Remembering…

Welcome!  If this is your first visit to our blog, please read our Intro post here.  To date we have written posts about all known members of the first, second, and third generations of descendants of William Loney of Co Longford, Ireland, their spouses, and their spouses’ families.

If you are looking for information on someone in particular, you can use the “Search” feature in the upper right hand corner of this page.

We hope that the information you find here will be helpful to you in your genealogical research, lead you to an “aha” moment, or help you find a missing ancestor or branch of your family tree.  And, we have loved hearing from everyone who has contacted us.

While we make every effort to ensure that what we post is accurate (based on source documents or “reliable” family information), we would be silly to think that we haven’t made any mistakes.  If you run across one, please, please, please let us know so we can correct it.

Finally, we remain forever optimistic that someone out there will contact us because they have old Loney family photos to share.  We would be especially thrilled to have one of William, Charles, John or Robert Loney or their sister, Ann Loney Cunningham.  We are waiting to hear from you!

We are heartbroken about those who have lost their lives in the Covid-19 pandemic and those who may die from this devastating coronavirus in the future.

As we grieve, our thoughts can’t help but turn to the members of our Loney family tree who were causalities of or impacted by the 1918 flu pandemic, considered the deadliest pandemic in modern history.  We would like to remember those we know about in this post.

William Samuel (Tot) Loney was the son of William “Wild Bill” Loney and Catherine Jane Johnston. Tot and his wife, Jemima Alice Devall, were married 20 Sept, 1899 in Grand Valley, Dufferin Co, Ontario.  Sometime between 1903 and 1904, they followed William’s brothers, Thomas and David Loney, and settled in the Rainy River District of Ontario.

William Samuel (Tot) Loney circa 1895

Tot and Jemima’s three sons, Claude Roy, Richard Melvin, and Robert, were born there between 1904 and 1912.

Sometime before 1919, the family moved again, this time to Saskatchewan.  On 29 March, 1919 William Samuel (Tot) Loney died in Welwyn, Saskatchewan (near the Manitoba border) during the flu epidemic.  Sadly, three days later, on 1 April, Tot and Jemima’s sons, Robert and Richard, also died from the flu.  They are buried together in Welwyn Cemetery.

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Thomas Dillon Loney was the son of William Loney Jr. and Henrietta Amelia Dillon. On 28 Sept, 1905, he married Laura Bell/Belle Bennett in Guelph, Wellington Co, Ontario.  She was the daughter of Walter Bennett and Lavina Elizabeth Hall.  By the 1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta Thomas, Laura, and their children, Reginald and Inez, had moved to Calgary, Alberta.

When we started to write the second half of this post, we believed we would be including Laura as another family member who died of the flu in the 1918 epidemic.  However, while doing a little research to confirm a few details, we found out that this was not the case at all.  We’ll get back to Laura in a moment.

We do know that Thomas did come down with the flu, was quite ill, but survived.  Some years later Thomas (who was widowed then – more on that in a moment) ran into the nurse, Eva Myrtle Johnston, who had taken care of him while he was hospitalized (probably at Calgary General in the isolation portion). Thomas and Eva were married 2 January, 1928 in Calgary – a lovely turn to a story that started in a most difficult time.

An interestingly aside, one of Thomas’ granddaughters relates that she seems to have a natural immunity to the flu, virtually never coming down with it, even when she is around those who are. 

Now, back to Laura.  Instead of dying in the 1918 flu epidemic as was previously believed, we discovered that Laura died 16 April, 1926 of sleeping sickness – an illness that she had suffered from for some six years.  Her obituary is below.

Mrs. Thomas Loney
After a lingering illness of six years, following an attack of sleeping sickness, the death occurred at the family residence on Thursday of Mrs. Laura Belle Loney, wife of Mr. Thos. Loney, of 1228 Thirteenth avenue west. She leaves to mourn her loss, her husband, one daughter, Inez; and one son, Reginald; two sisters, Mrs. T. A. Kilner of Toronto, and Mrs. H. Warren of Guelph, Ont. Mr. Loney has been associated with the L. T. Mewburn Co. Mr. and Mrs. Loney have resided in Calgary for the last 13 years, coming here from Toronto. Deceased was a member of Wesley Methodist church and Rev. Mr. MacNiven will conduct the funeral services at the Armstrong funeral home on Sunday afternoon at 3:15 o’clock, after which the remains will be laid to rest in Burnsland cemetery.
The Calgary Daily Herald, Friday, April 17, 1925, page 15

Alberta Death Reg. #201-182

From additional research, we learned that just after the end of WWI, a bizarre disease called sleepy/sleeping sickness, or lethargic encephalitis, devastated millions of people across the world and left doctors puzzled for decades afterward. While some one million people died, others were left trapped in their bodies unable to speak or move. Because this brain illness spread around the globe at the same time as the 1918 flu pandemic it has been largely overlooked by history and remains one of the biggest medical mysteries.

It is heartbreaking to think of Laura suffering from this illness for all those years, and the impact it must have had on her family.

Laura is buried in Burnsland Cemetery (Section L), in Calgary.

The 1918 Flu Pandemic killed some 675,000 people in the U.S. and approximately 55,000 in Canada.  With those devastating numbers, it is likely that others lines of our Loney family tree were impacted.  If you have a story to tell, we would be happy to share it.

In the meantime, stay safe, stay well, so our Loney family tree continues to grow and thrive.

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The family of Mary Jane Walker

Welcome!  If this is your first visit to our blog, please read our Intro post here.  To date we have written posts about all known members of the first, second, and third generations of descendants of William Loney of Co Longford, Ireland and we will continue to add new information about their lives and families in the days and weeks to come.

If you are looking for information on someone in particular, you can use the “Search” feature in the upper right hand corner of this page.

We hope that the information you find here will be helpful to you in your genealogical research.  While we make every effort to ensure that what we post is accurate (based on source documents or “reliable” family information), we would be silly to think that we haven’t made any mistakes.  If you run across one, please, please, please let us know so we can correct it.

Finally, we remain forever optimistic that someone out there will contact us because they have old Loney family photos to share.  We would be especially thrilled to have one of William, Charles, John or Robert Loney or their sister, Ann Loney Cunningham.  We are waiting to hear from you!

Last time we wrote about the family of Jemima Alice Devall (the wife of William Samuel “Tot” Loney), focusing mostly on the paternal side.

Today we’ll be talking about Jemima’s maternal side of her family.  Jemima’s mother was Mary Jane Walker.  She was born in Ontario (likely Simcoe Co) 10 Oct, 1857, the daughter of John Robinson Walker and Ann Bickel.

John was born abt 1831 in Ireland.   1861 and 1871 census records find him living with his wife and children in Simcoe Co – Mulmer then Tossorontio, working as a tanner.  In the 1881 census they are in Caledon, Cardwell where John is a laborer.

We have found no other information on John, so would love to hear from anyone who has anything else to share!

As we mentioned, John’s wife (and Jemima’s mother) was Ann Bickel.  She was born 24 May, 1825 in Lewtrenchard, Tavistock, Devon. England, the daughter of William Bickel and Mary Oxenham.  According to census records, William was born 1797 or 1801.  Mary was born in 1803, 1804 or 1807.

If you are related to Ann and ever decide to visit her place of birth, Lewtrenchard Manor looks like a lovely place to stay and the history of the manor is quite interesting.

“Lewtrenchard Manor is one of the most popular and most prestigious family run luxury hotels in Devon. Nestled in a secluded valley beneath Dartmoor’s wild tors, and virtually untouched by time, the Manor is located in a magnificent setting. Steeped in history, this Jacobean manor dates back to the early 1600s.”

In the 1841 English census, three-year-old Ann was living with her mother and father and seven brothers and sisters (the youngest of whom was just five-days-old) in Lew Quarry, Lewtrenchard where William Bickel was working as a manganese miner.  From what we can tell, the lake that is now on the grounds of Lewtrenchard Manor used to be an old quarry, possibly the one where William worked.

1841 census

Sometime between July 1843 and April 1845 the Bickel family immigrated to Darlington, Durham Co, Ontario.

In the 1861 census William Bickel was living in Melancthon, Grey Co with his wife, Mary and some of their children.  William’s occupation is listed as farmer.  Ann had married by then and was living in Mulmer, Simcoe Co.

Note: Ann died of heart failure 6 Sep, 1909 in Muskoka, Ontario.

William Bickel probably died before 1871.  His wife, Mary Oxenham, remarried on 23 Aug, 1876.  Her second husband was John Hodgson.  He was a farmer.

We are very fortunate to have found extensive information about Mary’s life in Ontario, and, she was quite a lady!  The information below is from an article entitled “Once Upon a Time There Were House Calls” in the magazine In the Hills – A Magazine of Country Living in the Headwaters Region.

“And if they were lucky, there was a Granny Beckel nearby.

Remote communities were often blessed by the emergence of a key figure, usually a woman, with – for lack of a better word – a “knack” for healing. Such was Granny Beckel. She came to Horning’s Mills in 1855, then aged 52, and until the arrival of Dr. John Barr in 1866, became a treasure throughout Melancthon Township and beyond.

Granny’s expertise not only encompassed an encyclopedic knowledge of medicinal herbs, she was remarkably adept at setting broken limbs, adjusting dislocated joints, and dealing with wounds and deep-rooted infections.

Yet what distinguishes the story of Granny Beckel more than anything is what she had to do to make her house calls. In all four seasons she would slog through the trackless wilds of Melancthon, ford streams and rivers, and face down wolves and black bears, all with a sack full of not just her medicines, but homemade jams and other goodies for the soon-to-be-grateful patient.

Undaunted by weather or wildlife, Melancthon’s heroine, Granny Beckel, 1803–1880, brought cure and comfort across terrain often too rough for horseback. Her standard fee for house calls, no matter what the distance or the difficulty, was $2. Photo Courtesy Dufferin County Museum and Archives.

Granny was also remarkable for her common sense belief in the benefits of fresh air, good diet, cleanliness and letting nature take its course – this at a time when bleeding and blistering patients were still solidly established practices. Which suggests that if Granny used a home medicine guide, a compendium of advice and treatment in which many of our ancestors placed their faith, she must have been able to separate the wheat from the chaff in its pages.”

And, according to the account below, Mary was apparently quite brave and quite strong.

Mary Oxenham Bickel Hodgson died 19 Jan, 1881.

Do you have additional information on this branch of our family tree?  Something about their life in England? We’d love to hear from you!

 

 

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