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Research in Other Countries => Canada => Topic started by: Erato on Friday 23 September 16 15:16 BST (UK)
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I am looking for any evidence that William H. Ennis fled from Minnesota to Canada in about 1887. Did he live there? Did he marry there? Did he die there?
There is some doubt about the exact date and place of William's birth. Some documents place his birth in Ireland, some in Canada. The year ranges from 1838 to 1840. A brief biographical sketch in the 'History of Northern Wisconsin' says he was born on 20 August 1839 in Ireland.
https://archive.org/details/historyofnorther00west [see p. 613]
At any rate, the Ennis family had immigrated to Canada from County Down by about 1840 and settled at Amherst Island, Ontario. They didn't stay long in Canada; by the Fall of 1848 they had moved on to Buffalo, Marquette County, Wisconsin. William's life in Marquette County is well documented until 1883 and it appears to have been respectable. He was unmarried, ran a farm and a hotel with his brother John, and was elected to various local offices in Buffalo Twsp.
In about 1883, he purchased a section of land in Viding Twsp., Clay County, Minnesota. He was apparently assisted there by his brothers George and James [b. abt 1847 and 1848 in Canada] and by his nephew also named William H. Ennis [b. 1862 in Wisconsin]. Both George and James had been married but by 1883 were separated or divorced. All of them appear on the 1885 Minnesota state census in Clay County.
All went well until shocking news was received in October 1887. William was accused of crooked dealing with Viding Twsp. funds and it was suspected that he had fled to Canada. He was never seen again. Wherever he went, it is possible that he was joined by George and James. They both later disappeared from the records, too. The nephew, William H. Ennis, went on to farm uneventfully in North Dakota.
Can anyone trace William or his brothers, George and James in Canada?
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Hi,
That link won't load for me for some reason or another. ??? :P
Who were the parents of George, James, and William.
Cheers,
DB
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Here's the snippet from the 'History of Northern Wisconsin.' They did not have a 1200 acre farm. That's a lie or a misprint. It was about 120 acres. John and Mary Ennis had ten children, in order: Thomas, Elizabeth, William, Mary, John, Hugh, George, James, Samuel and David. The first two or three were born in Ireland, the next five in Canada, and the last two in Wisconsin. Thomas [the father of the nephew named William H.] died in the Civil War and David died as a young man, still unmarried. Elizabeth, Mary, John, Hugh and Samuel all lived out their lives in Marquette County. William disappeared after the unfortunate events in Viding and so, eventually, did George and James.
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I was about to post never mind "forget" I asked that question. ??? ::)
Thanks for the snippet.
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http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1891/Pages/1891.aspx
- you can search the 1891 census here. I don't see any obvious hits for him but of course he may have been using an assumed name.
Any particular reason for assuming Manitoba, or was that just the nearest place?
About what date did George and James disappear from US records?
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Thanks, I've looked at the census. I've been searching for William on and off for years. I don't assume that he went to Manitoba though that would be a logical place to cross into Canada from western Minnesota if he was in a hurry. George disappeared in about 1887/8 and James was last seen in Wisconsin in 1905.
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Don't know where I got Manitoba from - seem to have got my threads crossed (thinking of different Marquettes, perhaps!)
At any rate, the closest I can see is a William or Wm Ennis from Ireland who appears in Hamilton, Ontario, from 1891 through 1911 census, and died there in 1913. Unfortunately doesn't appear with family and seems to have died in a House of Refuge so little family info. (This man was Roman Catholic, should it help). His birthdate is given in 1901 as in October, though, so maybe not the right one.
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Religion is a bit of an unknown but no one in the family, including William, seems to have been particularly religious. In his capacity as Justice of the Peace in Marquette County, William presided over civil marriage ceremonies, including the marriage of one of his nieces. A family rumor says that John Ennis was a Protestant and his wife Mary McGee was a Catholic and that they had agreed to raise alternate children as Catholics or Protestants. If there is any truth to this tale, William would have been one of the Catholics. However, I have never found any evidence to support the story and all of the family graves I have located are in Protestant cemeteries, including that of old Mary herself.
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Is there any chance that he had family still living in Ontario (in 1887) such as aunts or uncles?
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I have wondered about that but, as far as I know, they had no relatives in Ontario. This family was part of a substantial migration of people from the Ards Peninsula to Amherst Island. The Ennises were from Kircubbin. The migration began in the late 1820s and the people went as tenant farmers to work land owned by a major County Down land owner [whose name eludes me right now] who possessed land on Amherst Island. This migration was the subject of a book that looked at the social structure, economics and living conditions of the communities in Ireland and in Canada.
Wilson, Catherine Anne. New Lease on Life: Landlords, Tenants, and Immigrants in Ireland and Canada. McGill-Queen's Press. 1994. 315 p.
http://www.mqup.ca/new-lease-on-life--a-products-9780773511170.php
I have read most of the book but, unfortunately, although many immigrants were mentioned by name, there were no Ennises or McGees included in the study.
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Probably not much help but is there a chance the name became "Innes"?
Annie
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Maybe I should have elaborated on my thought of "Innes"?
It seems a lot of both Irish & Scottish arrived in Canada & names "sounding" the same were written differently.
E.G. I know of M(a)cInnes (Scottish) being recorded as "M(a)cGuinness" (Irish) (not sure of sp)?
Just a thought?
Annie
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Of course the name could be misrecorded as Innes or some other variant. Or William might have assumed another identity in order to hide, in which case he will be virtually impossible to find. With just one exception [the 1850 census], their name was always recorded as 'Ennis.' On the 1850 census, it was spelled 'Annis.' I think that was an enumerator error because all of them were literate and all of them, as far as it is known, spelled their name the same way - Ennis.
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"Nephew William Ennis of Wisconsin" erected a gravestone for William Gelson (d. 1872) & his wife Mary (d.1873) Pentland Cemetery, Amherst Island. They had been freeholders and built a stone house that burnt ca 1899.
John Ennis and wife Nancy nee Pogue briefly were on the Island (between censui):
"1875 #005058, John Ennis, 29, Amherst Island, Ireland, B, Farmer, s/o John and Ellen Ennis, to Ann Jane Filson, 35, Amherst Island, Ireland, W, d/o John and Nancy Pogue, witn Henry Filson, Amherst Island, Mar 17 1875 Amherst Island, Presbyterian, Presbyterian, Rev. James MacIntosh"