Scrapbooks from Reston Library

This summer I discovered a gold mine of local history at the Reston Library.  A collection of scrapbooks had been contributed by the family of Fred Bowering.  He was born and raised in the Kirkella, MB area and served with the RCAF and later farmed west of Elkhorn.   He clipped and pasted items from old newspapers into scrapbooks after he retired to Virden in 2001.  His family explained that Fred enjoyed sharing his scrapbooks with family and friends and they wanted to continue the tradition by placing them in the library.  I was fortunate to find a few clippings with a connection to my family tree.

The first is about a cousin of my Grandma Simms, Jessie daughter of William and Joanna Braid.  The same picture is found in the Whitebank Lea History booklet where the boys are identified as her cousins Homer and Orville Henry.

1923- The Versatile Ford

Miss Jessie Braid taking her calf to the boys' and girls' fair at Cardale, Man.  The calf won second prize , had a ride in an automobile and had his picture taken all in one day; a big day certainly for the calf.  Miss Jessie is the young lady in the picture.  She lives in Blanshard Municipality, Manitoba.

The next is an equipment photo from the same year Online research seems to show this was a 15-30 McCormick Deering tractor that was so named because it had 15 horsepower drawbar and 30 horsepower brake, which means nothing to me so follow the link here.  The owners of the machine, Few & Henry, would be Jack Few and my great uncle James Henry.
  

1923

A 15-20 engine and a 24-inch scrub breaking plow at work on the farm of John Sparrow, five miles north of Oak River, Man.  The outfit is owned by Few & Henry of Oak River and is operated by William Barr.  It turns down trees from eight to twelve feet high and turns them under with hardly a twig showing.  The right hand rear wheel of the plow has a ten-inch extension, so that it packs each furrow. When the plowing is finished, the land is almost as level as a tennis court.

The Sparrow farm was at 22-14-22.  According to the 1970 Blanshard History Book, Edward and his sister Lillian came from Bolton, Ontario in 1910.  Lillian passed away in 1920 and according to the above book:

Edward was a frequent visitor at the neighbors especially at Mr Jas. Sinclair's and Mrs. W. J. I. Morcom's, where politics and current events were freely discussed.  Edward's last years were spent in Brandon where he had a livery business.  In 1929 he passed away and was buried in Brandon where his sister Lillian had been laid to rest before him.  

An entire quarter-section in stooks was photographed from the top of a barn six miles north of Oak River in 1938.

Although not specific to its location, it would be in the vicinity of my Grandfather Alex Simms, Great Uncle Bill Sinclair and Great Uncle Jack Morcom and possibly even their crop.