- From Dorcas Aunger, correspondent, note of June 17, 2009
Catherine Stanbury Aunger died at the age of 34, when herbaby, Bethelda, was only 1 and 1/2 years old, and hereledst, Edwin Henry, was only 14. Just before her death,she exacted a death-bed promise from her cousin, Mary JaneMerriam, to take care of her babies. Mary Jane set out tokeep her promise and about five months later, She and Johnwere married.
At the time of the 1871 census of Ontario, John and MaryJane resided in the united townships of Belmont andMethuen, Peterborough Co., Ontario.[195]
By 1872, John was employed by the Cobourg, Peterborough andMarmora Railway and Mining Company.[20] In August 1873,the company sent him back to Cornwall to recruit men towork in the mines of Canada. He remained in Cornwallseveral weeks, making his headquarters at Cambourne andRedruth [215]. When he returned, he brought outseventy-five men. He returned to Canada on a ship whichhad laid a cable under the Atlantic Ocean, and brought backas a souvenir, a piece of scrap from the cable. In 1982,this memento was in the possession of his grandson, WilliamRobert George Aunger.
When John and Mary Jane's first child, Frederick, was born,John was serving as overseer of the Blairton Iron Mines, aposition he held for several years. [41]
By 1882, there was very little activity at the BlairtonMines, and the town's population was down to slightly morethan 300. The mines, equipment, and about 30,000 acres ofland were sold by court order to Thomas P. Pearce ofMarmora. Many of the vacant homes were dismantled and thematerials from them shipped west.[23] With the minesclosing, John left his family in Blairton and tried hishand at mining in Quebec. He was located there in 1884,when the last of his children was born. [41]
Returning to Blairton, John went to work for the Thomas P.Pearce Company, keeping their accounts, and collecting therents. He ontinued in this capacity for a number of years,the records showing him still in their employment in 1900.[216]
John became Deputy Reeve of Belmont Township, and continuedserving in this capacity at least through 1894, at whichtime he served the united townships of Belmont and Methuen.[216]
During his years of work in the various mines, John hadmade a large, but informal rock collection. In 1886, hesold 1000 "mineral specimens of great note" to P. T. Barnumof New York, for his museum [216]. After that, John begancollecting minerals unceasingly and in earnest, until hehad what one newspaper reported as "one of the finestcollections of minerals in existence." [216] He discoveredthe Ledyard Gold Mine in 1892, and in that same yearsupplied the minerals for the display of the Ontario CrownLands Department at the Worlds Fair in Chicago. [216] In1894, he made a gift of mineral specimens to the county,which were displayed in the form of a pyramid on thegrounds to the south of the courthouse at Peterborough.There were several hundred specimens in the gift, almostall of which were collected in the eastern part of thecounty. [216] But weather and vandalism have taken theirtoll. The pyramid no longer exists.
John Laskey Aunger had a gift for words. From the 1880'sthrough the early years of the 1900's, he was a frequentcontributor to such newspapers as the Havelock Standard,the Marmora Herald, the Norwood Register,the Examiner, and the North Hastings Review. He submitted such items as local news, letters to theeditor, opinions (particularly on mining and mineralsubjects), local history, and observations on variousfacets of life. Occasionally, he would submit poetry, muchof which was satirical. He was known to readers of theMarmora Herald as "Our Blairton Correspondent." [216]
Mary Jane died of heart disease at their home in Blairton,after years of affliction with pernicious anemia.
Shortly after Mary Jane's death, the Pearce Company finallyacknowledged that the days of the Blairton Mines were over. Transportation of the ore was prohibitively expensive anddiscovery of competitive fields along Lake Superioreclipsed the Blairton operations. Finally, water fromCrowe Lake was seeping into the shafts faster than thecompany could pump it out. The population of Blairton wasdown to fifty people, and Pearce Company was so far behindin what it owed John Laskey Aunger, it decided to give himthe mine and house property in lieu of salary. Thetransaction was never recorded. [217]
In 1912, John wrote his last will and testament. [69] Theyear 1924 was a leap year, and on Feb. 29, John passedquietly away. [1, 2]
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1878 - 1960 (81 years)
[1] 
