(submitted by Linda Koolen, with information taken from family histories written by David Edwards)
Members of the Richard W. Edwards family lived in Warwick Twp. from sometime in the 1870s until 1902.
Richard W. Edwards (1828 - 1898), son of Richard Edwards and Selinda Finch, married Sarah McIntyre (1824 - 1892) in 1847. They had five children, all born in Lobo Township: Charles Henry (1848 - 1896?), Neil Albert (1850 - 1913), Mary S. (1853 - 1928), Hannah Louisa (1856 - 1938), and Jonathan David, possible later called David Richard (1858 -). This family lived on a 50 acre farm in Lobo Twp., Middlesex County.
In 1872, Charles, the eldest son of Richard and Sarah, married Mary Hall. Charles and Mary lived at Wisbeach in Warwick Twp. They may have lived on the farm hos mother inherited from her father, Douglas McIntyre.
Douglas McIntyre owned a 100 acre farm in Warwick Twp., the west half of Lot 30, Con. 1 SER. This farm was granted to Douglas on the 12th of February, 1836 from the Crown, probably as the result of his military service. He was a member of the Black Watch and received medals for fighting in the Peninsular War. Douglas sold, or gave, this farm to his daughter Sarah (McIntyre) Edwards in 1869, in exchange for $50 and a formal promise to care for himself and his wife, Mary, in their old age. This included board, logging, washing, mending, attendance in sickness an in healthy either at their farm in Lobo Twp. or in the new farm in Warwick Twp. Instrument #2790 Warwick-Lambton Land Registry describes the property boundaries and states,
reserving thereout one quarter of an acre of land for a family burying grounds for the party of the first part and his heirs to hold at the spot where his former wife and her children are now buried with a right thereto from Egremont Road.
Douglas McIntyre died in 1871.
In 1873 the farm at Lot 29, Con. 1 NER was sold - the east half, 100 acres, to Richard W. Edwards, and the west half, 100 acres, to Edwin Parker. Some time after this, Richard rented the farm in Lobo to his son, Charles, and moved with the rest of the family into Warwick Twp., where he lived with his family on the south side of the Egremont Road for the rest of his life. He rented the east half of Lot 29, Con. 1 NER, to his other son, Neil Albert.
In 1879 Neil Albert Edwards, second son of Richard and Sarah, married Helen Down (1854 - 1941). (Three from the Edwards family married three from the Down family in less than one year.) Albert and Helen Edwards had six children, all born in Twp. They were: Lucy May (1880 - 1966), Ernest Albert (1882 - 1946), Milford Reginald (1883 - 1962), Norman Weeks (1886 - 1970), Elsie Mabel Helen (1889 - 1889), and Beatrice Irene (1891 - 1945).
Sarah Edwards died in 1892 in Warwick. The farm at Lot 30, Con. 1 SER was still in her name. Her son Charles died in 1896 (or 1895), leaving a wife and family of seven children.
In The Egremont Road, by Eleanor Nielsen, 1992, it states
By 1897, Richard Edwards and his son David had Lot 30, Concession 1, SER, the farm now owned by Mac Parker. David built a frame house on the west half of this lot for $850 complete, or "with the key in the door", as they say.
In 1898 Richard transferred ownership of the 100 acres on the north side of the Egremont to Albert for natural love and affection and $1. Richard died later in 1898. After Richard's death the west 1/2 of Lot 30, Con, 1 SER was taken over by his youngest son, David, who never married. In the 1901 census this farm was 100 acres with an eight-room wooden house and three barns, stables or other outbuildings.
As his sons grew, Albert felt he should look for more land. Bulletins from the Department of Agriculture encouraged settlers to go north to this Districts of Temiskaming and Cochrane. In 1900, Neil Albert Edwards made a trip north and located 4 farms in Hilliard Township, one for himself and one for each of his sons, 160 acres each, at 50 cents an acre, from the Crown. In September, 1901 Albert and his son Milford went north for the winter and worked on improving the lots, so they could hold them. In September, 1902 Albert and his wife sold their farm on the north side of the Egremont Road to David and William Gorman, bachelors, and with their whole family moved north, taking with them three horses, two cows, one pig, twenty chickens, one pair of geese, and two cats. Their equipment included one sleigh, one wagon, one democrat buggy, a plough and harrows. Their furniture consisted of beds, a large table, dishes, bedding and a Pandora cook stove. That winter in the north they cut cedar posts and poles and pulpwood to sell.
In a letter written December 16, 1963, by Norman Weeks Edwards, son of Albert and Helen, to his older sister, Lucy, he says:
Do you remember all the good times we all had at home? I can remember on Christmas time Dad drove all the way to London 32 miles each way and he brought us three boys a nice hand sleigh for each of us, a push sleigh for you and a big doll for Beatrice. Another time you remember Mother used to raise a lot of poultry and one time she took a lot to London market and bought a lot of clothes and etc. for all of us. Milford went with her. I think they stayed at Uncle Charlie Edwards at Lobo overnight for two nights. But that was 12 mile to London, sell her buddy of dressed poultry, buy all the clothes and etc. and come back to Uncle Charlie's. You and I known that was a big day's work. You can remember every Christmas our stockings would be full and running over. We have a lot to be thankful for we lived in peace and plenty.
Chapter 24 of 25 - Edwards, Richard
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