Contributors: John Beamish and Ethel Ray
Abner Pickett was the first of his family to be born in Canada. His father, Joseph Pickett, was born in England 1815 and came to Canada in 1828. His mother, Suzannah Husband, was born in Ireland and came to Canada as an infant in 1822. She grew up in Nassagaweya, near Ebenezer Church. Joseph and Suzannah married in 1841 and farmed in Seneca and Trafalgar townships, raising a family of nine children. Their first child, Abner, was born in 1843.
Suzannah and Joseph Pickett
Abner Pickett and (Hannah) Elizabeth Harrison were married in 1863. Elizabeth was born in England in 1848 and came to Canada as a child. Abner farmed and kept bees before moving to Darbyville in 1868, where he bought land from Robert Darby and took over his wagon making business. Directories from the late 1800s describe Abner as a wagon maker, a carriage maker and as a carpenter. He had a sideline making honey and for many years was a district director of the Canadian Beekeepers Association.
Abner and Elizabeth (Hannah) Pickett
A photograph of Darbyville, taken around 1905, shows the village, looking south down the Guelph Line. The brick house on the left (still there at 12037 Guelph Line) was built by Robert Darby in 1888. Abner Pickett and his family lived in the wooden house on its right; beyond that are the Picketts’ carriage and wagon making shops. A stone blacksmith shop originally built by Robert Darby is next, just before the intersection of 20 Sideroad.
Darbyville circa 1905
Abner and Elizabeth raised a large family in Darbyville – seven boys and three girls. Their oldest son Wesley took over the business, which eventually became the Erwin and Pickett Carriage Company. Around 1910 their wooden house was replaced by a larger brick one (still there at 12027 Guelph Line).
Abner and Elizabeth Pickett and family 1899
In 1902, with his sons grown, Abner bought 10 acres beside the Kilbride Methodist Church from Joseph Satchel Tandey. He paid $925 for the land and built a house that they called “Maple Grove”. Abner and his wife moved there with their two youngest daughters, Maude and Ethel, then young women of twenty-two and nineteen.
In front of Maple Grove, the Pickett home in Kilbride (1911)
Pickett family reunion at Maple Grove in 1911
In Kilbride Abner became a market gardener, growing and selling berries, fruit and vegetables. He continued to keep bees (a 1906 directory lists him as an apiarist) and some of his old Darbyville customers traveled to Kilbride for his berries and honey. A 1934 airphoto shows his land between Kilbride, McNiven and Cedar Spring Roads, still being used for gardens and orchards, and a Google Earth image shows it as it appears now. In a letter written to his daughter Ethel on September 13, 1914, Abner noted that “There is nothing doing since the War started, business is very dull”. He then goes on to describe the state of his garden “Pulled some watermelons last night, very nice ones. Hope to have about 40 bushels potatoes, strawberry plants look pretty and raspberry bushes are very fine. The land about here is very good. Have it set out 100 black currants, 100 red, 400 raspberries, 10 pears, 8 apple, 27 cherry. Crop mostly very good”. A 1911 photograph shows Maude Pickett and helpers in their strawberry patch.
Maude and Ethel quickly made friends and joined in in Kilbride church and social activities. Around 1906 Ethel moved to Toronto to work as a hairdresser at Jules & Charles salon on Yonge Street but she continued to spend her summers in Kilbride, enjoying garden parties, talent shows and amateur theatrics with her sister and friends. Their mother died in 1908 and Maude stayed in Kilbride, helping her father with the house and gardens and teaching Sunday School.
In 1912 Ethel Pickett moved to Edmonton, looking for adventure. There she met Dick Beamish and they were married in 1914. A few months later, Maude Pickett married Walter Harbottle at Abner’s Maple Grove home. They farmed and lived nearby (in the house at 2241 Brittania Road). In 1912 Abner sold his land to Joseph Henry Nicholson for $3500 but continued gardening until shortly before his death. Maude and Walter did not have children but lived in the area until their deaths in 1950. They are buried in the Lowville cemetery.
Harbottle house on Brittania Road
Summers in Kilbride 1911 and 1912
In 1903 Abner Pickett moved to Kilbride with his wife Elizabeth and their two youngest daughters, Maude and Ethel. The two young women, who were then twenty-two and nineteen, immediately became involved in Kilbride’s social life, centering around the Methodist Church, community picnics, musical events and talent shows. A few years later, Ethel moved to Toronto to work as a hairdresser but she continued to spend her summers in Kilbride with her parents and sister Maude still lived.
In 1911, Ethel acquired her first camera and became a keen photographer. She left Ontario in the fall of 1912 to live in Edmonton, so her Kilbride pictures are from those two summers. Many of them feature her with her family or with friends who visited Kilbride.
One set of Ethel’s pictures is from an outing with her Toronto friends, Edith and Martha Frogley, and her sister Maude. The Pickett home “Maple Grove” was located beside Kilbride Methodist Church and from there the women walked to the site of the Dakota Mill where they explored the millpond and spillway on Bronte Creek and posed for photos. A 1934 airphoto shows the area, with Kilbride Street at the top. Maple Grove and Abner’s orchards and gardens were located just below that, between McNiven Road and Cedar Springs Road. Bronte Creek and the millpond can be seen near the bottom left of the photo, across the road from Cedar Springs Community Club. A Google Earth image on the right shows the area as it appears today.
Abner Pickett with Edith, Maude and Ethel at Maple Grove
Ethel Pickett and Edith Frogley dipping their toes in the millpond on Bronte Creek
Martha and Edith Frogley with Maude Pickett at the millpond
Edith (sitting) and Martha Frogley with Maude Pickett, climbing on the spillway
Ethel and Maude on bridge with Martha Frogley
Ethel Pickett’s pictures include others taken at Maple Grove. One shows Ethel with Tillie McDowell, a Toronto friend who accompanied Ethel in her 1912 move to Edmonton. Another photo shows Ethel and a friend behind Abner’s house, sampling buttermilk from the churn.
Kilbride History Group 