MEAFORD EXPRESS (1911) - A lady who was for many years an esteemed resident of St. Vincent, and who, before going to Toronto to spend the eventide of her life, lived for several years in Meaford, passed away in the city on Tuesday, last week, after an illness of only five weeks resulting from a fracture to the hip which she sustained by a fail. The deceased was born in the township of Markham and was married to Mr. Robt. Shannon in 1859. After living in several places they moved to St. Vincent and resided there for 25 or 30 years, or in fact until Mr. Shannon's death in 1892.
   Mrs. Shannon was a member of Grovenor street Presbyterian church in Toronto. Her devotion to the cause of Christ and her earnest solicitude at all times for those in distress or upon whom the hand of affliction had been laid, served along with her amiable disposition and hospitable manner to win for her a warm place in the love and affection of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. In conversation she was instructive and entertaining by reason of the knowledge which she gained from reading wholesome literature. Being an ardent admirer of Liberal principles as laid down by the old Baldwin Reformers, she naturally took great interest in the affairs of church and State. Though within ten days of completing her 87th year, Mrs. Shannon retained her faculties unimpaired and could converse intelligently and interestingly.
   The deceased is survived by three daughters and one son: Bell, Fannie and Mary, of Toronto, and Robert, of Meaford. The body was brought here by the 12:55 train on Thursday and interment was made at Meaford Cemetery.
   The death of Mrs. Shannon removes the last of a family of twelve children of John Cooper, who was born in the Orkney Islands in 1791, and came to Canada in 1811 with Lord Selkirk's first lot of settlers. He married Neil McKinnon's eldest daughter in 1813. Her mother was the first woman to place a foot in the Northwest Territory. They were the first white couple married in Fort Garry, and their first child Mary was the first white girl born in Fort Garry.
   Mr. Cooper and his father-in-law worked with the Hudson Bay Company four years. In 1815 they joined a part of a hundred and forty that left Fort Garry through dissatisfaction with the treatment of the Hudson Bay Company and came to Toronto. In 1817 nearly all the men were arrested in Toronto, and as there was no prison there they were taken to Montreal for safe-keeping. Here with a party of the northwest Company's men who had a skirmish with Governor Semple of the Hudson Bay Company, who was killed along with twenty-two of his men a mile and a half from Fort Garry, the remained in prison eleven months.
   In 1818 they were brought to Toronto and tried on a charge of stealing nine cannons from the Hudson Bay Company. They were defended by Flaees Sherwood (later judge). The trial Judge was Judge Boulton, who lived in the Grange then. Sherwood succeeded in getting them all acquitted and Lord Selkirk had to pay each man $1.25 per day for the time he had them in prison.
   If they had been convicted the whole party would have been hanged, as larceny at that time was punished by hanging.