John Wallis and family on the Trout River The History of the County of Huntingdon and of the Seigniories of Chateauguay & Beauharnois, Robert Sellar, 1888 (page 425) John Wallis & Mary Delong ‘West of McDonald, the first settler to move in was John Wallis, who came from Roxham, and took up lot 30. Wallis was an Englishman and had been in Canada before the war. Although short of stature he possessed great strength, and could lift a barrel of potash, nearly 600 lbs., on to an ox-cart. Possessed of some means he built a stone house in 1825, bringing a mason, James Moore, from Hemingford, to whom he gave 100 acres in Roxham in payment, John Perry of Covey Hill did the wood-work. It was an ambitious structure and stood until 1883, when, being too ruinous to live in, it was pulled down. It was the first stone house west of Franklin, the second one being a small one built by Jonathan Sparrow and John Douglass for Abraham Suttle in New Ireland.’ Interview with ELIAS WALLIS ‘During the war of 1812 Bowron had a contract for supplying the army with beef, and, there being few head to be got on our side, he hired my father to smuggle across cattle from the American farmers who were quite willing to sell. I would go with him on a horse and we would meet the farmers in a quiet place, who would get their money, when we would pick up the cattle where left, when my father would drive them and I would ride. Everything was done secretly and at night.’
Wallis Family in Huntingdon County 1824

Our Earliest Canadian Ancestors in Canada

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