SIMEON CHARLES OSTROM was from the same area as she and came from a farming background. The marriage registration spells his family name incorrectly.

         In the 1881 census,(5) which was taken in April of that year, Frances, at twenty-two years old, appears as a married woman living right next to her parents. Her husband is Simeon Charles Ostrom, twenty-one and their newborn child Syntha Emma Alberta “Bertie”, who would have been less than one-month-old, are present in the house.

         Over the next years the few years, I had trouble tracking Frances and her family, but found them in the 1891,(6) census living in St. Mathews Ward of Toronto. Frances is living with her parents, three brothers John, Henry, and Benjamin and her sister Jane. Her own children ”Bertie”  now ten, Frances Gertrude, “Fannie” (my grandmother) nine, Jane Katherine, “Jenny” five, and Florence Victoria May just eleven months old.  Florence would die that same year. Her son “Sim” does not appear on the census and I could not locate his whereabouts. He was eight. Their father Simeon Sr. is not in the picture either, but appears on another census.

        Frances’ parents returned to Northumberland after taking the census, and in 1892. She is living at 155 Munro, a Toronto street running north from 662 Queen to Gerrard E, third east of the Don River in Ward 1. She was working as a charwoman.(7)

         I found Frances in the Toronto directory in the year 1899,(8) living at 721 Queen Street East, above A C Bennett, grocer. The Toronto directory in the year 1899 listed Frances as the widow of Simeon C. Her address, 721 Queen Street East, was close to the McEwan family home. Her second eldest daughter, also Frances (Fannie), would marry Benjamin McEwan in 1900. Grandparents, I would never know.

         In 1901,(9) Frances was living with her sixteen-year-old son Simeon, in East Toronto and working as a washerwoman. Sim was working as a tin worker. Their annual income was $350. Frances was working from home and Sim was in a factory. The rest of her family had moved away. She continued to show up at various addresses in the area until after the death of her daughter, Fannie. At this point, she and Sim moved out west. Even with her low income, she squirrelled away $20 and applied for a land grant in Saskatchewan for her and Sim.

         I often wonder if Frances knew the truth about Simeon sr and chose not to acknowledge it to others, or did she think he died? I had always been told that my great-grandmother was a homesteader in Saskatchewan.  Since no one ever mentioned Simeon Sr., I assumed Frances was with him.. Once I realised she was alone, I wondered would a widow of her age would make such a life-changing move. After all, she was fifty-three when she and Sim moved out west. I would soon discover most of her immediate family had also moved west.

         Further research led me to the full story. I will never be sure if she ever knew the whole truth.

         Fannie, who married my grandfather, Benjamin McEwan, died in 1910 in childbirth. She was only twenty-seven at the time and had already given birth to five children, three still living.

         Frances senior had been very close to her daughter, and after her death she moved out west with Sim to Cantuar, Saskatchewan, to homestead. Most of Frances’ brothers and two sisters were already there. As was her eldest daughter Bertie and youngest daughter Jenny. Toronto held no ties for her, and maybe a chance for a better life out west for her and Sim.

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THE TRUTH ABOUT SIMEON CHARLES OSTROM

         By 1890, Frances had five children, of which she raised mostly on her own. The death of the youngest in 1891 left her with four. Her father died in 1892, but it appears they have returned to Northumberland prior to his death, while she remained in Toronto.

         When Frances’ mother, Fanney May, went out west with several of her siblings, Frances was left in Toronto to fend for herself without Simeon or any support. Was she waiting for him to return or resigned to the conclusion he had died or left her? This was a time when many men deserted their families. As her children grew and married, they also left until the only one in Toronto was Fannie.

         I do not know when Simeon left her, but it must have been after her pregnancy with Florence. She was born in May 1890 and Simeon remarried a young woman in Acton, October that same year. His marriage certificate falsely states his age and contains multiple other inconsistencies in the registration.  This would show he consciously left his family.

         Simeon would also move out west to Alberta and have six more children with his new wife Sarah before she died, only to remarry again and have four more. The grand total fifteen. None of the new families ever knew that their father was a bigamist. Frances was most likely unaware and thought her husband had died when he went west looking for work. A sad aside is that Florence died three days after the birth of Simeon’s first daughter with Sarah in 1891.

        During the next few years, much would happen. Frances’ eldest daughter Emma (Syntha) Alberta married in 1902. “Bertie” and her husband moved out west after the 1906 census. Her son Simeon remained with her and helped with the rent. Jane (Jennie) Katherine married in Toronto in 1908 and would move to Saskatchewan as well. Fannie, (my grandmother), married Benjamin McEwan in 1900 and over the next ten years would have six children. Not long before her death, Frances left Toronto and also moved to Saskatchewan, where the rest of her family now resided. Simeon, her only son, managed their homestead there with his elderly mother.