Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
A pioneer in Quebec and Ontario
-------------------------------
Achan Lavoy 1818 - 1902
-----------------------
Achan Lavoy born march 18 1818 in paris france, came to Canada when he was only a 14 year old lad, stowwed away aboard a cattle boat. He was eventually discovered, but not until the boat was to far out to sea to do anything other than put him to work, tending the cattle, and thus he earned his way into Canada.
He came to Quebec city where he worked for a while for a lumber trader whom had horses and other animals to look after. This gentleman was a ship carpenter,and Achan siezed this opportunity to learn as much as he could about the carpentry trade. Later he will use these skills around his homes, and pass them on to his children.
As it turned out though he also had a passion for cooking and thus eventually became a chef in lumber company in the white Pine county around Arnprior, Ontario.
Next he moved up the Zuyon River into Onslow twp. Pontiac county Quebec.This is where he met and married in 1840 a woman of Irish decent. Her name was Mary Ann Mackey. She was born Feb.3,1819.
They go on to have 7 children (his boys were the first white boys born in the village of pontiac,in Pontiac, Quebec.) as Achan works as a chef in lumber camps during the winter and farms all summer.
Around 1860 Achan moved his family across the Ottawa river to Sand Point Ontario,and as the forest lines receded westward he followed the Bonchere and Madawaska rivers,which were the Highways of the day as far as logging was concerned.By this time they had 10 children,7 girls and 3 boys. They were as follows.
born married
(1) Nancy may,10,1842 William Cone
(2) Hanna june,20,1844 Enos Taylor
(3) Harriette july,28,1846 James Kerr
(4) Mary Jane May,8,1848 William Hogg
(5) Charolotte Aug,3,1850 Dave Parker
(6) Peter June,22,1853 Agnes Stewart
(7) William Henry Sept,5,1854 1) Janet McWhirter 2) Janet Hynes
(8) Henrietta july,6,1856 James Weber
(9) James Edward Mar,29,1858 1) Isabelle Wilson 2) Elizabeth Wilson
(10) Amey Aug 23,1863 Gordon Brown
As the forest line receded futher and further west,they followed, until they reached Bangor Twp. Where they settled down on a farm near Cumbermere,Ontario,along the Madawaska River, with the exception of Achan's middle son, William Hernry, who was old enough now to take over his fathers role a cook in the lumber camps.(Williams first wife Janet McWhirter died 1881 at age 25 and is burried in carlow united churh cemetery with her family and Williams other brothers). As the story goes all three boys make an attemt to change the spelling of thier last names.
(1)Peter Levoy
(2)William Leavoy
(3)James Lavoy
But all of their names are spelt Lavoy in the Carlow Cemetery.At any rate Etienne and his two sons remain in Hastings county, But William travels north through Kirkland lake and back into Quebec to the Rouan Naranda area. Now this is were we lose William, but we do know he had a second wife Janet Hamilton Hynes and had a whopping 14 children along the way. 6 boys and 8 girls, which calculates to 6 more Lavoy or Leavoy lines spanning approx. 6 generations.
I should back up just a little as it seams I failed to mention that Etiennes wife Mary Anne Mackey never aloud Achan to speak french in the house, therefore his decendents would not likely be very fluent in his native tounge.
Peter and James Edward stayed with thier father in Hastings county, Ontario.
Now Peter Levoy/Lavoy married Agnes Stewart and being the eldest I suppose took over his fathers 100 acre farm,where both Achan and his wife stayed until they passed away. Etienne was finally laid to rest in 1902 in a cemetery in Purdy twp.
James Edward took over another 100 acre parcel of land right next door. The two brothers worked together in order to build and maintain both homes and farms.
And just as a point of interest perhaps I should include that all of the land, in that area,at that time was free of charge so long as you cleared it yourself.
------------------------------------------------------------
James Lavoy, (Achan's youngest son) married his first wife Isabella jane Wilson in 1880.They had three children
1)James Achen Lavoy born 1881,married Gertrude Wilson
2)William Taylor Lavoy born 1883 married Gladys Weber
3)Isabel Jane lavoy born 1885 married Ephrum Bruce
------------------------------------------------------------
Isabel Jane Wilson died in 1885 at 24 yrs of age.
------------------------------------------------------------
In 1886 James Edward Married Isabella's older sister Elizabeth Wilson born 1857.Together they had 7 more children.
1)John David born 1886 married Marion Stringer
2)Edward Andrew born 1889 married Elizabeth Robbins
3)Mary Etta born 1891 married George Prentice
4)Grace Muriel born 1893 married herbert Prentice
5)Charlotte Anne born 1895 died 1904
6)Lillian Elizabeth born 1897 married Lewis Becker,then peter speckmagel
7)Emma May born 1899 married Arthur Gobels Smith
------------------------------------------------------------
William Lavoy / Leavoy (Achan's second son) was concidered a handsom young man. A noted singer, dancer, and river driver.
His first four children with Janet McWhirter died after eating rat poison.
William Lavoy is listed on the same cencus page as James and Achan in 1901 Bangor twp. Hastings county.
------------------------------------------------------------
the following notes were extracted from the Wilfred Ronald Leavoy Autobiography supplied by Garnet Leavoy
William Henry Leavoy (born September 5, 1854). He was the first white boy born in the village of Pontiac in Pontiac County. This village has since disappeared.
My Grandfather followed the logging and as a young man became a foreman which meant you were like a Captain on a ship. When you went into the woods in the fall you took your men, horses and supplies to last five months and in most cases when the snow got deep you were pretty well isolated. You had to be able to lick any man in the camp as you couldn’t call the cops. There were none. No phones and no radio either. You were there till the ice went out then the men drove the logs down the rivers to the sawmills. It was a terrible job, wet and cold and quite a few graves lined the river banks as the logs would get caught and pile up in the narrow places along the river. Then you have a logjam. They would have to pry the key logs out and sometimes the whole thing would let go suddenly, crippling some and drowning some. When dynamite came along it helped in these situations.
My Grandfather married Janet Hamilton Hynes, March 21, 1882. They had fourteen children (6 boys, 8 girls). My father was the oldest, born December 31, 1885. He followed his father as a lumberman going to the woods as soon as he could drive horses. His family had very little schooling, with a large family on a farm; they had to dig in to help feed the rest.
END.
William Lavoy / Leavoy and Janet Hynes had the following children
i. Eva Maude3 Leavoy was born Craigmont 04/08/1883. Eva died 1883 Craigmont, at less than one year of age.
ii. Mary Anne Leavoy was born Craigmont 07/23/1884. Mary died 08/01/1884 Craigmont, at less than one year of age.
iii. William Henry Jr, Leavoy was born 12/31/1885.
iv. Tressa Mabel Leavoy was born 02/23/1887.
v. Eleanor Irene Leavoy was born 03/11/1888.
vi. James Herbert Leavoy was born 04/11/1889.
vii. Genevieve Gertrude Leavoy was born Bangor Twp. 10/17/1890.died 01/01/1942 Noranda Quebec, at 51 years of age.
viii. Ernest Wellington Leavoy was born 06/17/1892.
ix. Wilferd Garnet Leavoy was born 07/09/1894.
x. Hanna Effie Leavoy was born 09/15/1895.
xi. Edward Raymond Leavoy was born 03/01/1897.
xii. Iva Emily Leavoy was born 05/22/1899.
xiii. Harriet Pearl Leavoy was born 05/19/1901.
xiv. Maurice Reynold Leavoy was born 02/10/1908.
End of note
------------------------------------------------------------
the following information I found in a genealogy forum. the auther I do not remember.but I have confirmed some of this through Census
Peter moved to Alice Township around 1890. Than he settled in Horton Township owning property on Con. 10 lots 2 & 3. He was a lumberman. He was a member of Alice Presbyterian Huguenot Church. He is supposed to be buried in Purdy. I have no confirmation to this NO STONE NO CHURCH RECORD.
Peter married Agnes Stewart around 1873-74.
CHILDREN
Emma
Peter Jr. b: 1877 d: 1952 married: Mary Beatrice Leach
**John b: 1876 d: Dec 1954 married: Matilda (Tilly) McLaren
Stewart
James
Gordon
Mary Ann (Minnie) married: Thomas James MacKinnons
Elizabeth married: Thomas James Bentley
Mable
As you can tell more information is needed on other family members of Peter & Agnes.
**JOHN
John moved to the Castleford area as a young man and married Matilda McLaren. They were married in 1906.
CHILDREN
George Arnold b: 1907 d: 1979 married: Myrtle Storie
Druscilla Agnes b: 1910 d: 1952 married: Reginald Finan
Janet Estelle b: 1911 married: Ronald MacNabb
Peter Gordon b: 1910 d: 1979 married: Loretta Mullin
John Everette b: 1915 married: Marion Frances Shaw
Clarissa Matilda b: 1916 married: George Walter Burns
Stewart Alexander b: 1918 d: 1980 married Onallee Neale
John and Matilda operated a general store in Castleford. John was Postmaster from 1917 to 1919. The rest of their lives were spent farming. John’s oldest son George Arnold inherited the McLaren property from his grandfather George McLaren and settled there in 1936. George Arnold married Myrtle Storie daughter of Robert Storie and Bethea McArthur.
George Arnold and Myrtle Storie
CHILDREN
Janet Ruby
George Storie
Clinton Arnold
Norma Bethea
Peter Gordon Leavoy took over ownership of John Sr.’s farm in 1950. He married Loretta Mullens of Braeside. She was the daughter of Robert Mullens and ?? Burton.
end of note.
------------------------------------------------------------
Much of the above information needs yet to be verified such as the initial theory that Achan was actually a stow-away.
Every census I have seen has indicated that Achan was actually born in Quebec, but I have not yet been able to confirm this, and I suppose it is true that a stow-away may prefer others to believe he was born in Canada a, ligitimate citizen. I have also concidered how it seems that those who have tried gatherring information on Achan,s parents in the past have all failed and this could be simply be due to the fact that Achan was very quiet about his past as would be consistant behaviour of some-one who was either a stow-away and/or for one reason or another wanted to shed himself entirely and start anew. My biggest fear would be that perhaps he even changed his name when he left home or was cought on that boat hunkerred down between the livestock. As a boy of only 14 on his own, his biggest fear of been being sent back home, may have spurred him not to ever give his Birth Name and come up with a new story.
As I see it now there are three likely scenerios.
1)He had parents in Quebec, he did not associate his wife and children to perhaps becouse he spent so much of his life in the bush and his parents spoke french only (which still wouldnt explain why he did not talk about them enough fot those who have been taking notes to have recorded anything)(nor explain how the stow-away story got started) Prsonally I'm not realy leaning towards this option.
2)He had parents in Quebec he did not wish to be linked back to,(perhaps a run-away even) he may have sparked the rumer of being a stow-away himself just to satisfy those that were being too inquisitive.May I also point out a couple family members doing reseach that I encountered had not been told the Stow-away story. If the stow-away story had only been told once or twice to throw people off track or to simply make an interesting story out of a past rather forgotten,(if it wasn't true) it would explain why other reseachers did not have this story on file.
3)Achan indeed was a stow-away that intentionaly kept his past a secret, so much so that even his closest family members helped keep his secret safe
------------------------------------------------------------
so this is how a small boy of only 14 on his own and all alone hiding amongst the cows on a cattle boat managed to boldly make his way across the sea in 1832 to start a new life,and new lines of lavoie/lavoy/Levoy/Leavoy that will spread across canada
------------------------------------------------------------
It is my immediate intention to verify Achan and Mary's marriage registration. I have records of three different marriage senerios. from different sources.
Marriage registrations of these times and locations customarily include parents names.One of my sources claims she has viewed this marriage registration, and yet she still does not have names of Achan's parents, therefore I am not very optimistic of finding Achan's Parents in this manner.
------------------------------------------------------------
Different spellings I have encounterred are,
Achan,Achen, Achun, Aiken, Etienne
Lavoy, Leavoy, Lavoie, Lavwayhee
------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to make a short note just to make speacial thanks to Garnet Leavoy and Debbie Lavoy both for contributing so much research on this family line. Much of the information in this posting is from thier notes, and I am hoping the use of them here will help serve as a beacon to to all Achan decendants. to bring us all together so that we may complete Achan's line in it's entirety
------------------------------------------------------------
to view more about Achans line go to rootsweb family genealogy site and searh family trees for Achan Lavoy. My tree is posted there as Robins_Nest
------------------------------------------------------------
If you are a decendant of Achan or even if your not yet have information you would like to share please contact me by posting a follow up or e-mailing me directly at Robinonthewing@msn.com
Notify Administrator about this message?
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/lavoy/messages/42.html | ||
 |
Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|