May, 1947 - standing on the east side of Victoria Ave. just west of the railway, looking across the tracks in a north-easterly direction towards the original Zimmerman-built stables of the old Bush Estate - at this time, the stables were already 91 years old!!
The 'L-shaped' stables backed onto the tracks which bordered the west side of the Zimmerman-Bush Estate.
L-shape can be seen on the previous 1921 aerial photo; and the L-shape is clearly seen in the 1947 photo
.
The 'L-shaped' stables consisted of two square, taller pavilions, with hip-roofs, which are clearly seen in the 1947 photo
there was the 'west-end' pavilion closer to Victoria Ave., and another pavilion on the east-end, closer to the Clifton Place lane.
Connecting the two pavilions (also clearly seen in the 1947 photo) was a gable-roofed building; these two pavilions and the connection in-between, running in an east-west axis, created the 'large-leg' of the 'L-shape'.
The smaller leg of the 'L' was formed by another gable-roofed structure which extended off the south-facing wall of the east pavilion - this can also be clearly seen in the
1947 photo.
that the railroad is seen in the distance splitting into two lines - the track in the distance (on which the boxcars cars are seen) followed the tree line seen in the distance, as it headed off to the upper right; this was the main line, which made its way past the
. The track seen at the bottom of the photo is a spur that led to the old Myer
steel yard at the north-west corner of Clark Ave. and Robinson St., where the Old Stone Inn now is.
(it appears partially behind the boxcars) - this is Zimmerman's old Victoria Ave. Gatehouse (ie the 'west gatehouse') - one of the original four gatehouses he had built in 1856!!
I have not been able to find out when this gatehouse was demolished {The original 1856-built stables were demolished during the week of Dec.7-11, 2015}. When originally built, there was most likely an an access road (which the gatehouse guarded) which came off Victoria Ave., crossed he tracks, and headed into the old Zimmerman lands. Not sure when this access was closed off, as I do not remember an access road being here from the 1970's onwards. So at some point, with the busy two-track railroad running here along the west-side of the former Zimmerman lands, somebody (Bush? HOCO?) at some point had decided it was better just to fence off that road access.
There was a false perception that only 'a portion' of Samuel Zimmerman's original 1856-built stable was still standing - but in fact, the
standing, still in existence, still on its original location, until it was completely demolished in mid-December 2015!!
Zimmerman's original stable structure (as I had pointed out) was eventually surrounded by and swallowed within a maze of subsequent hotel-related additions -
for an entire 159 years - until Dec. 2015! (...see my photos
During Dec. 2015, as the demolition slowly peeled off the various hotel additions, the original L-shaped, triple-brick-walled, cut-stone-trimmed Zimmerman carriage house / stable structure was fully revealed, in situ.
; they had only been surrounded and enveloped by the many layers of additions. In fact, the hotel layers had cocooned and protected the the entire L-shaped stable structure for some 60 years. The roof was well maintained, and structurally, the building was sound, solid, and dry. It was also in constant use, for years acting as office space and as a dining area for hotel guests! As seen in the photo below, the Zimmerman stable was
above: the same view in Jan.2009, looking in a north-easterly direction; both sets of tracks are now gone, but the old right-of-way of the main line, seen in the weedy foreground running along this side of the fence, still stretches throughout the Niagara Falls tourist district. The
Salit spur (which ran at the left) now has a row of shops facing onto Victoria Ave. built on top of where the ROW once ran. The same original Zimmerman stables are within the yellow-painted hotel structure behind the trees; the Casino Tower and the Sky Wheel can now be seen in the background. (In Feb.2016, the cutting of the evergreen tree row was begun) The old 'west gatehouse' was also torn down at some point after 1947.
below: May 10, 2016 - the exact same view as above, of where the Zimmerman stable had stood. Note there is now a brand new road in the foreground which has not yet been opened to the public; this is a new access road to HOCO's redesigned parking lot; there has not been an access into the HOCO property from Victoria Ave since at least the time that the Zimmerman-era Victoria Ave 'west gatehouse' was torn down and the hotels built around the stable. Note that the same fence is still seen here, but the tree line which had stood alongside the fence has been cut down. The railroad tracks were located on the side of the fence facing the street, where the grassed boulevard is. The red X shows where the stable had stood, in the area behind the fence.
above: Apr. 17, 2017 - the exact same view
(again: hard to believe...) as the previous 3 photos - the green line shows where the fence and the tree-line had previously been. Between the tree line and Victoria Ave (seen running at the left) there had been a grassed boulevard, where previously, two sets of railroad tracks had once run. The grassed boulevard has been removed, as were the fence and the trees (which for years had separated the HOCO property from the railroad right of way). The red X shows where the Zimmerman stable stood. The yellow circle shows a gas line marker which had stood at the tree-line, and which had been about 50 feet from the west side of the stable's west pavilion. In the foreground, we see the new road is open, connecting Victoria Ave, across the former grassed railroad ROW, to the vast new HOCO parking lot, located off to the right of the photo. This new road is basically a curved extension of the existing Clifton Place driveway, the other end of which spills out onto Clifton Hill (right beside where Zimmerman's north Gatehouse had once stood).
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below: Jan.19, 2009 - looking in a
south-easterly direction at the north-west rear corner of the original Zimmerman-built stables, as seen from Victoria Ave. The original stable building is in the centre, with the hip roof and the small round upper windows in the blue-painted brick wall; this is the original west-end pavilion. There is another pavilion (the east-end pavilion, not visible here) further over to the left, within the surrounding additions of the Comfort Inn hotel.
The old
Michigan Central railroad tracks {...whose right of way, incidentally, was the original
Erie and Ontario railroad right of way - also built by Samuel Zimmerman!!} were in service until 1999, running alongside the fence in the bottom foreground. I remember seeing trains running by here - and they were usually long freight trains, at that - slowly rumbling through on the busiest street in Niagara Falls, with tourists waiting in droves for the cars to pass! Note the
Skylon looming in the background upper right, behind the trees.
above: Dec.2, 2015 - here's the same view as in my previous 2009 photo; the buildings, now painted orange with blue trim, are under demolition on the other side. The west pavilion is still seen today surrounded by the hotel additions - its hip-roof is still seen at the upper right. At the left is where the indoor pool area was, under a large roof with many skylights.
above: Dec.6, 2015 - same view, now the indoor pool area is under demolition, revealing a part of the interior blue wall. Only a small section of the skylight roof girders remains as of this day. At the far left is another wing of the Comfort Inn hotel; the south-facing rooms in this wing fronted directly into the sky-lighted indoor pool area.
above: Dec.7, 2015 - here's the same west pavilion, which was still hidden from view yesterday. Today it was re-exposed for the first time in about 60 years!! The blue wall (seen yesterday) has now been partially demolished, showing that there was a large room behind it, and further back, the original brick walls of the Samuel Zimmerman-built west pavilion can be seen again, for the first time in decades!! Three half-round windows, with their original cut-stone surrounds, were revealed again. They are in that black-painted area, half way up the revealed face. They were hidden in the utilities chase above the false ceiling of the main floor. The stone work was protected all these years, and was in excellent condition.
above: Dec.7, 2015 Photos by R.Bobak. The carriage house stables were being revealed as the rabbit-warren of various hotel additions were demolished. In this photo, at this moment, the demolition work is occurring at the rear of the west pavilion (at the far right) where other additions are being torn down. The hotel's sky-lighted indoor swimming pool area was at the far left.
above: Dec.8, 2015 - here's the the
same matching view, with the west-pavilion now fully revealed at the right, and the east pavilion fully revealed farther in the distance at the left.
Today, with all the previously-attached hotel additions having been torn down, the
complete original north-facing facade of the 1856-built Zimmerman stables has been fully revealed again, after being hidden for some 60 years!
This rare view - with
both pavilions
and the fully-intact middle portion, all seen together in the same photo, without obstructions - shows the complete original 'east-west axis' of the 'large leg' of the L-shaped stables.
{The 'small-leg' of the L-shaped stable extended southward off the east pavilion's south-wall (in this view, the extension can't be seen, as it runs to the right (southward) off the far pavilion}
This rare view of the complete original facade, in situ, as is documented in my
above photo, lasted
mere minutes - the center part of the stables, which joined the two pavilions, was soon demolished, as seen
below:
above: Dec.8, 2015 - the center part of the north façade, which joined the two pavilions, is gone several minutes later.
Prince of Wales - Visit to Niagara Falls, 1860
I can imagine that when the 18 yr.-old Prince of Wales, Edward (Bertie) Albert (...who forty-one years later, in 1901, would become King Edward VII!!) visited Niagara Falls and stayed at Samuel and Emmeline's home Clifton Lodge in the summer of 1860, that he would have seen this same visage of the handsome carriage house structure, in its bucolic original prime! And it is most likely he would have toured it to check out the horses and the carriages! No doubt that some of the carriages and horses from this very stable were used to carry the prince and his entourage around town!
Maybe Prince Bertie even had a tryst there with some local lass while his chaperone, the stern Duke of Newcastle, wasn't looking..! Maybe there were a lass or two (...or dozens of them - who knows?!) throughout Canada or in the U.S., who were more than happy to get up close and personal with Bertie's royal bollocks, and who got knocked up by Horny Bertie during his 1860 'Mother can't see what I'm doing in the Colonies' tour! After Bertie wrapped up his 'Slumming the Colonies' tour in Niagara, I wonder how many royal-sired illegitimate bastards were born in Niagara around May-June 1861?!
Dirty Bertie became a promiscuous prince whose ignoble escapades, perversions and scandals would become legendary. Did he get his early start in Niagara?!
One of his future flotilla of mistresses was a Jennie Jerome, who, at 20 years of age, had an affair with Royal Horndog Bertie in 1873-1874. She became pregnant, and was quickly married to a Lord Randolph Churchill by April 1874, thus gaining instant social status by becoming a gentrified Lady Churchill. The child she was carrying - which had been sired not by her new husband, but by Prince Bertie - was a boy, born on Nov. 30, 1874 - just 7 months after her marriage!
The boy's name: Winston Churchill, the future British Prime Minister! Bertie was Winston's biological father! Hard to believe that the great Winston Churchill was the illegitimate bastard spawn of Horndog Bertie.
It is also rather perversely fitting to note that today's Prince of Wales (Charles) AND his post-Diana wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, are BOTH related to Bertie: Bertie is Prince Charles' great-great-grandfather, and Bertie is ALSO Camilla's great-grandfather!
For Prince Charles, his direct genetic lineage to Bertie traces back this way:
- Prince Charles' mother was Queen Elizabeth II. (Update: QE II died Sept. 2022. Prince Charles immediately became King Charles III)
- Queen Elizabeth II's father was King George VI (Prince Charles' grandfather)
- King George VI's father was King George V (Prince Charles' great-grandfather)
- King George V's father was Dirty Bertie! (Prince Charles' great-great-grandfather)
But for Camilla, her DIRECT genetic lineage to Dirty Bertie is even closer to Bertie than Prince Charles'!!
This is because Camilla's great-grandmother was Alice Keppel (b 1868-1947), a 'high-class' whore who began her long term affair with Dirty Bertie in 1898. Alice Keppel's second daughter, Sonia, was born in 1900 (d. 1986), and was most likely sired by Dirty Bertie (not by Alice's husband, George Keppel).
Sonia would have a daughter, Rosalind Shand (b 1921-1994), who would become Camilla's mother.
When Camilla infamously used the come-on line to Prince Charles that 'My great grandmother and your great great grandfather were lovers, so how about it?', she was referring to the whore Alice Keppel as her great grandmother.
But: what clever Camilla disingenuously overlooked to mention, was who her biological great grand-FATHER was!! Hmmmm...whaaaaat, you ask??!
It's one thing for Camilla to confirm that her great grandmother (Alice Keppel) was Bertie's lover (aka Bertie's whore), but a royal DNA test (...if one was ever allowed, that is!!) would surely discover that Alice Keppel's daughter Sonia was sired not by Alice's husband-on-paper (George Keppel) but by Flirty Prince Bertie!
Prince Charles' great-great-grandfather and Camilla's great-grandfather was the SAME MAN!
So, Camilla's come-on line should more accurately have been:
'My grandmother {Sonia} was a bastard love-child sired by your whoring great-great grandfather Bertie. I'd like to attain what my scheming whore of a great-grandmother {Alice Keppel} couldn't achieve: become Queen of England. My great grandmother screwed her way almost to the top with Bertie, Prince of Wales; for all intents and purposes she was the 'un-official' Queen of England!! I'll do the same for you, Charles, my Prince of Wales. I'll be your sperm-dumpster mistress, like my great grandmother was for Bertie; I'll be waiting for your princely booty call behind your wife Diana's back. I deserve to be Queen, because, after all, I am of royal lineage, for I am actually King Edward VII 's great grand daughter. So, how about it, Prince Chuckie?!' (...and in Sept. 2022 this dream was fulfilled: Cammy became Queen Consort of Great Britain, with her King Charles III)
Let's further look at the claims made by Camilla that she has so-called 'Canadian heritage'.
Camilla claims that her 'Canadian roots' go back to Sir Allan MacNab. (b 1798-1862). In 2009, she visited MacNab's mansion, (Dundurn Castle, in Hamilton, Ontario, where she had waxed eloquently about her tenuous 'connections' to the great Sir Allan MacNab, to his mansion and to his family.
Let's recall this timeline on Camilla's side:
Camilla's mother was Rosalind Shand (b 1921-1994)
Rosalind Shand's mother was Sonia Cubitt (b 1900-1986) (ie, Sonia was Cammy's grandmother)
Sonia Cubitt's mother was the whore Alice Keppel (b 1868-1947) {...but the unspoken question is: WHO was actually Sonia's FATHER??!
In other words, the same question is: WHO was actually Camilla's great-grandfather??
And even MORE to ask is:: who exactly was Camilla's great-great-grandfather????}
Now let's stop a moment to understand something at this point in the timeline: PRIOR to Alice Keppel, there was NO BLOOD RELATION whatsoever between Camilla and the MacNab family.
Alice Keppel entered into the MacNab family when she married George Keppel on Dec.1, 1891.
He was 26, she was 22. They had two kids: Violet (b 1894-1972) and her sister, the afore-mentioned Sonia (b 1900-1986)
And; who was George Keppel (b 1865-1947)?
George Keppel was the son of Sophia Keppel (nee Macnab) (b 1832-1917) and William Coutts Keppel (b 1832 - 1894)
William Keppel married Sophia MacNab on Nov 15, 1855 at Dundurn Castle in Canada.
William Keppel was the 7th Earl of Albemarle, aka Viscount Bury.
Indeed, Sophia MacNab became Sophia Keppel and thusly became the Countess of Albemarle.
We are led to believe that William Coutts Keppel was Camilla's great-great-grandfather.
And who were Sophia's parents? They were Sir Allan MacNab and wife Mary Stuart of Hamilton, Ontario. Sophia grew up at Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, Ontario!
So, the tenuous connection by bloodline which Camilla tries to make is the "Sir MacNab to daughter Sophia to grandson George Keppel' blood link.
They even try to make the link all the way back to Charles II for crying out loud!! This is through the lineage of the Albemarles which goes that far back.
BUT: since George Keppel was NOT the biological father of Sonia, there is NO CONNECTION between the Albemarles and the MacNabs, to Camilla!
In other words, if Alice Keppel's daughter Sonia was actually Bertie's bastard daughter, then there is NO CONNECTION WHATSOEVER between the MacNab bloodline and Sonia - and none with Camilla!! Therefore, there is no connection between Camilla to the Albemarle lineage either.
Why acknowledge that Alice Keppel was a whore (which Camilla already acknowledges) yet NOT acknowledge the likelihood that Sonia was NOT therefore, in any way related by blood to the MacNab bloodline??!
Get a DNA test, Camilla!
We know Alice Keppel is Camilla's great-grandmother - but: WHO is Camilla's GREAT-GRANDFATHER????? It's not George Keppel!
Alice the whore gave birth to a bastard child, Sonia.
Alice's husband, George Keppel was the cuckhold - he was not the father but had to accept the bastard child as 'his own'. (so: this little trick suddenly lands Camilla a 'Canadian heritage' going back to Charles II ??!? hahaha wow.)
George and Alice Keppel's first child, Violet, would have been a HALF-sister to Sonia. But Sonia would NOT be in the MacNab bloodline (as her father was Bertie, not George Keppel.)
(Sister Violet WOULD BE in the MacNab bloodline, if Violet's dad really was George Keppel, and her grandmother was Sophia, and her GREAT GRANDFATHER was Sir Allan MacNab.)
But the situation would be different for Sonia. For Sonia, her mother was Alice - same mother as Violet's - but her father was Prince Bertie (not George Keppel)
Therefore, Sonia's grandmother was not Sophia, and Sonia's grandfather was not William (7th Albermarle) and Sonia's great grandfather was not Allan MacNab!!
(Now, all the previous would change again, if we found out that Alice's first child, Violet, was also illegitimate, as rumours sadly exist that this was also possible, and Violet's real father was another man (NOT Bertie, though !!) Alice 'got around', as they say. A lot. Likely BOTH of George's 'children' were NOT 'his' children. So this would change many other tangents here as well. But: seeing as Alice was a whore, if even Violet was not George's issue, then Violet also is not related in any way to the MacNabs)
The whore Alice's spawn should go looking into 'Bertie The Bastard-Maker's' family for their real roots.
So what really are these royals doing here? It's sort of like the concept of "stealing valour" is in military issues, applied to the 'heritage / ancestry' front, by illegitimately inserting themselves into lineages to gain legitimacy.
Sir Allan MacNab served some 30 years in Canada's pre-Confederation politics, served in the War of 1812 and in the 1837 Rebellion, was a successful business owner and lawyer. He was by all accounts a man of his time, and certainly no fool. So, I could only imagine what it would have been like, if Sir Allan (who passed away in 1862) had still been alive in 1900, when his own grandson became entangled as a cuckholded bit-player in Bertie's 50-year-long royal orgy.
Dammit, but Sir MacNab would have had something to say about all this, and it wouldn't have been pleasant for Bertie (aka kinky "Kingy").
MacNab certainly had the political and financial and even, yes, moral juice for standing up to this kind of perverse behaviour from the royals, especially when it personally involved his own family, his own daughter, and his cuckholded grandson, George.
Camilla is smearing the good name of the MacNab family, as she legitimizes her phony "Canadian roots".
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There is yet another rather odd circumstance which my research reveals, which involves a strange connection between Bertie and the MacNabs, with a tangent involving the Zimmermans.
.
Let's recall that Bertie and some of his royal guests had stayed in Samuel and Emmeline Zimmerman's home - Clifton Lodge - for 5 nights, from Sept. 13 to Sept. 18, 1860, while the Royal Party was visiting Niagara Falls.
The Royals then left Niagara on Sept 18, taking the train to nearby Hamilton, Ontario, where they arrived later that afternoon. Bertie would stay overnight at businessman Richard Juson's home "Arkledun". The next day, Sept. 19, Bertie did some city touring, opened the city's new waterworks, and attended a ball.
It is on Sept 20 that an interesting event occurred:
Bertie's Royal Party went to visit Allan MacNab at his home in Hamilton ("Dundurn Castle") At the time, in 1860, Allan MacNab's daughter Sophia had already left home five years earlier, She had been married at Dundurn in Nov.1955, and had moved to England with her husband, William Keppel (aka the 7th Earl of Albemarle, aka Viscount Bury)
The question is, did Bertie have any passing knowledge of Sophia MacNab at the time??
Because - and this is the strange connection - Bertie, forty years later, would end up screwing Sophia's son's wife..! Bertie would end up screwing his host Allan MacNab's grandson's wife..!
...and well, oops - now we have Camilla...
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below: Jan. 9, 2017 - same view of where the Samuel Zimmerman stable once stood. After a year+ of site construction, it's now difficult 😕 to determine the obliterated stable's exact spot: it had stood in the area right behind the truck. {...gone, gone... gone into the mists of time, as if it had never been there at all... when I pass by this area, I am still astounded that I had actually seen this building, when it briefly emerged like a phoenix from its cocoon - and then vanished, in a matter of days...} Also, the old fence line and all the trees (which were seen in the Jan. 2009 photo earlier above, and also seen in next aerial photo below) along it have been removed. The old fence line ran where the blue line below is seen, curving into the distance. This chain-link fence for years had separated the old hotel property from the railroad track right-of-way (shown by the red line in the foreground). The removal of the fence shows that the construction site now has extended over all of the grassed boulevard once occupied by the former rail ROW, which, until recently, had run parallel to Victoria Ave. (as seen in the photo below). Now, the fence runs right along the city sidewalk, giving the area a decidedly narrowed, crowded feel.
above: Apr.17, 2017, same view of where the S. Zimmerman stable had stood; now, a go-kart track is being built on the site. The blue outline shows about where the stable had stood - this would be approx in the middle of the new round structure. The red line shows where the old tree and fence line had been. The yellow circle shows the gas line marker, which has remained in its position along the fence line, being there before the stable was demolished; this is pretty much the only object of reference left to give context to where the stable had stood. In the previous Jan. 9, 2017 photo, the gas line marker was inside the orange cone. The gas line marker stood right at the old fence/tree line; and it was about 50 feet away from the Victoria Ave.-facing side of the stable's west pavilion. (This go-cart track was finally opened to the public in May, 2018)
above: an aerial view of the Comfort Inn hotel complex - the L-shape outlined in yellow shows the original Zimmerman stables, with the west and east pavilions marked. The skylight above the indoor pool room is marked. A red X marks the surrounding 'newer' hotel additions, which were also torn down. The pool section is marked. The blue line shows the direction from which the preceding set of above photos was taken. The purple line shows where the railway tracks had once run, now seen lined by trees and grassed over as a boulevard strip running parallel to Victoria Ave..
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below: Oct. 1946 - looking in a
south-westerly direction at the north-east corner of the original Zimmerman stables, which were said to have cost at
that time $48,000!
The hip-roofed east pavilion is seen in the center, and the part of the stables seen extending to the left was the 'small leg of the L-shaped' stables.
The 'large-leg' of the L-shape (the 'east-west axis' leg) is seen at the right, running towards Victoria Ave. in the distance. The east pavilion was therefore the 'corner' of the 'L-shaped' stable site.
(The right-side of the 1946 photo below shows the same north-facing elevation, as does the left-side of the the above 2015 photo - both photos show the same north-façade, but from opposite ends. In other words, the 1946 photo was taken with the east pavilion closer to the camera, while the 2015 photo was taken with the west pavilion closer to the camera.)
Victoria Ave. and the MCR railroad right-of-way are behind the building in this view. Note that when Zimmerman had built this stable in 1856, what we now know as Victoria Ave., was called Clifton St. The side of the stable facing the camera is the east-face of the building {this is the same east-face seen further below in the Jan. 12, 2009 photo, with the two top small round windows to the right of the [new] chimney}
Prior to the planned construction of his new mansion, Zimmerman had already built four gatehouses (the east, west, north and south gate houses) around his estate. One of these (the 'west gatehouse') had been on the west side of his lot, just slightly north of the stables. This west gatehouse faced onto Victoria Ave. (and onto the railroad tracks which ran on the east-side of Victoria Ave.). This west gatehouse structure is barely seen in the
far-centre-right of the earlier
above photo from the previous 1921 aerial views).
above: Nov.16, 2015 - here's the
exact same matching view as the previous photo above - this is the complete east-facing façade of the Zimmerman stables (it's the face going to the left) The yellow circle (on the east-pavilion's north-wall) shows two stone lintels in the brickwork. Looking back at the exact same area in the 1946 photo, the same stone-trimmed half-round window was visible, as was a large carriage entrance, stone-trimmed with an elliptical top. The openings had since been bricked up and painted.
Looking at the east facade, the yellow 'X' marks a later hotel addition which contained bathrooms; looking back at the 1946 full original facade, we can see that the addition covered up two half-round windows, and the associated stone round trim, and the 'water-table' horizontal trim. These were revealed again after the bathroom addition was demolished.
The same 'small-leg of the L-shape' is still seen extending to the left (southward) from the corner pavilion in 2015, as it was seen in 1946.
Note that there is a horizontal foundation line and concrete block rubble seen in the foreground - this is from yet
another hotel wing, which had been just demolished about a week earlier. That part of the hotel had completely blocked the view of the stables, so, this photo of the carriage house is again a new perspective, unable to be seen since the hotel in front had been built decades ago.
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below: Jan.12, 2009
- looking in a
north-westerly direction at the south-east corner of the same Zimmerman-built Bush Estate stables. The former stables have now been incorporated into a maze of hotel buildings and wings, part of the Comfort Inn, and are now used as cafeteria and administrative offices for the hotel complex. The part of the carriage house/stable seen in the middle of the photo (to the left of the chimney) paralleled with Clifton Place lane. The taller hip-roofed building at the right was the old stable's east pavilion. The part of the stable seen here in the centre, which came off the east pavilion's south-wall, made up the 'small-leg' of the 'L-shaped' stable structure.
above: Dec.6, 2015 - this is the
same matching view of the Zimmerman east pavilion - the
same chimney is seen at the right in both
above photos. The 'small-leg' of the stable is now seen just having been freshly demolished at the left side of the photo. The outline of where its gable roof had joined the east pavilion's south-wall, is now clearly revealed.
As the HOCO Comfort Inn complex was being torn down, the hidden shell of the original stables was revealed again. The broken curved stone pieces seen piled up at the bottom are the curved cut stone lintels which had outlined the windows on the stable's east-side. The stone work, bricks, and massive hewn beams, were all demolished. This building survived here at Niagara for an
astounding 159 years - 1856 to 2015. (I was saddened when one of the construction workers there insisted that these buildings were from the 1950's and not worth saving. When I told him that the original carriage stables building - the one WITH THE THREE LAYER THICK BRICK WALLS and THE CARVED STONE TRIM and THE MASSIVE RAILROAD-TIMBER ROOF TRUSSES - was built
in1856, he didn't believe me! 😬)
This was a
real piece of Canadian pre-Confederation architectural history in Niagara Falls, Ontario - it should have been worth saving.
(...cue the sound of crickets... nobody in Niagara gave a shit about the building...)
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below: Dec. 9, 2015 - same view as above: now the east pavilion is almost knocked down; we can see (inside the red circle at the far right) that there were two cut-stone-trimmed half-round windows hidden within the now-demolished bathroom addition, as was mentioned earlier.
above: Dec.10, 2015 (seen early in the day) -
same view as above; the east pavilion was demolished late in the day on Dec.9th. The base where the chimney had stood is
still seen at the centre-right. Newly revealed from this angle of view, seen at the
far left, is the still-partially-standing hip-roofed west pavilion, near Victoria Ave. (Note that this west pavilion, seen still seen standing in the morning on Dec.10, was fully demolished later this same day - see
below)
Note (at the upper left) that the connecting gabled stable building along the 'long-leg axis' has also been demolished. There is an outline (clearly seen on the east-wall of the west pavilion) which shows where the gable roof of that connecting building on the 'long-leg axis' had joined onto the west pavilion's east-wall.
below: Dec.10, 2015 (later in the day), same view. At the
far left, the west pavilion (which had still standing earlier today (as was seen in the previous photo above)) has now been demolished. For the first time in 159 years, Victoria Ave. (which ran behind the stables) is visible again (in the left distance) from this viewpoint.
below: Samuel Zimmerman had actually been originally buried in a mausoleum somewhere on his estate (exactly where, I have not been able to determine. It might have been in the vicinity of his reflecting pool, down in what later became part of Victoria Park. Or it was further up the hill. There seems to be no literature on the
actual location of the mausoleum; nor on the timing of when and why Zimmerman's body was later moved to St. David's. The timing may have been due to the eventual sale of the estate by Emmeline to the Bush family; or, due to the conversion of Zimmerman's private property below the hill (under Bush ownership in the 1880's) to a public park, now known as Queen Victoria park.)
Zimmerman was later buried at the St. David's Methodist Church cemetery.
above: as seen on Mar.17, 2009 - the tall rectangular tombstone at centre is where Samuel Zimmerman and his first wife are buried, by the Methodist Church in St. David's.
*
below: Mar.17, 2009; on its west side, the tombstone reads:
"SAMUEL ZIMMERMAN, Born Huntingdon PA 1815, Contractor and Banker, Benefactor of the Town of Clifton, killed at DES JARDINS CANAL C.W. Mar.12, 1857".
(C.W. stood for
Canada West, as this part of the jurisdiction we now call "Ontario" was known, after the times of Upper Canada and prior to Confederation) The
month and
day of his birth are not on the stone; but, he was born on Mar.17, 1815, the fifth son in a family of seven sons and one daughter.
In 1842, at the age of 27, Samuel Zimmerman arrived in Canada, earning a fortune in the construction business as a contractor on the Second Welland Canal; he then became a railroad builder, bringing the
Great Western Railroad (which eventually became CN Rail) to Niagara from Hamilton Ont. Construction of this rail line - which is still in use today by CN - began in 1851 and it was opened to Niagara by Nov.1853, ending at the Suspension Bridge. Zimmerman was also involved in the construction of the double-deck Suspension Bridge (designed by engineer John Augustus Roebling) which opened in 1855 and was the first rail connection here between Canada and the U.S.
In 1854 Zimmerman bought the
Erie and Ontario, which had been the
first railroad in Upper Canada, and which was built in the period 1831 to 1841, operating as a seasonal horse-drawn railroad. He rebuilt the line, converting it to steam locomotion, and built a new extension north from Queenston into Niagara On The Lake. Zimmerman also had a steamboat [the
"Samuel Zimmerman"] which carried freight and passengers from Toronto to Queenston and NOTL, from where they could take his trains to Niagara Falls or to the States - talk about transit integration!
Just above the cemetery where the
Zimmermans are buried, there still is a long-abandoned right-of-way running along the Escarpment of one of the railway lines that Zimmerman had once owned, the
Erie and Ontario (a predecessor of the
New York Central/ Michigan Central) which went from
Queenston (and later from Niagara On The Lake) to Niagara Falls, and later, to Fort Erie.
Samuel Zimmerman is buried with his first wife Margaret Ann; they were married on Aug.15, 1848 and had two sons. At the time of Samuel's death in 1857, his son John was 8 yrs. old, and son Richard was 6 yrs. old. Margaret Ann had died earlier, in 1851, at the young age of 23; I have not been able to find out the cause of her death - was it related to the childbirth of the second son Richard? The timing seems possible.
By the way: there are some ridiculous claims being made that there is 'no mention of Samuel Zimmerman's name on his headstone' at his grave; that it is 'unmarked': what, then, is the photo above??!? It clearly shows Samuel's name!
above: as seen Mar.17, 2009 - on the east side of the same above tombstone, is this description:
" MARGARET ANN
WIFE OF
SAML ZIMMERMAN
and DAUGHTER OF
RICHARD and ANN
WOODRUFF
DIED
APRIL 24, 1851
AGED 23 YEARS "
*
Interestingly, Margaret Ann's father, Richard Woodruff (b.1784 - d.1872; known as the founder of the village of St.David's), had bought the National Hotel in 1833 from Hermanus Crysler, who had built it in 1827. [It was later known as the Prospect Hotel and as Ward's Hotel, located on Main St. in Niagara Falls, Ontario [on the site of today's Mints bar]. During the 1837 Rebellion, government troops stayed at the hotel, which was used as a barracks.]
And oddly enough, in 1848, the same year that they were married, Margaret Ann's husband Samuel bought the original Clifton Hotel from Hermanus Crysler, who had built it fifteen years earlier, in 1833.
Richard Woodruff and his wife Ann Clement Woodruff had 8 children: 6 sons and 2 daughters. One of Margaret Ann's brothers was Joseph C. Woodruff (1808-1889); another brother was William Henry Woodruff (1814-1897).
*
It was on
Dec.16, 1856 that Samuel Zimmerman married his second wife, Emmeline Catherine Dunn of Maskinonge, District of Three Rivers, L.C. {then known as "Lower Canada", now Quebec}
Her parents were Charles Dunn and Mary Hibbard (Mary was also referred to as "Polly Dunn") .
Emmeline Dunn was born on Mar. 17, 1833 and was one of 14 - that's right:
fourteen !!!
- children. Emmeline Dunn was 23 years old when she married Samuel Zimmerman in Dec.1856 - he was 41!
One of her brothers was the prominent lumber merchant
Timothy Hibbard Dunn b.1816-d.1898)
Less than three months after Samuel Zimmerman and Emmeline were married, Samuel was killed on Mar.12, 1857 in the Desjardins Canal train accident at Hamilton, Ontario. Zimmerman was killed five days before what would have been his 42
nd birthday (...and quite ironically, also 5 days before Emmeline's 24th birthday, seeing as they both were born on the 17th of March...)
It is said that Zimmerman was most likely the wealthiest man in Canada at the time. (...and she, the richest widow in Canada??!?)
above: photo of Samuel Zimmerman: banker; contractor of canals, bridges and railways; and one of the founders of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Samuel Zimmerman's funeral, with Masonic honours, was held on Mar.16, 1857 - exactly three months after his second marriage.
I've often wondered what became of Samuel Zimmerman's second wife, Emmeline C. Zimmerman [nee Dunn]?
And, what then became of Samuel and Margaret Ann's two young sons?
Samuel apparently had two younger brothers in Ontario at that time - Martin and James; did they end up adopting the boys? (Or did things not work that way back then?)
Did Samuel Zimmerman's tragically-widowed second wife, Emmeline, take care of them? What did Emmeline do in the several years after Samuel's death? Where did she live?
On Oct.29, 1863 (six years after Samuel's passing) Emmeline was re-married (in Toronto) to John D. Sherwood, a New York lawyer, and they would live together for 28 years. She was 30 years old, he was 44. He was born Nov.24, 1818, and died Apr.30, 1891, at the age of 73, leaving Emmeline a widow again.
An obituary read that Emmeline survived John D. Sherwood "with four children" - but these kids weren't named, and it was not clear whether these four were their children, or children from previous marriages.
At first I thought that two of those four children may have (?) been Samuel's two boys (John and Richard) whom Emmeline and John D. may have (?) been looking after as step-parents; and the two other children mentioned may have been theirs together, or, that maybe the other two children may have been his, from an earlier marriage, perhaps?
above: image of John D. Sherwood, Emmeline's second husband.
I regret that I have yet to find any image of Emmeline.
UPDATE: Searching for Emmeline and JD Sherwood's "4 children"
I learned from marriage records that when Emmeline Zimmerman and John D. Sherwood were married, she was described as a widow, and he, as a bachelor - so, then, he did not have previous children. I also found out that John D. Sherwood's middle name was "Diddell", and that they were married in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by the Rev. H.J. Grasett, rector at St. James Cathedral.
I picked up a lead on one of the "four" children:
- I found that a girl named Maude A. Sherwood was born on Jun.6, 1873 in Englewood Cliffs N.J. - and she definitely was the daughter of John D. Sherwood and Emmeline (sometimes spelled 'Emmaline', also 'Emeline') Catherine Zimmerman Sherwood!
Maude Sherwood became a well known sculptress; on Dec.17, 1897 (also seen as Dec.16?) she was married in Englewood to stockbroker Edward Hull Jewett (b. Feb.4, 1860 in Brooklyn, N.Y.; d.1944) and they had two children:
- Edward Hull Jewett Jr. (b. Oct.11, 1898 - d. July 8, 1981)
- John Howard Jewett (b.Feb.21, 1902 - d.Sept. 18, 1986 (also seen as d.Sept. 24?)
{Edward Hull Jr. and John Howard were Emmeline and JD Sherwood's grandchildren}
Maude (aka Mrs. Edward H. Jewett) and her husband lived in Englewood until 1910, when they moved to New York City, where Maude kept an art studio from 1910 to 1930.
In 1912 Maude and husband Edward Hull Jewett bought an ocean-side summer cottage at East Hampton, N.Y., which they called 'Inkpot'. Maude Sherwood died on April 16, 1953, in her 79th year. She is buried in Cedar Lawn cemetery in East Hampton, Suffolk County, N.Y.; beside her husband Edward Hull Jewett, who had died in 1944..
Maude's mother, Emmeline C. Sherwood, passed away on Feb. 8, 1919, at age 85 (almost 86). She is buried at the Brookline Cemetery, along with her second husband, John D. Sherwood. (On her gravestone in the Brookline Cemetery (N.J.), her first name is spelled "Emeline")
[Seeing as Maude's mom, Emmeline, was still alive in 1912 when Maude and EHJ bought Inkpot, I wonder if Emmeline had ever visited the cottage, maybe stayed for a week in the summers with her grand kids?! She must have! And, of course, Emmeline's son (Maude's brother) John Howard Sherwood - who died in 1915; see more further below - most likely had also visited there].
John Howard Jewett, aka "Jack", was Maude's son (and therefore, Emmeline's grandson). He was a Princeton grad, class of 1923, and received a degree from Columbia's School of Architecture in 1927. He did marry; his wife Beatrice died in 1955. I'm not clear whether they had any children.
He re-married in 1974 to Betty Martin Boyd. He was an uncle to Edward Hull Jewett III and to George M. Jewett (sons of his brother Edward Hull Jewett Jr. and first wife Georgiana) and uncle to John Sherwood Jewett (son of Edward Hull Jewett Jr. and his second wife, Camilla).
UPDATE: Found Emmeline and JD Sherwood's 2nd child
- I found that Emmeline and John D. Sherwood DID have another child, and so Maude did have an older brother: he was John Howard Sherwood, born in Cornwall-On-Hudson on Sept, 1, 1869, so he was just under 4 yrs old when Maude was born.
He died of heart complications on Jan.25, 1915, at only 45 yrs of age. He is buried in the Brookline Cemetery, NJ.
It was reported that at the time of his death, he was living in Englewood NJ at his mother's house. Emmeline would have then been in her 81st year when her son John Howard Sherwood died. He had never married and had no children, and so Emmeline's blood line continued only through her daughter Maude's children.(...unless Emmeline and JD had other children ...??)
UPDATE: Found Emmeline and JD Sherwood's 3rd child
- To my utter astonishment, after months of fruitless dead-end searching, I have found a link to yet another name confirmed as a child of Emmeline and John D. Sherwood!! This was through a wedding notice published in the New York Times on Apr. 3, 1902.
The name I found was Arthur C. Sherwood, a name I had not previously seen before in relation to Emmeline and John D. The middle initial C stood for Charles
Yet, there it was, another link - which then begged the question - once again - of exactly WHICH "four children" was J.D. Sherwood's obituary referring to?
I had assumed that they were referring to the 'four children' as being Emmeline's first husband Zimmerman's two boys, plus Maude and John Howard Sherwood; but now that another name has entered the picture, this has to be reconsidered. The question now is: if Zimmerman's 2 boys were NOT part of the '4 children' and if the '4 children' only refers to the actual issue of Emmeline and JD - then who was the fourth child???!
So far, then, I have found three names of Emmeline and John D. Sherwood's 4 children:
John Howard Sherwood, b. 1869
Maude Sherwood, b. 1873
Arthur Charles Sherwood, b. 1877
So: who is yet to be found here?
The Apr.3, 1902 wedding notice read:
The wedding last night of Miss Carolyn C. Bartow, daughter of John A. Bartow, to Arthur C Sherwood, son of the late Col J. D. Sherwood. at St. Paul's Church, was the social event of Englewood of Easter week.: The bride was attired In white crepe de chine trimmed with point d' esprit and carried s bouquet of white lilacs
Her maid of honor was her younger sister, .Miss Marguerite M. Bartow and her bridesmaids were Miss Caroline Reboul. New York; Miss Elsie Supplie, Miss Elisabeth Taylor, and Miss Florence Taylor, Philadelphia; Miss Katherine Park and Miss Louise Bayless, Englewood.
Mr. Sherwood's best man was his brother. John Sherwood, and the ushers were James Chapin, William Margin Coe. John Kerr, Bayard Bartow. Albert Coe, Charles H. B. Chapin, Edward White, and E. Seward Prosser. The Rev. George F. Flichtner, rector of St. Paul's, read the service" .
Carolyn and Arthur C. Sherwood were buried in Englewood's Brookline Cemetery; their headstone reads:
"ARTHUR. C. SHERWOOD May 7, 1877 - May 5, 1925
His Wife
CAROLYN C. BARTOW OCT. 16, 1877 - Dec.5, 1965"
I was not sure if Arthur C. and Carolyn had children; it had been difficult to find answers.
{If they had kids, it would mean that Emmeline's blood line would have continued through her daughter Maude's children, and through her son Arthur's children - and so then there would be cousins found here, with Maude's Jewett family line, and Arthur's Sherwood family line.}
UPDATE:
It now appears that Arthur C. Sherwood and Carolyn C. Bartow had one child (...that I could find; there may be others..?) - a daughter named Carolyn Sherwood. {Carolyn therefore, was Emmeline and John. D. Sherwood's grand-daughter!!} Carolyn Sherwood was born in Englewood on Dec.30, 1908, and died on Apr. 24, 1999.
Carolyn was married on May 1, 1937 to David Ives Mackie Jr. (b.Oct.19, 1903, d. Feb.1966 ) and they had 2 children:
- David Ives Mackie III b?
- Arthur S. Mackie b?
David and Arthur were Emmeline and J.D.'s great-grandchildren!!
In reading Carloyn S. Mackie's 1999 obituary, it is noted that she also had several grandchildren - which means that those grand kids were also Emmeline and J.D.'s great-great-grandchildren!!
UPDATE: The mystery "4th child" of Emmeline and JD SHERWOOD is found!
I am amazed to report that I have finally found - after several years of searching - the mysterious 'fourth child' of Emmeline and J.D. Sherwood!!
I was searching through the 1880 US Census records and happened upon a "John H. Sherwood" listed, as being born 'about' 1870 in NJ, his father listed as American - - - and his mother as Canadian!! What a clue!
It turns out that this was indeed John Howard Sherwood!! He was listed as "son", and being 10 years old in 1880!!
Looking further down the census info, lo and behold, I found more corroboration that this actually was a listing of Emmeline and J. D.' s children - because "Maud A. Sherwood" was also listed as "daughter" (shown born 1873, age 7 in 1880) with father being American and mother Canadian!!!! (The census spelled her name as "Maud" - no 'e.' In other places, I've seen it as "Maude")
Which brings me to the point after all this searching:
that there was ANOTHER child listed along with John H. and Maud A. in the 1880 Census: it was a girl named FLORA E. SHERWOOD!!!
She was also listed as "daughter", born 1871 and being age 9 in 1880!
So, the long lost mystery child has been found - it was Flora!!
I was astounded to find this link, as before I started looking at the census info, there really was little information anywhere that I could find about Emmeline and J.D.'s children.
Emmeline and John D. Sherwood had two boys and two girls!! Maude had an older sister!!
The revised list, now in order of birth, is
:
- John Howard Sherwood, b. 1869
- Flora E. Sherwood, b. ''around" 1871 per the 1880 Census; but I have also seen her birthdate as being either Sept. 1, 1870, or Aug.3, 1870, as apparently there was some discrepancy over her baptismal records at St. Paul's church in Englewood {...where the baptism date was supposedly recorded as being on Aug.3, 1870, but the birth date recorded as being on Sept. 1, 1870... giving the impression that Flora was baptized before she was born!!}
Also, the 1880 Census listed Flora's middle initial just as "E", but I have since confirmed that the initial 'E' stood for 'Emmaline' (with an 'a') - representing Flora's mother Emmeline's name!!!
(Regarding the spelling of her mother's name with an 'a' or an 'e', I just wonder if that discrepancy somehow is a cultural artifact hearkening back to Emmeline's birth in Quebec, where Emmeline would have been the common spelling in French Canada, but, over the years in the States, her name morphed into Emmaline.
On her gravestone, Emmeline C. Sherwood's name is actually spelled "Emeline" - for some reason, with just one 'm', not the usual two. Yet, the French Canadian 'e' is there - not an 'a'!!!)
- Maude A. Sherwood, b. 1873 (the 1880 census listed Maude's middle initial was "A". I have not been able to find out what her middle name was).
- Arthur C. Sherwood, b. 1877 (C stood for Charles)
So, in all the good news that this fourth child, Flora, was found, I did, though also find more questions. For example, in the same 1880 Census where I had found the other 3 children listed, there wasn't anything about Arthur C. Sherwood!! In 1880, Arthur. C. would have been 3 years old, and he should have (?) been listed along with the other 3 children. That was strange. Why wouldn't he have been included?
Interestingly, also in the 1880 Census, there was another name listed as residing in the Sherwood household - an "Anna Kane", categorized as "other", born 1848, 32 years old in 1880. I wonder what her relationship was to the Sherman family - perhaps she was a live-in maid to the household; or possibly a care-giver, seeing as John D. at one point had suffered a stroke??
If Flora E. had kids, then her kids (along with Maude's kids and Arthur C.'s kids) would all be Emmeline and John D.'s grandchildren! It would very interesting to see how the Sherman family line continued here, through Emmeline and JD! (John Howard never married and did not have kids)
UPDATE:
...and now for another update, updating the previous updated updates..!
I have found more links to Flora E. Sherwood! How the family line continues!
Flora E. Sherwood was married in Englewood, NJ, on Oct.. 18, 1892 to William Gerard Vermilye Jr., who was a career banker associated with the firm Brown Bros.
Flora E. and William had four children:
Katherine Rowland Vermilye b. Feb.8, 1895 d. Nov.30, 1981 (cremated)
William Gerard Vermilye III b July 9, 1898 d. Aug.30, 1898
Sherwood Vermilye b. Nov.22, 1900 d. July 28 1972
Gerard Lathrop Vermilye b. Aug.15, 1904 d. May 19, 1992
So we see now that Flora's mother, our Emmeline, had lived to see seven grandchildren born:
- four (above) from her daughter Flora E.
- two ( John Howard and Edward Hull) from her daughter Maude
- one (Carolyn) from her son Arthur C.
Unfortunately, John D. Sherwood, who passed away in 1891, never got to see any of his grand kids.
Flora's 4 kids, and her younger sister Maude's 2 kids, and Arthur's 1(?) kid, were born after J.D. had died. How much joy her grandchildren must have brought to Emmeline!!
But there were further heartbreaks to come: we see that Flora's second child, William Vermilye III, had died within two months of being born. The baby's burial site is not known. Emmeline lived through the loss of two husbands, Samuel and John D.; through the horror of losing grandchild William, and later, in 1915, she would bear the pain of losing her oldest son John.
Flora's husband William G. Vermilye Jr. was born on Jun.21 1867 in Newark NJ. They had lived for a long time at 152 Hudson Ave. in Tenafly, NJ.
After over 40 years in the banking business - starting in 1890 - William G. Vermilye Jr. retired in 1932. On Oct. 18, 1942, Flora and William had happily celebrated their golden wedding anniversary; less then 2 months later, on Dec.14, 1942, Flora died, at the family home on Hudson Ave.
In a terrible denouement, husband William then died three days later, on Dec.17, 1942. What a double shock for their children.
Maude Sherwood, Flora's younger sister, lived through this tragedy in her family's history.
What of Flora and William's children?
I found that daughter Katherine Rowland Vermilye had been married on Feb.21, 1925 to Charles Culberson Alford (Charles C. Alford was born Nov 13, 1894, and died Apr. 29, 1969) The 1940 US Census showed Charles and Katherine were listed as both being 44 yrs old, and living in Washington D.C., at the time, with two children:
- son Josiah P. Alford, then age 7,
- and daughter Mary S. Alford, age 5!!
{These two children were Emmeline's great-great-grandchildren - because Katherine was their mother, Flora was their grandmother, and Maude was their great-grandmother, making Emmeline their great great grandmother!!}
Josiah's middle name was Perry.
Mary's middle initial "S" stood for "Sherwood'' - hearkening back to her great-great-grand parents, Emmeline and John D. Sherwood!
Josiah P. Alford was born Jan.13, 1933, and died Dec.31, 1999. In June 1957 he married Dorothy St. Onge (spelling?) Dorothy was born Jul.17, 1933; she died July 18, 2015. Josiah and Dorothy had two children:
- Anna Elizabeth Alford, b. Apr.14, 1959, d.May 9, 2012
- Katherine Marian Alford b. c1961, deceased prior to 2015
Mary Sherwood Alford (Josiah P.'s sister) was born Oct.22 (or 21?) 1934, and died Jun.4, 2016. On Aug.26, 1958 she had married David Naboth Williams (b.May 8, 1933; d.Oct.9, 2006) and they had four children:
- Sherwood Williams
- Megan Alice Williams
- Gwyneth Gordon
- Caitlin Sanderson
So we can see that Josiah and Dorothy's two kids, Anna and Katherine; and David and Mary's four kids, were of course, cousins, but, also, that these six children were Emmeline and J.D. Sherwood's great-great-great-grand-children!!
Which also means that Charles and Mary Dunn (of Trois Rivieres, Quebec) were their great-great-great-great-grandparents!!!
Furthermore, in Mary S. Alford's 2016 obituary, it was noted that, of her 4 kids, she also became a proud grandmother to 2 grandchildren: Justin and Zoe Wade - - - - which means that their great-great-great-great grandparents were Emmeline and John D. Sherwood, and, that their great-great-great-great-great grandparents were Charles and Mary Dunn!!!!!
{... ...and there's that long arc of time again, of family and blood and joy and sorrow... wow...}
Unfortunately, Dorothy S. Alford was predeceased by her husband, and by both her daughters -
daughter Anna Elizabeth did not have any children; I am not sure whether Katherine Marian did.
I managed to find that Gerard Lathrop Vermilye {Flora E. and William's son}was married on Sept. 30, 1928 to Marjorie Dibble. (She was born Sept.1, 1906 and died Jul.31, 1990). The 1940 Census showed them living at 9 Orchard Pl. in Tenafly NJ; he was listed as age 35, she was listed as "Margery"', age 34 - and they had an 8 yr. old son {born Jun.20, 1931) named Gerard Vermilye Jr. who was, therefore, another great-grandchild of Emmeline and John D. Sherwood!!
(It is not clear if Gerard Jr. married or had kids. I did find that Gerard Jr. did become an actor (at times under the stage name 'Jerry Todd' or 'Jerry Wallace'; and was also a prolific author of many film and actor-biography books, under the pen name 'Jerry Vermilye').
I couldn't find much about Sherwood Vermilye {Flora E. and William's other son} He had a wife, Gladys E., who died on Jan 15, 1976; Sherwood had died in 1972. It appears they did not have children of their own; but Sherwood had been a step-father to Gladys' children. Interestingly, Sherwood had also been a long term president of the Tenalfy N.J., Board of Health.
Also interestingly, Sherwood Vermilye and his brother G. Lathrop Vermilye, had started a brokerage firm - Vermilye Brothers, specializing in insurance stocks - located at 50 Broadway in New York City. They announced the formation of their new firm in a New York Times ad - which appeared on Nov. 23, 1933! Since the great stock market crash of 1929, the economy had been in a long depression, and by 1933 it was pretty much at its lowest - most depressing - point. What a time to form a new brokerage!! I wonder how that firm fared?
-
The home of Emmeline and John D. Sherwood in Englewood Cliffs was apparently called "Stone Lodge", and was supposedly designed by John D. Sherwood; was this the house where Emmeline's son John Howard came to die?
At first, I could not find any reference of this house in Englewood's interesting 19th century history! Where in Englewood was this house, the home of the Sherwoods???! I searched the Jewett family records and found no earlier references to Emmeline Sherman (who was in fact John Howard Jewett's and Edward Hull Jewett Jr.'s grandmother, by way of her daughter Maude Sherwood's marriage to Edward Hull Jewett (Sr.)
UPDATE:
I have been able to find a photo below of the fine home ('Stone Lodge') which Col. John D. Sherwood and wife Emmeline had built in 1877 in Englewood, New Jersey! Picture was found in the book Englewood and Englewood Cliffs by Arcadia Publishing, which stated that the house was originally known as the Sherwood House, and was renamed as the Brinckerhoff House (after new owners) in 1911. The house was described as being "made of coursed rubble brownstone in the Stick Style with some Gothic Revival elements".
above: it is wonderful to see that the same house still stands at 157 Sherwood Place in Englewood NJ
After finding out this new information on the Sherwood house in Englewood, the previous above questions I had raised about where John Howard Sherwood had died, remain unanswered. When John Howard Sherwood died in 1915, he was apparently staying at his mother Emmeline's house.
But - if the former Sherwood House became the Brinckerhoff family's house in 1911 - then where was Emmeline actually living in 1915, when her son died?? Had she moved elsewhere within the town?
I did find that in the 1910 federal census (just a year before the 'sale' of the house...) Emmeline, then aged 75, was listed still living in this house, along with her son John Howard, then 40. Also listed living at the house was a Hortensia Goodyear, aged 24 - who was most likely a caregiver or maid.
So, what happened after 1911, after the Sherwood home was sold? Where did Emmeline (and presumably John Howard) move after 1911? Did she buy another home? Did she rent an apartment somewhere?? Where was Emmeline residing when John Howard died in 1915, and where was she residing when she passed away on Feb. 8, 1919?
UPDATE:
I found an interesting notice in the social pages of the East Hampton Star, Aug.31, 1950, which announced the engagement of a Miss Suzanne Macdonald Barnes to an Edward Hull Jewett III (the son of Edward Hull Jewett Jr. and wife Georgina)
What's interesting is that this notice stated that Edward Hull Jewett III "is the grandson of Mrs. Edward Hull Jewett of East Hampton, and the late Mr. Jewett".
What this means, is that EHJ III's grandmother (referred to here as "Mrs. Edward Hull Jewett") was actually the sculptress Maude Sherwood (Emmeline and John D. Sherwood's daughter)!!
Edward Hull 'Jed' Jewett III (the groom) was Edward Hull Jewett Jr.'s son; and, Edward Hull Jr. was Maude Sherwood and Edward Hull Sr.'s son -- which means that Maude Sherwood {aka "Mrs. Edward Hull Jewett"} was Edward Hull Jewett III's grandmother - and which further means that Emmeline Sherwood was Edward Hull Jewett III's great-grandmother!
Seeing as Maude Sherwood was still alive in 1950, when EH Jewett III and bride Suzanne Barnes were married, I wonder if the groom's grandmother Maude attended their wedding?
above: photo of the bride, Mrs. Edward Hull Jewett III, former Miss Suzanne Barnes, on her wedding day, Sept.30, 1950 (in the Oct.5, 1950 issue of the Millburn and Short hills ITEM)
The story, though nicely detailed, didn't say much about the guests, or whether granny Maude had attended. We do learn that the groom's best man was his brother George M. Jewett; and that one of the ushers was William C. Kreuger Jr. - he would have been one of the sons of beer baron William C. Kreuger, from his first marriage. By 1950 the beer baron was married to Georgina, former wife of Edward Hull Jewett Jr.
{I also wonder if Maude's son, Edward Hull Jewett Jr. (the groom's father) attended this wedding?! After all, the groom's mother, Georgina (formerly "Mrs. Edward Hull Jewett II") was EHJ Jr'.s first wife! They had divorced at least 8 yrs earlier, at some point before 1942, after which EHJ Jr. had married second wife Camilla. Georgina subsequently married the beer baron and thus became "Mrs. William C. Krueger". So, were EHJ Jr. and his second wife Camilla graciously invited to his son's wedding? Did sparks fly between the ex's?? Or was it a peaceful ceremony?!}
I have since found that Edward Hull Jewett III's wife Suzanne passed away Jul.29, 2010, age 81, predeceasing her husband after nearly 61 years of marriage.
They had two children:
- Jacqueline B. Jewett
- Edward Hull Jewett IV
...which means that Jacqueline and EHJ IV are the great-great grandchildren of Emmeline and J.D. Sherwood!!
Edward Hull 'Todd' Jewett IV married wife Lynn, and they had two children:
- Jennifer L. Jewett
- Bryn M. Jewett
...which means that Jennifer and Bryn are the great-great-great grandchildren of Emmeline and John D. Sherwood!!!
...Another related sidebar: a society notice in the Oct. 12, 1918 edition of Brooklyn Life I found read:
"Colonel and Mrs. Louis Jewett Praeger of 124 Willow St. (in Brooklyn I suppose) have announced the engagement of their daughter Miss Mary Elizabeth Praeger to Ensign Edward Hull Jewett Jr., U.S.N.R.F., son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hull Jewett of 200 West Fifty-seventh St. Manhattan, and Easthampton L.I. (Long Island)"
So, just to clarify: this was Maude's son - EHJ Jr. - who was apparently scheduled to be married to Mary Elizabeth Praeger!!
But strangely, here's another twist - I have not been able to find out if this engagement actually ended up in marriage - because the only actual marriage records I've found, don't show Edward Hull Jewett Jr. ever marrying a Miss Praeger... so what happened there???
{...by the way, how interesting it is to find Maude's actual address in the Big Smoke, listed as: 200 W. 57th, Manhattan, which was - and still is! - the address of a building located basically next door (across the street) from Carnegie Hall!! Nice! This was the "Rodin Studios" building, built in 1916-17 (designed by architect Cass Gilbert, who was also the architect of the Woolworth Building in 1913). The Rodin Studios originally had two-level residence /work-space studios for artists. Maude kept a studio in Manhattan from as early as 1910, so she must have moved from some other space into the Rodin building, around the time when it was newly built, and kept the space until 1930! By the late 1950's-60's, the building was converted to office use and the double-level units were eliminated.}
Getting back to Edward Hull Jewett Jr. - nowhere does it show that he ever married Miss Praeger; but, he was married twice:
- his first wife was Georgiana (also seen spelled Georgina) Frances Morrison; they married on May 19, 1925. They had two sons:
- Edward Hull Jewett III {...the one who went on to marry Suzanne Barnes in 1950};
- George Morrison Jewett {see more on George further below}
Edward Hull Jewett Jr. was Georgina's first husband; they divorced at some point prior to 1942.
{Georgina's second marriage was to William C. Kreuger Sr., president of the G. Kreuger Brewing Company; one of his company's notable innovations is that they were the first brewery in the U.S. to sell beer in cans! Georgina was William C. Kreuger Sr.'s second wife; they did not have children of their own. Georgina's father was George F. Morrison (...who had been a director on the board of General Electric!!!) Most likely Georgina and EHJ Jr. had named one of their sons after Georgina's dad!!
I am not sure of when Georgina passed away.
In an Aug.31, 1975 NYT article, which announced that her son George M. Jewett was going to marry Margaret Rowe Nichols (his second wife), it stated that he was the "son of the late Mrs. William C. Kruger (sic no "e" ) So, Georgina - whose second husband was beer baron William C. Kreuger - had already passed away at some point prior to Aug. 1975}
- Edward Hull Jewett Jr.'s second wife was Camilla L. Roy; they married on Aug. 16, 1942, and they had a son, John Sherwood Jewett. (I wonder if EHJ Jr and his wife Camilla choose to name their son "John Sherwood" to honour John D. Sherwood - who was EHJ Jrs. grandfather? I would like to think so..! ...oh how the generations roll on...) John Sherwood Jewett was therefore Emmeline and J.D. Sherwood's great-grandson!
Edward Hull Jewett Jr. passed away in 1981, and Camilla (who had been born Aug.30, 1911) passed away on Jan.27, 2014 - - - at age 102 !!!!!
It is astounding to realize that Emmeline Sherwood (Camilla's husband Edward's grandmother) was still alive when Camilla was born: Camilla would have been 7 years old when Emmeline died in 1919.
Here we see a massive arc of time, directly connected by just two people - from Emmeline who was born in 1833, to Camilla, who died in 2014, and who had married Emmeline's grandson - stretching 181 years!! We see all the husbands and wives and children who have been interwoven in this fabric of time, who have come and gone, and whose threads still continue forth.
Although Emmeline and Camilla never met, they are forever linked through their children:
Camilla's obituary appeared in the East Hampton Star (Feb.5, 2014):
..."Mrs. Jewett is survived by her son, who lives in San Francisco, and her stepsons, Edward H. Jewett III of Morristown, N.J., and George M. Jewett of Las Vegas. She also leaves one grandchild, four stepgrandchildren, and five step great-grandchildren..."
... ... and so that long arc of time marches on: We see that the 2014 obit says "Mrs Jewett is survived by her son, who lives in San Franciso" - so that must be referring to John Sherwood Jewett..
We see that Camilla and Edward Hull Jewett Jr. did have a grandchild (pos. Zoey Ashley Jewett, b.1979) through son John Sherwood Jewett - - which means that this child's great-grandparents were Maude and Edward Hull Jewett Sr, and the great-great-grandparents were Emmeline and J.D. Sherwood!!!!
(The "4 step-grand-children" and "5 step great-grandchildren" mentioned in Camilla's obituary would refer to the children of Edward H. Jewett III and George M. Jewett.
Edward H. Jewett III and George M. Jewett were Camilla's step-sons, because her husband, Edward H. Jewett Jr., had been previously married to Georgiana {Georgina?}with whom he had 2 sons.
George Morrison Jewett (Edward Hull Jewett III 's brother) was born in 1929. George M. Jewett married twice.
I was not able to find the name of his first wife, only that she died{possibly}in 1955, and that they had 2 children, Kristianna Jewett b.1956, George M. Jewett (...the son must have been known as George Morrison Jewett Jr. (?) and who, it appears, was born May 9, 1953 and died Sept. 18, 1995). Kristianna and George Jr., therefore, were Emmeline and J.D.Sherwood's direct great-great grandchildren!! (It is not clear whether Kristianna or George Jr. had children)
George Morrison Jewett Sr. (the one born 1929; whose first wife possibly died in 1955/ or was divorced prior to 1975, and had married his second wife, 30 yr. old Margaret Rowe Nichols, on Oct. 12, 1975. Margaret Rowe Nichols was the daughter of Harold Nichols II (b. Jan.3,1911 - d. Jul.1985) and Katherine Harkness Edwards (b. Dec.13, 1910 - d. Nov.27,1986) Katherine Harkness Nichols was the grand-daughter of Lamon Vanderburgh ("L.V.") Harkness (b.1850 - d.1915), who was an early investor in the Standard Oil company!!
George M. Jewett died at the age of 88, and was buried at Cedar Lawn cemetery in East Hampton, on July 26, 2018. George and 2nd wife Margaret Rowe did have a son: Lamon Harkness Jewett. It appears that George M. Jewett Sr. and Margaret Rowe Nichols must have at some point divorced, possibly sometime after 1978, when son Lamon was born. Margaret at some point married Alan Leavitt and became known as Meg Leavitt.
I found a social notice in the May 13, 2012 Las Vegas Review Journal announcing that Lamon Harkness Jewett had married Jennifer Mary Wade on Apr. 14, 2012, in Lexington Kentucky.
The notice stated that the groom Lamon is the son of Mrs. Margaret Jewett and Mr. George Jewett; and the notice also stated that the groom is the grandson of the late Mrs. Georgina Morrison Krueger and the late Edward Hull Jewett. (...this notice left out the "Jr." or the "II" part of the name, but this is definitely Edward Hull Jewett Jr. (aka "II") who was Lamon's grandfather!)
So from this, we can say for certain that the groom Lamon is ALSO:
- the direct great-grandson of Maude Sherwood and Edward Hull Jewett;
- the direct great-great-grandson of Emmeline Dunn Zimmerman Sherwood and John D. Sherwood;
- the direct great-great-great grandson of Charles Dunn and Mary Hibbard Dunn!!!!!!!
Now what's even more interesting, is that Lamon Harkness Jewett's traceable lineage even goes farther back - from Canada back TO THE UNITED STATES in fact!!
This is because Charles Dunn (...Emmeline Dunn's dad...) was the son of Charles Dunn Sr.
Charles Dunn Sr. and his wife Rebecca had emigrated to Quebec (ie Lower Canada) after the American Revolutionary War, in 1778-79, fleeing Vermont as United Empire Loyalists.
Astounding.
Charles Dunn Sr. had married Rebecca Logie, most likely when they were still in the pre-States.
(...note that what is today known as the USA, was at that time the "Thirteen Colonies" of Britain. And though Charles and Rebecca came from today's 'Vermont', there was no State of Vermont at the time - the territory was then known as the New Hampshire Grant. The State of Vermont was formed in 1777, after the civil war known as the American Revolution. The newly formed 'patriot' State of Vermont - needing cash - right away began a process of institutionalized retribution by confiscating the property of mostly Loyalist citizens; former neighbours, former colonials, now proud 'patriots', were stealing the property of their former colonial neighbours; even occurring within families. This caused a huge exodus of colonial migrants fleeing north to the lands of Canada.)
I am not sure when Charles Dunn Sr. was born, but Rebecca Logie had been born c.1755.
They had 2 children who had been born prior to their arrival in Quebec: Elizabeth Dunn (born c.1775 - in the pre-Vermont, pre-USA, New Hampshire Grant) and Isabella Dunn (born c.1777 - in the new State of Vermont, in the new United States!)
Again: astounding to consider what upheaval this young couple lived through: born as British subjects in the Thirteen Colonies, then - as new 'Americans' - forced to leave after being persecuted by the 'patriot' revolutionaries. Rebecca was 20 years old when her first daughter Elizabeth was born in 1775; two years later, Rebecca's 2nd daughter Isabella was born - in a new state, and a new country - a country which then forced this young family to flee.
How proud these Yankees must have been to found their country this way.
Did the end justify this kind of means?
Charles and Rebecca had 3 more children who would be born in Quebec: William (b.1783), Margaret (b. 1784) and Charles (b.1786).
So this last child, their youngest son {Charles Dunn Jr.; born 1786} is the same Charles Dunn who would later marry (date not known) Mary Hibbard (b.?) and become our Emmeline's father!!
Charles Dunn Jr. and Mary Hibbard had 14 children; so dad Charles Dunn Jr. would have been 47 years old when Emmeline Catherine Dunn was born on Mar.19, 1833!
So now we see that Charles Dunn Sr. and Rebecca Logie were Emmeline's grandparents - which also means that Lamon Harkness Jewett is their direct great-great-great-great grandson!!!
It is truly amazing to see this arc of time - spanning from the mid-1700's to 2012 - linking the thread of descendants through Niagara's Emmeline Zimmerman!
It's amazing to consider that Emmeline, whose grandfather left Vermont due to the Revolutionary War (America's first civil war) would marry John D. Sherwood, who had served in America's next Civil War!
It is also rather astounding, sobering, and humbling, to consider and realize that life would have unfolded differently, that Emmeline's descendants would not have been born, had Samuel Zimmerman not died in that railway accident in Ontario in 1857.
Who knows what could have been - what was, is; what was not, is not.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
...Another sidebar:
for some strange reason (it must be a mistake) an edition of the East Hampton Star (July 2, 1998) reported that Edward Hull Jewett's wife Maude, was born in 1874 (I have also seen the date given as 1873). They also (erroneously) referred to her birth name being "Maude Dunn"!! But: Maude was definitely born a Sherwood: she was Emmeline and John D. Sherwood's daughter - so, how could she have been born with the surname "Dunn"??! "Dunn" was Maude's mother Emmeline's maiden name, when she was born in Quebec, from before she married Samuel Zimmerman! Yet another unanswered question..!
...Another update: "THE BROKEN BRANCH"
Several years after I began writing this, I inadvertently stumbled upon yet another astonishing piece of the puzzle surrounding Emmeline and JD Sherwood's descendants, a piece of information that even the Jewett family genealogy website does not state!
I had found references to a "Jewett Ed Hull" in an 1894 New York "social register":
The names were not familiar to me at first, and did not fit into any context that I could see. Several years later, I then found that a "Rose Howard Jewett" (a name I had not previously encountered) appeared in a photo on the Find a Grave website:
Seeing as there are, well... thousands of "Jewetts" and "Howards" out there, all over the place, and seeing that nowhere had I found previous mention of any "Rose Howard Jewett" anywhere in relation to the Emmeline Sherwood descendant-chain (...and, I'd' written tons about it, and scoured through a lot of stuff...) I thought that this unknown Rose was from some other distant Jewett family branch, unrelated and not relevant to my research on Emmeline's descendants.
I looked at the info provided:
This pretty girl Rose was born Nov.17, 1871 in Brooklyn, and she died Nov.8, 1894 in Brooklyn - so she died young, just shy of her 23rd birthday.
I then remembered that 1894 "social register" which I had previously seen, which had mentioned a "Jewett Ed Hull" and a "Rose Howard", but still, didn't connect any context between the two above finds.
So I kept looking at the Find a Grave site, and well... I found a grave: a photo of Rose Howard Jewett's grave stone at the Green Wood cemetery in Brooklyn, and I was shocked by what I found:
At the base of the headstone is this inscription :
ROSE HOWARD
WIFE OF
EDWARD HULL JEWETT
Born Died
Nov 17, 1871 Nov.8, 1894
I stared at this photo, wondering, hey, wait a minute: the only "Edward Hull Jewett" that I know of was Maude Sherwood's husband, so this can't be him being mentioned here on Rose's gravestone, because he was married to Maude.
Then I went back and checked to see the date on which Maude and EHJ were married, and realized it had been in Dec.1897... .... and started thinking whaaaaaat...?!? Rose Howard dies in 1894... and Maude gets married in 1897...??? ...could it be...????
Then I looked again at that 1894 "social register" and I realized that those very dark, bold, elongated letters (those letters with that very weird bold font seen between the words "Jewett" and "Ed Hull") actually are strangely stylized forms of "MR and MRS" !!!!!
I realized that I had stumbled upon Edward Hull Jewett's first wife: Rose Howard Jewett!!
Nowhere had I seen this information before, that EHJ had been previously married, and that Maude Sherwood was Edward Hull Jewett's second wife. So, there had been two "Mrs. Edward Hull Jewetts" - first Rose, and then Maude.
The fact that this social register was from 1894 - and that EHJ and Rose were listed, and that Rose died Nov.8 1894, was weird, but, clearly, she passed away after this register had been printed.
What a shock for Edward Hull Jewett.
Once I learned the identity of our forgotten Rose, I was subsequently able to find that Edward Hull Jewett had married Rose Howard on Jan.31, 1894 - and just ten months later, she died.
I have not been able to find out the circumstances of her passing. Could it be that she was pregnant, and complications developed at childbirth?
Such a sad story. Reminds me of Emmeline's experience losing her husband Samuel after 3 months of marriage. And of Samuel Zimmerman's experience, before he met Emmeline, when he lost his first wife Margaret Ann, who died at the age of 23 as well.
So Edward Hull Jewett became a widower, and at some point during the next 3 years, had met Maude Sherwood, and married her in Dec. 1897; on Oct.11, 1898, Edward and Maude's first son Edward Hull Jewett Jr. was born.
...Oh how life's intrigues and vagaries and joys and sorrows fly by...
I subsequently was able to discover an announcement (published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on Feb.1,1894) detailing Rose Howard and Edward Hull Jewett's wedding, which had taken place the previous day, on Dec.31, 1894!!
So there it is - it was real.
EHJ had been married prior to Maude.
It was strangely saddening and rather shocking for me, after all this time, to discover this unknown, early link, this hidden-in-plain-view yet forgotten, tiny branch of Sherwood/Jewett history, a branch cruelly snapped by Rose's tragic young death, never reaching its maturity. In the years it took me to piece together the Sherwood/Jewett trail, chronicling the descendants of Emmeline, this little branch was never mentioned anywhere.
Again, it brought back that sombre, stark realization (as it had with Samuel's Zimmerman's death) that, if Rose had not died, then Edward Hull Jewett would not have married Maude Sherwood, and consequently, the chain of Emmeline's descendants (via Maude and Edward) as we now know them, would never have been born... Rose and Edward would have had their own family, and Maude hers... ...but, it's all speculation now, isn't it...? - what might have been; what could have been, if only this or that had happened instead... ... what happened, is what happened.
As we now see, that Rose was the youngest daughter of the well-known journalist and writer (and perpetrator of the infamous "gold hoax") Joseph Howard Jr.
Rose and Edward were married at the Calvary church at Fourth Avenue and Twenty First Street in New York City. (the same building is still there! Now 277 Park Ave N).
The maid of honour was Miss Maud Howard - Rose's sister.
The best man was "Mr. C. H. Jewett Jr." {Charles Henry Jewett Jr. b.Sept.6, 1869-d.Nov.12, 1934; he was groom Edward H. Jewett's younger brother.
One of the ushers was "George Jewett" {That would be George W. Jewett, b.1872-d.1948} - the groom's youngest brother
The wedding reception was held at Rose's parent's house, the Howard home at 7 West Twenty-first Street, where "many Brooklynites tendered their congratulations" - including General Horatio C. King and his wife! Col. King's wife was a sister of Joseph Howard's, so, King was Joseph's brother-in-law.
(King was a Civil War veteran, awarded for bravery, who attained the level of colonel brevet, and later became the Judge Advocate General (JAG) of the New York National Guard.)
Interesting to see all the people who attended, all the family and friends who celebrated with Rose and Edward and who would have been part of their lives for a long time to come.
But life had different plans.
On Nov.8, 1894, Rose died. The Howards lost their youngest daughter; Edward lost his wife.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran this obituary on Nov.9, 1894:
Rose Howard Jewett, the first wife of Edward Hull Jewett, died on Thursday evening, Nov.8, 1894.
Rose's funeral was held at 2.30 pm on Sunday, Nov.11, 1894 at the Joseph family's home at 7 West Twenty-first St. - - the same place where just 10 months earlier, newlyweds Rose and Edward and their friends had celebrated their future.
- - -
...and, yes... there's yet another odd tangent to the story of Rose, which I could see only now.
I noticed that in the above wedding report which had detailed Rose and Edward's wedding, one of the other ushers mentioned was a "Louis Praeger". Again, I thought, why does this name seem vaguely familiar???
It's weird enough that I had essentially by accident found the link to Rose Howard and Edward Hull Jewett, years after I had done the links on the subsequent Sherman/Jewett chain - - so why did this name "Praeger" ring a bell again?
After all, it would be more than strange (wouldn't it??) for me to discover a link from here (ie from the past, from this newly-discovered Edward / Rose 'wife 1' connection) to the future Edward / Maude 'wife 2' chain. After all, I had already done the Edward / Maude 'future' and there seemed to be no connection {... so I thought... } between the past Edward / Rose broken chain. and the future Edward / Maude chain.
And then I realized why this name "Praeger" sounded familiar: it's because there WAS a link connecting the past of Edward / Rose to the future of Edward / Maude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This "Louis Praeger" { ie. - from the 1894 Edward / Rose past - -} pops up 24 years later, in 1918 { ie - way in the Edward / Maude future !!} being mentioned in that engagement notice (which I had already written about farther back in this post) that appeared in the Oct. 12, 1918 edition of Brooklyn Life !!!
This engagement notice read:
"Colonel and Mrs. Louis Jewett Praeger of 124 Willow St. {Brooklyn} have announced the engagement of their daughter Miss Mary Elizabeth Praeger to Ensign Edward Hull Jewett Jr., U.S.N.R.F., son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hull Jewett of 200 West Fifty-seventh St. Manhattan, and Easthampton L.I. (Long Island)"
So, just to clarify: Ensign Edward Hull Jewett Jr. was Maude and Edward Hull Jewett's son - their first son, the one born Oct. 11, 1898, now exactly 20 years old!!!
Louis Praeger (now a Colonel) obviously knew Edward Hull Jewett and his first wife Rose from way back (after all, he was an usher at their wedding in 1894!), and he was set on his daughter Mary Elizabeth Praeger marrying Edward and Maude's son EHJ Jr.
I would think that most likely, this had all been discussed and agreed upon with the groom's parents Maude and Edward as well - yet: apparently, for some reason lost to time, Mary and EHJ Jr. never did actually get married.
EHJ Jr. was a navy man, and WW I would end a month after this engagement notice appeared - - so, who knows what happened here, and why the engagement was called off.
In another related interesting twist, we know that Maud Howard (Rose's sister) had been the maid of honour at Rose and Edward's wedding on Jan.21, 1894. Maud was born on Nov.4, 1869, and was two years older than Rose. We also know that one of the ushers at Rose and Edward Jewett's wedding was a Mr. F.D. Beard - this was Francis (also referred to as Frank) David Beard. It turns out that things heated up between Maud and Francis D. Beard, and they were married on Feb.12, 1895! The marriage ceremony took place at the Howard family residence, at 7 West 21st St. (the same home where Rose had had her wedding party - and her funeral wake)
Francis and Maud's wedding was basically 3 months after Rose had died.
Francis was an avid horseman, and knew both Maud and Rose from at least 1891, as they were all reported in the Brooklyn Life society pages riding together in the Richfield Springs coach parade. One can only wonder if the bittersweet shock of Rose's death in the fall prompted Maud and Francis to marry.
When Maud and Francis had their first child on May 6, 1896, she was given the name Rose Howard - a perfect fitting tribute to honour Maud's departed younger sister.
As it turns out, Francis Beard would die on Apr.26, 1901, at age 35, after an appendicitis operation, leaving Maud a widow with 5 young children, the oldest being daughter Rose. Little Rosebud would have had her 5th birthday coming up in less than two weeks; how utterly sad - she'd never see her dad again.
Five years later, in April, 1907, Maud re-married, and became Mrs. Irving T. Bush {...he being the multi-multi-millionaire owner of the massive Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, among many other things...} Rose, now 10, adopted her stepfather's name, and became Miss Rose Howard Bush. In 1915, Rose became engaged to Mr. Arthur Tucker Ellsworth.
Maud and Irving lived together for 23 years. They had a child, Rufus Ter Bush (named after Irving's father) Rufus was born Apr.24, 1908, died Dec.4 1950, age 42.
But on June 9, 1930, in a move which made national headlines, Irving quite rudely divorced Maud and within the hour married Marian Spore.
Maud was Irving's second wife, and Irving was Maud's second husband.
Irving's first wife was Mabelle (nee Marlow); they had married in 1891 and had 2 daughters, Beatrice (b.1895) and Eleanor (b.1898).
After 15 years of marriage Mabelle sued Irving for divorce in 1906, citing adultery (...it is not clear whether Maud was the "other woman" in this situation, because Mabelle refused to publicly name the person. But the circumstances point to Irving having an affair with Maud)
Mabelle was granted a divorce in Jan.1907. She was granted custody of their 2 children, and a 2 million dollar settlement.
Irving then married Maud in Apr.1907.
By the late 1920's Irving became smitten with Marian Spore, and suddenly dumped Maude.
Irving and Marian lived together for 16 years, until she died in 1946; Irving died in 1948.
Maude (b.Nov.4 1869) outlived Marian and Irving, and died on Sept.7, 1963, at age 93.
Oddly, Irving is buried in Green Wood Cemetery (Brooklyn) along side both Marian and Maud. Maud must surely have loved Irving, despite what he had done to her.
*
HORROR AT THE JEWETT LEAD WORKS, STATEN ISLAND
And, there is another interesting sidebar regarding Edward Hull Jewett's {EHJ's} father, Charles Henry Jewett.
Charles Henry Jewett was born Jun.10, 1830 and died Mar.25, 1906.
On Apr.18, 1854, Charles had married Mary Adelaide Hull (b.Apr.1831 - d.?) and they had 6 children:
- Alice b.1857 - d.Aug.11,1875
- John b.1859
- Edward Hull Jewett b.Feb.4, 1860 (EHJ is the one who would later marry Rose Howard and then Maude Sherwood)
- Ida b.1864
- Charles Henry Jewett Jr. b.Sept.16, 1869 - d.Nov.12, 1934
- George W. Jewett b.Sept.4, 1872 - d.Feb.11, 1948
It turns out that EHJ had a lot of brothers and sisters, and, that as EHJ was growing up, EHJ's dad - Charles Henry Jewett - had been a partner in his family's manufacturing concern known as Jewett and Sons White Lead Works, a factory which was located at Port Richmond on Staten Island, at 182 Front St., corner of Burling slip. (street now known as Richmond Terrace)
This company manufactured white lead powder, linseed oil and paints. It was founded in 1842 by Charles Henry Jewett's father, John Jewett. (...which means Charles H's son {EHJ} was John Jewett's grandson!)
The firm's founder John Jewett Sr. was born Dec.1, 1787 and died Dec.23, 1867, at 80 years of age.
John Jewett and his wife Lucy Barrett Ripley (b. Oct 27, 1787 - d.Mar.6, 1859) had eleven children: 8 boys, 3 girls in total!!
For the purposes of this particular story, I will focus on 3 of their sons:
- John Jewett Jr. (b.Sept.18, 1809 - d. May 18, 1856) John Jewett Jr. was the first of John and Lucy's 11 kids.
- George Washington Jewett (b.Jan.2, 1816 - d.Apr.5, 1877) George W. Jewett was the 5th child of 11
- Charles Henry Jewett {who became EHJ's dad} (b.Jun.10, 1830 - d.Mar.25, 1906). Charles Henry Jewett was the last of John and Lucy's 11 children.
Founder John Jewett brought these above 3 sons into the business.
Son John Jewett Jr. died at a youngish 47 in 1856 {...predeceasing his mom Lucy and his father John Sr.)
In 1859, John Jewett Jr.'s only child, son Orville D. Jewett (b.1837), took over his late father John's role, and he became a partner in the firm. (Orville was founder John Jewett Sr's. grandson)
So at the age of 22, Orville joined as a partner alongside his 2 uncles, George W. (who would have been 43 in 1859) and Charles H. (who would have been 29 in 1859)
There was also another senior long-time partner with the firm, Joseph A. Dean.
John Jewett Jr. and wife Mary Bunce were married on Jan.6, 1834. (I have seen that Mary Bunce was born in 1820; if correct that means she was 14 when married... and that JJ Jr. (b.1809) would have been 25... and, seeing that Orville was born in 1837, then his mother was only 17, maybe 18, at the time...) They had lived with their son Orville in a house at today's 200 Kingsley Ave. (formerly New York Ave.) in Westerleigh, Staten Island.
Today the house fronts north, facing onto Kingsley Ave., but before that land was subdivided (c.1890's), the C-shaped house, sitting in the midst of a very large 42 acre lot, faced westward, towards what was then Jewett's Ave. The property was registered to Mrs. M. (Mary) Jewett (hence the name. Today the road is known as Jewett Ave., with the 's' dropped.). There was a very long driveway from Jewett's Ave. to the house, and another long drive way continued eastward from the rear of the house to the east-side of the property, which fronted onto Manor Road (which is still there under the same name). The area now is completely filled with houses.
At the age of 25, Orville, (who was already working - as a partner - at the Jewett lead factory) was mustered into the Union army on Aug.20, 1862, at Albany NY.
Orville served in the Civil War with the 156th New York infantry. He was commissioned to the rank of Captain on Nov.19, 1862. On Mar.26, 1864, he tendered his resignation and was discharged at the age of 27.
In 1865, Orville then married Arabella Caroline Barrett (b.May 22, 1844 - d.Nov.14, 1877). They lived at what is today 15 Bement Ave. in New Brighton on Staten Island (less than a mile east of the lead factory). The house faced north, onto Richmond Terrace, the same street which the lead factory was on. Orville may well have on occasion taken the horse-car railway that ran along Richmond Ter. in front of his house, for a quick jaunt down the street to get to work... or maybe that would have been beneath him. In later years, Orville and his wife moved to Orange Valley, NJ.
It turned out that Orville and Arabella did not have any children.
George Washington Jewett married Gertrude Duryea on Sept.26, 1839. They had a daughter Mary (Minnie) D. Jewett (b?- d.?)
G.W. Jewett and his family lived in mansion on a waterfront lot on Richmond Ter., just 2 short blocks to the west of the lead factory. He could walk to work in under five minutes.
(There was a neighboring waterfront estate just four small houses west of G.W.'s mansion; this was the mansion of Eberhard Faber - - the famous Pencil King!! This was Eberhard's place to rest, to erase all the hubub from his busy days at his pencil factory in Manhattan (burned down in 1872) which had been located where the UN building would later be built. Faber set up a new factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Faber died on Mar.2, 1879; he was a longtime contemporary of the Jewetts, and would have obviously been well aware of the 1877 tragedy which occurred at his neighbour's lead factory. (Coincidentally, in keeping with the weird connections within this story, Faber was buried at Green Wood cemetery in Brooklyn, the same place that EHJ''s wife Rose Howard would be buried in 1894)
On Oct.5, 1865, Mary D. Jewett married Charles Taintor (b. Mar. 1840)
(...it would turn out that Charles Taintor was a salesman who would have some work association with the Jewett factory; he became George W.'s son-in-law)
Charles and Mary Taintor had {at least} 5 children:
- George J. b..Feb.21, 1867 - d.Mar.8, 1893
- May b.Sept..24, 1869 (also seen as Mary, b. c1868?)
- Henry Sherman Dec.28 1871 (also seen 1872?)
- Gertrude R. b.Jan.14,1873 - d.Sept.8, 1873
- Cornelius D. b. Aug.6, 1876 (also seen b.Aug.1875?) (and seen d.May 19, 1922?)
- {I had also read that Charles and Mary had a daughter, apparently named Abby Louise Taintor and who died at age eleven, but could not find any more info on this. I wonder if perhaps this is the same girl as May {possibly Mary?} which might ave been a nickname; or, was there actually another daughter? Or could May and Mary and Abby be the same daughter, with the name misspelled...???}
- { and, I also read that there was another son, possibly a Charles West Taintor, b.Jan.1881 - d.Nov.23, 1911}
There's obviously some missing info revolving around this Taintor line!
And lastly, Charles Henry Jewett's family details I had outlined several paragraphs back. (I am not clear, however, where Charles Jewett's family (incl. EHJ, had actually lived during the lead factory years)
It appears that George W. Jewett was the senior partner in the firm, and that Joseph A. Dean was also long-time senior partner, very influential in the day to day operations of the business.
Charles H. and his nephew Orville apparently had smaller roles in the business.
It appears that Charles H.'s role was in the accounting / bookkeeping / administrative side of things; nevertheless he was a reliable, attentive and trusted worker.
But Orville was apparently lackadaisical and did not fit with the workplace ethic of the other partners. Over the years, an undercurrent of friction had developed between Orville and his two uncles and Joseph Dean.
This rift dragged on and festered for years. In 1867 the founder of the firm, John Jewett Sr., passed away. The 2 remaining sons and Dean eventually realized that Orville was an obstacle in many ways, and began making overtures to buy him out.
Orville didn't want to sell, so that issue added to the low, slow boil.
Eventually - in 1877 - an offer was made to buy Orville's share in the business for $150,000 Apparently, Orville countered with a price of $200,0000 {in cash...!} and apparently (it will soon be clear why "apparently' is being used here so often...) this figure was accepted by the other partners, so Orville (... apparently...) finally agreed to sell his share to his uncles.
By 1877 Orville was now 40; his uncle George W. was now 61; and his other uncle Charles H. was now 47.
Apparently, on Apr. 4, 1877, Orville had met with his own lawyer, John L. Sutherland, at Sutherland's office at 54 Wall St. in Manhattan, to review the sale documents, and these documents were to be signed and finalized at the Jewett factory offices the next day.
But what actually happened the next day, on Apr. 5, 1877, was an absolute horror.
Orville, who was by now living in Orange Valley, New Jersey, left his home very early, and arrived at the Staten Island Jewett lead works uncharacteristically early on that morning.
The clerks noticed that Orville's presence this early in the morning was not usual for him. Orville had casually spoken briefly to some people in front to the building; who later said that they detected nothing unusual about his demeanor.
The clerks downstairs had noted it odd that Orville didn't take off his long "Ulster" coat, and went directly upstairs to his own 3rd-floor office, where he sat alone for about an hour.
In the meantime, George W., Charles H., and Joseph Dean were working in the main 2nd-floor office. Dean was working at his desk, writing letters, and at one point, George W. asked Charles H. to run an errand, to go to Peter Cooper's nearby store to buy some office supplies, so Charles left the building and headed for the store.
It was basically just another typical day at the office.
And then there was a sudden explosion in the upstairs main office, followed by what was later determined as gunshots.
As shocked and confused clerks ran upstairs to see what had occurred, they found the main office full of smoke, and saw George W. and Orville laying on the floor, and Dean slumped over his desk, all bloodied and wounded.
It was later determined that Orville had left his 3rd floor office and went downstairs to the main 2nd floor office at 10.15 am. One would think that if some kind of kind of altercation / dispute / confrontation took place, that there would have been some raising of voices, some yelling, some commotion. Yet: there was no evidence of anything like that.
Apparently, there was no prior warning: there was no yelling, no loud voices, no arguing, no scuffle of any kind, as stated by the clerks who were working at their desks in the 'bull-pen' in front of the office. The door to the office was wide open at the time, yet nothing unusual was heard until the blast occurred.
It appears that Orville had carried a live hand grenade hidden under his coat when he entered the office, and threw the grenade towards George W, who happened to have been standing beside Dean at Dean's desk.
The shrapnel from the grenade hit George W. full force. By virtue of where he had been standing, George W.'s body had shielded Dean, who was behind him, still sitting at his desk. Dean suffered relatively minor shrapnel wounds, but not as seriously as George, who in several minutes was dead.
It also turns out that Orville (apparently) had TWO guns on him, a longer-barrelled heavy Colt 'navy' revolver; and a smaller short-barrelled 'Sharp's' revolver.
Apparently (and there's that word again...) the theory was that after Orville threw the grenade at George and Dean, he realized that he himself hadn't been seriously injured by the shrapnel of the initial blast - so he then decided to shoot himself.
Note that this bizarre situation gets stranger: it was soon determined that Orville was shot 5 times - - - with 2 different guns....!
One bullet from the Colt was found in Orville's stomach - and four more bullets from the Sharp's revolver were found lodged in his chest region.
Initially, police were speculating that Dean had shot Orville in self-defence after Orville threw the grenade. (I suppose the theory was: 'how could Orville have shot himself FIVE times? There must have been another shooter'...) A holster was found strapped to Orville's body, which mated with the Colt, so it was established that the Colt was definitely Orville's, and so, it was probable that he shot himself once in the stomach with that Colt.
The police tried to formulate a scenario speculating that the Sharp's gun belonged to Dean, and that - after the massive unexpected grenade explosion - Dean (who just seconds earlier was wounded and stunned from the grenade blast) not only somehow suddenly managed to conjure up a fully loaded gun, but that the wounded Dean could still aim and pump 4 rounds directly into Orville's chest, from across the room!! (The thing is, Dean had never had ANY previous associations with guns, whatsoever; but Orville did) Dean was never charged with anything.
The coroner said those 4 Sharp's bullet holes in Orville's chest came from a close range, not from a distance, which means that Dean could not have been the shooter, because he was found slumped at his desk - leaving the explanation to be that Orville not only shot himself once in the stomach with one gun - but then also shot himself four more times in the chest with another gun!!!
The consensus was that Orville had literally gone insane, planning to kill the other partners and kill himself in the process - and that he must have brought the grenade and the 2 guns with him.
When Orville was first found laying on the floor, his coat was still smouldering and on fire near one of the chest wounds, where the muzzle had been held close to the fabric.
George W. Jewett, though still barely alive when found after the grenade blast, died of his shrapnel wounds within minutes, still at the murder site.
George W. was coldly murdered by his own nephew.
Gertrude lost her husband, Mary her father.
His young grand-kids George J., May, Henry Sherman and Cornelius D. lost their grandfather.
The murderer Orville was taken to the Chamber St. hospital (at 160 Chamber St. in NYC, which required a boat trip) where later that evening he died of his 5 gunshot wounds. Even though he could still speak (...after having 5 rounds in him..?!) Orville refused to explain what happened.
The only survivor, Dean, recovered, but never could reveal exactly what had happened that day. What is clear, is that Orville had planned this death-wish attack, and wanted to kill his family and co-workers - and himself - along the way; and, it most certainly must have had to do with that buyout which had been supposed to be done that same day
What a tragedy.
And: Charles Henry Jewett, through a stroke of fate - because his brother had earlier asked him to go purchase some office supplies - returned to find the carnage which had unfolded while he was out. If he had been there, he too might have also been killed.
So, our EHJ, our Edward Hull Jewett, would have been 17 years old when all this had happened at his dad's workplace in 1877.
Twenty years later, in 1897, EHJ - now a young widower, and now a stockbroker at age 37 - would marry Maude Sherwood; nine years later, in 1906, EHJ's dad, Charles H. would die, and 13 years after that, in 1919, Maude's mom Emmeline would die. So, Charles. H would have known Emmeline quite well, and the families sure had some interesting stories to tell each other! (It's not clear when EHJ's mom, Mary Adelaide Hull Jewett passed away, and if she had known Emmeline)
It is also notable that Orville's wife Arabella died on Nov.14, 1877, 7 months after Orville's death. She was just 33. It's quite possible that the shock of what her husband had done weighed heavily upon her.
****
...Another sidebar:
Samuel and Margaret Ann's eldest son, John Zimmerman went on to marry Victoria Jane Henry on Apr.24, 1872; he was 23 years old, she was 21.
The younger son, Richard Zimmerman, went on to marry Emma Jane Rogers on Apr.18, 1887; he was then 36 years old, she was 21. At the time, Richard was a physician in Niagara Falls.
(I still wonder: did widow Emmeline actually become the official guardian for Samuel's 2 children, after he died?)
Seeing that Emmeline and John D. had made their life in Englewood, I wonder then - were Zimmerman's boys actually living with them in Englewood at any point in time? Were they educated in New York State? New Jersey? Ontario? Or were they cast alone after (or even before) Emmeline married John D. in 1863?
Samuel's son John would have been only 14, and son Richard would have been about 12, when Emmeline married John D. Sherwood in 1863, so, I would think that the sons had not yet attained adult status. .
I wonder about the details of these two boy's lives in the tumultuous period after their father Samuel died in 1857, to when Emmeline remarried in 1863, to when Emmeline started having her own children in 1869 (John Howard); in 1870 {1871?} (Flora); in 1873 (Maude); and in 1877 (Arthur C.)?
Samuel's eldest son John was married in 1872, when he 23. What was his life like, before that? Samuel's son Richard (the doctor) married in 1887, when he was 36 - what was his life before that?
What were their relationships with their (ever-so-brief) step-mother (..and her 'new' husband John D.), as well as with their younger step-brother (s) and step-sister (s?) over the years??
Did they get along, did they visit one another, were they close, were they distant..?
It's not as if they really had known Emmeline for a long time; and it's not as if Emmeline's future children would be blood cousins to Samuel's kids.
Samuel's eldest son John Zimmerman would have been 20 years old when Emmeline's first child John Howard Sherwood was born; and he would have been about 24 when Maude Sherwood was born. John Zimmerman had already been married a year before Maude was born.
Samuel's second son Richard would have been about 18 years old when John Howard Sherwood was born, and would have been about 22 when Maude Sherwood was born.
John Howard Sherwood would have been about 8 years old, and sister Maude Sherwood would would have been only about 3, when their parents Emmeline and John D. moved into their new home in 1877.
So, with the timing and the age-difference, I can't see it being possible that Samuel's 2 sons could have ever lived in the Sherman's 1877-built 'Stone Lodge'; but it is certainly possible that they might have visited and stayed there as guests over the subsequent years.
...And, let's remember that Emmeline herself came from a Quebec family of 14 children - so we can only wonder how many of her relatives might have also visited her over the years!
....And then there is the question of exactly where did Emmeline and John D. live, during the years before they built their Englewood house in 1877? They'd already been married for 14 years prior to building their 'Stone Lodge'. So, where had they lived in that intervening period, between being married in Toronto in 1863, to having their own children during 1869 - 1877, and building their home in 1877? (son Arthur C., was born the same year they built their house)
...And, did either of Samuel Zimmerman's two boys ever actually live with the Sherwoods at any point during those intervening American years, 1863 to 1877? Or did she drop any association with them, like a hot potato?
...And, there are still those even earlier mysterious Canadian years, from 1857 (when Emmeline's husband Samuel Zimmerman died) to 1863 (when widow Emmeline married John D. Sherwood): where exactly was Emmeline living, what was she doing, during those 6 years prior to marrying John D.? How did they first get acquainted? When did Emmeline actually move away from Niagara Falls? Were Samuel Zimmerman's young sons actually in the care of, and actually living with, Emmeline at any point between 1857- 1863, or were they sent off to some boarding schools?
...And, we must broach this subject: did Emmeline inherit a jackpot from Samuel Zimmerman's estate?? There seems little information available to what would be a quite reasonable question: what did the married-for-3-months widow receive from her fabulously wealthy husband's estate - and what exactly did the 2 young sons receive from their father's estate?
...More interesting mysteries...
*
below: illustration of the Desjardin Canal train accident in which Samuel Zimmerman was killed, from the London Illustrated news, Apr.4, 1857. The same railroad right-of-way is still there today, and is now the CN main line from the U.S.A., through Niagara Falls, to Toronto. The suspension bridge, which is seen in the distance behind the collapsed railroad bridge, is now the site a steel arch bridge, which carries York Blvd., connecting the cities of Hamilton and Burlington, Ont.
This drawing looks westward into Coote's Paradise and the Dundas Valley in the distance.
above: After a business meeting in Toronto on Mar.12, 1857, Zimmerman boarded the 5:00 pm train to get back home to Niagara. The train was travelling on the Great Western Railroad's tracks when apparently - due to a broken wheel axle - it jumped the tracks just as it was approaching the canal bridge. The derailed train hit the bridge, which then collapsed, sending the entire consist - the locomotive [named the "
Oxford", built in Schenectady, N.Y.], the tender, the baggage-car, and two passenger cars - into the frozen canal below. Out of ninety passengers, sixty were killed.
Samuel Zimmerman was in the prime of his life, almost 42, and had just recently re-married; I wonder what further accomplishments he would have made in the railroad business and his other ventures. There is
no doubt that Zimmerman would have become even more of a leading player in the massive railroad industry expansions and consolidations that were just on the horizon.
Another human-interest-sidebar to the Desjardin Canal train wreck story is that there were two prominent persons from Niagara, who both knew Samuel Zimmerman very well, who were on the same train with him, and who survived the wreck: they were Thomas Clark Street of Niagara Falls, and Dr. Thomas Clark Macklem, of Chippawa.
(Note: the same architect, Richard Upjohn, who had designed Zimmerman's Clifton Place mansion, had also designed Macklem's mansion in Chippawa!! It was built at some point in the early 1850's with great views fronting Chippawa Creek and the Niagara River, but Dr. Macklem would not have many happy years there - he remained ill after the 1857 accident, and died in 1859. Not sure what became of the house, if his wife remained in it or sold it? Anyway, she went to be married two more times (see further below) Apparently the house ended up sporadically sitting abandoned for several decades. It was utilized as a soldier's camp during WWI and later was a restaurant, but it burned down Nov.17, 1927. It would have been a prize public investment had the Parks Commission bought the property at some point earlier)
Thomas C. Street (born Apr.5, 1814) had been elected in 1851 for his first term as a (pre-Confederation) Member of the Legislative Assembly (Canada West) for Welland County. At the time of the 1857 train wreck, he was not, though, a sitting MP, having had lost the election in 1854. However, T.C. Street ran again and won in 1861, and was re-elected in 1863, serving as Welland County MP until the day he died, Sept.6, 1872. T.C. Street never married.
Thomas Clark Macklem M.D. (born Sept.19, 1817, the 5th son of James and Lydia Macklem) had married widow Caroline Cummings (nee Street) on Mar.6, 1851.
After the Desjardins disaster, Dr. T.C. Macklem did not fully recover from his injuries, and died in Magnolia, East Florida, Dec.11, 1859.
Miss Caroline Street (born Aug.5, 1825 - d. Apr.11 (or Mar.11?) 1908) was a younger sister of the above-mentioned Thomas C. Street; they were children of Samuel Street Jr. of Niagara Falls (who was born Mar.14, 1775, died Aug.21, 1844; and whose father was Nehemiah Street); therefore, Dr. T.C. Macklem was T.C Street's brother-in-law.
This was Caroline Street's second marriage:
- she had first been married (on Nov.17, 1847) to James Henry Cummings (b. July 25, 1820 - d. Apr.11, 1848), they had no children, and she became a widow;
- then she married Dr. T.C. Macklem (they had four children, but again she became a widow in 1859, when TC passed way due to the ongoing effects after the 1857 train wreck;
- then on Nov.20, 1862, she married Rev. William Henry Caldwell Robertson, and yet again was widowed. (Rev. W.H.C. Robertson, of Stamford, had been the first rector at St. Luke's Parish in Darien, Connecticut, from 1854 to 1859).
- and lastly, on July 30 [or Aug.20?], 1874 she married Henry Corry Rowley Becher, Q.C. (a London, Ontario lawyer, who died Jul.5, 1885) They lived in a gothic villa named Thrornwood in London, Ontario. Caroline was was left widowed a fourth time. Caroline died in the Toronto area in 1908.
Caroline's children with Thomas Clark Macklem were:
- first son James Cummings Macklem (who was born May 7, 1852, and who must have been named in memory of her first husband) This son tragically died May 2, 1860 as a young boy, drowning in the Niagara River at the foot of the Macklem mansion "Clark Hill" (which later became the site of the "Oak Hall" mansion of Harry Oakes fame, and now the head-office of the Niagara Parks Commission).
- second son was Sutherland Macklem
- daughters were Caroline and Elizabeth
It was Dr. T.C. Macklem's brother Oliver Tiffany Macklem (who was married to Julia Anne Street (born Jan.11, 1819 - d. May 18, 1879), who was Caroline Street's older sister [and another of T.C. Street's younger sisters!!] who ran the family's Macklem Foundry in Chippawa, and who had built Samuel Zimmerman's steamship the '
Zimmerman', which was launched May 6, 1854.
It was T.C. Street's father, Samuel Street, who, along with Thomas Clark, founded Ontario's first railroad, the
Erie and Ontario, in 1835 - the same railroad which Samuel Zimmerman would buy and convert to steam power, nearly 20 years later.
It was T.C Street who became treasurer of the
Erie and Ontario railroad, and who was also one of the incorporators of the Niagara
Suspension Bridge (an engineering feat designed by Augustus Roebling in 1851) which was the first ever bridge to carry a railway over the Niagara River, between Canada and the United States. Samuel Zimmerman was the contractor on that bridge, and was also the contractor who had built the railway line
to the bridge, from Hamilton (still a CN mainline!)
*
below: as seen Feb.12, 1928 - another of the original four Zimmerman gatehouses was this one (the 'east gatehouse', the closest one to the river and the falls) located downhill in what was then Queen Victoria Park; when it was built in 1856, this gatehouse was on the lower-level of Zimmerman's property, facing Niagara Falls! It had also served as the original headquarters of the Niagara Parks Commission, and was demolished in 1928. A question: does this look like "Italianate" architecture? I don't know if these 4 gatehouses were designed by Richard Upjohn (the architect of Zimmerman's Italianate-style mansion) or by some one else? To me, they do not have the look of the 'Italianate' style... maybe they are some kind of Italian-Villa derivative??
below: Built by Samuel Zimmerman in 1856 (a year prior to his sudden death in 1857) this gatehouse (standing on the lands upon which Zimmerman was planning to also build his new home, until he was killed in (ironically) a railway accident over the Desjardins Canal in Hamilton Ont.) was located fronting onto the south side of Clifton Hill (near today's Clifton Place lane). This would be the 'north gatehouse' of the four gatehouses.
Clifton Place was the road/driveway which led south off Clifton Hill into the Bush / former Zimmerman Estate. This below gatehouse was one of four gatehouses which had been built by Zimmerman around his property, and was the last to be demolished, in 1965. It was at one point the office for Harry Oakes' Welland Securities. Photo below is from 1965, the year of its demolition. What a neat building and location! Note modern buildings and lights in background; that is most probably the old Fallsway / Quality Inn buildings. A double-decker bus is seen at the far left in what was a hotel parking lot. Clifton Pl. lane would be just to the right in the photo below, just out of frame.
below: same angle of view as above, looking in a south-easterly direction down Clifton Hill. Zimmerman's Clifton Hill Gatehouse is clearly seen, marked with the red X, just behind the Park Motor Hotel sign. This was its original location, set slightly back from the road, with a little bit of lawn in front.
The signs for the Quality Inn and Fallsway hotels are seen further down the street. The Clifton Place access road is marked in blue at the bottom right. Note the pylon sign for the Park Motor Hotel also advertises for the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, as well as for the "Queen's Door Dining and Dancing" lounge, which was for a while was quite the local hotel hotspot. The Park Motor Hotel later became today's Comfort Inn.
It's hard to tell what the Gatehouse was being used for, during this time. Photo date not known, possibly late 1950's - early 60's. This Gatehouse was the last one remaining, of the four which Zimmerman had built in 1856; it was demolished in Nov. 1965.
above: same view, Feb. 2014 - the Clifton Place roadway is marked with a blue arrow at bottom right; the red arrow shows approximately where the Clifton Hill Gatehouse once stood.
There had been another access road which served as the entrance to the Quality Inn / Fallsway buildings, farther down Clifton Hill (where the hotel signs were, as seen in the previous photo). This road was closed when the Sky Wheel and its plaza were built (see satellite shots further below). This access road went south off Clifton Hill from about where the grey kiosk sits in the plaza in the centre of the above shot. It was along here, where the Tim Hortons now stands at the right, amidst all the stores and food joints, that the Bush Estate's Zimmerman-built gatehouse had once stood on Clifton Hill, until being demolished in Nov. 1965.
above: Jan.12, 2009 - looking south across Clifton Hill, at the road now called Clifton Place. This is now the main road into the HOCO lands. The Quality Inn buildings (under demolition at this time) were located in the rear left, behind the Skywheel. The Comfort Inn buildings (former Park Motor Hotel) are in back, to the right. (note the Hilton hotel in the far center distance, still under construction). The last of Zimmerman's original four gatehouses had stood just to the left, out of frame, of the above shot.
-
below: photo taken in 1937, both buildings of the Bush estate are seen in the same photo, showing the proximity of the Zimmerman-built Clifton Hill Gatehouse (seen at the
right, facing onto the south-side of a cobble-stoned Clifton Hill) to Senator Bush's
Clifton Place mansion (seen in the
left distance).
It's all but a distant memory now. The road known today as Clifton Pl. would be slightly to the right of the gatehouse, out of frame, in the
below photo.
above: Dec. 2015 - this is the same matching view of where the Clifton Hill Gatehouse had once stood, at the right. The Bush mansion would have been in the far left distance, behind the Sky Wheel. And "
Clifton Lodge" (Samuel Zimmerman's residence, demolished in 1860) and its small stable once stood on this side of the ferris wheel, at the far left, approx. where the bowling alley now stands.
above: Apr.5, 2017 - the Sky Wheel has been taken down for repairs after having been damaged in a storm back in Mar. It is scheduled to reopen May 19, 2017.
above: May 12, 2017 the Sky Wheel is being reassembled, here seen at the half-way mark to completion.
*
below: here is a closer view of the same Zimmerman Clifton Hill Gatehouse, its little front lawn paved over, now relegated to serving as a snack bar, with souvenirs and fireworks on the menu! In the far right distance behind the trees, the Park Motor Hotel (today's Comfort Inn) can be seen.
This entire Comfort Inn complex was closed permanently in Oct. 2015, and the buildings were completely demolished during Nov. - Dec. 2015.
[The library's info with this below photo, oddly states the date as being Sept.5, 1968, yet the gatehouse was torn down in Nov. 1965, so there is a discrepancy here]
above: this is the same view in the summer of 2010, of the site where Zimmerman's Clifton Hill Gatehouse had once stood.
*
An interesting historical sidebar to these Clifton Hill Gatehouse photos is a story found at
this site about the Robert Combe family, which tells of how Thomas Combe came to Canada from Scotland in 1891, and ended up working at the Bush Estate
while living in the Clifton Hill Gatehouse (!!):
"...Thomas, the seventh member of the family of Robert and Christina (Watt) Combe was born on 24 May 1867 in Yester Mains, Gifford. In later years a photograph hung in the kitchen of Thomas’s home in Niagara Falls that seemed to have recorded an important event in his life. It appears to have been taken in 1887 during the celebrations for Queen Victoria’s 50th anniversary and shows him beside a wagon. Everyone in the picture is dressed in holiday fashion as though ready for a parade. The sign on the wagon indicates that James Dixon of Spittal and Berwick, Manufacturers of Manure owned it.
Before leaving for Canada Thomas lived with his parents at Steps of Grace, in Northumberlandshire, overlooking the North Sea, and the diary notes he kept suggest some nostalgia as he recorded the name of this home farm. These notes also refer to working as a manager on another farm in Scotland. A post card in his collection is of a cottage and Lovers’ Walk on the estate of the Warrander family in Dunbar suggesting that this was where he was working. A large oil painting of the same cottage belonged to his brother Robert Combe indicating that both of the brothers were perhaps connected to this estate. A granddaughter of Robert Combe believed that this cottage was the Dunbar childhood home of their grandmother, Jane (Goodall) Lawson.
Thomas was already in Canada by the fall of 1891. The diary includes the directions to his brother, Robert’s place “in Homer”, a village in Grantham Township near St. Catharines and just east of the Welland Canal. His obituary stated that he had lived in St. Catharines for a time. By 1892 he had moved to Niagara Falls.
Thomas appears to have worked first at occasional jobs but on 26 December 1891 he was able to make a bank deposit of $94.31. In June of the following year he began to work for the Streetcar Company in Niagara Falls. By the 7th of September of that year he was employed on the Bush Estate. This large estate was created by Samuel Zimmermann on the escarpment overlooking the falls near Clifton Hill and was known as the Bush Estate, named for the American senator who had lived there for a considerable time. The Fallsway Motel now occupies part of this property. This location seems to have been the focus of continuous work from 1891 until his retirement about 1924. We know that in 1905 the family was living on the Bush Estate in the gatehouse that faced Clifton Hill. This building became the offices of Welland Securities, the company that held all the land holdings of Sir Harry Oakes until the 1960’s. Thomas probably lived there continuously until he retired.
On 8 February 1893, Thomas Combe married Isabella Lawson in the Presbyterian Church in St. Davids, Ontario. She was born on 3 February 1863, the daughter of William Lawson (28 February 1831-21 September 1900) and Agnes Goodall (30 June 1840-4 July 1918). The Lawson family farm was east of St. Davids at the corner of Concession Two and York Road. William Lawson had been born in Longside, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. He had chosen to settle near other Scottish families in Lincoln County and in 1858 had married Agnes, the daughter of John and Sarah (Anderson) Goodall.
On 14 July 1893, Thomas Combe was doing some work for the company of Histrop and Thomas and by the end of the month was able to rent a cottage from a Mrs. Thomas. It is interesting to note that he also paid $4 in annual dues to the “Sons of Scotland.”
On 20 Nov. 1893, he noted that his house at 78 Buckley Avenue in Niagara Falls was being built, and by 6 January 1894 that Mr. Lundy was doing the plastering. On 2 March 1894 a four-year mortgage was drawn up for $700 at 6% and Thomas and Isabella moved in on 27 March 1894. The cost for the lot was $350, insurance $8, builders risk $2.40, house $735.50, lawyer $10, coal $6, paint 75¢ for a total cost of $1,413.51. The mortgage was paid off by March 1902.
Meanwhile he received word that his father Robert Combe had died on 14 Jan. 1902 at the age of 66. Now free of debt himself, Thomas decided to make a trip to Berwickshire and seems to have spent the winter of 1905-6 there. His mother lived until the age of 80 and died on 10 August in 1913.
In May 1909 Thomas was able to put all the “conveniences” in the Buckley Street house at a cost of $175. This house appears to have served as a rental property until 16 May 1921, when he sold it for $3,000.
On 14 September 1910, he bought lots #117 and #118 on McGrail Avenue for $450. The contract price for building three houses was $4,100. Other costs included the wiring $82, change in sewer lines $13.50 and furnace pipes $75. By Oct. 1911 the three houses were totally paid for. On 19 Augist 1919 he bought a house on Lot 87, #15 (later 437) John Street in Niagara Falls for which he paid $3,300 in cash. This served as their home after his retirement in 1924.
Prior to leaving Scotland, Thomas appears to have been in somewhat of a managerial position on a large estate. This allowed him to move easily into a similar position on the Bush estate, with apparent responsibility for the grounds and stables. The fact that a house was provided as a part of the position as well as through his careful management of his finances he was able to build a number of rental properties which served to provide income for his retirement years.
The children of Thomas and Isabella (Lawson) Combe were William and Christina. Isabella died on 21 December 1941 and at that time Thomas bought six cemetery plots for $60. He died on 7 March 1944. They were both interred in Fairview Cemetery in Niagara Falls Canada.
Thomas was an excellent gardener and had prizewinning rhubarb. His secret was that he laboriously carried soapy wash water to pour over the plants. He had one idiosyncrasy. He loved to win at games and was more than a little distressed if he lost at bridge or euchre..."
*
below: satellite view of the former Zimmerman/Bush estate lands. As mentioned earlier, note that in this photo there is a road near the bottom-right that leads in (southward) from Clifton Hill; this is Clifton Pl. which goes to the Comfort Inn. Note a bit more to the left, in the bottom-center, there is another road leading in; this was the access lane to the Quality Inn (old Fallsway) site seen in the rear; this access was sealed up when a restaurant building (lastly a Golden Griddle, seen in the centre-right) was demolished, and the Sky Wheel plaza took its place.
Also note that in this view, the Space Spiral Tower is still visible, seen in the round cut-out of the building at the centre-left (the newer building had been built around the existing ride). The Space Spiral was an observation ride that carried passengers up in a spiraling round pod (seen about halfway up the shaft) to view the falls; built in 1967, it was taken down in Nov.2006.
The
red X marks about where Zimmerman's Clifton Hill Gatehouse once stood.
above: same view; now, the Space Spiral Tower is seen being dismantled by a large crane; the restaurant has also been torn down, and the access road closed off, becoming a pedestrian plaza for the newly-built Sky Wheel. The original Park Motor Hotel (built in the mid-1950's; fully demolished in Nov. 2015) is fully seen at the bottom right in the
above and the
below photos, built in an angled wide V-shape
.
above: same view: now, the Space Spiral Tower has been completely removed; a fudge shop has since been built into the circular area where the ride had been.
Note that at the top of each of the above three shots, you can still see Zimmerman's original glistening fountain pool, located down the hill in Victoria Park.
Note also that all those angled, interconnected motel buildings seen at the upper right of the above three shots were the numerous Quality Inn (formerly Fallsway) structures which were demolished during the winter of 2008-2009.
Note also the red 'X' in each of the last three above shots: this is about where Zimmerman's Clifton Hill gatehouse had stood.
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below: a view of the Sky Wheel, taken by R. Bobak in the spring of 2006, as it was under construction. Note that the ride's 42 gondola cars have
not yet been installed onto the 175-foot Sky Wheel; note ticket booth still under construction; note that the white shaft of the Space Spiral Tower (which would be demolished in Nov.2006) is
still visible in the center distance, in front of the old-Oneida/ now-Casino Tower
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below: In Mar.2009 I spoke with workers on the Quality Inn demolition site, who said that they did find the thick stone footings of the Clifton Place mansion, encountering them while laying new sewers on the site. As for any official acknowledgement of the find, I haven't heard anything, but the mansion's footprint, once under the Fallsway / Quality Inn's recently-demolished maze of buildings, will now be underneath a new 'dinosaur-themed' mini putt to be built on the site just behind the Sky Wheel.
In the left distance (see arrow) is a chunk of the footing from the old Bush mansion, which was removed from the site. This rock and dirt was sorted and reused as fill on the site.
above: Mar.2009 - a closer view of a chunk of the footing (laying upside down) which was made of cement filled with rubble stone. When Senator John T. Bush finished building
Clifton Place in 1866, (after Zimmerman's 1857 death) he built the mansion on footings which had already been installed by Zimmerman in 1856. This footing remnant seen here dates back to Zimmerman's time.
above: looking at this undated (pos.1960's-70's) view, most likely taken from the Oneida/Kodak tower, Zimmerman's Clifton Hill Gatehouse had once stood where the building at the
lower-left is (this is where the Tim Hortons seen above now is); behind it, going off to the left, is Clifton Pl., and in the
far-centre-left is the angled wide-V shaped Park Motor Hotel (today's Comfort Inn building). Before the Park Motor Hotel was built, this had been the site of the Clifton Tourist Camp, seen further below. Also note the paved parking lot area in front of the Park Motor Hotel then; this area later became the site of the Dinosaur Mini Putt, which was torn down in Mar.-Apr. 2011. A new dinosaur-themed mini-putt will open this season just across the street, on the east side of Clifton Pl., where the Bush mansion/later Quality Inn had once stood. The access road to the Quality Inn buildings is seen at the
extreme lower left - the round Quality Inn street sign is also seen there.
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below: ca.1920's - looking in a south-westerly direction up along Clifton Hill at the
Clifton Tourist Camp operating on the grounds of the Bush Estate. The Zimmerman-built stables are
clearly seen in the upper left; Victoria Ave. and the Michigan Central Railroad ran along the top.
Old maps from Samuel Zimmerman's time here show that his home vegetable garden was located on this same corner!!
above: a colour postcard view of the same site, date not known, probably a little later than the 1920 photo seen previously. The entrance way to the camp (at the left) would be about where the Clifton Pl. road is today. At this time, the Zimmerman-built Clifton Hill Gatehouse would have still been standing, just out of frame at the far bottom left, along Clifton Hill. Also, it appears that
another one of Zimmerman's four original 1856-built gatehouses is seen in
both above photos: this would be the Victoria Ave.-facing gatehouse, and is seen in the coloured photo in the upper-centre-left, where the two small red hip roofs are. A little
farther to the left of those two red roofs, is another building with a larger hip roof - this was unmistakably one of the pavilions of the original Zimmerman stables. It is also seen in the previous 1920's photo. In the centre top distance is the large roof of the old
Niagara Falls Arena which faced directly onto the west-side of Victoria Ave., where the Imperial Hotel now stands. Also, the
Clifton Place mansion, which was torn down in 1937, would have still been standing.
above: seen on a cold, snowy Jan.28, 2010, this is the
exact same view as above, of where the
Clifton Tourist Camp once was! Clifton Pl. is the road going in at the centre-left. The Comfort Inn (former Park Motor Hotel) was still in business at this time; a little bit of it is seen at the far left distance, behind the Ripley's.
above: same view Apr.5, 2017, the Ripley's attraction has been renovated; the Comfort Inn is no longer extant (it was torn down in the fall of 2015, along with the Zimmerman stable house, which had been hidden inside the hotel) Now a go-kart track is being built on the former hotel lands behind Ripley's.
above: satellite view of the same site; the
Clifton Tourist Camp, between Clifton Pl. and Victoria Ave., became the site of the Park Motor Hotel / Comfort Inn (it's the angled building seen at the centre-top). Note the roof of the 1856-built Zimmerman stables can clearly be seen the upper left; the entire L-shaped carriage house / stable structure was cocooned within the Comfort Inn; note the Michigan Central track right of way which ran along the west side of Zimmerman's property; note the Quality Inn buildings (at the far
center left) can still be seen; they were all demolished in late 2008-early 2009; note that the
Space Spiral Tower is seen being dismantled by a large crane, making this view as being from around Nov.2006. The red
X marks where Zimmerman's Clifton Hill Gatehouse once stood.
(click photos to enlarge!)
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The old photos in this study are from the Niagara Falls, Ont. Library Historical Digital Archives; the recent ones are by R. Bobak.
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Thank you very much for visiting Right In Niagara!
And - if you have ANY old photos of Niagara Falls - say pre - 1980's - which you would like to share, please contact me! Interested in any motel / hotel shots, post cards, restaurants, touristy shops/attractions, local businesses, buildings, street views... etc.!