GRAND FORKS AND HERE I STAY

Photo taken c 1899 before Wallace enlisted with Lord Strathcona’s Horse Brigade and left for the Boer War.  Although most family photos were destroyed as a result of the circumstances of Emma’s death, this photo was in my grandmothers (Delle’s) possession.

Front Row: Lucy, Delle, Arthena

Middle Row:  Wallace, Stella, Bert, Bella

Back Row: Emma, Ida

Prince Albert, Saskatchewan

     Mary Jane & Hugh went their separate ways in the early 1900’s.  After at least 40 years of moving – California, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and finally Grand Forks, Mary Jane said “no more”.  Did this also mean the end of their marriage? or more commuting for Hugh?  With his job on the railway he would have had some resources available to return to Grand Forks reasonably or for free.  After retirement, and living as a caretaker in a church, funds would have dried up making travel much less frequent or almost impossible.  Hugh wrote a letter to daughter Bella saying that he may not be able to send anything for her birthday as “the church people have not paid me yet and I don’t know if they will in time or not”. 

        In a letter from Stella Donnan regarding her family she said that Hugh “left home in 1898 and came to B.C., working on the CPR and getting as far as Grand Forks.  In three years’ time he had a house built. We were hardly there when he was transferred to Eholt so was only home weekends. I don’t remember when he was moved to Vancouver but mother said NO! She just got so many homes fixed up with trees brought from the bush, garden going, etc. and us younger ones still in school so we stayed in Grand Forks.”

        “Dad was a dreamer. Everything was going to be better over the mountain. One thing he didn’t drink. He did when they were first married but one night he and two or three others were coming home quite drunk and they thought they would have some fun in a Salvation Army meeting. However one of the girls got them to sign the pledge and from that day to the day he died he never touched it. We never had it in the house.”

Photocopy of a more formal portrait taken about a year after the one above. 

This photo was in Arthena’s possession.

Front Row:  Lucy, Arthena

Middle Row: Delle, Bert, Wallace, Stella

Back Row: Probably Ida, Emma, Bella