Hargrave Cooperative Elevator Association Pool No 81

On taking another look through scrapbooks complied by Fred Bowering that are in the Reston Library (see the previous about them post here ), I found a clipping from the 1963 Manitoba Co-operator about the beginning of the Hargrave Cooperative Elevator Association No 81 that has a family connection.  The postcard picture at the top of the post was among things from my Grandma Kinnaird's trunk and it was interesting to learn the story behind it.   Binding Our Districts history book written in 1989 helped me fill in a few details too.

The first grain elevators were built in Hargrave in the 1890's.  Ted Holmes built a private elevator and ran it until a tragic fire claimed his life along with 2 others and destroyed his elevator in 1903.  The Northern was a red painted elevator that burned in the same fire.  McLaughlin & Ellis ran a black painted elevator but farmers felt they charged too high shipping costs and their dockage for weed seeds in the grain was often inflated.  Wheat prices had collapsed in the 1920's and farmers were looking to maximize their profits.  Platform loading was possible onto producer cars where farmers pulled alongside a rail car and shoveled their grain in but it was back breaking work and they had to work fast to have it loaded in time.

On April 12, 1928, 46 men met to discuss the possibility of building their own Cooperative Elevator on the former site of the Northern. My grandfather Frank Kinnaird, Great Grandfather Alexander Milne and Great Uncle J.J. O'Neil were among those men.  Ten thousand acres needed to be signed up for the project to go ahead and this was soon done and the project was a go.  They decided the building would be built and equipped with nothing but the best including a five unit cleaner, electric lights and generator.  This article boasts there were only 2 years where the elevator's revenue did not meet the operating costs even through the dry thirties.

An agent's cottage was also included and the final total cost was $22 851.  In October of 1928, P.J. McDonald was hired as manager and helped to make it a successful venture.  Later managers were men named Morrison, Shilson and Cullen. Albert Cullen was succeeded after 35 years on the job as manager by Don Leadbetter.  In a full circle moment, Don just happens to be the son-in-law of Fred Bowering ,the man who compiled the scrapbook of clippings!

Alex Milne served as president of the Co-operative for a time and J.J. O'Neil was the first vice president and later president.  At the time of the article that was found in the scrapbook, my uncle Keith Kinnaird was secretary.  The Hargrave history book confirms he held this position until 1979 when the elevator was traded to become  a part of  United Grain Growers property.

The Manitoba Historical Society has undertaken a project to catalog all past and present grain elevators in Manitoba and you can read more about it here. The page about this elevator now includes the Kinnaird postcard picture from 1946 here.  The cooperative movement of farmers in rural western Canada has an important history as well and one that led to the success of my ancestor's farming endeavours.

Born 152 Years Ago Today

The Ancestry app on my phone tells me that my great grandmother, Margaret Carruthers Kinnaird, was born 152 years ago today on June 25, 1864.  She was the fourth of eight children born to farming parents Andrew William Carruthers and Jean Steven at Winchester, Ontario.  

George and Margaret Kinnaird 1888

On August 8, 1888 when she was 24 years old, she married William George Kinnaird at Russell, Ontario. I never have to look up the date for their marriage and wonder if 08/08/88 was chosen on purpose for good luck or if it was their wedding date by chance.  The picture above was recently discussed on this blog post.

She became mother to my maternal grandfather, William Francis Kinnaird and his older brother Stephen and the little family farmed near her parents in Finch Township near Winchester. George was also a carpenter so I imagine them having a nice little home and looking forward to many years ahead.  Tragically, Margaret died of tuberculosis on the 25th of May in 1894 just before reaching her 30th birthday, leaving her husband and two young sons.  She is buried with her parents at the Morewood Presbyterian Cemetery in Ontario.

Even though she has been gone for over 122 years, her legacy lives on.  My mother is named Margaret, presumably in her honour and I (the family history blogger) was born almost exactly 100 years after her to carry her story on.

A New Portrait of my Great Grandparents

The picture above on the left of George William Kinnaird and Margaret Carruthers was discovered in Grandma's trunk but it was a brown tin type and rather hard to make out.  We wonder if it is their wedding portrait from August 8, 1888.  The record of this event is below.

The photo at the right said "Uncle George" on the back and is of the same style.  Tin Type photos were popular in the mid 1800's but they were dark and tarnished quickly.  The one of George alone was is in a paper frame that has survived remarkably well.

Another picture recently turned up in a look through a cousin's album and what a find!  The details are so much easier to see and Margaret seems to be wearing the same dress.  George is wearing a tie and the setting seems the same as in the picture above of him alone.  The background of this one is so sharp and the pleats in her dress even show so well!

This picture also showed the photographers name and Google helped with that too.  Norris M. Trickey worked as a photographer in Winchester, Ontario from 1888-1904 according to this website . This photo is called a Cabinet Card type and this 4 X 6 size dates from the mid 19th century and onward.

Margaret died in 1894 at age 29 of tuberculosis, not long after this portrait was taken I assume.  It would have been a cherished remembrance for her family and her two young sons, Stephen and Francis. She has a familiar look to me, so I know her genes have been passed down and remain in the faces of my family today.  

Stuart and Jane Carruthers

Stuart Carruthers was born on October 11, 1870, in Finch, Ontario.  His father Andrew William Carruthers was 54 and his mother the former Jean Steven was 37. He was 6th born in a family of eight which included my great grandmother Margaret.  Stuart can be found on the 1871, 1881 and 1891 census of Canada living with his family in the Winchester subdistrict of Dundas County. His first name was written "Stewart" on some of them as it is in some of the later documents as well.   He married Jane Smirl who had been born in nearby Hallville in 1872 on December 20, 1893, in Russell, Ontario.  The unidentified picture below was among my Grandma's and I think it looks like some of the Carruthers.  The style of clothes and the type of picture would be about right for 1893 but if anyone can confirm or deny my guess, please do!  My Grandpa Frank Kinnaird lived with Stuart and Jane after the death of his mother in 1894 so it would make sense that he had a picture of them.  The 1901 Canadian Census shows Stuart, Jane, 3 sons, 7 year old Frank Kinnaird and  John O'Neil living at Concession 11 Lot 23 Cannamore, Ontario.  Google maps names a Carruthers Road which intersects with a Stevens Road near this place today!  Five years later J.J. O'Neil would be married to Stuart's sister Christina and they would be living in Manitoba with Frank, starting a new life on the prairies!

 

Stuart and Jane had a family of five, four boys and a girl, all of whom married and lived their lives in the same general area of  Ontario:

Orrin Victor ( 1895-1950) married Beulah Jessie Ford

Keith (1897-1964) married Amy Marcellus Loughridge

William John (1899-1978) married Mary Oliphant

Carl Maxwell (1901-1973) married Laina Amelia Lahte

Sybil Maude (1904-1991) - married James Hugh Watson

Orrin Victor Carruthers and William Francis Kinnaird 1896

Like his father Stuart/Stewart, Orrin had another way to spell his first name - Orne.  He sent the following two  postcards to Frank:

 North Winchester
(Postmarked December 1907)

Dear Cousin,

I received your card and we are all well we have pretty good sleighing now I have just tried my promotion examinations.  James Evans is working here now.  He came a few days ago.
  Write soon.
Orne

(Postmarked October 1907)

Dear Cousin,

I thought I would write you a few lines we are all well we are through picking potatoes I suppose you's are all through harvesting.

 Write soon. 

Orne

 

Orrin married Beulah Jessie Ford in 1919 and they had 5 children.  Sadly two boys died in WWII, Carl Stuart and Ford Ross Carruthers and their stories are in the link.

Keith Carruthers and Amy Marcellus Loughridge married in 1918

The other Carruthers brothers sent postcard as well.

 North Winchester
December 7, 1908
Dear Cousin,

I am going to write you a few lines letting you know I think you are forgetting the boy down here called Keith Carruthers and I want you to hurry up and write. 

 From your remaining friend, 

K.C.(Keith Carruthers)

Crysler, Feb. 7 (postmarked 1910)
I thought I would drop you a card to let you know we are all well. Hoping you's are the same. Are you going to school now? I am. 

 John Carruthers

Postmark - Cannamore, Ont October 5, 1906

Dear Frank 

 I am just sending you this card to let you know there is such a person as Carl Carruthers down here and I want you to write me as well as the other boys. I am (?) big boy now and can read and write too. 

 from Carl
Stuart Carruthers died young on January 12, 1917, in Morewood, Ontario, at the age of 46.  Tragically, his wife Jane died a short 11 months later on November 3, 1917 at the age of 45.  They are buried in Morewood Presbyterian Cemetery with his parents and sister Margaret.

George and Nettie Carruthers

George Andrew Carruthers was born on July 5, 1885 in Morewood, Ontario.  His mother was the former Elizabeth Gordon and his father was Archibald Carruthers.  Both of his parents were 27 when he was born and he was the middle of their 5 boys.  Sadly, Elizabeth died in 1893 and his father remarried Annie Gainer and they had 2 more boys and 4 girls together, including two sets of twins.

Archibald with his second wife Annie Gainer about 1900 

On the 1901 Canadian Census he was a 15 year old boy living with his farming parents but 10 years later a 26 year old George Carruthers is found in Calgary, AB, living as a lodger at 1039 5th Avenue West.  Google Street view here, has it looking a little different today than it did then!

It may or may not have been him on that census but I do know over the years, George had made several trips from his home in Ontario to Manitoba to help with harvest and then established himself at 29-10-27, 4 miles south of Hargrave.  That would have been about the time George on the left and my Grandpa, his cousin, Frank Kinnaird had the above photo taken.
  

On August 20, 1912 George married Charlotte Jeanetta (Nettie) Pollock in Winnipeg.  He was 27 and she was 22.  She was born in Berwick,Ontario so they likely grew up together there. In 1920, they moved 1 1/2 miles west of Virden , just west of where the  Vet Clinic is today.  

The pictures of this farm below were taken in 2015 and as they seem very unusual in that the barn (below right) was built with brick walls as was pointed out during an "ancestral tour" around Virden with my cousin Rea last summer.  

George and Nettie had 2 children.  Ewen Pollock Carruthers was born in 1916 and his sister Gladys Ruth in 1922.   Ewen wrote about their farm for the Hargrave area history book called Binding our Districts, published in 1989 available online at Manitobia and I quote him from it below:

Life on the farm in the Pacific School District area of Manitoba was a strenuous and very interesting adventure in the 1920's and 1930's, and one which I enjoyed immensely.  By present-day standards it would probably be considered harsh and difficult, but for me any my immediate family, it was a great adventure.  Times were indeed difficult, but I had an enterprising father and mother who were equal to the challenge of light sandy land with soil drifting, drought, grasshoppers, rust, very low grain prices, etc.  Certainly the times called for courage and ingenuity!
We were engaged in "mixed farming".  We had quite a large number of cattle, both dairy and beef, hogs, bees, a large productive garden, and most important, a large poultry business with R.O.P. Breeding stock.  

He goes on to say their family was very active in the poultry industry for many years and his father supplemented his income by being a poultry inspector. I had to Google "R.O.P" and found it stands for Record Of Performance, a standard record keeping system to promote strong poultry lines. More from the history book:

He was also interested in soil conservation and was the first to actively practice "strip farming" in our part of the province.  In addition, to supplement the soil fibre and provide excellent feed for livestock, he grew large quantities of sweet clover.  Also, he was early in using fall rye and flax in crop rotation planning.

Ewen  Carruthers married Pearl McDonald in 1943. Ewen was in the Air Force in WWII and later became a cardiologist in Kelowna and died there in 2002. Gladys took nurse's training at Montreal and went on to work as a Public Health Nurse in Winnipeg.  She married Lee Schreibeis and lived in Pennsylvania and later New York State.  Their wedding photo above was among my Grandma's pictures. Gladys died in 2008.

George Andrew Carruthers died at the age of 92 on Christmas Day in 1977 in Kelowna, BC and Nettie had predeceased him there in July of 1975.  It's nice to know a bit about the people that once lived there as I drive by their former home.  Every empty farmyard has a story.

Road Trip - July 20, 2015

My cousin Rea took a group of us on a recent tour of some of the places important to our ancestors around Hargrave and Virden.  It was wonderful to see the places I've heard and wrote about during my research.

My grandparents, Frank and Frances Kinnaird lived in this home north of Hargrave.  It now sits near Lenore, facing south as it did on the farm.  It was moved several years ago and was added onto to make the beautiful farm home of the Hunter family.  Aunt Marge grew up here and recalls living in the downstairs portion of the house in the thirties and not using the second story, likely due to winter weather.  She slept in what we called the piano room at the west end with her parents and Uncle Keith was on a couch in the living room.  The window above the front door was originally coloured glass and Karen recalls a trunk with a plant on it always sat under that window.

This is the lone pine tree that marks the former farm yard of John and Christina Carruthers O'Neil, south of Hargrave.  The photo below is likely from the forties on this farm. The back of the original photo identifies May Kelly (a Carruthers connection) on top of the combine, John O'Neil with George and Ivans Reddons who were neighbours across the road.

 The O'Neil stone house is pictured above with J.J. and Christina and Frank Kinnaird to their left.

The pictures above are from a yard where my great grandparents Alexander and Jeannie Milne lived north of Hargrave. More pictures including how it looked in an aerial photo from 1959, are on a blog post about Jim Milne. The bottom left picture shows the two rows of trees that mark the location of the original lane up to the house.  Aunt Marge recalled the hollyhocks that used to grow and bloom in this yard, in the black and white photo above.

Hargrave School was the educational institution for 3 generations of the Kinnaird family along with many of their family and neighbours.  It was built in 1909 and remained in use until 1969.

The grounds are beautifully mowed and kept up as is the former stables for the school.

The bell is still in place.  Next was the short trip south to the Kinnaird farm.  I remember visiting my Grandma there in the 60's and early 70's but it seems so much bigger now. The aerial photo below dates from 1968.

Rea showed us the grain scoop that Grandpa Kinnaird would have used to move the grain before augers. He commented that it makes his back hurt just to think of all that labour to move grain from the cart to the granary.  Cousin Karen enjoyed the trip down memory lane too, recalling where Grandma lit smudges for the milk cows to keep the mosquitoes and black flies from biting.  

This is the lane looking west where the photo on the right may have been taken about 77 years later.

We had a look in Uncle Keith and Aunt Aida's former home in the farm yard.  It contains many treasures and wonderful memories!

Next on the tour was the farm home of cousin Lyle and his family, north in the Montgomery district.   This home was where Alex and Jeannie Milne lived when the 1921 census was taken.  It was later occupied by family friends Charlie and Bella Gardner and their daughter Violet, who was a special friend of Aunt Marge.  Below she is pictured on the right with Marjorie and little Margaret Kinnaird.

Rea had one more special stop to end the tour.  As we were driving along I commented about the neat hilly country ahead and his daughter Chelsey (who was in charge of the maps as our navigator) said, that's where we were going!  It was a beautiful piece of land that they call "28".  My Mom recalls going there to pick saskatoons but now there's a clearing on top of the hill that used to be a farmyard.

An old stone barn with one wall and window remaining.

A wonderful farm home on "28".  Rea told us there were 3 chimneys since each room upstairs had its own wood stove for heat.  An interesting thing about this yard is that it has no road or lane leading to it.  It's all cross country to get there.  The view from the yard is spectacular!

We left with a final look at some Kinnaird cows, who were looking for a treat.  Sorry girls!