Jessie became a widow at the age of 36. She was left with four small children ages 10, 8, 5 and 2.
Sometime between William’s death in August of 1893 and late 1894, Jessie emigrated to Montreal, Canada for reasons unknown. Her family was still living on St John’s Road in Ryde but for some reason, Jessie decided to emigrate instead of returning there. On the 22nd of November 1894, Jessie gave birth to her fifth child in Montreal, who she named William Bond. William’s father is unknown but perhaps he or the pregnancy had something to do with her decision to emigrate.
By 1901, Jessie had remarried a man named Thimotee Sullivan, an Irish groom. They lived in the St. Antoine ward in Montreal. Laura Alice was no longer living at home but the younger children were using the name Sullivan. Sometime during the next decade, Jessie either divorced Thimotee or he died.
On the 1911 census, Jessie was living at 267 Charles Borromee in Montreal with her new husband, Donald Williams born July 1852 in Ontario. Her name was listed as Jessica. Her sons John Arthur and William are living with them and they are using the last name of Williams. John’s occupation was a theatre electrician. Her daughter Laura, who would have been 29 at the time, is thought to have moved to Seattle, Washington. Son Thomas was living at 7-27W, Brandon, Manitoba working as a farm labourer. Family lore has it that Jessie’s daughter Frances married a man named Miller and had three children. She lived for a time in Saskatoon and later moved to Ottawa.
In the Montreal directory in 1913-1914, there is a listing for Williams, Mrs Jessie, news agent at 164 Lagauchetierre W.
According to the obituary in the Montreal Star, Donald Williams, news agent, died at age 58 on Sunday November 8th, 1914. His funeral left General Hospital where he died on Wednesday November 11th at 2pm. He was to be buried by the Newsboy’s Protective Association and all of it’s members were requested to attend.
Jessie was a widow again at the age of forty three. In the city directory from 1914-1917, Jessie is listed as Williams, Mrs. Jessie, wid Donald at 121 Dalhousie Street, the same address that both William and John Arthur used for her as their next of kin on their WWI attestation papers in 1916.
At the time of enlisting on the 26th of January 1916, John was living at 114 Gariton Street in Toronto and was employed as a shipper. He was described as 5 foot 9-1/2 inches with a dark complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. William enlisted a few weeks later on the 10th of February 1916 but was still living at home with his mother Jessie on Dalhousie Street. He stated his occupation as an electrician. William was only 5 foot 5 inches tall, with fair complexion, blue eyes and light hair. No family resemblance there! Both John and William had tattoos when they enlisted. Perhaps they went together to have them done. William’s tattoo was a bird on his right forearm and John had tattoos on both forearms.
Jessie’s listing as a news agent agrees with the family story that Jessie sold newspapers from the doorways of the major bank buildings. It is said that Jessie talked her way into a small booth set up in the lobby of one such bank. Before long, she had booths in all the bank lobbies and was paying young men to sell the newspapers for her. Each day, she went around to collect the money and always carried a large bag of nickels.
She wore a fur coat which she bought new every year since all the fur wore off the shoulder that she rested her stack of newspapers on.
My Aunt Irene remembered going to visit her Grandma Williams house about once a year in the summer, probably in the early 1930’s. She remembered Jessie putting a full ham on a plate in the cupboard and telling them to help themselves and then going out for the day to “work”. Aunt Irene said that grandma never washed the dishes, just wiped them and put them back in the cupboard and when they reached for plates to put the ham on, the dishes were still dirty.
On the 24th of July 1922, Jessie’s son William died in Ste. Anne’s Hospital in Montreal of tuberculosis that he contracted during the war. He was buried in Soldiers Cemetery, Mt. Royal cemetery in Montreal.
On the 29th of December in 1941, Jessie passed away at the age of 84 at 4813 Boyer Street in Montreal. The Montreal Star carried her obituary on which read: “On December 29th 1941 at her late residence 4812 Boyer Street, Jessie Williams, wife of the late Donald Williams, aged 78 years. Funeral from the Cahpel of Jos C Wray and Brothers at 1234 Mountain Street, Funeral from the Chruch Home at 9:45 AM Friday, January 2nd. Internment in St John’s sur Richelieu – Count of St Jean”. Despite what the obituary said, Jessie was buried in the Mount Royal cemetery in section G 2227-E.
