I had a great deal of fun today eating toast with maple butter, adding what I had learned about Andrew's home place and grant, and uploading photos from my visit to Neil R. and Linda Ripley's sugar camp. Not so much fun trying to decipher the handwriting on a pile of deeds I brought back for Andrew's various transactions. In my update I have included only the deed for Andrew's original purchase of the land from the DesBarres estate. However, it seems that Andrew may have leased or mortgaged the property on at least two occasions although the title must have always reverted to him as his unmarried children did inherit the property. A good project for a rainy day.
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Today I was also able to add two more gravestones for Robert Ripley and Rebecca Vickery's children to the Michael Fortune Cemetery page. I also added four more gravestones for Andrew C. Ripley and Elizabeth B. Pipes children on the Fenwick Cemetery page. The two cemeteries are quite different. Michael Fortune is unfortunately not very well kept but the old stones and the knee-high wildflowers give it a wistful, romantic feel and a sense of pioneering spirit. There is definitely a sense of adventure wading into the tall grass but the bugs weren't really bad. The Fenwick Cemetery is very peaceful and well kept and I noticed a new grave when I visited in 2014. Many of the older stones have been replaced by a newer stone on which everyone in the family plot is listed. When I updated today, I posted several headstones which listed multiple wives and children. Whoever is creating the new stones definitely knows their genealogy. And hopefully someone has kept a record of who is really buried where. I would gladly be buried in either cemetery.
Today I was finally able to make contact with the family that runs the Ripley sugar camp in Fenwick and now I'm seriously considering an invitation to come and help make maple syrup next March. That's something I've never done before. They usually start tapping the trees in February and make the syrup through March, depending on the weather. I'd been trying to reach the proprietor Neil Ripley with no success for some time but today I talked to his daughter Tracey. One of the reason I've been having difficulty reaching Neil is that he and his wife live off the grid right at the sugar camp, using solar power and a water wheel to power their home and equipment. And the reason I wasn't able to find Ripley maple products for sale in the local stores is that they sell 95% of the product right at the camp and the other 5% at farmer's markets in Halifax. The camp is located on the west side of the road about 2 miles south of the church in Fenwick off Hwy 2. There are actually 3 camps along the road; Tracey says just ask the locals where the water wheel is located. The sugar woods has been in the family for three generations and Tracey lives in the home her grandfather built. Oh...and the cute painted Ripley mailbox we passed on the way to the Fenwick Cemetery...that must have been Heather and Gordon's place. Tracey has relatives in Campbell River where I'm headed tomorrow. It's a small world. |
AuthorHi there! My name is Mallory Burton and I started researching the Ripley family in 2011. I'd describe myself as a careful amateur who's more interested in story than names and dates. I hope you enjoy my website and blog. I also have a public Mallory/Ripley tree on Ancestry with over 4,000 names. To contact me, please comment on any one of my blog posts. Archives
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