Below are links to various maps of interest in the lives of Asa and Sally Webster.
Asa Webster was granted the east half of lot 4 (100 acres) on the first concession
of Elizabethtown Township in Leeds County. The Crown land grant index gives
a date of about 1789 for the grant, but he would have been on the land sometime
in 1784. Asa married Sally Baldwin on Jan. 16, 1791. Their first nine children
(including the three daughters who died at birth or soon after) were born
while they lived on this lot in Elizabethtown Township. On June 14, 1805,
Asa and Sally sold the lot to Henry Arnold for 300 pounds. They bought lot
35 (200 acres) on the fifth concession of Augusta Township, Grenville County,
from James and Jerusha Brooker on Jan. 23, 1806 for 200 pounds. Their remaining
six children were born after their move to the Augusta lot.
The Webster family lived in a log house on this lot until about 1825 when
they built a frame house. After that, the log house was occupied at different
times by some of their sons and daughters, usually for just a year or two
after they married.
Asa wrote his will on Dec. 7, 1839. Here are the terms of the will:
-
The Lot left to Sally Webster his wife for her life or while she remains unmarried
after which share and share alike to his sons Parker and Phineas and five
daughters Polly, Betsy, Almira, Phoebe, and Anna, reserving S 1/2 of W 1/2
to Sally wife of John Smith, to her and her eldest son for ever - except said
Sally Smith shall die before said Sally Webster, when it shall revert to the
above share & share alike.
It’s possible that Asa and Sally were able to provide some financial help to their four oldest sons, Ephraim, Baldwin, Asa Jr., and Norman when they left home, and that’s why they were not remembered in the will. (Baldwin died in 1830, before the will was written.)
Asa died on Nov. 7, 1840 and Sally on Feb. 23, 1849. They were buried in Carpenter Cemetery which is marked on the township map. Also buried in that cemetery are their daughter Sally and son Baldwin, as well as some of Sally’s children.
The southwest quarter of the lot, containing 50 acres, stayed in the hands of descendants of John and Sally Smith until it was sold in 1906. The other 150 acres was sold much earlier, in two pieces. Phineas, probably acting on behalf of Polly, Betsy, Almira and Phoebe, sold 125 acres in 1851. (Apparently Anna had died by this time.) The remaining 25 acres, at the north end of the lot, was sold by Parker in 1854.
The old log house which Asa and Sally occupied from 1806 to about 1825 was probably the Smith house, the location of which is indicated on the 1861-2 township map and also on the 1937 air photo. Their frame house was likely on the north 25 acres of the lot, though it doesn’t appear on the 1861-2 township map.
Leeds
and Grenville
This map shows the Ontario county of Leeds and Grenville, the St. Lawrence
River and the relationship between Brockville, Lyn, and Augusta, Gananoque
and Kitley, all of which played a role in the lives of the Webster family.
Townships
of Elizabethtown and Augusta (1861 maps)
This composite map shows the location of Asa's origninal 1794 grant in Elizabethtown
and the one he moved his family to in Augusta in 1806.
Webster
land (1937)
A 1937 aerial photograph shows both the Webster farm in Augusta and the Carpenter
cemetary where Asa and Sally are burried.
