We recently received a note and two photos from Sandra Townsend. She writes”

“In working on my Mother’s McCann Family history I was given historical family photos. Letitia (Gawley) McCann (daughter of James and Jane (McMaster) Gawley, was my mother’s grandmother. I am submitting a picture of a large Gawley Family Gathering. There was no key to identify the many in the picture. I suspect that it was taken prior to Andrew Gawley Sr. death in 1861, as I suspect he is in the picture. It is worth noting the two bicycles and horse and carriage in the shot. The young boys lined across the front appear to have engaged in a ballgame.”

Naturally we added this photo to our hat collection. (How could we not?) CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE HATS

She added: “A second picture with some damage was Andrew Gawley Sr.'s Irish born sons’, John and James Gawley, Lumber Camp Crew.”

The Gawley Lumber camp crew, owned by John and James gawley

We know John to be born in 1814 and came to Upper Canada with his father, in 1823, when he was nine years old, It was not until 1840 that he petitioned for a land grant. The location of the Gawley Lumber camp is not known.

For more on Lumber Camps, CLICK HERE

For more on Gawley's click here

THE FAMILY TREE

ANDREW GAWLEY ( 1781-1861) AND JANE REID or REED . The Emigrants from Ireland, crossing with four children in 1823. (Jane, their mother died on the ship)

Letitia “LETTIE” GAWLEY 1865-1931, gt. grandmother of sandra Townsend

JOHN 1814-1873
MARGARET 1818-1863 + John Haggerty
JAMES 1820-1873 + Jane McMaster 11 Gawley Children
Our writer, Sandra Townsend descends from Letitia, her great grandmother, the sixth child of this family group. Letitia married William Charles McCann, another pioneer family in the Marmora area, and had seven McCann children
JANE 1823- ?
In 1834 Andrew married Dorothy Sarah Keyes, daughter of ROYAL KEYES, another early Marmora pioneer

Their children were

Richard + Elizabeth McMaster
Thomas + Ann Sherman 6 Gawley Children
Leitia + William Phillips 12 Phillips Children
ANDREW + Elizabeth Best 10 Gawley children
Royal + Anna Maria Smith 3 Gawley children, including the famous ANDREW GAWLEY Click here

NEEDLESS TO SAY, THEY WEREN’T LONG POPULATING THE TOWNSHIP !

Sandra Townsend added: in a census William Charles McCann claimed work as a teamster in Deloro. In looking at a picture of the Deloro Dinky, one of the men pictured with it, resembled him, compared to another family picture. If it is him it would be one of only three pictures that I have of him. He is misrepresented in the Gawley Family Tree, as they call him William Chamber McCann. I feel confident that I have connected him to a Potato Famine McCann family that took advantage of the Hastings Colonization Rd. They claimed their 100 acres in Millbridge. He had an older brother that inherited that land. Wm. Charles left there after the 1881 census. Those McCann's were from Co. Down,as were the McMasters. That connection may have found him farm labour in Rawdon, where he met Letitia. By the 1921 census they were renting in the town of Marmora with 16 year old son Thomas McCann and 15 year old daughter Margaret. They had become more casual with their census representation, calling themselves Charles and Letty. He never claimed ownership of property throughout his life, always stating farm labour or a teamster in Deloro as his work. It wasn't a time in history to inherit land if you were a younger son. I used the stories of the fire at the Smelter to help explain why he and his son John spent time working in Campbellford during the years of WWI. The Trent Canal was under construction at the time.

The Gawley Tree claim a son James for Letitia and Wm. Charles. No one in our family have any knowledge of this man, nor could I source him during my research.