________________________
________________________
Family Chart No. R-9 Parents - Chart No. R-3
3rd Generation Ross Family
ALBERT HENRY POSTON
son of CHARLES POSTON
was born in 1858 at Quebec City, Canada
died 26 October 1933 at Spokane, Washington, U.S.A.
buried at Spokane, Wash. in Riverside cemetery
Resided at Pembina, North Dakota. About 1890 moved to Spokane, Washington.
Ocupation: Farmer. Stadacona Farms, Sunset Boulevard, Spokane,
and from 1931, Waikiki Farms, Spokane.
He married CATHERINE MARGARET ROSS
on 5 July 1883 at Pembina, North Dakota.
She was youngest daughter of DRUMMOND and MARIA JANE (BEAMISH) ROSS.
She was born 2 Mar 1855 at Lake Beauport, Quebec, Canada
baptized 25 Nov 1855 at Valcartier, Quebec, Canada (Church of England)
and died 2 January 1934 at Spokane, Wash.
buried at Spokane in Riverside cemetery.
When her mother died at Pembina, N. D., in 1889, she took in her sister, Sarah Ahern's 3 small daughters who had been living with their grandmother, and brought them along with her own children when she and husband moved to Spokane.
__________________________________________________________________________
Children of ALBERT and CATHERINE (ROSS) POSTON
CHARLES ALBERT born at St. Vincent, Minn in 1885.
Married GERTRUDE GORDON RENFREW of Quebec.
children: VIVIAN & BARBARA (twins) b. 1930; JOHN b. 1933
CHARLOTTE ELLA born at St. Vincent, Minn. 16 May 1886
died April 1958. Buried at Okanagan Mission, British Columbia.
Married ST. GEORGE PENTLAND BALDWIN of Toronto, Ont. in 1912
children: WINIFRED CATHERINE b. 1914; GORDON PENTLAND b. 1915,
DOROTHY BEATRICE b. 1917; YVONNE BARBARA b. 1921
CLARA ADELE born at Spokane, Wash. in 1890.
Married TREVOR WHITLA BRIDGES of Barrie, Ont. in 1924. He died in 1962
she died at Penticton, B. C. in 1961, buried in Riverside cemetery, Spokane.
CECIL AUGUSTUS born at Spokane, Wash. in 1893
Died in car collision 25 Oct 1962. Buried at Spokane.
Married MARTHA CONNELLY
children: MARGARET JEAN; CHARI; FRANCES; ALBERT b. 1947
GERTRUDE AMY born at Oakland, California, 14 May 1895.
Married EDWIN NEAL of Calgary, Alberta, who died in 1942.
Re-married Lt. Col. JAMES D. GEMMILL, English Army, 11 Oct 1952
RICHARD GORDON ROSS born at Spokane, 1898
Married I. LULU KELLER in 1931
children: CATHERINE LEE, JAMES KELLER, RICHARD ROSS
2nd. wife BESS STUART. 3rd wife JANNEY HAWES
MAUDE ISOBEL born at Spokane in 1901
Married CHARLES SAMUEL TASCHEREAU, half cousin
adopted son: REGINALD
This record was compiled by Henry Ross Wiggs of Westmount Que.
25 August 1971
Sources of data: Miss Helen S. Ross, Loretteville, Que., and Mrs. James D. Gemmill (Gertrude Poston), Kelowna, B. C.
__________________________________________________________________________
CATHERINE MARGARET (ROSS) POSTON (1855-1934)
Catherine Margaret Ross, the youngest of the ten children of Drummond Ross and Maria Jane Beamish of Lake Beauport, Quebec, was born there on the 2nd March, 1855, and baptized at Valcartiar, Quebec (Church of England), on 25th November, 1855. Her father died shortly after she was born, leaving her mother, still a young woman, to bring up her large family. It was not long, however, before her mother married again, to the Hon. Fleury Taschereau of Quebec City, himself one of twelve children.
When her mother and stepfather left Quebec around 1860 to settle in Pembina, North Dakota, she, along with some of her brothers and sisters, went with them. She spent her girlhood there but we know nothing about it. On the 5th July, 1883, she married Albert Henry Poston, who was born in Quebec in 1859, son of Charles Poston of Quebec. They made their home in St. Vincent, Minnesota, close to Pembina, and two of their children were born there, Charles Albert in 1884, and Charlotte Ella in 1886.
Her older sister, Sarah Harriet, who had married Patrick Ahern, also resided in St. Vincent, and had three children, but because she was not strong enough to withstand the severe weather of Minnesota and the Dakotas, she developed consumption while still a young woman and died on the 21st of April, 1889, leaving three motherless little girls, Bertha aged six, Blanche aged four, and Jennie two. They were taken by their grandmother, Mrs. Jane Taschereau, to live with her, but only four months later, she died also, so Catherine Poston took the three little girls into her own home.
Sometime in 1889 or 1890, the Poston family left St. Vincent to go farther west, taking the three small Ahern children along with them. They settled at Stadacona Farms, Sunset Boulevard, Spokane, Washington, where Albert Poston operated a large farm, and had five more children: Clara Adele, born in 1890, Cecil Augustus, in 1893, Gertrude Amy, born at Oakland, California, in 1895, Richard Gordon Ross, in 1898, and Maude Isobel, in 1901.
All of the seven Poston children eventually married, and so did the three Ahern girls.
Charles Albert Poston, the eldest, married a Quebec girl, Gertrude Renfrew, whose father "was a son of Renfrew the furrier. Her mother was from Quebec too, Miss Connie Piddington." (taken from a letter written by Charles Albert Poston, Xmas 1944, to his cousin, Miss Ella Ross, Loretteville, Que.) They had twin girls, Vivian and Barbara, born 1930, and a son, John, born 1933. (In the same letter he wrote of his mother, "like your father [Henry Ross], she too was a wonderful character.") In 1964, Charles Poston was living in Victoria, British Columbia.
Charlotte Ella Poston, in 1912, married St. George Pentland Baldwin of Toronto, Ontario, a cousin, and they had four children: Catherine Winnifred, born 1914; Gordon St. George, borne 1915; Dorothy Beatrice, born 1917; and Yvonne Barbara, born 1921; all of whom married.
Clara Adele Poston, in 1924, married Trevor Whitla Bridges, born in Barrie, Ontario, who was a Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve, British Navy, the wedding taking place at All Saints Cathedral, Spokane, with the Very Rev. H. G. Hennessy, Dean, officiating. They resided at Penticton, British Columbia, and had no children. She died there in 1961 and was buried at Riverside cemetery, Spokane.
Her husband died in 1962 and was buried in Barrie, Ontario.
__________________________________________________________________________
Cecil Augustus Poston married Martha Connolly and they had four children: Margaret Jean, Chari, Frances, and Albert who was born in 1947. Cecil Poston was a dairyman, and on the 25th October, 1962, he was killed in an automobile collision when an intoxicated driver ran into him.
Gertrude Amy Poston, who was born at Oakland, California, on the 24th may, 1895, married Edwin Neal of Calgary in 1940, but he died two years later. On the 11th October, 1952, she married Lt. Col. James D. Gemmill, who had served with the Royal Engineers, British Army, and had won the Military Cross twice during the First World War of 1914-1918. He had also served in the North West Frontier in India. They had no children. As this biography is being written in 1971, they are residing at Kelowna, British Columbia, and I [Henry Ross Wiggs] am very grateful to her for giving me so much of the information about the Poston and the Ahern families which appears in this and other biographies. Although she is of one generation older than mine, she and I were both born in the year 1895.
Richard Gordon Ross Poston married Lulu Keller in 1931 and had three children: Richard Gordon, James and Catherine (named after his mother). They are all married; Dick has three sons, Catherine has three daughters. After his wife died, Gordon Poston married Elizabeth (Bess) Stuart, a widow with a son and daughter, and when she died, he married his high school sweetheart, Janey Hawes, who was also twice widowed. She had an adopted daughter Carolyn, and he has an adopted son, Stuart Ross. They live on the Singing River Ranch, Mead, Washington, and he is a realtor dealing in the sale of farms, cattle ranches and other acreage. His family ride a lot.
Judging from the tone of letters written by him to some of his relatives, he is evidently a congenial and jovial character with a keen sense of humour, resulting without doubt from the marriage of his Scotch grandfather, Drummond Ross, to his Irish grandmother, Maria Jane Beamish. Other members of the Ross family possess the same amiable characteristic, and as Gordon Poston once wrote, "It's just hard to beat that good old Scotch-Irish combination."
Maude Isobel Poston, the seventh and youngest of the Poston family, married her half-cousin, Charles Samuel Taschereau of Spokane, son of Charles Fleury Taschereau who was her mother's half-brother. They are now residing in Walla Walla, Washington, and have an adopted son, Reginald.
[This was written in 1971 by Henry Ross Wiggs; correction and notes by Cousin Sam in Italics].
________________________
________________________
