|
a.
|
Note: immigrated 1871 Another entry shows christening date of 12 July 1835
George was baptised in the Church of England, Parish of Tingreth, on July
12, 1834, by Rev. Edward Tanguay. (Angela Odell gives 1835) He settled in
the parish of Woodend, Westoning, Bedfordshire after marriage, where he
was a cobbler. While living in this parish they had six children. All 6
were baptised by the Reverend Truman Tanguay, son of the rector who had
baptised him. The family moved to Redcaps Westoning, Bedfordshire in
1863, where he became a tenant farmer. Three children where born there,
babtised by Rev. Yamauton. In 1870 the family emigrated to Ontario,
Canada, where they lived on a small farm outside Bath.
They came from England, lived on a farm out the Tenth, west of Petrolia,
now the Windover Nurseries. L.H.H.T. 1963
From Angela Odell: in 1851 Census as a labourer
The following is from an unknown source - presumably written by an Odell
descendant in the 1950's or 1960's:
A Genealogy of the Odell Family in Eniskillen Township, Lambton County
William Mailes was a British soldier with Arthur Wellesly, Duke of
Wellington, and fought in the Successful battle of Waterloo in 1814. At
that time, the soldiers lived in barracks and William Mailes' daughter,
Mary, was brought up in the various countries wherever British armies
were maintained. She often talked of her life in the barracks as she grew
older, especially when in France, where she had learned the French
language and to dance the minuet.
While watching a group of young recruits marching one day, an especially
daring young man, while marching, passed quite close to her and remarked
that she was the "light of his life". Her answer was a haughty toss of
her head and a reply of "Not yet, my fair one". but this chance meeting
proved to be a romantic one for Mary Mailes married James Odell, the
young recruit. They settled in the parish of Tingrith in Bedfordshire,
England. Here, James applied his trade as a cobbler and raised a family
of 12, consisting of seven girls and five boys. Louisa married George
Spacey; Harriet married George Cox; William married Betsy Downs; George
married Susan Webb; Sarah married William King; Susannah, Henry, Thomas
and James are the ones we haven't any information about, although two of
the boys were sailors and were drowned at sea. Helen married first a
Carr, then a Whitworth and Jane married Tom Baker.
We are especially concerned with the fourth child, George of this
marriage, who was baptized in the Church of England, Parish of Tingrith,
Bedfordshire, England,, on July 12 1834, by a Rev. Edward Tanguenay.
When he became a young man of 18, he married Miss Susan Webb of Stepney,
a suburb of London Eng. They settled in the parish of Woodend, Westoning,
Bedfordshire, where he pursued the trade of cobbling. While living in
this parish, they had six children. James and George were baptised in
1854, Phoebe in 1856, Henry in 1858, Susan in 1861 and William in 1863 by
Rev. Truman Tanguenay, son of the rector who had baptized their father.
They moved to the parish of Redcaps, Westoning, Bedfordshire in 1863
where the father became a tenant farmer for two maiden ladies who owned a
large farm. There three more children were born and baptised by Rev.
Yamauton. Jane in 1864, Ann and Sarah in 1869.
When Sarah was sixteen months old, the family decided to emigrate to
Canada. The ladies for whom the father worked, helped them pack and when
ready to leave, presented them with a large chest which was to remain
unopened until they reached their destination.
After a voyage of three weeks on the ocean, they arrived in Canada and
settled on a small farm in Bath, on the Bay Of Quinte. But the large
chest was lost in the travelling and never found. Many an evening was
spent imagining what it might have contained for them. They lived here
for seven years, where their last son, Thomas, was born in 1871, in
Hastings County, Ont. near Napanee.
A brother of the father's, William, joined them during this time and they
decided to look for less rocky ground to farm. George's oldest son,
James, who was already married, started out to see what other parts of
this new country were like and came to Petrolia, where work in the oil
industry was progressing. James wrote to his father telling of the bright
prospects of the town. After some deliberation, it was decided to move to
Petrolia, much to the disappointment of the younger children who hated to
leave the big hill by the side of the bay where they had spent so many
happy hours, especially in the winter time when one could get on one's
sled and go down the hill right out on to the bay.
They arrived in Petrolia in the spring of l877 and settled in the centre
of the town, which is called "'The East End" at the present time. But the
father had no liking for the oil fields and, after. looking the territory
over, bought 90 acres of uncleared land, two miles west of the town.
There they felled trees and erected a log house. The family lived in town
while this was being done and the children went to the East End school.
When the house was finished, they moved in. One of the first things they
did was to erect an outside privy. This was the first of it's kind in the
immediate neighbourhood and all the community thought the Odell to be
snobbish. The girls also wore pantaloons, and one of their neighbours,
John Gascoigne, who was later to marry into the Odell family, came across
Sarah and Annie while they were picking wild berries and informed them,
"they were losing their underwear".
Other members of the family followed George's trek from England. His
father and mother came. His brother, William, was already here. Louisa
and her husband, Harriet and her husband, Helen and husband all came.
Jane (Mrs. Baker) stayed in England; but one of her son's came (Fred) and
married one of his cousin's (Jim) daughter - Martha.
They all lived either in Petrolia or in the vicinity surrounding it - Oil
City, or Oil Springs. By this time, some of the older children were
married - Jim, George and Phoebe - and the family was increasing. The
grandmother and grandfather had died and were buried in the cemetery in
the East End of Petrolia; this having happened before the present
cemetery came into being.
The first break in George's immediate family, came when his wife Susan
died in 1895, November of that year, at the age of 64. She was buried in
the cemetery at the west end of the town, almost directly across from
their farm. In 1897 the son William died at the age of 34, leaving his
young wife (who had been Emma Hyde of Petrolia) and their five children,
Robert, Daisy, Noble, James, and Ann. With the help of her parents, she
continued to farm where she and her husband had lived, until her family
was raised.
George, the father, continued farming with the help of his sons Thomas
and Henry. Henry went to Oklahoma to do some prospecting and Thomas and
his wife (she had been Florence Smith, a school-teacher) lived with the
father and managed the farm. When Henry returned from Oklahoma and wanted
to farm,, Thomas, feeling that the farm was too small for all of them,
decided to branch out for himself. So he and his wife and baby daughter,
Florence, left for Detroit, where he became a building contractor.
The father lived for eighteen years after the mother's death. His
daughter Susan kept house for her father and brother Henry until he
married Miss Mary Wood. The father gave up farming, as he had developed
rheumatism in both knees and needed two canes to support him when
walking.
The father died in 1913 at the age of 82, at the home of his daughter,
Annie. Although baptized an Anglican, he had accepted the Methodist
doctrine after coming to Canada. He was a deeply religious man and upheld
the strict ways of the early Methodist. Cards, dancing, smoking, or
drinking was not allowed in his home and the last few weeks of his life,
in his lucid moments, were occupied with singing the old hymns around
which he had woven his life. He often asked his nurse to join him in
harmony during the long, sleepless night.
His son, George, was the next one of the family to die. He had married
Miss Annie Carr and had raised his family of ten on his farm in Dawn
Township. Their family consisted of William, Nelson, George, Bruce,
Leslie, Olive, Kenneth, Noble, Hazel and Alexander. Olive died while
still a child but the rest lived to maturity. After George's death, his
son, Alex, continued to carry on the family farm.
The daughter Annie died in 1929. She had married Joseph Matthews -who had
been a school-teacher all his life. They had two children, Vernon and
Mae. He had been married before and had one daughter, Audrey, by this
marriage. Annie had a heart condition called angina pectoris, which made
her quite an invalid for some years. When she took her last heart attack,
her sister Sarah was taking care of her. She died at the age of 62.
The son, James died in 1931. His first wife, Emily Peters, had had eight
children. They were Ella, George, Henry, Martha, Alice, Ida Pearl and
John. He had married again and died at the age of 81.
The daughter Phoebe, died in 1932. She had married William Smith. They
had 11 children. They were, Annie, Phoebe, George, Susie Smith Love,
Percy, May Smith French, Arthur, Ruby Smith Williams, Cora Smith Hyatt,
and John. She lived to be 75.
Henry married Mary Wood. They had 5 children. Henry, who died in his
teens, George, Dorothy Odell Park, James and Edwin. He died in 1943 at
the age of 85.
Susan married Shaw Priestly and had one daughter, Ruby, who died when a
child. Her second husband was Henry Brenen. She died in 1947 at the age
of 88.
William married Emma Hyde. They had 5 children. Robert, Daisy Odell
McLaughlin, Noble, James and Annie Odell Sykes. He died at the age of 34.
Jane married William Booth. They had 3 children. George, Chester, Hazel
Booth Pence Culbertson. She died in 193—.
Annie married Joseph Matthews. They had 3 children. Vernon, May Matthews
Lewis, her twin brother Roy, who died in infancy. She died in 1929, at
the age of 63.
Sarah married John Gascoigne. They had 3 children. Nicholas died in
infancy, Harry died in his teens and Leone Gascoigne Winder. She died in
1947, at the age of 77.
Thomas married Florence Smith. They had 6 children. Florence Odell
Herrick, Ruth Odell Weaver, Dorothy Odell O'Brien, Thomas, Victor, who
died in infancy, and Winnie Odell Corbett. He died in 1947.
Sarah was the last surviving one of this large family. In February 1947,
Thomas died. Two weeks later, Feb. 23rd, Susan died and two days later,
the 25th, Sarah died.
Thus ended the family of ten who had come from the shore of England.
There are many who can call them aunts and uncles.
Footsteps they leave on the sands of time.
|
