In reviewing the lives of the descendants of Alexander Fleming and Jean Stewart, we begin with the families of their daughters: Isobel (1825-1917), married to Abraham Finch, and Janet (1828-1918), to James Agnew. They and several of their children had died before 1931, but we can see through the 1931 Census how the younger ones and their children were faring in the strained economic times of the early 1930s. Nearly all were far from Grey County in diverse occupations across the continent – only a couple were still farming. Several owned their houses, mostly made of wood, and some had radios.

The Finches

The effervescent Bella [Herald], who had moved to Ontario’s Parry Sound district, died in 1923. Her beloved adopted son William Herald, who had survived the battles in Europe,  settled in Parry Sound to work as a salesman in a general store and begin a family with Annie Lang.

Isobel’s daughter Jessie[Trout] was 80 years old in 1931 and widowed. She and her daughter Ella (Isabella) resided at 78 Dawson Street in Wiarton, where they shared an eight-room wood house valued at $1000. Ella was 57 and living on “income,” perhaps from savings from her years in Toronto as a public school teacher. There was no radio in their house.

Alexander Heneage Finch, a Disciple minister and Manitoba farmer, died in 1920. Widowed Sophie (de la Ree) lived in Winnipeg with her daughter’s family: Thomas Babb, Beatrice, and the four-year-old Reginald. The Babbs rented their five-room wood house on Ashburn Street, and they did have a radio.   Thomas taught, possibly at a high school.

Most of Sophie’s and Alexander’s children were alive in 1931, all but two residing in Alberta.

• Horace, an insurance agent, had a house for his wife and two daughters in Wetaskiwin, AB., near Edmonton.
• Bertram, a farmer in Minitonas in the Swan River region of Manitoba where he had grown up, worked for his father-in-law, John Smith.
• Percival was a salesman for a lumber yard in Viking, AB. He, his wife and daughter, rented a wood house and were among the few with a radio.
• Norman managed a lumber yard in Clyde AB, where he owned a four-room house for his wife and two daughters. They had a radio.  
• Alexander was a carpenter in house-building in Mirror, AB. His small family also lived in a wooden house they owned. Alexander was currently out of work.  
• Carlos “Carl” managed a retail lumber yard in Irma, AB. Single, he lodged with a family.
• Cecil was not enumerated, but other records suggest Alberta or Manitoba.
• Ruby Mae, married to Martin Danard, was probably living in Flin Flon, MB, where three children were born. The family was missed in the 1931 census.
• James, at age 25, was in Winnipeg, married, and working as an electrician. He and Katherine rented a two-room apartment and had a radio.        

Isobel’s next son William died from influenza in Winnipeg in 1918. Several of his and Martha’s children lived in Winnipeg – Earnest, Robert, and Olive [Rhodes] are three who were enumerated. Others, though alive, were missed.

Andrew Johnston Finch had settled in Sandwich, ON, near Windsor, where he and his wife lived in a wood house they owned but lacked a radio. Andrew was a carpenter but, at age 69, was out of work. He may have been repairing the roof when he fell from the house in November and died from his injuries. 

Robert moved to California in 1926. According to the 1930 US census, he was in Glendale, boarding with several others and employed as a woodworker in a furniture company. His wife, Jennie (Duncan), lived more comfortably in a brick house which she owned in West York, Toronto. The house accommodated son Duncan and daughter Olive Pannell and her two children.

The caring Lucinda Fitzgerald and her husband Edward were in Sudbury. She, Edward, and his son Maurice were roomers in a house – likely small. Edward, formerly a superintendent at a lumber site, was unemployed, as was Maurice, a labourer in the nickel mine.   The family seemed to be on hard times.

Sarah (Finch) Hartness was in Michigan, widowed from Andrew but soon to marry again.

In Sudbury, ON, Lillian Henry, the youngest of Isobel’s daughters, owned the eight-room family home constructed of cement brick. Here she and her fifteen-year-old son, Homer, then a student, lived. They had a radio. John G Henry, her husband, had died the year before. A successful businessman, he probably provided well for Lillian.

Thus, by 1931 the Finch family had scattered:  Alex’s children were in Alberta and Manitoba; William’s were in Winnipeg; Jessie, Lucinda, and Lillian stayed in Ontario; and Sarah and Robert went to the United States. Jessie, Ella, Sarah and Robert came to Kilsyth for the 1927 Fleming Family reunion.

The Agnews

Where Isobel might have been the rebel of the family in her marriage to Abraham Finch, and their move years later to the Parry Sound area, Jessie (aka Janet) was a gentle soul who stayed near church and family in Kilsyth until she died in 1918. By 1931, several of her children had also died, but there were many grandchildren.

William, her first son who died in 1925, and Hannah (Rogers)  had a large family.

• Hannah owned a house on 8^th Street AE in Owen Sound, which she shared with Jessie, Gladstone, and Wilda. Jessie was a private nurse RN, Gladstone – drove a truck for a bakery, and Wilda was the homemaker. They had a boarder to help make ends meet. No radio.
• Burnham was probably in Owen Sound. He missed the enumeration.
• Victor had moved to Michigan.
• Sarah – Sadie Curry – was a private nurse for the Harrison family in Owen Sound.
• Pauline and James Laidlaw rented their six-room brick house in Owen Sound. James was the manager of a golf course on a modest salary. They did not have a radio either.

Thomas J. Batman, after his wife Mary Evangeline died, carried on his sawmill operation in Sheguindah, Manitoulin Island, with daughter Geraldine at home. Theirs was a wood house of eight rooms. Son Stanley and his family were also on Manitoulin. Julian had moved to Howland in the Haliburton area of Ontario.

The next son, John Fleming Agnew, might have been visiting Belleville when he died there in 1930. His wife Annie (or Anna) was in Belleville, residing with her daughter Olive and son-in-law, the lawyer Richard Ponton. They had a large brick house of 14 rooms with a radio.

The 1930 US Census shows that George Harvey Agnew, now a widower, lived with Bertha’s sister Anna [Byron] in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Now 68, he continued his work as a tailor. Most people on their street had a radio.

Jean Agnew moved to Buffalo in New York State and built a career as a librarian at the University of Buffalo, a job she loved. At age 68 in 1930, she continued as a librarian. She rented her accommodation– no radio for her.

Simon’s work history was mainly in the restaurant business in various capacities in New York State. In 1931 he was lodging in Scarborough outside Toronto, managing a restaurant.

Herbert Joseph died in January 1930. Nellie, his wife, owned their brick house in Derby Township. Her daughter,  Jessie [Moulton], and her family lived in a wood house next door. Neither household had a radio. Their son Herbert Milton was the only grandson of Janet and James Agnew, who farmed. A young man at thirty, he and his growing family were living in a stone house they owned in Dundalk.

The families continued their relationship with the matriarch Jennie Fleming in Owen Sound and some among themselves.

Next: The twins, James and John