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Tag Archives: Thomas WATSON (1854-1932)

Tangled Web of Family Relationships

19 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by theirownstories in Muir Family, Watson Family

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Tags

Agnes (Nancy) Elizabeth ACTON (1892-1981), Helen McNab WATSON (1890-1967), James Muir WATSON (1888-1965), Jane MUIR (1865-1933), Janet WALKER (1859-1948), John McConnell Muir WATSON (1903-1994), Joseph Francis ACTON (1886-1972), Richard Arthur ACTON (1894-1984), Richard William ACTON (1916-1990), Richard William WATSON (1916-2000), Samuel Acton WATSON (1920-2002), Thomas WATSON (1854-1932), Thomas Watson ACTON (1917-1991), William Watson Muir WATSON (1892-1973)

[Please keep checking this space, additional material and photos will be added as they become available, additional tags will be added as dates are clarified. The last information and / or images added 20 May 2014]

Family history often a confused mixture of relationships; the story of the WATSON (including MUIR) – ACTON  families is no exception. The photo below was taken about 1938-39 in Saskatchewan at one of the many family picnic get-to-gethers of the WATSON-ACTON families. The location of the photo is likely beside the Qu’Appelle River, near Ellisboro, probably just beside the old bridge.

After Thomas WATSON and his wife Jane MUIR immigrated to Saskatchewan in 1910, their sons (James (#15 in the photo), William (#4), Alexander (deceased at the time of the photo), and daughter Helen (Nell) (#40) married members of the Acton family. The resulting combined and extended families led to a tangled web of relations and cousins. While Thomas (d. 1932) and Jane Watson (d. 1933) are not in this photo, many of their descendants are.

 ACTON1937-004a-names

Names of people in picnic of Watson – Acton families and their relationship to Thomas and Jane (Muir) Watson. Names of persons still living have been left blank(__).

1. Joseph (‘Joe’) Francis ACTON (1886-1972): husband of Nell (#40); father of Dick (#12) and Tom (#8); son-in-law of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR.

2. [Living son] WATSON: step-son of Bill (#4); brother of Janet (#23); grandson of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

3. Samuel (‘Sam’) Acton WATSON (1920-2002): son of Jim (#15) and Nancy (#38); brother of Doris (#29), Bill (#13), Muriel (#37), and __ (#28); grandson of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR.

4. William (‘Bill’) Muir WATSON (1892-1973): step-father of Bob (#2); brother of Nell (#40), Jim (#15) and John (#35); son of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR.

5. Jeff PARKER: husband of Edith (#20)

6. Robert WALKER (Sr.): nephew of Janet (#16); married to Lilly BAKER (not in photo), sister of Bill Sharpe’s wife Priscilla BAKER.

7. [Living son] ACTON: son of Dick (#21) and Annie (#27); brother of __ (#39), __ (#36), __ (#19), __ (#18), __ (#26) and __ (#22).

8. Thomas (‘Tom’) Watson ACTON (1917-1991): son of Joe (#1) and Nell (#40); brother of Dick (#12); grandson of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR.

9. William (‘Bill’) SHARPE: Husband of Priscilla BAKER (#25);

10. Robert WALKER (Jr.): son of Robert WALKER (Sr.) (#6)

11. Anne (Gompf) McKINNON: wife of Alex (#14); mother of Vi (#30)

12. Richard (‘Dick’) William ACTON (1916-1990): son of Joe (#1) and Nell (#40); brother of Tom (#8); grandson of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

13. Richard William (‘Bill’) WATSON (1916-2000): son of Jim (#15) and Nancy (#38); brother of Doris (#29), Muriel (#37), Sam (#3) and __ (28); grandson of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

14. Alexander ‘Alex’ McKINNON: husband of Anne (#11); father of Vi (#30); brother of Annie (#27)

15. James (‘Jim’) Muir WATSON (1888-1965): husband of Nancy (#38); father of Doris (#29), Bill (#13), Muriel (#37), Sam (#3) and __ (28); brother of Bill (#4), Nell (#40) and John (#35); son of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

16. Janet (Walker) ACTON (1859-1948): (widow of Samuel ACTON; Samuel died in 1927 therefore not shown in photo); mother of Nancy (#38), Dick (#21), Bob (#32) and Jenny (#17).

17. Janet (‘Jenny’) Ethel ACTON: daughter of Janet (#16); sister of Nancy (#38), Dick (#21), and Bob (#32).

18. [Living son] ACTON: son of Dick (#21) and Annie (#27); brother of __ (#39), __ (#7), __ (#36), __ (#19), __ (#26) and __ (#22).

19. [Living daughter] ACTON: daughter of Dick (#21) and Annie (#27); sister of __ (#39), __ (#7), __ (#36), __ (#18), __ (#26) and __ (#22).

20. Edith (Allen) PARKER: wife of Jeff (#5)

21. Richard (‘Dick’) Arthur ACTON (1894-1984): son of Janet (#16); husband of Annie (#27); father of __ (#39), __ (#7), __ (#36), __ (#19), __ (#18), __ (#26) and __ (#22); brother of Nancy (#38), Bob (#32) and Jenny (#17).

22. [Living son] ACTON (back of head): son of Dick (#21) and Annie (#27); brother of __ (#39), __ (#7), __ (#36), __ (#19), __ (#18), and __ (#26).

23. Janet Mae WATSON: step-daughter of Bill (#4); sister of Bob (#2); granddaughter of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

24. [Living daughter] ACTON: daughter of Bob (#32) and Sarah (#31); sister of __ (#34) and __ (#33).

25. Priscilla (Baker) SHARPE: wife of (Bill (#9)

26. [Living son] ACTON: son of Dick (#21) and Annie (#27); brother of __ (#39), __ (#7), __ (#36), __ (#19), __ (#18), and __ (#22).

27. Annie (McKinnon) ACTON: wife of Dick (#21); mother of __ (#39), __ (#7), __ (#36), __ (#19), __ (#18), __ (#26) and __ (#22); sister of Alex (#14)

28. [Living daughter] WATSON: daughter of Jim (#15) and Nancy (#38); sister of Doris (#29), Bill (#13), Muriel (#37), and Sam (#3); granddaughter of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

29. Doris (‘Doris’) Janet WATSON (1915-ca 1985): daughter of Jim (#15) and Nancy (#38); sister of Bill (#13), Muriel (#37), Sam (#3) and __ (28); granddaughter of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

30. Viola (‘Vi’) MCKINNON: daughter of Anne (#11) and Alex (#14); niece of Annie (#27)

31. Sarah Hastings (Johnston) ACTON (1896-1986): wife of Bob (#32); mother of __ (#34), __ (#24) and __ (#33), sister of Mary (#41)

32. Robert ‘Bob’ Walker ACTON (1896-1966): son of Janet (#16); husband of Sarah (#31) father of __ (#34), __ (#24) and __ (#33); brother of Nancy (#38), Dick (#21), and Jenny (#17).

33. [Living daughter] ACTON: daughter of Bob (#32) and Sarah (#31); sister of __ (#34), and __ (#24).

34. [Living daughter] ACTON: daughter of Bob (#32) and Sarah (#31); sister of __ (#24) and __ (#33).

35. John (‘John’) McConnell Muir WATSON (1903-1994): brother of Bill (#4), Jim (#15) and Nell (#40); son of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

36. [Living daughter] ACTON: daughter of Dick (#21) and Annie (#27); sister of __ (#39), __ (#7), __ (#19), __ (#18), __ (#26) and __ (#22).

37. Muriel Mae WATSON (1919-2000): daughter of Jim (#15) and Nancy (#38); sister of Doris (#29), Bill (#13), Sam (#3) and __ (28); granddaughter of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

38. Agnes ‘Nancy’ Elizabeth (Acton) WATSON (1892-1981): daughter of Janet (#16); wife of Jim( #15); mother of Doris (#29), Bill (#13), Muriel (#37), Sam (#3) and __ (28); sister of Dick (#21), Bob (#32) and Jenny (#17); daughter-in-law of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

39. [Living daughter] ACTON: daughter of Dick (#21) and Annie (#27); sister of __ (#7), __ (#36), __ (#19), __ (#18), __ (#26) and __ (#22).

40. Helen (‘Nell’) McNab (Watson) ACTON: wife of Joe (#1); mother of Dick (#12) and Tom (#8); sister of Bill (#4), Jim (#15) and John (#35); daughter of Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR

41. Mary JOHNSTON: sister of Sarah (#31)

The picnic was likely held on a Sunday afternoon, after the 11 AM church service in the rural Rosewood United Church. After attending church, the families would briefly return to their farm homes. All family members remained dressed in their Sunday best; they would not change after attending church. Quickly tying on an apron, the women would pack food that had been prepared the day before. The men would conduct a last minute check of any farm animals that might require food and / or water before evening; if this necessitated a change into ‘chore clothes’ the white shirts, ties and dark suit trousers would be put on again before leaving for the picnic. Cars were quickly packed with excited children and delicious and plentiful home cooked food.

ACTON1938-052ACTON1938-051Each housewife would pack more than enough for her own family, but once at the picnic site, all food would be placed on picnic tables or blankets for a large ‘pot-luck’ feast including jellied salads, potato salad, canned chicken, hams, sandwiches (canned salmon, roast beef and pork, chicken, ham), pickles (dill, mustard, sweet, bread-and-butter), homemade buns and bread, cakes, ‘squares’, pies and cookies. Large jars of homemade lemonade would be available for the children, multiple thermos of hot tea would be provided for the adults. Several families would also bring a ‘cream can’ of cool drinking water.

The afternoon’s entertainment was informal: the woman would gather and discuss children, gardens, recipes.

The men would discuss cattle, crops, weather, the price of grain, the lack of railway cars to ship the grain, the cost of farm machinery, the state of the roads, and the other constant challenges of farm life. The young children would dash amongst the trees involved in their own games of tag, or games of, the now politically incorrect, ‘war’ with pretend guns made from tree branches.ACTON1938-054

 

 

 

SPEIRS, Janet (1888-1952)

12 Sunday May 2013

Posted by theirownstories in General

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Tags

Elizabeth Wyllie McCONNELL (1895-1968), Gilbert SPIERS (1858-1941), Helen McNab WATSON (1890-1967), Isabella WATSON (1858-1904), Jane MUIR (1865-1933), Janet Speirs (1888-1952), Janet WATSON (1856-1935), John McCONNELL (1855-1913), Mary Hunter Morton McCONNELL (1883-1955), Thomas WATSON (1854-1932)

[for Janet’s parents and extended family see WATSON Family under heading ‘WATSON’]

[Please keep checking this space, Janet’s story will be told here as material and photos become available, the last information and / or images added 17 November 2018]

WATSON1930-000

Janet WATSON and her husband Gilbert SPEIRS, Ellisboro, Sask. probably in the late 1930s. From the author’s collection.

 INGLIS0001aJanet SPEIRS (left) was born to Janet WATSON and her husband Gilbert SPEIRS (above), their only child. I have not been able to locate her birth registration in Scotland, however on her 1952 Saskatchewan death registration her daughter states her birth date was 22 December 1888. Scottish census records indicated that she was born either in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland (1891 census of Scotland), or Kingarth, Buteshire, Scotland (1901 census of Scotland). The 1911 census adds to the confusion as Janet, 22, listed her birth place as ‘Argylshire, Inellan’.

Photo left: Janet Speirs, taken in Saskatchewan during WWII (see photos below). From the author’s collection.

Whichever her place of birth, as child Janet moved often. In 1891, when she was 2, her father Gilbert, 33, was a shepherd and her mother Janet, 35, a housekeeper for a farmer named Mitchell, on Overton Farm, Killearn, Stirling. By 1901 Janet, 12, had moved again, this time to Rankinston Farm, Ayrshire. While Janet attended a local school, her father was a farm servant and her mother worked as a dairymaid at the farm. By this time Janet would certainly have known, and played with, her Watson and McConnell cousins, the children of her Uncle Tom  and Aunt Jane [Thomas WATSON and Jane MUIR] and her Aunt Isabella and Uncle John [Isabella WATSON and John McCONNELL].

The extended Speirs-Watson-McConnell family experienced many changes in the early 1900s. In 1904 the sudden death of Janet’s Aunt Isabella McConnell left a family of young children motherless. Janet’s Uncle John McConnell, who had recently become unemployed, was not able to look after all the children by himself. Janet’s parents (Janet and Gilbert Speirs) were involved in helping the McConnell family cope. Janet, 16 in 1904, if not away from home working as a domestic servant, would have been called upon to help with the McConnell children.

As other stories in this blog about the extended Speirs-Watson-McConnell family have explained, in the early part of the 1900s most of them immigrated to North America, particularly Saskatchewan. Janet also wanted to follow her Watson cousins, and shared this ambition with her cousin Nellie [my grandmother [Helen (Nell) McNab WATSON] in April 1910 had left Scotland with her parents [Thomas and Jane Watson], and four siblings. We know that Janet wanted to leave Scotland from a postcard she sent to Nellie.

scan0001 scan0002

Postcard from the author’s collection

The postcard (above) was written on 9 August 1910, four months after Nellie had left Scotland for Saskatchewan; the postcard was addressed to the post office in Ellisboro, via Wolseley, Saskatchewan. Mailed in Ayr, Scotland on August 10, the postcard was received and stamped in Ellisboro on August 30 – amazing delivery time considering the so-called ‘slow’ methods of transportation in that period. Janet’s address at the time she wrote the postcard was ‘Wellpark, Racecourse, Ayr Rd. [Ayr, Scotland]. “Dear Nellie, Just a p.c. [post card] to say I hope you are getting on well and that you are all liking your new places. I was down at Girvan* last week for a few days holidays it rained every day. Write soon and give me all the news about the places you can. I am still on the notion to go out but mother [Janet (Watson) Speirs] thinks I am just as well where I am but I will see. Hope you are all well from your affect[ionate] cousin J. Speirs.” [Janet Speirs, daughter of Janet Watson and Gilbert Speirs]

[* Girvan was where Janet’s cousin Mary Hunter Morton McCONNELL lived – see post 20 April 2013. Janet’s  parents (Janet and Gilbert Speirs) may have also lived in the Girvan area in 1910].

It took just over two years for Janet to convince her mother, or for other family events to occur, that the move to Saskatchewan not only possible, but desirable for the Speirs family. On 2 November 1912, daughter Janet, 23, ‘domestic servant’, boarded the ship S.S. Cassandra in Glasgow. With Janet were her mother Janet, 54, and her father Gilbert, 57. WATSON1930-000Janet’s cousin Elizabeth Wyllie McCONNELL, 17, [see post 26 April 2013] also traveled with them. The group disembarked in Montreal, Quebec on the 12th of November, 1912. The ship’s passenger list showed that their destination was Wolseley, Saskatchewan.

[Photo left: Janet’s parents Janet and Gilbert Speirs; Gilbert with the ever-present corn cob pipe. Photo taken in Ellisboro, Saskatchewan, probably in the late 1930s. From the author’s collection.]

From Montreal, a train journey took the new immigrants to Wolseley, Saskatchewan, where no doubt they were met at the railway station by members of the Thomas and Jane Watson family. Christmas 1912 Janet would have been united with her Watson cousins and no doubt she and her cousin Nellie had many stories to share.

Janet Speirs likely found work as quickly as she could, possibly as a ‘hired girl’ for one of the neighbours. She had been in Saskatchewan only about a year when, at 25 years of age, she INGLIS0001bmarried John (‘Jack’) INGLIS. They probably were married in Ellisboro, Sask. about 1913 as their daughter Janet [another Janet] was 2 years old in the 1916 census, i.e. she had been born about 1914.

Photo right: John Inglis, taken in Saskatchewan during WWII (see photos below). From the author’s collection.

Not much is known at this time about John Inglis or indeed about the Inglis family. The 1916 census listed John Inglis as 28 years old, which meant that he was the same age, or a year older, as his wife Janet. The census also recorded that he was: born in Scotland; Presbyterian; and worked as a labourer. The census also recorded that he immigrated to Canada in 1912,  the same year as Janet. Would it be too much of a coincidence if John and Janet knew each other in Scotland? More research is required to find out which part of Scotland John came from.

For a number of years Janet and John lived in Ellisboro, they then moved north a few miles to a farm known locally as the ‘Johnny Thompson Farm’. They rented this farm until John (‘Johnny’) Thompson married and needed the farm for himself and his bride. The Inglis family was required to move so the farm would be available to the owner. They lived for some time, once again, in Ellisboro and then bought land in the Abernethy – Balcarres area, just a few miles from Lemberg. McConnell1-0002We know that they had moved to Abernethy by February 1933 by The Wolseley News, Wednesday, 12 July 1933 account (see below) Also Janet (Inglis) nursed her mother Janet Speirs (d. 12 February 1935) there before her death. Janet’s father Gilbert also died (d. 19 April 1941) at the Inglis home.

Above, death memorial card for Janet’s mother (Jennet) Watson / Speirs. The card, as well as the one below for Janet’s father Gilbert, McConnell1-0003was sent to Janet’s cousin William Watson McCONNELL in the United States [see post 28 April 2013]. These death memorial cards are still in the collection of William McConnell’s descendants Mary Smith who lived in Tennessee before her death.

John Inglis and Janet Speirs had five children:

Janet Watson INGLIS, also known as Jennie, was born about 1914 (according to the 1916 census). She INGLIS0002alikely was born in Ellisboro. Very little is yet known of her life. She married after 12 July 1933. The Wolseley News, Wednesday, 12 July 1933, in the ‘Ellisboro news column’ noted that “Miss Jennie Inglis spent the weekend with her parents in the Abernethy district.” As Mrs. R. S. EICHEL [Ronald Sinclair EICHEL], of Indian Head, she was the informant of her mother’s death in 1952. There is a grave in the Indian Head, Saskatchewan cemetery with a similar name, and a death date of 1955 – perhaps this is Janet’s grave?

Photo above right: Janet Watson Inglis, taken on the ‘Johnny Thompson Farm’, Saskatchewan, about 1930. From the author’s collection.

John (‘Jack’) W. (Watson? William?) INGLIS was born in the first few months INGLIS0001cof 1916, according to the 1916 census. He also was likely born in Ellisboro. From the photos below we can surmise that he was in the Canadian Army in WWII, it is not known what he did after that. His grave is not with the rest of his family in Balcarres, Saskatchewan.

Photo right: John W. Inglis, taken in Saskatchewan during WWII (see photos below). From the author’s collection.McConnell023-2

Photo left: “Little Jenny and Jack Inglis with Isa”, from the collection of M. W., Mauchline.

[Photo above: Isabella (Isa) Watson McCONNELL was Janet’s first cousin. This photograph was taken in Ellisboro, Saskatchewan probably late 1917 or early 1918. Isa sent this photo ‘back home’ to Girvan, Ayrshire, Scotland to her sister Mary Hunter Morton McConnell. The photograph is still in Scotland, in the collection of M. W. of Mauchline, one of Mary’s descendants.]

Gilbert A. INGLIS was born in 1924 and died in 1963; these dates have been obtained from his gravestone in Balcarres, Saskatchewan. INGLIS0002bGilbert was probably born on the Johnny Thompson Farm. A family story indicates that, as a boy, Gilbert was a good racer and could ‘”run like the wind”.

Inglis02Photo right: Gilbert Inglis, taken on the Johnny Thompson Farm, Saskatchewan, about 1930. From the author’s collection. Photo above left: Gilbert’s grave taken by the author 13 July 2002, in Balcarres, Saskatchewan.

Children numbers 4 and 5 were twins, J. (James?) Gordon INGLIS and Kenneth W. (William? Watson?) INGLIS. They were born on 1 May 1925, probably on the Johnny Thompson Farm. INGLIS0003aWe know from photos that Kenneth was in the Canadian Navy during WWII. Kenneth died 25 March 1990. He is buried in the Balcarres Cemetery. Inglis01

Photo above left: Kenneth W. Inglis, taken in Saskatchewan during WWII (see photos below). From the author’s collection. Photo above: grave of Kenneth W. Inglis, taken by the author 13 July 2002, in Balcarres, Saskatchewan.

Nothing is known about Kenneth’s twin J. Gordon at this time. According to the information on his gravestone in Balcarres, he died 14 June 1993. Inglis04

Photo right: grave of J. Gordon Inglis, taken by the author 13 July 2002, in Balcarres, Saskatchewan.

Information at this time is very sketchy about the Speirs-Inglis family. We do know that they kept in touch with the extended Watson – McConnell family. As well as shared photographs and postcards there were family visits.

My mother remembers that even in the period 1950-1970s, and until my grandfather Joseph (Joe) ACTON died in 1972, John (Jack) Inglis would visit Joe in Lemberg. Jack would have been a ‘cousin-in-law’ to Joe; Joe’s wife Nellie [Helen McNab Watson] and John’s wife Janet Speirs had been first cousins. Nellie had been the recipient of Janet’s post card from Scotland, almost 50 years earlier, in 1910.

Inglis03

Janet (Speirs) Inglis died 16 June 1952. According to the date on the grave in Balcarres her husband John Inglis died in 1980.

Photo right: grave of Janet and John Inglis, taken by the author 13 July 2002, in Balcarres, Saskatchewan.

Other Inglis family photos from the author’s collection: INGLIS0001

On back of photo right: Jack, Janet & young Jack’ Is this the Inglis farm home near Abernethy? From Jack’s army uniform this appears to have been taken during WWII. Perhaps Jack had just enlisted and received his uniform and was leaving home?

INGLIS0003On back of photo left: Ken Inglis & his dad. This photo was taken in the same location (although not the same day – Jack isn’t wearing a tie) as the photo above, sometime during WWII. Perhaps Ken had just received his uniform and was leaving home?

On back of photo below: no names, but we know from the INGLIS0005above photo that the man in uniform is Kenneth Inglis. Who are the children? Could these be Ken’s nephew and niece, the children of his sister Janet Watson Inglis who had married Ronald Sinclair EICHEL? The children could be Keith EICHEL (b. abt. 1941) and Mae EICHEL (b. abt. 1943). The children’s sister Ruth EICHEL  (b. abt 1942) had ‘died as an infant’ so this is not likely her.

On back of photo right: Inglis INGLIS0002Left to right in the photo could be: John (Jack) born about 1916, Gilbert, born 1924; twins – J. Gordon and Kenneth W. born 1 May 1925; and Janet Watson, born about 1914. The location is probably the ‘Johnny Thompson Farm’; surrounding countryside bleak. Photo taken about 1930?

INGLIS0004a

Photo left: Inglis twins Ken & Gordon Location – same as above photo. Taken probably in the summer of 1925 (the uncropped photo shows this photo is in the front doorway, during warm weather).

Photo below: Unknown photo. Could these be the Inglis twins and ?. The photo format is a postcard that has been made in Canada so this is not a family from Scotland, although the provenance of the photo would indicate that this is a Watson family relation.INGLIS0007

McCONNELL, William Watson (1902-1967)

28 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by theirownstories in McConnell Family

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Gilbert SPIERS (1858-1941), Isabella WATSON (1858-1904), James Muir WATSON (1888-1965), Jane MUIR (1865-1933), Janet WATSON (1856-1935), Mary HUNTER (1827-1907), Thomas WATSON (1854-1932), William Watson Muir WATSON (1892-1973)

  [for William’s parents and siblings see WATSON Family under heading ‘WATSON’]

This story is dedicated to Mary Janet McConnell Smith, the daughter of William Watson McCONNELL and a granddaughter of Isabella WATSON and her husband John McCONNELL. Mary was born in Seattle, lived in Montana and now lives in Tennessee, USA. Mary has been, and continues to be, central to the research and interest in the story of Isabella and John McConnell and their descendants.

[this post last edited, new information and / or images added 8 July 2013]

William Watson McCONNELL was born on 16 February 1902 at Carcluie Cottage, Ayrshire, Scotland, the youngest child of John McCONNELL and his wife Isabella WATSON. Young William’s world was shaken when his mother, who likely had been ill for some time, died unexpectedly on 11 June 1904 after an operation at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow. Additionally – for a reason unknown at the present – his father was no longer employed in his lifelong occupation as a gamekeeper, and appears to have had difficulty supporting his large family. All this for two year old William to cope with.

Suddenly the McConnell family was motherless. Although it is not clear how the family managed it seems likely that William’s 21 year old sister Mary (Mary Hunter Morton McCONNELL), as the eldest child and daughter, may have become his surrogate mother. His brothers, 19 year old John (John McCONNELL) and 17 year old Thomas (Thomas Watson McCONNELL) would have completed school and worked outside the home; John as an apprentice joiner and Thomas as a clerk. William’s older sisters, 15 year old Janet (Janet Watson McCONNELL), 13 year old Isa (Isabella Watson McCONNELL), and 9 year old Elizabeth (Elizabeth Wyllie McCONNELL) still attended school. William was the baby of the family and, if his mother was ill for many months before her death, he may not even have had much memory of her.  It seems fairly certain that William’s grandmother, Mary HUNTER, would come and stay with the family. Also, William’s aunt and uncle Janet (WATSON) and Gilbert SPEIRS helped wherever they could. Strong ties were also maintained with William’s uncle Thomas WATSON and his wife Jane MUIR. Over the next few years, William was likely cared for by a variety of immediate and extended family. He seems to have been particularly close to his sister Isa.

No doubt many extended McConnell-Watson-Speirs family discussions occurred; not only about their own individual futures, but also what could and should be done about the young McConnell children? Not only was the McConnell family motherless, but John, the father, had for some reason no further work as a gamekeeper and the family had left their home of Carcluie and were in rented accommodation. What could be done?

In the early 1900s deliberations began about a possible move to the ‘new world’ of North America. Newspapers were filled with advertisements extolling the virtues of this new land: job opportunities abounded; all skills were required and welcome; land was available for purchase and in some cases basically ‘free’; the climate was healthy; plenty of food was easily grown; the strict class society was not followed. And this new land offered adventure. The younger members of the family were likely enthusiastic about the move. They could see that life as their parents knew it did not offer the opportunity and future that they wished for. The older generation likely were more reluctant to change their ways and routine and were understandably hesitant about a move to the other side of the world.

William, although he was only young, likely listened intently as his father, siblings, aunts and uncles and cousins discussed back-and-forth the pros and cons of emigration.

McConnell0002Photos left: William about 3 years old, taken in Scotland about 1905. From the collection of Mary Smith. In the photo where he wears the cap, it is easy to imagine William listening intently to a dinner table conversation about emigration.

In October 1905 another blow struck the McConnell family when William’s 18 year old brother Thomas died of tuberculosis. It is not known whether Thomas, who had worked as a railway clerk, had been enthusiastic about emigration. In the heyday of railway development in western Canada he certainly would have had opportunity for work if he had moved. However, his death from tuberculosis may also have encouraged the other family members in their search for fresh air (of which western Canada certainly had an ample supply) as well as land and opportunity.

The first to move, in June 1906, was a Watson cousin, 17 year old James (Jim) Muir WATSON. Jim sailed to Montreal and then went by train to Manitoba where he worked as a farm labourer to save up money to buy his own land. Although William didn’t know it at the time, ten years later he was to stay with Jim and his Canadian wife on the Saskatchewan farm that Jim had purchased.

In June 1909, when William was 7, his siblings started to immigrate. His elder brother John, 24, a carpenter, sailed for New York and settled in New Jersey. William would likely miss John whom he may have regarded as a special older brother. In July of that same year William’s cousin William (Bill) Watson Muir WATSON, 17 years old, sailed for Canada where, like his brother Bill, he worked on a Manitoba farm as a farm labourer earning money for land purchase. Unknown to William at the time he would see Bill again in four years in Saskatchewan. [See post 28 February 2013 for the post card that Janet WATSON / SPEIRS wrote to Bill for Christmas 1909.]

William likely continued to live with various family members and the to-emigrate-or-not-to-emigrate conversations continued. We know that the Speirs considered the move. In April 1910 William’s uncle Thomas Watson and his aunt Jane, and their children moved to Saskatchewan. Their move meant that the entire Watson family, with the exception of one son, had left Scotland. One of William’s support families had disappeared from his life. The 1911 census found William as a ‘visitor’ with his aunt Janet and uncle Gilbert Speirs.  A year later, in November 1912, that support family disappeared as well when Janet, Gilbert and their daughter Janet sailed for Canada. With them went William’s sister, 17 year old Elizabeth. They all headed to the Wolseley, Saskatchewan area where the Watson family had settled. For William, Elizabeth’s move meant another sibling gone.

It appears that most of the remaining McConnell family decided to join the others and it was decided that William and his older sister Isa should emigrate and join the other families in Saskatchewan. Family stories indicate the William’s father John planned to move; he would likely feel responsible for his son William who was still a minor. Bad fortune struck the McConnell family again, when in January 1913, William’s father died suddenly and unexpectedly after brief four day bout of “acute pneumonia”.

However likely the travel plan had already been made, the tickets already purchased. On July 5th, 1913 William, 11 years old, and Isa, 22, left Glasgow on the ship S.S. Letitia for the ten day trip to Montreal.

McConnell0003aPhoto right: William about 11 years old. From the collection of Mary Smith. This photograph may have been taken in Scotland, as a formal portrait, before William got on the ship S.S. Letitia.

The arrival in Montreal would have been followed by a train ride to Wolseley, Saskatchewan.

By the end of 1913 most of the extended McConnell-Watson-Speirs family had left Scotland. The only two McConnell family members to remain in Scotland were William’s older sisters Mary and Janet.

McConnell0004a

Photo left: Gilbert Speirs and William, 1919, taken in Ellisboro, Saskatchewan, Canada. From the collection of Mary Smith.

Family stories indicate that when William and his sister Isa arrived in Canada their older brother John met them and stayed with them for a month at the home of Janet and Gilbert Speirs in Ellisboro, Saskatchewan. If this is the case John would have travelled from New Jersey to Montreal to meet their ship and then travelled to Saskatchewan by train with William and Isabella.

Not much of William’s life in Saskatchewan is known. He must have gone to school since he was 11 years old when he arrived in Canada. It is not known when he moved permanently to the USA. His family believe he crossed the US / Canadian border ‘many times’. By 1920 his sister Isa had moved to the USA and married Ernest PIERCE in Shellby, Montana. In 1921, William went, perhaps not for the first time, from Canada to the USA, and again in August of 1922 at Seattle, he went to Shellby, Montana.

Photo below right: William, about 1928.  From the collection of Mary Smith. McConnell0001-xc

Sometime later he joined the US military. McConnell0001-xbPhoto left: William (on left) with an unidentified army buddy. When in 1930 he married his first wife, 18 year old Ruth Leona DAVIS, he was in the Army at Fort Lawton in Seattle with the Third Engineers. Ruth was born in 1912 in Washington state and died in Florida in 1992.

McConnell0001-xgPhoto left: William and his 1st wife Ruth Davis, 1933. This and the above photos from the collection of Mary Smith.

Ruth and William McConnell had three children; Mary Janet McCONNELL (born 22 May 1933); William (Billy) Lyle McCONNELL (born 22 May 1937); and Bonnie Jean McCONNELL (born 29 June 1938). All of the children were born in Glasgow, Montana; William’s eldest child Mary believes her father worked as a fireman during the building of the Fort Peck Dam. The children were born during the depression years and work was hard to find; a job at the Fort Peck Dam construction would have been welcome.

William’s daughter Mary picks up her father’s story. “In 1940 my dad re-enlisted in the Army at Glasgow, Montana for two years, in 1942 he re-enlisted, this time in Butte, Montana. During this tour of duty he was shipped to New Guinea to clear jungles and build air fields. He was one of the first ones there and I have more than fifty pictures of natives in New Guinea. While my dad was at war, my mother Ruth, on June 23, 1943, put my sister, brother and I in an orphans’ home in Great Falls, Montana. My sister Bonnie Jean died on April 7, 1944 of diphtheria.

Dad was discharged from the military on August 12, 1944. He got my brother and I from St. Thomas’ Orphans’ Home and on September 25, in Wolf Point, Montana, he married Lulu FULLER. She was born in 1887, died May 26,1956.” McConnell0001-xd

Photo right: William and his 2nd wife Lulu. Photo taken sometime between 1944 and 1956. Photo is from the collection of Mary Smith.

Mary’s story continues: Between 1945 and 1948 I don’t remember too much but my dad did work on the Great Northern rail line. Lulu  is the one who raised my brother and I after Dad got out of the army. In 1949 we moved to Troy, Montana. I think the Rail Line transferred my father. We rented a piece of land, that had a horse barn on it. My father converted the horse barn into a home for us to live in. Down stairs was divided in half by a blanket that made a kitchen and bedroom. Upstairs was divided in half so my brother and I each had a bedroom. The stairway to our upstairs bedroom was on the outside of our house. There was no electricity, running water or indoor plumbing.

McConnell0001-xfIn 1958 dad married his third wife, Mary ALFORD.  Mary was  born in 1901. She and dad were married in 1958 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Photo left: William with his wife Mary (woman on left side of photo) with an unidentified friend. Photo taken between 1958 and 1967. From the collection of Mary Smith.

On 23 March 1960 my brother William (Billy) Lyle McConnell died at Camp Pendleton, California. He was in a special outfit in the Marines. He was coming home to put on a show at the fairgrounds for Memorial Day and was killed in a car accident.

In 1965 when Dad came down to Florida to meet my husband, Clifford Smith, and my daughter, I had been away from home for sixteen years, since 1949.

McConnell0001-xhDad died on 17 April 1967 in Lewiston, Montana. He was very active in the VFW and the Veterans’ Affairs hospital where he ran the bingo for the patients. Mary Alford died in Hellena, Montana in 1967.”

[Author’s Note: a search of the Montana Death Index and associated records on Ancestry.com show that William W. McCONNELL, born 16 February 1902, died 17 April 1967, was buried in the city cemetery of Libby, Lincoln County, Montana. Also buried in this cemetery are William’s wife Lulu McConnell (1887-1956) and  William’s son William L. (1937-1960).]

WATSON, Janet (1856-1935)

28 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by theirownstories in Watson Family

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Gilbert SPIERS (1858-1941), Isabella WATSON (1858-1904), Janet WATSON (1856-1935), Mary HUNTER (1827-1907), Mount Oliphant Farm, Thomas WATSON (1827-1878), Thomas WATSON (1854-1932)

[see WATSON Family under heading ‘WATSON’]

[this post last edited, new information and / or images added 01 June 2013]

Janet WATSON was born on 7 February 1856 on Peebles Street, Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland to Thomas WATSON and his wife Mary HUNTER. Thomas and Mary were tenant farmers on Mosshill Farm, Dallmellington Road, outside Ayr. Thomas also worked as a ‘carter’, probably to supplement the family income, and he was not present at the time of Janet’s birth. Perhaps he was away on a carting job. Or perhaps, as a farmer, Thomas may have had a strong “draught” horse which, when it wasn’t used for ploughing would be hired out. Thomas may have been away delivering or picking up the horse.

Whatever the situation, since her husband was away, Mary went into Ayr, to a home on Peebles Street to have her baby. She may have gone to the home of her in-laws William and Isabella (McCREATH) WATSON who lived on Peebles Street. Mary’s own parents, William and Janet (McCALL) HUNTER, also lived in Ayr, likely on Clunes Street. Perhaps the Hunter home was not large enough to accommodate Mary and the new baby, or perhaps Mary’s father, who worked as a weaver, needed the available space for his weaving equipment and looms. Weavers cottages were  basically just ‘but an’ bens” so likely there would be no place or  privacy for a visitor in labour. [A ‘but an’ bens’ is a class of worker’s house which had a main room where work and daily life went on and then through to a bedroom. This type of home was a step up from a single room, but had no place for cattle or barn for storage. No kitchen or bathroom either! The word ‘ben’ still exists in Scots today and is used to refer to other rooms in the house e.g. “working at the computer Ben the house”.]

WATSON1930-000aPhoto: Janet, about 1930 in Ellisboro, Saskatchewan, Canada. Photo from the author’s collection.

At Mosshill Farm baby Janet joined two older brothers, a half-brother William [William WATSON] born in 1847 and a brother Thomas [Thomas WATSON] born in 1854. A sister Isabella [Isabella WATSON] born in 1858, completed the family. In an age of large families the Watson family of four children would be considered small. In 1861 Janet, 5, was a ‘scholar’ the term used for children who attended school. The census that year also tells us that Mosshill Farm had ’60 acres’.

Sometime after the 1861 and before 1871 census, the Watson family moved to Mount Oliphant Farm just outside Ayr. The farm had some renown as the previous home of Robbie Burns during the poet’s childhood. Mount Oliphant was a larger farm, here Thomas was able to rent 71 acres.

The 1871 census showed the Watsons as a farming family; as well as her farmer father Thomas, Janet’s mother Mary also listed her occupation as ‘farmer’. As was done from all the working farms in the area, Mary and possibly her daughters drove  the ‘jig’ [horse and cart] into Ayr to a market where she sold her butter and cream to the townspeople. Janet’s 16 year old brother Thomas is listed as ‘farmer’s son’. Her half brother, William, was away from home. Janet, 15 years old, who would have finished school, gave her occupation as a ‘general servant’ an indication that she may have been employed elsewhere, likely to bring in some money and supplement the family income.  If she had been working on the farm her occupation would normally be described as ‘farmer’s daughter’ or ‘farm servant. Perhaps she worked at a nearby farm, walked to work each day, and returned home in the evenings. The day of the census she was at home with her parents, brother Thomas and sister Isabella. A 14 year old ‘farm servant’, Charles Blackley also lived and worked on the farm.

On 2 Mar. 1878, Janet’s life changed dramatically when her father Thomas, only 50, died of ‘paralysis of the brain’ at Mount Oliphant Farm.WATSON1878-000c Janet’s mother Mary, herself only 50, was left a widow with three children and together the family helped run the farm. The 1881 census shows that Thomas’ son Thomas had taken over the rental of Mount Oliphant, and his mother Mary and sisters Janet and Isabella continued to live on the farm. (Right: Death memorial card from the collection May Wood, of a descendant of Thomas Watson who still lives in Ayrshire)

Two years after her father’s death, on 22 November 1880 Janet, 24 years old, married Gilbert SPEIRS, aged 22. The wedding took place at Janet’s home of Mount Oliphant farm; Janet listed her occupation as ‘dairy maid’ and her usual residence as Mount Oliphant Farm. Gilbert, a farm servant, listed his address as Mount Ferguson Farm which is the farm next to Mount Oliphant. It is likely that Gilbert and Janet met as they were neighbours, or Janet may have even been a dairy maid at Mount Ferguson; the farms still exist and are within easy walking distance of each other. Gilbert was born on 10 October 1858 in Balichmorrey, Barr by Girvan, Scotland, a son to Ivie Alexander SPEIRS, a ploughman, and his wife Euphemia SIMPSON. WATSON1930-000b

Photo: Gilbert, about 1930 in Ellisboro, Saskatchewan, Canada. Photo from the author’s collection. Family stories recount that Gilbert “Always had a corn cob pipe in his mouth.”

Janet and Gilbert did not stay long in the Mount Oliphant Farm / Mount Ferguson Farm area; perhaps there was not work or accommodation for a young married couple. Within six months, by the April 1881 census Janet, 25, and Gilbert, 28, were on the Rankinson Farm in the parish of Coylton, where Gilbert worked as a dairyman. In this census Janet has become 3 years younger than Gilbert; perhaps this was more socially acceptable? Mary Thomson, 14, lived with them as a servant. Perhaps Janet and Gilbert had ambitions of running a dairy together, as dairyman he may have had a little  autonomy, and the reason for the servant was to assist in the dairy (unskilled) as well as their house?

That same 1881 census showed Janet’s brother Thomas (26) had taken over responsibility for renting Mount Oliphant Farm, and her mother Mary (53), sister Isabella (23) also lived and worked there; perhaps Janet visited whenever she could as Rankinson Farm was not far away. The siblings and their mother stayed close all their lives; a bond that would support them over the years and the three countries of Scotland, Canada and USA.

One trip that Janet may have made to her family home of Mount Oliphant was for the marriage of her sister Isabella, 24, to John McCONNELL on 5 October 1882. John was a 27 year old gamekeeper, the son of quarry master John McConnell and his wife Mary MORTON. At the time neither Janet nor her family had any idea of how much support the future McConnell family would need from the extended Watson family. [see posts 19 April  – 28 April 2013 for story of Isabella and John’s family]

The Watson family extended again when, on 20 January 1887 Janet’s brother Thomas married Jane MUIR, the daughter of James MUIR and Helen McNAB. Thomas and Jane continued to live at Mount Oliphant for some years, before moving to several other farms in Scotland and eventually immigrating to Saskatchewan. Their immigration and the start of a new life were also to change that of Janet and her family. [see posts 14 May – 22 May 2012 for story of Thomas and Jane’s family]

In 1888, Janet’s and Gilbert’s only child, Janet, was born. Although I have not been able to locate her birth registration her Saskatchewan death registration listed her birth as 22 December 1888. Scottish census records indicated that she was born either in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland (1891 census), or Kingarth, Buteshire, Scotland (1901 census). The 1911 census adds to the confusion as Janet, 22, listed her birth place as ‘Argylshire Inellan’. Whichever is correct it appears that Gilbert and Janet frequently moved, itinerant tenant labourers always looking for work or a better opportunity.

By 1891 Gilbert, 33, was a shepherd and Janet, 35, a housekeeper for a farmer named Mitchell, on Overton Farm, Killearn, Stirling. As was the practice, Gilbert likely had taken a year’s contract to work as a shepherd on the understanding that his wife Janet would keep house for the combined household of the Speirs family, plus the farmer Mitchell and a 39 year old ploughman James Ewing. Janet, their daughter, was two years old in this census.

By 1901 Janet and Gilbert had moved again (and there may have been several moves in between census years); Gilbert was a farm servant and Janet worked as a dairymaid at Rankinston Farm, Ayrshire. Their daughter Janet attended school in the area. Rankinston Farm is where they had lived in twenty years earlier in 1881.

In the early 1900s Watson family experienced many changes. In 1904 the tragic and unexpected death of Janet’s younger sister Isabella  left a family of young children motherless. Janet’s brother-in-law John McConnell was not able to look after all the children by himself. Isabella and Gilbert lived in the area and no doubt spent time helping the McConnell family cope. Around this time, Janet and Gilbert moved to Chapeldonan Farm, near Girvan in Ayrshire which was not far from the McConnell family.

The extended Watson family had grown: Janet and Gilbert Speirs and their daughter Janet; Isabella and John McConnell’s seven children; and Thomas and Jane’s seven children. The period in Scotland from 1904 to 1913 for the extended family is not clear. What is clear from the postcards, shared photographs and existing records is that the three families were in close contact, visited when possible and continued to help and support one another.

In the early 1900s the Canadian government mounted an advertising campaign to attract settlers to western Canada. Land agents, who traveled throughout England and Scotland, extolled the virtues of emigration with the promise of free land and the opportunity for advancement. Newspapers carried advertisements, and in some cases letters from those who had already emigrated who encouraged others to follow. It was a lure that many young men could not resist.

In 1906 the extended Watson family began to move to the ‘new world’. The first of Janet’s nephews to leave Scotland was 17 year old Jim [James Muir WATSON], second eldest son of Janet’s brother Thomas and his wife Jane. After Jim arrived in Montreal in June of 1906 he travelled to Winnipeg, Manitoba by train and worked for a farmer as an agricultural labourer.

In 1907 an important family tie to Scotland was broken with the death of Janet’s mother Mary, age 81. Mary died on 07 July 1907, of bronchitis, at Chapeldonan Farm, Scotland. Gilbert was the informant of her death which suggests that Mary lived with her daughter Janet and son-in-law before her death.

In June 1909 another of Janet’s nephews, John McCONNELL, son of Janet’s deceased sister Isabella emigrated to the United States; his ship docked in New York City on June 21, 1909. John was a carpenter and may have been attracted to the opportunity to use his trade in the building boom on the eastern coast of the United States. He eventually settled in New Jersey, however he may have made at least one trip to Saskatchewan, perhaps with a thought of moving to Canada and farming.

The summer of 1909 saw another of Janet’s nephews leave Scotland. Bill [William Watson Muir WATSON], 17 years old, third eldest son of Janet’s brother Thomas and his wife Jane, sailed from Glasgow on the ship ‘S. S. Hesperian’ and arrived in Quebec City on 19 July 1909. Like his brother Jim, Bill’s eventual destination was Manitoba to work as an agricultural labourer.

By 1909 Janet’s brother Thomas and his wife Jane had decided to join their sons in Western Canada. In Janet’s Christmas post card to her nephew Bill that year indicated their decision. The post card below, in Janet’s handwriting was mailed to her nephew William [Bill] Watson who worked on a farm near Stockton, Manitoba. The post card was mailed 9 December 1909, and delivered in Canada 23 December 1909. The postcard is from the author’s collection.

WATSON1909-030WATSON1909-030a

Chapeldonan

 Wishing you a Merry Xmas all well hoping you are well had a letter from your father they were all well you will be having them out next will write about the New Year Aunt Janet

As Janet predicted in her Chritmas post card, on 2 April 1910 her brother Thomas (56 years old), sister-in-law Jane (45 years old), and four of their children left Glasgow, Scotland on the ship ‘S. S. Hesperian’. The ship docked in Halifax on 11 April 1910. The Watson children that accompanied their parents were Nell [Helen McNab WATSON], (20 years old), Alex [Alexander Hunter WATSON] (15 years old), Jean [Jane Muir WATSON] (11 years old), and John [John McConnell Muir WATSON] (7 years old).

Janet had misgivings about moving to Canada, as can be seen by a postcard  [not shown here, see post 12 May 2013] sent 9 September 1910, by her daughter Janet to Janet’s cousin Nell (“Write and give me all the news about the paces you can. I am still on the notion to go our but mother thinks I am just as well where I am but I will see“). However, perhaps jobs were becoming scarce for Janet and Gilbert, or family were encouraging them to come to the ‘new world’ which had opportunities for advancement.

On 2 November 1912, Janet, her husband Gilbert and their daughter Janet boarded the ship S.S. Cassandra in Glasgow. With them was Elizabeth Wyllie McCONNELL, 17, Janet’s niece [see post 26 April 2013]. The group disembarked in Montreal, Quebec on the 12th of November. The ship’s passenger list showed that their destination was Wolseley, Saskatchewan. Gilbert gave his age as 57 and his occupation as ‘labourer’, Janet, 54 (who continued to shave a couple years off her age) was a ‘housewife’ and Janet, (their daughter), 23, was a ‘domestic servant’.

A train journey took them to Wolseley, Saskatchewan, where no doubt they were met at the railway station by members of the Thomas and Jane Watson family. Christmas 1912 Janet, her husband and daughter would spend with her brother Thomas and his family.

WATSON1918-007Photo: Left to right – Thomas Watson, his sister Janet (Watson) Speirs, his brother-in-law Gilbert Speirs (with the ever-present corn cob pipe). Taken about 1918 in Saskatchewan, Canada, photo is from author’s collection.

[‘Life in Saskatchewan’ a story yet to be posted.]

Janet and Gilbert lived on and rented several farms in the Rosewood – Ellisboro area. WATSON1930-000For their last few years, during the first half of the 1930s they lived in Ellisboro in a rented home. This was the time of the Depression and a family story relates how, “while everyone was poor and in experiencing desperate times, the Speirs lived in extreme poverty. The story teller went on to say, “I don’t know what they lived on, or how they ate.”

Photo right; Janet and Gilbert Speirs, at their home in Ellisboro, about 1930. From the author’s collection.

Some time before her death Janet moved the home of their daughter Janet who had married John INGLIS. [see post 12 May 2013] where she died McConnell1-0002on 19 February 1935.

Death memorial card right was sent by Janet’s daughter Janet (Speirs) Inglis to her cousin William Watson McConnell in the United States. This card is now (in 2013) in the collection of William McConnell’s daughter, Mary Smith, who lives in Tennessee, USA.

Ellisboro, Saskatchewan Feb 21 – Tuesday morning, Mrs. Janet Spiers, 79, died at the  home of her daughter Mrs. John Inglis of Abernethy. Mrs. Spiers was born in Ayr, Scotland and with her husband, Gilbert Spiers, and her daughter came to Canada in 1912 and until the past few months had made their home in Ellisboro. The remains were interred in the cemetery here Friday afternoon in the presence of a large number of relatives and friends. The service was conducted by Rev. E. C. Cuming. The pallbearers were James, William and John Watson, Joseph Acton, J. W. Tubman ; and Kenneth Campbell. (Source: Regina Leader Post, Feb 21, 1935, Evening Edition, p. 20)

For the next while Gilbert lived with his nephew James (Jim) WATSON and his wife Agnes (Nancy) ACTON on their farm in the Qu’Appelle Valley. Jim Watson’s son Samuel Acton WATSON remembered that, as a boy growing up on the farm, one of his jobs was to take a plate of supper out to the shed or shack that had been fixed up for Gilbert to live in.

Gilbert died, at the home of his daughter Janet and son-in-law John Inglis on 19 April 1941. McConnell1-0003Gilbert’s daughter Janet also sent notice of her father’s death to her cousin William Watson McConnell in the United States. As with Janet’s death memorial card, this card is now (in 2013) in the collection of Mary Smith, William McConnell’s daughter.

IMG_1625Janet and Gilbert were buried in the Ellisboro Cemetery, beside the grave of Janet’s brother Thomas Watson and his wife Jane Muir. Photo from the author’s collection.

ORMSBY, Margaret (Peggy) Wilson (1904-1992)

24 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by theirownstories in Brickrow Farm, Ayr, Scotland, Ormsby Family

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Annie Young SPROAT (1907-1993), Helen McNab WATSON (1890-1967), Helen Ramsay MUIR (1874-1951), Henry ORMSBY (1911-1983), James Crawford McGUIRE (1894-1969), James Henry ORMSBY (1890-abt. 1956), James Muir WATSON (1888-1965), Jane MUIR (1865-1933), Jane Muir ORMSBY (1897-1983), John ORMSBY (1856-1927), Margaret Wilson ORMSBY (1904-1992), Richard Steel ORMSBY (1853-1922), Thomas WATSON (1854-1932)

[for Margaret’s parents and siblings see page ‘ORMSBY’ at top of screen]

[this post last edited, new information and / or images added 01 June 2013]

Margaret (Peggy) Wilson ORMSBY was born on 14 September 1904 in Brickrow Farm, St. Quivox, Ayrshire, Scotland, the sixth child and fifth daughter born to John ORMSBY and his wife Helen Ramsay MUIR. Two children had already died by the time Margaret arrived. I have not been able to determine the source of her middle name ‘Wilson’, although James WILSON was the parish minister at St. Quivox for at least thirty years and had married Margaret’s parents John and Helen Ormsby in 1894. It is possible that James Wilson was a close family friend as well since on October 24, 1924, he officiated at the marriage of Margaret’s sister Jane (Jean) Muir ORMSBY to James Crawford MCGUIRE. [see post 16 November 2012]. Margaret, 20, (photo below) was witness at the marriage.

The photo right [Margaret, October 24, 1924] was sent by Margaret’s mother Helen to her sister Jane (Jean) (MUIR) WATSON who lived in Saskatchewan, Canada. The photograph is now in the collection of an Ormsby family descendant who still lives in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Margaret never married. She worked as a live-in housekeeper / cook for many years, primarily for a well-to-do elderly bachelor. Apparently it was a position that financially allowed her to indulge in her enjoyment of fashion as family stories indicate that she “had a sense of style and always wore lovely clothes”. When the elderly bachelor died he left Margaret a bequest sufficiently large that she was able to buy or build a small home for her retirement.

About 1947 when her brother Henry (Harry) ORMSBY married, Margaret decided that it would be best if Harry and his bride Annie Young SPROAT had Brickrow Farm to themselves without the presence of their mother Helen who had become domineering and overbearing woman. Margaret took a housekeeping job in East Kilbride and took her mother with her. After her mother’s death in 1951, Margaret continued to work as a housekeeper.

On her retirement Margaret lived at her home at 3 Allenfield Road in Ayr. Family ties were important to her and Margaret was a letter writer. From family photos and letters I know that, although she never travelled to Canada, she maintained contact with her Saskatchewan cousins [children of Jane MUIR and Thomas WATSON] and they visited her whenever possible. She may also have been in touch with her cousins in New Zealand (children of Richard Steele ORMSBY), and Australia (children of James Henry ORMSBY), unfortunately no records or letters have been found to indicate this was the case.

Family members from Canada did stay in touch and visited whenever they were in Scotland.

WATSON1977-000-Don-Slater

Photo left: Annie, Harry and Margaret Ormsby, taken Alloway, Ayrshire Scotland in 1977 by Elsie (Watson) Slater from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Brig’O’Doon in the background. See Donald Slater’s Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/palaeoecogeek for this an other family photographs.

Photo left: Margaret (left) and her sister Jean Muir (ORMSBY) McGUIRE (right) at 3 Allenfield Road, Ayr, with Canadian cousin Samuel Acton WATSON, from Victoria, British Columbia. Sam’s father, James Muir WATSON, was a 1st cousin of Margaret and Jean. This visit occurred about 1982. Photo above and below are from the author’s collection.

Photo left: Thomas (‘Tom’) Watson ACTON, from Saskatchewan, visited Margaret in 1984, the visit referred to in the letter below. Tom’s mother Helen (Nell) McNab (WATSON) ACTON and Margaret were 1st cousins.

3, Allenfield Rd., Ayr, 17.1.85

Dear Jean & Tom,

I am sure you must think I have departed this world! I am so late in saying ‘thank you’ for your lovely Christmas card and a previous letter.

I am only now starting to write. I had a week in hospital in early December, and had the cataract removed from my right eye. The op. has been a success, but on returning home I took a very lazy fit. They say “Some people sit and think”, but I just sat. I am told that I had left it too late having my first experience of an anesthetic at eighty!

I feel more active now but am plagued with a bad cold.

We are having our first snow of the winter and it is bitterly cold, though nothing like in the south of England.

[page 2 of the letter, not shown here, continued…]

It has been quite a year. This miners’ strike has caused such an upheaval. Luckily, I had decided to finish with my coal fire and will not use it again though I do miss it.

Ann [Annie ORMSBY, Harry ORMSBY’s widow] has had another spell of backache and confined to the house. I have not been able to visit her for two days but we have long chats on the phone. In late summer she had treatment from a specialist near Edinburgh and was happy to think she had been cured but alas! I think she will return for more treatment when the cold season ends. I do hope too that she can find a home in Ayr during the year.

I have nice kindly neighbours here and I would be tempted to go house hunting myself. I have no quarrel with my present house but the garden is just a bit too much nowadays. However will give it another summer and find out if I can manage.

I do hope you both keep well and you are coming to terms with retirement! Perhaps you will fancy another long holiday as you had last summer.

Sorry my writing is so poor – I have still to get new spectacles.

My thanks and good wishes to both.

Sincerely Margt

Letter above is now in the collection of an Ormsby family descendant who still lives in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Margaret, 88 years old, died on 11 June 1992 in Biggart Hospital, Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland.

Watson Family Moves to Canada

24 Thursday May 2012

Posted by theirownstories in Muir Family, Watson Family

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Tags

Alexander Hunter WATSON (1895-1934), Helen McNab WATSON (1890-1967), James Muir WATSON (1888-1965), Jane MUIR (1865-1933), Jane Muir WATSON (1899-1988), John McConnell Muir WATSON (1903-1994), Thomas WATSON (1854-1932), Thomas WATSON (1887-1951), William Watson Muir WATSON (1892-1973)

(see ‘Thomas & Jane (MUIR) WATSON Family’ under heading ‘WATSON’;  for photograph of WATSON family see post 29 April 2012)

[this post last edited, new information and/or images added 12 March 2013. Unless otherwise indicated all photos are from the author’s collection]

[For more Watson family photos also check out Donald Slater’s family history Flickr account www.flickr.com/photos/palaeoecogeek]

The Thomas and Jane (MUIR) WATSON family came to Canada in four stages.

First to arrive was 17 year old James Muir (Jim) WATSON, who arrived in Montreal on the 19 June 1906, after a ten day sea journey from Galsgow, aboard the ship ‘S. S. Corinthian’. He travelled to Winnipeg by train and worked for a Manitoba farmer as an agricultural labourer.

The second of the Watson family to arrive in Canada was 17 year old William (Bill) Watson Muir WATSON who sailed from Glasgow on the ship ‘S. S. Hesperian’ and arrived in Quebec City on 19 July 1909. His eventual destination was Rapid City, Manitoba.

The main group of the WATSON family (father Thomas WATSON, mother Jane MUIR, Nell, 20 [Helen McNab WATSON], Alex, 15 [Alexander Hunter WATSON], Jane, 11 [Jane Muir WATSON], and John, 7 [John Mcconnell Muir WATSON]) left Glasgow, Scotland on 2 April 1910 on the ship ‘S. S. Hesperian’, which docked in Halifax on 11 April 1910.

Thomas (Tom) WATSON, 25, the last of the family to move to Canada, sailed from Glasgow on 17 June 1912 on the ‘S. S. Pretorian’, and arrived in Montreal about eight days later.

The Sea Voyage 

The Watson family (Thomas, Jane, Nell, Alex, Jane, and John) boarded the ‘S.S. Hesperian’ in Glasgow on 2 April 1910 with all their worldly possessions. The next day the ship stopped in Liverpool to pick up additional passengers. The sea voyage from Liverpool to Halifax took eight rough, sea sick days.

 S. S. Hesperian, Allan Line, Glasgow, Launched 1907, torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine 4 September 1915

The S. S. Hesperian’s Manifest listed the ‘Number of Souls’ on board as 1,416. Of that number 1,150 souls were housed in the bowels of the ship in 3rd class or ‘steerage’ even though the allowed legal limit was 1,000 people. In this overcrowded, cheap and substandard accommodation, hundreds of immigrants were housed in one large room, with shared sleeping, eating and bathroom facilities. One can only imagine the claustrophobia of bouncing over the Atlantic Ocean during the April storms, enduring sea-sickness in the dimly lit area, surrounded by hundreds of other sea sick passengers.

Newspaper headlines of the time gave some indication of the situation “Steerage conditions called appalling”, “Abuses among emigrant passengers” and “Horrible conditions endured by emigrants in steerage”.

The six Watson family members were among the miserable steerage passengers. My grandmother Nell [Helen McNab Watson], would speak only rarely and reluctantly about the trip, and never wanted to return to Scotland. And she never did.

However, for the Watson family and hundreds of thousands of other immigrants, however horrible the conditions in steerage, the price was right and this was the way to the promised land and a new start on life. The total fare for the six Watson family members was $25, covered by ‘British Bonus Allowed’. This was a commission paid by the Immigration Branch of the Canadian Government to steamship booking agents in the United Kingdom to encourage immigration of desirable settlers, mainly farmers, who were prepared to move to Canada. It encouraged steamship companies to recruit settlers and was a marketing tool of the Canadian government.

The family landed in Halifax on 6 April, 1910 at 6:45 a.m. I have always imagined that it was a cold, dreary, rainy April morning. Port of entry was not the now famous Pier 21, but Pier 2, which combined a deep water shipping terminus with a Canadian Pacific Railway terminus. [Pier 21 was not opened until 1923].

Once landed in Halifax the travails of the passengers were not over as all had to pass medical inspection. The ‘S. S. Hesperian’s’ Manifest for this voyage noted that the medical inspection of the steerage passengers commenced at 8:05 a.m. and was not fully completed until 4:00 p.m.; two passengers were detained. Connecting trains left at 2:00 p.m., 5:00p.m., 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.

Arrival in Wolseley

After several days the train reached Wolseley, Saskatchewan. It is not known how Wolseley was chosen as a destination, however Thomas had probably answered an advertisement for a farm labourer through a newspaper in Scotland. Once they arrived in Wolseley, the six Watson family members received a terrible shock. When the farmer who had hired Thomas showed up with his horse and cart and found out that there were six family members and not just one man, he turned around and left them standing at the railway station. In Scotland when a tenant farmer was hired it was understood that the whole family was included and all were expected to work. In Canada this was not the case. Although the misunderstanding was easily explained it did not make it any less serious for the Watsons. The Watson family was devastated, they had come all the way from Scotland and had nowhere to turn.

Fortunately for the Watson family, Mr. G. P. Campbell heard of their situation, picked up the family and took them home. Several Watson family members worked as hired help for the Campbell family until they were able to establish themselves on land.

Gradually the family established themselves, bought land, married, raised families and became involved in the community. For the Watson family members Canada was indeed the start of a new life, and provided opportunities they would never have had in Scotland.

WATSON, John McConnell Muir (1903-1994)

22 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by theirownstories in Watson Family

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Agnes (Nancy) Elizabeth ACTON (1892-1981), Helen McNab WATSON (1890-1967), Isabella WATSON (1858-1904), James Muir WATSON (1888-1965), Jane MUIR (1865-1933), Jane Muir WATSON (1899-1988), Janet WATSON (1856-1935), John McCONNELL (1855-1913), John McConnell Muir WATSON (1903-1994), Thomas WATSON (1854-1932), Thomas WATSON (1887-1951)

(see ‘Thomas & Jane (MUIR) WATSON Family’ under heading ‘WATSON’)

[this post last edited, new information and/or images added 12 March 2013. Unless otherwise indicated all photos are from the author’s collection]

[For more Watson family photos also check out Donald Slater’s family history Flickr account www.flickr.com/photos/palaeoecogeek]

 WATSON1914-001-600-1eJohn McConnell Muir WATSON, born in 31 December 1903, was the eighth child and fifth son born to Thomas WATSON and his wife Jane MUIR. At the time of John’s birth, the nomadic tenant farmer Watson family had moved to Knockhouse Farm, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland where John’s father had taken work as a dairyman.

Photo left: John McConnell Muir Watson, 10 June 1914, Rosewood District, Lemberg, Saskatchewan, Canada

One of John’s middle names was ‘McConnell’ after John McCONNELL who had married his father’s sister Isabella WATSON. The Watson and McConnell families were close as can be seen by surviving postcards. The Watson children seem to have visited the McConnell’s frequently.

John was the youngest in the family; sixteen years separated John and his eldest sibling Tom [Thomas WATSON]. Within two or three years of John’s birth his four elder siblings had already left home to work. In 1910 when the family immigrated to Saskatchewan John was seven: he continued his schooling once the family reached their new home. His boyhood in Saskatchewan was much different than that of his older siblings who were raised in Scotland.

Photo right: John, lower left hand corner, with a pet dog and sister Jean [Jane Muir WATSON]. Standing, left to right, John’s mother Jane, John’s aunt Janet [Janet (WATSON) SPEIRS], John’s sister-in-law Nancy [Agnes Elizabeth (ACTON) WATSON] and John’s brother Jim [James Muir WATSON]. The young children being held are John’s nieces and nephews, children of Jim and Nancy Watson. Photo taken about 1918 in the Rosewood district of Saskatchewan. From the author’s collection.

Photo left: John about 1928, Lemberg, Saskatchewan, Canada

From the author’s collection

During the early years of the 1900s John’s siblings left home to marry and his sister Jean moved to Regina for work. John and his parents continued to live together on his farm in the Rosewood district. It was here that his father Tom died in 1932. John’s mother Jane continued to live with him until her final illness in 1933 when she moved to her daughter Nell’s [Helen McNab (WATSON) ACTON] farm home just a few miles away.

John continued to live year round on his farm until 1957 when he built a home in Lemberg and lived there during the winter months, and continued to farm in the summer.

WATSON1955-003Photo right: John’s farm, the car is in front of the house

Photo left: John in mid-1940s

John never married although he was probably the most gregarious of his brothers, and enjoyed a social life. He was a constant fixture at the many Watson/Acton picnics and get-togethers, and community events. He enjoyed some travel to the United States and Churchill, Manitoba. He also visited his brother Jim and sister-in-law Nancy after they moved to Vancouver Island in 1945. He never spoke about Scotland nor returned there, but was only 7 when he arrived in Canada and his memories of Scotland may have been dim. He was active in the community, supported local events and activities and was a member of the Wolseley Hospital Board.

Photo right: John (with a new car?)

John eventually sold his farm to a neighbour and moved permanently into Lemberg, where he lived for some years. The last years of John’s life were spent in the senior’s residence in Balcarres, Saskatchewan, a neighbouring town of Lemberg. Popular opinion at the time was that he had “checked himself in early” as he was mentally agile, physically fit and in good health. However, he apparently knew what was best for him when he decided to move there. A life-long congenial bachelor, he enjoyed the activities, company and having someone do the cooking and cleaning.

John died in Balcarres on 19 April 1994, 91 years old. Ever the community minded citizen, John left his estate to the Balcarres Seniors’ residence, his home for many years, and to local charities.

He is buried in Ellisboro Cemetery, Saskatchewan beside his sister Jean.

WATSON, Jane Muir (1899-1988)

21 Monday May 2012

Posted by theirownstories in Watson Family

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Alexander Hunter WATSON (1895-1934), Helen McNab WATSON (1890-1967), James Muir WATSON (1888-1965), Jane MUIR (1865-1933), Jane Muir WATSON (1899-1988), John McConnell Muir WATSON (1903-1994), Joseph Francis ACTON (1886-1972), Mary Hunter WATSON (1897-1900), Thomas WATSON (1854-1932), Thomas WATSON (1887-1951), William Watson Muir WATSON (1892-1973)

(see ‘Thomas & Jane (MUIR) WATSON Family’ under heading ‘WATSON’)

[this post last edited, new information and/or images added 12 March 2013. Unless otherwise indicated all photos are from the author’s collection]

[For more Watson family photos also check out Donald Slater’s family history Flickr account www.flickr.com/photos/palaeoecogeek]

Jane (Jean) Muir WATSON was born 10 January 1899. She was the seventh child and third daughter of Thomas WATSON and his wife Jane MUIR. Her father had taken a job as a ploughman at Newton Farm, Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland and they lived in one of the farm cottages where Jean was born.

Photo left: Jane (Jean) Muir Watson, 10 June 1914. Rosewood District, Lemberg, Saskatchewan, Canada

Jean’s sister Nell [Helen McNab WATSON] was nine years older than Jean and it is probable that Nell was required to care for the baby. Their mother Jane would likely have been preoccupied with the toddler Mary [Mary Hunter WATSON], who was ill and died just over a year after Jean’s birth. Nell and Jean were close all their lives and visited almost weekly until Nell’s death in 1967.

Although Jean was the second youngest of Tom and Jane’s eight children, she likely did not long enjoy the position of cared-for younger sister. By 1905, when Jean was 6, both her older brother Tom [Thomas WATSON] and her beloved sister Nell worked away from home. In 1906, when Jean was 7, her brother Jim [James Muir WATSON] left to seek his fortune in far-off Canada and started the family’s eventual move to that country. In 1909 her brother Bill [William Watson Muir WATSON] followed Jim to Canada. After Bill left the Watson family at home consisted of only Jean, 10, and her older brother Alex [Alexander Hunter WATSON], 14, younger brother John [John McConnell Muir WATSON], 6, and her parents. As the eldest daughter at home Jean would have responsibilities to help her mother cook and clean, as well as attend to her own school work.

WATSON1908-000Some 1909 photographs from Jean’s school in Scotland have survived. Photo right: Jean’s School photograph for school year 1908-1909.

Photo below: Jean Watson, seated front row, 1st person on left, Class photograph for school year 1908-1909, Gullane, Scotland

scan-19May-0002

In April 1910, when Jean was 11, she was part of the Watson family that immigrated to Saskatchewan. She continued her schooling in the Rosewood area, and was involved in community activities such as the Red Cross.

In her late teens Jean moved to Regina and took a secretarial course. She worked at the Regina branch of Credit Foncier, a large mortgage company with offices across Canada. She was employed by the company for many years, probably as a senior secretary or administrative assistant, until her retirement in the 1960s.

Her apartment, in the Credit Foncier building, was a window-filled corner unit which overlooked the manicured green lawns and flowers of Victoria Park in downtown Regina. It was a tiny unit – although it seemed large when I was a child – filled with lovely furniture and nick-knacks. My country cousins and I were always amazed at the compact neatness of the apartment. We were also amazed at the concept of such a small living space since many of us lived on sprawling farms with homes that leaked dust and weather. To be asked to spend a few days staying with ‘Aunt Jean’ (as she was known to everyone) in her Regina apartment in the centre of a big city was a treat beyond words when we were growing up.

Aunt Jean was everyone’s favourite aunt and regularly visited her siblings and their offspring. Dozens of photos exist documenting her numerous visits which were highly anticipated as her suitcase always carried small gifts and treats for every child. She was a welcome visitor in all our homes. A happy, fun loving person she was, within reason, prepared to do anything to the delight of we children. She was always smiling, or laughing, or preparing to do so. Her hair, which turned a lovely soft white during her 20s, was always neatly pinned. I don’t remember seeing her wear anything other than a dress and smart shoes; but her stylish attire didn’t stop her from climbing either onto a horse cart or up into the loft of a barn.

Photo right: Jean, left and unknown friend enjoy the view from the loft of a barn, Saskachewan. about 1950s?

Photo from the author’s collection

Jean and her sister Nell remained particularly close. For years each weekend Jean traveled by bus (for all her independence she never learned to drive) from Regina to Lemberg to stay with her sister and brother-in-law Joe [Joseph Francis ACTON].

Photo below: Jean, centre in blue dress, with her sister Nell and brother-in-law Joe.

Photo taken in Lemberg, Saskatchewan, about 1962

From the author’s collection

After her retirement in the 1960s Jean moved to Calgary. A few years before her death she returned to Saskatchewan and moved into the senior’s residence in Balcarres where her brother John lived.

She died in Balcarres on the 27 June 1988, and is buried beside her brother John in the Ellisboro Cemetery in the Qu’Appelle valley.

WATSON, Mary Hunter (1897-1900)

20 Sunday May 2012

Posted by theirownstories in Watson Family

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Jane MUIR (1865-1933), Mary HUNTER (1827-1907), Mary Hunter WATSON (1897-1900), Thomas WATSON (1854-1932)

(see ‘Thomas & Jane (MUIR) WATSON Family’ under heading ‘WATSON’)

(this post last edited, new information and/or images added 27 December 2012)

Mary Hunter WATSON was born 12 July 1897 at 14 High Street, Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. She was the sixth child of Thomas WATSON  and his wife Jane MUIR. As their second daughter she was named according to the Scottish naming pattern; Mary HUNTER was her father’s mother. At the time of her birth her father was a dairyman, perhaps for a larger farm nearby Paisley.

Photo left: believed to be baby Mary Hunter Watson on the lap of her paternal grandmother and namesake Mary Hunter. While positive identification has not been made, I believe that based on the cause of baby Mary’s death (below) it appears that her spine may have been twisted. And I believe that a photograph of the two Marys is something that the Watson family would want to have and keep.

Mary’s life was short and tragic; she was only 2 years and 10 months old when she died on May 23, 1900 at Newton Farm Cottages in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Her death registration listed the cause of death as “Intusscheptas Tubes Mesentercia”. A medical dictionary defines intussusception as “The slipping of one part of an intestine into another part just below it; becoming ensheathed. It is noted chiefly in children and usually occurs in the ileocecal region. Prognosis is good if surgery is performed immediately, but mortality is high if this condition is left untreated for more than 24 hours.” (Source: Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 18th ed., F. Davis & Co., 1997, pp. 1017)

Based on the photo of Mary with her grandmother I believe that she was born with a curvature of the spine, which led to her fatal condition in 1900.

The death of baby Mary was a tragic loss to the Watson family.

WATSON, Alexander Hunter (1895-1934)

19 Saturday May 2012

Posted by theirownstories in Watson Family

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Alexander Hunter WATSON (1895-1934), Helen McNab WATSON (1890-1967), James Muir WATSON (1888-1965), Jane MUIR (1865-1933), Jane Muir WATSON (1899-1988), Janet WALKER (1859-1948), John McConnell Muir WATSON (1903-1994), Mary HUNTER (1827-1907), Samuel ACTON (1857-1927), Sarah May (May) ACTON (1898-1982), Thomas WATSON (1854-1932), Thomas WATSON (1887-1951), William Watson Muir WATSON (1892-1973)

(see ‘Thomas & Jane (MUIR) WATSON Family’ under heading ‘WATSON’)

[this post last edited, new information and/or images added 12 March 2013. Unless otherwise indicated all photos are from the author’s collection]

[For more Watson family photos also check out Donald Slater’s family history Flickr account www.flickr.com/photos/palaeoecogeek]

Alexander (Alex) Hunter WATSON, born 21 June 1895 at Cloncaird Mains in the Parish of Kirkmichael, Scotland was the fifth child and forth son of Thomas and Jane (MUIR) WATSON. He was the first of their chldren born in a place other than Mt. Oliphant Farm. The move to Cloncaird Mains sometime after 1892 marked the beginning of the nomadic life of the Watson family as it moved from tenant farm to tenant farm until immigration to Canada in 1910.

Photo left: Alexander Hunter Watson, 10 June 1914, Rosewood District, Lemberg, Saskatchewan, Canada

Alex was given the middle name ‘Hunter’ after his paternal grandmother Mary HUNTER. His life as a child would have been similar to that of his siblings; farm work and school work, chilly damp accommodation and probably never enough to eat. By 1909 Alex, aged 14, was the oldest boy at home since his brothers Tom, Jim and Bill had left to work. Tom [Thomas WATSON] had already embarked on his chauffering career in Scotland and England, Jim [James Muir WATSON] and Bill [William Watson Muir WATSON] had already moved to Canada. Alex would have had to carry a heavier share of farm work to help his father.

By April 1910, Alex and the rest of the Watson family lived in Saskatchewan. Alex worked as a hired farm hand until he could manage to acquire some land of his own.

When WWI broke out, Alex did not immediately enlist as his did his brother Bill. However, in 1918 the war for the allies was going badly and a call went out for additional soldiers. On 30 April 30 1918, in Regina, Alex joined the RNWMP (Royal Northwest Mounted Police Canadian Expeditionary Force). With this Expeditionary Force he travelled by train to Montreal, where on June 3 he sailed for England on the ship S. S. Bellerophon. The eighteen day sea journey was no doubt memorable because it was lengthy, rough and Alex caught measles which meant that he was in and out of hospitals in military camps in England. Finally almost four months later, on 7 October he was transferred to the Canadian Tank Corp. By 12 November he was back in hospital where he underwent a tonsillectomy operation.

Photo: Alexander Hunter Watson, taken between 30 April 1918 – 30 May 1919

His military records are unclear, but it appears that he spent the remainder of the war at Bovington Camp in England with the Canadian Tank Corp. He returned to Canada in May 1919, left Southhampton on 18 May on the ship Aquitania. After disembarking in Halifax, he travelled to Winnipeg by train where he was demobilized from the army on 30 May 1919.

We know from Alex’s military records that he was a slight man; at enlistment he was 5’ 7” and weighed 130 pounds. He had blue eyes and dark brown hair. When he left the military he weighed 140 pounds. While Alexander’s military career may not have offered the excitement he anticipated, it was much safer than that of his brother Bill, and he benefited from the military health care and nutrition of the active and convalescent hospitals.

On 22 July 1919, Alex, his brother Bill and other fellow soldiers from the Rosewood District of Saskatchewan were honoured by their neighbours. The newspaper The Lemberg Star, Friday, July 25, 1919 reported:

“A social evening was held at the home of Mrs. S. ACTON [Janet WALKER, married to Samuel ACTON] on Tuesday, July 22. The objective was to present each of the following soldiers with gold watches: Pte. W. M. WATSON, Pte. Fred OBLEMAN, Pte. Tobert CLARKE; Gnr [gunner] Neil BONGARD, Gnr. R. A. ACTON, Gnr. H. BANTRUM; Trpe. William BARTON, Trpe. Alex WATSON.

The above are all soldiers of the Rosewood District. Mr. Jamieson said a few words of welcome: also Mrs. Acton exressed her joy at seeing the boys home again. On behalf of his associates Mr. Dick Acton thanked the people of Rosewood for all the kindnesses bestowed upon them while overseas and particularly made mention of the numerous boxes of good things, which were so highly appreciated.

After singing ‘They are jolly good fellows’ the pleasant evening was brought to a close“

After the war, Alex returned to farming his half section of land north of Lemberg. On 1 January 1927 in Lemberg, Saskatchewan, Alex, 32, married 29 year old nurse Sarah May (May) ACTON daughter of Samuel ACTON and his wife Janet WALKER. No doubt Alex had met Mae at the numerous family and community gatherings in the Rosewood neighbourhood.

On page 1 of the 7 January 1927 issue the Lemberg Star [newspaper] reported the wedding:

The home of Mrs and Mrs. S. Acton, Martin Street, Lemberg, was the scene of a pretty wedding on Saturday, January 1 when their daughter Sarah May ACTON, R. N. became the wife of Alexander Hunter WATSON of Lemberg. The bride, wearing a plum coloured satin dress trimmed with georgette and carrying a bouquet of pink and white carnations was given away by her father. The room was pleasingly decorated with white bells and pink and white streamers.

The witnesses were Miss Janet E. ACTON, sister of the bride and John M. WATSON, brother of the groom. The wedding service was read by Rev. W. H. Hughes of Lemberg.

About 35 guests partook of the very dainty lunch served after the ceremony. Those assisting at the tables were: Mrs. W. DANNELS, Miss WATSON [Jane Muir WATSON]and Miss Mary JOHNSTON.

The numerous gifts from a wide circle of friends evidenced the high esteem in whch the young couple are held. The bride is a graduate of the Grey Nun’s Hospital in Regina and a daughter of one of the first pioneer families of the Rosewood District.

The young couple left, amid a shower of confetti and rice, on the evening train for Winnipeg, where they will spend their honeymoon. [They likely would have visitedand perahps stayed with Alex’s brother Tom and his wife Mary who married in 1923.] On their return they will reside on the groom’s farm north of Lemberg. The good wishes of a host of friends will follow them.

Alex and May had three children between 1928 and 1932. Sadly Alex died on the 15 August 1934 leaving May a widow with three young children. Alex’s obituary from the [Regina] Leader Post, Monday, August 20, 1934, Evening Edition, Page 20.

Alexander H. Watson, farming north of Lemberg, died at his home Thursday morning. He had been confined to bed with cancer for several months. He was born in Ayrshire, Scotland and was 39 years of age. He came to Canada in 1910 with his parents, who made their home in the Ellisboro district. During the war he enlisted for active service and was attached to the Tank battalion. On his return he took up farming and on January 1, 1927, was married to Mae Acton, R.N. of Lemberg.

 Funeral services were held Thursday afternoon at the house, the remains being taken to Ellisboro for burial. Surviving him are his widow and three children, Janet, Robert and Margaret; two sisters and four brothers, Mrs Jos. Acton [Helen McNab WATSON) of Lemberg, Miss Janet Watson [Jane Muir WATSON] of Regina, Thomas of Winnipeg, James of Ellisboro, William and John of Lemberg. His father predeceased him two years ago and his mother one year ago.

Alex is buried in the Ellisboro Cemetery in the Qu`Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan.

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