My cousin Tannis told me a story about our Grandma Alice (Ripley) Mallory going to the horse races in Calgary once that I first found hard to believe. However, many details have fallen into place since which confirm the story that Robert Salter Ripley, our great grandfather, raised trotting horses in Amherst. I decided to write this up as a Grandma Goes to the Races page on the website today after another piece of the story fell into place. One of my favourite distant cousins, Art Ripley, is currently in hospital recovering nicely from a broken hip. Art loves to talk about the old days and I love to listen so I've been chatting with him regularly. Today I told him the "grandma goes to the race story" to see whether he'd ever heard that Robert Salter Ripley raised trotting horses in the area. Art confirmed that before his time, there was a very good horse named Darno (he hadn't seen the name written) stabled at Carl Ripley's place. So I've added that to the story and will continue to look into early harness racing in Nova Scotia. Who knew?
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I recently learned that Robert Salter Ripley's second wife Edith Hyatt was buried at the Union Grove Cemetery in Scotchtown N.S. A Maureen Jordan has done a fantastic job of photographing the stones in that cemetery and posting them online. In viewing Edith's gravestone for the first time I discovered that an adopted daughter Emma (Heffler) Ripley 1919-1938 is buried with Edith there. This is a person that we have never known about. I called one of the phone numbers on the website to thank them for putting the information online and ended up talking to a Keith Watts who happened to be the son of former New Waterford Fire Chief Earl Watts. Keith said the old Ripley store was likely in what they call 14 Yard, the oldest part of New Waterford and that fellow named Louie Allen, who also had a store there, would likely know all about the Ripleys. He also gave me lots of great information about the R. S. Ripley Firetruck and about the wonderful tradition of firefighters' funerals in New Waterford which has resulted in updates to the Photos and Robert Salter Ripley Obituary pages.
A few weeks ago I made contact with a Roberta Ripley who is married to a descendant of Robert Ripley and Isabella Beane through their son Henry Ripley. She and other family members were planning a trip back east to see Cape Breton and Amherst and do a bit of genealogy touring in addition to their other sightseeing. I asked Roberta to see what she could find out about the R. S. Ripley Firetruck in New Waterford which has led to the discovery that the firetruck is now in storage at the Firefighter's Museum in Yarmouth. Roberta sent me a photo of the photo hanging in the New Waterford fire station which I have posted on the Robert Ripley section under on the Photos page. Thanks, Roberta, and have a great holiday! Based on a conversation I had today with the son of a former New Waterford Fire Chief I have also made updates to Robert Salter Ripley's Obituary page. P. S. Happy Birthday! When Robert Salter Ripley sold the house by the Maccan Bridge to Frank Blenkhorn, he exempted the Blacksmith Shop on the road to Maccan Station. Now I don't recall seeing any Blacksmith Shops around and thought maybe it had been turned into the Boss Garage. Gordon Boss's number was busy so I called up Bud Hurley and asked him if there were any Blacksmith Shops around when he was a kid. "Sure," he said. "Right across the street from where my family lived. I used to work there for Judson Trenholm. That's T-r-e-n-h-o-l-m. It isn't there anymore but it used to be just on the Amherst side of the cenotaph between the turnoff to River Hebert and Maccan Station. Next time you come I'll show it to you." Well, that was easy. Love those guys! I have finally located the house where my grandmother was likely born and posted about it on a new page called The Blenkhorn Place which you'll find under Robert Salter Ripley and Hannah Elizabeth Ripley. 5 pieces of confirming evidence have come together: a family page from an Earle Ripley that said the family homestead was near the Maccan Bridge and known as the Blenkhorn Place, 3 octogenarians in Maccan who have confirmed that Frank Blenkhorn lived in the house by the Maccan Bridge, a photo of the house from the daughter-in-law of Robert Salter Ripley's son James Trueman Ripley, and two deeds, one for Robert Salter Ripley's purchase of the property from brother-in-law William Ripley and his sale to Frank Blenkhorn. From census records I was able to determine that the family lived on the property from at least 1881 to its sale in 1896 which means my grandmother Alice Malinda Ripley (1893-1976) was likely born in the house. I also believe the property was the southernmost part of William Ripley's original 420 acre purchase from DesBarres. Very exciting stuff! Recently I was checking my tree on Ancestry and noticed that a person named Fuzzy Toes (alias Peggy Oliver) had posted photos of almost all of my grandmother's siblings and their family home. It was very exciting to see those photos for the first time and learn that she was a descendant of my grandmother's sister Emma. There must be many Langille descendants because Emma and Solomon had many children but this is my first Langille connection. So nice to meet you, Peggy! I added a new page to the Robert Salter Ripley and Hannah Elizabeth Ripley section today. The "problem" is that Robert S. and Hannah E. are both Ripleys. I hesitate to call it a problem because I don't mind being a double Ripley and as far as I know, nobody ended up with 6 heads. We know how Hannah E. is related to the original Robert and Isabella Ripley but we don't know the parentage of Robert Salter Ripley's father Andrew C. Ripley. So we don't know whether Robert and Hannah were cousins. Apparently Ernest Coates had the same question because he wrote to Robert's grandson Robert Douglas Ripley and his wife Edith Seaman to find out. I found 3 letters written by Robert and Edith to Ernest Coates this summer while going through the Ernest Coates papers. I assumed that Robert and Edith had passed away but yesterday I discovered they had not and was delighted to speak with Edith and their son by phone. Today copies of the letters are on the way to them along with some photographs they may help me identify. Apparently Edith has written a family history which I hope to see one day as I am curious to see who she assigns as the father of Andrew C. Ripley. But my favourite part of the conversation was her talking about my grandmother Alice Malinda Ripley whom she remembers as "Ally".
The whereabouts of my grandmother's sister, Dorothy Anna Esther Ripley, has been a mystery for some time. In the family Bible of Robert Salter Ripley, she was entered only as Anna Esther, but somewhere along the way she acquired the name Dorothy. The last reference to her that I had found was in her father's obituary where she appeared as Mrs. Anna Visor (actually Visser) and they were living in Buffalo New York. I had pretty much given up on finding out what had happened to her but thanks to a recent "meeting of the trees" on Ancestry.com I've discovered that she did come back to Canada and was living in Toronto when she passed. Thanks to "srob1" I've also seen pictures of her beautiful daughter Patricia along with Patricia's husband and their daughter. It's wonderful to know that instead of disappearing unremembered she was surrounded by a loving family and has living descendants who remember Dorothy's daughter Patti as a favourite aunt. I hope they're equally excited to learn about Dorothy's origins and family. There is a lot of misinformation on some Ancestry trees and you have to be careful. But every once in a while you connect with someone who has posted much more than names and dates and provides the missing piece of the puzzle that reunites a family. |
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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