Person Record

Metadata

Name

Bishop, Ebenezer

Othernames

E. W. Bishop
Eleazer Bishop?

Born

March 10, 1833

Places of residence

Owen Sound, Canada West (Ontario)

Nationality

Pennsylvannian Dutch Background?

Notes

In the 1901 census of Owen Sound, Ebenezer Bishop (a harness-maker) and his wife Sarah Bishop were listed. They resided at 119 Terrace Street. Ebenezer was born March 10, 1833 and Sarah was born Sept. 19, 1839. Their daughter Edith Bishop resided with them still in 1901. Edith was born on Feb. 28, 1872. In 1901, she was working in town as a clerk.
It is believed that E. W. Bishop moved to Owen Sound, Canada West, in 1855?
In 1862, E. W. Bishop advertised a new hotel in Owen Sound, on the corner of Water and Division Streets. His stable could accommodate 40 horses, and luggage was carried for free to and from the steamboat wharf.

Mrs. E. W. Bishop (Sarah Bishop) was a milliner (she made bonnets/hats). In a June, 1862 newspaper, she advertised "fashionable millinery". Another advertisement was seen in a Sept. 1872 newspaper re Mrs. E. W. Bishop having millinery and lace goods available. She was formerly Miss Sarah Kilbourn(e), and her family, the Hiram Kilbourn family, were business people at Owen Sound and Invermay (Tara).

An 1894 mercantile reference book listed "Bishop, E. W....Harness" under Owen Sound, and provided the date "1885" as the date of establishment for this business. An obituary about A. J. Creighton, another businessman, mentioned that Creighton's furniture store on Main St. was located next door to "a harness shop operated by E. W. Bishop, grandfather of Air Marshal W. A. Bishop, VC". Unfortunately, as he died in 1914, Ebenezer Bishop did not witness the fame his grandson, Billy Bishop VC, had received during the end part of the First World War.

Archival Items:
THE OWEN SOUND ADVERTISER, Sept. 26, 1872 (ad for Mrs. Bishop's millinery)
1992.057.010 THE OWEN SOUND TIMES, June 27, 1862, p. 3 ad for Mrs. E. W. Bishop
1974.079.370 Handwritten list of Owen Sound men (likely 1860s) includes E. W. Bishop
1992.057.013 THE OWEN SOUND TIMES, Nov. 28, 1862, p. 4
1992.057.014 THE OWEN SOUND TIMES, July 13, 1866, p. 2
1999.025.024 THE OWEN SOUND SUN, June 16, 1903, has advertisement for E. W. Bishop, moved recently, large stock of harness, trunks & valises.
1999.025.018 THE OWEN SOUND TIMES, June 11, 1903 advertisement for E. W. Bishop
1999.025.019 THE OWEN SOUND ADVERTISER, June 16, 1903 has ad for E. W. Bishop
The archives also has a framed, hand-drawn (1933) family tree of the Kennedy, Bishop and Kilbourn family connections.

Research to do yet: Was Maria Antoinette Bishop part of their family (she married John Melbourne Kilbourn in the 19th-c).

Occupation

Harness-maker / Harness Shop / Merchant
Hotel Keeper
Millinery (by Sarah Bishop)

Publications

Smith, W.W., GAZETTEER & DIRECTORY OF THE COUNTY OF GREY, 1865-1866 (see Owen Sound section)

Relationships

Paternal grandfather of flying ace "Billy Bishop" (William Avery Bishop Jr.), Reginald Worth Bishop, and Louise Bishop (m. MacKay)
Paternal grandfather of Jean Bishop, Helen Bishop, and their siblings