I Still Want to be a Mayflower Descendant ~ PEI Search for Levi - part 12

 

Prince Edward Island scenery

So my cousin Debbie and I headed to PEI for 2 days of wandering the Island and seeing if any Wests turn up.  (see July 26 2022 post). The PEI Genealogy Facebook page members helpfully told us to start in the Archives, where a Master Name Index has catalogued every single name in every single record ever written in PEI.  And, just like in Kings County, there was only one mention of a Levi West.  (see Nov. 27 2020  post) ( see Presbury-Mayflower, West, and Spence Pedigree Charts)

It was in the August 1831 edition of the Island Gazette. While Debbie looked up Maxims, I went to the microfilm viewer hoping for a juicy story full of characters, like a blizzard rescue or a court trial. 

Instead, flap, whir, whish, I got ....wait for it....someone looking for Levi West and unable to find him!

Literally.  It was a July 8 list of people who had letters waiting for them in the post office of the capital, Charlottetown.  If the addressees didn't pick up their letters in a month, they would be returned to Halifax.  Of the approximately 60 people who had a letter waiting, a handful had 2 letters.  Levi had 3.  

Victoria Park in Charlottetown

That tells me several things besides the idea that someone really wanted to find him.  One, the letters came from Nova Scotia since they would be returned to Halifax.  Also, it had been some time since Levi had been in touch -- how long would it take you to write someone 3 letters after the previous one wasn't  answered?  Especially taking into account the length of mailing time - maybe 2 weeks each way?  The time it would take Levi, whose brothers lived in Bedeque, to travel the 30 miles to Charlottetown?  Plus, how difficult would it be for Levi and the letter writer, both illiterate, to find someone to write and read it for them?

The only person I can think of who would write a man 3 letters would be his wife, unless he had a particularly persistent mother, a lawyer notifying him of an inheritance, or a teacher trying to get an IEP signed.  And I feel like the letters started off like this:  "Did you find us a nice place to live?  Am I supposed to join you?"  and turned into "Where are you?  When are you coming home?  Send money!"  and finished with "Are you still alive?  Have you forgotten you have a wife?  How am I supposed to feed your child?"

Even if the letters were written by 3 different people, it still shows two things:  that Levi was thought to be in PEI in 1831, and he was not easily found.  How can I expect to find him if his wife couldn't?  The man is way too much of an introvert.  He was probably in Bedeque the whole time and just never thought to check the mail.  Typical man.

Levi and his wife Pheby had found each other by New Year's, because their daughter Hannah Susan was born September 4, 1832.   And it also strengthens Susan's claim of being born in PEI while her siblings were not.  Looks like Pheby and Levi had their first child, Rebecca Elizabeth, in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, in June 1830, and then Levi went to PEI to see if that would be a good place for the family to settle.  They chose to settle there, but it didn't work out, and they returned to Nova Scotia by 1836, when the next child was born.

Lots 25 and 26 in 1880

When the land was first given out by the King of England, it was granted by lottery.  Now for the first time I understand what drawing lots means.  Lots are lottery tickets.  Whatever number you drew, that was the piece of land you got.  So that's why sections of empty land are called lots! A lot was about the size of a township, and Levi's brothers Abner and George lived next to each other on Lot 26, which included the town of Bedeque. 

I was entranced by the Bedeque Museum and its curator, Doug Sobey, a fountain of knowledge.  I can only aspire to tell ancestors' stories in as detailed and engaging a way as he does with his displays.  Doug explained that the years 1810 to 1830, when Levi's family likely arrived, saw a flood of migrants from other provinces and the United Kingdom.  PEI does have exceptional farmland. 

Since brother Abner married John Crossman's daughter Lidia, I thought they might be close neighbors.  This map shows John Crosman's 100 acres in 1810, which fronts the road to the mill.

Perhaps Abner and Lidia lived on her father's land from the time they got married in 1830 until the 1841 census.  Then they were farmers with a son and two daughters under 16.  They had 100 acres of the second best quality, which they held as occupants.  Doug Sobey, the curator, thinks that means they were squatters.  They told the census taker they had no lease, paid no rent, and weren't tenants.  Only 4 acres were arable, and Doug thinks that indicates they had not lived there long, as a family could clear about 4 acres a year.  They grew 100 bushels of potatoes and raised 2 hogs.

In 1861, J. Crossman lived along the bend in the Dunk River, almost opposite D. Crossman

By 1880, Geo. and Rich'd Matthews and Jos. A. Crossman, possible in-laws, lived along Dunk River. Jos. A. is in the same spot that J. Crossman was 20 years before

While we are considering in-laws, Levi's brother George and his wife Mary may have lived with or near her family, the Matthewses.  George and Mary were married in 1837 at St. Eleanor's Church in Summerside, the main Anglican church in the area.  The 1841 census has George with a small prospering farm:  15 acres of arable land of the 2nd best quality, which produced 6 bushels of wheat, 150 bushels of oats, and 100 bushels of potatoes, and supported 1 horse, 1 cow, 1 sheep, and 4 hogs.  

*However, it was not to last. In the census, we see a happy family with 2 children ages 3 and 1.  Robert Lewis born in July 1841 hadn't arrived yet.  Maybe Mary had problems in childbirth, or maybe she died of something else completely, but within a couple of years Mary was dead.  George was left with 3 grieving children under the age of 6.  How was he going to raise them while running a farm?  Re-marry.

Abner had a solid family but a poor farm, while George had a good farm and family difficulties, but both took off for New Brunswick within the next 20 years.  George left as soon as he re-married, to Betsy Boundy Rogers, a young woman from Cornwall, England.

The West brothers probably moved because of the land question, which dominated PEI politics for decades.  Other Canadian provinces encouraged small farmers to own their own land.  Not PEI.  The lots had gone to powerful men in Britain who were absentee landlords, and tenants had little chance of owning their own land.  The 1800s saw refusals to pay rent, protests, and riots.  Reform politicians were elected, but were not able to achieve their constituents' wants due to the powerful elites prevailing upon the legislature to do nothing.  Maybe Levi and Pheby, having farmed in Nova Scotia, saw this problem and left much sooner.

Central Bedeque is in the middle of Lot 26

We now have info on Abner and George West, but they are not the people we need to join the Mayflower Society.  We need info on Levi, and we only learned a teensy bit, that someone who was important to him thought he was in PEI the first half of 1831.  And what about their parents, Samuel and Charlotte? 

 

This obituary in the Summerside, PEI, Journal shows us that 1st) Charlotte died in November 1868 in Truro, Nova Scotia,  2nd) her husband Samuel had died before her, and 3rd) she had lived for quite some time in Bedeque but was no longer a resident at the time of her death.

These are wonderful facts!  Can I corroborate them in Truro or anywhere else?  Of course not.  Have I mentioned that this family does not want me to find them?

Where have Charlotte and Samuel been living all this time?  We can infer that Samuel was also a former resident of Bedeque, but the newspaper does not directly say that.  Would they have left PEI when their sons did?  Probably.  Can I find them in New Brunswick?  Absolutely not.  What was Charlotte doing in Truro?  I don't know, but she wasn't visiting any relative I know of.

We didn't answer any burning questions, but we did find some supporting details on our trip to PEI.  It was definitely worth it.  The scenery is gorgeous, but the ice cream alone is worth the trip.

PEI is known for its dairy farms and therefore creameries.  Of course we stopped at every creamery on our quest for the most delicious flavor. I am eating Black Angus Forest topped with Cownadian Maple.  The most famous brand is Cows, which makes its own waffle cones in front of you.  I chose this flavor in honor of my grandmother Bessie Ice Cream Spence, because she often said Ice Cream was her middle name.

*The 1841 census, transcribed and digital, has George West living with no adult woman and an elderly man.  This led us to believe that his wife Mary had died before the census was taken, and led to confused questions about how she had a baby the same year, and where was the baby?  And who was the elderly man?  This is an error. On the actual hand-written census microfilm, there is a woman living with George, and no elderly man.  The census must have been taken before the baby/ies were born.

References:

Prince Edward Island Genealogy Facebook group -  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2256402585

Bedeque Historical Museum - all the pictures of maps on this page were found here - http://www.bedequemuseum.ca/

Prince Edward Island Public Archives - https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/information/education-and-lifelong-learning/genealogy-at-the-public-archives

West families in 1841 census - http://www.gov.pe.ca/parosearch/census/census-search-year/year/1841 - transcribed digital version incorrect for George

Lot 26, Prince County, PEI, p. 52, 1841 census - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSVT-831V-D?i=49&cat=92688 - original handwritten on microfilm - correct for George

Island Gazette, August 1831, p. 6, Unclaimed Letters in the Post Office - at the Public Archives

Title

Summerside Journal

Note

https://islandnewspapers.ca/islandora/object/summersidejournal%3A18690401

Publisher date

1 April 1869

REFN

islandnewspapers.ca