Properties and People

MACLEAN TO BOSWALL (SIS)

A map from 1814 shows this property owned by an Angus (100 acres) and John MacLean (7 acres).‘

David, Annie and Elizabeth Ross emigrated from Scotland circa 1830. Their father, David Ross senior (1783-1830), was born in Tain Rosshire and died at Horsewynd, Murray Gate, Dundee, Scotland. Their mother Elizabeth How (1758— 1834), was born in Glanmuir, Angus , and died in Edinburgh. Their children included David (1794- 1800) and a twin brother (1794), Elizabeth (1796- 1871), James (1797-1799), Anne (1798—1799), second Anne (1800-1889), and second David (1802-1889).

Oral history relays that while in Scotland David Jr. was a writer in Sir Walter Scott’s law office. From his diary David alludes to a military past and he served for a time as Captain of the Thistle Company, the local militia unit raised in the Marshfield area. David and his sisters had income from the old country.2

Although it is estimated, the Ross siblings emigrated in the 18305, the date of instrument for David’s 107 acres was May 19, 1845, and the land was not officially registered until September 27, 1872 .3

The diary that David Ross kept, however, indicates he settled the land much earlier than that. In 1839, he includes a detailed diagram of his property outlining the pastures, oats, hayfields, and potatoes.4

David Ross sold real estate5 and held the position of “Receiver in Chancery” for Queens County throughout the 18405.6 Ross was also Justice of the Peace for Hillsborough and the Commissioner for Establishing Boundaries for Counties and Townships .7 The 1871 census lists David, Annie and Elizabeth, all unmarried, as having 100-acres of land in Lot 34. Nine years later in Meacham’s 1880 Atlas, David Ross is listed as having one hundred and four acres.

David Ross’s will, written on March 9, 1889, two days before his death was signed in the presence of Frederick Mills and Thomas Stetson .8 In his will, David Ross wrote,

“I will and devise all my real estate and personal estate consisting of my farm and one hundred and ten acres on Lot 34 and everything

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thereon to my friend William S. Stewart of Charlottetown, Attorney at Law, and I hereby appoint him executor of this my will on the condition that he keep and maintain my sister Annie during her natural life with food, clothing, and all necessary attendance and bury her decently when she dies.”

Annie Ross died three days after her brother on March 14, 1889.

The following month, on April 27, 1889, William S. Stewart sold the property to Frederick Turner .9 Frederick was one of eight children of Charles Turner and Eleanor Ferguson of Pleasant Grove. He married Lydia C. Hyde, daughter of Samuel Hyde of West River on January 14, 1884.10 Frederick and Lydia lived on the Turner homestead in Pleasant Grove“ before moving to Marshfield in 1889. During their time in Marshfield they farmed and ran a steam saw and shingle mill, which they had erected by February of 1892.12 In 1909, at sixty years of age, Frederick moved his family to Vancouver, British Columbia where they ran a dairy. He and Lydia had seven children: Charles Heber, Louis Hyde, Samuel Ernest, Hazel Jane, Ethel Mathilda, Minnie Bell, Bertie Elizabeth, and Harold.

Duncan Darrach (1855-1939) from York, owned this property from 1909 to 1915.13 The son of Neil Angus and Catherine Ferguson, Duncan married Margaret Burhoe (1858-1927) and they had six children; Neil, Percy, Jack, Laura (Howard), Edith (Vessey), Hilda, and Bertha.

After owning the farm for six years, Darrach sold it to Enoch Dennis in May of 1915.14 Enoch George was the twelfth of thirteen children of William Dennis and Ann Robins, who had

ca. 1904 Courtesy of Marguerite Godfrey Fred 'Ihrner’s saw mill, powered by a steam engine.