Gordon's father Jack & the Canada Company House

In our first post we met Lois, Gordon, and Gordon's parents, Jack McEwan and Beanie McEwan (Irvine) on their trip to Niagara Falls. Today we'll write more about Jack McEwan, and his brother-in-law Charlie Ballantyne, who lived on a neighbouring farm in Downie Township.

Unlike his prosperous brother-in-law Charlie Ballantyne, Gordon’s father Jack McEwan was not really a farmer at heart. He had been happy working as a bicycle salesman in Kitchener when he father became ill and died of cancer. At the age of 16, then, Jack had no choice but to return home to take over the farm. His mother and his two older sisters needed support. When Charlie Ballantyne married Alice Irvine, Jack was introduced to Alice’s younger sister Beanie and nine years later, when he was 30 and she was 26, they were married. At first they lived in a “Canada Company” house which can be seen above. Gordon told stories about how drafty the house was. He could remember waking up on a winter's morning with snow piled up on the inside of his window. Later they built the two storey red brick house which can be seen just to the left of the Canada Company house.

Life was hard for Jack. He never had good farm equipment. At one point his barn burned down. For many years he had a creamery route where he collected milk from neighbouring farmers for delivery to the cheese factory. His sociability was a common theme throughout his life. It is said that when he was out plowing and saw a neighbour passing, he was always ready to leave the team for a friendly chat over the fence. Jack’s brother-in-law Charlie, in contrast, kept two teams of horses going. When one team became tired, Charlie’s wife would have the second team harnessed and ready so that there would be no time lost.

Jack was 38 when his only son, Gordon, was born. From the very beginning, Gordon's mother actively discouraged him from being a farmer. Beanie wanted her son to get an education and become a professional. Jack kept the farm until roughly 1942 when he and Beanie sold the farm and rented a house in St. Pauls, across the road from Houcke's General Store. Jack developed circulation problems as he got older, and slept with his foot inside a box where a lightbulb provided heat to improve the circulation.