Page 8 - Feb 2024 News On 7

HAZZARD'S HISTORY NOTES

by Grant Ketcheson
WHAT'S IN A NAME?

When tracing the original families of the Hazzard's Corners community back to the homelands of their birth, we find many
variations in the spelling of surnames. Once established in the New World, spellings rarely changed. However, we found an
exception to the rule in Hazzard's Cemetery.

Amy, our newest Hazzard's Church trustee, and her husband, Adam, selected as their first home, the historic white house
on the corner that was once the local store and post office. Amy then discovered that she has a connection to a family
buried in the cemetery across the road! Her inquiry prompted us to begin “digging up” some more family history hidden in
Hazzard's Cemetery.

The oldest stone in the cemetery (1842) bears the name of William Remington. William George Remington was born in 1786
in the county of Kent, in the south-east of England. While we found the date and the church of his baptism, we have no
information as to how his travels brought him to Madoc Township. William married Julia Ann Abrahams who was born in
New York State. We suspect that they were married in the USA. By 1842 William and Julia Ann had six children.

Not far from the monument of William Remington is the gravestone
of Thomas Rimington and his wife Catherine. Were the Remingtons
and the Rimingtons related? A census search proved that Thomas
Rimington was William Remington's son!

According to the 1878 Belden's Atlas, one of the sons, John
Rimington, was a shoe maker and the postmaster of “Rimington
Village”. (In the period 1870-1913 there were seven rural post offices
in Madoc Township.)

It appears that John also ran a store in the hamlet, likely in his home.
Later, many of the Rimington/Remington family moved to Manitoba.

The hamlet on the Cooper Road, long called Remington by the locals, used to be a busy spot with a blacksmith shop, a
post office and store, a church and a school. If you wish to give a stranger directions to this crossroads hamlet, tell them
to “turn east from highway 62 onto Rimington Road and follow it until you reach Remington”. Confusing, isn't it?

How could such confusion arise within one generation? While we will never know the answer, we believe that this is the
only such name-change in Hazzard's Cemetery.