Mighty Women

Elizabeth Feeley Teed

Imagine it's 1830, and she is living in Donegal, Ireland.  She is Elizabeth Feeley, a young widow with a 2 year old son.  Lonely and impoverished, she cautiously responds to a letter from a relative's friend with an offer of marriage and money for passage to Canada.  Wondering why a staunch Protestant would want an Irish Catholic wife, she embarks on the 6 week journey by sailing ship across the Atlantic Ocean.  The voyage is trying, with terrible north Atlantic storms, sea sickness and a wailing toddler but more frightening is the thought of the stranger, her future husband, waiting for her on the pier at Halifax.  David Teed, it turned out was a gentleman farmer from Wentworth in Cumberland County.  Elizabeth and David married in Wentworth in July 1831 and went on to lead a happy life with a family of 6.  While the tale had a good ending, it is so impressive to think of the courage it must have taken to leave family and home and leap into the unknown.  Elizabeth was my 2nd great great aunt.


Into the same family came Mary Garvin.  Tiny with black hair and eyes, she was the wife of Elizabeth Feeley's son, Charles.  She could neither read nor write but could add up a long column of numbers faster than you could do it on paper.  She raised hens and used the eggs to barter.  On one shopping trip to Wallace, the storekeeper added up her purchases and told her what she owed.  She, herself, had already added it up in her head and reached a different amount.  She told him he was mistaken.  When he explained that the difference was caused by a recent drop in the price of eggs, she said..."at that price, it wasn't worth the wear and tear on the hen's ass!"


Sarah Fulton was also from Donegal.  Born in 1755, she married James Crawford in 1790 and raised a family of 4 children.  In 1808, James died and in 11 years later, at the age of  64, Sarah emigrated to Canada with her son, John and his wife Jane.  Travelling with a group of neighbours, including Robert Gamble, Samuel Beattie, Robert Starritt and others, they settled in various communities along the shores of the Bay of Fundy.  The families were destined for Nova Scotia, but through some miscommunication ended up in Quebec City.  Robert Starritt had enough money to sail for Halifax and eventually returned with passage money for the rest of the group.  They sailed in a small schooner to Baie Verte, New Brunswick where they unloaded their possessions and carried them, through the heavy, bug infesting forests to the Economy, Bass River and Castlereagh areas.  Quite a feat for a woman of 64!  Sara died in 1835 in Pleasant Hills, Colchester County.  She was the grandmother of my first cousin, 4 times removed.

Mary Bolding Peers

In 1783, Mary Bolding, aged 38 was living with her 6 children as a refugee in Westchester, New York.  Her husband, Alexander Peers was a soldier in DeLancey's Brigade, a Loyalist Unit fighting the Patriots during the Revolutionary War.  The family had all their possessions confiscated by the new American government, and their lives were in danger if they stayed in the new country.  King George was offering land in Nova Scotia as his thanks for the Loyalists' service to the crown and so they had decided to go there.  Transportation, however was offered only to Officers and their families and since Alexander was a mere foot soldier, they were on their own.  So, with courage and determination, Mary and her family walked from New York, through dense forests, over mountains, across vast waterways and finally arrived in the Remsheg (now known as Wallace, Nova Scotia).  They arrived with barely the clothes on their backs but went on to build a successful life in their new home.  Mary was my 4th great grandmother.