Background Information on Daniel and Amelia Dashper
"Rumour has it that Daniel was sponsored as a young man by the Salvation Army or some charitable group to come to Canada. We have not found ship lists yet for his arrival, but suspect he arrived in Canada about 1887. He married Amelia "Smith" (Smethan/Smitheram/Smith) in 1889. The Smethan family originated in Redruth Cornwall (Thomas Henry Smethan married Mary Polkinghorn), they moved to Durham England and then to Hamilton Canada. I deeply suspect the Dashpers and Smethans knew each other in Durham.
[Icecutters in Hamilton Bay Ontario, Canada]
Daniel cut ice from the Hamilton Bay for iceboxes in winter and during the summer he carried mortar to the brick layers. His official cause of death was a cerebral hemorrhage, we suspect caused by the lime in the mortar. Amelia was left to raise her family alone, and she died in 1939. Due to the financial conditions of Daniel's family, the sons laboured in factories in Hamilton, and the daughters worked and married."
Linda Etty (December 1999)
"We put a grave marker on Daniel and Amelia Dashper's
grave in the Hamilton Cemetry last summer [Daniel Dashper and
Amelia Smith(eram) gravestone added to the unmarked grave
Hamilton Cemetery, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1998 as a
promise to their daughter Edith Dashper]. It gave us great
satisfaction to honour this couple who had such difficult
lives"
Gloria Beek (October 1999)