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Chronology
of Ephraim Webster (eldest child of Asa & Sally)

 

1794 Sep 24 Ephraim (III) is born. His family was living on the east half of lot 4 on the first concession of Elizabethtown Township at this time.
1806 Ephraim, age 11, moves with his family to lot 35 on the fifth concession of Augusta Township.
1815 Ephraim leaves home about this time and moves to the Front of Leeds Township. He appears in the 1815 assessment there. According to this record, he had a "merchant shop." The household listed immediately after Ephraim’s in the assessment was that of Seth Downs who had a daughter named Sally. Sally was born Nov. 3, 1800.
1816 Apr 2 Ephraim marries Sally Downs.
1816 Aug 19 Their son Asa is born.
1820 Sept 21 Ephraim writes a will. He provides for his wife Sally and son Asa but does not mention the child who is due to be born very soon after. He must have been seriously ill to write a will at his age, but obviously he recovered.
1820 Oct 1 Their son Ephraim is born.
1823 Nov 18 Their daughter Caroline Elizabeth is born.
1824 About this time, Ephraim moves his family to 30 acres of lot 12 on the second concession of Front of Lansdowne Township, near his Landon relatives. He no longer has a store. Ephraim and his family live in a "Framed under 2 storey" house on the lot.
1826 May 29 Ephraim, son of Ephraim and Sally, dies.
1826 June 4 Caroline Elizabeth dies, only six days after her brother. Caroline and Ephraim are buried in Lansdowne (Ebenezer) Cemetery, which is on lot 10 on the second concession of Front of Lansdowne Township.
1828 May 30 Ephraim and Sally have a third son who is born and dies on the same day. He is buried with his older brother and sister. There is one stone for the three of them.
1835 Ephraim and Sally build a stone or brick two-storey house on their land.
1841 About this time Asa marries Mary Laughton.
1841 Ephraim and Sally sell their land on lot 12 of the second concession of Front of Lansdowne Township, and move to a 2 storey stone or brick house on lot 16 of the first concession of Front of Leeds Township, on 56 acres of land which they had bought a couple of years before. Their land is very close to Gananoque. Ephraim opens a store again.
About 1841 Ephraim is involved in building a Methodist church in Gananoque. H. Wm. Hawke, in Historic Gananoque (Mika Publishing, 1974), states: "Largely through the efforts of Ephraim Webster, assisted by other townsmen, the Methodists built a church near the corner of Stone and Pine streets, on lots donated by the Hon. John McDonald." The same source says: "Ephraim Webster had a general store on the south side of King Street, near Stone, where he did an extensive trade."
1843 Asa and Mary have a daughter, Josephine Maria.
1846 Asa and Mary have a second daughter, Emily.
1849 Jan. 22 Asa and Mary have a son, Francis Dudley.
1850 According to the assessment for this year, Ephraim and Sally are still on lot 16, and Ephraim is still operating a store. Asa and family are in Gananoque.
1851 Asa and Mary have a third daughter, Mary Elizabeth.
1852 Jan The census taken at this time in the Front of Leeds and Lansdowne Townships has not survived.
1852 or 1853 Asa and Mary have a second son, Ephraim Osborne.
1850s? From H. Wm. Hawke’s Miss McCammon’s Notes on the Early Days of Gananoque (1967), found by John and Pam Thiel in Gananoque: "Mr. Ephraim Webster was Collector of Customs at this time. The following incident is told of the way smuggling was carried on in those days. One afternoon a barrel of beer was landed at the foot of Main St. and was being slowly rolled up the middle of the street when Mr. Webster suddenly appeared, and of course he seized the beer. The barrel was turned up on end, and Mr. Webster went for a team to remove it to a place of safety, shortly after he had gone a man appeared with an axe in his hand, and stove in the head of the barrel. Within a few minutes the barrel was surrounded by men, women and children with pails, tin pans, tea-kettles, in fact everything that could be used to carry off the beer. In due time the Collector returned with a team; but the barrel was empty, and not a person to be seen in any direction."
1861 In the census taken this year, Ephraim and Sally are living in the East Ward of Brockville. Ephraim is a Collector of Customs. Living with them is Sally’s mother Elizabeth (Whitney) Downs, who came to stay with them after her husband died in 1858. They have a two-storey stone house. Asa and Mary are in Front of Leeds Township (probably in Gananoque) with their five children.
1861-2 A map of Gananoque drawn up about this time shows A. Webster living at the corner of King and Charles Streets.
1865 May 22 Sally’s mother Elizabeth Downs dies and is buried in Brockville Cemetery.
1866 Oct 21 Asa dies and is buried in Brockville Cemetery.
1868 Nov 29 Ephraim dies and is buried in Brockville Cemetery.
1871 In this census, Sally is by herself in Brockville. Asa’s widow Mary is living with her daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Samuel Battams, in Gananoque.
1877 May 25 Sally dies and is buried in Brockville Cemetery. Ephraim, Sally, Asa and Sally’s mother are all together though there are only stones for Ephraim and Asa.
1891 May 21 Mary (Laughton) Webster dies in Portland Township, Frontenac County, where she was living with her daughter and son-in-law, Emily and Albert Orser. Mary is buried in Willowbank Cemetery in Gananoque.
 

 

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