BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES VICTOR HALLIDAY & HIS WIFE ISABELLE MAE BAMFORD
CHARLES & ISABELLE HALLIDAY
By Thelma Moye
Charles and Belle ( as she was called) were my maternal great grandparents. My grandmother ,their daughter Marjorie, lived with us as I was growing up so I was more aware of things that happen in their life time. Both Charles and Belle were born on Wolfe Island, Canada. Charles was the son of John William Holliday & Margaret (Notter) Holliday. Belle was the daughter of William Wells Bamford & Irene (Dixon) Bamford. Charles Halliday died before I was born and Belle died when I was about 1 year old. I only was able to know them by pictures and the stories that grandma told. I have asked people in the past to add to my genealogy with something they can remember about different people. The following stories were sent to me.
It's so easy to make a mistake ,copy a date wrong or as Ona Gibson pointed out the spelling of a name. For some,as yet unknown reason,Charles Halliday changed his last name from Holliday,that he was born with,to spelling it Halliday. My grandmother was also born with the Holliday spelling but always spelled it with an A. She was born Nov.23,1884. Charles's father John died when Grandma was 7. Just about.the time she would have started school. All of Charles's children and Descendants have thus used the spelling of Halliday. But no one seems to know why. You can say it's just another family mystery but is it? John left Charles a smaller piece of land then the other children, somewhere in the range of 75 acres with the house where Helen Holliday lived I believe. Grandma was born in that house which had big bay windows that looked out on the river.A more peacefull and beautiful! place you couldn't find. Grandma always said her father told them he couldn't raise a family as large as he had on such a small place and soon there after moved down to the Dawson place. Could it be hurt feelings,did he hold a grudge or what? Will we ever know? Another member of the family changed the spelling to A after her husband died and left her with very small children and the way the family treated her was very mean. For what reason I dont know I guess that's another story. Maybe that's why Grandma always used to say "try to keep peace In the family" I have always believed her to be one of the smartest people I ever knew, She had a way of knowing things you didn't expect her to know. No, you couldn't keep a secert from her. To get back to what I was writting about. I was glad Ona pointed the spelling out to me and I have changed it. Thelma
Memories
By Ona Gibson
Something I remember about your great-grandparents ( My great uncle Charlie & aunt Belle Holliday). I remember when they lived in Depauville, New York on the outer end of Chaumont Street. They had a cute little house. The rooms were very small but it seemed to be just right for them. Uncle Charlie made flower stands and trellises for the yard. They were made out of small tree branches and very sturdy. Aunt Belle always seemed to have a supply of her delicious sugar cookies on hand for a treat. Needless to say my brother (G.Murray Kinney) and I always looked forward to going there. Uncle Charlie would go downtown every day to get the mail and make his usual visit to the barber shop where people came and discussed the days affairs around the pot-bellied stove. Uncle Charlie always told us " he wanted to die with his boots on " and that he did on Nov. 21,1938 in the barber shop that he so often visited. Until I can remember another memory. --Ona Gibson
Note: T.Moye -- Ona is gone now. I am so glad she wrote this for me. The barber shop was at the time owned by his son - in -law Arthur Vincent's brother Everritt ( Skip ) Vincent. Since then it has been a beauty shop, in 1986 I had my hair done there for my brothers wedding. It is very small my mother said once that she used to go there a lot as a small child. You will find pictures with both the trellis and planters in also her sugar cookie recipe will be on my site under family recipes. Or Good Things To Eat.
He Whistled While He Worked
By Nancy (Dickinson) Chamberlain
I can remember we had at least one of Grandpa Halliday's branch stands on our porch at the "Stone house" in Camps Mills, New York about 1945/46. I can recall looking at it ,at age 5, and thinking how beautiful it was...it was almost like a birds nest...except the weaving had pattern, and it didn't fall apart when it was picked up. One story I can think of concerning Grandma's father , Charles Halliday ,was one she used to tell about his newly acquired whistling skills. The Halliday's were not particularity musically inclined. Charles Halliday , nevertheless, did have an aspiration to whistle , but , ironically , after he got his teeth out , he blossomed into a very enthusiastic and rather good whistler ! Consequently , he whistled tunes morning until night as he worked on his woodworking projects.
Charles Halliday certainly did enjoy working in woodworking. He created wooden cradles with carved knobs on top ( my mother had one he made for her when she was a child) and , also he made sleds and wagons for the grandchildren. He also made them for some of the little children in Depauville. He would gather worn out runners and metal accessories from old toys from the Depauville dump , and tote them home and build brand new frames , and sand and paint them into new sleds & wagons. He was a generous person with his talents , and he never seemed to slip into a state of inactivity and senility as he grew older.
Note: This was written by my older sister Nancy....The picture below is his wife Isabelle standing under an arber with a fence around their house that he had made. T. Moye
This next verse was a Tribute to Charles Halliday read at his funeral. I don't know who wrote it.
HIS LIFE
His hands were those of a toiler
Who formed and fashioned for years,
His eyes were those of a builder.
His mind was that of an artist
Who visioned before he could paint,
With his heart so intent on his toiling
That he wasted no time in complaint.
His heart was like that of a builder
Who built for God's creatures with love,
A mansion for each tiny song bird
Like Jeusus the builder above.
His life was like that of a neighbor
Who helped everyone that he could,
And thus he has left for our memory
A record that man might call good.
Rev. Albert A. Walker
November 23, 1938
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