MARY ANN (ALDIS) EBERTS 1825-1892
So Mary Ann ALDIS married Henry Ewart EBERTS, known as “Yve”, 18th March 1849 at Orchard Place, Chatham. Henry was aged 33, Mary Ann 24, the ceremony being conducted by the Rev. Francis Sands. The family remained in Chatham for the remainder of their lives. In due course 3 sons - Byron, Francis Goldworth (Frank), Newton - and a single daughter, Ellen, were born to them. After his brothers William and Walter moved to downtown Chatham, Henry stayed on the family farm, Orchard Place, and started a successful business in storage and shipbuilding. Following his mother’s death, Henry came into possession of the farm and, with his brother-in-law Dr. A.R. Robertson, engaged in trading and lumbering. A major financial setback was occasioned by the burning down of a store and warehouse during the 5th August 1854; but the brothers rebuilt, and it is assumed that their fortunes recovered.
Henry’s sister Euphemia married the first Chatham doctor, Alexander Rocke ROBERTSON, a Scot from the Royal Navy. Their second son, also named Alexander Rocke ROBERTSON, married Margaret Bruce EBERTS, daughter of William Duncan EBERTS who was Henry’s eldest brother. So there was a very close connection between EBERTS and ROBERTSON. The ROBERTSONs left Chatham in the 1860s, but they maintained strong connections with the town. Henry’s nephew and niece moved to Victoria in British Columbia where they had 7 sons including the Hon. Harold Bruce ROBERTSON. A descendant of Mary Ann’s granddaughter, Edith Goldworth EBERTS, revealed that Mary Ann was a talented pianist and self-taught painter in oils, turning out many family-related portraits and sailing scenes. Subsequently these were dispersed throughout the family line of EBERTS and JENKINS, and some were offered to the Ontario Art College. Included are two gusty sailing scenes, the Scottish Piper by fireplace with cat, grandchildren, her mother- and father-in-law, Euphemia BAKER and Joseph EBERTS, among others. They have been described as ‘primitive’. Mary Ann, in later life severely crippled by arthritis, remained in Orchard Place until her death in 1892. One descendant still possesses the beautiful tiny rocking chair that was used to carry Mary Ann into the garden. Her granddaughter, Edith Goldworth, was told to remove her chewing-gum from the chair; it was returned the following day, painted red.
The Chatham Weekly Planet newspaper dated Thursday the 15th April 1880 contains the following report:
It again becomes our mournful duty to record the removal from amongst us, by death, of a well-known citizen; one intimately connected with the early commercial history of Chatham. On Sunday, at about 3:00 P.M., Mr. Henry Eberts passed out of life, at the age of 64 years and 2 days. He had been a great sufferer for some time from a peculiar internal irritation and lately visited the medical institution at Ann Arbor, Michigan in hope of relief, but returned from there on Friday last much cast down by the hopelessness of his treatment and he continued to sink rapidly until his dissolution on Sunday afternoon.
Deceased was the youngest of the three brothers Eberts, William D., Walter and Henry all well-known businessmen of our town, only one of whom now survives. The subject of this notice was born in April 1816, on the old Eberts homestead, Chatham Township, familiarly known as “Orchard Place”, his mother being Ann, daughter of William Baker, whom the land of the old home was patented by the Crown. Deceased entered into active commercial life in 1841, in partnership with Mr. Mathew Dolsen, now of Dover Township as general dealers. This partnership being dissolved a new business alliance was formed between deceased and his brother-in-law Dr. A.R. Robertson, and which became the widely known firm of Eberts and Robertson. Shortly after what will be remembered as the great fire of 1854, in which the firm suffered great disaster, the partnership was dissolved, deceased assuming all the responsibilities of the late firm, and continuing successfully until about ten years since, when he returned to the farm and employed himself mainly in agriculture, though now and then taking a venture in grain. He leaves behind a wife, three sons and a daughter.
On the 1881 census for Chatham, Mary Ann is shown as living with sons Byron, Newton and Frank; and in 1891 she is living with son Frank, his wife Florence, and four of their children. By then Byron and Ellen were dead, and Newton was also married. The following year Mary Ann died, on the 24th December, aged 67, of “pulmonary rheumatism”.
Henry and Mary Ann’s only daughter Ellen, born in 1852, married Richard Scott LITTLE, a civil engineer, on the 19th April 1881; Ellen also witnessed brother Frank’s marriage in 1882. Her only child, Aubrey Osborne LITTLE, was born the 8th February 1887, and it would appear that Ellen died either giving birth or from complications arising from the birth. She died in 1887 and was buried in Maple Leaf Cemetery. The 1891 census on Botteswell, Ontario, records Richard with his young son living with sister Helen, aged 19, and niece Irene, aged 17; so the young boy did not want for female care and companionship. Aubrey Osborne, who became an optician and optical manufacturer, spent most of his life in the U.S.A. The Border Crossings log between Canada and Detroit, Michigan, shows him crossing back and forth on a number of occasions, firstly 24th May 1906 when, as a young man making his way in the world, he moved to Detroit. The 13th U.S. census on Detroit, taken the 26th April 1910, lists Aubrey as an unmarried 23 year old ‘boarder’ earning his living as a ‘bookkeeper’. By 1917 he is living at 190 Euclid Avenue, Detroit, married with two daughters, Eleanor born 1915 and Harriet born 1917. In August 1932 he and his wife Edna are recorded returning home from a family visit to Uncle Newton at Taylor Avenue in Chatham; his address at this time was 13119 Stoepel Street, Detroit. In 1917 Aubrey registered for the U.S. military draft; he was a 30 year old optical manufacturer working for the Michigan Optical Company in Detroit. He is described as 5’ 7” tall, having blue eyes, medium complexion, and wearing spectacles. By 1945 he was working as an accountant; he died in 1968 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Of the three sons born to Henry and Mary Ann, Byron (1850-1890) was unmarried. Newton EBERTS, born in August 1859, was a farmer and, later, labourer. He married Mary Jane DEGGE, of Irish descent, the 17th December 1884. They had 3 children, Gertrude Maud EBERTS born the 31st July 1886, William D. EBERTS born the 14th November 1887, and Von EBERTS born the 10th May 1889. The 1901 census on Botteswell district of Chatham lists Newton and Mary with their 3 children. Newton, then in his 40s, is no longer a farmer but general labourer, and he has changed his religion, apparently, from Church of England to Methodist. Mary was only 52 years old when she died the 6th November 1911; she had been ill for nearly two years, attended by Dr. J. Rutherford of Chatham, before she succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis. Interestingly, one of Frank’s daughters, Effie Aldis EBERTS, married as VON EBERTS, possibly in acknowledgment of her cousin but more likely in recognition of her German origin, with perhaps an attempt to impress her husband’s family. He was William John Coulter BRAWLEY MD, son of Alexander BRAWLEY Gentleman and Sarah (Coulter) BRAWLEY. He and Effie married the 6th March 1911 at Port Arthur, Thunder Bay. Effie died in 1924.
Joseph Walter and Mary Van Eberts. Walter was one of Henry’s brothers
Henry’s mother - Ann (Baker) Eberts
Henry’s grandmother - the mother of Ann Baker
Seated in chairs: William Duncan Eberts (1811-1892)Mary Bell (McEwen) Eberts (1819-1899)
Rear – left to right: Margaret Bruce (Eberts) Robertson (1844-1912), Duncan William Eberts (born 1856), Jessie Euphemia Eberts (1863-1938), Hermann Joseph Eberts (1842-1906), Anne (Eberts) Mercer (born 1847).
Front – left to right: Henry Francis Hume Eberts (born 1861), David McEwen Eberts (1850-1924)