- 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 August1873, the company sent him back to Cornwall to recruit mento work in the mines of Canada. He remained inCornwall several weeks, making his headquarters atCambourne and Redruth [215]. When he returned, hebrought out seventy-five men. He returned to Canadaon a ship which had laid a cable under the Atlantic Ocean,and brought back as a souvenir, a piece of scrap from thecable. In 1982, this memento was in the possession ofhis grandson, William Robert 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 30,000acres of land were sold by court order to Thomas P. Pearceof Marmora. Many of the vacant homes were dismantledand the materials from them shipped west.[23] Withthe mines closing, John left his family in Blairtonand tried his hand at mining in Quebec. He waslocated there in 1884, when the last of his children wasborn. [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 ofyears, the records showing him still in their employment in1900. [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,he sold 1000 "mineral specimens of great note" to P. T.Barnum of New York, for his museum [216]. After that,John began collecting minerals unceasingly and in earnest,until he had what one newspaper reported as "one of thefinest collections of minerals in existence." [216] He discovered the Ledyard Gold Mine in 1892, and in thatsame year supplied the minerals for the display of theOntario Crown Lands Department at the Worlds Fair inChicago. [216] In 1894, he made a gift of mineralspecimens to the county, which were displayed in the formof a pyramid on the grounds to the south of the courthouseat Peterborough. There were several hundred specimensin the gift, almost all of which were collected in theeastern part of the county. [216] But weather andvandalism have taken their toll. The pyramid nolonger exists.
John Laskey Aunger had a gift for words. From the1880's through the early years of the 1900's, he was afrequent contributor to such newspapers as the HavelockStandard, the Marmora Herald, the NorwoodRegister, the Examiner, and the NorthHastings Review. He submitted such items as localnews, letters to the editor, opinions (particularly onmining and mineral subjects), local history, andobservations on various facets of life. Occasionally,he would submit poetry, much of which was satirical. He was known to readers of the Marmora 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 wereover. Transportation of the ore was prohibitivelyexpensive and discovery of competitive fields along LakeSuperior eclipsed the Blairton operations. Finally,water from Crowe Lake was seeping into the shafts fasterthan the company could pump it out. The population ofBlairton was down to fifty people, and Pearce Company wasso far behind in what it owed John Laskey Aunger, itdecided to give him the mine and house property in lieu ofsalary. The transaction was never recorded.[217]
In 1912, John wrote his last will and testament. [69]The year 1924 was a leap year, and on Feb. 29, John passedquietly away. [1, 2]
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1878 - 1960 (81 years)
[1] 
