John Bell Aylesworth

  General Notes:

Occupation listed as a farmer on Emma's birth record.

Obituary of John Bell Aylesworth
OBITUARY - John Bell Aylesworth
There were no railways, but many forest trees in Upper Canada, when John Bell Aylesworth began to breathe; he lived till there were perhaps too many railways, and certainly too few trees.Near the centre of Ernesttown Township, on the 10th of January, 1828, he was born the second son of Ann MacGillivray and Job Aylesworth. There were no telegraphs then; and but few Doctors; no postage stamps; no envelopes, even; letter-sheets were folded so as to leave space for the address; the folds were sealed with wafers. The amount of the postage depended upon the distance the letter was to go. Wolves howled through the woods; bears were the bandits that plundered the settlers.Mr. Aylesworth’s mind was rich with oft told tales of his boyhood, and of the Rebellion of 1837. In 1843, he first saw Newburgh. Part of his “schooling” he received in Newburgh Academy when the late Rev. Dr. S. S. Nelles was Headmaster. Mr. Aylesworth was the first Assessor of the Municipal Corporation of Newburgh (1859). Afterward, during many years he served the same community as Municipal Clerk, Councillor, Reeve, and member of the Academy Board of Education. His hard-working farmer-father’s stay-at-home son was “John”; he had three brothers and three sisters, all of whom he out-lived.For more than fifty years he was Secretary Treasurer of Camden Township Agricultural Fair; and throughout the greater part of the same long period Secretary Treasurer of Addington County Agricultural Society also. For twelve years and upwards he was elected one of the Directors of the Provincial Exhibition; and in 1881 President of the Ontario Agricultural and Arts Association. He was appointed a member of the Ontario Agricultural commission of 1882. In that year the Liberal Party of Addington in convention nominated him, in his absence, as their candidate for the Dominion Parliament. One might almost say he was an hereditary Methodist, and Temperance man. For more than seventy years he was an official of the Methodist Church. The last vote he gave was for the Ontario Temperance Act; one of his sons carried him up the steep stairs of the polling place, when, in April, 1921, he registered his vote, being in his 94th year. He was a member of the Grand Division Sons of Temperance; and of the Independent Order of Good Templars; also an officer of the Dominion Grange; and County President of the Patrons of industry; as also of the Farmer’s Institute; and of the Lennox and Addington Farmers’ Mutual Fire Insurance Company. All his long life a farmer, his was the great joy of taking pride in his employment and of deriving satisfaction there-from. He ploughed very many furrows; and he always took pains to plough them straight.In 1858, he married Catharine, daughter of John Wesley Bristol, of Lennox County. She died in 1897. Their children are: - Sir Allen, of Toronto; George Anson, of Newburgh, and Emma Bell, wife of S. G. Chant, of Durham County. In 1899, the subject of this sketch married Bertha, daughter of Peter Bristol of Napanee. She survives him.His life may not inaptly be said to have illustrated the text, -“Length of days is in Her right hand, in Her left hand are riches and honor” - Prov. III:16 ¹

John married Catherine E. Bristol, daughter of John Wesley Bristol and Catherine Fretz, in 1853. (Catherine E. Bristol was born in 1831 and died on 26 Nov 1897 in Newburgh, Ontario.)