(submitted by Louise Smith)
John Smith (1790–1857) and Hannah Dives (1799–1892) were married in 1818 in England. (John was the brother of William (1793–1873) who married Mary Ann Staples (1793–1877) who had settled in Warwick in 1838.) They immigrated to Canada with two sons, Charles and Alfred (1842–1857), in 1843. Another son, Henry, had died in England. Two older sons, George (1820–1889) and William Edwin, had already arrived in Warwick in 1842, and stayed with their uncle William. Upon arrival in Warwick Twp., John purchased one hundred acres at Lot 15, Con. 3 NER.
In 1849, John and Hannah’s son George eloped with Mary Ann Thomas (1833–1918), daughter of Enoch and Jane (Rees) Thomas. They eloped because of a disagreement between their two families. In later years, the problems between the families were forgotten. George and Mary Ann had eleven children: John T.; Elizabeth L. (Aunt Lizzie) who married Robert McCormick; Arthur D.; Theodore; Lewis; Hannah Sarah (Auntie Bird), who married Richard McCormick (–1925); Jessie Margaret who married Joseph McCormick; Charles Enoch (1868–1953) who married Celestia Detwiler (1868–1959); and George. Two other children, Jane Hannah and George Albert, died young.
John T. became a teacher and moved to Michigan. Elizabeth farmed in Warwick Twp. as the wife of Robert McCormick, who also operated a brick and tile yard on Brickyard Line with his brothers. Arthur became a doctor after graduating from the University of Toronto. Theodore stayed in Warwick to farm, but Lewis moved to Michigan to farm. John and Hannah’s daughter Hannah farmed with her husband until his death, then moved to Detroit in 1930 to live with her son George. She was buried on her one hundredth birthday in Warwick. Jessie died at the age of twenty. Charles E. Smith remained at home, looking after the farm and caring for his mother, grandmother and brother, in addition to paying off the mortgage. George became a dentist and practiced in Indiana.
One of Charles and Celestia Smith’s children was Harold Smith (1903–1986), who married Alma Lester (1904–1986). They had four children: Louise (1945–), Helen, Donald, and Kenneth. When Louise was a child, Charles and Celestia lived in a small house which her father had built for them on the home farm, on the northwest corner of 15 Sideroad and the 2nd Line NER.
Chapter 24 of 25 - Smith, John
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