Alexander and Anne appear to have had eight children: Keziah, Walter, James, Alexander, Jane, John, William and Christian / Chistyan. At least four of the eight, Keziah, Walter, Alexander and Jane, moved to the U.S. after marriage. James appears to have been one of the original owners of the land where the Wilsons eventually built their farm, though he is mysteriously mentioned in his father Alexander’s 1863 will as being “presumably dead”. When John Wilson purchased his farm from James Wilson, it is indicated that other parties were involved in the sale, possibly on James’ behalf.

         Also strange is the situation surrounding the disappearance of Alexander and Ann’s daughter Christyan and her husband Robert Burnsides. They had a daughter named Jane, but in the 1861 census it is noted that Jane is living with her grandparents in the village; no mention of her parents is made. It is interesting to speculate what may have happened to them. 

         The same census notes that Alexander lives in a 1 ½ story frame house on the lot, and that their son William lived in a log cabin next door. It is hard to place these two homes, though they would have been located on (what is now) Creditview Rd, on the east side, somewhere between the bridge and the Williams’ / Ito’s / Stanley’s home at the top of the South Hill. I suspect that they have been located to the south side of the church, where the Trimble’s home stood, behind the mailboxes.

     John and William Burns lived their lives in Churchville, eventually sharing this land after Alexander died. Both brothers met tragic ends. As you read above, William killed himself unexpectedly in the River one snowy night. William’s wife, who discovered his body that night, was Evelina Baker Burns, daughter of John Baker and Diana Hall (both of whom are buried in the cemetery). Two years later, Evelina was married to village blacksmith, William Hardy, becoming his third wife. 

The Death of John Burns

        Alexander and Ann's son John Burns met a much more grisly death; one that has lived on in the oral history of the village to this day, as much for how he died as for what he was wearing at the time.  A Market Gardener by trade, John was born in 1830 and lived at Lot 5 in the village with his wife Jane Thompson (Peaker) Burns and their nine children. Lot 5 is at 7700 Creditview Road, right at the intersection of Hallstone & Creditview; many will remember it as being owned by the Trimble and Glocking families in the past. 

        On the night of November 21st, 1903, while returning in his sleigh from Streetsville, John Burns, aged 73 at the time, lit his pipe and huddled up for warmth under blankets and his dog skin coat. He rode north through the darkness of 3rd line (Creditview Rd), passing forests and farms and eventually fell asleep. His horse knew the way and carried on pulling the sleigh home without guidance, the sleigh gliding in silence, save for the jingle of its bells.

      John’s pipe fell from his mouth and set the sleigh alight, leading to a horrifying site for anyone still up and looking out at the road that night: the horse traveling north, pulling a flaming sleigh. John was killed and his wife Jane discovered his charred remains when his horse arrived at their door. 

I originally heard this story from my grandfather, who was born in the village in the 1920s and died there in 2008. Over the years it had become a bit of a joke among family members - there was no way that such a thing could actually have occurred in our community. The detail that we were fixated on was that John Burns owned a dog skin coat, which seemed ludicrous, and that somehow in some karmic way, this had led to his undoing. I was shocked to find out many years later that this event actually took place in the village, and that it all happened mere steps from the home where I grew up. The image of the flaming sleight traveling silently down the south hill is a hard one to shake. 

Two newspaper articles that ran at the time, describing John Burns' grisly death in Churchville.

       The Burns properties were eventually inherited by William’s son, Herbert O. Burns, who made the news himself in 1922 for experiencing a terrible accident on the farm. 

The Burns family eventually sold to the Pickerings, and over time it has passed through many hands, including (as mentioned before), the Stanleys, Itos and Williams families. 

Though they lived in the area for almost a century, the Burns family left behind only one enduri legacy in the village. William’s daughter, Wilhelmina, was second wife to local carpenter George Bye, and had perhaps the most interesting monument in the cemetery erected in his memory.