McChesney

(submitted by Dr. Greg Stott)

In 1835, Alexander McChesney (1808–1888) left Ireland for Upper Canada with his two brothers William and Joseph. They made their way to Warwick, where Alexander took up land at Lot 30, Con. 4 NER with his youngest brother, Joseph (1823–1896). They found a small log shanty and four acres cleared by the previous settler.

Alexander married Anne Moore (1816–1891), also from Ireland. They had three children: Joseph Alexander (1850–1937), James (1853–1922), and Eliza Ann (1857–1920). Throughout the American Civil War the McChesneys, like many Canadian farmers, made incredible profits from selling their wheat to supply American markets. With that money, Alexander built a large white brick home with walls four layers thick. He also sent money back home to commission his brothers to send him a pine table as a token of his old home.

After Alexander and Anne’s son Joseph married Mary Ann Smith (1853–1939) they lived in the house with his parents. When their eldest daughter, Mary, died of infant cholera in 1877, Joseph and Mary built a small frame house in the orchard where they remained until Alexander’s death.

Joseph and Mary Ann McChesney had ten children: Mary Albena (1875–1877), Ann Margaret (1877–1966), Lorena Jane (1879–1951) who married Colonel Dunham, Hanlon Edward (1880–1966), Clara Edith (1882–1982), Ernest Joseph Alexander (1884–1966), who with his wife Lizzie Davidson ran a hardware business in Arkona, Alfred Llewellyn (1886–1968) who married Fern Fisher and farmed up the road from his parents, Grace May (1889–1975) who married Ray C. Eastman, Beatrice Ina Meryl (1892–1951), and Herbert Laverne (1895–1984) who married Kelso Sheppard (1901–1956) and took over his parents’ farm in 1923. Joseph was a quiet man who continued to farm until into his eighties. In 1923, they moved up the road to a smaller farm and remained there until Joseph’s death.

The McChesneys were a large boisterous family who liked practical jokes. After one community slaughtering bee Hanlon helped smuggle a pig carcass into a neighbour’s bed. The next morning he began to laugh at his deed and then cut himself in the act of shaving!

Joseph’s brother, James, married Flora J. Currie (1855–1927) and made his home next door to his parents and older brother. The couple had seven children: Leslie (1877–), Miles (1879–), Anna (1881–1969), Mary (1888–), Roy (1889–), Vernice (1891–), and Verna (1891–).

Joseph’s sister Eliza Ann (called Lizann) married Luther Smith (1859–1940), the brother of Joseph’s wife Mary Ann, and they had four children: Ernest (1888–1963), Verna (1890–1976), Friend (1893–1922) and Cora (1895 –).

McChesney home on Lot 30, Con. 4 NER. Mary Ann McChesney with daughters Beatrice and Grace. Courtesy G Stott.

Chapter 24 of 25 - McChesney Family

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