68 Thomas Street - the Daniel Bray and Eliza Pitcher Bray House

The census records that Daniel Bray was a "Yeoman."

On 4 October 1834 William Chisholm sold the quarter-acre Lot F, Block 13, Plan 1 to Daniel Bray. The purchase document lists him as Yeoman. The sale wasn't registered, however, until January 1844. In August 1860 two of Bray's heirs sold it to David Pitcher, presumably a relative of his wife. In 1865 it was bought by Rachael McIntyre. Two years later her husband, Neil, inherited it. In 1904 it was purchased by Margaret Doty, widow. It remained in the Doty family for over 70 years. Margaret willed the house to her daughter, Laura Irene Brown (wife of Charles A. Brown) for her lifetime and thereafter to her son, Charles Frederick Doty.

Daniel Bray was the eldest of 10 children of Mahlon Bray and Rachel Freeman Bray of Hunterdon, New Jersey. He was born 7 March 1805 in Ancaster. By 1826 Mahlon Bray was living in Bronte and we know that a group of Methodists were meeting in his home in the area of Twelve Mile Creek and the lakeshore. In 1838 Daniel married Eliza Pitcher of Nelson. They had four children. Three were all baptized in April of 1844, indicating that their birthplace and residence were Nelson Twp. This is confusing, but we've learned that although the Wesleyan Church opened in Oakville in 1835, it was sold to the Anglican Church in 1840. Perhaps they chose to baptize their children in Nelson where their mother, Eliza, was from. Daniel Bray died 11 July 1846 and is buried at St Jude's.

By 1851 Eliza was a widow living in Oakville with three of her children and beside her on the census is Dr. Ogden who lived at the northeast corner of Thomas & Robinson, She was likely at 68 Thomas St as it was still in her late husband's name. We haven't been able to find further information on her.