Rogers, Johnson and Bragg - More Branches Entwined

Researching the Bragg Family Tree is a bit like playing a game of Clue.  You get a piece of information and then another and suddenly the whole picture falls into place.

"How", I asked myself, "Could a young woman in the 1780s from Truro, Nova Scotia meet and marry a man from Shepody, New Brunswick?"  Bit by bit, details came together and yesterday the whole story was revealed.  Here it is:

The Hopewell

In 1760, Alexander McNutt, a land agent, travelled to Londonderry, Northern Ireland to recruit potential settlers for the area along the Bay of Fundy from which the Acadiens had been expelled six years earlier.  That year, he also visited Londonderry, New Hampshire for the same purpose.  In Ireland, he met John Rogers and convinced him that the Cobiquid would offer him free land and a fresh start.  Similarly, in New Hampshire, he met brothers, James and John Johnson.  In 1761, the Rogers arrived aboard the ship Hopewell and settled at Londonderry and the Johnsons settled at Truro.  Being part of the McNutt group, the families knew each other and did business back and forth in the early years in Nova Scotia.

Grave of James Rogers

John Rogers was born in 1733 in Northern Ireland and at the age of 20, married Elizabeth Spencer who was only 12 at the time.  They had six children, the eldest being James Rogers.  After many years in Nova Scotia,  James and three of his brothers applied for and got a land grant in Shepody in the area that later became New Brunswick.

James Johnson was born in 1719 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland and married Elizabeth Patterson in 1744 in New Hampshire.  They had eleven children, the youngest being Rachel who was born in 1768 in Castleton, Vermont.

Home of John Bragg and Jane Rogers
at Windham Hill

James Rogers visited his family in the Cobiquid in 1788 and met Rachel Johnson.  The two were married the same year in Shepody and went on to have six children.  Jane, their youngest was born in 1809 and during a visit with her sister, Sarah Rogers Taylor at Windham Hill, Nova Scotia,  met and fell in love with John Bragg, a neighbour. And thus, the Braggs, the Johnsons and the Rogers branches of the family joined, connecting us to this history of courage, adventure and longevity.

Grave of William Woodland Bragg
and Mary Crossman

In 1875, William Woodland Bragg, son of John Bragg and Jane Rogers, met and married Mary Crossman, the daughter of Howard Crossman and Rosannah Rogers, the granddaughter of James Rogers and Rachel Johnson and the niece of Jane Rogers Bragg.

This year celebrates the 250th arrival in Nova Scotia of the Rogers, Johnsons and their neighbours who were called the Cobiquid Planters.  Our roots, however entwined, are deep and lasting.

The Bragg Family Tree - Branches Entwined

Last resting place of William, Catherine and their children

 I guess it stands to reason that over the years various branches of our Bragg family would come together. Nova Scotia, after all is a small place and the population in the mid 19th Century was still under 200,000 souls. One such example is William McKim Peers and Catherine Johnson.

Pedigree of William McKim Peers

William was the grandson of Alexander Peers and May Bolding our United Empire Loyalist ancestors who came to the Remsheg (Wallace Bay) in 1783 after the American Revolution.  His parents were the infamous Ephraim Peers the Justice of the Peace and Patience Horton, daughter of another prominent UEL family.  William was born in 1831 and in his12th year lost his father when Ephraim dropped dead suddenly on the steps of the courthouse.  Along with his eight brothers and sisters, the family kept their farm running and in later years, young William would take it over.  William is directly connected to us through Matilda Swallow, mother of our grandfather, John Thomas Bragg.  He was my 1st cousin, 4 times removed.

Pedigree of Catherine Johnson

In 1859 he met and married Catherine A. Johnson in Truro.  Catherine's parents were 2nd cousins, Robert and Rachel Johnson which made her a double descendant of James and John Johnson, founders of the town of Truro and known as the Cobiquid Planters.  The Planters came to Nova Scotia in 1761 from New Hampshire and 2011 was the 250th anniversary of their arrival.  Catherine was born on July 1, 1839 in Truro but after their marriage, she and William lived on the Peers farm at Wallace Bay.  Catherine is directly connected to us through Jane Rogers, wife of John Bragg, Esq. our great great grandfather.  She was my 2nd cousin, 3 times removed.

Over the years, William and Catherine had fifteen children; Isabel, Margaret, Ephraim, an infant daughter, Mary Netta, an infant daughter, Catherine, an infant daughter, Lillian, Nina, Harriet, Annie, Charles Creed, Campbell Wentworth and Gordon.  Three of their little girls were stillborn and of the others, Mary Netta died at 23, Lillian died at age 9, Nina died at age 7, and Charles died at age 2.

Wallace Bay Cemetery

William died in 1897 at Wallace Bay at the age of 66 and was buried at the Wallace Bay Cemetery.  Catherine lived until 1907 and died at the age of 68.  She was buried at Wallace Bay with William and their young children.

And so, this is how these two families, each with their rich and interesting histories - the Peers with their Revolutionary War adventures and the Johnsons with their pioneering spirit - came together.

Daniel Starritt Gamble - Johnny Appleseed was a Gamble?

Daniel Starritt Gamble was my 1st cousin, 3 times removed.  He was the son of my grandmother, Julia Gamble's uncle Robert.


Exerpt from an article in the Brewster Washington News - 1908 

Daniel Starritt Gamble and grandson, Dan
Gebbers

Daniel Starritt Gamble was born in Castlereagh, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, on February 16, 1867, the son of Robert and Deborah (Reid) Gamble, natives of the same place, and where they still live, aged seventy-four and sixty-eight respectively. They were the parents of seven children: Mrs. Malinda Muhe, deceased; Daniel S., our subject; John, deceased; Martha, deceased: Joseph; Charles; Chesley R. All of those living are in Nova Scotia, except our subject. From the common schools of his home place Mr. Gamble received his education and learned the trade of carpenter and builder during his youth. In 1885 he came to Lansing, Michigan, whence one year later he went to Oakland, California, and labored in the bridge construction department of the Southern Pacific for five years. In the spring of 1890 he accepted a position with the San Francisco Bridge Company, and later came to this state. Here he did contracting and building. He put in the Ferry at Virginia City and Chelan Falls and operated the Virginia City ferry, just below Bridgeport. He also bought and sold horses. In 1898, as stated above, Mr. Gamble entered the hotel business and has made good success of it since that time.

On February 18, 1896, Mr. Gamble married Miss Cora May, daughter of Stephen C. and Ursula Munson, natives of Maine and pioneers to California in the early fifties. In 1885 the family came to Okanogan county, where Mr. and Mrs. Munson both died. Mrs. Gamble was born in California on October 7, 1877, and has two sisters, Mrs. Joseph Hilton and Mrs. Annie L. Walton. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gamble, Martha U., aged four and Cyril H., aged two. Mr. Gamble was one of the first to settle where Brewster now is and has ever been active in building up the town and for the general welfare of the county.

In 1885 Dan Gamble arrived with his backpack to the Harts Pass area in Washington State having walked from Nova Scotia for the beginning of the upper Methow gold rush. Later, he chased the silver boom at Ruby in the Okanogan valley. He first established a saw mill in the mouth of Cactus Canyon near Brewster in 1894 where he caught and milled drift wood out of the river. He followed up this venture with the establishment of the Gamble Hotel and steamboat landing on the banks of the Columbia River.

Dan Gamble's Hotel in Brewster, Washington

Daniel Starritt Gamble, who is proprieter of the Hotel Gamble at Brewster, is one of the leading business men of the Okanogan county and is well known in this portion of Washington. He is proprietor of one of the finest hotels in this part of the state and has labored steadily and with telling results in building up Brewster and the surrounding country. In 1898 Mr. Gamble was engaged in the hotel business at Brewster, beginning business in a small house, which was enlarged from time to time until he now has an elegant three story structure eighty feet deep, with a frontage of seventy-six feet. It has forty sleeping apartments, in addition to a spacious dining room, sample room, office, kitchen and so forth. The rooms are large and light and the building is handled in a first-class manner. Mr. Gamble has supplied his hotel with a private water system that gives an abundance of water to all parts of the house. As a host he is affable and genial and a favorite with the traveling public.

Dan Gebbers, grandson of Daniel Gamble
was the model for the family run
apple business advertising

He planted his first apple orchard in Brewster in 1910. He incorporated Gamble Lumber Company and a second saw mill located on Paradise Hill in 1910, with a large part of the production being wooden apple boxes. He built his first apple packing shed in Brewster in 1918.

Daniel died in Brewster in 1939 at the age of 72.

Adam Johnson - Patriot

Our family is justly proud of our United Empire Loyalist Heritage.  Many of our ancestors gave up everything they owned and put themselves in grave danger in order to uphold their beliefs.  But not all sided with the British during the revolutionary war.  Adam Johnson was one such man.

Adam Johnson, my 3rd Great Uncle was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire in the year 1745.  His parents were James Johnson and Elizabeth who came to Truro, Nova Scotia in 1761.  They were part of a group called the Cobiquid Planters, gathered by Alexander McNutt to settle the land around the Bay of Fundy.   This land had belonged to the Acadiens who had been expelled 6 years earlier by the British Government.


Adam was one of the Grantees of the Township of Truro.  He received a share of 500 acres.  He is recorded in his own household for the census taken in January 1771 as Adam Johnson Jr, He was called Junior to differentiate him from his cousin of the same name who was the son of Lieutenant John Johnson and Sarah Hogg - this Adam was also a Truro Grantee)    This census records that his is alone in his household and was born in America"   His land usage is recorded as 3 acres of arable land, 8 acres of mowing land and 489 acres of wooded land.

In the year 1772 Adam and John Archibald are recorded in the township as being "Constables"for the township.  His name is mentioned next when in the year 1777 he is recorded as being the "Fence Viewer" for the following term.  It was likely about this time or soon afterward he left Truro and returned to New England where he took up arms against Britain in the Revolutionary War.  Adam eventually was to settle on a farm near Castleton, Rutland County,, Vermont.  Shortly before his death he had been granted 400 acres of land by the US Congress for his services during the War.  This grant included the site of the present day of Columbus, Capital of Ohio.  Adam died before he had a chance to move to this new property.


In the book ""History of Branch County, Michigan" it records the following when referring to Adam's grandson, James O. Johnson - Adam Johnson, the grandfather of our subject was born in 1750 and when a very young man, at the commencement of the war between the Colonies and the British, became a refugee from Nova Scotia.  He escaped from the British authorities, joined the patriot forces and fought all through that great struggle.  At the close of the war he was married and became the father of five children.  He died in 1804, at fifty -five years of age.  His son James was born Oct 14, 1790 was reared a farmer and on the 22 day of Nov 1815, married Sarah Ashley of Fair Haven VT  They emigrated form Vermont to Ohio in 1825 and in 1841 they came to Michigan and settled on a farm in the township of Matteson  Afterward, he moved into the village of Union, where in 1865, he died at the age of seventy five.  His wife died the same year at the Age of seventy one.

Matilda Swallow 1839 - 1896

Relationship to me:

1. Matilda Swallow & Charles Bragg
     2. John Thomas Bragg & Julia West Gamble
          3. Russell Mackie Bragg & Dorothy Madeleine Harrigan
                4. Me

Swallow Home 1880s

Matilda Swallow was born on the 17th of April 1839 in Wentworth, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia to Thomas Swallow and Hannah Teed Swallow.  She was the second youngest of 11 children who grew up on the Swallow Farm at Swallow Hill on Swallow Road.  Their home was small and originally made of logs which were plastered over many years later.

Thomas Swallow came from Yorkshire, England and Hannah Teed was the granddaughter of our Loyalist Ancestors, Alexander Peers and Mary Bolding and the daughter of Daniel Teed and Jerusha Peers.

On her 20th birthday, Matilda married George Vincent, son of another prominent Loyalist family.  Just over a year later the couple had an infant daughter, Eldora.   The following year George died after a long illness (consumption) at the age of 24,  leaving her in embarrassed circumstances and with an infant daughter.  In the binder labeled "Peers"at the North Cumberland Historical Society in Pugwash,  is a copy of a letter from Matilda petitioning the probate Judge to let her to keep a cow which was a wedding gift from her family and two sheep and one lamb to allow her to provide for her child.

The infant daughter, Eldora appears on some Nova Scotia Census' living with the Bragg Family in Collingwood - but not all.  There is an indication she may have spent time living with her Vincent grandparents, Joshua Vincent and Hannah Treen in Wallace.  In 1878, she married Walter Trescott in Massachusetts and the two settled in Attleboro.  They had three children and Eldora died between 1910 and 1920.

After 3 years on her own, Matilda married Charles Bragg of Collingwood on th 15th of July 1864 at River Philip.  The couple had 8 children,  Harvey Woodland, Albert Warren, William Ellis, Walter Leslie, Mary Jane, Charles Edward, John Thomas and Flora Mabel.

My sense is that Matilda's life was not always a happy one.  Being widowed at 22 with an infant to care for must have been difficult in those days.  After George's death, there was a documented family battle over settling his debts and paying for Matilda's board and room at the home of Amos Purdy in Wallace River.  Joshua Vincent, George's father charged the 180 pound estate 120 pounds belonging to her for his time and labour in putting in a crop at their New Annan Road farm and 45 pounds for the time and materials required to build a barn - leaving her with next to nothing.

Grave of Matilda Swallow Vincent Bragg

Our family lore suggests that Charles Bragg was not an easy man to live with.  The fact that Matilda's daughter practically disappears from family documents; the fact that most of Charles and Matilda's children left home at a very early age and the fact that Charles remarried within months of Matilda's death support this possibility.

In 1875, Charles and Matilda's only daughter, Mary Jane, died at the age of 8 and their son, William Ellis died in 1876 at the age of 6.  That must have been a horrible blow and Matilda, herself died in 1896.  She is buried in the little cemetery at Oxford Junction.

She was just one tiny woman but when she came to the Bragg family, she brought with her a colourful array of Loyalist ancestors, the Peers, the Teeds, the Vincents, the Treens and many others.  She is our sole link to this amazing history and we are forever grateful.