was born.
I never heard of Marie Morrow Van Tausk's family tree. My husband and I had a summer home at Honey Harbor, Georgian Bay. My Aunt Mrs. John Morrow and her family also summered there and I frequently met Marie and her husband Major Geoffrey Van Tausk. She never mentioned that family tree to me although we often spoke of the Morrow family and its history. Eugenie Marie de Montijo de Guzman was born 1826 She was wife of Napoleon III. And Empress of France from 1853 to 1870. My mother's sister Sarah was born at the height of Empress Eugenie's popularity, and the baby was named Sarah Eugenie. Then my mother called me after her sister and so I got the name Stella Eugenie. Marie Morrow also was named Eugenie after Aunt Sarah,
and I think that is all there is to the connection with Napoleon's Empress. Of course you might ask her some time about it, if you get the opportunity.
After I married Mr. Riis my home was at Richmond Hill, Long Island, New York; but after his death I sold my home, also my summer home and came to Canada.
I was pleased to hear from you and very glad to give you this account of the Morrow family as far as I know it. I nearly forgot to tell you that the Morrows were of Covenenter stock, and they were thought to have come from Newton Stewart in Scotland. Mother said the name in Scotland had been Murray but in Ireland got changed to Morrow. Mother's oldest brother's name was Newton Stewart. Perhaps you know some of his decendants [sic] as he moved to the West. In fact mother's three brothers went to the West, Uncle Jim (James Renwick) lived in Grenfell and Uncle Alec (Alexander Guthrie Morrow) also lived in Saskatchewan. In 1944 THE GULL LAKE ADVANCE was sent me which decribed the Ohrner-Morrow wedding. "St. John the Baptist
Church, Gull Lake, was the setting for an attractive and impressive marriage ceremony, on Friday morning, January 14th, when Mary Elizabeth, second daughter of Mr. And Mrs. F.A. Morrow and Sub Lieut. William Ernest Ohrner, R.C.N.V.R., only son of Mr. And Mrs. Ernest Ohrner were united in the bonds of holy matrimony, the officiating clergymen being the Rev. F.A. Cook, resident vicar of the Parish and the Rev. H.A. Morrow, of Strasbourg, brother of the bride. . . " The bride was granddaughter of my Uncle Alec.
I think I have told you quite a lot and it is different from the account I sent Dr. Barnhart, but the main facts are of course the same.
Hoping you will have very much success with your family history, and with very kind regards,
Your affectionate cousin,
Mrs. Stella E. Asling Riis
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1812 - 1886 (74 years)