Calverley, Eva And so, Ninette
CO
and so
...
1879-1919
**?
"They set their resolute spirits against the many hardships of their times and travelled hopefully in spite of everything ... They trusted in God and went on triumphantly. May we, their descendants, honor their memory by following their example." — NELLIE McCLUNG (Inscribed on the bronze plaque on that yellow plaster cairn located at the site of old Millford).
Preface Addendum
The last two lines in the second paragraph on preface page should read:
"The encouragement, given by my cousins, Pearl Phillips and Calla Bulter; and the ever repeated question, "How's your book coming?" by Wes. Hamilton and Fred Gullett kept me at the task when I was prone to quit."
ADDENDUM
Page Paragraph
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36 2nd
51 3rd
51 3rd
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56 last in last line .
57 1st
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90 picture label
103 103 105 105 105 105 107 110 113
Correction Error
LIBERALLY LIV/
1930 1944
insert "AS" after "hospitable man and"
FRED TOM
By 1890 Hunter 1900
In 1896 Mr. P- 1886
May was born 1894 1884
"OLVER" Oliver
burned it down tore
Primate Bennett Bond SWeatman
M p M rs.
1908 1902
... delete "SO" after word "LENDING"
Andrew's Michael's
quotations "ON" "of" desks
Charlie "brought" "bought"
while the church which
existence existance
Presbytery Presbetary
ALL ANGELS' All Saint's
3rd. column Fetterley "T"
.... Normon Monk at BRADFORD Leeds
last ALLAN Burnett Arthur
last Alyce is an arthritic paralytic
2nd. bank stucco brick
3rd. Plumpton
3rd G. F. Tutt "K"
3rd addition of A. C. HUBBLE after C. C. Hay
3rd Dr. Stewart to Saranac 1909 1919
1st delete word DOUGALD
2nd. and 4th ice went out 1949 1929
nor 1946
ALYCE EDWARDS WRITES THAT SHE IS VERY ACTIVE INSPITE OF HER HANDICAP. I quote from her letter:
"I am quite active in club work and house-work. I am a member of a club choir, do solo work and have made several recordings. I did foam rubber flowers for an exhibition and a painting. My active parents belong to the "Van. Rose Society" and Dad has a nice display of roses as well as other flowers includ- ing some fine dhlias."
"Keep up the good work, ALYCE."
THE AUTHOR - 1919
With no grandson to carry on the name, the passing of Harry ir January of 1960 spells the passing of the once familiar OVERENE from this place. Only a label on a small square lake bears witness to the fact that of yore the first pioneer family to settle this part ol Lang's valley labored here. May this small booklet keep green the memory of the Ninette Over ends and their neighbors !
The great joy of receiving the Darough story, from Neil and his nephew; the Hughes account written by Sydney; the small autobio- graphy, contributed by Donald MacDonald; the George Over end re- cord, compiled by his daughters, Mary and Josephine; and the brie: history of Dr. D. A. Stewart, given me orally by his son gave me i real lift. The encouragement given by my cousins, Wes Hamiltor and Fred Gullett kept me at the task when I was prone to quit.
I wish to thank all, official and otherwise, who gave me infor- mation by personal interview, by mail, or by loan of articles 01 books. You gave me the content. I merely put it together in book- let form* I hope it has some personal interest for each and even one of you.
Eva Calverley.
PREFACE
In the conclusion of his book A HORSEMAN AND THE WEST, published in 1925 Beecham Trotter writes, "We who now live in the west have seen the most wonderful unfolding of a human history which connects prim it ivity with the radio. This record tries to show what sort of people they were who did the things which may have seemed ordinary enough while they were being done, but which will be eager- ly read about by their descendants. The enduring things have been achieved by men and women who were liverally endowed with faults and who were never on parade . Here it has been sought to repre- sentpeopleof fleshand blood, without unnecessary dwelling on per- sonal faults or undue stressing of isolated conditions that might have been mended by soap and water .
The generation of western pioneers can afford to stand before its heirs without boast or blusho It was none the worse because it couldn't phone and didn't know how to fly0 It took its business ser- iously always and its politics sometimes roughs Its religion may have thought more of judgment than of pardon. Its amusements were harder than some present day worko Its young people had less prac- tice in bringing up parents than the young people of today sometimes appear to enjoy 0 But on the whole that generation was as pictured here, and it is reasonable to invite all who inherit the fruits of its sacrifice to be proud of it.
Posterity, reaping where it strawed not, ought to know some- thing of those Ontario plough-pioneering first-comers to the Great Lone Land, and their immediate successors who began to make a country for their descendants. Somebody ought to see that the ear- ly days won't be dumb to those that come after them. fr
PART I - THE SURROUNDING FARMLANDS
DECADE I - 1879 - 1889 - The BREAKERS OF THE VIRGIN SOIL - Influence of the R. R. to Brandon
Chapter I A. The place - Lang's Valley
Bo The Actors - Overend and Darough
Chapter II New neighbors for the pioneers
Bells, Danger fields, and Wrights
The Davie^s, the Mackies, and George Overend
The Claude Colpitts and Mr, Joseph McLean
The Clenches and Harry Lowe
The Minores and The McTaggarts
The Butchers and the Hannahs
The John and James Yellowlees families
The Putnams, Wilkies, and McElroys Pioneer Life In The District 1882 - 1886
Chapter III School Districts Formed
A. Albion (Dunrea) - The Wilkies and the
Raes
B. Pelican Lake - Daroughs, Clenches, and
Watkins
C. Minor e - Lowes, J. G. Murray, and the
Duncans
D. Bellafield - Hamilton, Hannah, Russell,
and Clarks
also - Ways, Staples, Rosses, Squires,
and GarbuttSo
Chapter IV The Last of the First Decade Arrivals: 1888 - 1889
A. The Rosslandshire Gaelic to Bellafield
and Dunrea Be The Harris Party to Pelican Lake and
Hilton
Cc The Mackies Move to Be 1m onto D. The Burnetts, Finglasses, and George Royle - the first English.
1879 - 1889 THE FIRST DECADE -
THE BREAKERS OF THE VIRGIN SOIL
1879 James Bell arrived with Mr0 Beatty's survey party. The Jim Burnett family arrived in Mont- real,
1880 The Langs came to the Souris Valley John Cummings came to Rock Lake
Frank Burnett came to the Wawanesa Plains Tom Butcher and Tom Folliot sett led to the south of the valley,
1881 The Transcontinental railroad built as far west as VirderL
The Coulthards and the Blacks came to Lang's Valley c
Cory Clench worked on the survey farther wes1 George Wilkie came u> rhe Touchwood Hills x James Ove-Rad, Chides Oa rough and WO -s Davles inspected
1882 The Watkins came from England to Oak Creek,
Mr Minoreand Mr McTaggart settled their families in the
valley.
Mr Danger fie Id and Mr. Williams filed on home steads Cory
Clench homesteaded on 32-5-16
Walter Johnson took a homestead at Alcester.
Daroughand Overend settled their families at the north-west
end of Pelican Lake*
Argyle was encorporated as a municipality,
1883 Mr, and Mrs, Fred Dangerfield settled on the N. W. of 36- 5-17 and Jim Wright on 2-6-17 .
Davies and Mackies came to the di strict .
The Colpitts family and Joseph McLean settled beyond the
east hilL
George Overend established a batch shack and a blacksmith
shop south of the Davies quart er0
Albion school built,
1884 John Hannah settled in Bellafield
John Putnam and Janet Wilkie married, Ninette post-office established.
1885 Railroad completed to Glenboro Pelican Lake So Do formed. March 17.
Wes Hamilton settled on 30-4-16 and Harry Russel on 12-5-17
Daroughs bought a self -reaper.,
James Overend became official postmaster in October,,
The Noarth-west Rebellion was foughto
John and James Yellowlees settled,
Anna Putnam was born in the Touchwood Hills,
Walter Johnson and Sarah Olver were married on Jan, 1st,
1886 Murray-Dangerfield contracted to build the Pelican Lake School.
Pelican Lake school opened May 1. under Mr, Casserly.
George Overend introduced the first threshing machine,
Darough bought east half of 3 1-5 -16 and the Watkins 34-5-16,
Railroad built as far as Killarney in 1885 began operation
January 1st, 1886,
Harry Lowe came to his cousin. Cory Clencho
George Wilkie along with the Putnams settled on 14-5-17,
1887 Cory Clench and Fanny Clark married, Grace Putnam born
Bellafield School opened in April
1888 The Rossland and Harris Gaelic parties arrive,
3
George Royle homesteaded on 32-5-16 and Allan Finglass
bought 21-5-16.
Drew (Andrew Jr. ) Mackie settled in the Belmont area.
Jim Burnett bought 28-5-16 from Bob Phillips and settled
there.
CHAPTER I THE STAGE AND THE ACTORS
Across the northern part of the municipalities of Riverside and Strathcona runs a line of hills which, long ago, from the profusions of lilies which covered their slopes, received the name TIGER HILLS. Just south of these winds the eleven or twelve mile long LANG'S VALLEY. At its west end the SQURIS RIVER, in a wide swing, turns north to join the Assiniboine. It was not always thus, for long long ago the Souris continued its flow east emptying into Pelican Lake which in turn emptied into the Pembina,
What caused the Souris to so change its course, leaving only a string of lakes: Bone, Pelican, Lome, Louise and Rock where once it flowed so magnificently? Geologists explain this phenome- non as a case of stream piracy. Where the Souris turns north is a line of hills higher than the Tigers and running at right angles to them. Between these hills, say the geologists, a stream, other than the Souris, once ran. This unnamed stream cut down into the ground to a lower level than did the Souris and the water of the lat- ter turned to reach this lower leveL Thus the Pembina lost and the Souris gained these water s,
The area neighboring the junction of these rivers was, toward the end of the 18th century, an important location for fur-trading posts, and a jumping off place for those going further south* Of these Brandon House is the best remembered, But earlier than it was Fort Epinette, 15 miles farther east as the crow flies. This latter fort was, from 1785 to 1794, headquarters of the NORTH- WEST CO, who dealt with the Mandan Indians of Missouri* By the time Peter Pond, in 1790 and David Thompson, in 1798, visited the area, however, Fort Assiniboine and Fort Brandon, closer to the junction had superseded itc
Bu- These we re gone long before the first settlers came inio fhe area a century later- < What ben happened was 'ha< the Assinihoine again came into us own as an impo^'an; ar *r \ of -**v*l and n^w se lemerx's- Sour is Ci?> Wawanesa and MiHford Landing- re- placed be older fu:r~t.rading posts. Between i*70 antf I*HA rive*
travel on the Assiniboine was in its hey-day with boats such as The Dakota, the Prince Rupert The Manitoba The Minnesota, and The Marquetteplying its waters as far as Fort Pelly, Sask. In 1879 The Marquette Captain Weber in Command Ascended as far as Fort Ellice where the Qu-Appelle enters the Assiniboine; in 1881 Fort Pelly was the ultimate landing stage of the stern -wheelers The current was so swift that an upstream voyage took 12 days while the return one required just 5» Although the river was navigable for only 3 months in a favorable season, the project was a profitable one= After the railroad reached Brandon in 1881, steamboat travel was still carried on up the river as far as possible bringing cargoes of lumber from Ham bury Mills $ Brandon, to Wawanesa and points east* But the building of branch lines and the lowering of the water level brought this interesting phase of river transportatilQrtitoi an end- It was toward the end of this period that His Excellency, the Marquis of Lome and his Iady5 PRINCESS LOUISE, when he was governor-general of Canada made a trip by boat from Winnipeg to Fort Pelly to attend an Indian Treaty meetingo MR, JOHN GUMMING was the engineer on the boat that served them. Now Mru Gumming had worked his way from deck-hand to engineer on the Great Lakes Boats but becoming too old for this service, had come west to find employment on the Red-River Assiniboine stern -wheelers* They operated only in summer of course, and in winter, leaving his fam- ily at Portage, Mr, Gumming batched on a homestead at Rock Lake, trudging back in the spring across virgin prairie on which he en- countered only one homestead » It was his wish which resulted in two of the valley lakes being renamed LORNE and LOUISE. Origi- nally they bore other names of which DR, DAVID STEWART wrote, I quote in part, "Few names in Manitoba are more colorful than those of our own lakes of the valley, or rather the names they once had. The bony framework that stiffens a buffalo's hump, and keeps it erect; is a series of spines that rise from the vertebrae or sec- tions of the backbone. These spines are about the .thickness of ribs, quite flat, curved a little backwards, and the largest are one and a half or two feet long* The fancy of the Indians was that the valley lakes, long, narrow, and slightly curved were like these spines and so they named theme But the old country people knew nothing of buffaloes and the French dictionary had no word in it for these peculiarities of the buffalo's anatomy, so the French traders made their own name, and called them PLACOTTES of FLAT RIBS, a name which when given to the lakes was variously translated as Buffalo Hump Lakes, Fat Back Lakes, or Rib Bone Lakes; The name RIB BONE LAKE still lives and long may it live. ft (writes Dr, Stewart) "in our Bone Lake, the only one to retain its original name. tr
Into this location around the year 1880 came the LANGS, But they are not the principal actors of this play. Let it be understood
that this is only the PROLOGUE, The two Lang families coming from Ottawa moved into the area at the west end of the valley . As both James and Edward had good sized families, it wasn't long until they and their sons were in possession of about half the valley which, as a consequence came to be known as LANG'S VALLEYo Although many of the sons did not remain for long on the farms, the name thus bestowed became official. The Langs were soon joined by: Otta- wa friends, THE COULTHARDS, and a year afterward by the Walter and Andrew BLACK FAMILIES. Just below the home of Edrs son, Collin Lang, at the spot where the Souris River begins its swing north, was a ford which Collin rs wife (nee Dinah Wilkie) often crossed on horseback in search of the cattle and which was known as LANG'S CROSSING. (Sec, 4, township 6, range 18). Vic Coulthard recalls that this crossing was always used by the boys when they went to Nesbitt to play ball. Jim's son, Grant, while living on the s.e. of 2-6-16 operated a post-office in his home- A school was erected on the same quarter and both were given the name LANGVALE. Thus the first district in the valley was born. When Grant retired to B. C. AB COULTHARD bought his farm and operated the post office. Now the people of the district goto Margaret for the mail but both Ab and the school are still there. One of its former pupils, Sydney Lang is remembered by students of the early nineties for his grammar text used when he was a school inspector. Andy Black still resides on his homestead in the Margaret district but his brother, Walter, who was so enthusiastic about the pioneer history of the valley, died at the coast where he lived in later life.
This, then is our stage ENTER THE ACTORS
THE PIONEERS OF THE NINETTE DISTRICT - THOSE INTREPID SOULS WHO SO WILLINGLY GAVE OF THEIR BEST TO MAKE THIS COMMUNITY A BETTER PLACE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.
For it is of these, that this booklet purposes to concern itself. Even now the effort is ten or twenty years too late. Almost all of the pioneers are gone and with them clear memories of the begin- ning of things in this place. Nevertheless many of us can supply a bit of information or a treasured document to be passed on to future generations .
We, in Ninette, are in a unique position in that the main street of our village is at the same time the dividing line between the muni- cipalities of Riverside and Strathcona. The intention is NOT to trace the development of these municipalities but, rather, that of the vil- lage which, as it were, straddles their boundaries. However, since the village grew from the farmlands of the surrounding areas, the record can be made complete only by reaching forth into the early days of Pelican Lake, Bellafield, Dunrea, Minore, and Hilton dis-
tricts.
During the summer of 1881 the Canadian Government was pur- suing in Ontario, a vigorous, advertising campaign relating to the marvello s opportunities offered to would-be farmers by the great golden west. Among those influenced by this propaganda were four Orillia gentlemen: James Over end. Charles Darough William Sanders Davies, and Andrew Mackie0 Taking advantage of one of the cheap excursions offered to those desiring to make an inspec- tion trip, they set out for the prairies» In Winnipeg one fell by the way* Andrew Mackie,, discovering a boarding house he decided to operate, dropped out. Just how the remaining three reached the shores of Pelican Lake is not known> Some descendants maintain that they came to Portage on the newly built C* P. R0 and continued from there by travelling on a river steamer to Old Millfordand then resorting to MShanks Ponies"* Others are just as certain that the newly built C° P< R0 brought them as far as Brandon and that from this point it was a case of depending on one's own two legSo If the latter was the route followed the party did not arrive until fall as the railroad was not officially open into Brandon until October of that year. We have it from Charles Darough's son, Neil, that the party came to Brandon on Settlers7 Excursion tickets and most of us think that is what our parents told us. At that time both govern- ment and the Cc PC R. were most anxious to seethe land settled with two farmers on each section And to enable the would-be home- steader to finally own a whole half -section the government intro- duced the pre-emption act» When a homesteader acquired a patent on his homestead and completed the $400 . 00 payment for his pre-em- ption the whole half section was hiSc Unfortunately too many set- tlers mortgaged their homesteads in order to pay for their pre - emptions and lost both with the result that the pre-emption act was repealed in 1890 at the same time that the privelege of homesteading a second time was withdrawn .
C. Po R. AND CANADA NORTH-WEST CO. OWNERSHIP OF PRAIRIE LANDS
The question, "How did the C. P. R. and The Canada North -West Land Coc possess the odd-numbered sections in our area?" has of- ten been asked 6 Briefly the explanation is this: The Canadian Pacific was granted every alternate section for 24 miles on either side of its right of way main or branch line, all across the prairie in part pay- ment for building the railway . But it had reserved the right to re- fuse land that was not fairly good for farming and as the amount thus granted didnot nearly total the 25 000; OOOmillion acres which along with the $25 000 000 had been guaranteed it by the federal govern- ment, other deals were made and finally it owned various blocks of land as welL Then when it found itself in serious financial difficul -
ties, it managed to sell a part of its holdings to the Canada North- West Land Co. This organization originated as the North-West Land Co, , when it was largely in the hands of British financiers but when Canadians bought the stock, the name was altered by prefixing the word "Canada"* The C, P, R, was just as anxious as was the govern- ment to see the homestead lands settled as this would not only bring revenue to the railroad but would also increase the value of their sec- tions 5 and agreements between railroad and government to keep the prices of saleable lands the same were striven for. The rail- way sponsored free or cheap excursion trips to the west to view the the land and cheap rates for settlers effects*
OVEREND AND DAROUGH MOVE WEST WITH FAMILIES AND SETTLERS EFFECTS - 1882
Having decided on their homesteads it now behoved the Orillia gentlemen to return home for their families and settlers effects. At least that's what two of them thought. But not Mr. Davies. He waited in Winnipeg until his family joined him and then settled them at Portage La Prairie while he spent the winter cutting cordwood for the railroad. In the spring the family moved to Brandon and that summer of '82 Mr, Davies worked on the construction of the C. P. Ro
Meanwhile what of Mr. Mackie? As a young man he had found employment in his native Scotland hauling coal from a mine with a cart and horse. Hoping to improve his circumstances he had emi- grated to the Orillia area0 Here he earned his living doing carpen- try workc But apparently he wasn't opposed to trying anything. When his family joined him in Winnipeg, he installed Mrs0 Mackie in the boarding house, and taking his sons Milt and Drew with him, he went east to Shelley to work on the railroad, Mr, Mackie and Milt cut ties but Drew, who was in his early teens, had to find employment as handy man around the camp. That winter, Mr, Mackie and Milt took to the bush where there was lots of work to be had getting out logs,
SOON IT WAS THE SPRING OF 1882 and MR. OVEREND AND MR. DAROUGH were busily preparing FOR THE MOVE WEST. We
can record but little of the Overend departure from Hampsire Mills in the spring of 1882. All that is known of this move is that the old estson, George, decidednot to accompany the family, that they were detained in Warren, Minnesota, by floods and that here one daughter died and was buried. When at last they finally arrived in Brandon, Mr. Overend was able to secure a cabin for them to live in and we feel sure that they soon were in contact with the Mackie family who would be already settled in that place. Lacking more specific de- tails of their coming, we feel doubly grateful to Neil Darough for his detailed story of the coming of the DAROUGHS and their first days
8
in the west.
As told by Neil Darough, only surviving member of the sons and daughters of Charles Darough to Neil W. Darough, grandson of Charles Darough .
Charles Darough, my father , was born at Castleberg, County of Typoner Northern Ireland, about 1836. On account of the potato crop failure, he5 L.along with thousands of other poverty stricken Irish, emigrated to Canada in 1854= In Grey County, Ontario, he worked, clearing land for a farmer, for the royal wage of ONE DOLLAR a month and board . And for this he worked from daylight !til dark.
It may have been two years later when he took up a homestead of 100 acres near Orillia and a bit after this when he married a tall comely young lady, Agnes McDougall, whom he had met while work- ing in Grey county . Agnes was of Highland Scotch origin and spoke the Gaelic fluently . Her marriage with Charles Darough was tore- suit in their having eight sons and daughters; Duncan, William, Mary, Neil5 Matilda, Charlie5 Norman and Robert, all born in Orillia, Robert, still a baby, died in Brandon when the family was coming to the homestead . The other seven lived to play their part in the opening up and building and developing of young Canada.
In the years preceding 1880 times for the farmers in Ontario were definitely not good and most of the immigrants who had taken up land were literally starving to death. At this time the Canadian government was advertising profusely regarding the great oppor- tunities to be had in the west. Naturally the farmers of Ontario, who were having great difficulties making both ends meet, were at- tracted by the offer of free land in the new province of Manitoba. Among those who were lured to the west by these grand offers of betterment was my father, Charles Darough .
In the spring of 1882 my father sold out in Ontario and we made preparations for the trip west. I was at that time twelve years old. In order to protect our homesteads from Claimjumpers, Father and Will left Orillia for Pelican Lake early in March. Arrangements for loading the stock and other possessions were in the hands of Mr. Overend and Mr. Fleming. I do not recall exactly what all our pos- sessions were but I do recollect that we had a team of horses, a cow, four bags of flour, an old three-legged cast iron stove, and our bed- ding. I don't remember any furniture but we must have had some as we had two. not large, wagon loads of goods to haul to Pelican Lake from Brandon.
The Darough family, with the exception of father and Will who
9
wereb> that time working on the railroad west of Portage La Prairie left Orillia early in April As the C, P. Ro was badly flooded in Wes- tern Ontario ai the time our train was diverted through the States, At a place named Stevens we were held up on account of floods on the line At this place the inhabitants would not sell us any hay. And so since our livestock had to eat my brother Duncan Mr Fleming and myself having located a haystack about a quarter of a mile from the siding went out each night after dark and managed to "borrow" enough hay for the animals.
After two days in Stevens our passenger train was allowed to head for Brandon but freight trains for some reason unknown to us were not allowed to proceed. Our party with the exception of Duncan and Mr Fleming, boarded the passenger train for Winni- peg but they were obliged to remain to continue caring for the live- stock which was still in the cars and to carry on "borrowing" hay from the good citizens of StevenSo May the Lord bless them. They would not sell us any hay but the hay they lent us saved our horses and our cow.
At Winnipeg both the Red and the Assiniboine rivers were in flood We were travelling on a line which paralleled the Red from North Dakota down to Winnipeg when our train stopped and we found the water almost up to the platform, A steamboat arrived on the scene and after a gangplank was placed to connect boat with train we boarded the boat= This exchange took place about ten o clock at night. The following morning we disembarked and boarded a se- cond train which in less than an hour conveyed us to the Winnipeg station.
Our first concern was to find a place to stay as we had to wait in Winnipeg until the freight train with our stock and goods arrived and until Dad came in from his work on the railroad. Mother had Mary, Tillie Charlie, Norman Baby Robert and myself to find accommodation for Somehow she managed to secure a room in the immigration sheds. But what a room I No larger than eight feet by twelve it had absolutely no furniture of any kind and no heating. A- long one of the longer sides was a bunk built about three feet from the floor All except me slept on this , I contented myself with craw- ling into an empty peanut sack l had managed to find and sleeping under the bunk. This stay in the immigration hall was most interes- ting as settlers of every age and nationality were there. During our sojourn in that place someone tried to set it on fire by lighting a pile of shavings laid against one wall. I happened to notice the smoke and sounded the alarm in time to save the sheds from complete de- struction.
About a week after our arrival Dad located us in the immigra-
10
tion sheds and then things looked a little brighter 0 Finally after a- nother week, the freight train arrived . When our cars were loaded in Or i Ilia it had been found that there wasn t room inside for the wagon so it was dismantled and the side boards nailed onto the sides of the freight car. This wagon was painted a bright red so you can imagine our relief when we saw a freight train with one car deco- rated with the brightly painted sides of a wagon box pull into the sta- tion» It had taken that train exactly thirty days to come from Orillia to Winnipeg and all that time the livestock had never been taken out- side the car for exercise* The railway authorities wouldn't permit it. The freight train immediately continued on to Brandon and the next morning we followed on the passenger train. The livestock were unloaded as soon as they arrived but, due to some confusion in the railroad yards, it was over two days before all the other stuff could be taken from the cars in Brandon,
Before departing for Pelican Lake Dad arranged to leave half our possessions in Mr. Overend's rented cabin. On the 20th of May the Darough family, with the exception of Will, who was still work- ing on the railroad, and accompanied by Mr, Overend, set out on the last leg of the journey to Pelican Lakeu They had their team and wagon and a cow heavily in calf. The first day the party made Telford's. The Assiniboine and the Souris were still in flood. Al- though the Daroughs had already waited in Brandon for over two weeks until the bridge which had been washed out at Souris City could be replaced by a make -shift ferry 5 they had another two days wait her e, Souris City at that time was a place composed of about a half dozen houses and one store. Today it is marked only by the new bridge built there in 1958 during the reconstruction of No, 11 highway. Leaving Souris City the Daroughs camped the night of the fourth day out from Brandon on sec, 31 as the creek between it and section 20 was so heavily grown up with willows that it was impos- sible to get a team and wagon through. The next morning we cut an opening through the willows, corduroyed a road across the creek and then moved onto the new homestead.
It was the morning of the 24th of May, 1882 that Charles Darough settled on his homestead with a family, a team and wagon, a cow. His total finances were one small Canadian nickel and a three cent stamp . And there wasn't a neighbor in sight .
Immediately the tents - those tents that had already served as home for the two weeks in Brandon were pitched, the stove set up, the homestead looked over and work commenced. Duncan started on the land with the team and a plow that had been purchased in Bran- don. Dad and I took to the woods to get out logs for the new house. Two acres which had been broken by Duncan were sowed to wheat and a good sized patch of potatoes was planted by using potato skins
11
for seed The wheat was sowed broadcast by Dad and since we had no harrows the seed was covered by dragging the soil with, willows in the fall bumper crops of both potatoes and wheat were harvested The wheat was cut by Dad with a cradle and threshed with a flaiL And 1 must not forget the fine garden which Mother and i had dug with shovel and spade This produced plenty of vegetables so with these and the fish from the nearby lake we had no fear of hunger in the approaching winter.
We started fishing in Pelican Lake almost as soon as we arrived but for several weeks had no luck Every kind of bait that we could think of or use was tried - white rag red rag bacon, Then one after- noon to my great surprise a fish grabbed the piece of bacon on my hook and 1 had the first jackfish caught out of Pelican Lake 1 dashed to the house to show Mother, There were Dad and Will just come from Brandon so after supper the whole family went down to fish and cau- ght twelve more. From then on the fish in the lake seemed anx- ious to be caught , They formed our first cash crop in our new home, During the winter we fished for these large jackfish (some of them weighing as much as twenty -four pounds) through the ice and sold them to fishbuyers from Brandon for two cents a pound. When the temperature went down to forty or so below zero this fishing through a hole in the ice was not altogether a pleasant way of passing the time. However it was fortunate for the settlers that there were plenty of fish in the lake and that we were able to sell them even at the low price of two cents a pound as the money that the homesteaders at Pelican Lake received for their fish was the only revenue they had to keep them in food and clothing.
Our first house was built of oak logs barked on the inside but not on the outside. The logs were chinked with mud, The roof was thatched with grass from near-by Grass Lake, There were three rooms downstair sand one large one up The partitions in the down- stairs were made of sawn lumber. Where it came from I do not know,
It was soon discovered that there wasn't much farmableland on 20-5-16 so Dad bought from the North-West Land Co, the east half of 31-5-16, Here in 1886, we broke 120 acres which was a great improvement over the forty or less we were able to break on sec- tion 20 o
In 1888 we moved into our new house on 31, It too was quite an improvement over our first one, Now our oak logs were squared on two sides and dovetailed at the corners. Here we had three rooms downstairs and four bedrooms above. By this time there was a good new four -legged stove in the kitchen and a box stove for heat in the living room. All the furniture; bedsteads chairs,
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tables etc was home-made by Duncan from Manitoba oak Inciden- tally I still have a violin made by Duncan when he was seventeen years old.
A milkhouse was built against one wall of our home. Its other three walls were of stone The bank of a hill was dug out by team and scraper to provide for a log barn twenty feet by forty. On the roof of poplar poles hay was stacked. This provided a fine warm place for the livestock in winter.
It was when they were in their home on 31 that the Daroughs were honored by a visit from the Duke and Duchess of Aberdeen. The Duke, then Governor General of Canada, was on an inspection tour of the Gaelic settlements in the area,, After lunching with the Daroughs he proceeded to Glenboro. One of the gillies with the vice- regal party apparently had a yen for exploring. When Mother went into the milkhouse to get some milk and cream to place before her guests she discovered him feasting heartily from the thick layer of cream on one of the big dishpans of milk. I did not meet the Duke and Duchess as I was threshing at the north end of the half section,
I can remember hauling the crop of '87 toKillarney with a yoke of oxen* That was the first crop taken off 31 and a bumper crop it was. going 40 bushels totheacreo It was hauled in two bushel bags and the price received at Killarney was 40£ a busheL Our first three crops had been cut with a scythe and threshed with flails, so it was a joy in ?85 to have a SELF REAPER. Although it reaped the grain it did not bind it into sheaves. Binding was done by hand. Bands were made by taking handfuls of straw in each hand. These were fastened around quantities of grain which one bundled. In '85 the threshing was still done by flail . Then in '86 Milt Mackie brought the FIRST BINDER into the district. It was a giant of a machine with framework entirely of wood and about twice as large as the steel ones which were to follow it in a few years. With this machine Milt did custom cutting for Practically the whole district. It was a great improvement over the self reaper as it both cut the grain and bound it into sheaves. This DEERING binder was pulled by four horses .
In that year, '86, George Overend brought the FIRST THRESH- ING MACHINE into the district. It was powered by a ten horsepower CORNELL steam engine whichused straw for fuel. The separator had neither feeder, band cutter nor blower. Straw was carried out the back end of the machine by a straw carrier which was much like the elevator canvass found on a binder. This straw was taken from the back of the machine with a bucking rope. This was a hundred feet of three quarter inch rope with a loop or an eye at each end that was circled around the pile of straw that collected at the back of the machine. Then the two eyes were hooked into the hook on a chain
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-. *
o
attached to a yoke of oxen who hauled it away Grain in those days was all stacked for threshing A threshing crew consisted of twelve Men: engineer, (in this case George Overend) fireman, separator man, (Drew Maokia) straw -bucker (Neil Daroughr two band cutters, four spikepitchers, bagger tallier (all the grain was threshed into sacks), and waterman,
Until the railroad came to Killarney in '87 all grain sold had to be hauled to Brandon, a distance of 55 miles. It was a four day trip there and back with a yoke of oxen providing one was lucky. This meant travelling on the road for at least twelve hours a day and being lucky enough to get your grain unloaded when you arrived. The aver- age price received for wheat at Brandon in those years was about 65 cents a bushel. The railway to Killarney cut the hauling distance to about 16 miles and to Hilton when it came in ?89 to seven miles.
Here are the prices I remember paying for some commodities at this time:
Butter - 10£ a Ib. On one occasion I carried 10 pounds to Killarney and received a dollar for which I walked 20 miles Eggs - 5£ a dozen, Bacon . 15 , sugar , 03 and tea and coffee . 25£ a pound respectively. Good shoes $1. 50 a pair Overalls a good suit $10,00.
Oats . 05£ a bushel at a Hudson's Bay post and lumber (rough pine) $7, 00 a thousand at Hilton.
Wages: hired man $20.00 a month, spikepitcher $1. 255 straw- bucker and water man each $1. 00 a day and board. There was no accommodation for sleeping for the thresher sat most farms so most of the gang slept in the straw, every man carrying his own blanket.
In 1911 Dad sold the farm and with Mother retired to Ninette, In the winter of 1912 they celebrated their golden wedding anniver- sary with all the sons and daughters except Duncan present. Dun- can was unable to attend as at the time he was carrying the mail in- to Fort McMurray by dog-team. However, the number was increased by three grandchildren! Namely, Lena, Duncan's daughter, Flo- rence, Tillie's daughter and Neil, Charlie's son
In 1916 after a very full life Mrs. Darough passed on She was the first person to be interred in the new Ninette cemetry Her hus- band died in 1944 at the ripe old age of ninety four. Until a couple of years before his death he was hale and hearty. At the age of 93 he went duck shooting with his single barrelled shotgun and brought home game The last year or so of his life was spent with his daugh- ter and son-in-law Tillie and Charles Cullen He was buried in
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Ninette cemetery beside his beloved wife, Agnes, THEOVERENDSAND DAROUGHS-the original pioneers- SETTLE
While the Earoughs were busily engaged in erecting their hill- top home on section 20, James Overend, at Brandon, was ferrying passengers across the Assiniboine River. The Darough freight car contents had included an Overend wagon and team of horses which were sold in Brandon to provide the where -with-all for buying a ferry boat. So it wasn't until October of ?82 that Mr. Overend with his son, Henry, arrived in the valley to begin work on their future home As Bob Wilkie has so rightly remarked it would seem that our an- cestors did not exercise very good judgment in their choice of land,. With all the level fertile prairie acres to be had for the choosing, they could surely have selected something more rewarding than places whose chief attractions were their ravines, trees and lakes. Yet be it James Overend, Charlie Darough, George Wilkie, or Frederick Stark, each was influenced by the latter virtues . Truly Mr, Overend 's choice was a beautiful site. Here at the west side of the valley and nestled at the foot of a hill shone the waters of a little lake, today known as Overend Lake, On its bank and surroun- ded on the other three sides by old oak trees which were to provide both building material and shelter, a home-site was marked out
Close by, a hastily erected log structure was to serve as batch shack until the family home was completed. At a time when every one else was building of logs, the Overendfs made their house of lumber. It had three rooms below and a loft above for the boys. When, in November, Mrs. Overend and the two younger children, Charlie and Isabella Jane, joined the builders to make their home in the new house, the log building was converted into a granary. At a later date it made a fine playhouse for the Calverley girls who grieved when it was gone.
Then came winter - the first the Overends and Daroughs were to face in the west. Was it interminably long and lonely, especially for the women folk of the only two families in the east end of the valley?
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K
w^
DAROUGH'S GOLDEN WEDDING
Aquin's now OVEREND FARM HOMES First store and P.O.
CHAPTER II NEW NEIGHBORS FOR THE TWO PIONEER FAMILIES.
There were, of course, people to the south. When the survey party under Mr. Beatty had arrived in 1879 to map out townships 4 and 5 in range 16 and township 5 in 17, it had among its members a MR. JAMES BELL of OTTAWA. Rumors that a railroad was to run south of Pelican Lake had resulted in the town of Glendenning springing up on what was to become section 11-4-16. So this area looked good to Mr, Bell and he claimed "Squatter's Rights n to a cer- tain location two miles south of the valley until the completion of the survey of this part allowed him to file on it. He filed also on a pre- emption, and this, along with a home stead quarter and a pre-emption for His son, Archie, gave the Bells the whole of section 6-4-16. When Mr. and Mrs. BelL with their son, Archie, and daughter, Christina, came to settle they built their home on the line dividing father and son halves so Archie could live with the rest of the fam- ily while complying with homestead regulations . And they built at the extreme east of their land for nearness to the lake from which they took the large quantities of fish that kept them in groceries and other essentials* Mr* BelL a landscape gardener from Fifershire. Scotland, had been brought to Canada expressly to lay out the grounds of the Ottawa Parliament buildings . The two eldest boys, Robert and Archie, became brick-builders and plasterers and many beau- tiful Ottawa homes still bear witness to their handicraft. Robert and his wife, the former Miss Connor, lived in various parts of the west - Mountain City and Pembina Crossing in Manitoba, and New Westminster and Vernon in B. C. But for Archie. Ninette was al- ways home.
At the turn of the century a nephew, James, came to visit the Bells . But the lad had tuberculosis and, in November of 1905, he died here. Teena and Archie went east with the body.
Now Archie is reputed to have been quite a gay young blade . He played both the mandolin and the violin. Bent on travel he left his sister in Ottawa while he went on to Florida, a place in which he was sorely disappointed. Perhaps it was then that he visited New York for old-timers remember his telling of it being so hot there that people slept out in their yards.
Mary Bell, nee Mary McTaggart, the mother, died in 1891 at the age of 64 and was buried on the homestead. Later when Dunrea had a cemetery her body was moved there and finally to Ninette cemetery. Her husband died in 1904.
It may be that Mr. Bell, after filing on his section, had re-
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turned to Ottawa for the purpose of moving his family west. It is probable then that while there he so interested his friend, FRED DANGERFIELD in this part of the west that Fred decided to come out and see it for himself e Be that as it may, the spring of '82 brought Fred and a couple of companions to the valley with the re- sult that before returning to the east Fred filed on the N. W. of 36- 5-17, and his companion, Mr, Williams, on the N. E. of 34* In pre- paration for his return the next spring Mr, Dangerfield constructed a log house on his quarter . No doubt he was planning for its occu- pation by the Irish lassie he hoped to bring as a bride to the valley, Sure enough both she and her brother JIM WRIGHT accompanied Fred when spring rolled around. It was March when they set out from Brandon with their implements, a team of horses, a cowr a dog and supplies . The first night was spent at a Stopping House in Souris City. 29 men and Mrs. Dangerfield were housed in one big room. In deference to the bride a curtain was placed around the Dangerfield bed. All were anxious to get across the river before the ice broke. When Fred in his turn attempted to cross one team and a sleigh broke through and were retrieved only with great difficulty . Soon after they reached the ho me stead s one of these horses died so its owner traded the other one off for a team of oxen.
How glad Mr So Over end was to have another neighbor woman in the valley! She was the first to visit MrSo Dangerfield and when she arrived she was so excited that instead of saying, "Good -day, n she exclaimed, MGood-byef I have come to see you at last " The Dangerfields moved to Brandon for the winter of ?83 - f84 while Jim Wright and an Alf Dangerfield stayed in the little log house With them to Brandon went Mrs» Bell to be the nurse for baby Ethel who arrived in February. Incidentally,, Mrs* Bell was nurse for the first five Dangerfield babies. Bertha, Eva, Willie and Eugenie went in due course to the Pelican Lake school, Willie and Eva to Ninette, and Norma to Minore and later to Ninette*
Fred was a Methodist and his wife a Presbyterian and, says Eva, they supported all the Ninette churches „ Her father helped build them and plastered a great many houses in the district,
The Dangerfieldfs big barn was built in 1902 and that fall itwas blown down. Either Joe or John Crawford was working for Mr* Dangerfield at the time. He and Mr. Dangerfield were standing in the doorway when the wind approached. They had just made a hasty retreat to the interior when down came the roof landing on the exact spot where a moment before they had been standing. The next sum- mer the barn was rebuilt and a fine brick house constructed. Need- less to say Archie Bell did the brick work. That was the summer Joe Hughes worked for the Dangerfields and from then on Fred and his family figured largely in the lives of many of the new-comers,
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Many there were as our record will show who worked for them,
Mr, Dangerfield owned one of the first threshing machines in the district and at one time owned two. He ran his own crushing machine and had his own blacksmith shop. Willie was noted for be- ing exceedingly good with the machine engine, keeping it meticulous- ly clean and well-oiled. Like most lads Willie enjoyed a good time and when his father refused him spending money he would dress for town, hitch his horse to the buggy, and then, on the sly, drive by the granary, bag a couple of sacks of grain, and proceed to town to interview the grain buyer with the result that Willie had his spend- ing money.
The year '83 saw other settlers move into the valley. The DAVIES FAMILY were to be found in their log house on the side of the north hill, a mile or so from the Overends, William Sanders Davies hadn't thought too much of this location but, wishing to live near the other Orillia families, he had been persuaded to file on the S< E. of 36 while his eldest son, James, filed on the south-west of the same section. That summer the valley was very wet with the result that Mr, Davies could not work his land. He found employ- ment with Mr. Dangerfield who. when he had time, broke 4 acres on top of the hill for Mr. Davies, In return Fred received the Davies shotgun .
THE MACKIES too arrived, Andrew Mackie had chosen land on top of the hill east of the Davies quarter. While the family sett- led themselves on the S. W. of 31, the oldest son, Milt, established himself on his own quarter, the N. W. of the same section. Being farther east than the Overends and Davies they were in range 16,
GEORGE OVEREND arrived in either T83 or '84. Settling just south of the Davies on the N. W. of 30, he built a log house and a blacksmith shop at the OLD PLUM PATCH -that spot just below the cut in the hills where the railroad emerges to begin its descent into the valley.
HOW VERY SETTLED THE VALLEY MUST NOW APPEAR TO THOSE FIRST TWO FAMILIES OF THE YEAR BEFORE! And this wasn't all. Two strangers had arrived in the persons of Mr. Claude COLPITTS and Mr. Joseph McLEAN. Mr. McLean was either a batcheloror a married man without children who settled east of the Daroughs on the S. E. of 20. He is presumed to have been the cou- sin of the Joseph McLean who established the McLean Music store of Winnipeg, to have at one time lived on a farm at Hamiota, and somewhere along the way to have taught school. After completing his homestead duties here he evidently sold out and returned to Brantford, Ontario.
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Mrc COLPii ITS with a wife and small child settled on the N. E, of 30-5-16, Old timers speak of his driving around the Wawanesa Plains with his horse and buggy as he went from place to place tak- ing picturesc After operating the first Ninette post-office from Jan, to Nov. of '84 he sold his farm in favor of a photographer's office in Brand on .
The Ontario folk must have learned by this time that if they would travel a bit farther afield they would find other interesting neighbors, A mile or so north of the Colpitts family were the Clench brothers, Cory and Bart, CORY CLENCH who had worked on the survey farther west in 1881 and his brother, BART, who had come out as a railroad engineer, had a most interesting family tree. Their grandfather, Thomas Barton Clench, coming from Norfolk, England, to New York State had married a Dutch Miss Schermerhorno Ason? Freeman Schermerhorn Clench, and his wife,. Eliza Clark Cory, had four children: Fanny, Freeman Schermerhorn Jr, , Cory, and Wil- liam Carroll Clench, This family came to Canada in 1819 tolbecome pioneer settlers of Cobourg, Ontario, The daughter, Fanny, came into the Ninette district as the widowed Mrs, Lowe in time to be known as "Granny Lowe". With her came her brothers. Freeman S, Clench and Cory, But this was after the other brother, William Carroll, had moved to Be C, to partake in the CARIBOO GOLD RUSH and then had gone on to California and Honolulu, It was his sons, Cory and Bart, nephews of Granny Lowe, who were the first of the family to settle in this area. To their batch shack, located on the east side of the N. W. of 32-5-16 came the widow's son, Harry, in 1886, And later she followed him to the district.
In 1887 Cory discarded his batch shack and moved to a most at- tractive site farther west in preparation for his marriage to Miss Fanny Charlotte Clark, Her family tree is equally as interesting as her husband's. Of English and Scotch descent, the Clarks were among the early settlers of Canada, Sergeant John Clark, who mar- ried a Charlotte Bussey of French descent, took part in the Battle of Queenston Heights and his son, Alex, in the Mackenzie Rebellion, It was this Alex Clark who headed the covered wagon caravan from Essex, Ontario, to the foothills of the Rockies and back to the Trees- bank district of Manitoba,
Then too the Dangerfields and Jim Wright had found neighbors to the west of them in the persons of MR, and MRS, MINORE and their daughter and son-in-law CAMELLIA and JOHN McTAGGART, Originally from Ottawa, Mr. Minor e had moved to Belleville where his daughter had attended Albert College as had John McTaggart, In 1882 the Minore'swere just as busy settling on section "4-6-17 in Lang's Valley as were theOverends and Daroughs to the south-east of them. Along with the Minores had come the McTaggarts and they
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were settling a quarter just south of their parents.
Mr, Minorehad in the east ope rated a furniture store and under- taking business and in his new home he was to find considerable de- mand for his services as a coffin maker Langvale people remember Mr. Minore as a very religious Methodist and one who could be count- ed on to take the service and preach a good sermon in the Langvale school when the minister failed them. He was, too, a very hospit- able man and his home was at the side of the road leading from Dun- rea to Wawanesa and Souris City ministers of the gospel, as did many others travelling through, took regular advantage of his hos- pitality until his home became a kind of private stopping house. Only the bluff he planted remains to show where his house once stood but his name is perpetuated in the school built by Fred Dangerfield in 1906.
The Bells too had neighbors* TOM BUTCHER and family had settled farther south along the lakeshore in either '80 or '81. And Tom Folliot who later became Mr, Butcher's son-in-law settled on the south-west of 7. Finally in '84 JOHN HANNAH was in his log house on the S» Eu quarter of 36 in what is now the Bellafield district.
THIS THEN IS A PICTURE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD' BY THE LATE SUMMER OF 1884,
HOW NINETTE GOT ITS NAME IN 1884.
And with the influx of settlers came the post-office. This post- office of course must have a name and what that name was to be and how that name was decided upon is a tale worth telling. Dr. Stewart's version submitted to the Board of Geographical Names in Canada is accepted as the official one and here it is Dr0 Stewart states that he came upon two variations of what seems to be the true story. In 1883 the settlers, who thought that it was time for a post-office to be established in the district, at a meeting to further the project, delegated Mr, McLean to present the claims of the district to Post- master Inspector McLeod at Winnipeg.
One story is that Elkhorn had been chosen for aname and when it was found that this was already in use elsewhere 5 and that Mr* Me Lean had no further suggestions. Mr. McLeod reached for a novel on the table, glanced through several pages, found that the heroine bore the name, Ninette, suggested it and so the post-office got its name.
A second form of the story is that two or three suggested lists of names had already been sent in but all were already in use or for some reason unsuitable. Mr. McLeanandMr. Colpitts on their way to push their request for an office, while at dinner in the Kelly House,
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Brandon told of their troubles in finding a suitable name* A French- man at the table suggested Ninette a corruption or pet name for An- toinette . The men agreed, went to Winnipeg, and got the post- office and the name approved,
Drc Stewart felt some concern about the mispronounciation of this name. "Give the first nin the short sound as in upinft and not the long one as in Mpine"5 he writes. "The pronounciation of the name, Ninette, M he adds, "is something like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. When it s good, it s very very good, but when it?s bad, it s horrido "
AFTERMATH OF THE NORTH-WEST REBELLION of 1885.
The first half of 1885 was indeed a grim period for the settlers of the whole north west as this was the period of the NORTH-WEST REBELLION and for along time, folks spoke of everything as being before at the time of, or after ?85. It was this rebellion that brought JOHN YELLOWLEES to the west. He had come from Galashiels, Scotland, to Ottawa* From there he came west to draw supplies for the soldiers opposing the rebellion and then when it came to an end with the capture of Louis Riel in May he came to the place where his former Ottawa friends, the BELLS were settled. Having filed on his homestead the So Wo of 16-5-16,, he spent the winter in Mill- ford.
Since both John and his brother, James, are mentioned in the minutes of the Pelican Lake ratepayers meeting of July 1885, when a board for the proposed Pelican Lake School was elected, it is as- sured that they were in the district by that time. James had with him a Scotch wife but it wasn't until 1890 that Miss Finlayfrom Bow- manville came to the district as John's bride. Some time later the father paid a visit to thesonso Louis Watkins remembers Mr. Bell Sr. being here sometime between 1906 and 1909*
Many Winnipeg teachers will remember Mr* Wallace who was for a time assistant superintendent of Winnipeg schools „ It seems at one period that he taught old Hilton and at another Pelican Lake
school and still comes to that area to shoot, An old -timer tells thai one night at a social gather ing this red -headed Mr. Wallace happen- ed to spy an equally red -headed lady and mischievously remark- ed to someone that there was his sister The lady in question, Mrs. John Yellowlees overheard him and at the conclusion of the even- ing lay in wait to give him "what for" in no uncertain terms*
Mrs. Oscar Spackman tells that once she said to her good neigh- bor, MrSo Jim Yellowlees, "I notice that in spite of your living a~ mongus English you don t lose any of your Scotch accent, ff "1 should
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hope not "was the reply, "and I most certainly never shall". Mrs. Jim was always longing to go back home, so in '98 her husband sold to Captain Smith and they were off. But they didn't stay. They re- turned to buy a quarter adjoining the one they had previously owned. In the end they retired to B. C.
Mr John Yellowlees sold and moved to a second farm at the top of the then Hudson's Bay Point. People still go to the site of his home there to pick plums. In '98 he became a charter member } if such there were, of the little village of Ninette .
THE WILKIE-PUTNAM-McELROY FAMILY COMPACT.
One family to whom the rebellion was a very real event was the PUTNAM FAMILY, GEORGE WILKIE and his sister, JANET, had come from Fergus, Ontario to homestead in the Touchwood Hills, 80 miles north of Fort Qu'Appelle* JOHN PUTNAM of Truro; Nova Scotia, had come by Red River cart to the same area and on Nov. 20, 1884 he and Janet Wilkie were married, at a place called Wish- art. What an uneasy time it must have been for them when General Middleton's Column, detraining at a spot south of Qu'Appelle, march- ed right through the Touchwood and on to Batoche. "But we always maintained friendly relations with the Indians", they said, "and so we were not harmed". When at the beginning of the rebellion, all necessary preparations were completed for having Grandmother and Mrs John Putnam moved to a safer place, the women expressed some fear that their belongings would be stolen, "No, No, tr said their Indian friends. "White man is 100 miles away. " They found this to be true. The Indians were honest.
The rebellion came to an end but the long promised branch rail- way line failed to materialize. Finally, becoming discouraged, the Putnams, accompanied by Mr* GEORGE WILKIE, decided to join the Dunrea Wilkies near Lang's Valley. On arrival George Wilkie proceeded to the home of his aunt. Mrs. Barbara Taylor, who lived on section 9 in township 18 . Then joining a party who were going south in search of good homesteads, he travelled on horseback as far as Minot, North Dakota* His faithful dog was left behind at the Taylors, but when. George did not return in three days, true to its loyal instinct, that dog managed to find its way back to the Touch- wood hills.
Mr, Wilkie, on his return filed on 14-5-17, and in this place he lived until after he had fulfilled his homestead duties. Among the Gaelic who settled in Bellafield in !88 was the Campbell family of Badger HilL The year after they were brought out Mrs, Campbell's sister, MissKATHERINE McLEOD, arrived to join her. Miss McLeod found employment for a time with the Smith -s of Trees-
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bank and for a very short time with the Danger fie Id s^ Then in 1890 she married Mr. George Wilkie.
By this time or shortly afterward Mr. Wilkie acquired the farm we know as the Van Mol place. Whether it was a pre-emption, a se- cond homestead, or a purchase from the C. P. R. his sons are not sure. But what they are sure of is that there was a big rush to get its log house of one room below and one above completed before the stork arrived o Charles Over end had taken the contract for $465.00 for material and labor, and he must have succeeded in his rush job for the family were in their new quarter slim July of 1893 when Bob put in an appearance.
Bob recalls that Charlie Over end owned the N.W. quarter of 26. One time Bob came upon a flat place half way between the level land on top and Bone Lake below. And here was a cleared spot plant- ed with the first blackberries Bob had ever seen. The patch was surrounded with a low fence made of bent willow wands.
And then there was Charlie 's lime Kiln located on the open land which afterward became the Wilkie farm.
The oldest Wilkie child, Annie, attended Albion school when it was in its most easterly position but after 1900 she attended classes in the new Over end Hall above the store. Borrowing was the fashion and taken for granted in pioneer days, even among the children. So one day when Harry Ross refused to lend Bob Wilkie his slate rag, Bob in great disgust reported Harry to the teacher. There and then that stern veteran of the Boer War, Mr. Girling, began to teach Bob the meaning of thine and mine.
In time George Wilkievs half brother, TOM WILKIE, came out and settled in the Dunrea district. When Tom's sisters Mary join- ed Kim they went to live in Lang-s valley on the quarter next to their sister, Dinah, and her husband, Collin Lang,
Then out on a harvest excursion came JAMES McELROY, and a Mr. Sashaw from Blyth5 Ontario. Mr. Sashaw filed on 26-4-17 as his homestead but, thinking better of his bargain, disposed of it to Mr. McElroy. That winter, John Taylor and his family, having been burned out, came to make their home with their batchelor neigh- bor Jim McElroy. As John Taylor was Mary Wilkie's cousin she sometimes visited the family in Jim's home and thus began another romance. In 1896 Jim McElroy and Mary Wilkie were married. Their son. Bob was born the next year and on the very day he was born his uncle. John Putnam, along with Harry Over end. went to Killarney to purchase a safe for the new municipality of Riverside, incorporated the year before and employing as its first clerk, Mr.
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John Putnam o
Just where Grandmother Putnam was when the family moved from the Touchwood Hills no one now seems to know, but as she several times had visits back east, this may have been one of those occasionso
The Putnam s travelled by way of Brandon and resided for a time with the Dunrea relatives, the ReaSo These relatives often laugh- ingly told how the Brandon paper had at the time of the Putnam's arrival carried the following article: "A band of Indians have just been sighted travelling south with a very fine herd of cattle, !t
Mr, George Wilkie, as has been said, first located on 14-5-17. He, like his predecessors, certainly did not choose the best farm- ing land= This quarter had very little tillable soiL but it did have many trees and aravineo Here, George built a very small log house. It was only a one -roomed, one storey affair with walls just high e- nough for a door and one log across the top0 For the first winter in this abode, he was joined by Mr, and Mrs, John Putnam and one of the Lang boys.
The eldest Putnam girl, Anna, had been born in the Touchwoods in 1885 but the second one, Grace, first saw the light of day in Ni- nette in 1887 r probably in that little log house, erected by Mr* Wilkie on the present McElroy farnK
By 1900, when Hunter came along the family was in its own log house at the north end of Overend Lake, Their farm consisted of several parcels of land obtained by purchase from various sources. One part, the old George Overend farm, at the time owned by the Anglican church, was purchased through Andy Houghton, A part on the western hill was bought from Mr0 O'Leary,
In 1886 Mr= Putnam became the clerk of the municipality of River side o Having gone to school in Boston and taught for a short time in the east, he was considered more suitable than most of the settlers for the post. But there was another less publicized reason why he accepted ito In his childhood Mr, Putnam had contracted T, Bo and, as long as he lived, he had a bad looking leg which fre- quently broke out into a running sore. Consequently his wife urged him to take this job and that of Justice of the Peace „
For a time the municipal office was located in the Putnam home. May remembers the men coming there for council meetings Then about 1909 the family bought a store in Dunrea and the office was established in an adjoining partc It was at this location that Grandma Putnam died in 1910, Bur the store business was soon discontinued
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and then, Mr, Putnam, once more residing on the farm, drove to Dunrea a couple of days a week to attend to municipal business . The office was moved about until a proper municipal building finally emerged. Not too long ago, a fine new one replaced it and the old building was converted into a small residence located on the edge of the Garabed farm, Ninette.
Strange to say; it wasn't until he was making the move to Bows- man that John Putnam finally sold his Touchwood property to a Nelson Hall, son of a pioneer neighbor.
For in 1920 the Putnams decided to pull up stakes and move to the Swan Lake Valley 0 Through all the years, Mr, Putnam had held his position of clerk of the municipality which for a long time had been a full time job. He regretted giving it up as much as his asso- ciates regretted seeing him go. For indeed John was missed. He is especially remembered for his long years of service on the Ninette Presbyterian Church Board and his unflagging devotion to its Sunday School of which he was Superintendent and Bible Class teacher.
For years Mr, Putnam had not been back home. True he had spent a period from 1892 until 1895 in Fergus for here little Mary, born in Ninette, diedandhere May was born in 1884. But after that the job had held him. Now he could travel Unhappily his wife had died on May 9, 1943, and so he returned alone to his boyhood home. From here he journeyed to Halifax, on to Boston, and then out to Vancouver. At this last place he underwent an operation which was the beginning of the end» In May of 1947 he died in the Winnipeg General Hospital in which place his daughter, Anna, had predecessed him by three year s0 The surviving members of his family. Hunter, May; Margaret, Beatrice and Perly, all married, are all to be found in the Bowsman area.
1885 - IS REMEMBERED BY THE PIONEERS AS THE YEAR:
(I) OF THE NORTH WEST REBELLION
(II) JAMES OVEREND BECAME POST-MASTER
(III) THE DAROUGHS BOUGHT A SELF-REAPER
1886 - IS REMEMBERED BY THEM AS THE YEAR WHEN:
(I) THE PELICAN LAKE SCHOOL WAS OPENED
(II) THE RAILWAY CAME TO KILLARNEY
(III) GEORGE OVEREND INTRODUCED THE FIRST THRESHING MACHINE INTO THE DISTRICT
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PIONEER LIFE IN THE DISTRICT
If some good fairy with her magic wand were to offer one the fulfillment of a wish, mine. I think; would be to be translated back to Ninette for a week or a month in the summer of 1886,
The mail which earlier Bart Clench used sometimes out of the kindness of his heart to bring from Millford and which in 1884 had been taken regularly by mail carrier to Mr. Colpitts' post-office would now be arriving at the Overend frame house on section 25, and I might have the fun of watching the fifty year old energetic gentle- man, such as I cannot even imagine my grandfather to have been dumping the mail from the bag onto the bed, placing one bundle under the pillow another under the mattress, etc. and making sure to read all the post-cards . Then would come the exciting arrival of folks after their maiL Many no doubt would arrive before the mail-car- rier, John Brown of Millford, dido But that was all to the good. The weekly mail-night was visiting night anyway 0
Then too, I might walk bare -footed with the twelve year old Jane Overend across the valley and up the hill to the newly opened PELI- CAN LAKE SCHOOL* We would go up to the Davies two-storied log house where we would be joined by Sarah and some of the other So Then following the path which ran on the north side of the house we would climb the hill to reach the Mackie place. From here we would angle across the land the Daroughs had just acquired and cross the ravine to that little frame structure on the Colpitts quarter (Just west of the San. pumps). What matter that we had a full three and a half or four miles to walk I There were the girls to meet.
But when Mr. Casserly called rolL I would notice the absence of boySo They with men's work to do hadn't time for schooL Harry Overend, for oneT never went to school, at least in the westo But somehow he managed to read, write and calculate, Mr. Davies could neither read nor write. And Mr* Darough could not write al- though he could read printc In the kind of world they lived in, in 1886 formal education did not loom so large as toda>. But many, both boys and girls, longed for learning. Just ask Sam Clark of his efforts to get to school* Jane Overend often told her children that they were to have the education she had so longed for. Nevertheless her penmanship was unusually beautiful as a letter in the posses- sion of her family proves. What fun to attend that school if only for a day ! To see as teen-agers those whom Jiknew only as middle-aged women or perhaps only by hearsay! There would be the Mackie girls, the IBavies, Tillie Darough, and the Rule sisters, Essie and Gertie. Would they talk of the dresses they were going to make when father brought the cloth from Brandon, of the shoes they were to have for winter or of the tasks awaiting them when they got home ?
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In 1887 Hannah Mooney. sister of Nellie Me Lung (who wrote The Black Creek Stopping House Clearing in the West and other books relating to pioneer days in the Treesbank district ; for three months taught 13 pupils in the Pelican Lake school Then Mr. Cas- serly was back to finish the term. In '89 Kate McPhail of Belmont was the teacher, As the school was open for only six months of the year each summer saw a new teacher. There was Alex Tumouth brother of a Belmont store-keeper, and later. Miss Lottie McLaren, who in time became Mrs* Oscar Spackman,
Back at the farm 1 might help Harry in the field where he would be working with oxen, Or perhaps grandfather would be preparing for one of his shopping trips to Brandon and I might assist him in putting some grain in a sack. This he would sling across his back* It would be needed to pay for the merchandise he purposed buying. In the fall of 1913 Ralph and Lionel Clench, who were at the time attending Brandon Collegiate, one Friday after walking four miles to and from school, trudged all through the night to Ninette, just to equal, they said, the walking exploits of the old-timers, of which their father boasted .
But WALKING TO BRANDON FOR SUPPLIES seemed hardly necessary unless there wasn't money to pay the teamsters, such as Milt Mackie who regularly hauled fish to Brandon with the prized team of horses he had brought into the district.
Summer wouldn't be the best time to fish in the little lake but no doubt, if any were to be caught Grandfather, who before coming to Canada had be en a fishmonger in Liverpool, would be after them and I might sit on the bank at the side of the house and do likewise,
1886 would be a few years too soon for me to see the little coun- try store Grandfather operated after he built the brick house the Acquins now live in, Alas I cannot even view it today for one night after the store and post-office had been moved into the new village, the old place burst into flames and burned to the ground., It is sup- posed that mice set some matches alight , The house is gone but the old stable still stands with its hand -hewn be am scut from homestead oak and pegged and fashioned without a single nail.
There must be many anecdotes relating to the old -timers of the eighties, Neil Darough relates the following:
At one time someone poisoned a collie dog to which James Overend was much attached . When Charles Darough heard that Jim was ac- cusing him of this, he immediately hiked to the lake shore and across the ice to where Jim was fishing, There he right smartly took up with Mr. Overend the matter of the poisoning and, after some heated words, they engaged in fisticuffs. Mr, Overend had Mr, Darough
30
charged with common assault and the offender had to appear before Mr. Lang in Langevale, 9 miles away and pay a fine of $8. 00, Later Mr Darough convinced Mr, Overendof his innocence and the friend- ship which lasted until the death of Mr. Overendin 1919 was renewedc
Engaging in fisticuffs seems to have been a rather common prac- tice at the time, Louis Watkins laughs at the yarn that after im- bibing too freely at Sip -of -Whiskey (Wawanesa) Jim Over end and one of the Daroughsgot into a scuff le and the story went the rounds thus: Darough knocked Jim "end over end".
So many records intimate that the pioneers were somewhat a- fraid of the Indians, Our mother seems to have grown up with a dif- ferent feeling toward them* Twice each year they arrived in the valley Spring and fall they came to trap. Once someone saw them digging in the mud down near Bone Lake and, thinking they were pre- paring to fight, went to investigate They were just digging for a great delicacy, muskrat, Jane Overend told that when as a girl she passed an Indian camp she smelled the most appetizing odors emer- ging from the cooking pots She supposed the pots to be full of mus- krat or skunk »
When the Davies lived at Portage an Indian once came to the house and asked Mrs. Davies fora piece of hard bread. She insisted that she know why he wanted it. He finally showed her a foot that was badly swollen from being frozen, at which she encouraged Mm to come in and let her put a proper poultice on it. Years after when the Davies lived at Ninette, an Indian came to their door* On seeing Mrs, Davies his face lighted up with joy of recognition. l!Oh you good squaw!", he exclaimed.
Calla Crawford Butler says she always thought of the Indians with fear and that the noises of their pow-wows sent cold shivers down her back.
Nevertheless if I were back in 1886 I should want to visit them at their old camping ground on the S. W. quarter of the one-time Lowton farm, for my memories are different. I recall a squaw si- lently walking into our house at the dinner hour. She pointed to the loaf of bread on the table and Mother seemed to think it the most natural thing in the world to give it to her. 1 also remember some- one, probably Mrs* Murray, baking a pan of hot biscuits for themo Mother always bought woven baskets from the squaws and we al- ways walked down to the water -tank to view their camp. Somehow I miss those old Indian camps of my childhood
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CHAPTER III
COMMENCEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONS - THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS -
The year the Over ends and Daroughs moved in - -82 - the muni- cipality of ARGYLE was incorporated and the very next year the ALBION SCHOOL DISTRICT was organized. To the west of the val- ley were Wi Ikies. Langs, and Raes who had come from Fergus, Ontario . At a meeting in one of their homes, a Mr Richard Brown offered to donate a school site on his homestead on 28-5-17, and a school board was named. The following motion with regard to the site is found in the minute book: Moved that the secretary com- municate with the Superintendent of Education for the purpose of as- certaining whether a school site located on a home stead not yet patent- ed would be protected by the government if the grantor should lose his homestead through non-fulfillment of homestead duties. No reply is recorded but it must have been considered satisfactory for a school was erected on this site by Contractor Dunlop. And it is presumed that the new Albion School No. 147 was opened December 1, 1883 as the government apparently advised the board that they would receive a portion of the annual $100, 00 grant if they would open for the one remaining month of the year.
The procuring of teachers for the eight month school year was at that time as difficult a proposition as is the procuring of them for ten months now. In 1884 Albion received and accepted the applica- tion of Mr, S. Ho Lent, holder of a first class certificate, who was to teach at a salary of $45. 00 a month. Then on finding that there was to be no summer holiday, Mr, Lent asked for two weeks' vaca- tion or two weeks • extra pay. This aroused the ire of the school board to such an extent that the following motion was passed unani- mously: "Moved that the secretary discontinue negotiations with Mr, Lent as the trustees consider his conduct in refusing to abide by the agreement entered into with the sec, -treas. and demanding different terms from those agreed upon as ungentlemanly and dis- honorable and that they would not be fulfilling the trust reposed in them as trustees to entrust the training of the youth of the district to a teacher who does not consider his word binding in any agreement entered into". Then the secretary was instructed to travel to the residence of Miss Oliver on section 2-5-19 and get an agreement signed. This was agreeable to the secretary as he was paid five cents a mile for travelling anywhere beyond Langvale post office on school business- On one occasion he was instructed to travel to Kil- larney to telegraph a teacher and failing to secure her services, he then went to Wawanesa to likewise contact another. Generally how- ever "ads" for teachers were run in the Brandon Sun which on one
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occasion was paid $3. 50 Two local boys had a turn at teaching in the home school -Sydney E, Lang for 6 months in 1885 for thirty dollars a month and Lincoln Wilkie in 1895 for thirty -five dollars a month o
The school district included the valley farms. The record of a November meeting shows James Overend named for position as trus- tee - but defeated, A meeting of February 1890S named John Put- nam as auditor and a motion to adjourn was seconded by Mr, Minore, In 1891 Mr. Me Taggart was named auditor. But 1899 saw the terri- tory of this pioneer school district threatened. The secretary was authorized to attend the Council meeting and protest the petition of the Ninette villagers that they be given certain sections out of Albion for their proposed school district. The protest was of no avail and consequently in Junea.meeting was called to consider moving the school westward to the north side of the ravine, Warner Ratz was given the job for $100, 00 on condition that the school be moved be- f or January, 1900c Hence-forth Albion school matters were no con- cern of the valley folk but for the record let us just add that the lit- tle school stood in its second location until 1906 when it was sold and moved into Dunrea village to be used as a residence At that time a new two-storey structure built in the village replaced it.
PELICAN LAKE SCHOOL DISTRICT - NO* 337
Albion school was in swing for its second season when, in the home of Charles Darough in the Pelican Lake area a few neighbors met to begin the process of getting anew school. On July 16, 1885, they elected Mr. McLean, chairman; Mr, John Yellowlees, sec- retary, and Mr. Ross Trotter, auditor; with John Yellowlees, William Davies and Fred Dangerfield to act as trustees. Others present at the meeting were James Overend, James Yellowlees, and Andrew Mackie= The ratepayers who met on December 14, 85, to approve the borrowing by debenture of $500 < 00 for the purpose of erecting a frame building 14 b> 24 with a 10 l ceiling and described as freeholders were: A. Mackie; Co Darough James Overend George Overend and James and John Yellowlees. Procuring a site on 30^5-16 the board in January of 86 awarded Murray and Danger- Held the contract for building the school for $95. 00 and Milt Mackie the contract for hauling lumber and other material for $45 . 00
School opened on MAY 1 1886 with MR, CASSERLYas teacher. He taught that year for three months at $35. 00 a month.
HISTORY OF PELICAN LAKE SCHOOL.
Excerpts from the minutes of Pelican Lake School for the period 1886 - 1890 may be of some interest. Mr. Crawford succeeded Miss
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UOPE SCHOOL STRICT U RAJCGE 17 TOWSKIP «
, AT BMD Of SOUR1S
"^ S4 fcX~N LAMOVAU DISTHlCt v> T
McPhail as teacher and in 1890 was paid $230, 00 for a term of 5| months.
Jan. 2< -86- The secretary was instructed to write Frank Bur- nett to inquire whether the section the school was on was mortgaged and if so with what company.,
Febo 27, ?86 - At a meeting at the home of George Overend -Plans to pass By-Law in favor of promissory note for school discussed. By-Law read: "PROTESTANT SCHOOL DISTRICT IN THE COUNTY OF SELKIRK" The amount to be raised was $193.45 to meet a note due at the MERCHANT'S BANK at BRANDON On April 20, '86.
March 27, '86 - By-Law No. 2 read: PROTESTANT SCHOOL DIS- TRICT IN PROVINCE OF MANITOBA; An- other promissory note was needed to raise $120 . 00 business was to be conducted with THE IMPERIAL BANK AT BRANDON.
May. f86 - A third money By -Law provided for the sale of de-
bentures at the IMPERIAL BANK, WINNIPEG and the By-Law was to be sent to FRANK BURNETT who was to negotiate the debentures for the trus- tees.
April, '86 - MURRAY and DANGERFIELD were to be paid $75. 00 on account provided all inside work except PLASTERING BE FINISHED BY April 10. For $10. 00 MILT MACKIE was to paint, dig holes and plough fire-guard. Murray and Danger field ap- parently refused to settle for sum specified so trustees agreed to pay $10. 00 above contract price or let Mr. WILSON BE THEIR ARBITRATOR.
JUNE 17, ?86 - FIRST TRUSTEE MEETING heldinNEW SCHOOL
July 28, '86 - Secretary to write and ask if trustees can pay Thos. Casserly his full salary with the money that is coming from the council.
1887 is interesting in that new names appear in the minutes. The trustee meeting of February 5 appointed John Yellow lees as sec- retary for a salary of $25. 00. C. CLENCH'S tender for 3 cords of fire -wood cut and hauled for $2. 50 a cord was accepted as was the offer of Walter Sykesto plough the fire-guard. At the annual meet- ing a couple of evenings later C. IRVINE moved that J. B, JACKSON be auditor. In 1890 other names appear. At a February 3rd meet- ing JAMES BURNETT and MAT WARD were appointed auditors and at a July 10th meeting JOHN MacDONALD was appointed to plough the fire-guard. At the same meeting P. L. WATKINS moved that the annual exams be held on or near the last day of the term. In December ANDY HOUGHTON was chairman and GEORGE ROYLE
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was at the meeting. It was at this meeting that Watkins and Ward were responsible for the motion that as Mr. Davies could neither read nor write and so did not qualify to be trustee he be replaced. Although the meeting decided that Mr, Davies should finish his term, he resigned.
THE DAROUGHS MOVE.
In 1888 the Daroughs moved into a fine new home on the quarter of 32 in the Pelican Lake district The ruins of that house can still be seen surrounded by a sturdy shelter of trees. It was well loca- ted on the little ravine which afforded water for the cattle. Too of- ten when we live in the midst of history in the making we do not recognize it as such and destroy that which in later days would be considered valuable . When lumber was dear and hard to obtain, Mau- rice Clench tore down that excellent specimen of log building which might otherwise have stood for a hundred years. But, as he ex- plained, tenants had stored grain in it until they had broken the floor and some of this had sprouted in the basement making the whole place stagnant and maladorous. Then hordes and hordes of hateful rats took up residence there, so in the interests of healthful living he tore it down0
The house was conveniently close to the school so many of the Pelican Lake teachers boarded there. Indeed Mr* Casserly had lived with the Daroughs in their first home* Since he was a college student studying to be an Anglican minister, he always wore a mor- tarboard for a hat. After school when Char lie and Norman Darough set out to accompany him home they were obliged to walk, not with him, but behind since they were only farmer's sonso Mr, Casserly usually wore a sweater and it did not take the boys long to invent an amusing little game. They both walked just as close as they could behind him; shuffling their bare feet in the dust, with the result that when the teacher reached home his pant legs were coated to the knees with dust. In addition, the boys had picked handfuls of speargrass and peppered the sweater with same, until their victim bore a strong resemblance to a porcupine.
On one occasion, says Neil, Mother had made two wild straw- berry pies and put them on the kitchen window-sill to cool, Charlie and Norman on their way to bring a bucket of water from the well in passing the window, spotted those pies. It was the matter of a mo- ment to make off with one. Having enjoyed same they were forced with the problem of disposing of the plate» One of them had an in- spiration. Since the pie plate closely resembled in shininess5 the water pail, which was really a milk bucket, why not put the plate in the bottom of the pail? No sooner said than done and it wasn?t until several days later that it was discovered. Meanwhile since Mr,
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Casserlyhad taken off for a walk shortly after arriving from school, he was suspected of being the guilty
One wonders if those Darough boys were ever out of mischief . There was the time when Miss McPhail was preparing the children for a school closing program , To her surprise George Davies volun- teered an extra recitation but refused to recite it before the actual performance, To a filled school house of children and grown ups George, in a stout clear voice recited:
"Miss Lily McPhail ---- jumped into a pail ---- and said she was a whale — without a taiL !t
Report has it that George brought down the house but that Norman Darough, the instigator of the plot, paid for his sins in a long and suitable manner.,
MINORE DISTRICT GROWS -
In f86 there came to the Pelican Lake district a man or rather a boy who was shortly to become a new neighbor of the Minores and McTaggart's5 namely HARRY LOWE, He came from Cobourg to which place his family had gone after leaving Bowmanville. Now Harry's mother was, before her marriage the Fanny Clench, daugh- ter of Freeman Schermerhorn Clench and Eliza Clark Cory of whom this record made previous mention. That made Harry and the Cory Clench of the Pelican Lake area first cousins , So for a time Harry batched with this cousin. In reminiscing of these days he related this incident: One night he was awakened by the clicking of a gun. To his amazement he saw Cory pointing it at an Indian who was in the process of entering by the window. It was supposed that the In- dian was searching for a shovel to dig snake root.
Since Harry was too young to file on a homestead he worked for a time for Jim Lamb's grandfather and for J, G. Murray in the val- ley . Then along came his mother and her two brothers, Freeman S. and Cory (E, C» ) Clench, As she was a widow she was able to file just north of Mr* Murray on section 2, Although the odd -num- bered sections in the hands of the land companies were not available for homesteading, a relative pulled some strings and Harry was allowed to file on 3 which was exchanged for an even numbered sec- tion somewhere else. In that way his land was adjacenttohis moth- er's.
Harry did not even live on his own quarter. For a time all the family lived in a sod shack 16' by 20' near the S» E, corner of his mother's quarter. But later when he was making preparations to marry Gertrude Watkins, Harry moved this building or replaced it
37
by one on a hill-top site just across the ravine, east of his own lancL His mother and uncles at the same time built an adjoining home. Unfortunately the new location proved to be a very windy spot and the digging of a forty foot well produced no water . Through all the years this commodity was procured from a spring in the ravine below. Near the top of the ravine the family constructed a wonderful barn. When the ground was levelled around the three storey structure, one could enter the top storey hay-loft by a ramp from the north, pre- pare the feed with a chopper which was set up there and then send it down a chute which led to the two lower levels. The horses from the second storey exited by a door on the west which led out on the level as did the south door of the lowest storey which led from the cow barn. That barn, still in good repair, is standing today.
Granny 'Lowe's brothers came and went. Cory seems to have spent much more time with her than did his brother. He often clim- bed to the hilltop above and sat gazing on the view he so much loved, so when he died on the farm he was buried at this spot in an unmark- ed grave which can with difficulty still be located.
The Cory family had decided artistic ability. Granny Lowe had considerable talent along this line and, when the plans for the Ni- nette Anglican Church were being considered, a church warden, Joe Hughes, was instructed to call on her and get the plans she had pro- mised. Apparently these were not used but nothing daunted Mrs. Lowe set out to canvass the whole district except the npub -keeper " for money for the building fund. Harry, a staunch Anglican, donated the first heater for the little church^ a big pot-bellied affair. More recently Lionel Clench, son of Mrs. Lowe's nephew Cory, had some recognition for his paintings. At a Pool Elevator exhibition held in Winnipeg in T56 his Alberta Mountain Scene won much favorable com- ment. The well known artist, Paul Kane, married into this family which so much loved art.
When Mrs. Lowe and her brothers died Harry fell heir to the farm but getting in difficulties with the mortgage company he found himself obliged to build on his own quarter. Here across the ra- vine he constructed a large stone kitchen of the fine mansion he had dreams of some day building. Every day he crossed that ravine to go to the barn and up its side he lugged two pails of water or milk, often carrying a lighted lantern between his teeth in the bargain. He hoped sometime to rig up a trolley to carry the loads, but this, like the house, never materialized.
A month or so ago Harry left his stone dwelling to enter a nurs- ing home in Brandon. On Tuesday of this week, Nov. 18, '58, just as the worst blizzard Harry might ever have seen died down, we laid his body to rest in our little cemetery., Like so many other
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Ninette old-timers he at the last was a victim of that dread killer v cancer,
MR. J. G- MURRAY was an important member of the district in the early days, but as he had no children, his name is not fami- liar to many of us of the third generation. In his youth he had been a logger in Ontario* Then coming west he settled in Lang's Valley on theN. W. of section 2-6-17 just south of the Lowe quarter. When some years later Harry got into financial difficulties Mr, Murray bought the deceased Granny Lowers house from the mortgage com- pany and moved it onto his quarter . He then acquired the quarter south of Harry 's and later bought the Frank William s quarter on the shore of Bone Lake, That is the picture of Mr, Murray that has come down to us - a man of property and a man with cash. He sold his home quarter to Jim Wright and his Bone Lake farm to A, Mac- kie. Later Jim Wright bought the Bone Lake place.
When he sold out in the Minore District Mr. Murray decided to move into the Ninette village. Here he built two houses, the present Mac Woods* home, in 1901, and when he sold it5 the one just to the west which now belongs to Charlie Stinton, But there was a farm for sale and this J< G. could not resist* In 1905 he purchased from Billy Darough the old Joseph McLean placeo Mr . McLean' s old buil- dings to the north of the quarter were not to the taste of the newest owner, so he erected a new house and barn to the south. The old barn was moved over and is still in evidence as a present granary* Then in 1909 Mr* Murray made his last move. Selling out to Sam Clark he built a red brick house on main street and moved back in- to the village. That house now covered with a coat of white stucco bears the name plate, "Neil Stewart", When he died here in 1910 Mr. Murray left his second wife? the former Mrs. Cook, a wealthy widow.
In 1887 THE WATKINS FAMILY moved from the Brandon Hills onto 34-5-16 and CORY CLENCH moved the site of his home to a more westerly location on his quarter and then brought his bride, FANNY CLARK, fro.m Treesbank to live in it. Of her life in this place, her daughter Katrine writes: Pioneers with a growing family
had many difficulties, many hardships. There were so many needs and so little income to pay the bills , Mother was a firm believer in pay as you go or do without. So we, or at least the older members of the family did without.
To help some of the needs Mother turned her talent for story- telling to story writing. Some of her tales based on her own exper- iences were sold to English magazines, others were published by Canadian magazines and papers.
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Katrine recalls tales of near tragedies and frightening moments which she heard her parents relate or which she herself remembers,
During the winter of 88 Dad borrowed a pony and cutter from a batchelor neighbor and with Mother made a trip to Treesbank, Dur- ing the return trip they were overtaken by a Manitoba blizzard. The pony lost the road and finally became played out Dad got out to try to find the road and to lead the pony Soon Mother, feeling cold, got out too. But when her long skirts became heavy with snow she grew tired, tripped and felL In the fury of the storm Dad neither saw her predicament nor heard her cry for help. In desperation she reached out and grabbed the end of the cutter runner as it passed her. Her dead weight dragging behind brought the pony to a halt and saved Mother's life.
An incident Lionel likes to recall is that of one Christmas when there was no money to buy gifts During the Christmas Eve night Lionel was awakened by a thumping noise down below, Christmas day Mrs* Clench surprised the family with fresh doughnuts * The thumping sound? That had been Mother rolling out the dough.
On another occasion Clive David, a wee fellow of 4 or 5 could not be found anywhere. And dreadful thought! A wagon full of In- dians had passed through the yard that very afternoon, Ralph got on horseback and took after the Indians while the family searched frantically all over the farm. And Clive David all this time? He had declared war on the family cat armed himself with the family but- cher knife and crawled under a long low porch step after hert Here he was finally found fast asleep with the knife still in his hand and the cat there too, curled up at the end of the stoop.
Clive lived to spend a few years of venturesome service as mis- sionary in Borneo. Then just before he was to return home on his first furlough he caught cold and died in Shanghai. China where he was on a brief holiday. Instead of Clive there arrived only his trunk of souvenirs He had written of how good it would be to taste again his mother's homemade bread. She believed that instead he feasted on the bread of Heaven and the family were reconciled.
Of course the family never lived in the old batch shack, Cory had built anew home on a beautiful locationjj/hich the family named THE OAKS Here Elsie and the rest were born and grew up^ From this place on a winter s day of later times there often emerged a colorful figure in the person of Cory Clench on his way to a boys* hockey game or to get the mail For boys and news were Cory s hobbies Katrine s pen-portrait of him is very good, "From his fur cap pushed far back on his head his coat held in place by a red sash to his lumber socks and boots the cheerful Cory presented
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a colorful picture. JUVENILE HOCKEY -
Among his pile of snap-shots the Clenches have found post -card size pictures of Cory Clench's juvenile hockey teams. There is a group picture for every year from 1925 to 1931 inclusive* The pic- ture of 1927 was copied in a Free Press edition with a write up about "The Glengarries" who had just won the South-Centre Juvenile Cham- pionship,
It was Cory's boast that some day his juveniles would become the best senior hockey team Ninette had ever seen.
There were a lot of lads whose hearts were filled with a sense of very real loss the day their former coach died suddenly of a heart attack after pushing too hard on his car which was stuck in a snow- bank at the farm gate. He who had boasted of his many long walks from Brandon in other days found that last walk from the abandoned car to the house just too much.
Mrs, WATKINS AND HER COUSIN, Miss GISELLA GOULD, were related to the Saville family, one of whom had been private secretary to Queen Victoriao Mrs. Watkins ; who had encountered the displeasure of her family when she married an actor, had come out to Canada with her children in 1882 to join her husband who had preceeded her in 1880. First they lived on a rented place in the Oak Creek district and then on one in the Brandon Hills. When they were at the latter location, Miss Gould arrived from London, England to join them. She became sort of nursemaid to the children. Then in 1885 at the end of the North-West Rebellion, Mrs. Watkins was able to buy from a soldier for $100 . 00 a paper entitling her to any un- occupied homestead site she cared to choose. The government had issued these papers to all the veterans of the Rebellion who, if they didn't care to use them might sell them for whatever price they could get. Mr0 Watkins used his wife's paper to obtain, in 1886, the N. E. quarter of 34-5-16 and the next year accompanied by Miss Gould they arrived at what was to be their permanent home. In 1890 and
1891 Miss Gould accompanied the Watkins children to the Pelican Lake SchooL Next she was for a short time Lady's help to Mrs. Danger field and in this home she met her employer's brother, Jim Wrighto In 1892 they were married and living on Jim's homestead, the N. E, of 2-5-17, where their eldest child, Dorothy, was born. Shortly after the family moved onto the Murray farm which by then was in the hands of A. Mackie, Mr. Murray having taken himself to the McLean farm*
BY NOW THE RECORD SHOWS FARMS BEGINNING TO CHANGE
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HANDS Mr, Minore had retired to Killarney sometime between •86 and 1900,
The rest of the Wright children and their cousin, Gladys Mcln- tyre, were born on the V"right?s second farm* Then once more they moved, this time to the N. E. of 34 on the shore of Bone Lake. On this quarter the school named in honor of Mr. Minore and erected by Fred Dangerfield in 1906 was built, and from it the district took its name.
Just a stone fs throw from the Lowes when they were in their first location and across the section line on the S. E. of 2 were the DUNCANS.
Mr, John Davidson Duncan was a Scotsman from Edinburgh where he had received a university education . As a boy he was active in sports particularly those of track and field* After graduation from university he served with the British army in South Africa. On com- pletion of his tour of duty in that country he travelled to Australia where he spent some time. From that country he came to Canada in 1888.
Mrs, Betsy Lamb of London, England, arrived in Canada in 1884 . Five years later she married John Duncan and together they settled on the S. E, of section 2, just a stone ?s throw from the Lowes, Here five children were born to them. William Curlew, the eldest lived only from 1889 to 1955. Brougham Gowan and Greig now live in Chicago. Jean De Grotte, now Mrs. Anderson, resides in Ste. 12, Kamview Apts» , Fort William, Ontario, and Mona, now the wi- dow of Victor Minary, lives on Vancouver Island.
Unhappily shortly after the birth of her younger daughter, Mrs, Duncan died. Mrs. Elizabeth Harris nursed her during her last illness and then looked after the family until they were old enough to care for themselves. As there was no school in the valley at the time, Mr* Duncan rented Mrs. Harris's farm in order that the chil- dren might attend the Lily Hill SchooL When Minore school was built, the family moved back to their own farm. Mr. Duncan, whose
hobby was gardening, grew almost every flower and fruit that could be raised in his part of the country.
Greig recalls that his father was an extremely clean and tidy housekeeper. The dishes had to be scraped; stacked and arranged just so before they could be washed. Although Mr, Duncan was just not a farmer and good provider his son has unusually fond memor- ies of him. MDad always gave us a good time", he said. "We had just about every kind of musical instrument in our home which was the meeting place of the whole community every Sunday All sorts
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of games sports and musical endeavors were enjoyed and Dad pro- vided refreshments AT any time we could be as noisy as we liked even if Dad was apparently sleeping but let one word of bad lan- guage be spoken and he was awake, Family or visitor we were re- primanded To be the gentleman and to be happy - that was the thing And needless to say reading had priority in such a home, !t His mem- ories of his early days are for Greig Duncan indeed pleasant ones But life is fleeting and in 1924 Mr. Duncan s came to an end
The log house of those early days has been replaced by a modern bungalow. All the family as we have noted moved toother parts of the continent but they come back periodically to renew old ac- quaintanceships and the Duncanname is not forgotten in these parts.
BELLAFIELD -
1887 brought new faces into the district to the south WES HAM- ILTON chose as homestead the So W^ of 30-4-16, so hewastwomiles directly south of the Bells „ Two of his brothers, George and Tom had preceeded him to the west leaving their home in Listowell near Perth, Ontario, in 83 and coming to the Mordenarea. Here peorge settled but Tom came on with some young adventurers who walked from Mo rden to the Glendenning district. Two years later Wes came to visit these brothers* Reworked first for George, then fora time for Tom. then again for George and then back to Ontario he went. But the west had marked him for her own and in 87 he serried on his homestead c In the Belmont area there was a Currie family who boasted of being of Scotch descent and of United Loyalist stock* A daughter, Minnie, had been educated in Germany and being musical had studied the piano, Somehow Wes met this young lady courted her and succeeded in making her his wife* Most of their life story is related to the village, so more of them later „
Once on returning from getting his mail in Killarney Wes was able to render a service to his neighbor. Bill Ross* As he approach - ed the farm, to which the Ross family had come in 1892 he saw smoke emerging from the house and a queer flickering light, Mrs* Ross while ironing had placed the coal-oil lamp on a leaf of the table and the boys, in playing, had managed to let this leaf drop. The lamp fell into the baby's crib. Mrs. Ross had grabbed it and rushed outside but the hot chimney was missing. Led by the baby's whimpering and guided by the light of the moon, Wes found it lying against the child's head. He removed it but Sadie still bears the scar.
In 84 JOHN HANNAH of Owen Sound had chosen the S. E* quar- ter of 36-4-17 and in 86 his father filed on the section directly north of his In 1885 HARRY RUSSELL, also of Owen Sound became his
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ORANGE HALL
1 Bob
Squires POST OFFIO^ /FAIRHALL
neighbor when the latter filed on 12-5-17 four miles to the north of the Hannahs o The Russell family had come to the west in 1882 arriving in Winnipeg on April the first of that y ear •< The father home- steaded while Harry only fourteen hired out to a neighbor.
In 1885 when Harry was eligible to file on a homestead, he had to move farther west to obtain land so naturally he sought a loca- tion where his former neighbors the Hannahs lived The follow- ing year he returned to break the first sod and erect a log shanty topped with a sod roofo The winter of 1886-1887 was spent at High Bluff working with his former employer getting ties out for the railroad.
To his log shack on November 1899 Harry brought his bride, the former Miss Minnie Grieves, also originally from Owen Sound. They were married at the home of Mrs John Hannah the bride s sister. During their years on this farm Mr and Mrs Harry Rus- sell were blessed with a family of .four: Ernie Annie, Ervie, Lil- lian c
In 1909 Harry and his wife moved into the village, leaving the farm to Annie and her husband, Bert Thompsonc So the one-time Jo G. Murray house, the second became the Russell home.
During his batchelor days Harry had been especially friendly with the Whittals and when he was packing to move into the village he gave to Don Whittal the lamp he had used during his batchelor days. It is today one of Don's prized possessions.
Mrs, Russell, now living with a grand -daughter at 3120 Ivanhoe St. , Vancouver, Bo C, in February of 1959 herself at the age of ninety wrote the letter containing the information relating to her hus- band and herself which is here recorded, Rather wonderful that, isn't it?
Then there were the CLARK BROTHERS, JIM AND JOHN who came about the same time as the Hannahs. They were horse -traders. For soon horses were replacing the earlier oxen
Of the ox Mrc Trotter writes: trln the earliest days of prairie settlement, the ox was the chief beast of Burden, especially for set- tlers who took at its face value the Dominion Government literature, which said that $175 o 00 would easily establish a family on a home- stead and carry them until the tickled soil had laughed with its first harvestc Hence it is a curious aspect of what was really a big trade in trail and plough that nobody advertised himself as an ox -trader
The ox was the infantry the foot-soldier of a campaign against
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the emptiness of the plain. Perhaps the lack of honor to the ox in the printed word of those who dwelt in him was due to the knowledge that the steer would soon be reserved entirely for the table, and that the harness and trail would know him no more. The horned phase of agriculture was bound to pass with the growth of settlement The swifter team, more costly, more stately animal attracted commerce to himself and developed a higher order of business and a wider range of experience than could be derived from the excellent but slow son of a
On their arrival from Ontario THE CLARKShad located at Mani- tou but soon they found it profitable to bring horses to sell in this area or the one to the south. Then Jim: homesteading on the west of 36 5 settled his family here.
The Clark half section became the centre of the whole district. When a school was to be erected the No W, corner of the quarter be- longing to Mr So Clark was chosen for a site. Then Mr. Bell sug- gested that in honor of Mrs. Isabella Clark the school be named BELLAF1ELD. When much later the Methodists felt ready to build a church Mr. Clark donated a site, this time on the S, W« corner of the same half section.
The names of WAY, STAPLES, ROSS, HAMILTON, GARBUTT, SQUIRES, and no doubt many others should be recalled in connection with the building of the Methodist Church in 1900,
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CHAPTER IV THE LAST OF THE FIRST DECADE ARRIVALS -
Much to the disappointment of the people of the Glendenning dis- trict the expected branch railroad changed hands and also its route and, after repeated efforts on the part of the settlers, was built to Killarney in December of 1885 AND OPENED FOR TRAFFIC ON JANUARY 1 ?86. This was a great boon, however to the people of The Bellafield area, and when the representatives of The Commis- sioners of THE IMPERIAL COLONIZATION BOARD, who were look- ing for a location for a goup of settlers in 1888 had this location pointed out to them, it is little wonder that they accepted it.
What could be more suitable for their purpose than a level fer- tile stretch of western prairie with the even -numbered sections al- ready occupied and the alternate ones still to be taken ? And all this within fifteen miles of a railroad and having a post-office and a school already established.
"Who or what was the Colonization Board? Why did it want prairie farm -land with the qualifications just listed? And how did it happen that the odd -numbered sections were so conveniently va- cant?
As had been mentioned before, times were bad in the Old Coun- try. And no where were they worse than among the Gaelic crofters and cotters of the Highlands of Scotland. To alleviate some of this distress a group of philanthropic citizens banded themselves to- gether. An Imperial Colonization Board was formed.
The crown title deed of John Nicholson bears the names of the following gentlemen who comprised this board. It reads like a Who's Who.
I. The Right Honorable Graham Murray, secretary for Scot- land.
II. The Right Honorable Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, High Commissioner for Canada.
III. Reginald Me Leod? Esquire, Companion of the Most Honor- able Order of the Bath, Under Secretary for Scotland.
IV. John Uri Primrose, Esquire, Lord Provost of Glascow.
V. Honorable Curzon Plunkett Sir James King, Baronet.
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V.L Sir John Foster George Ross of Bladenbury, a Knight Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath.
It was the purpose of this board to ser.rle the crofters, ithe High- landers who rented and tilled small farms » and the cotters (those living rent free on a common i on we stern Canadian farms and to loan them the necessary funds to make a start in the New World, Their representative on this side of the water was A. B. Barradaith soli- citor, and to him fell the task of locating the land. He sought help from Thomas Skinner, Esquire, who acted for the Canada North- West Land Co. which had purchased from the C, P. R. , blocks of its odd-numbered sections in various parts of the west. Since the government even -numbered sections could be had for the payment of only $10 . 00 the early settlers were not inclined to pay $400. 00 or there -about to the North -West Co. for the odd -numbered ones* Hence the vacancies in the Bellafield area. But, now in 1888, if one wanted a farm in this district, he must buy. So Mr. Skinner sold to Mr. Barradaith. And then the Commissioners were able to send out 17 families from Ross land shire in the Isle of Lewis, that most norther- ly of the Outer Hebrides Group to be found on the west side of Scot- land. The southern part of this island is a peninsula named Harris which is included in Inverness shire. Later that same summer 13 families from this part were sent to Canada and placed in the Hilton or Pelican Lake districts.
The descendants of the Gaelic who came to the Bellafield area claim that there was only one crofter family among them, that they were cotters and had been fisherfolk in their homeland. If this was true, it seemed too bad that they weren't closer to the lake where fish at this time were so abundant. But whatever they had been in in Scotland, it was intended that they should be farmers in Canada and farm they must. The Bank manager, Mr. Baldwin and Mr . Low- ler, the principal storekeeper in Killarney. seem to have been a sort of official reception committee and, when the Gaelic newcomers stepped off the train, they were ushered to a tenting ground where they were to be accommodated until, with money supplied them by the board and handed out by the banker, they had purchased from Mr, Lawlor such things as they thought or were led to think they would need. Then a hired wagon was loaded with their purchases - food, furniture, fowl, a plow, and grain - and the few possessions they had brought from the OLD LAND, Next they were squeezed in or on top and they were off. Some bought lumber for a small one- storey home but most built sod shacks* In many cases families al- ready in the area accommodated them until their own shacks were upo For the next few years supplies and equipment such as a cow, a pig, oxen, barnyard fowl and seed were paid for out of coloniza- tion funds. All this in time had to be paid back. John Nicholson known as the KING OF THE GAELIC both because he acted as their
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lawyer and because he became the most prosperous among them, paid the board 725 dollars and some cents»
It was no doubt a heart -break to pullup stakes and cross the sea to make homes in the far-away land but in many ways this group faced much greater security and required much less initiative and daring spirit than did the pioneers from Ontario. The North-West Rebellion was a thing of the past and the Indians were no longer to be feared. The branch lines were built and great treks across the prai- rie under the most primitive conditions were a thing of the past* Nor did they come just one or two families to live miles and miles from anyone else. No. They came a large party from one small locality, where all knew each other, to be settled close together. Then when they did arrive they found Canadian neighbors with the know-how. The three families of GRAHAMS, not one of which admits relation- ship to either of the others, who settled on 31-4-17, were surroun- ded by the Butchers, Clarks, Hannahs, and Hamiltons; and the Mc- LEODS, NICHOLSONS and McKAYS had for close neighbors the Clarks, Ways, Garbutts, Staples, Smiths and Noots.
Then there was the fact that they were given the where -with-all to make a beginning. How unlike the Daroughs, for example, who carved all their own furniture out of native wood, or the Davies who made their first home out of logs found on their farm or the sturdy fathers who trudged all the way to Brandon and back to shop !
Even the schools were built and in operation, ready for their use. No, I do not think I can call these folk pioneers* All one can say is that they were the original settlers on what, before their com- ing, was unbroken virgin soil. True they did build their Gaelic Church on the corner of section 3., This stone building, however, was not properly constructed to withstand our climate and in time had to be replaced by a frame one. While the original was erected by voluntary effort of the Gaelic people themselves, it was thought wiser to employ a contractor, Mr. Lang, the second time. Their one proud boast is that they paid for it themselves and that it be- longs exclusively to their own congregation without the Presbytery having any claims what-so-ever upon it.
It was with relief that the school board saw the Gaelic folk move into their own church quarters. There had been constant complaints that when these folk used the school for meetings the building was not left in as clean a condition as could be desired „ But then it is hu- man nature to take more care of what belongs to one.
Then too they had the Neighborhood post-office at the SQUIRE'S home at FAIRHALL. Before the railroad operated through Killarney in 1886, the nearest post-office was that operated by Mr, McKnight
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at Glendenningo And for a time after the railroad arrived his office continued to function for he carried the Morapana as well as the Glendenning mail to his place. Here John Cummings picked up the portion for Rock Lake, it was of course preferable for the Bella- field settlers to get mail at the N. E, quarter of 14-4-17 where they were accustomed to going anyway for meetings in the ORANGE HALL and so in ''88 they welcomed the new post-office as they did the WILLIAM ROSS FAMILY when it arrived from Minto in 1892 to be- come life-long friends of the Squires who lived just north of them on the same section.
THE HARRIS PARTY -
Most of the Harris Party who arrived on June 15 went to the Hilton area. Two families, those of "Black" and "Grey" MacDon- ald, settled in the Pelican Lake district, A few years ago DAN McKINNON who had left the Regina section where he had been plac- ed and had come into the Pelican Lake area, moved into the village with a sister and niece. And a MR. and MRS. FINLEY McKENZIE did likewise. The latter are cousins of Black John's 'son, Alex, who for many years has been in town Finley McKenzie remembers that his father paid $6, 00 to the man who took the family and their pos- sessions from Killarney to Hilton with a team of oxen hitched to a hayrack, Alex MacDonald recalls that their first house was a frame one and Finley thinks theirs too was frame. But both soon had log homes, the McKenzies when they moved because water was unob- tainable in their first location and the MacDonald s because their house was too smalL Alex, who was only a small boy at the time, never tired of watching Neil and Bill Darough and one of the Mackie boys assisting his father in building,. He thought a two storey house such as they were to have, the last word in grandeur „ Alex has fond memories of his one-time teacher. Miss McLaren. He and Billy Darough felt very honored to be allowed to lead her pony each noon to the ravine just north of the school for its drink. He wondered if this influenced "teacher l\ that day not too long before summer holi- days when she sidled into the double seat the two boys occupied and whispered that if they passed into the next grade she would give each of them a lead pencil. Alex thought it a long way to walk to school but a much longer trudge to the Gaelic church in Hilton which he at- tended on Sunday So Much water has flowed down that old ravine since then. Now Alex finds himself living within half a block of the former Miss McLaren, now Mrs. Oscar Spackman, and within two blocks of his former classmates, Mabel and Muriel Burnett Don- ald McKinnon, who in V94 had purchased the old Milt Mackie farm, lives only a couple of doors from Alex0
Now by '88 the MACKIES were on the move. Of the eleven chil- dren who had grown to be adults, two boys had remained in Ontario
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Another, Dave, with his wife, spent one winter here but disliking the privations had announced that this land had belonged to the Indians and as far as he and his wife were concerned they could have it back. His widow still resides in Orillia. Andrew and his wife went back east but only for a time. He returned to the Hilton area where his wife and child joined him two years later. Then they took up life on a homestead in the Belmont district,
In 1903 MR. MACKIE, Sr. filed on a second homestead next to his son, Drew. But he had been working away from home before this. As a grandson said: "The Mackies lived not by the plow but by the axe", and both Milt and his father spent their winters in the bush near Belmont, Here Mr* Mackie Sr. came to be known as THE OLD BUSHWACKER but people who knew them always main- tained that Milt was mightier than the father in this craft. Then when the government introduced the new scheme where-by a home- steader who had proved upon his first homestead before 1890 could homestead for a second time, it seemed a good idea to the Mackies to sell and moveo So Mr. Mackie filed on a quarter next to his son. The old folks built a small house but as Mrs* Mackie was very frail they soon moved in with Andrew's family. That winter Mrs, Mackie died and was buried in the Belmont cemetery where in 1919 her hus- band's remains were also laid*
JAMES BURNETT came of a seafaring family located at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. His father was a whaler cap- tain and his brother, Frank, an apprentice on the sailing ship Arun- deL Jim, Himself, with Master ?s papers, sailed the Seven Seas. Rumor has it that when, toward the end of the seventies he arrived in Montreal with a cargo of mules from the Argentine, his brother, Frank, who for about ten years had been located there, convinced him of the advisability of their both going farming in Western Canada* Consequently Captain Burnett, his wife and four children and Mrs. Burnett f/ss is ter5 Florence Fing lass, set out from Liverpool in 1879* Arriving in Montreal, they paid a visit to Mrs. Burnett's uncle, Arch-bishop Sweatman, Primate of all Canada, and then continued their journey to the Wawanesa Plains where they obtained a home- stead* Here two children, Mabel and Allan, were born,
Frank did come out too* With a wife he had married two years before he arrived in the Wawanesaarea in 1880. Frank was one who constantly changed his occupation. In the previous ten years he had been purser on a river boat manufacturer s agent and stockbroker and, when after farm ing for two years he went into Belmont, he serv- ed for 6 years as reeve of a municipality of Cypress and to hold his first magistracy he was just continuing his usual way of life In 1895 he moved to Vancouver leaving behind him a reputation for some very questionable financial dealings.
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James Burnett was a different type of man With his love of the sea, he longed to be near water and so in 1888 moved into the Peli- can Lake District where he bought the N. W. of 28-5-17 from Bob Phillips.
The same summer that the James Burnetts had emigrated, two cousins of Mrs. Burnett's also came to the west travelling up the Assiniboine on a paddle wheel steamer. They were ALLAN and BILL FINGLASS, As Allan married Mrs. Burnett's sister Flor- ence, in r'97 we shall follow his movements. With his uncle, GEORGE ROYLE, he settled on the N. E of 32 the old IRVINE place. In '88 George Royle bought this and Allan acquired the N. E, of 21; a quar- ter Mr. Walter Sykes Sr. had filed on and thrown up.
It was on the Captain 's last farm that Norman and Muriel were born, Muriel says that her birth certificate was registered at Old Millford. The Burnett sons at one time or another owned various sections in the district and the Captain and George Royle also in- creased their holdings by purchase, All the daughters except Muriel married, Ethel to a Fred Pindar who for a time was butcher ?s assis- tant in the village, Mabel to Peter Watson and Kathleen to Ray Houghton. Kathleen died young, leaving two girls c Frances and Enid, who lived with and were mothered by first their grandmother and later by their aunt, MurieL
For a time both the Houghton boys had farms in the district But before long both left. Ray became secretary of the municipality of Strathcona and clerk of the county court when it sat in his home town, Belmont, every three months.
In 1907 Captain Burnett with his own hands and possibly some help built a frame house out in the bush on Grove Street a whole block from the school in the village of Ninette. At the same time he constructed a little sailing boat of his own which he named THE LAUREL. Here he found contentment sailing his "Laurel", or op- erating the boat "Company 's Rose" and employment as assistant post- master. In the end the Laurel was sold to a Killarney purchaser, Mr. Meabry, who rebuilt it and renamed it "The Shamrock". Mrs,
Burnett did not have long to enjoy her new home She died on Aug- ust 2, 1902. Strangely enough her husband also died on an August 2, but that was many years later as he lived until 1942.
END OF DECADE I
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CHAPTER V
The first period of pioneering would seem to be over when sett- lers coming in, no longer took up homesteads but looked for land to buy. The transition from the first to this second period was marked by the selling and moving of many of the original settlers and now a new factor was to make its influence felt. This was the appearance of a near-by railway.
If one were to choose the most important single factor influenc- ing the lives of the pioneers, he might well select the coming of a railroad . Hence rumors of one to be built not too faraway aroused much interest. IN 1889 THE NORTHERN PACIFIC BRANCH LINE actually materialized, coming from Winnipeg through Morris to Bel- mont and Hilton and going on to Brandon . Now the hauling distance which at first had been 55 miles to Brandon was only 7 to Belmont or Hilton, And the mail, now carried by Mr. Smiley from Belmont, was picked up once a week.
The year was celebrated by several marriages: Milt Mackie married Mary Elizabeth Davies, Allan Finglass was wed to his cou- sin, Florence Finglass, and in the Bellafield area Harry Russell was proudly introducing his bride5 nee Miss Minnie Grieves*
And then came the gay nineties and with it THE INFLUX OF OUR ENGLISH SETTLERS. With more ready cash and a different background from that of most of the other pioneers, they seemed to have viewed their new life in a different light. In this beautiful new setting they would reproduce a Little England following the social customs and gracious living of the OLD LAND. Thus we find a cric- ket club at the four corners, where Jimmie Sheen's gravel pit now is on the S» W. corner of 33-5-165 established in 1900 and named "The Ninette Cricket Club". Here the members met at least once a week to play cricket and unconsciously to cement life-long friend- ships. There was, as wel!5 a cricket club with a large log pavilion erected about 1890 on the Tom Wilson farm and fittingly named Tom Ys Pavilion.
Wolf hunting too was undertaken and enjoyed even more by the "Bachelor Girls" than by the men. Among these was Miss Edith Rainier, who became the wife of Martin Watson and her sister. They had been born in Malta where their father was a colonel. Sett- ling at Poors Lake on the N. E of 4-6-16 which they bought from Frank Burnett they were joined by a Miss Wigham and together the three rode in pursuit of wolves often as far as Somerset.
It is most interesting to note the background and former occu- pations of these people who were about to attempt the hard and ri-
53
gourous life of the western Canadian farmer. Mr, Burnett, as we noted earlier had been a sea-captain and George Royle, a purser on a ship, THE SPICERS too had had interesting careers, Mr, Spi- cer had travelled all over India in a van delivering Royal Mail. Mrs, Spicer was an actress and it is believed that when they left here in 1895 it was to goto New York that she might try for the stage. Both were musical MR, WATKINS was an actor. Much of the time his family lived here while he was off in the States with a dramatic com- pany. The FINGLASS name was perpetuated in Scotland by a small village, RAY HOUGHTON had shares in an English bank owned by and named after his aunts, the Parr sisters. It was the banker hus- band of one of these aunts who on learning that Ray was coming to Canada gave him this advice: "Treat every man as a crook unless and until you find that he isn(/t one, " ANDY HOUGHTON had been owner of a land company in Winnipeg, OSCAR SPACKMAN was a doctor's son and ROBERT SCOTT came out in the hope that the cli- mate would improve his indifferent health. Grandmother Sykes, at home in the OLD COUNTRY, was so unrealistic as to send out one young lady after another to become her family "s governess. What they did become, in very short order, was good wives for struggl- ing bachelors Mrs, Albert Watson was one of these, and Miss Wil kes who married the Belmont school principal Mr, Mottf, was an- other The Bachelor Girls too married. The second Miss Rainier married a Wilson, It may be noted in passing that Mount Rainier was named in honor of their surveying brother
In spite of the seemingly incongruous situation in which these people found themselves, many of them not only turned their talents to good advantage but also made a surprisingly good job of farming and became admired and respected leaders in the community, not only while they were on the farms but also when they moved into the village itselfc
Of course there were the anecdotes about the GREEN ENGLISH- MAN and his leisurely way. The following is vouched for as fact. Allan Finglass arrived at the home of a neighbor to ask for help in getting a horse out of his well. The neighbor hurried around for equipment and then hurried down the road as fast as possible. Allan was loitering behind and when chid ed for not hurrying replied "I don't think there *s really any.hurry. The creature was dead when I star- ted out",
Andy Houghton, who had bought the Colpitts farm when the latter went to Brandon to become a full-time photographer, advertised in an English paper for a hired man* MR, OSCAR SPACKMAN and MR CHAS, CULLEN both set out in 1890 in answer to this "ad11 but strange to relate, although they travelled on the same boat and came on the same train to Glenboro, they did not meet until under the wing
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of their future employer. After serving his time with Andy, Mr. Spackman worked for the brother, Ray Houghton, and then for Mr. Winfield. Next he went farther west and filed on a homestead, but nothing came of it for he returned to England and was next to be found mining for gold in the Colgardie Mines of West Australia, This was not to his liking so, after making the return trip to England, he jour- neyed once more to Canada and, again reaching the Ninette area, he bought the S. E, quarter of 28 from Mat Ward in 1896. The same year he married Miss McLaren
MISS LOTTIE McLAREN, who was of Scotch descent, had come from St. Mary's, Ontario, on one of those summer excursions to visit her sister, Mrs. Mordenof Hartney. That fall she became the first teacher of Duncragg school, boarding at the home of Ed Gul- lett's parents, Mrs* and Mr, Ralph Gulletto The school was so new that at first lacking proper desks, the pupils sat on benches . Mr. Jack Horton, who was her school-board chairman along with his wife, became life -long friends* Her third school was the Pelican Lake one and for part of the year Miss McLaren drove or rode a pony and continued to live at the Guile ttsu When she drove she picked up her pupils. Billy and Bertha Dangerfield, who missed the ride when their teacher went to board at the Darough?s. Amongthe pupils of that year were George, Mary, Emma and Jane Davies.
After spending the first two years of her married life beside the Scotts, The MacDonalds and the Finglass's, Mrs, Spackman, going with her husband to the N. W* of section 9 now had for near neigh- bors Mrs* John Yellowlees and Mrs* Smith and in time the James Yellowlees, just back from Scotland.
MR. CHARLIE CULLEN, having served his term with Mr. Houghton5 transferred his services to J. G. Murray of the Minore district. Then for a period he was gone . Evidently he went farther west in search of a homestead but he returned, married Tilly Cullen and farmed with heron the old Mackie place where their only child, Florence, was born.
ROBERT SCOTT came from the Isle of Man, with the two Smith brothers* He crossed on a cattle boat, arriving in the Pelican Lake district in the year 1891. For a time Mr. Scott found employment with Mr, Bill Glass of the Belmont area and then, striking out on his own, he bought the S, Wo of 28-5-17 from Jim Jackson.
The happiest day of his life finally arrived when in Winnipeg in June of 1893 his fiancee, Miss Annie Gilbert of Berkshire, England, pledged her troth and became his bride. But when the bride on ar- rival at the home site saw the log shack she was to live in, she al- most turned around and went home to England .
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Certainly both of them must have found Canadian farm life very strenuous and when, in 1904 , they moved into the village, one felt that this must be a much more congenial environment „
In 1925 Mr, and Mrs. Scott moved to Chilliwack, B C At this time their only child, William, who had married Lily Matheson of Belmont in 1919 was living in Saskatchewan, But here Bill developed a very bad foot and was told by his doctor to leave the cold winters of the prairie, so, in 1928 he and Lily moved to Chilliwack, In later years both he and his parents moved to Vancouver,
Mr, and Mrs. Scott are both dead but Lily and Bill still keep the home -fires burning at 3993 West 30th Ave , Vancouver 8,
Mr. WATKINS was an actor and while his son, Louis, was try- ing to make a living for the family by running the herd with Albert Watson, he was off with his dramatic pr eductions . His local plays were laughingly spoken of as The Marriage Bureau as so many of the couples he united in leading roles ended up by uniting in matri- mony. Often his daughters received finery in the form of costumes used in his American produced plays , He himself took part on occa- sion. Calla Butler recalls one performance given in the open air pavilion in the Sport s Grounds in which Mr, Watkins participated.
Another interest was, for Mr. Watkins, his 12th Manitoba Dra- goon group. He had been a boxer and with his military background was never so happy as when commanding his volunteer Dragoon De- tachment which he took to Camp Sewell (now Shilo) for two weeks each summer All this contributed to a gay and colorful life for Mr. Watkins but didn t do much for the family left in its small log house. However except for one visit home to the OLD COUNTRY in "89, Mr So Watkins lived there until her death at the age of 85 in 193 60 Her husband had predeceased her by S years.
Toward the end of the century and in the very year the village was born two families came into the district, CAPTAIN SMITH had held his military position in the London Scottish Volunteers but had no battle experience as this regiment did not go into active service until World War I at which time he was in Canada. Never-the-less he always insisted upon the use of his title. In 1898 Captain Smith and his family followed two sons who with Robert Scott had come out eight years earlier. In the meantime a daughter, who had come out to keep house for her brothers, had married a Mr. Crossley and it was to her home that the family went when they first arrived. When he had a chance to look around, Captain Smith bought the Jim Yellow- lees quarter, the S.. W. of 16 As the Yellowlees were eager to re- turn to Scotland the sale included stock and standing crop. As the Captain had issued an ultimatum that there was to be neither borrow- ing nor lending so the family sometimes ran into difficulties, Mr
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Smith joined the Ninette cricket club where he met other English- men; the Scots, Spackmans, Hortons etc. He was a staunch Pres- byterian and served most faithfully as a board member of the St. Michael's Presbyterian church. Although at first he couldn't de- cide whether to emigrate to New Zealand or Canada, it would seem that he was quite satisfied with his lot.
Mr. Smith was very English and could never quite understand the informal life of their new environment. They had what was then the finest house in the district but so sheltered their daughter Daisy, that she never enjoyed the free and easy life of her Canadian mate s, Many are the tales told about the old captain with his white flowing beard. Mary Stark recalls the time Daisy, her Sunday School teach- er, gave them a picnic at Over end's grove on the farm. Since Mr. Smith forgot that toward evening he was to come for his daughters, they laboriously lugged the boiler of equipment along the road until Mr s» Stark, having driven her own girls home, returned to pick them up. On another occasion when both Anglicans and Presbyter- ians were using the school hall for church services, Mr. Smith ar- rived to find the place decorated by the Anglicans fora Harvest Fes- tival service. In High dudgeon he went off, got a lap robe from his buggy, and spread it over fruit and vegetables, muttering that it looked like a market place.
A pen picture of the Captain reads: Every night he waits in frontvof the post7office for the. children rushing from school to get tfie maiL Stopping his favorites he asks them one or two questions and then presses a few peppermints or butterscotch candies into their hands. "For some reason the children did their best to avoid this encounter. " Sitting very straight in his buggy and carrying over his shoulder, like a gun, a long heavy stick to be used on the flanks of his pony, Bobs, if his master's impatience is aroused, comes the Captain. If it isn't for the mail, fresh meat, or a church meeting he goes to Belmont which he claims as his town. For it was to Belmont that the Smiths retired on leaving the farm.
MRS. LEIGH, awidowedudaughter of the Smiths, AND HER SON, BOB, lived for a time in Ninette but for many years now they have resided in the Okanagan. Recently Bob met with a nasty injury to the face when he had an accident with his motorcycle.
LINDSAY lives in the village with his wife, the niece of John Gumming. Lindsay was, in times past, a great trapper and hunter. When it is fishing season in Ninette it just wouldn't seem right if Lindsay weren't passing with his fishing pole and a string of fish* If asked about the old days he will say that he attended Pelican Lake school and Mr* Gollan's Sunday service held in the Darough house. But that is about all^ for Lindsay, the out -door man i s the silent type .
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Around the turn of the century and shortly afterward a number of people from the Minto- Margaret district moved into the Ninette area. The first of these THE STARK FAMILY settled on the N. W, of 17 in 1898. Two years earlier they had come from Mitchell, On- tario, to Mrs, Stark s widowed brother, William Shipley, of the Boissevain district. Frederick Stark, valuing water and bush more than good farm land, decided that Ninette was just the place for one of his indifferent health* The home was built, not on top of the bank of the lake, but half way down the slope where a level spot had been located. In winter the children scrambled down the bank and walked across the ice to school. Of this Mary recalls one frightening inci- dent, One day when returning from school Elsie happened to take off one of her gauntlet -mitts which went skidding along the ice to- ward Hudson s Bay Point (Manhattan Beach>> Every time she just about reached it the wind whipped it off again. By the time Mr . Stark arrived and rescued the gauntlet Elsie s hand was almost frozen. Mary's recollections of school days in Overend's hall are also of a chilly nature. The children, in winter, set the lunch pails around the register in the floor to thaw them out. Her remark that her teacher. Theodore Girling was a stern man reminds us that he was a veteran of the Boer War, One of Jessie's teachers, Ray Kennedy, was quite a musician and composed a waltz the girls learned to play. Another Mr. Leighton was quite artistic,
A late -comer to the district and one of quite different back- ground was MR. JUSTIN PASKEWITZ. With his wife and only child, John* Mr0 Paskewitz had originally moved from the Baltic States, then under the domination of Russia to t's ohannesburg where he be- came a butcher o Next he lived for two years in Capetown, But he longed for a country where he could have a farm similar to the one he had left in the homeland, so he began to consider a move to Cana- da, Now in Capetown the Paskewitz 's had for a customer a Mr Craddock who had come from Canada in connection with the Boer War, When he returned to Canada to operate an office for The In- ternational Harvester Company, a daughter, who had married, re- mained in Capetown, Learning of Mr, Paskewitz's wish, she wrote to her father with regard to his getting a farm in Canada, As a re- sult one day in 1906 Mr, Craddock was at the Winnipeg station to meet the Paskewitz family. He took them to his home and the next day accompanied Mr, Paskewitz on the train to Belmont and on out to the Pelican Lake district where they purchased the N, W, quarter of 28 from Captain Burnett, In time John brought to that home as his bride Olga Galtz, daughter of a German couple who had moved into the district even later than did the Paskewitz family. When the parents moved into Ninette, Olga and John continued for many years on the farm where their three sons Eugene. Albanand Reynold were raised.
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Thus here among the Presbyterian and Anglican groups came the first continental European families, one Roman Catholic in re- ligion, the other Lutheran, Here then were the Ninette pioneers of the movement which was to make our west the great melting pot of Canada.
The Paskewitz families, senior and junior, always participated in all community affairs and pictures of the fine-looking Mrs. Pas- kewitz Sr. are seen in many old community group photos. It was Mr. Paskewitz Sr, who built the present Clisby home where he and his wife lived from the time of his retirement until his death in 1918 = Then, until her death 6^ years later the mother resided with the John Paskewitz family* Now the son and his wife live in the village where they continue to participate in all community affairs.
I began with the OVEREND family. I must end part I with a mention of that name. CHARLIE CALVERLEY of Orillia came in the early nineties to the Hayfield district ten or twelve miles south of Brandon, His mother was a Crawford as was Mrs. James Over- end so what was more natural than that he should visit his relatives in Ninette and, to shorten the tale, in October of 1894 marry the daughter, ISABELLA JANE. They lived at Hayfield until October of 1905 and here their three eldest children, Eva, Orval, and Lillace, were born-
Among the Gaelic immigrants who arrived from Harris in '88 were two sisters in charge of an uncle, "Grey" John MacDonakL GEORGE OVEREND at length persuaded one of these sisters, MISS MARGARET ANN MacDONALD to share his lot and on December 29, 1891 they were married. In their first home at the OLD PLUM PATCH two daughters, Effie and Mary, were born. In ?94 or f95 George sold this homestead and took a second one on the N. E. of 33-5-17 on the shore of Bone Lake and here Harry worked for him. Mrs. Overend too became a land-owner acquiring 80 acres near the McTaggart?s, On their second farm a third daughter, Florence, commonly known as "Susie" was born in '97. Susie or Susan, as her father fondly called her, was so nick-named because of her gol- den hair and large dark eyes which reminded him of the black-eyed susans which grew abundantly in the nearby fields It wasn't until they were living in the village that Josephine made her appearance.
George never did like farming and never made a success of it so when the first railway came through and the village was spring- ing up, he was all too ready to sell to Harry and move in to set up a blacksmith shop just south of the present bake-shop, George was an unusually clever mechanic and had he been given the opportunity would have gone far up the ladder of success . Even in his eighties his clever hands fashioned beautiful articles from such common
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things as a block of alder wood and a soup bone. One such article he made was a lovely cribbage board which in appearance strongly resembles polished ivory - all complete with pegs carved with in- finite patience.
Tall tales of both his prodigious strength and fiery temper exist to this day. These are only equalled by remembrances of his kind and thoughtful parenthood and his loyalty and big-heartedness to a friend Alex MacDonald says, "He was the best friend lever had* "
Dr0 McRae in an article written for the Sanatorium publication. The Messenger, in June 1939 after describing in very amusing and vivid language his first encounter with George in one of his tempers writes: t!Ah George, not many of us now at your age have retained the surging impetuosity of youth which alone can produce such fine frenzy as you called to the lists. Patience and equanimity make a drab showing beside the fire and reckless abandon that marked your pathway, masked your heart of gold, "
Her family often urged Mrs. Over end to take a trip home to Scotland, but memories of the six -week voyage on rough seas en- dured in a small steamer where everyone was sea-sick were enough to keep her safely at home until her death on Armistice Day in 1948o
Upon his retirement from the engineering staff of the Ninette Sanatorium, George and his family moved westward to reside in British Columbia* His heart, however, was always in this place from which only the rigors of the Manitoba winters kept him partedo After several years residence in Vancouver he and his family moved to Salt Spring Island where he died in 1952 at the age of 90. His was an unusually keen mind, and right up to the time of his death he took a keen interest in world affair s»
Old neighbors recall with a chuckle this story relating to Harry Overend. He was returning from Orillia with his bride, nee Miss Ann Murphy, when the train stopped at Belmontand the Railway em- ployees mistakenly unloaded all of Mrs0 Overend's luggage. Her trunk was heaved onto the platform with such vehemence that it was broken and all of the wedding finery was strewn about . Her hus- band's wrath was vented verbally in no mean mannero Four daugh- ters, Mabel, Inez, Oliveand Hazel were born to the Harry Over end's on this farm and before they moved to the village .
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PART II - INTRODUCTION BIRTH OF THE VILLAGE - 1898.
A yellowed slip of paper found in a bundle of notes reads: "One might say that Ninette was started through the ability of the C N« R* to recognize a beautiful situation plus the business initiative of James Over end".
It was not exactly the C. N. R , however, that deserved the cre- dit but its predecessor, The Northern Pacific and Manitoba Railway, It was this company that built the line and erected the station house on a plan dated October 1898* Three years later, in 1901, the C. No Ro leased this line but did not keep the old records relating to it and cannot produce information regarding the first station agents here, etc. And to the amazement of many of us it did not buy the line out- right until 1946.
When in 1898 Belmont was made a junction point and the line extended across Lang's Valley and on to Hartney there was great jubilation. Even if it did take the long way around by Morris instead of the shorter Somerset route adopted in 1906, it was wonderful to have it.
To celebrate the event the Ro R. offered free return trips to Winnipeg, an offer accepted by Mrs. Davies with her infant son and Mrs. George Wilkiewith Annie. "I was quite overcome by the mar- vellous bright lights. TT Annie recalls. Bob relates this anecdote. He had often heard his mother say that she was just going to takeoff and go back to Scotland, and, as the train pulled out, he decided she had carried out her threat. "Well, She's gone", he sighed, "but she's left her old boots behind. " In a day when everyone went bare- foot, even men in the fields, and boots were strictly for winter or dress-up this was a serious matter. Turning to his father Bob asked, "Can you use them?" and at his father's negative reply, he added, "Oh well, You'll be able to use the laces anyway. "
There is aquestionas to whether George Over end's blacksmith shop or the James Over end and Son's store was the first place of business here. Mr, Overend, who sold a part of his farm for the railroad right of way and who was already operating store and post- office at his farm home, lost no time in building at the town-site. My vote goes to him.
But it's a certainty that George wasn't far behind his father. Nodoubt it was he who took that first picture of the new -born village photographed from the west hill, for he was Ninette's first amateur photographer and avery good one. "But how few trees there were. "
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All the old-timers wiih whom i talked point' out rhat there weren't so many trees then as now, The newl> cut railroad bed shows promi- nently in the picture and the station house with freight cars on the siding BUT there are no elevators A bit south and east of the sta- tion and standing by itself is a two-storey building that looks like a house iwhich is exactly what it is today 1958* That was the Over- end store. The upper storey was to serve for a time as school and halL When the new red brick store was to be constructed in 1908, this one was pulled to a lot just south of its original position, and the new one built in its place. The building nearest the lake, also look- ing like a house, was the blacksmith shop Its owner, George Over- end, turned out to be quite a man of firsts: the townns first police- man first trouble shooter on the telephone line when it came around 1910 or 1911 and one of the first engineers at the TTSan, "
Three other buildings are showing in this picture of Ninette, fall or winter of 1898o One, no doubt, is the Yellowlees Store, For John, joining in partnership with a Mr, Brown who operated a hard- ware store in Hilton,, opened an establishment in Ninette which would sell hardware, groceries and Iumber0 Wes Hamilton boasts that he made the first purchase in this store - a tin of sardines and a box of biscuits.
Mrs, John Yellowlees, living at the back of their store, was the first lady to reside in the village, and Finley and Stuart the first children
But which is the oldest house ? Apart from the first Overend store which was later converted into a residence, there are two entries for the honor 0 The old Joe Hughes home would seem to be the winner A MIL LOUIS DAVIS, no relation to our pioneer fam- ily, but son-in-law to a Mr* Robinson of either Hilton or Millford (rumor puts him at both locations) is reputed to have built the livery barn and just east of it, where now stands the Lowton lumber yard, THE FIRST HOUSE, A few years later, when J G, Murray bought this livery stable, James Overend became the owner of the house, and in time moved it across the street and sold it to Wes Hamilton^
The other entry is the REID HOUSE. Mr, Reid, handy man and jack of all trades about the village, built a house on the location now occupied by the home of Jack RodwelL When the Daroughs came to town, they bought it and moved it to its present location where, with additions, it is now the residence of Mrs, Mollie Christian*
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PART 11 THE VILLAGE
DECADE ill - 1899-1909 - THE BEGINNING OF ENTERPRISE - THE BUILDERS.
CHAPTER VI
In the early pages of this record mention was made of the pio- neers who so willingly gave of their best to make this community a better place for future generationSc We have our cenotaph in mem- ory of our dead soldiers but where is our memorial to the scores of others -John Yellowlees, James Overend, John Putnam, Fred Dan- gerfield, Cory Clench, Robert C. Scott, and the rest - who gave so liberally of time and effort to establish here the less materialistic things: those educational, religious, and recreationaL To spend an hour now and again leafing over old record books of school, chu- rch, boat Co. and Sport Improvement Committee, - books written in the late eighties or the early nineties - is to drive home the fact that we of today, are not far from the beginning of human endeavor in this place and are indebted to the generation preceding us, some of whom we, as children, once knew.
The PELICAN LAKE SCHOOL, predecessor of the Ninette one, continued to serve the people of the valley until 1900 . Its teachers for the last ten years of the century were: Miss Noot - '91, George Cassell '92, Harry Soffly V93, Lottie McLaren '95 and '96, Alex Tumouth '97 Mr, McPherson V98. J. B, Wallis '91, Miss Turner 1900. Mr, Soffly was killed during World War! period when a farm tractor he was driving upset. J» Bo Wallis became assistant super- intendent of Winnipeg Schools,, and, by the way Hannah Sweet (wife of Rev, Mr, Sweet; became a teacher in Kelvin High School, Winni- peg.
1899 was the really important year, since bynow, that NINETTE had beenborn, thevillagers haddecided to start a school there, Mr, John Yellowlees, now living in town, would withdraw from the Peli- can Lake school district as would Mr. Overend. At a meeting of April 3 1899 the Pelican Lake trustees agreed to have the following area and families taken out of their district in favor of the proposed Ninette one - Dangerfield, Davies, Mackie,, Putnam, A. Houghton, Over end and Stark. Among the maps is to be found a sketch of the area so transferred at this time.
In March the Pelican Lake ratepayers met to choose a new site for their school, which because of the transfer of land, was now located in the new Ninette S D. (Transfer of land to the west of the valley placed the Albion S D in a similar position and that school too had to be moved ».. The Pelican Lake ratepayers had a choice of
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two locations: the S,E, corner of 34-5-16 and the S, W corner of 27-5-16 They chose the latter and Arthur Burnett and Peter Wat- son, with a Case threshing machine, moved the building to its new lo cation where many years later it burned to the ground. SO EXIT PELICAN LAKE S D FROM THIS RECORD:
Meanwhile in October f99 the villagers elected school trustees in the persons of Tom Folliot John Yellowlees, and John H Put- nam, that By-Law No, I for the purpose of raising $ls 000, 00 by de- benture might be passed. This was the estimated amount required to purchase a site and build a school A copy of the BY-Law was submitted to the two municipalities of Riverside and Argyle. (The western half of Argyle didn t become Strathcona until 1907),
THE SCHOOL SITE - With so much land to choose from the matter of obtaining a school site, one would think,, would be an easy one, Not so, First Mr, Overend refused Sec Houghton s off er of $25,00 for the half acre situated on the No E, corner of the No E, quarter of sec 13-5-17 namely the site now owned by Sam Clark and then he refused the same amount for a site just west of the above mentioned and directly opposite Riverside Street, Then in March 1900 Mr Put- nam and Mr Yellow lees were delegated to see Mr, Overend and de- cide on a site, and the school-board asked the Department of Edu- cation for apian fora building 22 by 56 feet Tenders for deliver- ing 4 cords of stone to the school site were called for and at a July meet ing the plans were approved, and the tender of Charles Overend for building was accepted ON CONDITION THAT A SITE COULD BE ARRANGED FOR On September 1 a motion that the contractor be paid $707, 00 for building the schooland $10, 00 for extras was pas- sed and on January 14, 1901 a further offer of $50,00 for releasing the hall was made, so we conclude that -the matter of the site was settled in July of 1900 when building was begun.
After an effort to obtain 50 additional feet to the south of the school site failed in 1906 the ratepayers ANNUAL MEETING OF 1909 accepted Mr, Overend 's offer of 4 lots directly to the west. The grounds had been cleared and were eventually fenced, two out- side privies had been built in 1905 and a flagstaff added by Mr, Tup- line in 1907 By then Ninette school was well launched,
SCHOOL IN OPERATION: Classroom activity was not postponed until a building could be erected. In November of "89 arrangements were made with Mr* Overend for the use of the hall above his store,, quotations of desks, maps, and blackboards were' sought and Mr. Theodore Girling, holder of a 3rd class professional certificate was hired at an annual salary of $420*00, School commenced on January 2, 1900 with 3 5 pupils ranging from grade 1 to grade Sand beginners of 5 years of age in attendance . Who were they?
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Anna and Grace Putnam Mary. Willie and Dan Graham
Ernie and Annie Russell Willie and Eva Dangerfield
Annie and Bob Wilkie Jane, Emma Leslie, Charles, Donald and Malcolm Coleman and Annie Davies
Campbell. Elsie and Mary Stark
Alex, Harry and Sadie Ross Effie and Mary Overend
Elizabeth and Hazel Mackie Victor Monck (Nephew of Bessie Folliot. Mrs» Russell)
Kate Morrison Oliver Lang
Of the old classroom Effie Overend says, "There were no school seats , We sat on chairs and indeed it was an exciting day when we moved into the new school. "
Mr, Girling continued as teacher for 2^ years until Sept. 26, 190 2 . In August 'of 1900 the enrollment was 39 and in January of 1901 it was up to 51* Hereafter it fluctuated between these two fig-
On October 1. 1902 Mr. Girling was replaced by E. Benson Steeler asecond class certificate holder He was to receive $480 0 00 annually but he did not quite complete his year. On May 7, 1903 he in turn was replaced, this time by Mr* Arthur Leighton, a permit teacher , Now the students no longer had a teacher who could play the organ but they did have one who could draw and paint . Perhaps that was just as well as there was no organ in the school except the one in the upstairs halL By now Mr, Putnam and Mr0 Folliot were replaced by George Royleand Fred Dangerfield as TRUSTEES, and a motion to keep the school open for only six months moved and se- conded by George and James Overend had been defeated.
Mr. Leighton, like his predecessor, Mr, Girling, taught for 2^ years, but suddenly on November 9, 1904, he was replaced by Leslie E. Grace, The salary had risen to $600,00 and Mr. Russell had become a trustee, Mr. Grace's stay was short 0 The minutes reveal that at a meeting in May, 1905, a communication from Mrs, R. G. Wilkie was read and Mr, Grace submitted his resignation
Then after summer holidays came a change, NINETTE HAD ITS FIRST LADY TEACHER, in the person of Miss Ethel Johnston. Newnames had by now appeared on the register,, -McElroy, Crans- ton, Richardson, Waterfield, Clench. Hughes, Scott, Young (Vera), Burnett and, in October of 05, Calverley.
The Calverleys had a gift for the new school. At their previous home at Hayfield they had a bell which Charlie had bought with his settler's effects from Ontario . He had rigged this up that his wife might sound it as a signal for meals. After the Calverleys moved to
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Ninette their former neighbors maintained that fora long time they were constantly late for meals as they had for so long depended on that bell. No longer finding a use for it on his farm, Charlie in 1906 donated this bell to the school
With the December entries of 1905 the old register comes to an end. However an entry in the minute book shows that Miss Johnston was re-engaged in June of 1906. Unfortunately the registers for the period immediately following seem to have been lost and the only in- formation obtainable is culled from the minute book We note that on December 2 1907 Mr Buchanan resigned "Buck" as his friends called him became a doctor and lived a life-time of service, in Delo- raine where he is still district coroner, Effie Overend met Miss Johnston in the home of Eva Dangerfield Fawcett in V57 and reports that she is still the quiet sweet smiling lady her former pupils re- member
Before turning from teachers and their affairs, it is interesting to note that Mr Girling attended Teachers convention in Baldur as early as October 1900 and in Killarney in May 1901 but in 1902 Mr, Benson attended in Brandon, In 1904 the school was closed on two occasions namely January 29 and March 25 for severe bliz- zards. We note too that in 1904 the teacher had a day off for the general election but then he didn tget the four days following Easter that our teachers today get,
GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE -
During its first few years Ninette grew very slowly. But it did grow
One night in '99 Wes Hamilton said to George Overend, "You know I'd like to quit the farm and open a butcher shop here, "
"Why don't you?", asked George,
"I haven't a lot and since the old man has his own butcher busi- ness, I'm sure he wouldn't sell me one, " Wes replied.
"Then I will", offered George, So the deal was made. "But there'sno harm masking the old man, "George called as Wes wal- ked off. So Wes went to Mr, Overend and asked for a lot and when Mr, Overend learned what he wanted it for he said, "111 sell you a lot and the butcher business too", George cancelled his deal for lots and Wes turned his thoughts to getting himself started. He lacked cash, so he took six of Mr, Over end' Seattle beasts on time. On the lot he purchased for a hundred dollars hebuilt the house he still lives in and then he bought from Mr. Overend the little lean-to butcher building which stood on the south of the store, and transferred it to
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his property. When the first beast was killed in 1899 Wes was in business
Then there was the elevator built by the Winnipeg Elevator Com- pany in '99, In 1904 when it was sold to the Canadian Elevator Com- pany Wes became its elevator man and Joe Hughes the town butcher. Mr. Overend, on acquiring the Davis house, had moved it to the lot just south of Wes Hamilton^ This. Wes quietly bought So now he was ready to rent both butcher business and a house to Joe Hughes. Before too long, Joe owned them.
Two years after Wes took charge of the Canadian elevator, he found it necessary to take his.niece to the hospital in Winnipeg. He therefore by permission of the company, left his nephew in charge- Not knowing much about stoves, the lad overheated the one in the elevator with the result that the building burned down. Wes didn't hear of this until on. the evening afterward he went to call on his Winnipeg boss, "When do you figure on going home ?n the boss asked.
"Not until the day after tomorrow, tr Wes replied.
"Well you needn't hurry yourself, "the boss continued, "You've nothing to go for. Your elevator burned to the ground last night. "
John Yellowlees had wired in the news. George Overend got some good pictures of that fire but the spot east of the station house looked pretty empty until the company rebuilt- Wes served as its grain buyer for fifteen years. By 1919 when he left, business was petering out and in 1923 the elevator was taken down and moved to Fair f ax ,
This was not. however, the only elevator in the town, THE NORTHERN ELEVATOR COMPANY built in 1905 or 1906. It was eventually taken over by THE POOL ELEVATOR GO. and under them it still serves the community as its sole elevator ,
THE CRAWFORDS ARRIVE - Almost at once new faces were seen in the wee town, MISS OLIVE- GERTRUDE CRAWFORD from Oro
Station, a few miles south of Orillia, arrived at the home of her aunt, Mr So James Overend, early in the summer of '98. For a time she worked for Mrs. Bob Parkes but, when winter cjame, she found em- ployment in her uncle's store and resided at his farm home. All of them; Mr, Overend, Charlie, and Gertie trudged the mile north each day for their noon meal and thought nothing of it. Alas ! Mr , Overend soon lost his helper. For out to the Daroughs there came a nephew, Neill Phillips, and in the spring of '99 he and Gertie married and moved onto a rented farm near Oak Creek. The only daughter, Pearl, has a picture of the wedding party standing in front of the Overend
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home
A short time after Gertie had arrived in Ninette along came her brothers JOHN and JOE. At first John worked for Fred Danger field but soon he and Joe bought; the livery barn and erected a batch shack between it and the east corner lot
A cousin of these young folk BELLA CRAWFORD, also of Oro Station next arrived to replace Gertie in their uncle s store. Wes Hamilton remembers that Bella boarded with them and Mary Stark recalls that Bella was her Sunday-School teacher, Bella unlike most of the young ladies, who came, returned unmarried to Oro Sta- tion
Then LIZZIE OVEREND, niece of James came from Medonte, rural area of Orillia, to the Ninette district. Her cousin, Charlie Calverley visiting here from Hayfield, met her at Killarney and took her to the home of yet an other cousin, Mrs. JohnGarbutt Here she worked for a time and then she became Mrs, Overend s nright hand man " Later she married John Crawford, Indeed Ninette was beginning to look like a second Orillia,
But this situation was altered by the arrival from the surround- ing districts of some of the pioneer farmers. The BELL home (pre- sent Garabed residences was built by 1903 and was considered for some time the finest in town. The grey -brick structure stood in the midst of the best kept and most beautifully treed grounds and the old Grandfather clock inside set the place as a thing apart. But that first winter in town was the last for Mr, James Bell, Wes recalls that when Archie was up night and day with his father, a group of fellows went to help out by cutting the wood in the yard for him, Wes stepped on a rusty nail and Dr, Edmison was called. nCarbolicin the wound and whiskey in the stomach was his prescription" says Wes Mr Bell died in February 1904 and was interred in the Dunrea Protestant cemetry.
As the town plasterer and bricklayer Archie worked in 1908 on the new Overend store and on the Crawford house. It is probable that the same year he did the brick work on the COULTHARD store as well. Since, at this time, there was a brick kiln at Wawanesa, most of the buildings were constructed of its red brick. In 1910 Archie was bricklayer for the Calverley and the Monk houses as he was for the Robertson and Coadones earlier. These four residences were located on Grove Street. Then in 1910 Archie did plastering at the Sanatorium,
But for years there had been a rough-edged tooth which Archie had neglected It kept the tongue constantly irritated and in the early
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twenties a cancer developed in this area At this point his nieces from Vernon came to the aid of their uncle and Aunt Teena, They were both teachers and had saved their money for a trip Overseas, Instead they used it to care for their dying uncle to take to Vernon his aged sister when he died in 1925 and then to care for her until her death in 31, and to send to Ninette her remains for interment; These two wonderful women, JEAN and BESSIE, have by now also passed on. Since the older Bells and John Yellow lees had been most intimate, it was not surprising that Finley was always a tower of strength and right -hand man to the Bell nieces during their sojorn here and afterward.
The building which is now THE MAXWELL BAKESHOP must have come into existance by 1903 or 1904 as Joe Crawford who died of typhoid in 1904 was cared for in the upstairs of that place during his illness, since the batch shack east of the livery barn was not suitable.
The reference to the Crawford livery barn reminds us that a se- cond one soon sprang into existance, Oscar Spackman built one be- tween the present Davreux garage and the Coulthard store for Mr. Tupling who operated it until 1910.
We are indebted to the only surviving son, Sydney Hughes of 4022 West 30th Ave, , Vancouver 8, for the following interesting record of the Hughes family.
They were English, Mr, Joe Hughes one of seven sons who all became London butchers em ploy ing eight or ten men in each estab- lishment, was born in Cheltnam Somersetshire,
Sydney rs mother, nee Miss Frances Diggins, was the second wife of Mr, Hughes . Of his four children by his first wife only the eldest, Mr. Edward Hughes, who lived for a period around 1905 in Ninette, ever came to Canada, Old-timers will recall that the "Ted" Hughes family, later of Winnipeg, and the John Crawfords were in- timate over the years,
Sydney recalls that his family lived at 108 Golborn Road, Lon- don, England, Here he, Ettie, and Stuart were born. Only Freddie and Rose were born in Canada,
One of the questions that looms large in the mind in considering the lives of the pioneers is "Why did they come to this place?" The answer in the case of Mr, Hughes is very much to the point, "I was bankrupt and in England in those days when a man was bankrupt there was no coming back, "
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The Hughes family had been of the enviable well-to-do folk be- fore the calamity befell them, Sydney remembers the lovely fur- niture of their "drawing room" and notes that his mother, with two servants didn't do any housework herself But when Mr, Hughes backed the note of a friend and found himself bankrupt as a result this was all abruptly changed ,
April of 1903 found the Hughes family on the Steamship "Lake Champlain" of the Elder -Dempster Line travelling second class to Canada, That is all except Sydney and his father were travelling se- cond clasSo To economize they booked third. But although the spirit was willing the flesh was weak* Beaten by the stench they paid the purser extra to allow them to sit at the second class dining table with the rest of the familyo Deck and lounge stewards were bribed, Sydney and his father mingled with the other s.;onthe second class deck and slept on the cushions in the second class smoking lounge from midnight after the late card players retired until 4 or 5 am. when the deck stewards began early washing down of the decks *
On arrival at St, John, New Brunswick the family spent a night in the immigration hall, Fire on the dock increased the anxiety al- ready felt Luckily their luggage was saved o
Oh yes, they had luggage Relatives of Mrs, Hughes had pre- sented each with a brand new outfit of clothing, consisting of both work and dress clothes; a trunk and one thousand dollars in cash.
Somehow Sydney and his father became separated from the others and the family arrived in Montreal in two separate parties* Once reunited they continued their journey to Winnipeg where a further sojourn in an immigration hall was experienced, Day after day Mr, Hughes tried to secure employment at his trade but it seemed that no one would hire a man over sixty.
The black cloud was there alright but was there ever to be a sil- ver lining? At last it came in the per son of Fred Dangerfield seek- ing farm help. So on to the Danger fie Ids r.
At the Dangerfield breakfast table that first morning Stuart com- plained that he could not eat his egg with the same spoon with which he had eaten his porridge. Mrs, Dangerfield remarked that he would just have to get used to it. What a lot of getting used to there was to be !
While Mr, Hughes worked for theDangerfields, Sydney was em- ployed by Charlie Cullen for $5, 00 a month. Then came the autumn of that memorable 1903 when the Hughes family moved into a home of their own. They rented the Davis house which at that timebelong-
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ed to Mr Overend, That was before it was moved. Just north of rhem was the Ross boarding house and on the corner to the south where Harry Lowton's lumber office now stands was an implement office During the winter of 03-04 Mr, Hughes cut cordwood into stove lengths He found this hard work and perspired profusely He said the winter was so cold that his watch froze Meanwhile Sydney was working for his board on the farm of Mr. James Over end.
The following spring Mr, Over end moved the house across the street to its present location (Millar home) and Mr, Hughes acquired the butcher business from Wes Hamilton, What remained of the thou- sand dollars donated by the English relatives went into the business and the purchase of the first team of horses, Fred Dangerfield sold Joe his first cattle beasto
Many are the tales told about Joe Hughes and we all swear to their veracity. If a customer asked for three pounds of meat, Joe always cut at least five, if he asked for four he got six We soon learned to make our requests accordingly And some say the knife was always weighed with the meat and was surely worth its weight in gold, but others maintain it was the thumb .
Mr, Hughes, as did his predecessor and his successor, always rode about the country buying cattle, for in those days the butcher "killed" Mr, Hughes and Wes Hamilton often went together buying cattle to be shipped by the carload to Winnipegc Mr, Hughes was a good buyer that is a good judge of cattle on the hoof If a farmer asked more than he considered the beast to be worth he would say, "Now just bring the beast into Ninette and I will give you the same price that you would get for \t in Winnipeg and $2 00 for bring- ing it in" invariably the price paid would be less than that asked in the first place.
Those were the days when liver was free or at most five cents a pound. The butcher made many friends as he stopped at some farm house or other for a meaL Wes tells that once he went before breakfast to buy a beast from ChaSo Calverley, He offered fifty dol- lars* "111 sell", said Chas, trNo argument today, I'm happy, I
just got me a new dishwasher last night" The dishwasher was Edna K "Teddy " to many of you > born the night before. So the butcher shared his customers joys and sorrows.
During the winter of 1904 Mr, Hughes drove Rev Mr, Johnston around ihe country getting donations for the building of the Anglican church A plaque in the Anglican church bears testimony to his faithful discharge of his church duties as warden over the years Mrso Hughes too served well. For yearns she was church organist and Sunday school teacher. Shortly after her death in 1930 a motion
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to add a plaque in her memory was not carried out only because funds were not available, We wonder if the name St, Michael's and All Angels' wasn t bestowed on the Ninette Anglican church because that was the name of the church in Ladbrook Grove Road, London where the Hughes had for so many years worshipped,
As in other parts tragedy struck often in those bygone days, and perhaps because pioneers were of necessity so dependent on one an- other, it seemed to have caused more wide-spread grief and evi- dences of sympathy than do similar events today . Tragedy came to the Hughes home in the summer of 1904 when their son? Stuart, was killedo Now fifty some years after, memory may not recall the event too accurately; At any rate one week-end Stuart a lad of eight, and Evans Cameronn the minister's son, went gopher shooting. Mr; and Mrs, Hughes were both working away from home but at different places and each when he or she returned thought Stuart was with the other one. Consequently no immediate concern was felt. At last realizing that Stuart was missing, they went to their nearest neigh- bor Wes Hamilton for help. The alarm was sounded and a search begun. Will Scou residing at 3993 West 31 Avenue, Vancouver 8, says that Stuart was missed on Friday evening and his body found Sunday afternoon, He says he distinctly recalls hearing that Stuart was found as he was coming out of Sunday School, Wes Hamilton, at ninety o thinks it was as follows: Stuart was missed on Saturday evening. The search party got underway that night* All through the dreadfully hot Sunday the search continued, Sunday night it rained, Monday morning a wire was dispatched to Dunrea asking for help. That morning Bill Ross took the left hand side of the railway track going west and Wes the right hand side, Wes found the body before the train arrived A cartridge had stuck in the gun, Stuart had re- moved it and, in trying to replace it, had turned the gun upside down and hit it on the ground, It had exploded directly in Stuart's face.
Shortly afterward Joe Crawford died of typhoid fever* Some people were prone to relate his decease to his part in the search* - he carried the body in. But others more sensibly maintained that he contracted the disease from the drinking water where he had been working.
To add to the distress of this period for the Hughes, Sydney was in the Winnipeg General Hospital at the time* He was being treated for a cut to the eye suffered when stretching barbed wire on Mr, Overendfs farm. He was three months in hospital and knew nothing of Stuart's death until his return home in September . Sorrow again came to the Hughes home in 1905 when their year and a half old Freddie died of Diptheria, And again at that time Sydney was in hospital being treated for his eye injury.
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Miss Nellie Diggins, sister of Mrs. Hughes arrived in Ninette in 1909 When three years later she became the second wife of Cap- tain Burneti:,. she created a sort of family relationship between Mr, Hughes and his long time employee, Mr, Fred Pindar son-in-law of Mr Burnett... It was Mr Pindar who made the daily deliveries of meat to the Sanatorium in the days before the San bought directly from Winnipeg
Sydney thanks us for the opportunity to write of his parents and tell of their wonderful comeback. We thank him fora fine contribu- tion., Does it not make us realize once again how little we knew or cared about the courageous endeavors of those we took so much for granted ?
When we speak of Hamilton and Ross searching together, we are reminded of another and more personal tragedy they shared to- gether years later, By now Mr. Hughes had bought both his home and butcher business from Mr Hamilton and Wes had moved his family to Brandon, his headquarters for working on the railway . Alex Ross, also working on the roadc was on the Winnipeg to Kipling line. One morning Wes rode Alex's engine with him as far as Algier where Wes was to begin work on his own train., That night, shortly after returning home, Wes was informed that Alex had been killed and that the brother, Harry,, was looking for him to go after the body. Of course Wes accompanied Harry. Alex, now 31 had been em- ployed on that railroad from the age of 16,
THE SCOTT residence rose in 1904. Together with Mr, John Richardson, Mr* Scott made the cement block of which it was con- structed. In 1908 he did likewise for the Presbyterian church and also for the Miss Gilbert house. Just east of his own house Mr* Scott constructed a crusher which he soon sold to GEORGE ROYLE. After Mr Royle died at the home of Georgie Qlaves, this building was moved to the farm now owned by Milt Worden where it is still used as a barn. Recently Melville McElroy moved a house into town and located it on the spot where the crusher once stood. The Scotts were a fine addition to the town. Mrs. Scott played the organ in the Presbyterian church and gave music lessons to some of the young people
In 1905 THE CALVERLEYS bought the James Over end farm and in October moved onto it, In preparation for this move Mr, Overend and his son, Charlie, built the large home complete with balconies which the Arnolds finally acquired, The house for several years stood in stately solitude facing the track. With the moving of the Overends into town and the building of the OVEREND HALL the same year, the construction tempo speeded up. In that year of 1905 the CHRISTIE HOTEL was begun and in 1906 it was open for business.
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The bar attracted many customers but even so the place frequently changed hands. Then came local option and for a time the hotel was closed At length both Cook and Cox had a cry at running it and there were many others. But none were successfuL The barn-like place was always cold sometimes the food was poor, sometimes it was a bootlegging joint but always the commercial travellers avoided it if possible. So it wasn't with any regret that the townsfolk saw it torn down and rebuilt by the Pentecostals at Manhattan Beach What they did regret was the empty lot being such anceyesore This con- dition was only remedied when the Legion bought the Overend HalL moved it onto the lot and converted it into the fine hall the community enjoys today „
Of course there was another place for the travellers to stay* By 1900 the ROSS BOARDING HOUSE was here. Before the days of au- tomobiles the Commercial Travellers arrived by train and stayed all night, A traveller would require a display room where he could lay out his samples for the storekeepers inspection The big square house just across the street from the Hamiltons provided just such accommodation,, and allowed the Rosses and the Hamiltons to con= tinue the friendship established when they were on their farms , In no time at all Sadie and Ettie Hughes were bosom friends as welL
THE BURNETTS moved to town in 1907, Their white 'frame house away up in the bush on Grove Street a whole block from the school seemed quite isolated. From here each day Frances and Enid Hough'con emerged to attend schooL Their very English accent sound- ed indeed strange to the children of Ontario parents,
A second town picture portrays the village of 1907 as seen from the west hilL By that time there wqre lots of trees. Just left of the newly built Anglican Church and a bit beyond it9 appearing most pro- minently is the Overend HalL One can distinguish two houses run- ning west from the livery barn. One, the present Mac Woods house, was the first «L G, Murray built in the village and the other, the Chas, Stinton house, the one he built to live in when he sold the first one. One sees the school and the Bell house but there is no Davreux house nor Presbyterian church* There is, however, the little Dea- con place o
1908 - THE BIG BUILDING YEAR
When James Overend in 1908 moved his frame store one lot to the south and replaced it with the fine red brick structure we are so familiar with, main street took on a more imposing appearance.
That year WILLIAM COULTHARD erected his two storey red brick store also but he did not live long to enjoy his new venture.
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Pneumonia claimed him as a victim inl9090 Vic arrived to help his brother's widow. However both were greatly relieved when Harry Lees who had been clerking in the Yellowlees store, offered to buy the Coulthard establishment* For three summers Vic stayed on with Harry Lees*
From the time Harry Lees sold that place until the present the store has constantly changed hands. Now as a cafe it does not repre- sent stable business enterprise in our minds.
It is said that a visitor to St. Paul's, London, may find this in- scription referring to Sir Christopher Wren: "If you wish to see my memorial, look about you".
Similarly one might say of Archie Bell that his memorial is to be found in the brick buildings of the district. Just look at the brick houses on Grove St. There stand the one-time homes of the Calver- leys, the Crawfords, the Robertsons, the Goads, and the Monks - the brickwork of which was done by Archie.
The first of these to be constructed was the Crawford house built the same year that Miss Gilbert's cement block one came into exis- tence. When John Crawford and Lizzie Over end were married in 1906 they lived for a time with Teena and Archie Bell. Then they moved to the small Overend cottage now owned by Orval Bullock. Here the eldest daughter was issued into the world by the local prac- titioner of Midwifery, Mrs. Stark. In honor of her mother's recent hostess, the baby had the name, Christina, along with the Calla, be- stowed on her. Calla, then was a member of the family when the Crawfords moved into their ,fine home on Grove St. in 1908. But May, Harry, and George were all to arrive after the brick house was home.
The Robertsons came to Ninette from the Margaret district. Then Miss Annie Coad of the Alcester district came along to clean the new house next door in preparation for its occupancy by her par- ents, her niece, Ethel Shipley, and herself. Since the Coads and the Starkswere related these cleaning days were ended by a visit in the Stark domicile.
In the spring of 1910, just when the Coads were moving in, the Calverleyand Monk houses were begiuu. These were occupied before the winter of 1911-1912.
Miss Gilbert, who came from England to visit her sister, Annie Scott, decided to build in the yard of her relatives. Everyone, young and old, liked Miss Gilbert. Her many kindnesses were remembered long after her return to life in England in 1916.
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Some time before 1909 the following houses had been erected the Davreux home occupied by the Fancy family (Mrs, Fancy and Mrs Richardson, who lived in the present Mac Woods house were sisters the Ed Chester house across the track now the home of Alex MacDonald; and the Yellowlees residence on the lot where the home of John Paskewitz now stand s.
MR. JOHN YELLOWLEES entered into all the enterprises of the community He was trustee of the Pelican Lake School district and in time sec-treasurer of the Ninette one He was official in the Presbyterian church and chairman of the first general meeting of the Sports Improvement Committee* When the San , site was purchased it was John Yellowlees who donated a bit of his valley farm for a San, garden. And when school opened after summer holidays and the chil- dren flocked to his store to buy scribblers, pencils and candy, it was John Yellowlees who asked, "Well, how do you like your new teacher?" In fact he was regarded by many as Ninette's most public minded citizen and it was with sincere regret that his associates here saw him leave to make his home in Vancouver , and with real grief that they learned of his death in London and interment in the cemetry of Galashiels, Scotland in Sept, '26, when he had gone home only for a visit, His wife's body had been brought back to Ninette for buriel when she died of cancer in 1925. Finleyably followed in^is father's footsteps and his passing was even more mourned when he died in 1951 at the age of 56,
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CHAPTER VII
After the school the first organization to be established was THE SPORT'S IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE, Its original minute book still extant, a tartan covered scribbler -like affair written in pencil shows the first General Meeting of May 28, 1906 as having the following members present:
Jo Yellowlees. chairman C. Overend
J. W. Hamilton J. Quiding
S. H. Lees D. Christie
J, E. Crawford
The chairman reported an interview with Mr* Overend. He had agreed that he would rent them his pasture field for a term of ten years for the payment of $20. 00 per year and the granting to Mr, Overend of the right to pasture one cow and to maintain the one and only booth. Before the lease was drawn up, the terms were changed. The committee was to pay $30 . 00 and be allowed to put in one extra booth. Yellowlees, Christie and Hughes were appointed committee of management for one year. Minutes are recorded in the little tar- tan covered book up to May 26, 191 1.
HALL AND HAMILTON BOAT COMPANY
This was another organization begun in 1906., In that year Wes Hamilton having returned to Ninette joined with Dick Hall, another CoN.R. man. in organizing a boat company* Then began the gay and bustling summer days when long excursion trains from Brandon and all points along the line were the rule and not the exception. Sometimes as many as three such trains sat on our siding for a whole summer's day»
Down to the beach, in front of what are now the Thiessen cot- tages, hurried the crowds . There were the picnic tables, the swings, the food booth where Tilly Cullen often sold those delectable pies, and the dance pavilion.
And there were the boats,, at the two wharfs or in the boat -house. Boats! Boats! everywhere0 The Hall-Hamilton Co» had three laun- ches: The MONARCH, a sixty foot double-decker, and the HAWK and the ALEXANDER, two forty foot gasoline launches Many were the picnic parties that chartered these boats, Mr, James Overend chartered the one that took the villagers on their first trip to the other end of the lake. He paid Wes ten dollars for this trip Mary Stark 's picture of Mr, Overend ?s guests on that occasion shows:
Mr, and Mrso John Yellowlees Mr0 and Mrs. Tupling and one child
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Pearl Phillips, Mr, and Mrs. Wes Hamilton, Charlie Bennett Teena BelL Mrs Christie and Romeo, Mr, and Mrs. Richardson Mr and Mrs Bob Scott Mr. and Mrs. Stark, Elsie, Mary Jessie and Marguerite Stark „
There were, of course always row boats and canoes tied up at the wharf s ready for rent but the more steady business was provided by the scheduled trips to the old Hudson's Bay Point (Manhattan >, The Y. Point, Balmy Beach and Fairhaven, all of which were cram- med with camper So Both passenger sand mail and supplies were de- livered.
In 1916OrvalCalverley removed the Monarch from the lake and it was sent to Winnipeg where it ran on the Red River for one sum- mer then went to Red Lake as a freighter for the gold mines. The other launches and the boats and canoes were taken to Winnipeg where Mra Hall and another R. R. man started a boat business on the Red River o When Mr. HalPs son was killed in an explosion on one of the launches, he sold out to his partner . AND thus ended THE HAM- ILTON-HALL BOAT COMPANY.
OUR PIONEER ANGLICAN MINISTER - REV. WALTER JOHNSON.
Just a hundred years ago, in Perth County, Ontario, there was born one June day, a boy who was destined to spend long and, arduous years in the service of his Master in pioneering far-off Manitoba. That boy was Walter Robert Johnson.
But, during the period that he attended school and church in Mitchell, Ontario, there was, no vision or presentiment of those broad and wide horizons that were soon to meet his inquiring gaze. Little did he dream that his apprenticeship in the local drug store was to result in his being sent in 1881, to Emerson, Manitoba to work in a second of his employer's stores; nor did he anticipate that his faithful service as Sunday School teacher or as Lay Reader and Catecist in. the Mitchell Anglican Church, a post for which he was licensed in 1880, would eventually lead to ordination for service in the far west.
At Emerson, Mr. Johnson rubbed shoulders with many home- steaders and caught something of their enthusiasm. In the early part of March, 1881, therefore, he set out on a quest fora quarter section for himself. Proceeding by way of Winnipeg and Portage, the young lad came to the little town of Brandon which had had its beginning the summer before. In a letter written to the Mitchell newspaper and headed - LANGVALE, JUNE 20? 1882 - VIVID DESCRIPTION OF MANITOBA, he writes, "The station platform I saw that day was constructed of native earth and strewn everywhere with boxes, trunks,
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wagons, furniture, and even oxen and cows tethered thereabouts, The whole town was a place of tents and half finished buildings: bus- tle and confusion the prevailing element . u
Journeying south by a trail intermediate to the PLUM CREEK TRAIL on the west, and THE SOURIS CITY TRAIL on the east, our young homesteader finally arrived at Alcester where Mr. and Mrs, Olver with their two daughters were already located on 2-5 -19 . Per- haps it wasn't just chance that brought Walter Johnson to this spot, for Sarah Olver had been one of his school-mates in MitchelL Ont. and who is to say that she was not the lodestonethat drew him to that place? For on January 1, 1885, these two were married by a Rev, Charles Wood* It was this Miss Olver, who, having taught briefly in Ontario, had been; persuaded by the Albion School Board to teach for them, so, for the first eight months of her married life. Mrs* Johnson carried on her school duties.
By 1885 the Johnson homestead duties were completed and the farm was their s. Now a new project loomed on the horizon, for these years had been filled with more than homesteading. First Walter had conducted, in fear and trembling, it is true, Sunday Ser- vices for his brothers, his in-laws, and his neighbors. Gaining con- fidence, he went farther afield . The records of Holy Trinity Parish, Killarney, make mention of his having held services for that con- gregation occasionally during 1884, and extant letters refer toother engagements. There is the one from Mr, Jas. Sharpe of Wakopa, dated 16-3--85, apparently a reply to an inquiry of Mr. Johnson with regard to the recommencement of services at that place, stating that they would be pleased to consider the proposal. And there is another which refers to a cash presentation made to Mr, Johnson on Octobei 4, ?85 at the conclusion of his season's farewell service at Maple Grove, Probably this represents the total remuneration for his years' efforts on their behalf. And sos in the fall of 1885, the John- son family were moving east that he might attend Wycliffe College, and properly equip himself for what now seemed to be his real cal- ling. The next fall, when Mr. Johnson was again preparing for de- parture for college, different arrangements were made for his wife, as there was now Baby Winnifred (in after years Mrs. Brockie of Brandon) to consider . In time college studies were completed and Mr. Johnson was an ordained minister of the Gospel. In 1889 he was ordained DEACON and the following day licensed as CURATE under the guidance and direction of Rev. Chas. Wood incumbent of St. Matthews, Boissevain. The ceremony was performed by Bishop Machray, Later he was ordained PRIEST in a ceremony in Christ Church in WINNIPEG, and at this time designated en cumbent of Holy Trinity Church, Killarney. But it is not of his years of service then and after that this record is concerned. Rather it is of his MISSION- ARY efforts between the years 1882 and 1889.
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The story of his work during the first years is to be found in Mr, Johnson 'sown handwriting in an article entitled MY MISSION WORK - SUMMER OF 1886, It begins MAs some of you know my mission last summer was in the Division Of Rupert's Land about two hun- dred miles from Winnipeg on the South -We stern R, R, , and 35 miles directly south of Brandon, My field comprised an area of 5 ranges and 35 townships u. And Mr. Johnson slyly added, "This extended west as far as the Rocky Mountains, if I chose to go as far, " His fie Id contained 6 stations. Let us, in imagination accompany him on his Sabbath rounds.
Weshallset out, of course, from Alcester, centre of Mr* John- son^ field, although, as he says, it is? most unfortunately, a very one -sided centr e. As our first destination is to be MAPLE GROVE, some 15 or 20 miles to the south where service is to begin at 10: 00 a. m. , we must be off well before eight. It is early spring and the trail will undoubtedly be muddy. But the day, itself is a delightful one and we enjoy hearing of Mr, Johnson's work as we jolt along in the little buggy . The Maple Grove appointment was named from the surrounding farms occupied mostly by Episcopalians who hailed from Huron and Middle sex counties, OntariOo There is always a good at- tendance at service, forty or more. Just when we think we can't possibly take one more bump from those gopher holes, we arrive at the little school. Someone has just finished lighting the fire in the stove which is smoking and it is cold inside but Mr. Johnson must begin. In spite of the lack of a musical instrument; the singing is enjoyed by all and the service is entered into most heartily.
After a hurried dinner at a neighboring farm-house we are off again, now bound for Wakopa, a good ten miles or more to the south. This small village, situated on the old Commission Trail five miles from the U, S, A, boundary well deserves its Indian name for through its location there passed, at the time of the North -West Rebellion hordes of ha Ifb reeds bound for the battlegrounds of their kind and, as they passed, the inhabitants suffered greatly through fear of them, (Wakopa by the way is said to mean running water). But we were destined not to see this historic spot, for the mud has made the trail absolutely impassable, so, after much fruitless endeavor to plough through it, we turn back and leave the 25 or so possible worshippers to their disappointment,
But the day's duties are not finished for our host. Finally back at Alcester he cleans off most of the mud, drinks a hasty cup of tea, and sets out for the final service of the day which will be held in the home of aneighbor, This time we walk and arrive punctually for the six o'clock service. We are introduced to our host's relatives be- fore the service begins. There is his older brother, Mr, Jim John- son who is, at a later day, to become member of the Dominion legis-
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lature, and Mrs, Goad. Mr, Johnson's sister, who did not arrive with her husband until 1888 because she would not leave an ailing mother. Then there is Mrs* Jim Johnson, who is sister to Mrs, Walter Johnson Mr. Walter Johnson, many years after the pio- neer days were over, said to his niece Miss Coad that in his more mature years he wonders at his youthful audacity in pointing out their religious obligation to these, the older members of his family,
The service at this place is brightened by the use of an organ, and since no other denominational worker is in the area, all the set- tlers are here and joining heartily in the service. As our host later points out there is, at Alcester, not only outward conformity- which some long for -but also, what he thinks is much better, a true spiri- tual union and a whole -hearted purpose to advance the Master's King- dom. In proof he adds that the teacher of the Sunday School Bible class is a good Presbyterian,
When over a late supper, we refer to the difficulties of the day, we learn that such is the usual lot of our host, and, weary as he may be, he entertains us with tales of some of his experiences. Not be- ing able to reach an appointment is a comparatively common occur- rence, and, sometimes when he does arrive through cold and storm, it is only to find no congregation to greet him. Water and storm are the worst enemieso Once the water was sodeep that it came into the buggy and wet his bag. On another occasion his Bible became so wet that, on his arrival, he laid it on the stove to dry and slightly shrivelled the leather cover of what in future was to be regarded as one of his family's prize possessions.
One could have chosen the alternate Sunday when Mr. Johnson preached at Boissevain, which, he said, was not in existance on January 1, f86 and yet had 28 places of business by April 1 of that year. Service was conducted in a C. P. R. coach, for at the time, ttiis was the end of the rail, and a coach was available, which the church was not, since the only one, the Methodist, was in use at that hour, and there was no school-house in the town. At any rate ser- vices were he Id somewhat irregularly at this point and the attendance was small, averaging 25. A union Sunday School, however, was thriving.
Killarney, the one-year old "sportsman rs paradise and invalids' resort", had three hotels, a half dozen stores, a blacksmith shop, a school -house but no church. Yet at Mr. Johnson's initial service in May of 1891 it had a church, a full choir, an organ and an average attendance of 50, so quickly did the pioneer town progress. By then the temperance people were petitioning for prohibition in this place but, being in the minority, had to settle forminors? Temperance and Debating Society. But this was in 1891 and we arediscussing 1886.
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After his 10 o'clock service in Boissevain 2:30 one at Code's residence west of the present Minto and then 6: 30 one in Killarney. Mro Johnson would set out on that long drive home There would be plenty of time for reflection and he might well ponder the matter of how very much on his own, without direction or help from the church office he was, and had been from 1882 until that moment. Truly his was the life of a pioneer clergy man „ unselfishly devoted to his fellow men
Of Revo Walter Johnson's succeeding years this report can make but the briefest mention. From 1895 to 1900 he served in Sto An- drew's in the Red River Valley, then he was back to Killarney until 1918 when he came to Ninette* In -22 he moved to East Kildonanand there resided and served in various positions until the year before his death which occurred in May 1949. MrSo Johnson predecessed him by seven years, passing to higher service on February 18, 1942*
One who once lived with the Johnsons said that if anyone came to their house seeking council or comfort all other matters were set aside as if of no consequence and only the seeker ?s concern was given any recognition* There was always plenty of time for those in need. Perhaps that is why the home of the beautiful, talented, and kindly mother and daughters, and the kindly sympathetic father with his es- pecially human touch was such a pleasant one to visit*
The surviving family, Mabel, Gladys, Kathleen and Barnie are truly justified in treasuring with pride the memories of their self- sacrificing and much beloved parents .
ST. MICHAEL'S AND ALL ANGELS'
"Down through the years the little Anglican church has been a landmark in Ninette, its spire pointing Heavenward like a monitory finger.
The years have taken their toll of the parishioners, who have moved away or gone to higher service . Of the original members of the parish there remain only Mr. and Mrs* Oscar Spackman who
celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary on the 24th of May of this year*
We lost one of the original parishioners in July of this year in the person of Mr= John Crawford who died suddenly at the age of 79. He had assisted in the building of the church, and it had been hoped that his memories of the early days of the parish would be put to use on this occasion* Our loss was double for his wife had predeceased him by a little over a year* Mrs* Crawford died in May of 1955.
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From these and other of their fellow parishioners, who had the vision to raise a house for the worship of God in this community, we have inherited an example of service to God and His church, which should inspire us to many more years of witness and service to our faith".
Thus reads the church's fiftieth Anniversary folder of August 19, 1956,
The Parish of St. Michael's and All Angels' was formed on the 23rd of November, 1904, when the Archbishop of Rupert s Land af- fixed his seal to a deed which formed a parish composed of the west half of township 5-16 and the east half of township 5-17, The deed was signed, "Samuel Po Mailing. Administrator" in what he pro- claimed to be "the second year of our Consecration" since Rev. R. H, L, Girling had been conducting services in the village school house in 1903.
The Anglicans of course meant to build some day but the inci- dent of their harvest festival display being covered over speeded up the project, Mr* James Overend donated a site and Mrs, Lowe Sen- ior collected donations for the building fund. "But. " says her grand- daughter, "she would not collect from the local pub-keeper".
In 1905, Charles Overend. whose tender for $1 225. had been accepted, began work on the church building.
There had been some difficulty in connection with getting a plan, Mrs. Lowe, who had considerable artistic ability, had promised to submit one. Apparently she drew a set modelled on her old church in Cobourgo And in the church minutes for the period we find a mo- tion commissioning warden Joe Hughes to call on Mrs, Lowe in or- der to obtain these plans* But something must have gone wrong, for elsewhere in the minutes there is mention of accepting the church offices design 1289 as per design 1248, And evidently for these Rev, Mr, Girling was to furnish plans . A still later entry indicates that his submission was to be accepted on condition that the vestry be removed and a dormer window substituted.
Then George Overend got busy on the foundation for which Billy Hunt hauled the stones, Mr Hunter tells that when, after many years, some repair work was being done on the foundation, he was asked to lend a hand in moving a large stone. When he remarked upon its weight he was told that originally George Overend had, with- out difficulty, lifted and placed that stone into position single-handed. Many different people worked on the building, John Crawford, for example, did some of the carpentry work. Since Anglican churches are usually built with buttresses and this one was not, the builders
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got into difficulty, It seemed that the little frame church would iust never be completed, But finished it was and in 1906 the first ser vice was held in it and it was the fiftieth anniversary of this service that was celebrated on August 16, 1956.
The church "s "Record of Servicesfr Book makes most interesting reading. The first entry found in it was made by Rev* Walter R, Johnson on June 9. 1907 , His record shows 29 persons present and a collection amounting to $4, 65* No rector was at the time assigned to the church and Mr, Johnson, incumbent of Trinity church, Killar- ney? alternated with men who may have been students in holding ser- vices here, THREE such persons are mentioned for the period June 9, 1907 to OCTOBER 3, 1909 WHEN THE CHURCH WAS CONSE- CRATED, They were Wo H. Walker, E, So Woulds and Mr, Howitto
Once the church was consecrated a rector was assigned to it. Rev. L Ao R, MacDonald was the first., He was succeeded in turn by Rev, J, F, Cox, Rev, So J, Roch and Rev, D* Pierce-Jones, Then in 1918 Rev, Mr. Johnson moved to Ninette0 For a short per- iod in 1921 Rev, F, W, Goodeve was in charge but Mr, Johnson was back to serve until 1922 when he moved to East Kildonan, During their stay here the Johnsons occupied the former home of J, Go Mur- ray, the red brick house on Main (Queen) Streeto
The quotation from the anniversary booklet refers to the parish- ioners who rendered service in connection with this House of Godo Of these only a very few can be mentioned here,
Nov. 4, 1904 - those meeting with Rev, Mr, Girling to nominate wardens for the new paris'h: STATION AGENT, W, WATER- FIELD; TEACHER, A, Leighton: GEORGE ROYLE and So H. LEES,
Dec, 9, 1904 -organization meeting: W, HUNT; W. WATERFIELD; S, H, LEES; JOE HUGHES (peopled warden). Vestrymen ap- pointed by this meeting were: F, H, Lowe, G* Royle, A. Leigh- ton, G. Rowley, J. Walker, J, Day, W, Waterfield, S. H« Lees,
NEW NAMES GRADUALLY APPEARED IN THE MINUTE BOOK:
1906 - E, P, Tupling - J, Flanagan
1907 - J, Crawford - B, Shenton
1908 - A. Stacey - C, Calverley (peopled warden) - Mr, Mould 1911 - Mrs, Hughes - (official organist) -Miss Gilbert (appoin- ted to vestry)
1911 - dulex envelope system introduced
1912 - Coad - Clisby - Ward
1913 - Miss Diggins - Mr, Yates (appointed official organist)
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1914 - Brown
1915.- Burnett - Edwards - Mrs Hagerman
1916 - Mr, Cox
The W A of which Mrs, John Crawford was president for so long, is first mentioned in 1915. Miss Gilbert's leaving in 1916 is noted . In the minutes of 1917 there is a motion that the house ren- ted by the church as its rectory, not being required by a rector that year, was to be used by Mrs. Cook in return for the service of keep- ing it in good order ,
The statistics for the year ending December 31, 1920 show the parish to consist of the churches of Belmont, Langvale, and Ninette. The number of families identified with the Ninette church at the time was 25 and included 75 persons. The Sunday School was comprised of 20 pupils with one male and three female teachers o There were an estimated 55 services held at the San, that year The church building was valued at $1, 600. QO and was insured for $1, 300, 00. At that time the officials were:
INCUMBENT'S WARDEN: JOSEPH HUGHES
PEOPLES* WARDEN: OSCAR SPACKMAN
VESTRY CLERK: GEORGE SOMERVILLE
CHAIRMAN OF MISSIONARY COMMITTEE: CHAS. CALVERLEY
SEC. OF MISSIONARY COMMITTEE: REV. MR. JOHNSON
SUNDAY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: GEORGE SOMERVILLE
SEC. TREAS. OF SUNDAY SCHOOL: MRS, JOE HUGHES,
This then is a brief history of St, Michael's and All Saints • up to the period when thisrecordis supposed to end . Mr, Oscar Spack- man, who always likes his joke says that because his sister, who was visiting here at the time the church was built, made a donation of sixty pounds to ward it, he has been expected to match her generosity every year since and that the gift has been one big headache to him. But no doubt Mr. Spackman and the very little hand-full of worship- ping Anglicans in this place have to dig down rather deeply into their jeans to keep the little church alive. But keep it alive they do. May the Anglican church spire still point to Heaven for many years to come and ever symbolize aspirations of its WORSHIPPERS BENEATH as they still continue to serve in His place.
OUR PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARY - REV. KENNETH GOLLAN.
ST. ANDREW'S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH - Hand in hand with the development of educational facilities was the growth of church or- ganizations, Historical notes, found in ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY BOOKLET and compiled by its present
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minister Rev. T A Payne acquaint us with the part played by the early Presbyterian group in the area. Mr Payne writes as follows: "The year 1«94 provides the first record of church organization in the area in minutes of the third annual meeting of the Pelican Lake Station of the Hilton Congregation This indicates l»92as the birth date of church life in the community with meetings held in the Peli- can Lake school Rev» K A. Gollan was chairman and John Yellow- lees secretary "
Miss Maimie Gollan who is Wo M S worker in the Queen St. and Church of All Nations in Toronto writes this of her father; "My father came to Canada in 1891 as a student, at the request of the Presbyterian church to preach in Gaelic to the Scotch settlers in the Ninette areao In 1893 he went back to Scotland to marry Miss Agnes Mac Donald daughter of Rev* K* C. MacDonald who was a mission- ary under the Church of Scotland to the college students in Calcutta where my mother was born* Father, ^after having attended Mani- toba College graduated and had been ordained; brought his bride to live in a "shack" at Hilton* At first, services were held in the homes of the people and sometimes in the shack in which my parents lived and in which my two brothers and I were born. Our family came east in 1898 to Glengarry County where again my father preach- ed in the Gaelic to Scotch settlers* "
When Rev. Gollan died in 1928 the following appeared in a local paper: "Thirty -seven years ago. the Rev* Mr0 Gollan was a stu- dent missionary at Hilton, also holding services in the Gaelic church (Bellafieldji preaching to the Gaelic people of the neighborhood in their own language. He often came across to Tisdale and held service in James Fowler s house, preaching in English* As a student he was recognized as an earnest clever young man and his ministrations of those days we re greatly appreciatedo Cash was very scarce and his salary was many times made up with difficulty* Mr. Peter Finnen, who looked after the finances of the neighborhood, tells us that one year all he was able to gather between collections and subscriptions was the princely sum of $37, 00. "
As indicated Rev. Gollan preached in Gaelic in Hilton and Bella- field and in English in Pelican Lake* We find the names of John Yellowlees, Charles Darough, Alex Nichol, John Putnam and R* C, Scott mentioned in connection with the position of managers of the Pelican Lake group* In 1901 the congregational name was changed to NINETTE and the school hall was chosen as the place of serviceo Thus Ninette got its first church congregation*
The move to the village was succeeded by problems of organi- zation, financing and building. In 1902 the circuit was so changed that it now included only the English speaking part of Hilton and add-
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ed Dunrea and Tisdale. The ladies of the congregation were asked to help in removing the financial deficit - (meet the Ninette Ladies Aid), the managers called at the homes of all members to solicit funds, and the envelope system was introduced to the congregation.
Ministers stipends must have been somewhat infinitesimal at best, and the reader no doubt will be shocked to learn that at a meet- ing in 1905 where the Presbetary was represented by Chas. McKay and Dr* Farquahson, it was agreed that no special amount be speci- fied for the minister's salary but that he would be required to take only the amount collected together with that placed on the collection plate. Later Revo Cameron mildly protested by remarking that it was rather hard on him, anew-comer, not to have a stated time for payment of salary „
Yet, in spite of these difficulties, the congregation looked stead- ily forward to the day when it would have its own church building, Rev. T, A. Payne writes: "A building fund is first mentioned in 1902 and in 1905, and although the treasurer's report shows a de- ficit, a church building committee was formedo The following year a building site 66 feet south of the school site was approved and ten- ders for the construction of a frame building on a stone foundation, 28 * by 40 f, were called for. The building, however, was not con- structed of frame but of cement blocks 0 In January 1907, trustees to hold the church property were elected, but, since on January 25, 1908 a congregational meeting was held in the school hall, we feel, sure that the church was not at that time ready for occupancy . In June a caretaker was secured, and that is the date when the last en- try for rent paid for use of the school hall appears. 'Tis passing strange that no reference is made in the records to any official open- ing or dedication service, and one might conclude that the congrega- tion moved into the church in July, 1908. t!
Lacking definite information on this point, the congregation thought it fitting that the Thanksgiving season in October of '58 be chosen for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary* "Time has wrought many changes in church and community. --- But our obli- gations under God remain, and our debt to the faithful of former (Rev0 To A, Payne)
A photograph, taken to be given as a parting gift to the Danger- fields in the fall of 1909 recalls to memory most of these early build- ers:
THE DANGERFIELDS .seemed to have had more than their share of trouble and bereavement Some of their family died as infants and were buried at the hilltop north of the house where little tombstones still mark the graves, One daughter, Bertha, died of tuberculosis
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and two of diptheria. Then came the death of Billy In the early nineties football not baseball was the principal team game placed in Ninette Sports Ground Then in 1909 Billy died as a result of a kick received in a game there. For many years after that football was discontinued entirely. After her son's death Mrs, Dangerfield no longer wished to remain on the farm so, in spite of the comfort of the fine new brick house Fred had built in 1903 and the esteem in which they were held in the community the Dangerfields went „ After four years spent in Calif ornja and one summer in Ninette they settled permanently in Chilliwackc a place we once nicknamed, nthe second Ninette" as so many of our former residents were there,
During their summer herein 1912 the Dangerfields made their home with the Wrights and the Bells. Mr. Dangerfield died in Octo- ber of r26 at the age of 67 and his wife in December 1941 at the age of 880 Two daughters remain. Norma, Mrs* Uri Hodgins resides at 21 Alexander St , Chilliwack, and Mrs* Eva Fawcett at 3706 West 19th St Vancouver
THE METHODIST CHURCH congregation never aspired to build- ing in the village, A very active group to the south had in 1900 hauled brick from the Kiln in Wawanesa and constructed a fine building on the corner of the Clark farm0 All the labour was voluntary except the carpentry work done by Arthur Fisher and perhaps the brick work, done by Archie BelL Among this Methodist group were: The Bells, the Rosses, the Hamiltons, the Squires theClarks, the Ways, the Garbutts and the Staples, Mro Staples was for a time secretary of the church o When the village came into existence and several families moved in. they formed a group which along with the others of Methodist leanings, of whom the McTaggarts, the Davies, the Dangerfields and the Clenches, the Richardsons and the Fancys are to be included, held services in the school halL It was this group, indeed, which owned the organ used by the Presbyterians as welL Finally the church authorities felt that the Bellafield Methodists should now join either the Killarney or the Ninette group so in 1928 the Bellafield building was as Wes in a disgusted voice says, sold to the Mennonites for $125 . 00 , Actually it was only the frame part which the Mennonites acquired in order to rebuild it as their Lena church. The bricks went to a Mro Christiansen
As might be supposed the Ninette Methodists paid rent for the use of the Presbyterian building from 1908 until 1926 when Union made the two congregations one0
OUR RECORD HAS BROUGHT US TO THE END OF ANOTHER DECADE AND, I THINK, TO THE END OF PIONEERING DAYS IN THE NINETTE AREA. But I began with a prologue* May I be per- mitted an epilogue, one more decade ? 1909-1919 - The Burden Bearers,
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a t>
gl §1
Bj.
CHAPTER Vlll
THE EPILOGUE - THE YEARS OF WORLD WAR 1 DECADE IV - 1909-1919 - THE BURDEN-BEARERS -
It seems ironical that wars or threats of wars more than any- thing else stimulate both mechanical inventions and medical and surgical developments , World War 1 was directly responsible for the rapid development of tractor, motor car, airplane, and much in the scientific and surgical world.
In 1908 John Crawford appeared in a McLaughlin car. True it was a second hand one but how marvellous to possess a car at all! In 1912, just when the Balkan situation was alarming the world,, CHARLIE CALVERLEY got the agency for the Ford and made his first sale to Arthur O?Leary -a $1, 000. Ford. Then the CALVER- LEY TAXI BUSINESS came into being with this "ad'1 appear ing:; "Car in attendance", It wasn*t long until Bob Scott got anOldsmobileand, as Miss Gilbert said, "endeavored to drive a certain number of miles each day* " All this was very gay and no one dreamt of the signifi- cance it was soon to have*
When the Calverleys had moved from their farm toOrilliain the fall of 1909 it was not the intention of remaining there permanently, for Charlie had, before he left, acquired the lumber and coal busi- ness from Mr. Over end . So in 1910 he returned to begin the con- struction of his new brick house just south of the Crawfords on Grove Street. That year the main str.eet grew with the building of the Cal- verley ware-house soon to become the town's first garage, and lum- ber shed and with the opening of the STARK BOARDING HOUSE. A block away the RINK was shaping up.
Besides running her boarding house. Mrs, Stark, known to all and sundry as Mother Stark, was the local accoucher and delivered every baby for miles around often without benefit of adoctorrs pre- sence, since the stork frequently arrived more quickly than did the doctor in those horse and buggy days. And often when the doctor did arrive, dead-tired, he was grateful for the use of the facilities of Mrs. Stark's boarding house where fora time he held CLINICS twice a weeko
By 1910 HAROLD APPLEYARD made the move into town, when he bought from Mr. Tupling that second blacksmith shop. Harold had been a jockey in England but, leaving his home in York, he had set out on a holiday trip to the New World. From Battle Creek, Michigan, he came on a visit to his aunt and uncle in the Tiger Hills* When on returning to England he learned that he could no longer be
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a jockey, he decided to return to Battle Creek, but the companion who had seen to the booking had purchased through tickets to Chicago and their train didn't even stop at Battle Creek. So fate took a hand* Harold was to live in the Ninette area. He worked in turn for John Garbutt, Jim Wright and Fred DangerfiekL Then came his owner- ship of the livery barn which he operated until 1926 when he moved to Chilliwack, Bo C, Since the western climate did not agree with him, Harold was back before two years had passed „ It was then, while operating a farm in the Tiger Hills that he took on the ceme- try job which he held until he moved to Wawanesa a few years ago.
It was in 1910 too that the first sod was turned for the building of the NINETTE PROVINCIAL SANATORIUM. When in the fall of 1909 folks heard that Harry Perry had really sold a part of his farm to the Sanatorium board there was considerable excitement. And now, sure enough, a main building which was later to be enlarged and two observation pavilions were going upu Soon several villagers found employment up thereon the hillside just below the site where the Daroughs had started life here twenty-eight years before.
When the institution opened its doors SAM CLARK became its first dairyman, continuing in this business until he retired to the vil- lage in 1920. Sam Clark had come, as a boy, with his family in 1892 from Newmarket, 30 miles north of Tor onto . They settled in the Wawanesa district. Then, at the age of 21 Sam went on a rented farm with a brother* He had tried at various times to attend school but he always seemed to be moved from one member of the family to the next. So now he was sort of on his own0 That year he worked cutting a road across the valley to Dunrea. When he married Gertie Phillips and two years later came with her to the Ninette district, he introduced to her relatives some good Irish humor.
When Sam Clark moved onto the old Murray farm which he bought from Billy Darough in 1909, Mr, Murray had been for some years in the village. After his first wife's death he built the brick house now owned by Neil Stewart and moved into it with a Mrs, Cook as housekeeper. She protested that itwasn!t proper for her to live with him outside the bonds of Holy Matrimony and, feeling that he couldn't manage alone, he succumbed and she became a wealthy widow.
That house, was for some time used as a rectory. The last Ang- lican clergyman to reside in it was Rev, Mr, Johnson,
In 1911, after a second winter inOrillia, Mr, Calve r ley return- ed with his wife and the two youngest children and housed them in the corner cottage, now the Alex MacDonald home, until his new resi- dence was finished. By fall Mrs, Calverley was moved into the home she occupied until her death one month after her husband in 1955 .
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Across the street the Tom Monks took possession of their new home in the same year
1909 or 1911 saw the Daroughs settled in the village home to- day known as nthe teacherage11 Much later Tillieand her husband Chas Cullen occupied the small house into which her father moved when, his wife died in 1916 Tillie's death in 1945 left the only child Florence, to care for her Dad so when she married Mr Dolman they stayed on in the home. Now Charlie too is gone and the Dolmans live and work in Camp Shilo.
THE NINETTE SENIOR HOCKEY TEAM
In Canada wherever there is ice there will be kids play ing hock- ey, So5 from the earliest days of the village, boys practised hockey skills in the little old rink at the far end of the Sports Ground, When the present structure materialized, these same lads were ready to organize and a hockey team came into being in the FALL OF 191 1, George Somerville was the first president and George McMillan, future husband of Ettie Hughes, secretary. Three or four boys were tried out for the position of goalie and Willie Scott, although rather young, was chosen Vic Coulthard, only charter member of the Ninette curling club to still participate in the game, was one of the hockey club members as welL Among his team-mates were Fred Tanner, Jack Gilfoy, Ralph and Maurice Clench Les Tavlor and George and Dick McMillan - the last named three from Dunrea, This was a really good hockey team . it j oined a league composed of team s from Elgin, Minto, Dunrea, Ninette and Belmont. The Ninette pla- yers went west to games by travelling on the train and staying all night But Belmont and Dunrea were reached by use of team and cutter o
The next season Vic was the secretary, collecting the $1- 50 fee from each of the boy So Then came World War I. Vic moved away o He thinks that so many boys were in the armed forces that hockey was discontinued.,
However, post-war years saw a revival of the gameo Lindsay Smith became goalie and among the personnel of the team were Bob and Dan Wilkie, Hunter Putnam, Maurice Clench, Albert Bond and Amond Menu In time either Morleyor Frank Kelly replaced Lind- say Smith According to one of these players, they were a hit and miss bunch until Orval Calverley organized them and became their manager.
This team joined a league which included a larger area than did the pre-war one. The team travelled to Boissevain, Killarney, and other places to the south. Orval became referee for the league o
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Games were popular and the local rink was always crammed with vociferous crowds when a game was being played in ito
The curlers hated this. They claimed that the hockey complete- ly spoiled their game. It was a common saying among the hockey players that if the puck ever broke through the net and hit Chas* Overend, they would be out on their ear.
They never went out on their ear but in time many players de- serted in favor of curling. The hockey club apparently became a thing of the past,
NINETTE CURLING CLUB: -was organized in 1911 when Mr, Over- end agreed to rent for $180*00 per season two sheets of ice which was to be kept in shape and lighted. The slate of officers read as follows:
Patron - Dr. Shaffaurer 2nd vice - Chas* Overend
Hon. PreSo - James Overend Sec,-Treas* - G» C» McMillan
PreSc - John Robertson Chaplain - Rev, Mr. McRae
1st vice - Dr* D, A, Stewart Auditors - Chas Overend
and R, C, Scott
Ice Committee - Wes. Hamilton, Wm, Ross, R, C Scott, G.D Mc- Millan - This committee to make the rules and by-laws.
Other members of the club for the 1st season were:
J, Oo Spackman J Sheen R, Squires
S H, Lees N. McKay C, Calverley
John Yellowlees E, Gilfoy G. Overend
Ho Overend Tom Monk H. Lowton
A, R, McMillan J. Crawford A. MacDonald
N, Monk G< A, Somerville A, Bell
Ro D. Meyers A, R, Leigh So Clark
H, Russell H. Putnam Chas, Clisby
Wm. Sellers Vic Coulthard M, Price
The first season ended with a credit balance of $13 . 75, When the third season rolled around the club was prepared to hire Mr« Bennett at $, 50 per day to care for the ice, The motion of Chas* Calverley and A, R, Leigh that the names of members be placed in a hat and drawn by the skips to form rinks was defeated by Geo, Overend - Wes, Hamilton's motion that the skips pick their own ment The membership for the season of 1912 - 1913 was 75 „ 1914 was war year and the club had only 23 members. By 1919 it was again flourishing with 25 paid-up members. By 1922 the ladies had in- vaded this man-s domain when by paying a fee of $2,00 they were
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given the privelege of curling one evening a week. The ladies who curled chat first season were-: Misses Goddard, Earle, Cassidv\ Fleming from the "San. n and Misses Pearl Phillips, Margeurite Stark, Annie Coad and Mary or Margaret McMillan from the vil- lage along with Mrs* Chas^ Calverley, Mrs= Bert Thompson, and Mrs Clisby, In time the women joined with the men in forming mixed rinks^
The BRICK POST-OFFICE erected in 1911 is a constant remin- der of a very real tragedy that occurred in 1923. Charlie Overend, in preparation for taking over the post-office had had this building constructed It was lighted by a privately owned electric light plant* Then came that afternoon in 23 when Charlie went to the basement to crank the engine. Some say he had spilled gasoline on his cloth- ing. At any rate there was an explosion and the door was so slam- med shut that Charlie, whose apparel was on fire, could not, for some time, force it open When he finally staggered out he had suf- fered third degree burns and soon died, Charlie was a well beloved brother, friend and neighbor and, like Finley Yellow lees after him, was very greatly missed by the whole neighborhood.
The Ninette post-office while it has had only four postmasters, namely Mr, Colpitts, Mr, James Overend, Charlie, and Mr, Don- ald Mac Donald, has given employment to several assistants. Of these, two were of our old-timers: Mr, James Burnett and Mr, John Crawford, But a new era in the life of our mail service is a- bout to begin. The present assistant, Duncan McDonald - no rela- tion to the present encumbant - is to become post-master in a new building a block to the east of the present one, From the time the train began to operate through Ninette in 1898 it carried our maiL But on October 27, ?58 a truck took over this service. One more aspect of pioneer days gone!
Charles Overend was not the only one to have his own electrical plant Orval Calverley had wired his fathers gar age and residence as early as 1920, Since the line had to run through the Monk yard that house was wired also and then in 1921 the Presbyterian church accepted the Calverley tender for supplying electric light to it* The San, from its inception had its own planto But this was a very ex- pensive way. of lighting aiid so it was with rejoicing that they, along with the rest of the town, welcomed the coming of the hydro in 1936. The San. however maintains its own plant for emergencies.
A TWO-ROOMED SCHOOL in 1911 marks the first transitional point in the affairs of the Ninette school district. Although the re- gister for the year has mysteriously disappeared, one can judge from the recorded minutes that the school enrollment was such that one teacher could no longer adequately cope with the situation . In
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January there was a motion that the inspector's advice with regard to making the school a two-teacher one be asked, But the wheels of progress moved slowly and it wasn't until August Hat a special mee- ting of the ratepayers called for the purpose that the matter was again brought up, A Calverley-Spackman motion to have the trus- tees engage two teachers was defeated when the George-James Over- end amendment carried by a vote of 13-12.
When in March of 1912 the teacher, Miss Dora Faryon, had to be replaced on account of ill health, the question of a two-teacher school was again brought to public attention, and in June it was a- greed to advertise for a second teacher and a Monk-Bell motion spe- cified that the upstairs room of the school was to be finished and made ready So in January, 1913, Mrs, Dodge, who had been en- gaged as sole teacher in 1912, moved upstairs and Miss Gladys Barkwell, formerly of Pelican Lake school, accepted the position of junior teacher In June of that year Mrs. Dodge was re-engaged at an annual salary of $750, 00,
TEACHERS FROM 1913 to 1925
JUNIOR ROOM
Jan 1913 Miss Barkwell
Aug 1913 Miss Barkwell
Jan 1914 Miss Townsley
Aug. 1914 Miss Townsley
Jan. 1915 Miss Townsley-$650
Aug 1915 Miss Kinley-$600
Jan 1916 Miss Kinley '
Aug, 1916 Miss Frame
Jan, 1917 Miss Frame-$650
Aug. 1917 Miss Frame
Jan, 1918 Miss Frame - $750.
Aug. 1918 Miss Frame
Jan. 1919 Miss Frame
Aug. 1919 Miss Mary Overend
- $750=
Jan* 1920 Miss Mary Overend
Aug. 1920 Miss Vivian Newton
- $950. Jan. 1921 Miss Gardiner
Aug0 1921 Miss Jessie Chalmers
Dec, 1921 Miss Mary McMillan
- $1000
Jan 1922 Miss Mary McMillan
June 1922 Miss Mary McMillan
SENIOR ROOM Mrs N, Dodge Mrs, N~ Mrs, N. Ralph C Ralph C, Mrs Mrs
Dodge - $750,
Dodge
Clench - $900,
Clench
Hagerman - $800. Hagerman
Miss Irvine
Miss Eva Calverley-$820,
Miss Mary Graham -$800,
Miss Ac Gutzke - $850*
Miss A, Gutzke
Feb. -Miss Nellie Adams
March- W, Clark
Miss M.D. Stafford $1000.
Miss M,D, Stafford
Miss Annie Tetter ly $1200,
Miss Kathleen Johnson Miss Margo McMillan
- $1200, Miss Margo McMillan
May and June -Mrs, Pascoe Mr, Sturk
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Jan, 1923 Miss Mary McMillan MT\ Sturk
Augo 1923 Miss Elsie Kerr
Jan. 1924 Miss Elsie Kerr
Aug. 1924 Miss Mott Miss Moore
Jan. 1925 Miss Mott Miss Moore
Aug. 1925 Miss Jean Bell Miss Dorothy Strachon
- $1500,
What of these teachers today?
Miss Ethel Johnson - presumed to be living in Vancouver.
Mr. "Buck" Buchanan - Dr, in Deloraineo
Miss Barkwell - widow of Grenville J, Staples - 34, Purley Burley
Close, Purley, Surrey, England,
Miss Townsley - widow of Geo. Somerville - 330 6th St. Brandon Norman Monk - Dr. Leeds, England.
Ralph Clench - buried in Alberta Communal Cemetry, France. Miss Jessie Chalmers - deceased. Miss Elsie Kerr - widow of Finley Yellowlees, Miss Kathleen Johnson - private kindergarten teacher - living with
Gladys io East Kildonan,
Miss Moore - last heard of teaching in Deloraine. Mary and Margaret McMillan, and Kathleen Kinley - teaching in
Winnipeg.
Miss Gladys Frame - married a banker -^address unknown. Miss Mary Overend - retired Salt Spring Island, B. C, Miss Eva Calverley - retired, Ninette, Miss Jean Bell - married a fruit-grower in Okanagan -both dec eased
And then there was Drs* Edmison and Roy who served as our health officers receiving the fabulous remuneration of $5, 00 for a school inspection or $15. 00 for a year's service* The former is de- ceased, the latter retired and living in Winnipeg,
School reminiscences would not be complete without a reference to the school CARETAKERS, In January of 1903 Alex Ross, aged 12, was appointed to sweep and dust the school and to scrub it three times a year for $5c 60 o The day in 1905 when Alex left school to begin work on the railroad is clearly remembered by your narrator . After packing his books he went up and shook hands with his teacher, an unusually courteous act for boyfs of his day and age. In 1907 Finley Yellowlees replaced Alex as caretaker, to sweep, scrub, and light fires, and fill the porch with wood when necessary - remuneration not stated. It wasn't until 1910 that the care -taking was considered a man-sized jobo George Edwards was engaged that year at the an- nual salary of $85, 00. The best remembered care-taker, perhaps because he held the position so long, was George Hunt.
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THE HUNTS, William and George came from near London and after some moving about, acquired what is now the Jim Patullo Place in the Tiger Hills Here the> herded cattle for various people, some- times having as many as two or three hundred at one time. Finally George and his wife moved into a small house west of the school and he became caretaker of the school and, for a time, of the Presby- terian church as welL
We salute them all - trustees, caretakers, teachers and doc- tors -for all were pioneer builders in this place „ The scene of their labours is gone, In 1926 the present brick structure replaced the old frame building which was sold to Tom Boulet for $350, 00 and by him torn down.
When Eva Calverley arrived from Orillia in July of 1912 she noted the batchelor shack of Tom Wilkie just behind and across the lane from her parents home, and the Pindar house back in the bush where Dick Jones now lives 0 Except for these, the Duncan McLeod home (the present mansei and the little George Hunt place (now the Whittal homeK Grove Street was the western limit of the village And except for the James Over end house with the Sport s Ground and the rink beyond. Main Street was the eastern limit north of the San, road. South of the road were the Scotts. the Scarrow family in Miss Gilbert 'sold home, the George Overend place, the Darough house the Lakeside cottages and one new residence just being built - the Ed, Chester home.
Ed Chester was not at this time, a new-comer to the village He had become clerk in the Overend store soon after Bella Craw- ford went back to Ontario His signature is to be found on school and Sports * Improvement Committee books and as the reader will note in perusing the section relating to the Ninette Boat Company, he wrote very effective letters over the long period when he was sec- retary -treasurer of one or another of these organizations. Ed mar- ried a Miss Matheson from Belmontand in 1910 they decided to tr> the coast so they sold their home to Mro Yates,
But in 1912 they were back and having a new house erected a- cross the street just west of George Overend.
THE. NINETTE BOAT COMPANY was organized in 1916, possibly to replace the Hall-Hamilton one which was discontinued in that year. There had been the odd boat on the lake in the meantime There was Captain Burnett -s Laurel, of course, and some of the doctors at rhe Sa0o operated sail-boats - At one time Orval had an ice boat But this did not answer the need of the campers Shares for the new ' comparn and a launch, named ihe Rose,, were purchased Bmh A; Mat Dona td and Captain Burned had a turn at running ibis boa' Ed
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Chester was secretary for the society, A copy of one of his letters written to ihe Department of Soldiers? Rehabilitation Winnipeg reads: "Your Mr, Henfrey has brought to my notice your objection to the account of the Ninette Boat Company for hire of its launch for dragging purposes in connection with the recent drowning of four returned soldiers in Pelican Lake.
We cannot agree with you that this charge is in any way exhor- b it ant as we had to pay a dollar an hour for wages, and as the launch referred to is a fourteen horse -power boat, rhe work of dragging was unusually severe on it Considering the fact that not much ac- tual work was accomplished during the first two days, we are will- ing to deduct the amount of $7, 50 making the total still owing to us $225,50."
Many of us recall that sad event. It seems that a San, engineer9 against rules, took three patients for a ride in a sail-boat. The next day when the boat was located, the body of the engineer was found lashed to it but several days of searching did not locate the other three until the police dynamited.
The letter reminds us that, during the war. the government erected three military pavilions at the Sanatorium, Boys from all parts of the Empire were brought here for treatment.
It reminds us, too, that our beautiful Pelican Lake has in times past taken its tolL There were the two boys whose bodies were re- covered from under the ice by a human chain of volunteer men from the village. Then there was Alex Mondor, husband of Marguerite Stark who immediately after his dinner0 went swimming one hot summer evening. When he slumped under the water s Marguerite thought he was in fun trying to drag her under, so she let go of his hand, By the time she had procured help, the undercurrent had washed the body elsewhere and it took a search of several days to recover it.
Yes our lake and its winter ice can be treacherous. It behoves all of us to be careful, One more matter of Boat Company corres- pondence makes spicy reading. This letter addressed to Ray Hough- ton reads: "Your letter addressed to Charles Overend regarding some fancied grievance of J, Kelly concerning some gasoline has been referred to me. Now, as a matter of fact, the action of this man, Kelly , is not in any way liable to intimidate or hasten a settle- ment of his imperative demands, Personally I doubt, although I do not wish to pass a statement or hazard a statement at this juncture, whether Kelly can hold us responsible for anything belonging to him placed in the boat and left there at his own initiative, without the consent or knowledge of responsible parties., (All this related to
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10 gallons of gasoline for which Kelly was demanding $5 « 50> Kelly s ac (ion is to say the least not very creditable. As far as i can ob- serve there is not a question or doubt of suspicion of Mr. Kelly s being honestly and fairly dealt with but if he imagines for one brief moment thav he can stampede us into precipitate action by use of the big stick he will soon realize that he is playing with a two-edged weapon which others can wield as deftly as himself. !t
Whether because people were loath to come here with the San. in our midst c or whether the war ended the desire to go off on ex- cur sionSc or whether the increasing prevalence of the automobile led the holiday seekers farther afield one cannot say. But whatever the reason, the holiday crowds vanished, and the Boat Company went out of business in 1920, leaving the Rose to rot on the old beach
WAR YEARS: The Red Cross -Our Cenotaph - Taxi for the "BOYS" - The San, and its' War Personnel,
Mrs, Calverley, who , for eighteen years in all, served as Pres- ident of the Ladies Aid of St. Andrew's churchn took on, when war came, the added duty of being president of the Ladies Group of the Red Cross Society., And her "one-sock a day knitted" was some- thing of a record. And she didn't take her knitting to church and annoy the preacher as some folks were known to do^ Money needed for packing the numerous boxes and for cash donations was raised by various means. One of the most pleasant of these was the gar- den party held here and there. One such was enjoyed on the farm lawn of Mr So Sam Clark, an other was held at the Home of Mrsu R, C, Scott and a third at the Calverley residence 0
Once every summer our active Legion Group holds a memorial service at our little cenotapho One by one the names inscribed on the cenotaph are read alound, and one by one small children step forward and each, at the pronouncement of a name, places a wreath of flowers at the base of the memoriaL "A* Burnett" - the reading begins . Yes, Arthur, Only two sisters - Mabel and Muriel living in the old home on Grove Street, are still alive to mourn his loss, "B. Challen- -R. C. Clench" - "It isn?t your boy. It's mine, Ralph, " stammered Mrso Clench when she came to tell her friend, MrSo Calverley o But it well could have been Orval Calverley, Maurice Clench or Dan McKay, for they were all together in that Vimy Push of 1916 and even today Maurice carries his battle -scar - a metal plate in his head, while Dan McKay has died%long since, a war cas- ualty „ "So Edwards" - The George Edward family lived for a time across the track in the house built by Ed Chester and then in the corner house now owned by the Jim Wright family . Now in Vancou- ver, they^ with their daughter Alice, live with their memories. Alice, who is a paralytic has a special chair chat can be taken on
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street -car or bus* nR Kerr" - one of his brothers a school ins- pector has lust returned from a two *y ear term of educational ser - vice in Germany 1 would have thought Clayton Kerr-s sons to be considered Belmont boy s. "Jimmie Long F, Madkins - A-
Nicholson1' -Oh yes; son of John Nicholson king of che Gaelic "A» Nicol - - G Thompson - - A. Yorke", The service ends and with it my reminiscingo
St, Andrews church contains a framed scroll on which Robert Scott inscribed the names of all its men who saw service in the war This includes as well the names of some nurses and two doctors: Baragar and Mann It was Dr, Mann along with Dr Olson who practically behind locked doors in St Boniface Hospital performed the first cheracoplastv ope ration under taken in the west in the treat- ment of tuberculosis. They were a special kind of pioneer
TAXH Camp Sewell became in turn Camp Borden Camo Hughes and CampShilo in war days soldiers and their relatives were con- slant ly coming and going to and from the camp Charlie Calverley wi'l: his son away at the war was hard put to find help to keep his garage going and drive constantly Chen too with T B soldiers corning to the San the place was enlarged and its requirements for taxi service greatly increased Those were The hectic days for the garage as privately owned cars were not too numerous;
So i» seemed quite trying <ta( when ?hat w underfill November 11 at last canie I'^arhe sfouMl k»ad his '^uc k with the flag -bearing youth of the <uw(- wh<> we^ supposed r.o inhere a peaceful world because of the wa^ and maRe wbc»upee i»n the sheets. - Charlie, the biggest boy among them all tor his boy was coming horne^ BUT as our cenotaph bears witness, many that day rejoiced with a tear in the eye and an ache in the heart
Taxi service was required too just for pleasure jaunts c espec- ially lor San. patients and many were the tree rides provided When Charlie Calverley.. shortly before his death was taken to the Winni- peg Genera) X --ray room for examination Mr Bill Doern one-time patient and then X-Ray man at the San and now head of the X-ray department at the General came along personally to lift him "You gave me many a good ride in the past, 1 11 see that you get one to- day" ,he said,
THE ARMSTRONG FAMILY, which camps at Balmy from the earl- iest possible moment of springuntil long after the snow fliess speak often of the good service their friend Charlie, gave them in times past when he got them safely over the most unspeakable roads with his model Tc
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Sometimes the Butcher drove himself carrying the meat to be delivered in a long coffin-like box, still to be seen at the back of Sam Clark's home at first on the back of a horse drawn vehicle and later on a truck pulled by a gasoline propelled one. But Joe Hughes preferred to have Charlie drive him. Sam Clark, who succeeded Mr Hughes, after he moved into the Chester house in town in 1920 had his own Ford car.
BANKING: The taxi was needed also to go to the bank* Originally, banking had been doneinKillarney? Brandon or Baldur. In the year „ 1905, when Belmont celebrated its thirtieth anniversary, the BANK OF BRITISH NORTH-AMERICA, soon to become THE BANK OF MONTREAL, opened its doors there. Originally it was located a- cross the street from the present building on a location today occu- pied by a barber -shop, but it soon moved to a spot now owned by a service station, 1906 saw it in its present location. When it burn- ed in 1913 it was replaced by a two-storied one burned in 1931 and again in 1941. Let?s hope the present fine brick structure will have better luck.
The parent BANK OF MONTREAL was founded in 1817, and it, two weeks later, introduced the branch banking system „ In its first year it issued Canada?s native currency, became the Colonial Gov- ernments domestic bank, and played a large part in financing the C, P, R, Today it has 640 offices, 29 in Manitoba, and how we Ni- netters wish one of them could be in our village! Local citizens re- member with pleasure their business dealing with the Belmont mana- gers: R, Boyle? A- S. Hall, F. J. W. Coutts? E. Jones, L. Clark, R.Nc Bell, D. L, Plumton, D,B. Allen, K. B, Mills and E. E. Hay, But none has been more popular than the present manager, Mr, K* Tutt.
Among the men who had contracted T. B° overseas was one who had come to our district previously. When he returned as a patient, he became, I think, the guinea pig of all guinea pigs when it came to operations to arrest the progress of T, Be I refer of course to DONALD MacDONALD, our present post-master. Here is his story: MI was born at Stornoway in the western Scottish Highlands and later when family fortunes had had a reverse due to the death of my father, I was invited by relatives, pioneers of the Ninette district, to come to Canada., This was in 1913, Two years later I joined a Canadian - Scottish regiment in Winnipeg and proceeded overseas that same year of 1915. I had seen active service in both France and Belgium before being invalided back to Canada in 1917 . Here a period of treatment in a Sanatorium was indicated due to a chest condition brought on by extreme exposure and contact with poison gas during service.
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After a series ot treatments and numerous surgical operations in which the latest methods were being used and after many ups and downs I was encouraged by Dr Do A. Stewart the then medical Sup- erintendent of the Sanatorium to apply for the position of post-master in the village left vacant by the tragic death of Charles Over end Despite very little hope for recovery during the years following the First World War 1 lived to see a second and an opportunity for ser- vice on the "Home Front" this time in the capacity of District organ- izer for Victory Loans as well as in manjy other phases of the war effort as they came along n
With so many returned men as patients at the San vocational training was introduced This was the beginning of educational work in our institution Fora brief summer period one of Ninette s earl- ier teachers Miss Gladys Barkwell renewed acquaintanceships here, while she served as a handicraft teacher to ''The Boys",
Today A* <>ne has a San bill to pay he goes to the business of™ fice where a staff' of at least three ex -patients are employed and a business manager as well in 1912 one man only Mr^ YATES did this work Bott he and his wife were devoted Anglicans and in 1913 Mr- Yates assumed the position of church organist. When he left Mr Calveriey bought his home which had been the first Ed Chester house In 1920 Ed took his family to New Zealand His widow still lives in that country
This mention of the Chester s reminds us that when the> lived in «fte Sam ( larK house Lily Matheson, sister of Mrs, Chester carne to live with them when she obtained work in the Goulthard store0 In time she married Willie Scott and when his parents sold their home to Harry Over end and prepared to move to Chilliwack Bob and Lil> went along At times Miss Gilbert came back to live for periods with them The Scott s later moved to Vancouver „ One really feels old when he reminisces about people he once knew and in each case cornes to the point where he says to himself "But of course they've been dead for years " Miss Gilbert Mr, and Mrs. Scotr have gone the way of all flesh yet their good deeds live on.
In 1917 Mr, and Mrs, R, C Scott kindly donated a house they owned as a ChurchManse, Of the various minister's families who occupied that home both before and after it became the official manse, mention can be made of onl> two First there was the DUNCAN McLEOD family Mr, McLeod, a brother of Mrs, George Wilkie had come here as a theological student in 1906, In 1913, when he and his family were on furlough from Formosa, they spent a year in what is now ihe manse, and while he served as preacher, they re- newed close relationship with their relatives in this part, Mrs. Easton of the district, lived with them A daughter, Ruth, in her
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turn became a missionary to Formosa and a nephew DUNCAN WIL- KIES kept up the family tradition by becoming a very much beloved pastor who has recently been moved from Saskatoon to the coast* Mr* Duncan McLeod9 then retired, was called back to Formosa after World War II to do a special jobc
The second family I choose to speak of, not, because they were anymore outstanding than the others but simply because they stayed with us for such a long time, twelve years, and length of tenure seems to cement deeper friendships* They were the Rev. JohnMc- ConnelPs family. It was while they were here that Knox, a son by a former wife died that Mrs* McConnelPs mother died, and that the troubles of the nflu!t period were shared by pastor and people as the Kelly family (not Jo Kellys* recall After they moved to Little Britain in 1929 they were constantly receiving visits from Ninetters, and sometimes, as in the case of Tedand Henry Thiessen, perform- ing marriage ceremonies for
DR0 STEWART WAS A SPECIAL KIND OF PIONEER AND NI- NETTE SANATORIUM A PIONEERING ONE IN THE WESTo The coming of the Manitoba Sanatorium to our district was an event of lasting importance, and with it will always be associated the name of Dr0 Stewart. Although he had originally intended going into the ministry , a combination of circumstances turned him to medicine, On his graduation in 1906, Dr Stewart entered the Winnipeg Gen- eral Hospital as its first senior intern in medicine, a position he held for two years At that time there was a nucleus of a Sanator- ium Board, The names of Messeurs Chipman, Nanton, Montgomery and others are recalled in connection with it. They approached young Dr, Stewart in the fall of 1908 and persuaded him to spend the winter going from place to place throughout the province and explaining to the people in the various parts the purpose and need for the proposed institution., The winter was unusually cold and stormy and, as his only son puts its, MDr0 Stewart had a rugged time". As a result in the spring of 1919, he broke down with tuberculosis and went to Sa- ranac Sanatorium in the Adirondacs, New York state, for treatment, This was the famous sanatorium of Drc Trudeau, who became, I think, Dr, Stewart's ideal, for certainly all of his early staff at Ni- nette were indoctrinated with the Trudeau tradition,
When he became convalescent, Dr . Stewart served for six months on the Saranac San, Staff, an early example of the sanatorium re - habilitation program .
Meantime the Manitoba board was not idle. Mr., Harry Lowe claimed that when on a visit to Winnipeg, he called on Mr. Chipman in a social way since his brothers had gone to college in Toronto with some of the Chipman boys, he soon found himself discussing the pro-
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posed San. Mr, Lowe added that he suggested Ninette as a suitable location for it and so found himself carried off to a meeting of the board where he pushed the idea0 At any rate various localities were considered and visited and as a result Ninette was chosen,, Im not sure how Dr, Stewart got on the visiting committee but at any rate he told his son that at Ninette he climbed the tallest tree on the top of the hill to better consider the view.
The site was purchased from Harry Perry in the fall of 1909, the building begun in the spring of 1910 and the institution opened with a temporary superintendent in the fall of 1910. It consisted solely of a main building, which has since been enlarged, and two pavilions Early in 1911 Dr. Stewart became permanent superin- tendent a position he held until his death in 1937, In 1915 the doc- tor married Miss Ida Bradshaw and off they went to the coast for a honeymoon One of their first public appearances on their return was at a war-time garden party held on the Calverley lawn, when Dr. Stewart spoke briefly about his trip
For he was just one of the Ninette neighbors All the adult vil- lagers were his friends and he called every one both at the San and in the village by his Christian name What 1 am imply ing is that both Ninette and the San, were small then and together they were a little community, There we rent many nurses and they looked upon the village homes as their second ones. This was especially so of Mrs Clark-s hospitable domicile
So all rejoiced when in 1916 a son David Jr., came to the doctor's home, and likewise they all grieved in 1918 when the little fellow -s mother took to her bed with tuberculosis But we all knew that Dr Stewart said that this boy would prove that tuberculosis was not hereditary for he was so to be brought up that he would not be stricken with this plague, 1 think the Doctor s boast came true. To- day in 1958 David Jr. , a doctor in Jamaica, is still strong and heal- thy-
Before concluding 1 should like to reminisce just a bit about Dr, D- A. The Ninette pioneers, on the whole, were represented by the English group when it came to matters of culture. There were the Clenches and the Goads with their artistic ability, the Spicers and Watkins with dramatic and musical interests, and the Duncans with their love of literature. But such matters as entemology and his- torical research were outside the realm of daily living until Dr, Stewart, by his enthusiasm, created a real interest in such matters. He was a personal friend of Dr, Norman Criddle who was located on the sandhills across the river from Treesbank, Many a happy hour did your narrator when a young teacher, spend with this same Mr. Criddle being shown his collection of butterflies, bugs and
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beetles which he had amassed from all parts of the world, largely by a process of exchange. All called his museum THE BUG HOUSE but all were very proud to have a speaking acquaintance with this Dominion Entomologist and dear friend of our own Dr. Stewart.
But sometimes we thought the doctor carried his love of the out- doors too far, for example when he refused to have even one tree on the Sanatorium site cut down in spite of the fact that some were real hazards to safe driving.
His continued interest in locating and having marked many old historical sites, especially old trading posts, has, on the other hand, had a permanent effect on our province. Many cairns and writings on the subject are the direct results of his efforts. In this work he was closely associated with Dr. Housey of B. C. , who was chairman of the committee of the Canadian Commission on Sites and Monu- ments. Dr. Housey was, in fact, a personal friend of the Stewarts.
Dr. Stewart, more than any other one person, has done much to put Ninette on the map. He was our emissary, of course, when he participated in THE TOUR for DOCTORS of the CANADIAN TU- BERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION. In 1926 when THE SUN LIFE ASSU- RANCE ASSOCIATION gave financial assistance to the above men- tioned association for their project to send thirty men, most of them sanatorium heads, to visit Sanatoria in England and other parts of Europe, Dr. Stewart was fortunate enough to be included in the cho- sen group, and of course was indebted to the Manitoba Sanatorium Board which was obliged to match the Sun Life's financial aid dollar for dollar. On his return he discharged this obligation by publish- ing a 72 page pamphlet entitled EUROPEAN TOUR OF CANADIAN DOCTORS in which he reported in considerable detail the discus- sions occurring at the many meetings attended and the details of the inspection visits made.
The trip was planned to allow the party to attend The Interna- tional Congress on Tuberculosis at Rome. But perhaps a greater thrill for Dr. Stewart was the visit to the Swiss village of Leysin, where half way up the mountain side a sick physician had, a quar- ter of a century previously, begun to treat tuberculosis of bones and joints and had so inspired his American descendant, Dr. Trudeau, that Saranac was born. The British National Association For the Prevention of Tuberculosis had courteously postponed its meeting in London for four months that the Canadian group might attend, and this meeting was found by Dr. Stewart to be more rewarding than the one in Rome.
The fine associations of this trip did not end with the return of the party. In 1930 when The British Medical Society met in Winnipeg,
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the T., B. section paid a return visit to Ninette and for one mem- orable week-end renewed acquaintanceships here. They even went so far as to put on the screen pictures of events of the 1926 tour in- sisting that the men shown in the pictures stand to receive a hearty clap as each was recognized in the picture My brief account of Dr* D, A, Stewart draws to an end with two quotations: Mrs, Ida Clingan begins her "Virden Story t! with these words: tlThe first inspiration for collection of data concerning Virden history came from the late Dr. D. A. Stewart who was instrumental in having many historical sites marked He with a committee — after considerable re- search among old records, fixed upon the location of the old trading post of Fort La Bosse just east of the present Virden. A cairn to- day marks the spot. n Finally, I quote from the plaque to be found on the boulder brought by flat-car from "The shores of Lac du Bonnet Dougald Man, , and placed in a little park in front of the San's, main building as a lasting memorial to a man who loved the outdoors more than most,
In memory of
David Alexander Stewart
B A MD ? F R C P. (C ) L, L, D,
First Superintendent
of The Sanatorium
1910 - 1937 Physician Teacher Historian
Naturalist Artist One who loved his fellow men.
Many who served at the "San, " for long years and participated in community affairs over the period could well have a place in this record. Its nurses: Birdie Galverley and Betty Brown, to name only two; its engineers of whom George Overend and Jim Scott are, I think the most outstanding; its painters, Bob Lumsden and Mr, Hopkinson pioneers in this field; its superintendent's secretaries notably Miss Bell and Miss Gladys Wheat ly, its X-ray men, Bill Doern, Wallie Anderson, and Hubert Jones: and its scholarly lab- oratory head, Mr. Joe Scott, M, T, And there were the doctors. Dr. Adamson, Dr, Pritchard, Dr, E.G* Ross andc of course Dr* David Stewart This list is, it would seem, endless, and this re- cord dare not attempt it. Some day a "San. " history may*
A WORSE ENEMY THAN T. B. - CANCER -
In reviewing the past, one is impressed with the fact that it has been that dread killer, Cancer and not tuberculosis that has been Ninette's most dreaded disease enemy. The list of its victims is long: Mr Milt Mackie, Mr Archie Bell, Mrs, James Overend, Mrs John Yellowlees, Mrs Walter Hughes Adams (nee Nellie Wri- ghtu, Mrs Victor Coulthard, Mrs, Charlie Cullen, Mrs, W, Massey
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Miss Jessie McDonald, Mrs. Neil Stewart, Mr Harry Lowe and Katie Nicholson of BellafiekL We boast that tuberculosis is on the decline and that the fight against it will soon be won. May the same be said before too long with regard to cancer,
WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES - Few couples live to celebrate fiftieth or perhaps even fortieth wedding anniversaries. And a sixtieth wed- ding anniversary is indeed such a rare occasion that off icials of Her Majesty 's Government and even the Queen, herself, recognize such with congratulatory telegrams.
Our record has in a previous part made mention of the golden wedding anniversary celebrated by the Darough family in the year 1912.
In October of 1944 Mr. and Mrs. Chas Calverley celebrated their fiftieth with all members of their immediate family in atten- dance. Two years later the family of Mr. and Mrs Oscar Spack- man had a similar celebration. Then in 1947 the family of Mr and Mrs. John Crawford decided to commemorate with a public recep- tion the fortieth wedding anniversary of their parents What pre- monition led them to sense that the honored couple would not live to celebrate a fiftieth!
Then came the first of those occasions for Ninette when one of its pioneer families celebrated a Diamond wedding anniversary. The Calverley s, who were so soon to depart this life, were at home on that October Sunday to all and sundry. The next July, Charlie died and a month later Isabella Jane was laid to rest beside him in our little cemetery. But not before her dearest neighbor cousin had gone* Lizzie Crawford died rather suddenly one May night of that summer. The day Charlie entered Killarney hospital for the last time, John Crawford was also admitted. He was suffering from an injury sustained in a fall. John was out and had a winter's visit with his family in the east but once again was in hospital, this time with a bad heart and then in mid-summer, 1956, he dropped dead one morning while walking to breakfast. It was a sad sight that summer to see those two brick houses, "built at about the same period, both standing empty, robbed by Death in a period of a little over a year of all four of its long time occupants.
But life goes on. And once again Ninette celebrated, this time on the occasion of Mr, and Mrs. Spackman 's Diamond wedding anni- versary in 1956. Mrs. Clarence Hembling (nee Ada Spackman) from Penticton B.C. and husband, Mrs. Ed Kerr (nee Helen) and husband from Lumsden, Sask. and Tom Spackman with his wife and two chil- dren, Tom and Louise, from Cincinnati, Ohio, were on hand to greet the friends and neighbors who called to pay their respects. There
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are those among us who regret that our village as a whole does not see fit to mark these rather rare occasions with some tangible and lasting evidence of its respect and good wishes for the couple being honored.
It appears that the old rink built by the Overends is soon to be replaced as is also the brick post-office where Charlie lost his life. On April 24, 1929, the incoming spring ice ended the lakeside Happy- land with the little cottages Mr, Overend put there. A fine recrea- tion park replaces it.
The old-timers, too have gone, one by one., How few are left! Harry Overend, aged Ninety, is in a nursing home in Brandon as is alsoMrSu John Nicholson of BellafiekL Wes, also Ninety still living in his old home, is our senior pioneer citizen He is proud that this year he will receive his 50 year Jewel from the Wawanesa Masonic Lodge, Mr, and Mrs, Spackman, both 88, have their home in the village, as does Mrs, Jim Wright. Sam Clark, 82, is still in the house on the corner and Louis Watkins, still on the old homestead. Charles Darough, only surviving child of the Darough family (88) is living at 134th St. , - 10685 - North Surrey, B. C,
It occurs tome that history does repeat itself even in this place* George Monk, in buying the one-time Overend store took back to its old location the butcher shop and Walter Nixon, present owner of the former Yellowlees establishment, is repeating the former owners early mode of life by living on the premises . The post-office au- thorities have reverted to the pioneer method of trucking the mail brought in with the one difference that gasoline replaces horse-power „- Fishing in the lake both in summer and winter is again popular . But the keen anglers whose cars dot the surface of the ice while they sit hour after hour at their holes, catching northern pike, pickerel, and perch weighing up to 25 lbs« are now doing it for sport, not for a livelihood. The old beach is being restored and a new one, spon- sored by the government occupies the site of the little Happy land cottages erected by the Overends and destroyed by the spring ice of 1946. Fairhaven boasts 9 new cottages and others are springing up at all points along the lake -shore. In the village itself boats are for hire and private launches are to be seen riding at anchor. But we have not re-established our one-time boat company* Our United Church minister, Revo Tom Payne, like his predecessor, Rev0 John McConnell, is sojourning here a fairish number of years. New sur- gery methods are again revolutionizing the treatment of T. B. and sack dresses are once again being worn.
We hope and trust that history will repeat itself in keeping us free from such devastating fires as Belmont has suffered. We are thankful that in reviewing the past we can recall only two: the ele-
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ffi
WEDDING PICTURE HARRY AND ANNIE OVEREND
" 'JUT^'f
GEORGE
FOUR GENERATIONS
THE TWO CHARLIES OVEREND - CALVERLEY
vator fire, and the burning of the old Yellowlees home at the time the home of the George Raynors.
In closing I invite you to PAY AN IMAGINARY VISIT to a cher- ished corner on top of the west hill where we have laid so many of our dear ones. In that well-kept little cemetery, donated by James Overend, we find the graves of many of whom this record speaks. While he lived, Charlie made a labour of love in keeping the spot beautiful.
From a point close by one can look down on the valley with its little village of which the Belmont history writes, "What it lacks in 'stature is made up in beauty". As the eyes turn northward, one can just glimpse the water of little Overend lake, Now slowly move the eyes southward. You are viewing what was once the James Overend pre-emption quarter, the south part of which is now occupied by the streets and buildings of the village. Beyond the railroad track to the north we can just seethe farthest street on which is located the Cole home. This as yet does not extend all the length out to the highway Jim's son-in-law, Charlie Calverley, in naming this Orillia Street had a most happy inspiration. What could be more fitting than that something permanent in this place should bear a name related to the first actors who stepped upon the stage of pioneer-life in this spot. I refer, of course, to the Orillia pioneers,
DEAR LAND OF HOME
Dear land of home, our hearts to thee are^holden By loyal love for each familiar scene. Thy hillsides guard the fields of grain all golden. Thy waters shine midst meadows deeply green.
Thy children we, our love and pride confessing In this fair land, this pleasant place of home. And may we strive to bring a richer blessing To crown thee now and in the years to come.
Set to the music of Sibelius' Finlandia. Author of the verse not known to writer of this history.
LEECH PRINT. - BRANDON
F Calverley, Eva
5697 And so, Ninette,
G3 ir?9-1919;
([n.d. ])
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