Historical Plaque Properties

 

William Adair Lockhart - Retired Farmer / Labourer
159 St. Vincent Street S.
Stratford, ON
1918


William Adair Lockhart was born April 28, 1866 in McKillop Township, Huron County, the fifth of seven children of George Lockhart (1831-1908) and Elizabeth ‘Isabella’ Bremner (Brymer) (1833-1921). George and Isabella, along with their son George, emigrated from Scotland to Upper Canada around 1856, farming in the Township of York, just west of Toronto, and then farming in McKillop Township near Seaforth by 1866.

 

On September 16, 1890 William married Jane Johnston, also born in McKillop Township, the daughter of farmers William Johnston (1829-1916) and Martha Shannon (1830-1915), immigrants from Ireland who had arrived in Upper Canada around 1852.

 

In the 1891 census, William and Jane were farming in McKillop Township, assisted by a ten-year-old farm labourer. By the 1902 census, William and Jane had four children: Eva Edna Isabel (1892-1959), Martha Emma (1894-1942), George Clarence (1897-1973), and William Oliver (1899-1978).

 

The family continued to live on the farm until about 1913 when the farm was sold and everyone moved to Stratford except Eva, who had trained as a nurse and was living in Kitchener. Between 1913 and 1919 William tried his hand at various jobs: labourer, fireman, and salesman. On the tax assessment roll of 1918 regarding 159 St. Vincent Street South, he is listed as a labourer. Emma, George, and Oliver continued to live with their parents, all working in a variety of jobs. In 1916 both George and Oliver enlisted in the army. The family lived in three different houses before moving to this house in 1918. It appears that William, Isabella, and two of the four children lived at 159 St.


Vincent Street South for 1918 and perhaps part of 1919. Interestingly, Emma’s name is the only one listed in the 1919 city directory, which suggests that she was the only working outside the home.

The lack of employment must have prompted the family to move to Windsor. In the 1921 census the family was living there, with the exception of Eva. William was an inspector at a factory, Emma a nurse, Oliver a machinist, and George a salesman.

 

Because of the booming economy in the 1920s, Detroit was a magnet for Ontarians who wanted employment. All of the Lockhart family, with the exception of Jane, who died October 15, 1926 in Windsor, ended up in Michigan. A few weeks after his wife’s death, William emigrated to Detroit to live with his son George, a contractor who

remained in the U.S. In 1920 William was listed as a sweeper at an auto factory. In 1922 Eva and her clergyman husband Ephraim emigrated to Detroit. Oliver also emigrated to Detroit, living for a time with Eva and Ephraim, and worked as a candy maker. Emma, trained as a nurse in Windsor, also ended up in Detroit (as well as Flint); however, she and her husband later moved to Ontario, and she died in St. Thomas and was buried in Windsor.

William died on July 9, 1937 in Maple, Ontario. He had been living there for five years with his daughter Eva and his son-in-law, Rev. Ephraim Huenergard, who had evidently moved back to Ontario. Ephraim died in Toronto March 1945. In Reno, Nevada, in December of that year Eva quickly remarried a widower from her home town. She and her new husband ended up living in Los Angeles.

 

Both William and Jane, along with their daughter Emma, are buried in Windsor Grove Cemetery in Windsor.