Father: Thomas Shiels Siblings: Thomas 1819 Jean 1821 John 1826 George 1828 Anne 1831 William 1833
John Shiels was born on Jul 8, 1826 in Lanarkshire, Scotland, near the town of Biggar. He was the 4th child of Thomas Shiels and Barbara Jean Cranston.
He got some of his education at the parish school until he was 11 years old. All the education he received after that was at college of hard knocks. He was placed on a farm called Hard Scrabble, but he never complained. Before he was 20, he was promoted to farm foreman at a very good wage for that time.
John & his younger brother George immigrated to Canada in 1847 and settled near Cranbrook, Ontario. John married Janet McNair and they settled on Lot 19 on the 14th concession of Grey County.
John and Janet had nine children, six boys and three girls. The children were Tom, Jane, Barbara Ann, James, Janet, John, Jack, Robert and William. The first son Tom was born on Dec 9, 1857. Jane was born Apr 1, 1859; and Barbara Ann on Jan 29, 1861. A second son, James was born Dec 29, 1862. Janet was Apr 14, 1865 and she died 14 months later on Jul 4, 1866. John was born May 13, 1868 and tragedy struck again when he died 3 months later on May 26, 1868. Another son named Jack was born Aug 2, 1869; then came Robert on Feb 28 1871; and the youngest child William on Jul 15, 1875.
It is interesting that only the oldest and the youngest were married and the rest stayed on the farm. The oldest, Thomas moved to Manitoba and then Saskatchewan while the youngest, William went to British Columbia.
Our story details how the land was transferred and finally sold out of the Shiels name in the 1950’s. All of the buildings were buried in the 1980’s so there is no trace of days gone by. Your author captured a brick from the old house and a stone from the barn in the early 1980’s before the final evidence was gone.
The following pdf file tells their story and the stories of their descendants.