My Family Tree

Bessie Mann was born in Irishtown in 1864*, the youngest daughter of William Mann Jr. and his first wife, Janet Johnstone Mann, who died when Bessie was about two years old. Her father remarried a few years later. When her father died, Bessie was left in the care of her step-mother, Mary Fraser Mann. In 1891, Bessie was staying in Charlottetown with her older sister Theresa Fraser, helping with the children after the birth of her sister's youngest daughter Nellie, born that April (Bessie is listed as living in both households in the April 1891 census).

According to Laura Fraser, Bessie took care of her when her mother Theresa died and her father left for the United States, which was sometime in 1899. By then, Bessie was married to Angus MacEachern from Covehead. Angus was a widower with three children living at home: Donald A. (or Dan), Christine, and Lucy B. (or Susie Bell?). In the 1901 census, he and Bessie had two children, Mattie Theresa and Johnstone William.

Angus died in 1905. Bessie remained in Covehead, Lot 34, and in 1911 she was living there with her daughters Nellie (Mattie from 1901 census) and Jean, step daughter Christie, and sons Johnstone and Garfield. She was working as a dress-maker.

In the 1921 census Bessie, age 65, was in Covehead, Lot 34. The family was farming. At home were Johnston 22, Garfield 19. and Jean McEachern, 16.

Johnstone went to the United States not long after this census, and Jean was living there as well when news came that their brother Garfield had died suddenly in 1929, possibly from appendicitis. Both Johnstone and Jean returned home for the funeral. In March, Bessie's niece, Miss Bessie Mann of Kensington, spent the week at Covehead as the the guest of her aunt. Later that year, Bessie sold the farm, and she and her daughter Jean moved to Summerside to live with her widowed brother, John A. Mann. After John's death, she lived with Jean, by then married to Irving Hogg, in Wilmot Valley. According to her obituary, the early deaths of Nellie and Garfield had been very hard on Bessie. She died June 29 1939, survived by her daughter Jean, one son, Johnstone in Boston, and two brothers, James and Fraser Mann. Premier Thane Campbell, a cousin, as well as cousins Ernest and William Johnstone, and Thomas Linkletter, MLA, were among the pall-bearers at her funeral.

*Bessie's date of birth varies from 1863-1866 in census records. However, if she was born in May, she had to have been born before April 1866, when her mother died.

Bessie had few, if any, living descendants.

Name Bessie A. MacEachern
Age 75
Residence Wilmot
Date of Death 29 June 1939
Entry Number 140
Source RG19/s2/ss6: Death registration books, 1939

There passed away at Wilmot Valley, PEI on June 29 1939 Mrs. Bessie MacEachern, aged 75, widow of the late Angus MacEachern of Cove Head, PEI. Her maiden name was Bessie Mann, daughter of the late William Mann and his wife Janet Johnstone of burlington, where Mrs. MacEachern was born. As a bride sche came to Cove Head and lived there until 1929 when she moved to Summerside with her daughter Jean and later to the home of her son-in-law Mr. Irving Hogg, Wilmot Valley where she passed away. Besides her daughter Jean, Mrs. Hogg, who tenderly cared for her mother, there are left to mourn the loss of a kind, faithful and loving mother one sone Johnstone in Boston, Mass and three step-children (Christie) Mrs. William Boland, Lawrence Mass. (Belle) Mrs. Dan MacQuaid, Detroit and Dan of Everett, Mass. A daughter Nellie died in 1919 and a son Garfield in 1929. She is survived by two brothers James and Fraser Mann in Burlington. Three sisters and two brothers having predeceased her. Mrs. MacEachern was a communicant member of the Presbyterian Church from her girlhood. She was a woman of exceptionally fine qualities. When but a young girl she nursed her sister Mrs. Fraser for two years until her death and brought up her children. She also cared for her brother John in his declining years.

Charlottetown Guardian