I typed an old history I found. Hope you can make some sense of it.
Saunders Genealogy as Complied by Uncle Charlie Saunders (Charles Saunders)
My knowledge of our ancestors begins with the marriage of george Saunders and Mary Middleton…the oldest daughter of Isaac Middleton. Whether both of these families lived in an area north-east of Toronto, near a village called Stouffville(pronounced Stoveville) I don’t know. Anyway, about 1870 they moved to Orillia in Simcoe County.
George and Mary had seven children…Robert, Isaac, Byron(Boyd), John, William, Ida, Matila (Tilly).
Robert: Died in an accident in B.C. when he was a young man. He had two daughters, ethel (Mrs. Harley) and Zella (Ms. Wm. Nelson). Will was the man of my mother’s oldest brother. I don’t know how Robert married or when she died.
Issac: married ___Thorbourn. They had not children. Lived in Orillia.
Boyd: married Milly Clark. They had not children. Lived in Orillia.
John: married Annie Campbell, children were Ernest, Jean, George..went to the west in early 1900s.
William: married Maude Powley (born Maude Quick but adopted by Jacob Powley) children:
1. George Hilton Saunders b.1885 died 1890
2. Gordon Powley b.1889 (Jan31) died 1971.
3. Earnest b.April 1890 died April 9 1890
Maude and two children died within a week from diptheria.
William married Susan Nelson (Uncle Charlie’s mother). Children
1.Amy b.1893 died about 15 mos. Scarlet fever.
2. Charles b.1896.
3. Daisy b. 1906 died 8 mos.
4. ida lived in or near Orillia, stayed at home, was a dressmaker, single until years later married Charles Wise, returned with him to California, but soon came back alone and lived in Penticton, Swift Current, then Orillia. (I only recently learned that she found Wise was already married to another woman.)
4. Matilda: married William Campbell (brother of Annie): children, Frieda, Helen, Beth, lived at or near Orillia.
Grandfather Saunders and Isaac, Boy and William were all carpenters. Grandfather also had a farm onwhich he was succeeded by John until the lattr went west. Grandmother Saunders’ brother Robert had quite a large family, some of which lived at Pense. They may still live there.(Middletons).
Gordon Saunders: After the death of William’s first wife and two boys, Gordon was cared for by his grandparents, until father remarried and lived at Orillia. When Amy had scarlet fever Gordon was taken to his grandparents to keep him from it but he got it and as a result was left with impaired hearing. Shortly after my birth they moved to Marchmont about six miles from Orillia. Gordon went to public school there, then started business training at Orillia Collegiate. We then lived about four miles from Orillia. Gordon boarded with Uncle Boyd and Aunt Millie. He didn’t want to continue at school so Father gave him the choice of keeping on at school or going to work. He chose the latter and started (at about age 15) as ‘Printer’s Devil’ with Orillia Times, still living with Uncle Boyd. Soon after he became acquainted with the Hussey family at the Orillia Baptist Church and began the friendship with Nellie. About 1908 he went to Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) and after a short time on to Regina where he worked with the Leader, working up to foreman. About 1912 he married Nellie, whose family moved to Weyburn. She had almost completed her training for R.N. when she contracted typhoid from a patient and didn’t go back to finish. About 1914 against the advice of Uncle Boyd, and I think others, Gordon threw up his job in Regina, sold the house they had bought and went out to work as a harvest hand. Nellie went as cook with a threshing gang and cring for wee Bruce. Times were fairly good in the farming game then and Gordon took on the farm at Grand Coulee (showing the lack of experience in buying six horses @$200 each). I think not more than one was that much. He also had a binder, cultivator, breaking pow and wagon and stoneboat and a cow. To make the story short, times got progressively worse in those barren years from the end of the war on. But he was determined to stay with the ship, and refused an offer from the Leader to come back to Regina, until he had to work for a year or two for his board and his family lived ‘on relief.’ From then on you know the story better than I do, Bruce, for not long after you and Lillian were on your own. You will see how it was that even in earlier years of my life there wasn’t much compansionship between Gordon and me. I was only about seven years old when he went to Orillia and I didn’t see much more of him. Then we didn’t meet again until the brief times I was out in the falls of 1921 and 1922. Then he came back to Ontario once and were in Shaunavon about an hour or less one time we went out to Banff. I find it hard not think think the story might have been different if he had not left Regina until he might have retired at 65, still as a ssenior employee of the Leader, but perhaps he was happier. Certainly he was always a hard worker. "Chas. Saunders”
The above was written by Uncle Charlie in September 1971 and forwarded to Bruce so that there would be some family record. Uncle Charlie lives in retirement in Ayton, Ontario.
Typed by Sarah Saunders, Bruce Saunders wife (eldest son of Gordon Powley Saunders), in 1971.
