Alexander Ruthven

First white man to cross Nottawasaga River ~Alexander Ruthven b 12 april 1801 Glasgow died 13 June 1887 at 86, in midhurst, ontario canada

BORN IN SCOTLAND - ON GRAVE STONE

Family Members Parents

Robert Ruthven  1777–1852 

Margaret Thompson Ruthven  1771–1863 

spouse

Marion Rennie Ruthven 1807–1846 (m. 1830)

Siblings

Robert Ruthven 1803–1879

George Ruthven 1812–1904

William Ruthven 1815–1873

Children

Robert Ruthven 1831–1910

George Ruthven 1833–1907

Alexander Ruthven 1834–1870

William Ruthven 1835–1923

Margaret Ruthven Blain 1837–1916

Marrion Ruthven Satchell 1839–1903

John Ruthven 1840–1916

James Ruthven 1842–1930

Mary Ruthven Black 1844–1891

Isabella Ruthven Fitzpatrick 1846–1938 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107634231/alexander-ruthven

10 children of Alexander "Grandaddy" Ruthven, a Scottish Weaver and Marion Rennie of Glasgow Scotland.

Settled near Alliston in March 1831 coming from Lanark Co, where they lived for a time. 

Alexander "Grandaddy" Ruthven, a Scottish Weaver

and Marion Rennie of Glasgow Scotland.  Settled near Alliston in March 1831 coming from Lanark Co , where they lived for a time.

THE 10TH CHILD was: Isabella was born on Jan.13,1846, in a little log cabin on the family homestead on the east half of lot 10, con. 1, Essa, north of Alliston now occupied by W. H. Ruthven as a fox ranch.
Siblings

Robert Ruthven 1831–1910

George Ruthven 1833–1907

Alexander Ruthven 1834–1870

William Ruthven 1835–1923

Margaret Ruthven Blain 1837–1916

Marrion Ruthven Satchell 1839–1903

John Ruthven 1840–1916

James Ruthven 1842–1930

Mary Ruthven Black 1844–1891

First Pioneer Family of Elderslie Township, Bruce County, Ontario Alexander Ruthven, brother of: Robert Ruthven, Sr., First Pioneer Family of West Essa, Township, Ontario In Spring 1832, sons of Alexander Ruthven, Robert and George relocated to Lot 9, C1, West Essa, Ontario

- with their uncle Robert Ruthven, Sr,  Alliston Union Cemetery  Alliston Simcoe County Ontario, Canada Buried with husband Alexander Ruthven Natives of Scotland Alexander Ruthven 1801-1887,   Marion Rennie - Ruthven 1807-1846, 

Natives of Scotland - robet Ruthven jr - 1831 to 1910,  Alexander Ruthven Jr. 1834-1870,

William Ruthven 1835 -1923,  http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=107634280&ref...

THE WEST ESSA SETTLEMENT Among the first in the western settlement of Essa were:

James Robinson, James Bullock, John Bryce, Alexander and Robert Ruthven, senior,

William Stevenson, William Allan, William Hall.

These men with their familes had emigrated from Scotland during the "radical times" in Glasgow,

preferring to face the forests of Upper Canada rather than endure the political and social oppression of the Mother country.

They first settled in the County of Lanark, in the Ottawa River district, but finding that region somewhat unpromising,

they soon removed to Essa. 

They were, indeed, part of the same Scotch migration which settled in the southeast of Innisfil. Soon they became comfortably located, and they have left a large line of descendants in that beautiful farming district.

Alex. aka Alexander Ruthven, a weaver from the vicinity of Glasgow,

with his sons and brothers, Robert Ruthven, William Ruthven, George Ruthven and James Ruthven,  were amongst the best known settlers in this Scottish group. 

William Ruthven went to Elderslie Township, Bruce County, in the early years.

The brothers, Robert Ruthven and George Ruthven, settled on lot 9, concession 1, Essa Township, in the spring of 1832, and thus became pioneers in that settlement.

George Ruthven was an assistant to Charles Rankin, surveyor, in the survey of Collingwood Township in the summer of 1833.

This was the first township in the present County of Grey to be surveyed, being then included in Simcoe County.

George Ruthven, while thus engaged, located a farm in that township at the time, viz., lot 31, concession 12, and afterward settled upon it, becoming a pioneer of Collingwood Township.

On their way to make the survey of Collingwood Township in 1833, they went from West Essa through the woods

near to Angus of the present time, an got their provisions over the Nine Mile Portage from Barrie, then just newly established.

Robert Ruthven, senior, a brother of Alexander Ruthven, was also a pioneer in West Essa.

He was born in Glasgow and died November 21, 1879, in his 77th year.

It is one of the traditions of the West Essa setlement that one of the sons in the Ruthven family was the first white child to cross the Nottawasaga River in the westward movement of settlement.

William Ruthven, of this settlement, was an early school teacher in the fifties near Cookstown.

About this time also, Charles Handy came out of Tosorontio, where he had been living out of reach of neighbours, and settled upon the west half lot 5, concession 4. The Turnbull family and Mr. Brewster also belong to this early period.

James Robinson, settled in 1831 on lot 4, concession 1, Essa, and after living a while here, moved to Tecumseth, and later to Vespra, where he died.

John Bryce, of lot 6, concession 1, settled in 1831, also. He, like the other people in this group, went to the settlement by way of Bradford and Perry's Corners (Cookstown).

Thomas Bruce, another pioneer, had come first to the Township of Tyendinaga in Hastings County,

and afterward removed to West Essa. 

His Grandson, Geo. W. Bruce, of Collingwood, was warden of the county in 1904, and is Lieut.-Col. of the 35th Battalion, Simcoe Foresters.

A true story, written by Ernest Bruce, of West Essa, entitled "The Barn Raising," gained the prize for the County of Simcoe in 1890, in the Montreal Witness competition. It appeared in that newspaper, and related the story of how a barn

was once raised in pioneer days of West Essa without whiskey, - an event that rarely ever happened in that period, or locality.

The Mormon movement in the early forties took some hold in West Essa.

A Mr. Lake was the Mormon missionary, and held services from house to house in the settlement, the meetings being attended by crowds, as preaching from higher ideals was then scarce.

At these meetings, William Ritchey also did some preaching in an unknown tongue.
They baptized in Hall's Creek, having made a number of proselytes.
Before long these left their lands, several familes in number, and like a swarm of bees they went off all at one time in covered wagons, or prairie schooners, going to swell the Mormon settlement in Illinois or Missouri, and later at Salt Lake City.

At a later time some adherents of the Mormons built a church or meeting house of that denomination in Alliston, Ontario but it is now obsolete.

double check this info here: http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/c/o/David-George-Scott...

Robert Ruthven & Mary Rennie 

My Great Grandfather was a weaver, started farming near Alliston raised some pigs on the farm butchered them on the trip to town to sell them, his wife had to ride on the back of the sled with a torch to keep the wolfs off. The trip took two days this was homesteading early days in Ontario E.T.Scott http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/c/o/David-George-Scott...

Alexander Ruthven
BIRTH
12 Apr 1801
Glasgow, Glasgow City, Scotland
DEATH
13 Jun 1887 (aged 86)
Midhurst, Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada
BURIAL
Alliston Union Cemetery
Alliston, Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada
MEMORIAL ID
107634231

Family Members
Parents

Robert Ruthven
1777–1852

Margaret Thompson Ruthven
1771–1863

Spouse

Marion Rennie Ruthven
1807–1846 (m. 1830)

Siblings

Robert Ruthven
1802–1879

George Ruthven
1812–1904

William Ruthven
1815–1873

Children

Robert Ruthven
1831–1910

George Ruthven
1833–1907

Alexander Ruthven
1834–1870

William Ruthven
1835–1923

Margaret Ruthven Blain
1837–1916

Marrion Ruthven Satchell
1839–1903

John Ruthven
1840–1916

James Ruthven
1842–1930

Mary Ruthven Black
1844–1891

Isabella Ruthven Fitzpatrick
1846–1938