Mary Ann Aldis (1794-1889)
Chatham, Kent, Ontario
This sketch entitled Bush House near Chatham was drawn by Lt Col. P Bainbridge c 1838. It shows the huge size and number of trees that early settles had to conquer in order to build a settlement – as swell as coping with mud and malaria at the same time.
Sketch of Chatham Main Street made by Lt Col Bainbridge in 1832. The original drawings can be seen in the Chatham Kent Museum
Chatham’s first Post office – established on the McGregor farm in the 1830’s.
Smiths Canadian Gazeteer of 1846 describes Chatham as a Township in the County of Kent which became its County Town. Occupying some 17,119 acres of which 3749 were under cultivation, it had the advantage of a fertile soil and abundant timber supply (maple, black walnut, elm, oak and beech).
Writing in her journal of 1837 and 1838 Anne Brownall Jameson described Chatham,
‘ I can hardly imagine a more beautiful or more fortunate position for a new city than this of Chatham as a port and depot of commerce its position and capabilities can hardly be surpassed….It is sufficiently inland to be safe, or easily secured, against sudden attacks…The river Thames is navigable from its mouth to the town, a distance of eleven mile. The banks are formed of extensive prairies of exhaustless fertility….. as a country it may be said literally to flow with milk and honey…no rent…no taxes…………….’
The population, steadily increasing, had reached 799 by 1846 from a starting point in the early 1830s. In 1835 it had reached 300, more than doubling to 759 by 1840; the Census returns show huge increases from 1,768 in 1851, 3585 in 1861, 5,036 in 1871, and c.9,000 in 1881. Duncan McColl, born in Argyle, Scotland, was Clerk to the Civil Administration in 1855; Mary Ann’s son Alfred married the Clerk’s daughter Christina in 1869. Situated on the River Thames, Chatham was soon served by steamboats that plied regularly to Detroit and Amherstburgh and on to Buffalo. Road links were also established to London, Raleigh and Harwich, and the Great Western Railway followed.
Four non-conformist churches, a theatre and cricket club were also in existence by 1846, as was the local newspaper, the Chatham Gleaner.
The town boasted 5 physicians and surgeons, 1 lawyer, 1 dentist, 1 steam grist mill, 1 water mill, 2 saw mills, 2 breweries, 3 distilleries, 1 tannery, 10 stores, 1 printing office, 1 watch maker, 1 gunsmith, 8 blacksmiths, 3 cabinet makers, 1 potter, 1 tinsmith, 2 carriage makers, 1 foundry, 2 bakers, 1 tallow chandler, 2 asheries, 1 livery stable, 1 bookseller and stationer, 2 bank agencies, 1 land agency, 3 schools. The total value of exports from the Port of Chatham in 1844 was £15,450 .0 .7 of which wheat, flour, standard staves, and furs and skins were the principal components.
Hardly surprising, then, that the clear-sighted Mary Ann ALDIS settled her family in Chatham: where better than as part of a young community establishing itself in a favourable environment? Land Registry records for the Township of Raleigh show Mary Ann investing her precious funds in land as a part of Lot 22 in the 8th Concession. She is recorded as paying £80 (modern equivalent c. £5,600) to Samuel Brundage on the 8th of November 1837 for 75 acres and, two years later on the 29th of November, a further £50 (modern equivalent c. £3,500) for an additional 25 acres. Nearly 30 years later the same Land Registry record shows her selling to son Alfred, on the 6th of March 1866, some 50 acres for $530 (modern equivalent c.£6,700). Perhaps this transaction marked Mary Ann’s retirement from active business participation, given that she would have been aged 70 in 1866. Subsequent records show Alfred, as a widower in 1885, disposing of certain assets for $3,000 - (modern equivalent c. £44,500); and later entries in 1902 reveal inter-family transactions between Alfred and his children. (Since Canada did not become a Country until 1867, land purchases before that date would probably have been registered in both England and Canada and paid for in Pound Sterling. Canada decided to use the dollar instead of sterling because of the ubiquity of Spanish dollars in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries and as a response to the standardisation of the American dollar. The Province of Canada declared that all accounts would be kept in dollars as of the 1st of January 1858, and ordered the issue of the first official Canadian dollars in that year. Over the next few years the colonies that eventually formed the Canadian Confederation progressively adopted a decimal system. Finally, in April 1871, the government passed the Uniform Currency Act, standardising the currencies of the various provinces with a common Canadian dollar).