JOE BARBER’S COLUMN

 

 

Welcome to the 21st century. The vast amount of resources governments and society as a whole spent on the launch of the year 2000 has meant little if any change to our health and welfare as we move into the new millenium. Happiness wise may be a different story as I still don’t know how my PAF family history program will distinguish between twentieth and twenty first century dates.

 

My column this time will consist of some ramblings on my part which I hope will be of interest to you.

 

I will be mentioning the death of some of our kin in recent times. An “In Memoriam” section will appear later in this Newsletter. Living 100 years isn’t unusual these times, however I would like to mention that one of our kin, Edith Isabella MacLellan of Ottawa, ON, celebrated her 100th birthday on December 31, 1999. This cousin has now lived in three centuries. She is the daughter of Howard Wright Olmsted of Ottawa and his wife Isabella (Bella) McRae. Edith grew up at Aylmer, Quebec, where her father farmed. She married William David MacLellan in 1917 at age seventeen and they had sons, Keith & David, and a daughter, Isobel, all of whom are now deceased. Edith lives independently in Ottawa. I know of a couple of other centurians in the Jabez family, can you tell me about some of yours?

 

Over the years I have accumulated information on the descendants of Ephraim Olmsted who was born in Wolford Twp., Leeds & Grenville Co., in ON. Ephraim lived in Renfrew Co., ON, for several years before moving to Waupaca Co., Wisconcin, about 1860 with his second wife and some of his family. Ephraim had at least 9 children, and my present count of his  grandchildren totals 64. Ephraim is a member of the Jabez family and descends from Israel.

 

While in Arizona in January 2000, Shirley Vick of Edmonton, AB, and Mesa, AZ, showed me pictures and told me some of the highlights of a trip that she and her husband Roger made last fall from Edmonton, to ON; to Louisburg, Nova Scotia; to West Stockbridge, MA, and then on to their winter residence in Mesa, AZ. At Louisburg they visited the citadel which guarded the harbour in early days. Our forefather, Jabez, was commissioned on Sept. 20, 1744, as a captain in the 4th Massachusetts regiment and his regiment took part in the attack on Louisburg. After some 49 days of conflict, Louisburg surrendered June 17, 1745. On a muster roll for this action his residence was given as Brookfield. At West Brookfield, one of the sites they saw was a big house which was occupied by an Otto B. Olmstead family in the early 1900’s. Otto operated a corset factory in the town and this factory employed a large number of people according to the 1920 census. This census further indicates that Otto was born in Connecticut in 1876 and that his father was born in Maine. Otto’s ancestry is not know at present.

 

May you all have a very good summer.

 

Joe Barber