Last week I posted a story about an Innisville man from the Perth Courier, August 11, 1882. The tale went that David “Kerr” had left his wife and Innisville for Australia, and today I find out he abandoned a young child too. He was indignant and wrote “a letter to the Perth Courier Editior” that being away from his wife for 18 years was not considered wrong. He signed it as “David Kerr”.
I tried to search for this man with the last name of “Kerr’ but nothing was coming up until I did some research about Innisville today and pulled up this.
Clipped from Jackson County Banner, 31 Aug 1882, Thu, Page 7
So David Kerr was really David Ennis. Why did he change his name? I don’t know about you, but some folks change their name when they have been in trouble and don’t want the past following them. This story was printed in several American newspapers– about 15 to be exact, and some of the wording was odd in a few papers.
In some it was printed: “the woman remained true to her unworthy husband” and some left out the words “unworthy husband” all together. I guessed it depended how you felt about a woman waiting for her husband– or cared about women at all. The fact that his son was 17 when he came home appears that David left Innisville in 1864 knowing, or maybe not caring, that his wife was carrying his child.
Innisville at one time was called Ennisville but it was later changed to its present name as the mail used to get mixed up with Ennesfail. A post office was opened in Innisville on June 6, 1851 with Michael Murphy as post master. The mail left Carleton Place for Innisville every Friday morning.
Ennis—Died, at Innisville on Thursday, 22nd March, Mr. David Ennis 1894
Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read.
Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in Hometown News and now in The Townships Sun
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