Mr. Zebulon Landon
passed away on Tuesday afternoon, July 16th, 1918 at his home, Norfolk
Street, after an illness of some months' duration. He was in his 86th
year.
Mr. Landon's father, also
Zebulon Landon, came at the age of 16 to Canada by Indian trail from New
Jersey, in 1792. He was granted land as a U.E. loyalist. Later, in the
first years of the nineteenth century, he came to Norfolk and settled on
Kent's Creek, just west of town. He married Lucinda Monroe, a member of
the well-known U.E. loyalist Monroe family that settled in
Charlotteville in 1796.
The father died when the younger
Zebulon was five years of age, leaving his widow and her only child to
battle with the problems of life in a primitive settlement on a large
allotment of land, almost uncleared.
The pioneer mother however was of Spartan mould, and before she passed
away she had the satisfaction of seeing her son well on the way to a
competence.
The writer has often been
greatly interested in listening to Mr. Landon's recitals of his early
experiences. He had a retentive memory and up to a few months before his
death was ready to tell how Norfolk looked and thought when he was a
boy.
As a lad he attended the Grammer
School kept by Rev. Geo. Salmon, father of Dr. J. M. Salmon of
Simcoe.
But attendance was only possible in the winter time, and the literary
education he secured was no more than sufficient to make possible the
assertion of his own natural abilities, which were great.
He was always an intelligent and
prosperous farmer and early in life he also became interested in
lumbering in Norfolk. Afterwards his activities spread to Michigan and
Arkansas. He was at one time largely interested in North Carolina
turpentine forests.
After forty years ago he bought
the John Axford farm, immediately adjoining the town to the south, and
there built himself a spacious and comfortable home, which he continued
to occupy with his family until his death.
Mr. Landon was twice married. By
his first wife he had three daughters, who grew to womanhood, the eldest
of these, Clara, wife of the late A. N. Duncombe and the youngest, Miss
Mary London [sic], died years ago. The second daughter, Anna,
wife of Mr. O. S. Laycock, lives in Buffalo, N.Y.
Mr. Landon's second wife, who
survives him, was a daughter of the late Alexander Hunter of Townsend,
later of Simcoe. By this union there are two surviving children: Monroe,
at home, and Mrs. John G. Farrar, whose husband is a member of the staff
of the Simcoe branch of the Molsons Bank.
The funeral, by motors, will
take place to Woodhouse Cemetery this afternoon at 2:30.
Simcoe, 19 Jul --
Funeral of the late Mr. Zebulon Landon was held yesterday afternoon.
Rev. Mr. Edington, a relative of Mrs. Landon, of Harrow, Ontario,
assisted by Rev. M. Scott Fulton, conducted the last services. The pall
bearers were Geo. J. McKiee, J. B. Jackson, W. C. J. King, Wm. Sutton,
Harvey Falls and Samuel Sowden. The body was laid to rest in Woodhouse
Methodist cemetery.
Historically, Mr. Landon
occupied a unique position. He was possibly the last surviving child of
either a man or woman who came to this country in the closing years of
the 18th century.
It is now about 120 years since
Zebulon Landon Sr. came to the Long Point country from the State of New
Jersey.
In 1803, the father bought Lot
16 in the Gore of Woodhouse, part of which is now occupied as the
County Industrial Home. It was here that his two children were born, the
man who was buried yesterday and a baby girl who died when a few weeks
old.
This boy grew up and in time
married Lucinda Monroe, daughter of Robert Monroe, one of the county's
earliest pioneers, who lived a short distance from Turkey Point.
Mrs. Landon Sr., who died
several decades ago, was familiarly known by some of the oldest of our
inhabitants as Aunt Lucy Landon.
