Description

John Schurman (August 22nd 1805 – December 18th 1891) was a schoolteacher and farmer who was known to live in Bedeque and Summerside. His nickname was Cummyfoe because he repeatedly told his students to “comme il faut” while correcting them. He married Ann Hooper in October of 1828 and they had 6 children together; Thomas, Mary Jane, Elizabeth, Lemuel, Margaret and Isabella. Ann died March 1846 leaving John to marry Sarah Hyde in 1856. He had another 3 children with her; Stephen, John and Ida. The family later moved to Minnesota, where he died and is buried.

John Schurman: Born in Lot 25, Bedeque, 1806, John Schurman lived a life as farmer in the Bedeque and Summerside area. Schurman had a wife and six children, all Island born Baptists. Schurman wrote extensively in the 1876 survey and specifically underlines “I got no help from anybody,” in response to his current mailing address and anyone who have may have given him items of information. The reader gets the hint that Schurman is very individualistic and meritocratic; proud of the life he has constructed in his Bedeque and Summerside homes. Several Baptist Schurman names arise in the census records but only a few seem to stand out as possible leads for Schurman’s relatives, mainly Jane M., aged 28, and Jacob, aged 50, and Joseph, aged 53, all living in the Summerside/Bedeque area, where most Schurmans in fact reside. Sometime after the 1881 census Schurman had died.