Pickel, Weldon

  • From “The Loyalists – Pioneers and Settlers of the West”: See full biography at:
  • UELAC Biography: https://uelac.org/education/WesternResource/410-Pickel.pdf
    • Weldon Pickel was born in 30 July 1877 and lived in Hillsdale, New Brunswick. He received his education at Sussex Grammar School, Provincial Normal School in Fredericton, New Bruns- wick, Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Brandon College in Brandon, Manitoba and the University of Saskatchewan in Regina.
    • Weldon’s roots trace back five generation on his father’s side to Nicholas Pickel (1745-1843) of Hunterdon county, Western New Jersey and six generations on his mother’s side to Andrew Sherwood (1739-1823) of Rye, New York.
    • Nicholas Pickel was a blacksmith and one of the first in his community to enlist in the British Army at the time of the American Revolution. He was captured twice by the Americans but refused to take the oath of allegiance in the new republic when taken before the American Committee. He was fined $200.00 and jailed but escaped to Philadelphia where he joined the army and left with it when Pennsylvania was evacuated. When peace was signed Nicholas, his wife and eight children were among 12,000 Loyalists to disembark at Saint John Harbour NB in 1783. With his family he settled two miles above Hampton on the north bank of the Kennebecasis River. His possessions were expropriated by the Americans and sold for more than $1000.00.
    • In 1756, Andrew Sherwood married Martha Curry (1739-1778) lived in Hempstead, Long Island, NY until 1778, the year Martha died in childbirth and when rebels robbed their home and the family fled to British lines. In 1784, Andrew and his eight children sailed from New York to Saint John NB settling in King’s county at Old French Village (later called Smithtown) on Lower Hammons River. Andrew remarried in Canada and had one more child.
    • Weldon Pickel taught school in New Brunswick and moved west four days before Saskatchewan’s inauguration in 1905. He entered the ministry of the Baptist Church, serving at Midale and Windthorst in Saskatchewan and Hawkeye in Alberta. He married Enza Alves Northrup of Hampton New Brunswick in 1906. Her Loyalist ancestor was Benajah Northrup of Connecticut who settled in Bellisle New Brunswick in 1783. They had two daughters, Enid and Vesta.
    • Upon retirement, Weldon Pickel embraced genealogy, resulting in a book in 1948 Ancestors and Descendants of the Sherwood and Pickel United Empire Loyalists in Canada. Another publication of Weldon’s was on the First Baptist Church in Regina. He died in 1958.
  • Third Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7568
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/154715083/weldon-uberta-pickel