WilliamLynn

NOTE:
"My father, William Lynn, was born on August 24th, 1799 at Dramaul, near Randleston County, Antrim, Ireland The only opportunity he had for a school education was by attending a night school conducted by a local sage named Davie John-son, nicknamed "Davie Juke." Father was a fair scholar altho' he was almost literally self educated. He united with the Seceder church at Randleston, Rev. Wm. Reed pastor, when 21 years of age. After his marriage when he was twenty-four, he was ordained an elder of the Seceder church at Ballymena.
"After union of the Seceder church with the Synod of Ulster, constituting the general assembly of Presbyterian Church of Ireland, he moved the membership of himself and family to the Wellington Street Presbyterian Church, Rev. Alexander Patterson, pastor. In this church we remained until we left Ireland for Canada in May, 1846.
"Father was of an active turn of mind and body, and turned his hand to manyh things. He was first a linen weaver, but the introduction of the power loom made hand looms a very poor business. He then kept a smallstore till the cholera plague in 1833, having visited every house in our neighborhood, and compelled him to close out. Then he engaged in the oatmeal business for a time. Then spent three years as an overseer in construction of a new road through the mountains from to Cushendall. After that, he had charge of Walkeshaws grain store, doing the clerking, weighing, and running the elevator. These were hard times from 1836 to 1841.
"Mother did much in those hard years to keep the family in respectable appearance. Her dressmaking business was often equal to father's salary, and he was sometimes out of employment. Father again tried the oatmeal business and prospered in it until we left for Canada in 1846. There he engaged in farming on his sister's farm near St. Thomas, Elgin County, and in two years he bought two hundred acres of land near the Thames River, and we began clearing the farm of the very heavy timber.
"Our church connection was with the Presbyterian Church of Fingal, of which father became an active elder. He was also useful in our neighborhood which was seven miles from the church, in helping with prayer meetings and sabbath schools, and in taking the lead in school and road improvements. He died in December 1866, and was much missed in the church and neighborhood. Mother survived him twenty one years, she died in March, 1888." Autobiography of Robert Lynn, 1892