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Record #8376
Name :
: Nora Agnes DODD (1900 - 1929)
  aka : Nora A. Warner


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 24 Jun 1900

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
: 2 Dec 1929   Notes : Post-Partem Haemorrhage
Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, Hampshire, Aldershot
Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialCanada, Wentworth, Binbrook
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 11 Jul 1911
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Sicilian

Placement Family
:
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Barnardos
NotesIn 1911, Nora Dodd, 10, arrived at Quebec, Canada, in a group of 176 Barnardo girls en route to Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

On April 19, 1922, at Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada, a marriage was registered between Nora Agnes Dodd, 20, born in England to Robert Dodd and (mother's name unknown); and Chester Earl Warner, 21, farmer, born in Canda, to James Warner and Margaret Young.

Chester and Nora Agnes Dodd Warner had at least children: Chester Warner, born May 17, 1920, died May 20, 1920 of atelectasis pulmonum and cyanosis pulmonaris;

Chester Earle Warner, 24, farmer, died of cardiac and respiratory failure from complications of pneumonia on July 9, 1925.

On December 23, 1926, at Binbrook, Ontario, Canada, a marriage was registered between Nora Agnes Warner, 25, widow, housekeeper, bor in Aldershot, England, to John Robert Dodd and Martha Elizabeth (suname not known); and William Gowling Topp, 27, farmer, born in North Cayuga, Ontario, Canada, to Albert Wellington Topp and Lillian Margaret Gowling.

On December 2, 1929, at Binbrook, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada, Nora Agnes Topp, 29, housewife, died of post-partem haemorrhage. She was buried in United Church Cemetary, Binbrook, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada.

The Toronto Star
Wednesday, May 14, 1930

DEAD MAN'S DOG FINDS BODY AFTER SEARCHERS ALL FAIL

After Killing His Neighbor Topp Takes Own Life Behind Father's Barn

SHOT IN THE HEART

Special to The Star by Staff Reporter

Woodburn, May 14.--His ashen, rigid face, upturned to the sky in the barnyard behind the stables, scarcely three hundred feet away from the rear door of his father's house, William Topp, the young 30-year-old farmer wanted for shooting down Miss Mary Tweedle and seriously wounding her cousin, Emery Tweedle, early yesterday morning, made no sign or motion as the hue and cry of search parties of police, neighbors and his family repeatedly passed close to him during the day--because he was dead. He had killed himself.

Topp had been dead a long time when found. In all probability he had been lying there a few minutes after he kissed his two little sleeping, motherless children good-by in his father's home, snatched his single-barrel shotgun and some cartridges and rushed out of the house. The mystery is how his father, mother, brothers and sisters in the house failed ot hear the shot. Perhaps he waited a little while.

It was about 6:15 p.m. last evening that Topp's body was found. He was lying stretched out on his back. The expression of his pale features seemed to be searching into some mystery of the high vaulted clouds. A round hole, about an inch in diameter, could be plainly seen through his clothing on his left breast, directly over his heart. His shotgun was stretched on the weather browned straw close to his left hand. By all appearances he had simple pressed the muzzle against his heart, had leaned over the ugn and pulled the trigger with the right hand.

It was really Topp's brown collie dog, Paddy, that found his dead master. His excited actions his coming and going through the rails, attracted the attention of the dead man's father, Albert Topp, and four of hi five brothers, Addison, Hugh, Jack and Arthur, who were standing close to the spot with Provincial Constable W. A. Embleton from Grimsby.

The rumor had gone about that William Topp's mind had become deranged from brooding upon the death of his wife last December.

Neighbors Praise Dead Wife

Neighbors were unanimous in their praise of her, a Barnardo girl originally from England, who had been brought up by Frederick Stewart of Elfrida. Two years after the death of her first husband she had married Wm. Topp and had died when her second child, a little girl, had been born. Apparently Topp had never been in their home since the time of her death for when the small frame farm house was searched even her shoes were still neatly placed on the floor of her room.

And within plain sight of this house where they had lived together was Emery Tweedle's home. There, across the fields, was the farm house of the man who had been Topp's friend, who had given him a mortgage on his home and had never pressed him, but, nevertheless, the man who held the mortgage. Imaginative neighbors, trying to account for a motive for Topp's shocking deed, suggested that on this mortgage and financial difficulties the obsessed mind of the dead farmer had partly blamed the death of his wife.

Since Tweedle and J. A. Digman, nephew of the woman whom Topp shot, are the only witnesses of the shooting, the young man's vivid reconstruction of the affair is of interest.

'It was between 9.20 and 9.30 Monday night that Topp came to our home,' he said. 'I was just getting ready for bed, and so was nan (his cousin, Mary Tweedle, aged 65, who had brought him up.).

'I remember Topp's knock. Nan opened the door, and he asked whether Emery was in. Topp came in and took a chair.

'He and Emery talked business, but there was not a word spoken in an angry voice. Bill simply said that he expected Emery would like to get some money. Bill had sold some hay for Emery. He had made out of a cheque for this money and had included so much as a payment on the mortgage. He stated that he had cashed in some life insurance, and that the cheque was for $1,350.'

At length, a few minutes after 1 a.m., Topp got up to go. Digman remembers hearing the engine running in Bill Topp's car which was parked down at the entrance to the lane.

A minute or two later, a knock came on the door. The bedroom door between Digman's room and the kitchen was open. He clearly saw his uncle go to the door and open it just enough to look out.

Shot at Telephone

There was a shart report of a rifle.

Later on, Tweedle told Digman that Topp had shot him. He shot three times. One bullet went into the thigh, one into the back and another close to the spine.

Tweedle made a step or two toward Digman's bedroom door, as the nephew ran out and caught the wounded man as he was collapsing. He lifted him into the bedroom.

Just at that moment, Mary Tweedle came running out of her bedroom. she ran for the telephone that was hanging on the kitchen wall just beside Digman's bedroom door. She intended to call for Dr. Gl. L. Bell of Binbrook.

Digman remembers distinctly hearing Topp's voice warning her to put down the receiver.

'That was all,' said Digman. 'He fired at that second. I saw the long flash of lame and the smoke. Topp was standing inside the doorway into the kitchen. He must have shot at her hand, for one finger of her left hand--the hand that was holding the receiver--was broken, and the bullet went through the palm.'

Topp hurried out the back door, circled the barn, and crossed the road to neighboring farmers by the name of Merritt. Here he telephoned frantically to Chief Constable Jim Clark of Wentworth county, whose home is at Dundas, and who, accompanied by another constable and Dr. Bell, was at the scene of the tragedy within an hour.

Topp apparently drove to his father's home at once. He left his car in the land and the .22 calibre rifle in it. One of his brothers said that the rifle had been found there in the morning, loaded.

Immediately after the shooting topp was believed to have taken his shotgun and gone into the woods. 
ContributorsCreated : 2009-06-06 05:10:58 / From original database

Last Updated : 2012-01-06 21:59:59 /

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Surnames starting with:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  4 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
7271 COVER, Nicholas H1913ENG,    , Aldershot Sep 1929 : Duchess of Atholl CAN Catholic Emigration Association  
8376 DODD, Nora Agnes1900ENG, HAM, Aldershot Jul 1911 : Sicilian CAN Barnardos  
27317 FOLEY, Patrick James1928ENG, HAM, Farnham, Aldershot Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
4325 HERBERT, Ernest Wallace George1897ENG,    , Aldershot May 1908 : Tunisian CAN MacPherson Homes dgerow3