Abraham Boulton (1885 - 1981)

Abraham was a son of Thomas and Margaret Boulton, sibling to Ernest, Lorne, Stanley, Thomas and Mary along with 6 others.

He was born at Graham Lake, Ontario on June 8, 1885 as the fourth child. His given name was that of his grandfather Thomas' brother Abraham (1762-1859) who had married Mary Elliott (1771-1816) and lived in the Usborne Township of  Huron County in Ontario. Abe was in Manitoba at one time and his son said he would have like to have stayed but was needed back home to help his mother with the farm and the younger children after his father Thomas left for the west.  

Abraham married Ethel Jane King (1888- 1972) on February 8, 1911.  Thanks to their son Don for this picture of the couple that day.  On the 1921 Canadian Census, they have 3 young children along with her father George King in their farming household.  She is called Jennie in this document. 

 The couple are pictured with their nephew Earl Boulton from Manitoba.  He must have been training in the area as there are several pictures of him with his Ontario relatives. 

Abe and Ethel Jane celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1961 and much of this biography was taken from a newspaper clipping from then sent by their family to my brother in law, Russell.  To quote the clipping:

The couple can well remember the snow and cold of their wedding day fifty years ago when the wedding was two hours late as the couple struggled for nine miles through the drifts with a horse and cutter at 30 below weather to reach Brockville.  However, they finally arrived and Rev. F. D. Woodcock performed the ceremony at Trinity Church.  The bridesmaid was Rose Cromwell and the bestman was George Herbison.

After returning from a honeymoon in Ottawa, they took up farming at Graham Lake, moving to Yonge Mills in 1920 and to Hallecks in 1925. Six years ago (1955) Mr. Boulton retired and built their present home on number 2 highway a mile west of Long Beach.  

Abraham is at the back in the middle of this picture with his son Albert on the left and Leslie on the right.  His mother Margaret is in front. 








They had a family of 4 boys and a girl and in 1961, had 16 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. Irene and Albert are on the left below, Leslie in the middle, and Abe and Jennie on the right.  Their legacy has no doubt increased many times since that count.  Abraham passed away in 1981 and his wife in 1972.

As an interesting aside, "Googling"  the location of their wedding found some cugaretrrent results.   The Trinity Anglican Church made the news in June of 2014 and has since been torn down.  That seems to be the same story with churches everywhere  with congregations shrinking.  Finding new sources of funds and uses for the buildings is the only way they will survive for the next generations.

November, 2019 The Lyn Museum Facebook page posted some pictures of Abe's family and thanks to John, I will add them to this post. Sons Ernest, Don, Leslie and Albert stand together in the first photo and Ernest and Don are together in leather jackets in the second. These were in an album with Clow photos and I believe that Albert's wife was Margaret Isobel Clow so that makes sense.   

Leslie in his uniform during WW2