Chapter IX

Title

Some time before they dissolved partnership in the firm of MacIvor & Bros., of Cincinnati, Angus married a widow by name of Ormsby. They resided across the river in Covington, Kentucky, and the winter that Dan died Angus came home, but he was gone before he arrived. There were not so many railroads as now: none nearer than Moncton. In coming from there, he encountered cold, stormy weather and he caught cold which left him weak and miserable for some time after his return to Cincinnati. The following summer he took a trip to Thunder Bay on Lake Ontario, which appeared to fix him up all right again.

One day, not long after this, when in his place of business, he was suddenly taken ill about 4 p.m. At 6 o'clock he had to be taken home in a cab and at 2 o'clock the following morning he passed away, only ten hours sick, of Asiatic cholera. He had just completed paying off the last of the debt which amounted to $65,000. The business was in fine shape. He left a widow but no family. He died on June 28, 1873, only 40 years old.

Thus, in his prime, passed away one of the best of men, bright, clever, honourable and upright: a man who never knew the taste of liquor or tobacco. When dying, the doctor tried to get him to take some whisky, saying it was the only thing that could save him. He shook his head, shut his lips tight and refused to take it. Annie, a daughter of Malcolm, who was present, remarked to me lately that this was his contribution to [pro......n]. He was a sincere Christian. It might not be out of place here to record that in one of his letters to us here at home, he tells about his class of boys, or young men, in Sunday school, and that he felt that he would be accountable if every one of them was not converted.

All the years he was away from the old home, he never forgot to write regularly, and yearly sent his cheque for a snug sum to the old folks. He also, while in New York, sent the first cook stove we ever had, and I think the first one on the Gulf Shore, accompanied by a large box full of useful things. Those things came by schooner from New York to Londonderry and taken over from there by team.

I forgot to state that for a while before going into the city of Cincinnati, they were engaged in the coal oil wells business and, on a visit home one summer, Angus took samples of oil, the crude oil, as it came out of the earth and the refined oil. He also brought an oil lamp which I believe was the first on the Gulf. This was, I think, about the year 1860.

Now Malcolm came back to the city and took charge of the business, taking with him as partners a Mr. Simpson and a Mr. Ross who had been bookkeeper and operated under the firm name of MacIvor, Simpson & Ross; later, taking another partner, a Mr. Fogarty. It was then called MacIvor, Simpson & Fogarty. The business prospered for some years, then something went wrong and Malcolm's health failing him, he finally passed away at Cincinnati on June 22, 1883, just ten months after Angus' death. He was 48 years of age.

He was a noble man; kind, generous and truthful, a most sociable character with splendid business capacity. He left a widow and three daughters. Before going further, I might tell of his "war record," as he laughingly called it. It was in New Lexington during the Civil War. Col. Mosby, famous Confederate leader of a band of rangers, raided the country rounding up horses for the rebel army. Some of their horses were taken, and all the old men and boys, who were the only ones home, as nearly all the young men were in the Union army, went in pursuit of the raiders with all available horses. Malcolm, in trying to catch Mosby's gang, outrode the rest and as he went around a clump of trees, came suddenly upon them camped and preparing supper. It appears that his horse got such a fright that it turned so quickly he was thrown off, and back went his horse. He thought his time had come but they only laughed at him, and he went back almost as fast as his horse did. This ended his part in the rebellion. Just lately Col. Mosby died.

To Chapter X

[Copyright] [Table of Contents] [Front Cover]