HEATH/FRAY/DEPUE:  When the lady picture above died in 1901, the editor of the local newspaper provided his readers with some interesting details about her life.  “There died here [Wardsville, Ontario] on Saturday, at 12 p.m., Nov. 30th, Mrs. Hannah Fray.  Deceased who had for the last six years lived with her daughter, Mrs. S. Brown, was in her 93rd year and was one of the oldest and most highly respected inhabitants of this neighbourhood.  She came of the old pioneer stock who came over in 1777.  She was a granddaughter of Captain Charles C. Depew and daughter of Lieutenant John C. Depew, Hamilton, where she was born, and was often heard to say she remembered Hamilton when there was only one store.  She married Reuben Fray, a farmer who hailed from the Catskill Mountains and lived for many years near Bothwell.”

The Depews, or Depues, were United Empire Loyalists who settled at the head of Lake Ontario after the American Revolution.