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William and Jessie purchased land from Eliza’s brother, Jim, an acre of property located on the western right-hand side of the Southwest Bridge. William was a farmer, fisher- man and carpenter. He bought more land, twenty acres adja-

cent to his home and eighty-five acres from Henry Baglole

in Nebraska. He also moved the family home across the road. The couple had four children, Isabel (Belle), Gladys, Spurgeon, and Wilma. Although William was an Anglican, Jessie belonged to the Methodist and United Church. She and her daughter, Wilma, joined the church in 1924. Wilma also sang in the choir under the direction of Amy Lockhart.

Belle married Sidney Birch and had a family of eleven children, two of whom died. Belle died in childbirth at the age of thirty-three years. She and her infant daughter are buried in Lot 16 United Church Cemetery. Her son, Hampton Birch, still lives in Southwest.

Spurgeon went to work in the woods in NB. Later, he went to western Canada and finally established his home in New Hampshire, USA. He married Dorothy Reasoner and had two children. After an absence of sixty-two years, he returned to the island and purchased his parents’ old one- acre homestead fiom Ernest Gamble as a summer home. He is buried in the cemetery at Lot 16 United.

Gladys married Johnnie Baglole from Southwest (see Baglole History). In 1927, Wilma married Beecher Ford from Mt. Pleasant and settled in Wellington. They had a family of nine and later built a home in Summerside. Beecher is buried at People’s Cemetery in Surnmerside.

William Smith died in 1942 and is buried in Port Hill. In 1944, his widow, Jessie, manied William Gamble (see Gambles of Southwest). Jessie operated the first grocery store in Lot 16. She was a poet and a writer. She wrote a col- umn for the Journal Pioneer for fifty years and composed many obituaries and memoriams for residents of Southwest before she died at the age of eighty-seven. She is buried in the Lot 16 United Church Cemetery.

Contributed by Dorotlyz Gamble

FAMILIES ASSOCIATED WITH LOT 16 UNITED