| Note |
- There is a note written by someone on a scrap of paper which says Henry William Mallett (Simcoe).
Henry is listed in the parish registers as being a member of St. George in New Hamburg, no date.
In 1858 Henry was confirmed by Bishop Cronyn at St. James July 30, 1858.
February 17, 1881 Marriage
Geo. M Smith, Lizzie F Barber, and James Barber, of Wilmot, witnessed the wedding. In the marriage certificate Henry is said to be from Wilmot, occupation farmer, bachelor, 37. She is a spinster, aged 32, living in Simcoe. I found two families of Littles but didn't notice Jean's name (wasn't looking for it).
Thanks to the James Sr - James Jr letters , I found Henry and Jean and their son John in the 1881 census in Charlotteville Twp, Norfolk Co. There are two references to Henry's family in two separate letters. In Oct 1883 James Sr writes: "Henry has lost the youngest of his two children a little girl about 6 months old". In Sept 1885, James Sr writes: "From Port Stanley I went to see Henry and family at County Norfolk Co. Town Simcoe, his PO is Vittoria.....one child a boy about 3 1/2 years old....Ann is living with Henry.....Henry has 200 acres, 100 cleared - good house.
Jean must have had a bun in the oven when they were married. A BIG bun, or she already had a child. They were married in Feb, the census would have been taken in Mar or April, and they already had a son, Not noted by the enumerator to have been born in the last 12 months, and said to be 1 year old. This does not fit with being 3 1/2 years old in 1885.
They are no longer there in 1891. Gone to Alberta I suppose. It would make sense if he left when the old man died, maybe his inheritance would pay for the train fare to get there. Maybe Ann threw her lot in with his and went with them. In 1881 Ann was still in Wilmot living with one of the Smith families.
I have been to the archives in Edmonton. There isn't much of any value there. There are no B, M, and D indexes, no land indexes, except for the homestead index, and he's not in that. He likely purchased his land from the railway or an earlier settler. Apparently half of the land was owned by the railways right from the beginning, payment for building the road. We did manage to find a will, so that may be useful. I saw their graves in the Lamont cemetery, and we found Fredrick (sic) Smith and his wife Agnes B. Marshall Mallett was a doctor there for many years, but they were never aware of any other Mallett family ever having lived in Lamont. They always thought they were the first and only. The Lamont history "Along the Victoria Trail" only mentions Dr. M Mallett's family, but this is not surprising; such books are anecdotal, and rely heavily on people's recollections of their own families. Henry's sons obviously did not stay in the area, so there was no one around when that book was put together to write the story. Fred Smith stayed there, we were able to see where they had lived.
A letter written by Henrietta (Mallett) Smith to Sarah Sylvester in Portland July 1 1914 tells me that the Smiths were well aware of Henry and his family. It is written July 1 1914, shortly after Jean died. Sarah had probably written offering condolences and Henrietta was responding to that.
"Yes I do miss my brother and wife. They are both gone home. Yes we will all meet some time. His boys are keeping watch on his farm. They come to see us, they live about forty miles from Edmonton, they likely will get married after awhile, my son Fred and family live near them. Yes we all have to get used to those changes going through this life."
I interpret "both gone home" to mean died and gone to heaven. "My son Fred" must be the Fred Smith whom we found buried in the Lamont cemetery.
I have removed "John" Mallett as a child of Henry and Jean. I think it was a mistake in the census. It's too early for them to have children, having only just been married, I didn't find the name in birth indexes, and the age of the boy does not fit with the quotes from the James Sr letters above. I found a family of Littles in the 1891 census with a son called John who was then 9. My guess is the child "John Mallett" enumerated as 1 year old in 1881 is this boy John Little, Jean's nephew, whose name was incorrectly recorded as Mallett.
I found Henry's property in the abstract index for Charlotteville Twp. It is Lot 19, Concession 1. It is 200 acres, described as "North Part". Were the lots 400 acres? The map I have doesn't show Charlotteville Twp at all, let alone that sort of detail. Charlotteville Twp seems to have disappeared into the Regional Municipality of Haldimand Norfolk. I was only able to get the name of the Twp from the map on the booklet for the 1871 census at the archives. He purchases the property June 18 1881 for $4000.00. There are several transactions with his name between 1881 and 1895, most involving mortgages I would say. Difficult to know without actually looking at the documents in question, which I was not able to do since they are not held at the archives apparently, at least they are not microfilmed. The last entry mentioning Henry is Apr 27 1895. He seems to have split the property into two 100 acre parcels and sold them to different individuals, or was only able to sell the south half of the north 200 and abandoned the north half. The transactions in 1895 only seem to deal with the south 100 acres.
There is a "Quit Claim" in Apr 1927, James Mallett to John Boomer involving the north 100. Only $2.00 changed hands at that time, but John Boomer turned around and sold it for $6500.00 two years later.
The transactions are as follows:
54313 June 18 1881/do, B&S N part 200 ac $4000 George Jackson and wife to Henry Mallett
69790 Mar 31 1888/do, Mortgage, N 200 ac $400 Henry W Mallett to James Allegro
75766 Feb 6 1891/do, Mortgage, N 1/2 100 ac $4500, Henry Mallett to Freehold L & Svgs Co.
75782 Feb 6 1891/Feb 9 1891 D.M. (Discharge Mortgage) N Pt. 200 ac
77211 Nov 28 1891/Dec 7 1891, Deed, S 1/2 of N Div. 100 ac, Henry Mallett et ux to Joseph Bellbeck
77212 Nov 28 1891/Dec 7 1891, Mortgage, Do, Do, $2000 Joseph Bellbeck et ux to Henry Mallett
79053 Nov 5 1892/Nov 16 1892, Deed, Do, Do, Joseph Bellbeck et ux to Henry Mallett
81120 Nov 24 1893/Nov 24 1893, Deed, N. Pt. 200 ac, Henry Mallett et ux to Byron W Power (see 81121)
81826 Feb 12 1894/Mar 24 1894, Deed do., Byron W. Power et ux to Henry Mallett
84035 Mar 26 1895/Apr 16 1895, Deed, S. 100 ac. of N. 200 ac., Henry W. Mallett to Alvey Thompson
84201 Apr 27 1895/May 13 1895, D.M., Henry Mallett to Joseph Bellbeck, discharge of 77212
159208 Apr 22 1927/Feb 20 1928, Quit Claim, N 1/2 100 ac $2 to
I was told that Henrietta (Smith) Jackson talked about Malletts a lot, and that they might be in Red Deer. Of the Smiths, Dr. Henry was the first to come out, in 1901/2. Was Henry already out here on a farm near Lamont, and is that why Dr. Henry Smith chose to come initially to Star? It seems likely to me. By 1901 it was possible to get to Edmonton from Calgary by train, and there was a great influx of settlers during the 1890s. It seems likely to me that Henry came out after those last land transactions in Charlotteville Twp in 1895, and that his nephews (Smiths) followed him. Dr. Smith's diary mentions that his older brother George was in Alberta looking for land in 1900. I do not find Henry and family in the Charlotteville census in either 1891 or 1901, and in 1901 I had the benefit of knowing the location of his farm and looking it up that way.
I have a copy of the probate of Henry's will. It's pretty sloppy legal work. He drew up the will Feb 2 1912, yet the probate says he died Jan 17 1912. The will says his farm was the NW qtr of section 34 of Twp 55 of Range 19, west of the 4th meridian. The probate says, at least in one place, that it was the SW Qtr. I conclude that he died Jan 17 1913, I have the death notice which says 1913, and the probate documents are dated Jan 27 1913. Whoever made up the will was probably still in the habit of writing 1912, it being so early in 1913. James was given the farm valued at $2200 subject to an annual legacy of $100 to be paid to his mother, and allowing his mother to live in the farm house until she died. E Bruce was given only $5. This may mean the father was angry with Bruce or it may mean that he had already helped Bruce (financially) to get set up on another place. Benjamin Harold and Fred C Smith were executors of the estate.
Knowing now the location of his farm, and seeing on a map that it was very close to the town of Star, I re-checked the 1901 census, looking first to see if that township and section were enumerated under Star. I found 3 references to Section 34, all with names other than Mallett. It's possible they were on the 4th quarter but missed, or that they weren't there yet. It doesn't say which quarter the people were living on. The 3 names mentioned in connection with sec 34 are Riley, Maitland (or Matland), and Kingston or something like that. I might try Star for 1891 but it would be a long shot. According to the Charlotteville land indexes they were likely still in Ontario in 1891, though they don't show up in the census there. The best bet to establish their time of arrival out there would be to consult tax records in Lamont County or land transactions through the land registry agencies, but that would be costly. Maybe they and all of the Smiths came out at the same time, just after 1901.
James Florian was the only one to survive and produce offspring. He gave up the farm near Star and homesteaded near Rolla, in the BC portion of the Peace River country. He was almost certainly in contact with his Smith cousins who also lived up there. Bruce was killed in WW1 either in or by a submarine. Florence was adopted.
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1844 - 1913 (68 years)
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