The Grand Old Man of Blairmore

Oakland Pioneer Cemetery, Oakland, Brant, Ontario

One of the first cemeteries I visited when I began stalking dead people was the Oakland Pioneer Cemetery south of Brantford, Ontario. What drew to me to this cemetery (as well as the nearby and much larger Oakland Cemetery) was the presence of several stones with the surname Beebe.

I've previously mentioned that my fifth-great-grandfather, Joshua Beebe (1738-1778) was a Loyalist living on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River at the start of the American Revolution. In 1777 he and his oldest son, Adin Beebe (1761-1843), enlisted in Butler's Rangers, having previously served in the Indian Department. In the summer of 1778, just prior to the Battle of Wyoming, Joshua and Adin evacuated their family first to Tioga Point near Athens, Pennsylvania, and then to Fort Niagara. Later that summer Joshua was sent with dispatches to New York where he contracted smallpox and died. Joshua's wife, Mary Secord, and Adin's siblings were eventually sent to the refugee camp at Machiche near Trois-Rivières, Quebec.

Adin continued to serve in Butler's Rangers until the end of the war, rising to the rank of Sergeant. He was granted 300 acres on Lake Ontario in Louth Township west of where St Catharines, Ontario is now located. Between 1784 and 1786 he married Dorothy Crysler, daughter of Philip Crysler who had also served in Butler's Rangers.

During the War of 1812, Adin's son Amasa served with the 1st Lincoln Militia. Initially Amasa was with the 2nd Flank Company and was likely present at the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812. When the Volunteer Battalion of Incorporated Militia was created to replace the flank companies, Amasa transferred to Capt. Jacob Ball's company of the 1st Lincoln Militia.

Amasa Beebe 1791-1850

In 1802 Adin Beebe received an additional grant of 700 acres in Oakland Township south of Brantford. At some point after the war, Amasa began the process of clearing, ploughing, planting, and building a home at Oakland. About 1816, Amasa married Rachel Smith, daughter of Silas Smith of Saltfleet. Their daughter Caroline was born in 1818 followed by Angeline (1820), Jordan (1824), Smith (1825), Martha (1827), Crysler (1832), Diantha (1835), and Judson (1841). Sadly neither Angeline or Judson survived to adulthood. Angeline died in 1829 and Judson in 1841. Both are buried at Oakland Cemetery.

Amasa died in 1850 and was buried beside Angeline and Justin, followed by Rachel in 1862. The farm was taken over by Smith who had married Sarah Secord, daughter of Asa Secord. 

Smith Beebe died of jaundice in 1877, having twice served as reeve of Oakland Township. Within ten years all of his surviving children had moved from the area—some to Michigan, and some to California.

Caroline Beebe (1818-1893) married Robert Vanderlip (1819-1888) about 1839. About 1854 they moved with their six children from Oakland to Michigan. Martha Beebe (1827-1895) married Benjamin Beecraft (1822-1888) in 1847. Her sister Diantha (1835-1911) married twice. Her first husband, Haggai Westbrook died in 1857 at the age of 25. Her second husband, Peter Beacham, died in 1871 at the age of 37, leaving Diantha to raise eight children on her own.

Crysler Beebe (1832-1889) was a bit of a vagabond and appears to have moved back and forth between Ontario and Michigan. He married Harriet Ann Bowman (1838-1914) in 1853 in Oakland and fathered four children. At the time of the 1861 Census, Crysler was living alone with his sister Martha's family in Charlotteville, Norfolk. In 1880, he was convicted at the Norfolk Spring Assize of larceny having "feloniously" stolen off a clothesline: "two counterpains, three table clothes, one pair woolen drawers, one pair lace curtains and two handkerchiefs." Meanwhile his wife and three daughters were in Shiawassee County, Michigan. Crysler and Harriet Ann eventually moved to Battle Creek, Michigan where Crysler died in 1889.

Beebe Gravestones at Oakland Pioneer Cemetery

Crysler's brother Jordan married Elizabeth Thompson in 1845 and became an innkeeper in Oakland. An advertisement in the Sutherland's County of Brant Gazetteer, and General Business Directory for 1865-6 boasts, "Travellers or boarders will receive at this house every attention that can conduce to their comfort." In Sutherland's Gazetteer and Directory for 1869/70, the Oakland House Hotel is described as "worthy the confidence of commercial travellers and the public generally." Jordan emigrated to the United States about 1882 and settled in Bay City, Michigan where he died in 1889 or 1890.

Three of Jordan's children died young and are buried at Oakland Pioneer Cemetery. The youngest was given the impressive name of Emma Rosetta Britamart Beebe.

Jordan's eldest son, William Amasa Beebe had an interesting life. He became known as Captain Beebe, not because of any military experience, but because of his experience with the Great Lakes freshwater fishery on Lakes Huron and Superior.

Advertisement in Polk's 1886 Bay City Directory

William was born in Oakland Township on September 26, 1847, and died on August 20, 1939 in Blairmore, Alberta. According to his obituary he settled in Blairmore in 1901 after having spent several years up north during the Klondike Gold Rush. He had previously lived in Port Arthur on Lake Superior and in Bay City, Michigan. In Blairmore he became a realtor and insurance agent, and served as mayor of Blairmore for a one year term.

William Amasa Beebe in 1928

At the time of the 1871 Census William was living with his parents in Oakland Township. Later than year he emigrated to the United States. On December 26, 1871 he married Molly Holmes in Alexander County, Illinois. By 1873 they had settled in Bay City where William established a fishing and dredging business in partnership with Joseph Forcier. In 1881, their newly built fishing tug was christened Jordan Beebe Jr. after Amasa's infant son. A few years after William left Bay City, the Jordan Beebe Jr. was destroyed by fire in November 1893 at Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island in Lake Erie.

Five children were born to William and Molly in Bay City. Emma Rosetta Britamart, named after William's sister, was born in 1873. Frank was born in 1876, Elizabeth about 1878, and Jordan Amasa in 1880. Their fifth child, an unnamed female, was born in 1882 but survived only 10 days. Molly's death followed four days after her daughter's birth.

In 1891, William was in Port Arthur, Ontario working as a fisherman. By 1893 he was employed by the Port Arthur Fish Company as the captain of the Kakabecka, a fishing tug of 135 tons burthen. William was still living in Port Arthur when his daughter Emma married in 1897.

The "Grand Old Man of Blairmore" died in Blairmore on August 27, 1939 at the age of 92, and was buried in an unmarked grave.

Sources:

Blue, John. Alberta, Past and Present, Historical and Biographical, vol. 3. Chicago, 1924. https://archive.org/details/albertapastprese03blue

"Capt. William A. Beebe Passes On," Blairmore Enterprise, August 25, 1939, p. 1.

Library and Archives Canada. War of 1812: Upper Canada Returns, Nominal Rolls and Paylists. RG 9 1B7. 

Library and Archives Canada. Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865. RG 1 L3.

MacRae, Archibald Oswald. History of the Province of Alberta, vol 2. Calgary: Western Canada History Company, 1912. https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/29735/

Rammage, Stuart. (1993). Oakland Township: Two Hundred Years, vol. 5 part 2. Unpublished manuscript, 1993. https://images.ourontario.ca/brant/76090/data

Woodshire, Henry J. "With a Fishing Tug on Lake Superior." The Canadian Magazine of Politics, Science, Art and Literature, vol. 1, 1893, pp. 673-81.