Thanks for this Rena. I correspond with a descendant of this family who will be thrilled with this. Christine -----Original Message----- From: I.L.Singleton [mailto:rena@pathtech.org] Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2001 1:45 PM To: SCT-SUTHERLAND-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: Re Sage and McKay and Gordon, Toronto Hi Christine, Ordinarily, I might not be able to add anything to this note but last night, for bedtime reading, I picked up a reprint of "Toronto, Old and New" by G. Mercer Adam, 1891. And, surprisingly, I read the business biography of Donald Mackay. Here's what it said: "The old and long established wholesale dry goods house of Messrs. Gordon, Mackay & Co., was founded in Hamilton in 1855, by the late Mr. John Gordon and Mr. Donald Mackay. In 1859, the shipping advantages of Toronto attracted the firm to this city. Two years later, they built the Lybster Cotton Mills at Merritton*, an industry which they still own and operate. The firm built in 1871 the extensive warehouse at the corner of Bay and Wellington Streets which they now occupy, a picture of which will be found in our pages. The senior member of the firm, Mr. John Gordon, who was a well-known and much esteemed citizen, died in Paris in 1882, whither he had gone three years previously in pursuit of health. Two of his old and trusted employees were then admitted by Mr. Mackay into the business. The firm now consists of Donald Gordon, C.C. Robb, and J.W. Woods. The house earned a reputation in its early history for systematic business methods, and has steadily maintained its good name for the long period of thirty-five years. "Mr. Donald Mackay, of the firm of Messrs. Gordon, Mackay & Co., wholesale dry goods merchants, was born in Lybster, Scotland, in the year 1815. Coming to Canada in the early thirties, Mr. Mackay served in the Rebellion of 1837, on the Loyalist side. He resided a number of years in Montreal, where he entered into mercantile life with his two elder brothers. In 1848 he removed to Hamilton, and with his nephew, formed the now extensive wholesale dry-goods house of Gordon, Mackay & Co., 48 Front Street West. Mr. Mackay is a director of the Ontario Bank, of which he was formerly Vice-President. He is also a Director of the London & Canadian Loan and Agency Company, and is identified with several other business enterprises. Mr. Mackay, who is one of the most respected of our chiefs of commerce, is a member of Knox Prebyterian Church, and of St. Andrew's Society." * Merritton is in present-day St. Catharines, Ontario. Rena >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< On 4/14/2001, 2:43:48 AM, "Christine Stokes" <chris@northants26.freeserve.co.uk> wrote regarding Re Sage : > Hello > Thankyou Rena for all the information. I thought readers would like to read > the following. > During my trip to Alberta last year I spent some time in the archives at Red > Deer. There I found information on a family named Sage Murray Bannerman. > Knowing I had come across the name before and being fascinated by the name > Sage, I acquired as much as I could before heading back to Britain. When > studying this later together with my own work on the Murrays I found a > connection between this family and one of the Sage stories. > This is what I have on Sage Murray Bannerman: > 2-006/2 BARBARA MURRAY married JOHN > BANNERMAN > [born 1791] > [born 1781] > Barbara is the daughter of John Murray and Barbara Corbett of Marrel, Loth - > see 4-150/2. She and her husband, John, had the following children > (BANNERMAN) born in Helmsdale, Loth: William, born 1809 (went to Nova > Scotia, Canada, where he changed his name to Macdonald); Thomas, born 1811 > [married Barbara McKay - see note below]; Barbara, born 1814; Anna, born > 1817; Margaret (Peggy), born 1820; Mary, born 1813; Hanna, born 1822; John, > born circa 1823 (known to have had a son named Robert, who lived in Toronto, > Canada) and Elizabeth, born 1825. > Thomas Bannerman married Barbara, daughter of John McKay and Janet Murray - > see 4-081. This marriage took place in Loth on 18 December 1835. Thomas > and Barbara had the following children (BANNERMAN) born in Loth: Sage > Murray, born 20 June 1836 Helmsdale [died 1 November 1913 Calgary, Alberta - > buried Union Cemetery, Calgary] [married Christina McKay, who was born 1836 > at East Zorra, Ontario, daughter of William McKay - see note below]; Janet, > born 1839 [died 21 December 1926 Edmonton, Alberta] [married Hugh Mackay in > 1866 at Lybster, Caithness - they had six children some of whom were born in > Helmsdale]; William, born 1841 [died 1914]; Lucy, born 1843 [died 1904]; > John, born 1845; Catherine, born 1847 [died 1921]; James, born 1849 [died > 1927]; Joseph, born 1851 [died 1932]; Elizabeth, born 1854 [died 1938] and > Elsie, born 1856 [died 1934]. All these children, apart from Elsie, went > out to an uncle William Mackay, in Ontario, Canada. > Sage Bannerman and Christina McKay married on 10 August 1865 in Woodstock, > Ontario. They had the following children: James Alexander McKay Bannerman, > born 1869 Woodstock [died 1955 Edmonton, Alberta] [married at Red Deer in > 1897 to Janet Martin]; Barbara Elizabeth Bannerman, born 1870 Ontario [died > 1948 Edmonton] [married in 1889 to William J. Baird]; Annette Christina > Bannerman, born 1871 [died 1953 Vancouver, British Columbia] [married in > 1892 at Red Deer, Alberta, to George Beatty and secondly in 1909 to Joseph E > Wright]; William Thomas Bannerman, born 1873 Springfield, Ontario [died 1959 > Calgary, Alberta] [married in 1903 to Harriet Jane Elless and secondly in > 1951 at Calgary to Elizabeth Ann Jones]; Lloyd Mungo Fraser Bannerman, born > 1877 springfield, Ontario [died 1956 Edmonton, Alberta] [married in 1915 at > Edmonton to Nettie May Roche] and Nellie Lewis Bannerman, born 1890 [died > 1933 Veteran, Alberta] [married in 1915 at Calgary to Albert Adams]. > The following information on Sage Bannerman was taken from a book in Canada: > "Sage was born in Helmsdale, Sutherland, in 1836 and in the early 1850s came > to Canada. He worked in the lumber business in Ontario and in 1865 married > Christina McKay, a member of one of the oldest pioneer families at Embro, > West Zorra. In 1878 Sage decided to check his prospects in Western Canada, > ultimately ending up in Calgary where his brothers James, William and Joseph > had settled. In 1883 Sage decided to move north and bought a place at the > Red Deer Crossing settlement. The following year, he secured a license to > operate a ferry. Sage was a very hospitable person and his home soon became > one of the favourite stopping houses along the Calgary - Edmonton trail. > The first Presbyterian Church service in the region was held at the > Bannerman home. In 1898 the Bannermans were generous supporters of the > construction of the first Presbyterian church building in the fledgling > hamlet of Red Deer. Mrs Bannerman died in 1910 and was buried in the Red > Deer Cemetery. Sage then moved to Calgary to live with a brother. He > passed away there in 1913." > The Calgary Herald ran an obituary on 1 November 1913 - it refers to Sage M. > Bannerman as "one of the best known old timers in the west - old timers > still talk of his courage in remaining at the ferry at Red Deer river during > the Riel rebellion in 1885. He was one of the new settlers in outlying > districts at that time and during the turbulent days life was very uncertain > for all." > Returning to Memorabillia Domestica by Sage I found that his nurse, Miss > Corbett, was a sister to Barbara Corbett, grandmother of Sage Murray > Bannerman: > 1-011/3 ALEXANDER MURRAY married MISS > CORBETT > [probably born around 1740-50] > The following is an excerpt from "MEMORABILIA DOMESTICIA" (Parish Life in > the North of Scotland), written by The Reverend Donald Sage, A.M., Minister > of Resolis. Reverend Sage was born circa 1789 and died in 1869 - he wrote > the following when a young man: > "A family named Murray, lived at the place of Tuaraidh, Kildonan. The head > of the family was Alexander (Alister) Murray, one of Captain Baigrie's > sub-tenants, as indeed he had been of his predecessor, Major Sutherland of > Midgarty, who held Tuaraidh as a Highland pendicle to Midgarty. Murray's > wife was a sister of Barbara Corbet, my nurse, and an intimacy, in > consequence of this connection, held between us children and the family. My > brother, my sisters, and myself were often invited, and nearly as often went > to spend days and even weeks at Tuaraidh, and the scenery, as well as names > of hill and dale, in that wild and sequestered spot, are still familiar to > me. The Innis mor, the Innis beag, the Lon, as also Tuaraidh-bheag and > Tuaraidh-mhor - the site of Alister Murray's house, of his barn on the brow > of the hill, of his swaggering corn-rigs, of his peat-moss on the banks of > the Loist, which meandered through the Lon, and the houses of his > sub-tenants, are all at this moment vivid in my memory. > Two events arise as fresh to my remembrance as if they had happened but > yesterday. These are the marriages of Murray's two daughters, Barbara and > Janet. Barbara was married to Robert Mackay, a native of Clyne. At their > wedding my sisters, my brother and I were amused and feasted for nearly a > week, whilst our fellow-guests numbered about fifty. Her sister Janet, a > few years later, also married a young man named Mackay, a younger brother of > William Mackay in Ascaig* [see note below] who was one of my father's > elders, and as single-hearted and sincere a Christian as I ever knew. It > was at Janet's wedding that this impressive incident took place. The > marriage service was performed by my father in church at noon. As was the > practice, after the day's festivities, the guests of both sexes retired to > sleep in the barn. My brother and I were placed beside each other at the > lower end of the building; the season might be about the end of autumn, as I > remember that the nights were dark. So long as the sound of the voices, > after we had all lain down, rang in my ears from all corners, I felt very > drowsy; but when to the hum of speech, a deep silence succeeded, broken only > by the hard breathing of the sleepers, I became wide awake. > I felt an undefinable dread creep upon me, and looking towards the upper > part of the barn, the whole of which was enveloped in pitchy darkness, I > noticed a white figure gliding slowly down from the upper to the lower part > of the building, where it disappeared. It seemed to be a human form covered > with some white garment hanging about it in loose folds, but although it > passed within little more than a yard of me, I could neither see its > countenance nor even hear the tread of its feet. > On my way home the next day, I told the circumstance to those who > accompanied us, and they accounted for it by saying that a young woman at > Tuaraidh-bheag had long been confined to bed with consumption, and that she > had been found dead in her bed that morning. Be that as it may, I never > could satisfactorily account for the singular apparition. Had it been any > of my bed-fellows rising in their sleep, and walking in the night-clothes, > which, of course, were white, I could not possibly have perceived them > without the aid of light, and light there was none, either shining from > without through the chinks of the doors, or yet from within. Then how could > the figure pass me without my hearing the tread of its feet. What it was I > am as unable now, after the lapse of forty years, to account for as I was > then." > * note: After the "Sutherland Clearance" of 1819, Mr William Mackay of > Ascaig, with many others, removed from Kildonan to Latheron in Caithness, > where he died in 1843. He was buried at Mid-Clyth. Out of a family of ten, > three sons and two daughters, emigrated to Canada. Of these, his sons, > Joseph and Edward, founded the wholesale firm of "Mackay Borthers" in > Montreal. The former died, on 2nd June, 1881, and the latter on 6th May > 1883 - both unmarried and each in the 71st year of his age. They have > bestowed munificent donations of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the > College in Montreal. The youngest son, Donald, has been in partnership with > his late nephew, Mr Gordon, as a wholesale merchant in Toronto. Their > sister Euphemia was married to Mr Angus Mackay of Grubmore in Strathnaver. > Her three sons - Hugh, James and Robert - continue to conduct the business > firm in Montreal. (8/00) > Fascinating stuff. > Christine > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.248 / Virus Database: 121 - Release Date: 4/11/01 > ==== SCT-SUTHERLAND Mailing List ==== > You may, at times, wish to check out previous messages to this list. You can do this at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/SCT-SUTHERLAND-L/ > ============================== > Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: > Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. > http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com ==== SCT-SUTHERLAND Mailing List ==== You may, at times, wish to check out previous messages to this list. You can do this at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/SCT-SUTHERLAND-L/ ============================== Create a FREE family website at MyFamily.com! http://www.myfamily.com/banner.asp?ID=RWLIST2 --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.248 / Virus Database: 121 - Release Date: 4/11/01 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.248 / Virus Database: 121 - Release Date: 4/11/01