My brother George Hobson, Great-Grandson of Robert Hobson, handed our Aunt Lillian an exercise book one day and asked her to record what she knew of the family history. What follows is a word-for-word transcription of her narrative. Had she known that it would one day find a home on the 'web' I'm sure she would have worried herself sick with editing. We're indebted to her for all the time and effort she expended to help preserve our family's history.

Note from Susan:  As I gradually transcribe Aunt Lillian's notes, I find that there is a certain amount of disorganization in the material. So now I'm presented with a conundrum - do I continue to copy this material in the same order as it is presented to me, or do I impose my own ideal of order on the document?  I am opting to respect Aunt Lillian's continued ownership of her own words.  If this troubles the reader I hope you'll understand that she recorded her thoughts in almost a 'stream-of-consciousness' fashion.  She made virtually no revisions or additions as she went along.  Because this is a lengthy document, I am attempting only to present it in something like 'chapter' fashion.  Therefore, each additional 'chapter' will bear a title referring to the first or most prominent subject on that page.  The chapter will probably not be a complete record of the subject who (or possibly 'which') would appear to be its focus.   

Not long after I started transcribing the Hobson family information that was available to me, I was contacted by Nick Anderson who lives in Ohio.  Nick has been doing genealogy for a number of years and had apparently entered a few names into an internet search engine and came up with my pages!  We share a kinship to Robert and Eliza Hobson.  Nick is a descendant of Anne Jane Hobson.  He is her great-great grandson and therefore Robert Hobson's great-great-great grandson!    He tells me that this makes me his dad's 4th cousin and his 4th-cousin-once-removed.  Nick has shared a wonderful quantity of information with me, so much that I barely know how to begin to transcribe it all.   Since I haven't a clue where to begin, I'm just going to begin...  You know the old cliche about the journey of a thousand miles beginning with a single step.  Here I go!  I'll start on this page but information relating to other members of the line will probably end up on other pages.  Whenever that happens, I'll do my best to refer back to Anne Jane's page and for now I'll highlight the new data with (TYNA)  TYNA means "Thank you, Nick Anderson!"  

Aunt Lillian's Story Begins:

 (Photographs are of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hobson-click on photos to enlarge.)

Grandfather Robert Hobson was born in Ireland in 1815. He came to Canada with his family in 1818 at the age of three. They settled near where the city of London now stands. At that time there were only two citizens there. After ten years they returned to Ireland, but stayed there only one year. They realized that Canada was where they wanted to make their home. This time they decided to journey to Goderich.  (Wikipedia entry  -TYNA! - at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haysville%2C_Ontario ) In 1828 a trail had been made through dense animal inhabited forest. On the seventy miles to Lake Huron there was not a settler. They slept on the ground on a bed of branches. They settled in Goderich, where Robert, now fourteen was the first white boy there.

(TYNA! - Robert Hobson had a brother George who ran a stagecoach business.  Robert Hobson was born in Armagh, Ireland.  His parents were William Hobson and Mary Ann Compton.)

In a few years they came back to where the city of Haysville now stands. In 1883 they sold the land they had cleared and built a hotel as the beginning of Haysville. They also cleared more land, 600 acres, and sold the farms, becoming the wealthiest men in the district. In 1849 they moved on to Hamboro, near Dundas. Here in 1852 Robert married at age thirty-seven a Miss Daily (Eliza) of Hamilton, who was eighteen. Their next move was to Brantford and after a while here, they settled near Woodstock. Later they moved on to Perth County. Here they prepared and completed a house and farm that were models for the country around. In 1887 they settled in Ellice Township. Here they resided until March 1909, when Stratford became their home. Robert died in his ninety-sixth year after a long illness. His father and grandfather had lived to practically the same age. Robert had been the first citizen in five or six different places. His death was the first break in the family.

Grandmother Hobson was born in Hamilton Ontario in 1835. According to what I have heard from different members of the family, both Grandma and Grandpa were very kind loving people. They worked in the communities in which they lived and were well liked. They were always willing to help anyone in need. They had thirteen children. When she died in 1926 she was ninety-one years old. Ten of her children survived her. Her children were as follows:

Ann Jane (picture)- she married and left home before some of the others were born. She lived in Philadelphia and had several children, but I know nothing more of her.  (Anne Jane Hobson Anderson line.)

Emma - She married Mr. Tait and lived in Rochester, New York. She was very pretty and socially minded. She had no children.

Jessie - She married Mr. Mooney and also lived in Rochester, New York. She had no children. Both she and Emma were well off financially.

Minnie - She married Will Reid, was a nurse and lived in several different places, among them Glencoe, Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta. She had no children.

Will - He married Kate Caston and lived in Woodstock, Ontario. They had no children.

Jack - He was unmarried, and a prospector and travelled all over. He went to Alaska, in the '98 Gold Rush.

George - He married Agnes Bell of Uxbridge, Ontario. He came to Vancouver around 1888. Mother came out in 1890 and they were married in Banff. They had five children.

Bob - He was unmarried and lived at home. He worked in a furniture factory.

Nettie - She was unmarried, lived at home and kept house for the rest of them.

Beckie - She was unmarried and lived at home. She worked in a lawyer's office.

Lizzie - She married Lee Diggon and lived in Glencoe. Her husband was a wireless operator for the railway. They had two children, Lee and Minnie. He shot himself. Nobody knew why.

Louise - She was not married. She lived at home and was not very bright.

Lee - He married Lulu Lee of Edmonton. They lived in Edmonton, Winnipeg and later Stratford. He had two daughters. He was a barber and drank a lot.
Next page - Part Two