John Goldie^[1]

1793 - 1886  (93 years)

• Name	John Goldie
  Born	31 Mar 1793	Kirkoswald, , Ayr, Scotland   [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
  Gender	Male
  Famous	Botanist
  		Aspidium Goldianum
  FindAGrave	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151838402
  Occupation	1861	North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [4]
  	Miller
  Residence	1861	North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [4]
  	Free Church
  Occupation	1871	North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [7]
  	Miller
  Residence	1871	North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [7]
  	Ayr
  Residence	1871	North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [7]
  	Presbyterian
  Residence	1880	Ayr, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [8]
  Occupation	1881	North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  	Not Given
  Residence	1881	North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  	C. Presbyterian
  Died	25 Jun 1886	Ayr, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [3, 5, 9]
  	Cause: Cause: Senile Debility
  Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region	Bef 2012	, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [10]
  Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region	Bef 2012	, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [10]
  Supernatural	house haunted
  	Next to the kitchen door in the back hall was another door behind which rose the "back stairs" to the second floor of the back section of the house. (It was up these stairs I often escaped to the attic when in trouble.) At the top of the stairs was the maids' apartment, consisting of sitting room and two bedrooms, from which a door led to a short hall off which were two bedrooms, a large walk-in linen cupboard as well as the famous bathroom. The room next the bathroom in my mind was haunted by the ghost of old Aunt Betsy who lived her last days there in the place planned specially for her. It had a little stove on which she could brew beverages. The heating pipes were strung back and forth across one wall to satisfy her desire to warm garments she hung over them. She must have been eccentric and the boys took delight in frightening me with hair-raising stories of her shrieks and groans.
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-95846P
  Buried	Ayr Cemetery, Ayr, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [3, 5, 6]
  Person ID	I95846	Generations
  Last Modified	25 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family	Margaret Ballantyne Smith,   b. 21 Sep 1791, Ayr, , Ayrshire, Scotland ,   d. 21 Feb 1878, Greenfield (Reidsville), North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada  (Age 86 years)
  Married	11 Nov 1815	Ayr, , Ayrshire, Scotland   [11]
  Children	1. William Goldie,   d. 30 Nov 1868, , New York State, USA   2. Elisabeth Goldie,   b. 9 Nov 1820, Ayr, , Ayrshire, Scotland ,   d. 12 May 1854, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 33 years)   3. John Goldie,   b. 6 Aug 1822, Ayr, , Ayrshire, Scotland ,   d. 26 Mar 1896, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 73 years)   4. James Goldie,   b. 6 Nov 1824, , Ayrshire, Scotland ,   d. 3 Nov 1912, Guelph City, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada  (Age 87 years)   5. Jean Goldie,   b. 12 Apr 1827, , Ayrshire, Scotland ,   d. 1862, , Ontario, Canada  (Age 34 years)   6. Margaret Goldie,   b. 1 May 1830, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland ,   d. 22 May 1913, Toronto, York Co., Ontario, Canada  (Age 83 years)   7. David Goldie,   b. 15 Jul 1831, Kirkoswald, , Ayr, Scotland ,   d. 24 Sep 1894, Ayr, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 63 years)   8. Mary Goldie,   b. 3 Jul 1834, , Ayrshire, Scotland ,   d. 9 Apr 1911, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 76 years)
  Last Modified	26 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F24735	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  John Goldie

  
  

• Notes

  Died, In Ayr, on Thursday, 25th inst, at 6 o'clock A.M. John Goldie, in his 94th year. Funeral on Saturday, 26th inst., at 2 o'clock p.m., from the residence of his son, Mr. David Goldie, to the place of interment, New Cemetery, Ayr. Friends and acquaintances respectfully invited. The Gore, Ayr, June 25, 1886. Funeral Card __________________________ GOLDIE, JOHN, naturalist. B. at Kirkoswold, Ayrshire, Scot., 21 Mch -1793 ; d. at Ayr, Ont., 23 July. In early life he became connected with the Botanic Gardens, at Glasgow, Scot., then under the charge of the late Sir William Hooker with whom he studied Botany. Among his fellow students was Mr. Douglass, after whom the " Douglass Pine" was named, and who travelled extensively in British Columbia and Oregon and was afterwards killed in the Sandwich Islands. Mr. G. was married in 1815 to Margaret Dunlop Smith, a dau. of Mr. Jas. Smith, of Monkwood Grove, Ayrshire, a prominent Botanist and Nurseryman. During the same year the Govt having determined on sending an expedition to the Coast of Africa to explore the Congo river, Mr. G., after passing a strict examination, was selected to accompany the expedition as Botanist, but at the last moment was superseded a circumstance to which he no doubt owed his life, as the person selected to take his place as well as a great many of the officers and crew died of the coast fever, and the expedition was abandoned. In 1817, at the instance of Sir Win. Hooker, Mr. G. visited this continent and travelled in Can. and the U. S., making extensive collections of the Botanical treasures of both countries, as the result of which he introduced into Europe many new and rare plants amongst others the Fern "Aspidium Goldianum," which was named after him. Mr. G. returned to Eng. the next year, but visited Can. again in 1819 and made further explorations, travelling on toot from Montreal to Pittsburgh, Pa., and making a thorough examination of the Botanical productions of the country through which he passed. A journal, which he kept during this journey and in which he fully describes the country through which he passed, is very interesting. Having spent 2 years in these explorations, he returned to Eng. About this time the Emperor of Russia having caused a Botanical Garden to be established at St. Petersburg)), Mr. G was employed to make a collection of plants for it. During his residence in Russia he made extensive explorations and introduced many plants and trees into cultivation hitherto unknown to science. About the year 1830 he again proceeded to Russia and travelled extensively in Siberia, following his favorite pursuit. The curator of the gardens at St. Petersburg (Prof. Fischer), being an old college friend, he was enabled through him to introduce many rare plants into Engl. Having formed a favorable opinion of Can. as a place of residence on his visits in 1817 and 1819, he brought his family here in 1844 and settled near the village of Ayr, Ont., where he continued to reside until his death. During his lifetime he kept up correspondence with many prominent Botanists and more particularly with his friend, Sir Wm. Hooker. He left 3 sons and 2 daughters to survive him, viz. : Mr. John Goldie, of the firm of Goldie & McCulloch, of Galt ; Mr. Jas. Goldie, of Guelph ; Mr. David Goldie, of Ayr, and Margaret, wife of Rev. Prof. Caven, of Toronto, and Mary, wife of Mr. A. McIlwraith, of Galt. Henry James Morgan, The Dominion Annual Register and Review. for the twentieth year of the Canadian Union, 1886. pg 269-270 ________________ JOHN GOLDIE a man greatly beloved We speak of him, not to eulogize him but simply to point out the lessons of his life. He needs no words of eulogy uttered in his behalf, the unadorned facts of his life are his highest praise. John Goldie s character was one of singular simplicity and of rare beauty. It was charged with a quiet, unaffected, winsome sweetness that laid hold of all who came within the circle of his influence. He was sterlingly true, and, therefore, upright, and modest, and unpretentious, and unassuming. Of him it might be said, as was sung of one of his relations before him: "Thine was the soul that ever viewed Deceit with deep disdain, Nor ever on thy manhood cast Dishonor s faintest stain. "The singleness of mind and heart, The proud humility, That would have scorned before the world To seem, and not to be." He was honest in the depths of his nature, and in all its outworking. So much so, that it shone in the most transparent way in thought and word and deed. His whole life was a grandly honest life. In coming into his presence you felt this as the atmosphere he carried about him, and when he spoke the conclusion you had reached was confirmed. He was very reserved, and, consequently, unobtrusive, undemonstrative and unostentatious. He had a real and a marked humility. As one of the men long in his service and in close relations with him said to me, speaking of this: " His humility was rather under." That is, it was excessive. He had a strong dislike to show and empty pomp and mere display. There was too much of the childish in that for his strong, robust and manly nature. But with all his heart he loved reality; reality alone claimed his respect and sincere admiration. He was a worshipper of the truth. He was kind in a high degree, and his kindness was marked by a wisdom which made it doubly precious. Like all noble natures, he was unsuspicious and confiding, and taking others as being like himself, he was often sorely deceived and disappointed, but these experiences never bred in him any taint or touch of bitterness. He was utterly unselfish; he lived for others; he was generous wherever there was need; he was honorable to a fault his word once given stood. He was a man of large intelligence and of wide culture, and when he had in any matter reached a decision he was like a 19 Roman soldier in holding his position, nothing but the best reasons would alter his attitude. And behind every quality he had a firm and unbending will, a well-instructed and finely balanced mind, a sound and enlightened judgment, and a heart of genuine charity. And whence came this character, marked by all the elements of true greatness? It would be hard to tell how much he inherited from his worthy parents, who were at once godly and intellectual, and of great strength of character. Or how much he got from the sacred region where he first saw the light and spent his busy youth a region marked with monuments to the memory of the martyrs of the covenant; where the very air is charged with stirring and holy traditions; where every spot speaks of unswerving devotion to Christ, the King and Head of his Church; where Christian principle was life, and divine truth the food by which it was sustained; or how much he cultivated into character by the force of his own will and the grace of God working in his own heart. It would be difficult to make the analysis, but, no doubt, all wrought together to produce the result. We only reach the lowest stratum which upholds all the rest, and gives form and distinctive shape and living spirit to all the rest, when we come to his religious life. This was the corner stone of the entire structure and the indwelling spirit of the whole life. It was used as a power, and not paraded as a possession. It spoke through the life, and not by the lips. It was seen in doing and not in saying. It proclaimed itself in a consistent course of Christian conduct, which all were compelled to admire, and which, we trust, many will be constrained to imitate. For " by it he being dead yet speaketh." The whole of John Goldie's life stood in the closest possible connection with religious motives. His early training, his thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, his earnest and deep consideration of the truth, and the strong convictions at which he had arrived and which became ruling principles in him, made him the godly man he was in his home, the consistent and honorable member he was of the Church, the useful and influential citizen he was in our town, and the highly respected and trusted business man he was all over this con tinent, the name of the firm of which he was the leading member being everywhere the synonym for truth and honesty. While Mr. Goldie carried his light everywhere, yet it was in his home that it shone with peculiar lustre. There it was felt in tender affection, in affability, in loving kindness, in genial courtesy, and in an unaffected, charming grace. One sentence from a letter I received last July from a brother minister who had the happiness of spending a few days with him, speaks volumes, so that on this point we need add nothing more. I may say that the writer is a shrewd, keen-eyed man, and this is his revealing sentence: " I shall not soon forget the kindness of Mr. Goldie and his family. Homes like Mr. Goldie's manifest the grace of the Lord Jesus better than many sermons and loud professions. To stay in that home for the brief space permitted to me was the very sweetest experience of my visit East." Of his church relations, I may say that he was a regular attendant on ordinances, liberal in his support of every good cause; seeking zealously the extension of Christ s kingdom at home and abroad. Unlike many who are church members, and who rest content with a superficial knowledge and comprehension of things, he thought deeply on the great problems of existence and responsibility and duty. And in doing so he took broad views, gathering into his consideration many facts; looking at all questions through the undimmed atmosphere of the holy Word. He had a clear apprehension and firm grip of the principles of the Bible and he held them fast with genuine Puritan loyalty, God's word being ever final with him. His presence with us was a continual source of inspiration and of strength. He, as a Christian man, stood for something because he was entirely surrendered to God. And all he did, and all he was, manifested his godliness. For lives like his the world is in pressing need to-day. Lives that in every relation and in every engagement, reveal the presence and the power of Christian motives. Lives that possess grace and do not only profess grace. Lives that are embodiments of truth and not only speakers about truth. John Goldie was identified with this congregation all through its history, and was from the first one of its main pillars. We thank God for him to-day, as one of His good gifts to us, whose memory is very precious. Among his men John Goldie was always a favorite. He went among them in the most kindly and brotherly way. Being a genuine man, he felt himself one of them. He had a heart for every workman. His visits to the shops were always welcome as he threw a pleasant smile here and a kindly word there. And if help were needed, he was ever ready to lend assistance. There was in him no haughty pride, no contemptuous looking down on the men, no assertion of superiority, but rather that of strong, all conquering sympathy. On every hand, I have heard expressions of the highest regard and sincerest affection for Mr. Goldie on the part of the men. They all loved him because he loved them. And I have no hesitation in saying that John Goldie, by his sympathy with his men, by the true kindness of his heart, held the key to the solution of the great problem of our time, namely, the relation of capital and labor. That solution lies in real heartfelt sympathy. Treating workmen as brethren. When Judge Talfourd was dying he uttered this truth for England, which is a truth for all the world: " That which is wanted to hold together the bursting bonds of the different classes of this country, is not kindness but sympathy." There can be no question that this Scripture truth, added to and reinforcing his own sense of right, led him to this course of action. " Masters give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven." (Col. 4. i.) Of Mr. Goldie s beneficence we need not say anything. The daily press has been referring to his many gifts to public institutions, but they have not a complete list, nor are they likely to have that, for he did not give to be seen of men. He disliked publicity, and especially in this, but we know that his gifts were liberal and his beneficiaries many. He had learned the luxury of doing good. He had learned, too, the spiritual use of money. Of Mr. Goldie s scientific discoveries we have all been reading, but who among us knew that before? This but reveals how great a man we have lost. " His soul was like a star and dwelt apart" He was one of the oldest, best-known and most highly respected men in the community, a source of strength to every good cause. The large place he held in public esteem was witnessed by the respect shown on the day of his interment, when the places of business were closed, when the town bell tolled in turn with Trinity Church bell, when the Town Council and many societies took places in the procession, and flags hung half-mast all over the town; all sorrowing under the grief of a common loss. What underlay this unusual and universal exhibition of regard and affection ? The fact that Mr. Goldie stood for truth and honesty and sympathy, and great worth, and true humility. Throughout his protracted and painful sickness, he was patient without a murmur, submissive to the Divine will, leaving himself in God's hands with his accustomed sweetness of temper, and gradually sank till his departure was more like translation than death. His life was rounded off with an end full of repose in the Lord, " and by it he being dead yet speaketh." His loss makes a great void in our community. But in the life he lived and the blessed memories that are ours, he has enriched us with a heritage that is worth more than gold. A good man's memory is imperishable. " And he being dead yet speaketh." Ebenezer: A History of the Central Presbyterian Church, Galt, Ontario, with brief sketches of some of its members who have passed on the the other side, The Rev. James A. R. Dickson Goldie Family Long Prominent In West Ontario John Goldie, Founder of the Family In this Province, Located At Ayr in 1844 By Dr. A.E. Byerly ___________________ The recent election in South Wellington, to which the Hon. Lincoln Goldie was returned to office in the Ontario Legislature by a very substantial majority, will recall to many throughout Western Ontario the pioneer history of the Goldie family. There is likely no name better known in the history of Waterloo and Wellington counties than that of Goldie. It is unfortunate, however, that only a few of the grandchildren of the original settler, John Goldie, are living in this part of Ontario. In Guelph there remain but two grandchildren, both distinguished citizens for many years, namely, the Hon. Lincoln Goldie, provincial secretary, and his brother, Roswell Goldie, the well-known historian. John Goldie, who was the founder of the family in Ontario, was born Marcy 31, 1793, in the parish of Kirkswald, Ayrshire, Scotland, and came to Ayr, Ontario, in the year 1844. Mr. Goldie was a great lover of plants and flowers and received a thorough training in botany. He entered university, where he turned his attention to language. He was married on Waterloo Day, June 15, 1815, to Margaret Ballantyne Smith, daughter of James Smith, a well-known florist and botanist of that day, residing at Monkwood Grove, near Minishant, Ayrshire. Explores In Canada Mr. Goldie came to America in 1817 and landed at Halifax, where he did some exploring and also on the north shore of New Brunswick and collected specimens of many plants and flowers, several of them new to science. Thence he traveled to Quebec and Montreal, meeting at the later place Frederick Pursh, the celebrated botanist, who presented him with a copy of his book The American Plants. Mr. Goldie was the discoverer of a beautiful fern near Montreal, which was named by Dr. Hookuc after him, the Aspidium Goldianum. Three shipments of his collections to the old land were lost. He had been for two years collecting in Canada, New York and New Jersey, and the fruits of those two years research were gone. However, he was able to get together a goodly collection of plants after his first failures to get them across, and those he took with him on his return to Scotland in the fall of 1819. He later made trips to Russia and was able to introduce into England a number of plants heretofore unknown in the country. Mr. Goldie had been so well impressed with the land across the seas that his two sons William and James preceded him to the United States. Mr. Goldie and the remaining children emigrated from Scotland in 1844 to an area near Ayr, which they named Greenfield after a place near their home in Scotland. With Mr. and Mrs. Goldie were their children, John, David, Elizabeth, Jane, Margaret and Mary. William, who had been in New York, now joined the family in Ayr, but James remained in New York until 1860, when he came to Canada and settled in Guelph. The Ayr Farm At the farm near Ayr, Mr. Goldie imported fruit trees, shrubs and plants from England, and in a letter to his son in New York we obtain a picture of the varied activities of the Ontario pioneer. Quoting from that letter, "We sowed our wheat on the 9th of April. It looks very well except a bit that has been much hurt by the wine-worm. David is plowing the high field for our grass crop. William and I have been very busy rooting out the pine stumps and have made a considerable clearance. I would strongly advise against buying a wagon, as John can make what we want in that way and money is wanted to pay for our land. We have wood seasoning for a common wagon. John has his machinery in operation and it answers well. He has made several beds and other things and is likely to get plenty of work, but the evil is that the cash is not easily gotten," The first industry established by the Goldie family along with their farm work was a sawmill, but this was given up in 1849 and the sons, William, John and David worked hard in 1850 to finish building their flour mill, which had been planned along with an oatmeal mill. In November it was complete, but for several years it was a struggle to keep going. From 1854 the business began to be a paying one, and at last success came to the young men who had planned, built and struggled along against severe odds and hardships. The mill at Ayr continued to be run for many years by John Goldie and his son David. John, Jr., along with his brother-in-law, started a sawmill in the Township of Esquesing, near Acton, which they operated for several years. However, in 1859, John, Jr., returned to Galt and with Hugh McCulloch bought the Dumfries Foundry. This establishment is now the largest in Galt and is owned by the sons of John Goldie, Jr., and Hugh McCulloch. William Goldie, the eldest son, was never married and died in the United States in the early sixties. John, Jr., died in 1896, David died in 1894, and James in November, 1912. Elizabeth, the oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Goldie, Sr., was married to Sydney Smith, of Galt, later of Acton, and she died in 1854, having been born November 9, 1820. Jane, the second daughter, was married to Andrew McEwan in 1847. She died in 1862 and left seven children. Margaret was married to the Rev. Dr. Caven, of Knox College, Toronto, and died May 22, 1913. Mary married Andrew McIlwraith, of Galt, in 1862 and died in Galt in April, 1911, a family of five surviving her. John Goldie, Sr., gave up active business in his later life and devoted his time to his beloved flowers and plants. He died in July 1886, in his 94th year. His wife died February 21, 1878, in her 87th year. They were indeed honored pioneers of western Ontario. The milling business so successfully started by John Goldie and his sons continued to be run by David Goldie, and as it was one of the first mills in Ontario to adopt the roller process of making flour, enjoyed a large measure of success in consequence. The mill was sold some years ago and passed entirely out of the hands of the Goldie family. The old homestead at Ayr is still in the possession of the family. Free Press London Ontario - November 23, 1929 - retyped by Jane Gillard _____________________ THE GORE The Gore was set in grounds shaped rather like a seven acre right-angled triangle. The hypotenuse sloped steeply down to the River Nith. The base which bordered the public road had gates at either end forming the entrance and exit to a curved driveway leading to one of those white brick Victorian houses we moderns consider amusing with its ornate filigree iron railings aloft and its long Canadian gothic windows. Nevertheless the interior was amazingly well planned for the comfort and convenience of our large family. In fact it was considered an unusually magnificent mansion, both inside and out, by the curious who came from far and near hoping to see the very latest in functional domestic design. My mother cheerfully showed them all the "modern" appointments. Of great interest was the indoor bathroom with its toilet and enormous metal tub encased in dark panelled wood. But the fact that five of the thirteen bedrooms had marbled-topped washstands with hot and cold running water, and that the basins were made of beautifully hand-painted china, seemed to them an unheard of luxury. An old couple saw a full length mirror for the first time. "There ah am fra heed to fit" said the wife and, still filled with wonder, she heard the clock on the dinning room mantel strike twelve just as the midday dinner gong boomed. Pointing at the clock she asked "Does thon ring yon?" Others could hardly believe that this huge pile was heated by a newfangled gigantic furnace in the basement from which pipes, filled with the water it heated, went through the house concealed in each room behind heavy iron gratings on which rested great white marble slabs. So they asked why there had to be fireplaces in five of the downstairs rooms and four bedrooms. If I had been there I could have told them of mother's Scotch home where red coals shone at the centre of their family life. In her estimation a room was dead without a fire. The house was divided into two sections. The front "formal" section was divided into four rooms on each of the three floors. Inside the front door were stained glass vestibule doors. When these colorful creations were opened youngsters of today would have been impressed by the sense of space. There before them could be seen the three large high-ceilinged living rooms opening to left and right of the wide hail through wide arches whose sliding oak doors were seldom closed. In my youth I remember the doors between the two right-hand rooms being used only as theatre "curtains" when mother put on tableaux for our amusement. They would have been intrigued by the fireplaces and ornate mantels in these rooms, mantels made of black wood with inset carved panels built around the swallow-nest type of fireplace bordered by tiles picturing stories by the poets. Night after winter night as we sat in front of the fire in the sitting room there were burned into our memories the romantic characters of the Idylls of the King, such as Pelleas and Etarre, Guinevere and Lancelot, Gareth and Lynette. Above the mantel shelf of each fireplace was a mirror bordered by erections holding weird little balconies with ornate railings and filled with nicknacks. And above all this was more heavy ornamentation. Quite different in effect was the rest of the woodwork. The arches and the sliding doors were of light oak with corner designs of walnut and cherry, all put together by master workmen without a nail. Heavy cornices rimmed the hand painted ceilings. Behind this front part of the house one entered from a door at the end of the "front hall" into another three storey slightly lower section. On the ground floor a hall ran across the width of the house with outdoor entrances from "piazzas" at each end. At the west entrance the boys coming in from the stable could leave their overshoes in a vestibule called the Boot Room.From this they entered a closed-off section of the hall where there were two wash basins and a toilet cubicle along one side. On the other wall hot water pipes were strung to warm and dry the coats hung over them. Mother must have had a hand in planning this admirable method of devesting her children of mud and snow before entering the breakfast room off the "back hall" -the room where all meals were served in early days. You can imagine how many sat at the table in this room. Their food was handed through a service hatch from a pantry opening off the kitchen where pies were turned out by the dozen and the roasts were large enough for an army. These were the days when liver and sweetbreads were sent by the butcher with all orders (instead of throwing them out) because ours was the only house where they were considered edible. The pantry was of particular interest. It was here that the maids had their dining table and enjoyed the mid-morning "ten o'clock" which mother often shared with them. But the centre of interest for us was a great refrigerator filled with desserts and other baked foods which tempted our boys when looking for midnight snacks. One of them would draw up a chair before the open doors and dispense the pilfered goods. Beside the door into the kitchen wasa dumb waiter on which the cook sent the food she wanted to save to its resting place in the fruit room where it could be locked against hungry marauders. There was another refrigerator in the scullery off the kitchen close to the back door. It was filled with great blocks of ice wheeled by the gardener from the ice house under the stable. Here the meat was kept and the milk from the Greenfield Farm cooled on great flat pans from which the thick yellow cream could be easily skimmed by shell-shaped metal spoons dotted with holes to let the skim milk run through. The big coal stove in the kitchen sat between two windows opening on the back porch. A memory that often recurs in the fruit season is of a table on the porch piled with crates of strawberries -maids and various guests hulling the berries which were passed through the windows to the stove where gallons of jam and preserves were processed, all so efficiently arranged by mother. Next to the kitchen door in the back hall was another door behind which rose the "back stairs" to the second floor of the back section of the house. (It was up these stairs I often escaped to the attic when in trouble.) At the top of the stairs was the maids' apartment, consisting of sitting room and two bedrooms, from which a door led to a short hall off which were two bedrooms, a large walk-in linen cupboard as well as the famous bathroom. The room next the bathroom in my mind was haunted by the ghost of old Aunt Betsy who lived her last days there in the place planned specially for her. It had a little stove on which she could brew beverages. The heating pipes were strung back and forth across one wall to satisfy her desire to warm garments she hung over them. She must have been eccentric and the boys took delight in frightening me with hair-raising stories of her shrieks and groans. One left this back section through a stained glass door and down two steps on to the landing where the "front stairs" turned up six steps to the second floor bedrooms. From the hall leading to these bedrooms rose another flight of stairs to the top floor bedrooms of the slanting roof variety. Back of these and entered from the stair landing was "The Attic" with its two windowless storerooms and a photographer's black room. The attraction for us lay behind a door which opened on a soft-water tank beside which hung a ladder leading to a strange little place under the eaves where nuts were stored between the joists of the unfinished floor. Butternuts and Canadian walnuts gathered by the boys in the fall we cracked with a brick on the joists while sitting on a board carefully avoiding stepping into the room below through the lath and plaster. A wonderful hideout!!! Under the whole building was a remarkable basement of perfectly finished rooms with smooth concrete floors and plastered walls. one of the rooms was a machine used for making the gas used for lighting the house (later acetylene gas was used. It was made in the greenhouse). There was the furnace room and three others used for various purposes as well as a wooden-floored laundry with its long ironing table and mangle as well as a stove for heating flatirons. The black slate wash tubs were in a separate room off this and beside them was a brick built-in boiler heated by a wooden fire. Boiling household linen was considered necessary in those days before detergents. Just imagine the sheets, tablecloths and napkins for our large family being lifted each week into the "copper" and later dragged back, steaming on a long pole, into the tubs. Across from these tubs was the enclosed clothes chute where soiled clothes from the upper floors landed ready for the scrub board. Alongside this was one of the machines vital to the comfort of the family. It was a pump to force the water from the soft water cistern outside the back door to the tank in the attic. The pumping had to be done by hand. Every day the gardener or a reluctant son of the house swayed back and forth for about twenty minutes or half an hour twice a day pushing and pulling the handle on the upright post which activated the pump. This misery was offered tramps who came to The Gore for handouts--pumping or no dinner! This plan cut down the number of men who rode the rods and who came from the C.P.R. station expecting a free meal. To describe such a house as The Gore is difficult and my effort is egregiously inadequate. So far I seem to have conveyed the impression that it was a great pile set down in the middle of a bare field. What had been originally an open field was transformed by expert planning and planting superintended by Grandfather, The Botanist. A cedar hedge grew rapidly along the two sides of the right angled triangle, and along one section of the hypotenuse a fir hedge bordered the river bank and another cut off the kitchen garden from the wide lawns set about with various types of pines, cut-leaf maples, thorns, catalpas, purple beech, blue spruce and, of course, the Douglas Fir Grandfather planted in memory of his old friend. The moving spirit behind all this planning and building was my Father, David Goldie. Unfortunately he died when I was but five years of age so I never really knew him. But many were the stories told by my Mother. Now they are very vague indeed. What fascinated me most as a small child was the fact that he had a wooden leg (the polite term now is "artificial limb"). After his death I used to go to the cupboard off one of the top-storey bedrooms and look with awe and almost fear lest I be found looking at the papier-mâché leg as though it was the skeleton in our closet. It was sad that I was left with this reminder of my wonderful Father, and cruel too that my only remembered sight of him was as he lay on his death bed. Bob Neilson wrote an article for the Goldie Geneological Book which will tell better than I can what he meant to the community as well as the family. THE GOLDIE SAGA Section Two BY Theresa Goldie Falkner, 1972

  
  

• Sources

  [S5] Vit - - ON, Waterloo - 1858-1869 Marriage Register. John Goldie Birth Place: Ayr, Scotland RESIDENCE: Esquesing Age: 36 Estimated Birth Year: abt 1822 Father Name: John Mother Name: Marg Smith Spouse Name: Elizabeth Alexander Spouse's Age: 22 Spouse Estimated Birth Year: abt 1836 Spouse Birth Place: Westmeath, Ireland Spouse Residence: North Dumfries Spouse Father Name: William Spouse Mother Name: Marian M. Marriage Date: 5 Feb 1858 Marriage County: Waterloo [S205] Census - ON, Waterloo, North Dumfries - 1881, North Div. 2 Page 78. [S184] Funeral Card - - Funeral Card Notices of Waterloo County from 1851 to 1980, Funeral Card of John Goldie. [S1778] Census - ON, Waterloo, North Dumfries - 1861, Div 7 Page 57. [S367] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Ayr - Ayr Public CC#4489 Internet Link . In memory of/ John Goldie/ died 25th June 1886,/ In his 94th year./ Margaret Ballantyne/ Smith/ wife of John Goldie,/ died 18th Nov. 1878/ aged 87 years./ E. C. Goldie/ 1884 - 1980 [S367] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Ayr - Ayr Public CC#4489 Internet Link . [East] Goldie [East/Southeast] Son of/ John & Florence/ Goldie/ Hugh/ 1906/ John Goldie/ son of/ David Goldie/ died at Victoria, B. C./ 1870 - 1947/ Florence/ Donaldson/ wife of John Goldie/ died at Victoria, B. C./ 1870 - 1944 [Southeast] Sons of/ George & Lydia/ Goldie/ Barton/ 1905/ MacDonald/ 1906/ William Goldie M. D./ Third son of/ David Goldie/ 1873 - 1950/ Theresa Falkner/ youngest daughter of/ David Goldie/ 1889 - / John William Falkner/ 1889 - 1959 [West] David Goldie/ born/ 15th July 1831/ died 24th Sept. 1894/ Isabella M. Easton/ his wife/ born 14th April 1847/ died/ 17th July 1929/ David Moray/ Goldie/ born/ 13th Oct. 1891/ died 22nd May 1912/ Goldie [North/Northwest] In memory of/ John Goldie/ died 25th June 1886,/ In his 94th year./ Margaret Ballantyne/ Smith/ wife of John Goldie,/ died 18th Nov. 1878/ aged 87 years./ E. C. Goldie/ 1884 - 1980 [East/Northeast] Janet Doak/ died 18th Nov. 1870/ aged 80 years./ Elizabeth Smith/ died/ 30th March 1886/ aged 84 years. [S355] Census - ON, Waterloo, North Dumfries - 1871, Sect. 2 Page 6. [S107] Book - The Canadian Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men, Ontario Volume, 1880. [S116] Vit - ON - Death Registration. Name: John Goldie Gender: Male Birth Year: abt 1793 Birth Place: Scotland Age at Death: 93 Death Date: 25 Jun 1886 Death Place: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada [S220] Waterloo Region Hall of Fame Waterloo Region Hall of Fame. [S27] International Genealogical Index - Extracted Church Records, Parish registers for Ayr, 1664-1854 Church of Scotland. Parish Church of Ayr (Ayrshire) Film: 1041331. John Goldie married Margaret Smith 11 Nov 1815 Ayr, Ayr, Scotland

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 31 Mar 1793 - Kirkoswald, , Ayr, Scotland Married - 11 Nov 1815 - Ayr, , Ayrshire, Scotland Occupation - Miller - 1861 - North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Free Church - 1861 - North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Occupation - Miller - 1871 - North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Ayr - 1871 - North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Presbyterian - 1871 - North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - 1880 - AYR, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Occupation - Not Given - 1881 - North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - C. Presbyterian - 1881 - North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - Cause: Cause: Senile Debility - 25 Jun 1886 - AYR, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region - Bef 2012 - , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region - Bef 2012 - , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - Ayr Cemetery, Ayr, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth