Out of Our Past
A Tindle Family in Smith Township
Thomas Tindle born in Berryhill, Northumberland, England about 1801. Circa 1829 or 1830, Thomas married Sarah Edmison. Sarah was already a young widow with four young sons. She had married Israel Black who died in 1823.
About 1832, Sarah’s parents, Alexander and Margaret (Drysdale) Edmison came to Upper Canada. With them appear to have come all their eleven children except Sarah. Tragedy struck the family shortly after their arrival, when Alexander died at Port Hope on 21 July 1832. Margaret and most of her children, who were adults by this date, settled in Peterborough, Ontario.
Sarah (Edmison) and her husband, Thomas Tindle, did not make their way to Canada West until shortly before the 1851 Census of Canada was taken. Their youngest child, George Black Tindle, was born in Northumberland, England in October 1840. In Canada, Thomas and Sarah made their way to Smith Township, where they first farmed at Lot 3 Concession 4. The family moved to Lot 3 Concession 3 by the census taken in 1861.
Sarah (Edmison) Tindle died at their Smith Township home in 1863. Thomas outlived her by about twenty years, his death occurring on 9 February 1883.
One early spring day James and Mary Tindle decided to get their family all dressed up and to have a photograph taken in Peterborough. On 6 April 1884 the family visited a local photographer to have the family portrait done.
Lifetime of James and Mary Tindle
James, son of Thomas and Sarah (Edmison) Tindle was born in Northumberland, England on 30 October 1831. He was a young man of about 17 years when the family emigrated from their English home. In February 1852, he was twenty-one years old and still living at home with his parents, in Smith Township, Canada West.
On 11 March 1858 James married Mary McDougall. Mary, born in Scotland about 1838, was a daughter of James and Elizabeth McDougall who also resided in Smith Township. In 1861 they lived with James’ parents in Smith Their son, Thomas was already two years old.
Ten years later, James and Mary resided on their own land, with their three children, Thomas aged 12 years; Elizabeth aged 8 years and Sarah aged 3 years.
In another ten years, the family of James and Mary had two more children added to it. These were daughters, Louisa, born in 1879 and Mary Edith, born on 2 March 1881. James and Mary lived on Lot 7 Concession 5 in Smith Township the remainder of their lives. James died at their home on 15 March 1917. Mary (McDougall) Tindle died on 28 January 1920 at her Smith Township home. They rest in Little Lake Cemetery, Peterborough.
Thomas, son of James and Mary (McDougall) Tindle, was born in Smith Township in 1858, the same year his parents married. Thomas grew up in the township, attending school and working at chores on his parents’ farm. In his late twenties, Thomas married Elizabeth Brey Westlake, in Smith Township, on 14 December 1886. Elizabeth was born in 1854 in Cornwall, England. Her parents were George Westlake and Elizabeth Metheral.
They had three children. A daughter Mary Gertrude was born in 1889. An infant son was born and died in 1892 and Thomas George Elroy was born in 1895.
Thomas Tindle died at his home in Smith Township on 7 November 1935. Elizabeth Brey (Westlake) Tindle died on 22 December 1950. They rest in Little Lake Cemetery in Peterborough.
Sarah, daughter of James and Mary (McDougall) Tindle, was born 12 October 1866 in Ontario. As a young woman she married William Henry Curtis. William was born in Ontario on 16 March 1861, a son of Cornelius and Jane (Graham) Curtis. Sarah and William lived in Fenelon Falls, Ontario where they raised a family of three daughters and a son. William Henry Curtis died at their Fenelon Falls home on 3 May 1943. His wife, Sarah (Tindle) Curtis died at their Colborne Street home in Fenelon Falls, on 16 June 1945.
In back: Louisa Tindle
Louisa, daughter of James and Mary (McDougall) Tindle, was born in 1879. Louisa married twice during her life time. Her first husband was John Young, born in 1874, a son of John and Marion Young. Louisa’s husband, John, died on 4 January 1906 in Smith Township.
Six years later, on 25 September 1912, in Smith Township, the widow, Louisa (Tindle) Young married Thomas Gordon Westlake. Thomas was a son of Philip and Agnes (Young) Westlake.
Mary Edith, daughter of James and Mary (McDougall) Tindle, was born 2 March 1881 in Smith Township. At the age of 24 years, Mary became the wife of Thomas Curtis, brother of William who had married Mary’s sister, Sarah. The wedding of Mary and Thomas took place on 15 March 1905 in Smith Township. They had a son, Grattan Tindle Curtis, born in 1912.
Thomas Curtis died 18 February 1937. Mary Edith (Tindle) Curtis, died on 18 June 1958. They rest in the cemetery at Fenelon Falls.
