“Loyalist Trails” 2006-15 April 9, 2006

In this issue:
Promotions Committee Pins
Gilbert Hyatt Highway status and help
Congratulations to our Honorary President
Little Forks Branch Project: Little Hyatt One-room Schoolhouse
Queries
      + Halifax
      + Fyler Dibblee
      + Information on Harvey Reginald MacMillan
      + Information on Weldon U. Pickel 1877-1958
      + Information on The Honourable Frank Lindsay Bastedo, KC, UE 1886-19??
      + Response re John Carley
      + Response re John Dease
      + Response (2) re John Dease

Articles

Promotions Committee Pins

PINS: Promotions 2014 is now handling the blue UEL pins “members badge” previously ordered through Dominion Office. When ordering UELAC badge pins, please specify the pins as ‘blue UEL pins’ or ‘white 2014 pins’. Please specify clutch back or brooch back in each case.

…Noreen Stapley {gdandy AT iaw DOT on DOT ca}

Gilbert Hyatt Highway status and help

We have received encouraging news from the Toponymie Commission in that they are re-examining their decision taken. We are most fortunate to have the support from the Quebec Anglo-Heritage Network “QAHN”, the Townshippers Association and the Eastern Townships Branch of the FSHQ. Mr. Richard Evans, Past Pres. of QAHN and a member of several organizations has written a letter on their behalf to the Toponymie Commission with copies to Mme. Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, MNA for St.Francois, Mme. Danielle Potvin,MCCQ, Mme.Lyne St.Jacques,FSHQ and Mayor Gerald Boudreau, Ville de Waterville.

It is with the greatest anticipation that they will reverse their former decision taken and will order the Gilbert Hyatt road signs to be re-installed.

For others who wish to support us: Please write, e-mail or telephone the Commission.

Att: Danielle Turcotte, the Commission’s secretary.

(phone) 1-418-643-2817

(fax) 1-418-644-9466

(e-mail) topo@toponymie.gouv.qc.ca

…Bev Loomis UE, Little Forks Branch

Congratulations to our Honorary President

Congratulations are extended to our Honorary President, Peter Milliken, UE, on his reelection as Speaker of the House of Parliament.

Little Forks Branch Project: Little Hyatt One-room Schoolhouse

Even though it is early in the season, the Little Hyatt One-room schoolhouse was opened last Saturday to host the Compton County Historical Society. There were many who attended and it was a very successful day!

Presently members of Little Forks Branch are getting involved with the Dufferin Heights Monument Restoration Project. The reason being,it is in our area, that there are Loyalists listed on the Bronze Plaque mounted on the present monument and it is one of the mandates of the UEL Association. We are holding a special fund-raiser and with the support of the Branch Project 2014 Committee we hope to be able to make a worthwhile donation.

…Bev Loomis, UE, Little Forks Branch

Queries

Halifax

Do you know who was harbourmaster at the time of the Halifax Explosion.

My Lawrence family came. from Halifax. Aunt Ruby Lawrence (deceased) told me a relative was once harbourmaster at Halifax harbour. The family has a political, military etc. past history. (I also have “Lawrence of Arabia’s” bloodlines butT.E.Lawrence was born in Wales.) My father (deceased) was the spitting image of him in his youth.

…Verla Lawrence {verlamlawrence AT hotmail DOT com}

Fyler Dibblee

Fyler Dibblee was proved as a loyalist ancestor in 1997 by a member of the Fredericton Branch.

From a recent request for information by a Torontonian, there appears to be a good amount of information about him on the web. To wit:

nbnet.nb.ca

usgennet.org

theshipslist.com

genealogycanada.ca

…George H. Hayward UE, Fredericton Branch

Information on Harvey Reginald MacMillan

Harvey Reginald MacMillan was born in New Market, Ontario in 1885. His father, John Alfred MacMillan was Scottish and his mother was of United Empire Loyalist descent. Harvey was more often called “H.R.”. He had received an interesting education as after high school he attended the Ontario Agricultural College and eventually Yale University Forestry School where at the age of twenty-three, he gave the graduation speech.

He went to British Columbia in his early years and was involved in lumbering. He was the Provincial Chief Forester from 1912-15. He served the province in a great many ways.

The planetarium in Vancouver is named after him as he had been its major benefactor.

[the team working on a teachers loyalist resource for western Canada is looking for more information on this person. Things like sources for the above, a connection to MacMillan-Blodell, Loyalist connection and ancestry and additional information.]

…Margaret Carter {jmcarter AT mts DOT net}

Information on Weldon U. Pickel 1877-1958

Weldon Pickel was born in 1877 in Hillsdale, Nova Scotia. He received his education at Sussex Grammar School, Provincial Normal School in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Brandon College in Brandon, Manitoba and the University of Saskatchewan in Regina.

Mr. Pickel taught school in New Brunswick and moved west four days before Saskatchewan’s inauguration in 1905. He entered the ministry of the Baptist Church, serving at Midale and Windthorst in Saskatchewan and Hawkeye in Alberta. He married Enza Alves Northrup of Hampton New Brunswick in 1906. They had one daughter Vesta.

Upon retirement, Weldon Pickel embraced genealogy, resulting in a book in 1948 “Ancestors and Descendants of the Sherwood and Pickel United Empire Loyalists in Canada”. Another publication of Weldon’s was on the First Baptist Church in Regina. He died in 1958.

[the team working on a teachers loyalist resource for western Canada is looking for more information on this person. Did he ever marry? Where is he buried? What is his Loyalist connection and ancestry and additional information.]

…Margaret Carter {jmcarter AT mts DOT net}

Information on The Honourable Frank Lindsay Bastedo, KC, UE 1886-19??

Frank Bastedo was born 10 September 1886 at Bracebridge, Ontario and passed away at Victoria British Columbia in 1973. His parents were David Edgar, born in Oxford County, Ontario. He was editor and publisher of the Muskoka Herald Elizabeth Ann Oaten, who was born in Cornwall, England.

Mr. Bastedo’s great, great, great grandfather Jacob Bastedo fled from Schenectady, New York to Cataraqui (Kingston) Ontario. The family later moved to the Niagara district where Mr. Bastedo’s ancestor Captain David Bastedo fought in the War of 1812-14.

Frank attended school in Bracebridge, took a commercial course at Central Business College in Toronto and worked a year with a newspaper. In 1904 he pursued the application of law with several firms and studied at Toronto University and Osgoode Hall, receiving his law degree in June, 1909. After two years in Ontario he was invited to join a law firm headed by Norman Mackenzie, KC of Regina. He became a member of the firm Mackenzie, Thom, Bastedo and Jackson.

Mr. Bastedo argued and won several international cases. One in 1948 entailed appearing before the Privy Council in London, England on behalf of the International Harvester Company of Canada for which Regina received a settlement of one million dollars.

Frank Bastedo married Alma Anderson BA, daughter of G. Alexander Anderson in 1911. They were blessed with four children, Dorothy Alma, Edgar Frank, Jean Ann Clementina and Donald Lou Alexander Bastedo. Mr. Bastedo was a member of Knox-Metropolitan Church, a Conservative and Bill and President of the Regina Federal Conservatives in 1924. He held memberships with the Canadian, the Wascana Country, the Assiniboia, and the Regina Boat Clubs. In 1934, he became the first Vice-President of the Saskatchewan Branch of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada.

In 1934 He married Lillian Michaelis (1899-1977), daughter of G. Michaelis, founder of the Regina Trading Company. Frank Lindsay Bastedo, KC, UE was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan in 1958 by Prime Minister Diefenbaker. The Bastedos retired to Victoria British Columbia.

Source: The Regina Leader Post, 29 Jan. 1958, 15 Feb. 1973, 28 July 1977.

[the team working on a teachers loyalist resource for western Canada is looking for more information on this person.]

…Margaret Carter {jmcarter AT mts DOT net}

Response re John Carley

First, I regret to say that I have nothing on John Carley. The closest I can come is the name of a Peter Carley, one of a long list of residents who, in 1831, signed a petition to the VT Court for a ferry to be operated between Swanton, VT and Alburgh, VT. [see Allen L. Stratton: History of Alburgh, Vt., Vol. 1, pg. 168.] Was this John Carley one of the sons of Abraham Carley?

Your query in the “Loyalist Trails” ended with a plea for “directions on where to search” for clues to the movement of the families CARLEY and SHERWOOD from the Oblong, and then on into the Albany Co. area, and from there into Canada.

Many of the families, both Loyalist and Patriot, from this area of NY ended up at the top of Lake Champlain during and after the war. My own family settled at Caldwell’s Upper Manor, which is today’s Town of Alburg, Vermont. Many more settled across the border at Caldwell’s Lower Manor, today’s Noyan and Clarenceville, Que. A large percentage of these families moved on into Upper Canada, many after 10-20 years there on the border. You might try the Missisquoi Historical Society in Stanbridge East, Que.

Of course, there is much included on various SHERWOOD individuals and families in King’s Men — the Soldier Founders of Ontario, by Mary Beacock Fryer. Good luck.

…Lewis Kreger, UE

Response re John Dease

Here is yet another spelling…

Now I recall, there may have been Dies on the Canuck loyalist lists (or children) or on Johnson’s rentals but also DIES is a family related to my STOR(e)Y family from Green County NY and the Loveridge patent. I find it interesting to see that some of these old families went north and some stayed (“under wraps” in NY). There was one DISE or DIES family in Schoharie. This is from my Story files from the NYgreen2 website, not very well referenced, as I would usually do (my apologies – my curiosity sometimes comes well before proper referencing):

“We are indebted to Robert F. Story of Catskill for a picture of Madam Jane Dise, wife of Major John Dise [note from Leslie Grauer: a fugitive?] of the English army who owned the old Stone Jug, one of the first five houses in Greene County. This picture was taken at the time Mrs. Dise was about 16 years of age, and hence is nearly 200 years old. The picture from which our copy is taken is an oil painting in splendid preservation as to color, canvass and frame, a full length portrait, two thirds life size. It was purchased by Mr. Story at the time the property was sold, and is one of the most valuable relics of the early colonial times. To Mr. Story we are also indebted for interesting facts in regard to the early residents of the Catskill section of the Loveridge Patent, as the descendents of these early families make up the generations of Catskill and Greene as well as other counties.” [LG: written 1896 or 1916, as I recall and the “Mrs. Dies” was b. 1762].

“On the farm of William Loveridge, which had become that of Benjamin DuBois, a stone house was built. On the west bank of the Catskill Cornelius DuBois built a house in 1762, and the next year Madam Jane Goelet Dies commenced her mansion called by the prudent Dutchmen of the vicinity “Dies Folly.” The ship yards turned out brigs, sloops and schooners, while from 1792 to 1802 dwellings increased from ten to 180 in the village.”

…Leslie Grauer, Vancouver

Response (2) re John Dease

Heather, I really appreciated your question in Loyalist Trails, as it cleared up the relationship of Dr. John to Sir William for me. I can’t tell you a great deal about John Dease, other than you should keep your eyes open for an alternate spelling – Dies.

If my memory serves me, Dr. John appeared at Fort Niagara around 1782or83. He had been a Deputy Agent long before his arrival, but I cannot recall where he’d been since 1775 – perhaps out west, perhaps in captivity.

You may know that Guy Johnson, the Superintendant of Indian Affairs and nephew of Sir William, had arrived at Niagara in 1779 after a long absence in England and New York City. Guy was no great friend of John Butler who had been the Deputy Agent that kept the lid on Indian Affairs since 1775 when Guy took off from Montreal to go to England. I suspect that Guy intended to place John Dease over top of Butler in order to keep more familial control.

When Sir John superseded his cousin Guy as Superintendant General in 1783, he travelled to Niagara to visit the Six Nations and their allies and stumbled into Guy’s wee plot to supplant Butler with Dease. His report to Governor Haldimand at headquarters in Quebec City set off a powder keg of wrath and Haldimand made it very clear to Sir John that Dease was not either by experience or talent adequate to replace Butler.

So, two Deputy Agents of Indian Affairs were at Niagara before the general settlement of the loyalists took place in 1784, with Butler as senior.

You might try to find a copy of Earle Thomas’s “Sir John Johnson Loyalist Baronet” which gives a few tiny details about the Dease family.

Also, I suggest you contact Bill Smy to get a better picture of the ‘battle’ between the Johnson/Butler clans with John Dease in the middle. I’m sure Bill would have information about where John Dease had been before he suddenly turned up at Niagara.

Two men named Dies served in Sir John Johnson’s regiment – the King’s Royal Regiment of New York. One was named Matthew and he was the Quarter Master Serjeant of the 1st battalion. The other was John and I think he was Matthew’s son. And, I further suspect that Matthew was Dr. John’s brother but have no proof.

…Gavin Watt, Honorary VP UELAC