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Genealogy, or the study of one's family lineage, is a hugely popular pastime in North America. In the Eastern Townships, numerous local and regional institutions provide service to people researching their family trees.

Way’s Mills may be a remarkably healthy locality but as years go by, the early settlers of Way’s Mills are advancing in age, and by 1875 some of our founders have passed away. For example, Jacob Clifford, Daniel Way’s contemporary, has died in 1871. Death sometimes claims the young as well.

On December 26th, 1871, Daniel Way appears with wife Keziah before the notary public and sells to son Lorenzo almost all the land he owns by the Niger River, including the family dwelling, for twelve hundred dollars. On the same day Daniel sells to his other son Asa the remainder of the land for eight hundred dollars. In addition, Asa and Lorenzo each get an undivided half of the the woolen mill and the machinery used for carding wool and dressing cloth.

Having paid tribute to the Hollister and Truell families, let’s go back to Way’s Mills in the 1860s. A post route from Barnston to Way’s Mills is established on July 1st, 1863. Ebenezer Southmayd Senior, the Ways’ neighbour, is Way’s Mills first postmaster.

One of the earliest settlers of Way’s Mills, Harry Hollister, owned over 100 acres in the Fifth Range on which he operated a grist mill and a saw mill. He died in 1857 (see Part 8, 10 and 11). The following year, his widow Mary Ann Yemans sold the farm and the mills to Valorous Truell for 100$ on condition that (the following is an extract from the 1858 deed of sale):

By the 1850s, residents in the Coaticook area, including Barsnton are fighting with Stanstead over the location of the Railroad running from Portland, Maine, into Canada. Daniel Way and Harry Hollister, are shareholders of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad (2 shares each!). Coaticook is chosen and the region develops quickly as a result of the economic boom that follows. Way’s Carding Works, as Daniel’s mill is then called, is prospering.

Daniel Way lives at the entrance of the settlement, by the first bridge. Cloth manufacture is his trade. At the far end of the settlement, by the bridge at the foot of Chemin Madore, lives Harry Hollister. He has been operating a saw mill and a grist mill for several years.

1849…There are rumblings of discontent in Stanstead County. Its citizens are unhappy with a stagnating economy and the seeming reluctance of Canada’s colonial government to effect the changes that will encourage growth.

The waters of the Niger had attracted settlers to the area as early as 1796, long before Daniel and Lorenzo Way’s arrival. By the late 1830s, several families were established.

In September 1843, Daniel Way and the members of his family have moved into the Barnston area in a settlement that does not yet bear their name. The eldest son, Lorenzo Sweedenburg Way, is now a young man of 27 who has married Julia Ann Hodge on September 6, 1838.

1819 : Daniel and Keziah Way and their first-born Lorenzo are now settled on Lot 9, Seventh Range of Stanstead Township, between Griffin Road and Smith’s Hollow, by the Tomifobia River.

So who was waiting for Daniel Way and his young family in Canada after 1816? Remember the Gustin, the Mack and the Miller men from Marlow N.H., who were married to Esther, Ethelinda and Sally Way, Daniel’s aunts? In The History of Stanstead County, B. F.

Keziah Jaquith, Daniel Way’s future wife, was born on November 16, 1793. She was the second daughter of Jesse Jaquith and Keziah Hathorn. Jesse Jaquith’s ancestry can easily be traced back all the way to Richard Jaques, a French protestant, or ‘Huguenot’. Richard’s son, Abraham, born around 1610, settled in the Massachussets Bay Colony.

We’ll catch up with the Gustins, Macks and Millers near the U.S.-Canada border later. For now, their nephew Daniel Way, born in 1794, is growing up in Marlow, Cheshire County, NH. The town has voted six months’ schooling for all children in 1792 and since then several district schools have been built.

The Way family thus came in 1787 to the area of Marlow, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, joining some 200 souls just recently settled there. Have a look on a map…Marlow lies some 260 km North of Lyme, Connecticut…and 270 km South-East of Stanstead…Halfway… The area is beautiful.

We know that Way’s Mills was founded in the mid-19th century by Daniel Way, who is buried in Way’s Mills cemetery, up on Jordan Rd. His son, L.S. Way, followed in the footsteps of his father and operated for over half a century the woolen mill that once stood by the Niger River at the entrance of Way’s Mills.

Taproot IV: Poetry, Prose, and Images from the Eastern Townships, the latest edition of a series of anthologies published by Townshippers’ Association, has just been released.

"From Ottawa or Washington this international community is something that can not possibly exist officially. But it does still exist at the community and personal level. Our fire departments […] stand ready at all times to assist one another. Our churches and service clubs see no border when someone is in need.

“My father bought that gatherin’ tub in 1919, the year he started sugarin’. It was made by a fella name of Odd Aldridge over here in Moe’s River. He was a cooper – made washtubs, barrels, buckets… I tell ya I wouldn’t mind havin’ all the nickels and pennies worth of sap that’s gone through that tub.”

Derek Booth has just released his latest contribution to Quebec’s railway and transportation history. Quebec Central Railway – From the St. Francis to the Chaudière is published by Railfare Books, and is the third volume in Booth’s series “Railways of Southern Quebec.”