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January 1997
Death of Pierre Jodry
Those of you who were present at the unveiling ceremony of the Montbéliard monument in Lunenburg on July 10, 1988, will remember that the monument was unveiled by Pierre and Marie Thérèse Jodry of Audincourt, France. Pierre represented the Société d'Emulation de Montbéliard on that occasion.
Pierre Jodry died of cancer on March 8, 1996 in his 90th year. Funeral services were held on March 11th in the Lutheran Church in Audincourt.
Monsieur Pierre Jodry
Directeur d'École Honoraire
Officier des Palmes Académiques
Croix de guerre 39-45
Ancien déportéSeveral of our members who knew of Pierre's death, have urged the editor to include his death in the SSGS News since so many persons had met him on July 10, 1988, and would be interested to know of his passing.
The South Shore Genealogical Society extends its deepest sympathies to the members of Pierre's family.
Queries Mrs. Alice M. Eldrige-McCain, 15 Burr Street, Cazenovia NY 13035, want answers to the following: Need any information about John Eldridge and Dorcas Swallow, parents of William Eldridge of Chester Basin.
Need the maiden name of Barbara Croft, wife of Joseph, mother of Hannah (Croft) Eldridge of Chester Basin.
Need any information about William and Hannah (Croft) Eldridge and children (Lilla Jane, Thomas Leander, William Harding, St. Clair, Manson, Lawson, Douglas, Jennie, others) of Chester Basin.
Historical Notes of Queens County ...by Robert Randall McLeod, from Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society for 1912
[Since the last issue of the News was published, one of our members wrote to give us information on the author of this article. "He is Robert Randall McLeod and he resided at South Brookfield NS. His occupation was naturalist and mining engineer. He probably received some of his education at Boston MA and right after he married he resided in Chicobee Falls MA. He had one son, Grafton Uniacke McLeod, who became a lawyer. Robert had a brother, Arthur James McLeod (1829-1906) who resided at Westfield, Queens County."]
In 1811 Mr. Burke sold his improvements to Captain Josiah Smith, a son of Stephen Smith, of Liverpool, a native of Chatham, Mass., who was fifth in descent from Stephen Hopkins, a notable Mayflower Pilgrim. Smith was supplied with some ready cash. His wife was a daughter of Captain Joseph Barss, of Liverpool, and was then the mother of four little girls. Mr. Smith built the first framed and boarded house, and also a grist mill that must have proved a great boon to the settlement. His hospitable doors were ever open to the needy, and there he closed a long life within my childish recollection. My mother was his daughter, and rode behind him on horseback when a very little girl, as she made her first trip into the country.
About this time John Foster, of Port Medway, followed his brother-in-law Mr. Burke, and made a small farm adjoinging that of Mr. Cameron. His wife was Dorcus Smith, a daughter of Jonathan, one of the Township Proprietors. Mr. Foster lived but a few years in his new home before the final summons came. Descendants of his daughter Hannah are in the District.
From Milton, near this date, came Wheeler Minard, son of Elijah Wheeler, with his wife Sarah Slocomb, daughter of Captain Robert Slocomb, of Liverpool, but a native of England. They settled near the centre of Brookfield. Later in life they moved up the country to Harmony, where he lived to a ripe old age within my recollection, leaving several sons and a daughter, who have all responded to the inevitable "Thou Must", leaving a numerous and respectable posterity.
At this time appeared Barnabas Harlow of Milton, son of Robert, and his wife Eunice Freeman, daughter of Barnabas. Robert Harlow was the fifth in descent from Isaac Allerton of the Mayflower Pilgrims, the notable trading spirit of the group. Barnabas came with his young wife and settled in Brookfield, but he was soon deprived of her company. She was the first to die in the district. He laid her away on the hillside near the schoolhouse, in sight of his window, but he left that locality to make a farm further north a couple of miles, and in time could no longer point out the grave of his first love, though he sought it diligently. He lived a long time, married again, and had other children, and his descendants are with us.
With Barnabas came his brothers Silas and Abial, the former had married Cynthia Freemen, daughter of Enock Freeman and Rebecca Gardener. The latter had taken to wife Fear Minard, a daughter of Elijah, of Milton. Silas settled in North Brookfield, where he lived to an advanced age, and left sons and daughters who are still with us.
Abial pushed a little beyond Harmony, where he conquered a piece of forest, brought up a large family in reasonable comfort, was contented with his lot, and died in the esteem of his neighbors, and I suppose it was for every day people like him for whom God made the world.
John Harlow, a cousin of the foregoing, and son of Abner and Mary Slocomb, about this time, 1820, came from Milton, and made a farm in Harmony. He married Susannah, a daughter of Captain Josiah Smith, of Brookfield. They reared a dozen children to men and woman, and rejoiced in the goodly number, and died in a good old age.
James B. McLeod was a close next in the procession, a native of Liverpool, son of James and Mary Murray his wife, a daughter of William Murray, and Joanna Tupper. The young man got him a wife in Brookfield, marrying Ann, daughter of Josiah Smith. He was a ship builder, and boat builder, by trade, but hewed out a farm from the woods, and twelve children they brought up to the estate of men and women, and never was a doctor called to see the mother or one of her children. My own turn came at the ninth birth sixty years ago, and that was so far away that I seemed to have been born in the Stone Age, for I can remember watching my elder brothers get fire in the morning by the use of flint, steel and tinder, because matches were not yet invented. I can recall that my mother made the candles in moulds for household use, and took one with her when she went to meeting in the little house, as her contribution to a not very brilliant illumination. My father made two farms, the first in Westfield, and the second in Brookfield, and carried on some lumbering operations, but Nature never intended him for either calling. Both he and my mother lived past their fourscore years.
With my father came Ephraim Hunt, of Liverpool, a son of Ephraim, and grandson of Samuel, a proprietor of the Township, and fourth in descent from Governor William Bradford, of Plymouth. Ephraim married Olivia, daughter of Josiah Smith, and settled in Westfield, a few miles to the westward, where he made a farm and lived a few years till his family was broken up by the death of his wife. He closed a long life in Grafton, and left four sons and a daughter, all living but the youngest son.
A little earlier, or later, arrived George Harlow, of Milton, brother of John, just mentioned. With him was his young wife Azuba Cole. Mr. Harlow made a farm in the far end of North Brookfield, near the beautiful lakes, where he saw his sons and daughter settle around him in comfortable homes, and the final summons came to him and his wife after many years.
About 1820 there was an addition to the District by the arrival of seven Scotchmen. They were all single men with but one exception. Two were stone masons, two were carpenters, two were wheelwrights. They began the settlement of Caledonia. They were all industrious and helpful men in the community, and had no difficulty to find helpmates among the good families of the County. Alexander Spears, a native of Greenock, son of Robert Spears and Elizabeth Sweet, married Charlotte, daughter of Captain Benjamin Freeman, and Elizabeth Nickerson, his wife, and cleared a farm on the border of the first lake on the Caledonia Road. Later he moved to Westfield, and later to Brookfield, where he ended a long life thirty years ago, his wife surviving him. Their descendants are numerous.
This interesting saga of the early settlement in Northern Queens County will continue in a later issue.
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