Tully Hotel in Peterborough

Early Years

Robert D. Tully was born in Smith Township, Upper Canada about 1838. He was a son of Thomas and Mary Tully who lived in the township. Robert met and married Eunice Mary Morgan, a young woman from Otonabee Township. Eunice was born in 1854, a daughter of William Morgan and Susan Powell.  Robert and Eunice were married in the later months of 1871 for in that year she still lived at home with her parents when the census was taken in the spring months.

Young Newly Weds

The young couple set up their first home in Smith Township, where Robert was farming. In 1872, their first child, a daughter they named Mary Elizabeth, was born. By 1874, they had moved into Peterborough. Here their first son, William Thomas, was born in 1874. Robert Tully worked as a hotel keeper. Another son, Frederick, was born in 1876. By 1881 the family resided in the hamlet of Warsaw in Dummer Township. Here Robert kept a tavern under the name of Commercial House.

Commercial House Warsaw Village, Peterborough County

Commercial House Warsaw Village, Peterborough County

In the closing months of 1888, disaster befell the family. Eunice was taken ill with meningitis and died at their Dummer home on 13 November 1886. Robert D. Tully died barely a year and a half later on 21 February 1888. They rest in Little Lake Cemetery, Peterborough, Ontario