Travels with Shadow
Michigan, Ontario and New York
In order to allow more liberal use of photos without causing long download times, I am mostly using black and white photos
After my winter wanderings, I got back to Minnesota in mid May. It was nice to have a place to come home to, but after
getting my doctor's ok I was ready to hit the road again. Not all this down
time was wasted as I did run to a couple of Minnesota camp grounds.
William O'Brien state park near the twin cities
The work on the rental apartment was going
appallingly slow, and sticking around was just getting me aggravated. I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and
head to Michigan, Ontario and New York, looping back through Ontario and Sault Saint Marie.
Canada of course, is not a place to visit in the winter.
My sister Kay delayed my escape by a couple of days by throwing a
farewell dinner that Sunday night. It was nice to get together with her
and my brother Robert, and it gave her a chance to check out my
beautiful grand children and see my sons again. It was a nice get
together, and it reminds me how blessed I am to have family.
Shadow had become depressed and nervous over the two and a half
months at home. He always gets excited when I hook up the trailer. As
soon as we hit the road he was back to his old self, and I guess so was
I. We headed out that Monday, August first, figuring to stop west of
Chicago. However, I missed my exit and as it was early enough, I
decided to run through Chicago.
Every trip through Chicago has been an aggravating experience, and this
was no exception. Road repair slowed me to a crawl in 90 plus
temperatures, and my transmission seemed to be complaining about it. It
cost me more than $30 in tolls to get to Indiana, as they were charging
for four axles. NEVER AGAIN!!, I hate the place!
Indiana Dunes state park
Exhausted, I made it to the Indiana Dunes State Park, a nice set up
near the beach. The next day I was in better shape and headed for
Detroit where I had some family research to do. By two in the
afternoon, I made it to Selfridge Air Force Base which has a nice
family camp right on Lake Saint Claire. The next day I took the shore
road up the Saint Claire river to Port Huron where the Armitage and
Westbrook families hailed from. On the way I passed through Marine City
where the Westbrooks had a 200 acre farm in the 1820s. Checking the
land records I discovered that they had once owned most of the land on
the American side of the river all the way down to Lake Saint Claire.
The Detroit Public Library has one of the best genealogical research
centers that I have seen outside of the New York Genealogical Society.
I managed to collect more information on several branches of the family.
It is 690 miles from Saint Paul, MN to Detroit, MI
On Sunday I crossed into Canada at Windsor and took a run up the shore
to look for the Finster farm. They had homesteaded it in the 1830s. Of
course it was all part of Windsor now, but I got a feel for where my
great grandfather grew up. From there I headed east on 401 to London. I
found a nice campground north of town at the Fawnshawe Conservation
area.
Just west of London, Ontario is the small farm village of Delaware. This is where my ancestor Andrew Westbrook had his farm
prior to the
War of 1812. During the War Andrew, a captain in the military, defected to the American side and was attained for High
Treason by King George. In doing so he forfeited his farm as well as 4,000 acres in western Ontario.
Delaware is a nice little town surrounded by some of the richest
farm land that I have seen. It lies about 100 miles from Port Huron,
Michigan where Andrew, according to the family, after torching his
house and barns, is said to have driven his life stock across the Saint
Claire to feed the starving American navy. Considering the distances
involved, I wonder how he managed it.
In fact, he came back later with his rangers to torch his
property. He had taken his family in a sleigh and what property he
could down the Thames river to Lake Saint Claire the previous February.
The Thames which flowed in front of his property, had provided safe
access to Lake Saint Claire, a distance of about a hindred miles.
Disaster struck on the lake when his horse drawn sleigh plunged through
the ice. He managed to rescue the horses, the sleigh and his family.
However, his wife died from exposure after reaching Detroit.
The weather was misearable on the run to the states. I decided to forego Niagara Falls and the Gage/Jones battlefield house
at Stoney Creek. I will attempt to catch them on the way back.
It was a 376 mile run from Ontario to Warwick, NY with a stop in Bath, NY
Bath lies a few miles from Lake Kuekla. When the family
first moved to the area they lived in Urbana near the foot of the lake.
The Finger Lakes are beautiful and I would be tempted to move here
myself. After a couple of days I managed to find an overgrown burial
ground a feew miles out of town where William B Jones, my grandfather's
grandfather was buried.
Old Baptist Metting House, Warwick, NY
From there I made a run down the Pennslvania border to Warwick, NY
where he was born. It is in the Catskills and while it is more pleasant
than some of the other surrounding towns, it is not a place I would
choose to live. A few days of searching church and court records
revealed nothing useful. So I guess this is a dead end for the Joneses,
unless I can find something new in the New York Genealogical Library
next week. From here I am heading into Jersey to try and chase down
some Haywards.