Digby

Stanley was a Dental Doctor and his office was in the Nova Scotia Bank Building in the town of Digby. He had received his degree from the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland where he had worked and put himself through school. He had a big farm in Smith's Cove, with cows and he grew his own feed for the cows. He also grew vegetables. His daughter, Helen, said that once a year he would insist that they have a meal of his own corn. He grew apples and made his own apple cider.

Stanley was of the Baptist religion. He died of an infection in 1937 and was buried in the Smit-Thomas Cemetery, (near Joggins Bridge) in Smith's Cove, and where Josephine had been buried. Josephine died in 1916 of blood poisoning, when their youngest child, William Stanley Vernon, was only a year old. From 1899-1903, Josephine was a teacher in Smith's Cove in the primary department. Stanley married his housekeeper, Emma McGuire, in 1920. They had one daughter.   To view full scene of Dr. Stanley with a moose click here.

Stanley's parents were James Wells MacGregor and Selena Hannah (Lena) Rice. Lena was a widow with one son when she married James. When Stanley was only a year old, his mother died (age about 28). Stanley's daughter, Helen, related that her father, Stanley, had lost his mother when he was young and his father traveled as a minister so Stanley was raised by an uncle and aunt. James Wells MacGregor, remarried in 1880 to Lena's niece, Annie Laura Cossett, and they were listed together on the census of 1881, but Stanley was not listed with them. James and Annie had two children.

Dr. Stanley's first wife was Josephine Purdy Crouse of Hillsborough, Digby County (later renamed Bear River). She was born in May of 1878. They married on 20th May, 1903. She was a school teacher in Smith's Cove when Stanley met her. Her maiden surname was an Anglicization of the German " Kraus." Note: German family names predominate as farmers around the village of Bear River, due to agricultural land grants in the 1780s to retired German mercenaries of the British Army in North America)

Josephine MacGregor's parents were Wallace Fowler Crouse and Annabel Potter Crouse. Wallace was born in 1844 in Hillsborough, (the former name of the Digby Co. side of Bear River), and died in 1925. He married Annabel on 30 September 1868, daughter of Capt. Franklin Potter and Rachel H. Payson. Annabel was born 1851 in Hillsborough, and died in 1899. Wallace was a farmer and lumberman. They were Methodist. Wallace and Annabel are both buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bear River. Josephine was born in 1878 and died November 10th, 1916.   I knew people in Bear River who remembered her as an attractive lady. (As I grew up in Bear River, I knew her surviving sister, Florence, as 'Aunt Flo').

Parents and siblings of my paternal grandmother, Josephine Purdy MacGregor, nee Crouse:

Seated are parents; Wallace Fowler Crouse and his wife Annabell (nee Potter)
Standing at rear; Mae, Harriet, Janet, Florence.
Standing in front; William, Josephine, Harold.
Photo courtesy of Ed and Jo Bryant
The following is a transcript of their wedding as it appeared in the Digby Courier in May of 1903. The Baptist Church at Smith's Cove was the scene of a very pretty wedding on Wednesday morning, the 20th. The occasion was that of the marriage of Dr. Stanley B. MacGregor, the popular dentist, to Miss Josephine P. Crouse of Bear River, well known in Digby County as a successful and promising teacher. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Ward Fisher. The bride, who looked graceful and charming in a dress of gray cloth trimmed with white satin and lace, with white chiffon hat, carried an exquisite shower bouquet of bride roses and carnations, the gift of the public school and Sunday school children as an evidence of their love and appreciation of a faithful teacher.
[Note: James & Delilah (nee Rice) Cossett were the aunt and uncle who raised Stanley & his cousin Jessie. They were children of Delilah's deceased sisters.]
Children of Stanley MacGregor and Josephine Crouse (all born in Smith's Cove):

i. Greta M. MacGregor was born in December 1903 and died on 07 January, 1938 (age 34) in Digby and is buried in Thomas Cemetery, Smith's Cove, Digby County. Greta was always a sickly girl and died of pneumonia.

ii. Orville E. (Orv) MacGregor was born 06 January, 1905 and died on 19 December 1930 (age 25) in Georgia Baptist Hospital, Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. He married Edna Sharpe (born in Florida) in Digby on 14 September 1928. They had one daughter, Barbara G.

More information: Orville emigrated to the US in 1909 and became a naturalized US citizen.   He was a druggist at the time of his death. He may have been a Shipping Agent for a steamship company in Jacksonville, Florida while going to school. He died of an abscessed right lung, with influenza and bronchial asthma, and was buried 22 December 1930 in Westview Cemetery, Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. His residence at the time of his death was 847 Ponce de Leon, Jacksonville, FL.

iii. Helen Josephine MacGregor was born 08 March 1909 and died 25 December 1988 (age 79) in Encinitas, San Diego County, California. She married Edward Creighton Bryant on 17 August 1934 in Annapolis Royal, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Canada, son of Edward Winchester Bryant and Mary Anastasia Creighton. He was born 11 August 1908 in Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and died 19 November 1990 in Encinitas, San Diego County, California. Edward served in the United States Navy during World War II, then he was a manager for the U. S. Veterans Administration, and retired in San Diego, California in 1960.

.

iv. William Vernon Stanley (Billy) MacGregor was born 12 September 1915 and died 15 May 1962 (age 46) while serving in the R.C.A.F. in Ontario in a boating accident while fishing. He married (1) Frances Aileen Bessie Seamone in 1938, daughter of John Harold Seamone and Ruby Cornwall Annis. She was born 05 April 1922. He married (2) Edna Kennedy in 1947. She died in Calgary in 1999. Billy served in the Royal Canadian Air Force and, like his father, he loved to hunt and fish. He is buried in Thomas Cemetery, Smith's Cove.

iv. William Vernon Stanley MacGregor; born 1910, married Aileen Frances Bessie Seamone (born April 5th, 1922). Their children:

a. Harold Stanley MacGregor, born January 5th, 1939.
b. Carole Anne MacGregor, born December 27th, 1940.

William's second marriage was to Edna Kennedy. They had one son; Reigh, born in 1948.

Dr. Stanley's second wife was Emma McGuire. Children by his 2nd marriage to Emma McGuire:

i. Anne Maelja MacGregor; born 21 July, 1923, married Lt. Cmdr (RCN) Arthur Allan Butchart; Their children;

(a) Judith Ann Butchart; born 1946.

(b) Heather Sandra Butchart; born 1950.

(c) Serita Dawn Butchart; born 1954.

   The Digby MacGregors in the 1930s.

(William must have taken the photo)

Below is an extract from the Digby Courier denoting the passing of Dr. Stanley MacGregor:

Digby Courier, Friday, 1 October 1937, p. 2; microfilm 2924
Dr. S. B. MacGregor
Passes
     Death claimed another of Digby town and county's prominent citizens in the person of Dr. Stanley B. MacGregor, who died at his home, Smith's Cove, following a short illness with pneumonia, at an early hour Tuesday morning.
     Dr. MacGregor was a graduate of the Baltimore School of Dental Surgery, Baltimore, Md., and for more than thirty years carried on his practise of dentistry in his office in the Bank of Nova Scotia building, here, first as a partner with the late Dr. Shaffner, and for more than a quarter of a century by himself. He was very popular in his profession, and among his clients were patients from Digby and Western Annapolis Counties, as well as a number of our American visitors.
     He was born at Smith's Cove, 61 years ago last January, the son of the late Rev. J. Wells MacGregor, a Baptist clergyman. In politics, Dr. MacGregor was a staunch conservative, and in religion a member of the Smith's Cove Baptist Church. He was Immediate Past Master of King Solomon Lodge, A.F., & A.M., Digby, and was affiliated with several agricultural organizations and societies, conducting a farm at Smith's Cove. His flower garden at his home was one of the show places of the community. A keen sportsman, he was one of the executive of the Digby and Annapolis Counties Fish and Game Protective Association.
     He was a man who made many friends, and will be generally missed in this portion of the province, particularly in Digby and Smith's Cove, where he took an active part in the affairs of both communities.
     Surviving are: His wife, the former Miss Emma MacGuire, of Smith's Cove; three daughters, Helen (Mrs. Edward Bryant, Jr.,) of Woburn, Mass.; Greta and Annie at home; one son, William, also at home.
     Funeral services took place at Smith's Cove, yesterday afternoon, under Masonic auspices.

A personal note:

I never knew him, but people have told me Dr. MacGregor was an avid hunter. He kept beagles for rabbit hunting. . . Dr. MacGregor practised his profession in Digby until his death on 28 September, 1937, aged 61. His daughter, Greta died three months after her father of the same illness.

Dr. Stanley Bigford MacGregor's Monument in Smiths Cove, NS

Return to The Digby MacGregors