Parks

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• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-82470

Notes:

PARKS, ALEXANDER

It is our painful duty to record the death of another old Puslinch settler, Mr. Parks of Puslinch Lake, at his residence, on Thursday morning, February 5, 1880, quietly, after a short illness, being at the time nearly 62 years old. He was buried in Hespeler Cemetery on Friday afternoon. About 400 people followed the body to the grave, and after the committal, they went to the Methodist Church in Hespeler, where Rev. E. Holmes preached a funeral discourse. He was born in Preston in 1819. His father, a native of Ireland, emigrated at an early period and died a few years ago, aged 99 years, after falling in a creek. When quite a young man, he removed to Beverly where he resided for several years. He came to Puslinch Lake in 1843 from Beverly and lived here thirty-seven years. He was a carpenter, a keen and successful hunter. Speaking of Mr. Parks early life, a Guelph Mercury correspondent says: Puslinch Lake was then surrounded by an almost unbroken forest, with here and there a settler struggling against great difficulties and endeavouring with uplifted axe and hard continuous toil to obtain the necessaries of life and carve out a home in the wilderness. In those days, the woods were full of game, the lake with fish. Bear and deer were numerous. At this period, packs of wolves were often heard in the stillness of the night, howling in dismal chorus on the banks of Puslinch Lake. The successful hunter was then an important member of society. All these things, then so common, are now unknown and nearly forgotten. In a few short years, all the old settlers will be gone, all the living actors in the early history of Canada will have disappeared from the scene and we shall be left with only a traditional knowledge of backwood life and pioneer's difficulties and hardships, which our fathers passed through in the early settlement of our country. He is survived by his widow and six children, four of whom are married and two remaining at home. Mr. Parks was justly respected by his friends and neighbours for his great kindness of heart and for his obliging disposition. He was generous almost to a fault and no one ever applied to him for assistance or help in any shape in vain.

A Celebration of Lives Obituaries of Puslinch Township, Wellington Co., Ontario Vol 2 Anna Jackson & Marjorie Clark
Used with kind permission of Marjorie Clark

— . [Group Sheet]

1. Thomas Parks was born Abt 1811, Of, Dumfries Township, Gore District, Ontario; died Yes, date unknown.
2. Alexander Parks was born 1819, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 5 Feb 1880, Puslinch Twp., Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada; was buried , New Hope Cemetery, Hespeler (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada.
3. William Parks was born 1845, , Ireland; died 13 Dec 1879; was buried , Mt. Hope Catholic Cemetery, Toronto, York Co., Ontario.