Joseph Shewfelt and Agnes Robinson
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| Joseph Shewfelt was
the first
child in the family to be born in Brock Township in Ontario County,
Ontario. There had been a space of several years during which no
children were born to Peter and Mary. Perhaps Peter had been
in
the War of 1812 and then went to find new land to settle. In
any
case Joseph was born and grew up in Brock Township. In 1849 most of the Shewfelt family, including Joseph, moved to Kincardine Township, Bruce County, Ontario. The Archibald Robinson family came from Ireland and also settled in Kincardine Township. They had a daughter, Agnes Robinson and in November 1851 she and Joseph were married. They are listed on the 1851 census (which wasn't taken until 1852) along with Joseph's father, Peter, and Eliza Robinson, younger sister of Agnes. Joseph and Agnes settled on the West half of Lot Number Seventeen in the seventh oncession of the Township of Kincardine. Their first child, Mary Kester Shewfelt was born on the 8 Oct 1852 and over the next twenty-two years they had ten more children: Jenny Kennedy Shewfelt, Archibald Shewfelt, Catherine Shewfelt, Sarah Elizabeth Shewfelt, John Leonard Shewfelt, Peter Thomas Shewfelt, Olivia Ann Shewfelt, Lucinda Shewfelt, Susan Sophia Shewfelt and Joseph Henry Shewfelt. Mary Kester Shewfelt married Murdoch McLean on the 25 March 1874. Her sister Catherine Shewfelt married Samuel Avery on the 8th Feb. 1881. On the 28th September 1881, when he was over sixty years of age, Joseph sold his fifty acres of land in Kincardine for $2290.00. The railway had reached Manitoba by this time and Joseph and Agnes and their nine unmarried children moved west. Joseph homesteaded the SE 1/4 of Section 18, Township 4, Range 9 W1 in the Kingsley area. He received entry to his homestead on the 23 Dec. 1881, built a house in October 1882 and became a bona fide resident on the 1st of November 1882. He completed his homestead requirements and received title to the land 14 Oct. 1886. By 1886 there were only eight children at home as Archibald had obtained his own land. A few years later Mary and Murdoch McLean also relocated to Manitoba, but Catherine Avery stayed in Kincardine. Susan Sohia Shewfelt was engaged to be married when she was stricken with appendicitis and before the Doctor from Pilot Mound arrived she had died at age 20 on the 30 Oct 1895. Jenny Kennedy lived at home until her death in 1915. In her later years she was blind. Joseph Shewfelt died 4th April 1902 and is buried in the Kingsley Cemetery. Agnes lived until 1918. Agnes was remembered by a granddaughter as being superstitious. She was afraid of thunder and lightning and her granddaughter had to go and stay with her when the weather was stormy. She was uneducated and never learned to read or write. Children of Joseph and Agnes Shewfelt
Mary KesterShewfelt Jenny Kennedy Shewfelt Archibald Shewfelt Catherine Shewfelt Sarah Elizabeth Shewfelt John Leonard Shewfelt Peter Thomas Shewfelt Olivia Ann Shewfelt Lucinda Shewfelt Susan Sophia Shewfelt Joseph Henry Shewfelt |