Henry Eesley

Henry Eesley is the subject of a printed 50th-wedding-anniversary souvenir dated 2 November 1915 — the sole document this archive holds on him. He and his wife, Clemens (Wilkins) Eesley, were married in Blenheim Township, Oxford County, Ontario, Canada, on 2 November 1865, and by their golden anniversary were living in Midland, Michigan, from which they sent their printed greetings “to our children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters and other kinsfolk.”

The eight children — a 1915 Midwestern diaspora

The souvenir lists eight children, one already deceased, the rest scattered across the Midwest and Rockies:

• Edward Eesley — died 11 December 1879
• Tressa B. (Eesley) Maddock — Detroit, Michigan
• Harry H. Eesley — Denver, Colorado
• Mrs. John A. Dillon — East Tawas, Michigan
• William J. Eesley — Steamboat Springs, Colorado
• Arthur L. Eesley — Winegar, Wisconsin
• Mrs. Gus A. Winkler — Midland, Michigan
• Lewis E. Eesley — Midland, Michigan

How he connects — Albert Robert’s younger brother

Dale Eesley’s FamilySearch tree resolves the question this page once left open: Henry was a son of the emigrant John Eesley (1799–1870) and Susannah Bubb — and therefore a younger brother of Albert Robert Eesley Sr, not a cousin. Three facts line up:

• The 1851 census. Henry is the “Henry, 8” in his father John’s Rother Street household in Old Stratford — the same census that lists his older brothers William and Albert. (An earlier version of this page mistakenly read him as absent from that household.) His birth of 27 March 1842 matches the age-8 entry.
• The spouse match. The tree records his wife as Matilda Clemens Wilkins — the “Clemens Wilkins” of the 1915 souvenir — married in Oxford County, Ontario, in 1865.
• The shared path. Henry followed the same England → Canada → U.S. Midwest route as his brother Albert Robert, settling at Midland, Michigan, while Albert Robert moved through Michigan mill towns to Toronto.

So Henry is Chuck’s great-great-great-granduncle on the paternal Eesley side — Albert Robert Sr’s brother, another of the emigrant John Eesley’s children who crossed to North America. (The pencil annotation on the souvenir, “Eesley cousin to MaryAnn Harris Cobb,” points to a further collateral tie still to be traced.)

Source: Souvenir of the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Henry Eesley and Clemens Wilkins, 1915, transmitted by Chuck Eesley, 2026; parentage (John Eesley + Susannah Bubb) and dates from Dale Eesley / FamilySearch.