GRAY ROOTS DISCOVERED Part 3 - The Dennis Link Lillian Rosamond Dennis’s soft sweet face belied the strong, imperturbable spirit that emanated from her like an aura. It took time to realize what she was made of, and it was time that made her that way. Her ancestors are a short reach back to County Devon, in the south west corner of England. Many of her forefathers had names that traced back to France; to Brittany and elsewhere. Records of departure for Devon England indicate that in the early 1800’s up to 10,000 people emigrated, mostly to a few destinations in Canada, including Prince Edward Island. That represents about half the population of the two largest Devon towns, Barnstaple and Bideford, where many of Rose’s people came from. 1815 saw the end of the Napoleonic wars and times were difficult for many. The British government, local Boards of Guardians, and emigration societies saw it as a charitable duty to give grants to those who wished to start new lives in the colonies. In Canada, a fledgling shipbuilding industry emerged. Ships were roughly assembled and loaded up with timber bound for shipyards back in England, where the new vessels would be fitted up and finished. Empty ships returning to Canada’s timberlands offered low fares for an ocean crossing. Some shipowners hastily constructed temporary bunks in the hold, but many did not. Rose’s Grandfather William Dennis was born in Devon in 1812. In 1839, 27 year old William was challenged with providing for his wife Mary and small daughter, with another child on the way. The young blacksmiths skills were in demand in the ship-building industry, and William left England that year on the Yeo ship, “British Lady”, voyaging directly to Port Hill, Prince Edward Island, where work in the Yeo shipyards was waiting. In the spring of 1841, his wife Mary made the six week journey on the “Florida” with two year old Ann, and the newborn baby daughter William had never seen. Five years later, William opened his own blacksmith shop in the settlement known as “Lot 14”, later called “Arlington”. Of the ten children born to William and Mary, one was Rose’s father Benjamin. Benjamin Dennis married Mary Alice Sharp of Linkletter, PEI. In 1897 they bought a farm near his father’s smithy. By 1899 though, Benjamin Dennis had become crippled with Arthritis to the point of in a needing a wheelchair. Rose was 15 years old. Her older brother Will, at 19 years of age began to operate the farm to support his mother and ten younger siblings. Six years later, in March of 1905, two of Rose’s younger sisters, Emily Pearl and Nellie Irene died of tuberculosis. Emily was 16, Nellie just 14. The following year, 1906, their father Benjamin passed away. Ads for workers in the Boston States populated the local newspapers. Rose and her sister Laura Belle (Rose called her Belle) left the Island together and went to work at the Waltham Watch Factory in Massachusetts. Rose bought a lovely oil lamp for the room she and Belle shared and named it “Queen Mary”. Two of William Gray’s sisters also worked at the watch factory, and Prince Edward Islanders got together socially in the Boston area, so it’s easy to speculate on how William and Rose might have first met. Lillian Rosamond Dennis married William Lesley Gray in Waltham, Massachusetts in May of 1907. Rose and William’s story was previously told on the post about William Lesley Gray. So to continue, 1927 found Rose Gray at the age of 42 on her own with 8 children still at home. Ruth and Helen were known as the “Little Gray Girls”. Cecil played a large role in running the farm. Everyone helped. Rose Gray liked to play solitaire by the light of the oil lamp when day was done. What she couldn’t abide though, was the sight of the boys huddled around the table playing cards when there was work to be done, wood to be brought in, and stalls to be mucked. She was not above grabbing the pack of cards and tossing them into the well-blacked wood stove, the same wood stove that held up a huge copper vat full of heated water, and produced umpteen loaves of bread to feed the crew. Rose had a mortgage on that bigger house that was dragged across the fields on greased skids from the old Inman place. At Christmas, she would put a juicy orange in the toe of each child’s stocking. One day while waiting to pay for the oranges, Rose heard a familiar voice, Mrs. Inman’s, stating that “people who can’t pay their mortgage have no business buying oranges”. Not long after that, Rose received an inheritance, and marched right over to Mrs. Inman, paying off the balance of the loan. J.H. Myricks & Company Store in Alberton sold a little bit of everything. There were 70 gallon puncheons of molasses where Rose would fill up a crock, and stock up on tea, sugar and whatever could not be produced on the farm. The molasses graced the farmhouse table where it would gurgle out onto slabs of fresh-baked bread. There was one thing Mr. Myrick could not stock enough of though. Mrs. Gray’s butter. It was so good he took it home for his own table, and gladly bought every pound that Rose would bring him. She raised silver-black foxes for the fur industry, and grew potatoes and other vegetables, and wheat which went to the mill to be made into bran, shorts and middlin’s. Down the back of the farm was a large blueberry patch. People came loaded up in cars from all over to pick blueberries on the old Gray farm, often staying for the afternoon on blankets spread out on the ground. Rose never looked for anything in return. When WWII broke out, Earl and Alice were living in “The States”. Cecil kept the farm producing, while one by one, the others joined up for service, all six of them. With no one to look after at home, Rose went up to Ottawa, and took care of a Doctor’s family until her own children returned. After the war, Helen and Ruth married and both moved to Ontario, coming home to Prince Edward Island with their brood in tow as often as they could make it. Rose Gray had accomplished a remarkable thing. With courage and persistence, she kept her large family together after the daunting loss of her husband. Many tales will be told about her, as she lived on to be a strong, proud, glowing example to her many grandchildren. One of them, the youngest daughter of her youngest daughter, has Grandma Grays bedroom suite proudly set up in her guest bedroom, complete with her washstand and six piece rose adorned basin and pitcher set. To those of us who knew Rose, it speaks eloquently of a time and a place and a dauntless spirit.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 07:09:30 +0000
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