States for a time, Enoch and Oscar Ellingwood always returned to their homes
in Hereford, Compton, Quebec, Canada. There seems to have been a lot of
passing back and forth across the border by the family, though . For one thing,
some of them would go across the border to Canaan Vermont to get married
by a Justice of the Peace. The children, though, were all baptized in Hereford,
sometimes a year after birth. Perhaps like Upton Maine they didn't have a year
round minister in Hereford? That delay lessened in the early twentieth century
when automobiles made travel faster for a preacher.
Others of the children and grandchildren moved back to the U.S, from Canada and
lived in northern New Hampshire. Oscar's son John was one of them. He was living
in Columbia NH when his oldest son Edward was struck and killed by a truck in
1925.
Tragedy would strike Oscar's family again seven years later in 1932 when his
oldest son Wesley went across the border to Canaan Vt. to commit suicide with a
gun.He was the father of eight adult children. Since this was era of the Great
Depression perhaps he'd been having financial problems when he took his own
life.
But for the most part the two brothers' families grew and flourished. They did
what my Ellingwood ancestors seemed to do so well: they had big families.
Oscar had five children and nineteen grandchildren, Enoch had six children and
thirteen grandchildren. Both men had numerous great grandchildren. Since I
started this series I've wondered how much they were able to keep in touch with
their parents and siblings who'd moved to California. Perhaps they wrote letters.
I doubt if they ever saw each other again in person after the family split up
sometime before 1870.
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