Families were generally much larger in those days, and children started work early to bring in money for the family. There were twelve children in Elias and Adelaide Walters’ family, seven girls and five boys.
Three of the sons became sea captains, John (Sonny), Angus and Perry. Angus’s sister Ella Mary, the eldest, was married to a worker at the Smith and Rhuland shipyard where Bluenose was built. Louisa Florence married Capt. Ammon Zinck of Lunenburg.
John “Sonny” was the eldest boy. He later lived next door to Angus and was captaining Bluenose in the summer of 1930 when it ran aground. Lilla Harriet moved to the United States. Carrie Belle moved to Calgary in Canada’s new West. Jennie Beulah later lived two doors from Angus in the family’s old house. Perry Edward was a captain who later moved to Toronto. Aubrey Lowell moved to Massachusetts, home of Angus’s later American rivals. Muriel Blanche eventually moved to New York. Two other children died when they were very young.
Large families were much more common in the nineteenth century
Ella, born 1875
Louisa, 1876
John, 1876
Lilla, 1879
Angus, 1881
Carrie, 1882
Perry, 1886
Jennie, 1889
Aubrey, 1891
Muriel, 1896