LOT HISTORIES

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GEORGE and MARY WISE (WEISS) LESLIE

Louise and William Wade's second son, George, became an itinerant Methodist preacher under the Guelph Circuit of the Primitive Methodist Church. He moved from Puslinch to Beverly Twp. when he married Mary Wise (Weiss), and George received the crown patent for lot 32, conc. 10 Beverly Township. There he built two very large lime kilns, burning lime for the area. As the result of several years operating these kilns, George lost his eyesight. The farm became well known to visitors from Toronto to London when it was purchased by Rachel McLeod and her husband. Rachel planted extensive herb gardens. Known as "Kiln Farm", it was open to the public until Rachel decided to retire.

The records of the Guelph Circuit of the Primitive Methodist Church in the United Church Archives in Toronto (1856-1878) record the membership of "Brother Leslie" on the Mission Committee for the area from Aberfoyle to Beech Grove. George had moved to Puslinch when he was only 10 years old. By the time he was 18, both of his parents had died. A descendant found the record of his mother Louise's burial in the first parish record book of St. George's Anglican Church in Guelph. She was buried in the pioneer cemetery near the church. Since the family could not find this cemetery, a visit to Woodlawn Cemetery resulted in being informed that the graves from the original one off St. George's Square (where the early log St. George's Church had stood) had been re-interred in a mass grave in Woodlawn in the 1950s. Part of the Baker Street parking lot covers the site of that original cemetery. No doubt the sudden early death of both parents had lasting effects on the Leslie children. George chose to share his faith with the people of this growing rural community for many years. One thing that stands out in family members' memories of George is the fact that he insisted that people observe the Sabbath as a day of rest. He was known to speak out whenever he saw someone breaking this practice. No doubt he would be astonished by Sunday shopping were he to see this common occurrence in Ontario today!

Many accounts of the early Methodist circuit preachers paint a picture of men traveling from farm to farm on horseback, but in reality it was only the supervising preachers who traveled from one circuit to another (New York State to Ancaster to Waterdown to Guelph etc.) that arrived on horseback in those early days. Like most local preachers in the 1840s & 50s, George walked. Four times a year he walked the 12-mile distance to Guelph for quarterly circuit meetings. The family also walked to Beech Grove for Sabbath School. George and his wife Mary appear on the "Record of Members of the Guelph Station, Beech Grove Class" in the 1860s in the U.C. Archives. When each of their children married, they presented them with a large bible where they were encouraged to record the births and deaths of family members. George's middle son William Edwin Leslie's bible, from his 1875 marriage in Aberfoyle Methodist Church to Mary J. Stephenson, is in the possession of their great-grandson, William (Bill) Crow of Puslinch. Bill's mother was Isabel Leslie, daughter of Mark who was William E.'s eldest son. Accounts of the Methodist circuit riders in local records explain the duties of these preachers. "There were no seminaries and after two years of circuit work the preachers were ordained as Deacons. Deacons were able to baptize in the absence of an Elder, to assist the Elder in the administration of the Lord's Supper, to marry, to bury the dead and to read the Liturgy to the people as prescribed, except what related to the Lord's Supper." (SOURCE: Clarks of Tomfad 's website link to Arkell United Church's history)

Family lore tells of the unhappy Le Sage family in France when their daughter Louise became involved with a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. She left her country to join William Leslie in Ireland. The University of Guelph library holds the book Public Records in Ireland, and on page 632 it lists the marriage of William Wade Lesley (sic) and Louise Le Sage as taking place in 1818 in that country (DA 905 A25). Since the marriage records were destroyed in Dublin during the Easter Uprising, it is wonderful that this book which was published in 1899 at least has a record of their marriage.

George Leslie married Mary Wise, daughter of John and Catherine Wise of Beverly Twp. who had come to Canada from Germany via New York State. Mary was born in the U.S., and came to Upper Canada in 1828, when she was 4 years old. Both George Leslie and John Wise lived in Puslinch before purchasing farms over the town line in Beverly.

One common practice at that time was that non-English immigrants anglicized their names. Johans and Catherine Salome Weiss, along with most of the German newcomers to the Morriston area of Puslinch, all did so. While 'Weiss' means 'white' in German, they chose Wise as closer phonetically to their original surname. Mary's older brother Andrew married a younger daughter of Wm. Wade and Louise, Jane Leslie. This branch also has descendants in the area today. Some use the spelling Wise, and others Wyse in those families. Andrew was born in London, England after the family had left Germany for America.

In 1927, Leslie descendants held their first family reunion at Puslinch Station, where Wm. Wade and Louise started out. Large panoramic black-and-white pictures of the 1927 and 1928 reunions were taken by a visiting photographer. For several years after that, Mark and Myrtle Leslie hosted the reunions at their farm at Mountsberg. In more recent years family picnics have been held every second year. In 1983, Bill and Lynn Crow held a sesquicentennial reunion at their farm in Puslinch. A group photo was also taken at that time. It was a day for Leslie descendants to celebrate Wm. Wade's 1833 patent to his land in Upper Canada which was granted by King William the Fourth and signed by Sir. J. Colborne at York on the "thirtieth day of July - one thousand, eight hundred and thirty-three."