GIDEON OLMSTEAD ARRIVAL

IN ONTARIO, CANADA

 

Marion OLMSTED, one of our subscribers, sent me a lot of material from her research. In one of them, it talks about the arrival of two Gideon OLMSTEADs in Canada. The source is a recent journal article, so I can not copy it, but only present the information. The source is “The Townsend Settlement Story”, Long Point Settlers Journal, Vol. 2, # 1, January 1995, Robert Mutrie, Ed. We will continue with her information in the next issue.

 

Gideon OLMSTEAD and his wife, Elizabeth COOLEY, arrived in Townsend, Upper Canada, with their family in 1793. Elizabeth was born in Greenwich, Massachusetts, November 3, 1761, the daughter of Gideon COOLEY. The COOLEY family removed to Pittsford, Vermont, where Elizabeth grew up. She there married Gideon OLMSTEAD/UMPSTEAD.

 

Elizabeth filled an Upper Canada Loan Petition on May 30, 1797, stating in part:

 

    “came to the province in 1793, then the wife of Gideon UMSTEAD after agreeing with Andrew PIERCE to take land in his township...settled in the township under Mr. PIERCE... having now lived in the township 4 years and expending a large sum of money by improving on a certain lot, her husband departed this life, not having secured his lot of land...widow with a large family of children...”

 

Elizabeth, who was then married to Joshua FAIRCHILD, received her patent on lot 7, west of the Peter FAIRCHILD family location.

 

The other Gideon OLMSTEAD arrived in Upper Canada in 1792, also having removed from Vermont. He was 24 years of age. In 1973 Lieutenant Governor SIMON promised him 400 acres of land, twice the size of the usual entitlement. Richard BEASLEY, J,P., in an attachment to Gideon’s Upper Canada Loan Petition, certified that “Gideon UMSTEAD is an actual settler in PEARCE’s Township of Townsend since 1794". This grant was for lots 13 and 14 in the third concession. A part of this grant later was incorporated into the village of Boston.