WALKER PICNIC This year at Wasaga Sports Park, 3 pm June 12, 2011 (same as last year) ******************************************* George Allan Walker George was born in Inverury, Scotland on June 30, 1855 at a farm called "Drimmies" where his mother Elizabeth was a domestic. William Ogilvie was determined to be his father in court of law when he was eight years old. He had a younger half-sister Mary Ann Thain born 1860. When George was 18 years old he came to Canada alone. He probably came to his mother’s cousin (Alexander Walker) who had settled in Peel Township near Arthur, Ontario. George worked on Rutherford's and Dixon's farms in and around the Brampton area. One summer he met a young lady who had come to work in her uncle's store. her name was Jane Armstrong Miller. Jane Armstrong Miller Jane was born in Medonte Township, Upper Canada, on April 15, 1865. She was the third child of Christena Miller and George Miller, a Granddaughter of Robert Miller and Janet (Rowat) Miller who came to Canada from Scotland in 1826. She was also the Granddaughter of Jane (Armstrong) Miller and Gideon Miller who came to Canada in 1846. This was a different Miller family and no relation to Robert Miller . When she was about 20 years old Jane went to help an Uncle and Aunt in the Brampton area. There she met George Walker, a handsome young Scot with blue twinkly eyes. Romance followed and they were married the 24th of March 1886. Their Descendants They lived near Brampton for the next few years and it was there that their first two children were born. Alexander Henderson Walker was born on 16 January 1887 and Mary Christena Walker on 14 May 1888. About 1889 they moved to a log house in Edenvale, Vespra township which is between Barrie and Stayner. Here five more children were born Roy Gordon, 22 August 1890, Wilbert Allan, 9 August 1892, Melville Miller, 24 August 1894, Ruby Bernice, 26 December 1896 and Leslie George, 27 March 1899. They moved from Edenvale to a farm in Nottawasaga (Lot 17, Concession 1), and a few years later moved on January 1, 1902 to [west half] Lot 16, Concession 1. This farm was later owned and farmed by Roy. In Nottawasaga four more children were born, including John Matthew (2 July 1902), Mildred Hazel (10 April 1904), Jane (21 February 1906), and Violet May (22 May 1909). Tragedy came when Ruby died at ten years of age with appendicitis on April 6, 1907. All Ruby’s brothers and sisters remembered her with much love. Roy and Wilbert took over the farm, perhaps around 1919 when Roy was married. Then the Walkers moved across the town line into Sunnidale with the younger children. Here John gradually took over the farm management as the other children married and moved away except Mary who never married. Jane Armstrong Miller Walker died there on July 27, 1931. They called her ailment a "weeping tumor". When George was 85 his family decided to take on the town of Stayner in a ball game. George pitched the first ball. The Walker Clan won easily to the delight of the family. On November 23, 1942 George Allan Walker died in his sleep. George and Jane's direct descendants number approximately 300 today. [Adapted from Shirley (Walker) Rawlins] |