Joseph and Georgianna Gilbert McGregor

By Thomas M. Parsons

They were a hardy-looking couple, to say the least. He was Joseph McGregor, the last of a long string of children born to James McGregor who emigrated to Canada from Scotland in the 19th century. She was Georgianna Gilbert, whose ancestry can be traced back to New England and the colonies, and from there to England.

He was born May 10, 1849 in Kent County, Ontario, near Chatham. She was born May 3, 1851 in Ontario. Though he was two years older than she, he outlived her by eleven years.

He was a farm hand. She was a housewife. They made their home in Kent County, Ontario in an unincorporated community known as Mull, which was a few miles west of Ridgetown, Ontario. In keeping with the traditions of the McGregor clan, they were Presbyterians, possibly members of Mt. Zion Presbyterian church in Ridgetown.

Joseph and Georgianna had three children. Their first child was Robert, born January 5, 1880. Sixteen months later their only daughter, Annie May, was born, on May 19, 1881. Their last child, a son, was born August 19, 1889. He was James Manley.

In the four years from 1909 to 1913, tragedy struck this family three times. The first incident occurred on February 27, 1909. James Manley, then 19 years old, was a boiler maker, unmarried and possibly living in Niagara Falls, Ontario. On that February day, James was involved in a serious accident which caused a skull fracture. He died from the injuries within minutes. Dr. James H. McCurry of Niagara Falls signed his death certificate.

When James died, his sister, Annie, had been married six years and was living in Detroit, Michigan with her husband, William Parsons, and their three children. At the end of that year of 1909, William and Annie had their fourth and final child, born on December 30.

William was a machinist who left Ontario to seek work in the auto industry which was just beginning its nearly century-long domination of Detroit. All of William and Annie's children were born in Detroit, giving them American citizenship by birth.

The second tragedy in the family occurred on June 2, 1911. William took his three older children, Whelan, Grace and Everett, to the the corner of Beaufait and Jefferson on Detroit's east side to watch the parade of the Hallenbeck-Wallace circus as it passed the end of the block on which they lived. The youngest child, Helen, stayed home with her mother.

As the parade was coming to an end, the operator of the calliope let out a blast of steam and a loud chord, which startled a team of horses attached to a freight wagon standing on the curb on Beaufait waiting for the driver, Elza Ireland, to emerge from the Michigan Central freight station on the corner. The horses began running and pulling the heavy wagon down Beaufait, toward the Parsons' children. William reached up as the team ran by, in an attempt to grab the reigns and stop them before they reached his children. But the horses knocked him to the pavement and dragged the heavy wagon over his body. He died later that day. He was just 39 years old.

Photos: [1] Joseph and Georgianna Gilbert McGregor circa 1910, probably taken at their home in Mull, Ontario, Canada. [2] Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church in Ridgetown, Ontario, photographed in July, 2001.

Annie, now 29 years old and alone with four children, returned to Mull to raise her family. Not only were her parents, Joseph and Georgianna, there, but William's parents, Henry and Alice, also lived nearby. Her children attended the small one-room Mull school.

The third in the trilogy of tragedies struck in October of 1913.

It has several names. Hydroxy-benzene. Phenol. C 6 H 5 OH. Carbolic acid. It occurs naturally, but in the early part of the 20th century, it was usually distilled from coal tar.

Carbolic acid was its most common name in 1913. It was used as a parasiticide, commonly in the treatment of ringworm and other skin diseases. In diluted form, it was sometimes applied to the skin as a local anesthesia which could numb the skin for several hours. It was also applied via cotton swabs to the teeth and gums to relieve toothaches. It was sometimes taken internally to relieve intestinal disorders. Its ability to be absorbed through unbroken skin made it a popular medicine in many homes of the day.

But there is a problem with carbolic acid. In concentrated amounts it is a poison. It paralyzes the muscles that control breathing.

On October 27, 1913, Dr. Bryce Kendrick of nearby Blenheim was summoned to the home of Georgianna Gilbert McGregor, who was unconscious. Her breathing was shallow; her skin cold and clammy. Before collapsing, Georgianna was experiencing vomiting, temperature drop and a weak pulse. Also, her urine had turned a dark green in color.

It takes about fifteen grains of concentrated carbolic acid to kill a full-grown man of average weight. Somehow, Georgianna had ingested enough concentrated carbolic acid to kill her. Dr. Kendrick wrote on the death certificate that death occurred within one hour of ingestion. The green color of the urine was the main sympton used to establish death by carbolic acid poisoning.

It was ruled an accidental death. Somehow careless handling of the product had put the chemical into Georgianna's stomach causing her death at the age of 62.

In that short span of four years from 1909 to 1913, accidents had taken the lives of three members of the same family.

Georgianna's husband, Joseph, lived another nine years, dying on May 20, 1922. Joseph suffered from angina for about a year and a half prior to his death. Dr. D. Marr, the attending physician from Ridgetown who was summoned to the McGregor home by daughter Annie wrote on the death certificate that the immediate cause of death was "overlifting." The man who had made his living doing hard physical farm labor, died lifting too much weight. He was 73.

Joseph and Georgianna were Tom's great grandparents. Whelan, one of the children William saved from the runaway horses, was Tom's father.