| Notes |
- Kidd, Gordon, research notes, April 1979.
WILLIAM also known as Bill or Billy, (1858-1929) the eldest son, stayed on the home farm. He married Edith Nelson (1872-1949) and later moved to a small farm and market garden near Southampton and finally into the town. William was musical and, while young, became a fiddler for community dances and a horn player in a local band. He was an active Orangeman passing through all available degrees of the Orange, Scarlet and Black Lodges. Edith was involved in music as a church organist and choir member.
When William inherited the farm he was to pay his mother and Stella, his youngest sister, $500 a year for four years. He and Edith worked hard and saved carefully to discharge the obligation. They sold butter, eggs, cattle, poultry, fruit, maple syrup, logs and firewood. Potatoes were sold in Hepworth loaded on freight cars for $1 for a 90 pound bag. Northern spy apples were hand picked and packed for $2 per barrel. The firewood was felled, cut, and split and piled to dry, all by hand. It was sold in Southampton after many a long, cold winter trip beginning before dawn. Edith did most of the barn chores. All of the $2,000 was paid in a little over three years.
William had the first silo on the D. Line and was the first in the area to grow alfalfa or "alfy" as it was called by Anthony Thompson, a neighbour from the south.
William's family consisted of two sons:
Russell, a secondary school principal who married Ethal Fair, a secondary school teacher. They did not have children.
Gordon (1909 -), a public school principal, married Margaret Ryan (1913 -), a business secretary, and had two children: Ryan (1938 -) and Sheelah (1940 -). Both Sheelah and Ryan became teachers. An indication of the strength of Irish tradition lies in the fact that all of the family branches of the Canadian Ancestries of Ryan and Sheelah can be traced to Ireland, in the lines through five Canadian generations.
Ryan married teacher Eleanor McKenzie (1937 -). They had two children: Gordon (1964 -) and Sean (1973 -).
Sheelah married professional engineer Robert Gaunt (1941 -) and carried on the Irish tradition in their children's names as do their children in turn. Sheelah and Bob have a daughter, Erin (1973 -) and a son, Michael (1975 -)
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1923 - 1967 (44 years)
d. 11 Dec 1936, Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada 
