This is the story of a quarter of farmland 5 miles north of Oak River since the late 1880’s. James Cleaver applied for homestead #7467 on the 21st of April in 1879. After working to clear a place to plant a crop and build a home, he was granted the land on January 26, 1893. As was the case with most, he took a pre emption on the NW quarter of the same section on March 8, 1902. Widower 74 year old James Cleaver was part of a household of 7 people on the quarter on the 1906 Canadian Census. This document indicates James was born in England and came to Canada in 1835. His brother Thomas lived nearby on SE 15-14-22 with his wife Francis Jane who had at least 15 children. Around 1910, James Cleaver moved farther north to farm in the Harrison area where he died in 1912 and was buried at Bend Cemetery near Strathclair.
John S H Sparrow took over the land
after James Cleaver. John and his wife
Ellen and his brother Edgar were living nearby on 22-14-22 in 1926 with the
couple’s 3 children. They built the
brick home and eventually retired to B.C.
Thomas ‘Edgar’ Sparrow with his sister Lillian took over the farm until
they moved to Brandon where she died in 1920 and he in 1929. Both are buried in
Brandon Cemetery.
Above - Morcom farm SW 22-14-22 W1 in 1950’s
Below – Jack
and Lizzie Morcom with Clydesdales in front of their house
John (Jack) Morcom was next to farm NE
21-14-22. He had grown up nearby on NE 28 after immigrating from England with
his family. Jack and his wife Elizabeth
(Lizzie) Sinclair were married in 1930.
Besides farming a section of land, they raised pure bred Clydesdale
horses and showed them at fairs including the Royal Winter Fair at Toronto.
They were caretakers of NE 21 for the next 35 years until they retired to town
and sold the quarter to their nephew Donald Simms for $10,000 in 1965. Don kept the mortgage for the land purchase
in his safety deposit box.
The 7 miles of road from the
correction line to highway 24 between this quarter and the home on 22 was built
up in 1965. The construction crew and
cook set up in the yard which had been purchased by Morcom nephew Bob Simms and
his wife Margaret.
For many of these early years, Donald summer fallowed the land every other year as was the custom to control weeds and let the fertility and moisture come back. With the drop in price of glyphosate chemicals in the 1980’s, chemical weed control meant a new crop could be planted every year. The grain was hauled three miles back to the yard or to Town to the elevator at harvest with help from his brother Bob and nephew Bill. He walked the field with a fork to gather stones and put them in the bucket of his Massey tractor and dumped in piles. Several hammerheads were collected and he made sure each of his grandchildren received one. The girls remember picking saskatoons by the handful in the bushes on this quarter until a rustling one time was thought to be a bear so that was the end of that! Gord Paddock rented the land from Don for many years. In 2021, Don and Margaret passed the quarter to two of their daughters and they opted to sell it to the Stewart brothers in 2024. The Stewarts have been farming in the area since 1879 when John Hall Stewart came from Scotland and settled with his wife Margaret on 12-14-22. The current owners are 5 generations down the line from John and Margaret Stewart and the next generation is waiting in the wings. NE 21-14-22 will continue to be a productive parcel almost 150 years after being homesteaded by James Cleaver.
