William Daniel Edy

As per 1914 & 1916 newspaper articles and family lore (but disputed on Wikitree), a telephone call between the photography studio of William Daniel Edy (b. 1832 Brant Co., ON - d. 1916 London, ON), and Alexander Graham Bell's farm, was the very first in the world. Daniel's father, Daniel Sr., was reputed to have occupied the first log cabin in Brantford, and his grandfather, Roswell, the first house in Guelph. Roswell was a United Empire Loyalist had fled Massachusetts in 1783, with his brothers Abner & Solomon, following the Revolutionary War, and they settled initially seven miles from Hamilton at Ancaster, founded officially in 1792 and merged into Hamilton in 2001.

Daniel and his first wife were registered "Second Adventist" in 1871, and he and his children were PB by 1881. He was either part of the open brethren meeting on Colborne & Horton, or the exclusive meeting room. He married his second wife Mary Howell at Oshawa in 1874, when Daniel was registered as "Missivas", Mary as Wesleyan Methodist. Mary was Baptist by 1881 and remained such for the remainder of her life, Daniel remained PB. They resided in Brantford until 1884 when they moved to London.

In 1887, Melvin Lotteridge built a custom saw mill in Dawn Twp., Lambton Co., financed by Daniel and his brother James N. It eventually passed back into their hands, who enlarged it and gave it to the stave firm of Sutherland & Innis, of Chatham, who operated it as long as the timber lasted. The stave mill was built in 1887, and at one point employed over 150 men. The village became known as Edy Mills, and at one point had 200 residents, and currently a store, school, church and a handful of houses are there. The community is just south of the Oil Museum of Canada. The first public building there was a log schoolhouse built in 1883, and Miss Sutherland of Oil Springs was its first teacher, with 14 students in attendance. Within four years, enrollment had grown to 100 students.

Edy ancestry

Daniel's immigrating paternal ancestor Samuel Eddy Sr. was born 1608 in Cranbrook, Kent, England, and immigrated likely in 1630 with his brother John on The Handmaid, employed as a tailor. He married Elizabeth by 1637, who was fined ten shillings in 1651 for wringing out clothes on a Sunday in New England. Samuel died in Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts in 1687. See Wikitree. He was a descendant of Rev. William Eddye (b. 1552) who was vicar of the Puritan church in Bristol, Somerset, England.

Photography Studios

It is alleged that all the original photos of Bell's apparatus were taken by Edy, as were photographs of Walt Whitman while passing thru London. Daniel was a member of the Photographic Association of Canada, organized on Jan. 24, 1884, and he was Secretary and Treasurer of such at its annual meeting in Hamilton in Aug. 1891. His photography studio was reportedly the first in Ontario to "adopt the practice of retouching negatives"

Marriages

• 1854 @ ON: Melinda Haviland Edy (d. 1873)
• 1874 @ Oshawa, ON: Mary Howell Edy (b. 1835 Port Dover, ON), daughter of Capt. Henry Howell & Elizabeth Howell. Witnesses to the wedding included Elizabeth C. Laird of Oshawa, and Sarah Fife of Brighton.

Children

• Lorenzo Edy (b. 1854 Brantford, ON - d. 1929 Vancouver, BC)
  • Cyrus Leslie Edy (b. 1883 Port Huron, MI - d. 1966 London, ON)
    • Donald Leslie Edy (1917-2017 London, ON). WWII vet. Wrote "Goon in the Block" about his experiences in WWII as a RCAF pilot officer, including as a POW at Stalag Luft III, the same camp that hosted that the 76 who inspired the Steve McQueen movie "The Great Escape". See Wikitree.
• Esther Edy (b. 1858)
• Willis Edy (b. 1860)
• Mary Edy +1881+ (b. 1863)
• Leslie Edy +1881+ (b. 1864)
• Nellie Edy +1881+ (b. 1867)
• Franklin Edy +1881+ (b. 1872)