Family Outlines

Originally from Ireland, they settled in the Ottawa region of Ontario, Canada by1840. John Cross (1819-1889) was a carpenter who married Eliza Barry and raised eight children. Some stayed in the Ottawa area while others moved to San Francisco, California and Wilton, Connecticut. My research has centered on John & Eliza's son John Wesley Cross (1848-1911), their grandson Arthur Cross (1874-1953) and great-grandson Frank Arthur Cross (1914-1963). Descendents of John Cross now live in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and California.

Huckell Family

On December 26, 1775 Thomas Huckell married Sarah Sanders in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. In 1795 the family moved to Northumberland, Pennsylvania. However their fourth child Benjamin stayed behind in England. Ben also married a Sarah and their only child,  Benjamin, was born in Twickenham, Middlesex on March 12, 1822.  In 1843 he married Ann Reading of Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire A farmer during his early married years at Great Kimble (Round Hill Farm) and Horsenden (Manor Farm), he eventually moved to the market town of Wendover where he worked as a miller. . Between 1843 and 1862 they had nine children.

Ben and Ann Huckell family emigrated Canada in 1858.  Initially Ben tried farming on Chelsea Road near Hull, Quebec, but soon moved to Ottawa and ran the Prince of Wales Hotel on Cathcart St. between 1860 and 1862.  From 1862 to 1869 he was the proprietor of  the Kingston Inn at the corner of York and Dalhousie St. In 1869  he moved upriver to the town of  March where he returned to farming while also running a local inn. Following a fire in August 1870 which wiped out most of the March township west of the city, he returned to Ottawa. Initially the family lived on Duke St., in a house owned by John & Eliza Cross on the Lebreton Flats in the west end of the city. Ben worked as the first letter carrier for Ottawa west of the Rideau Canal in 1871. In 1872 the family moved back to the area where the Kingston Inn was located.

 Oldest son Benjamin Jr.  started a feed & grain store while siblings Thomas  and John opened a boot shops on Rideau and Duke streets respectively. Thomas left Ottawa in 1882  for Manitoba eventually becoming a hotel owner and newspaper publisher. William worked for the Evening Post as a compositor and left for Chicago in 1867 to work for the Herald Tribune. Daughters Elizabeth, Lucy and Sarah all married local boys and remained in Ottawa.

Once all of their children had married Ben & Ann moved to a small white cottage on Bank St. where he worked as a bailiff from 1875 until 1886. In his remaining years he was a gardener. Their oldest child Benjamin Jr. died in Ottawa in 1876 at the age of 32.   John remained in Ottawa becoming a successful hotelier and prominent citizen. His death in 1926 was front page news. Ann died in 1883 and Benjamin in 1896. Daughter Sarah was the last of the English born Huckells when she passed away in 1930 in Ottawa at the age of 84.  John's wife Harriet was the last of the first North American generation Huckells when she died in1958 at age 98.

My connection has been with Benjamin and his daughter Lucy (1853-1929), but through fellow Huckell family historians Dave Kellogg, Marvel Westwood and Pat & Duane Huckell we have been attempting to describe as many branches of the North American Huckell tree as possible.

Reading Family

As part of the Huckell research we are also compiling information of the Reading family of Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire, England. There is a table which lists Readings from that area.

Also from Ireland, Jonas Barry (c.1789-<1851) arrived with wife Rebecca (c.1789-c.1875) among the first settlers of the Ottawa Valley. Their daughter Eliza married John Cross (see above). Jonas was a private in the 99th Regiment of the British Army and in 1818 left the army to take up farming in Richmond, Ontario, Canada.