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From: "GJMorris" <>
Subject: Re: Cornwall to Canada to Cornwall
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 22:20:02 -0500


Hello Philip
This is a sidetrack to your enlightenment but is this the same family that
founded Eplett's Dairy? I lived my life in Northern Ontario further North of
New Liskeard where the Eplett name was very much in the foreground.
Geoff

-----Original Message-----
From: philip ellery <>
To: <>
Date: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 2:22 PM
Subject: Cornwall to Canada to Cornwall


>Hi all,
>
>The following story is of interest to people researching
>EPLETT & BLEWETT of St. Eval.
>
>It also tells a tale of a man drawn back to his Motherland.
>
>A Resident of Canada.
>By Elizabeth Champion.
>From "Old Cornwall" Volume 6, Page 266
>
>
>ALTHOUGH the majority of Cornish emigrants in the 19th century had
>little hope or intention of returning to Cornwall, a search through our
>churchyards often reveals a headstone bearing witness to the fact that a
>few did come back.
>
>One such headstone can be found in St. Eval churchyard, a place
>surrounded by evidence and memories of the last war, but a glance above
>the grave of Roger Kendall EPLETT takes us back over the years and
>distance by the inscription for 40 years a resident of Canada.
>
>He was the youngest son of the miller of Trethewell Mills, in St. Eval
>parish, and must have been in his late twenties when he emigrated to
>Canada about the year 1860. He was by no means the first of his family
>to cross the Atlantic; earlier generations settled in Maryland, U.S.A.,
>and crossed into Canada with the Loyalists during the American War of
>Independence and settled in New Liskeard. One of the first steamers
>launched on Lake Ontario was built by an Eplett.
>
>They were kinsfolk to the RUNDELLS or RUNDLEs; one of the family owned a
>mill site and 200 acres of bushland on what is now West Ottawa, but he
>lost it through going in debt to build a saw mill and develop without
>capital. He also built a mill in Cornwall, Ontario, and failed to get
>the financial assistance he expected in time. While journeying to the
>mill from York (later Toronto), a distance of 250 miles through bush
>trails, he took pneumonia and died.
>
>Yet other relatives were called BLEWETT; they lived at Ottawa, hut they
>all originated from the same spot in Cornwall.
>
>So the young man from St. Eval was not without kinsfolk in the new
>country but, according to family records, he returned again to his home,
>leaving behind his wife who helped her mother to run a shop in Aylmer,
>Quebec. He was an ironsmith by trade and for a short while he set up in
>business; then he went back to Canada perhaps he hoped to persuade his
>wife to come to England and there he stayed. On January 1st, 1871 their
>son was born. About this time Thomas EPLETT, Roger’s eldest brother,
>joined the family and worked at making spokes for cart and wagon wheels;
>after a few years he rejoined his family in England.
>
>Ottawa was growing in importance during this decade: from bush country
>sprang the settlement of Bytown, and in 1854 the town was incorporated
>and named Ottawa. Four years later it was honoured by Queen Victoria as
>the Canadian capital and became the Dominion capital in 1867. As the
>city grew in stature public buildings were erected worthy of its status,
>the most impressive being the Houses of Parliament and the Parliament
>Library. This latter building, round in plan, is one of the finest
>examples of Gothic architecture in Canada, and it was here that Roger
>Kendall EPLETT worked for six years. From his own designs he fashioned
>the variously styled iron work which surrounds and is incorporated in
>the building. The library was opened in 1876 and contains over half a
>million books, valuable prints, manu scripts, etc. A fire in 1916
>destroyed the main parliamentary buildings but the library today is
>still the same as when at least one Cornishman helped to create one of
>Canada’s finest buildings. By day and by floodlight at night this gem of
>Gothic architecture, capped by green copper, is a beautiful sight.
>
>As the years passed by Roger was still the restless man of his youth; he
>told his son so much about Cornwall that the boy grew to love the place
>he called "across the herring pond". In 1883 his wife wrote to his
>relations in St. Eval "he never was content anywhere, though he hangs
>on." She died soon after writing the letter.
>
>One day, a few years after the turn of the century, the family at
>Trethewell Mills had their meal interrupted by a knock on the door and
>were astounded to find Roger EPLETT standing there. He walked in and
>calmly announced to his brother John that he had come home to die.
>
>Canada couldn’t hold him any longer; he left behind a son and the
>results of his skill in iron, but his mother country claimed his earthly
>remains.
>
>
>
>Regards
>********************************************************************
> Phil Ellery http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cornwall
>********************************************************************
>
>
>

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