Lois McEwan 1914 -2014

After a very long and a very happy life, Lois McEwan died at her home on St. George in St. Marys on April 16, 2014. Born on the 29th of March, 1914 Lois was the daughter of Robert Hearn and Mae Rolston whose ancestors were among the earliest settlers in Perth County. Lois’ philosophical acceptance of life’s recurring rhythm of happiness and sadness may be rooted in events which she experienced as a teenager. In the summer of 1932 a chance encounter with Gordon McEwan as they exited a ball game at SS # 4 Downie led to an impulsive request for a date for an open air dance that evening. Lois fell in love with Gordon and that love led to a happiness that remained strong until their deaths. The tragic event which precipitated great sadness occurred several months later. Following a cold and wet ride home in an open democrat from a Farm Women’s meeting Lois’ mother Mae Hearn contracted a severe cold which turned into pneumonia. In the era before penicillin there was little that could be done and when Mae died shortly afterwards she left a family of seven children, two of whom were under the age of four. Lois took over as “mother” and remained in that role until her marriage to Gordon in December 1937. Lois leaves her four children and their spouses: Lou and John Cull, Loiey and (the late) Ken Moir, Bob and (the late Jean) McEwan, and Terry and Linda McEwan. She is also survived by her much loved nine grandchildren and twelve great grandchildren. Lois’ brother Vic (Marie) Hearn, her sister Roberta (the late Nelson)  and her step-brother Doug (Sharon) Hearn also survive. In addition to her parents and her step-mother Jean, Lois was predeceased by her brothers Lyle, Kelly, Ivan, Don and her step-brother Jack. Her sister-in-law Kit Hearn survives. Lois McEwan’s overarching quality was her intense love and loyalty to her family – both immediate and extended. Her open-mindedness and her ability to reach out and connect with all types of people were legendary. As a lifelong homemaker, the wife of a rural school teacher, the mother of four children, and a daughter of the Great Depression Lois became an excellent seamstress, a prolific knitter, and she knew how to make the Sunday roast last until Thursday. She loved sports, music and dancing and she was always ready for a “good laugh”. Lois Isabel (Hearn) McEwan – 29 March 1914 to April 16, 2014 – lived a long, generous and contented life. She was able to rise above the hard parts and see the enduring good in the world. She will be missed by her family and friends. 

Entrance Exams

Jimmy Noxan taught school at SS#9 for several years in the 1920's. Lois remembers him as an ineffectual teacher. Not much learning went on when he was the teacher. Then, when Lois was in the senior third, Mr. Noxan was replaced by Miss Hazel Crago, a native of Blanshard Township. Immediately Miss Crago recognized that the students in the senior third were unprepared for the entrance exam. This provincially set examination was held each spring and was used to determine whether students would be allowed to proceed into high school. It was an important hurdle for students, and doubtless, it was also a measure of the quality of the teacher's work. Miss Crago instituted before school classes for the seven students in the Senior Third. The group consisted of Lois Hearn, Mary Riley, Frank Riley, Crawford Tyler, Helen Teahen, Oliver
Bell, and Jennie Dunsmore. To try the entrance examination all students in the township had to travel to Stratford where the examination was held in the County Court House. The distance between her home and Stratford is likely less than 8 miles but Lois remembers that she had never been to Stratford before, and she suspects that with the possible exception of Jennie Dunsmore, none of the others in the class had ever been in Stratford. At the lunch hour break between exams the group went for a walk but were careful to always keep the court house tower in view. Otherwise, they might be unable to find their way back.  Here is the Stratford Court House with the tower that the group of country kids had to keep in view during their lunch hour walk. Later, when the exam results were announced the group took pride in the fact that they all passed their entrance exam, five with honours.

Bob Hearn's Bread Route

The bread route which sustained the Hearn family through many years of the depression began quite accidentally. It was Bob Hearn's custom to go into St. Marys on Saturday evening. While the purpose of the trip was largely social - a time to meet and chat with friends -- he also used the trip as an opportunity to pick up groceries and other supplies for the family. The neighbours, knowing that he was going into town would often ask him to buy groceries for them. Gradually people began to depend on him for their bread supply and eventually Bob established a formal bread route that became a full-time job as a bread peddler for the Thames Valley Bakery which had a shop on the north side of Queen street between Water and Wellington streets. Here is a picture of the staff of the bakery standing in front of the store. Bob is the man in the cap standing on the running board of his truck. In a typical day, Bob would drive the truck into St. Marys, pick up his bread and then head out on the route. In one leg of the route Bob went as far north as Kasterville on the edge of Ellice Township and then turned west going as far as the Fullarton Township line. By that time it would be noon hour and he would stop to have his dinner at Joe Herman's whose farm was just beyond the Cheese Factory on Black Creek. After dinner Bob would work his way back home. As soon as they were old enough, Bob's boys helped with the route. The picture above shows Kelly as a teenager standing next to his father at the home farm. In the winter when the roads were impassible, Bob peddled his bread using a horse and team. In the picture below he appears to be wearing a huge fur coat While it appears warm, one can't help but wonder whether anything could protect you against the severe weather in a typical January freeze. On such a day I am sure that that the warmth of Mrs. Herman's farm kitchen was especially welcome. Kelly continued to work with his father and when Kelly was married in 1937, his father generously gave him the bread route and Bob took a job working for Avonbank Cheese and Butter company.

a Halloween scare

On Halloween night it was traditional that there would be a mascarade party in the Avonton Hall. For one of these parties in the early thirties Elizabeth Robertson, Lois' good friend, invited Lois to come to stay with the Robertsons and to attend the Avonton Party. After supper on that Halloween night, the two friends went upstairs to Elizabeth's bedroom on the second floor to put on their costumes and to prepare for the party. As they were dressing one of them looked up and started screaming for there, outside the bedroom window danging from a rope was a dead man, a cord tightly knotted around his neck, swagging limply in the wind. As could be expected the girls ran out of the room and generally reacted in exactly the way that Jean, Elizabeth's younger sister had hoped they would. For it was Jean who had created the hanged man using her father's clothes and a rope. It was Jean who had climbed up above her sister's bedroom and lowered the mannequin down outside bedroom window. While Lois can no longer remember what she wore to the masquerade party or who was at it, the image of the hanged man swaying outside the bedroom window remains as vividly clear as the night she saw him.

Visiting the Country Cousins

While the title of this piece may be accurate, its implication is misleading. Lois, on the left and Kelly on the right were not -- as it may appear -- rich kids from the city visiting their poorer country relatives. In fact, all three were country kids, and there was no way that Lois and Kelly Hearn were richer than Jack McMaster. The difference was that Lois and Kelly were dressed in their Sunday best because they were the visitors, while their cousin Jack McMaster was dressed as he normally would be on any regular day at home. The families were related through Mae Hearn's mother whose sister married a McMaster. The McMasters had a large family, most of whom were already adults by the time this picture was taken. It was only their youngest a boy named Jack who was close to Kelly in age. This picture with Wellburn as a backdrop was likely taken about 1926 when Lois was 12 and Kelly was 8. Their father Bob Hearn had a cream route which took him through the Wellburn area. It was arranged that he would drop Lois and Kelly off and the McMasters would pick them up and take them to their farm for some holidays. Lois remembers having lots of fun with the McMaster girls, who were obviously older, but who tried hard to entertain their younger cousins. On one occasion they played hide-and-seek and Lois can remember that one of the cousins -- likely Mary, but possibly Alice -- climbed up onto the roof of the house and hide behind a window shutter. No matter how diligently the rest searched, she was not to be found. The picture at the top was taken as Lois and Kelly waited in Wellburn for their father to pick them up. One can't help but wonder whose feet were more comfortable: Kelly's, in his too-big shoes or Jack's, in his Huck Finn barefootedness? Furthermore, in Kelly's expression there is the hint of a young boy who feels slightly silly in his wide-brimmed straw hat, and his woollen suit.

How To Get To The Dance?

It was Saturday night. Lois was at Helen Laing's place. They were teenagers. There was a dance at Lakeside. Neither of them had dates, but they wanted desperately to attend the dance. Helen's younger sister Marie was going with her date Ken Rea. Lois and Helen came up with a plan and Marie agreed: When Ken Rae knocked on the front door to collect Marie, Lois and Helen were to run out the back door, get into the back seat of the car and crouch down so that Ken could not see them. If they could get to the dance, maybe they could get a ride home, and Ken would never know. The plan worked perfectly, Ken knocked at the door, Lois and Helen scurried around from the back of the house, crouched down in the back seat, determined to stay quiet, but the question was: How long would that last? The                 plan progressed, Rae and Marie came out of the house, got into the car, Ken turned on the motor, pulled out of the drive and headed toward Lakeside. Helen and Lois crouching in the back hid their mirth, while the conversation of Ken and Marie, young people on a date, continued in the front seat without Ken realizing that every word was being overheard. Then, unexpectedly, Ken turned east when he should have turned south if he was going to Lakeside. Marie asked "why?" and when he replied that the had agreed to pick up another couple, the Helen and Lois knew that the game was up, and all that bottled up tension burst out in what Lois describes as "snorting" hilarity. The girls offered to be taken home but Ken, a generous man, said that all six of them could all go together to the dance. Lois remembers that they got to the dance, had a great time, and even managed to find a ride home so that Ken and Marie could be on their own. (The two pictures - one of rather poor quality -- which accompany this blog are taken from the collection of the St. Marys Museum and represent what the pavilion may have looked like on the evening in which Lois and Helen hitched their ride with Ken Rae.)

The Hern Cousins: Wally (pt. 2)

In the previous blog I introduced Wally Hern, the first cousin of Lois' father Bob. Wally was an excellent athlete who, as a member of the Stratford hockey teams, won three provincial championships: junior in 1900, intermediate in 1904 and senior in 1907. As such, he was one of only two people who could claim to have earned the "triple crown". In this photo of the Hern family, Wally is the young man with the straw hat standing next to his mother.


Wally appears prominently in stories told by Wally's nephew George Johnston. The reminiscences which began in the previous blog, now continue:

Margaret and her family visit the Herns in Stratford

"After two or three nights with Benson's folk [i.e., Margaret's in laws] on Nile Street we migrated to Water Street to be with Myrtle and Wally and their young. Life brightened up for us all. The bond of sisterly affection between Margaret and Myrtle was strong and remained so throughout their lives. Benson [Margaret's husband] and Wally were not compatible in the same way, but they were both young and as yet not burdened with the varieties of seriousness that awaited them. Both had loud laughs and gave them much exercise while they were together.

A child dies

Myrt had her woman's glory cropped and became a new person. All agreed that she looked younger and prettier. She had also been fetched by the alteration out of a winter of grieving for a daughter, Ruth, who had been born sickly and died after the first two months of her life. Spring came, and one fine day she took the notion, walked down town and had it done.

Wally's business fails.

Myrtle and Wally moved to Toronto with their daughters Margaret and Edith and son Walter. Wally's haberdashery business in Stratford failed, as Aunt Jen had foretold from reading his tea cup. Someone is taking money from your till she said. Her reading proved true. An important cause of his business failure was considered to have been the dishonesty of his one clerk, who seems to have got away with considerable money without being caught at it. So the story went at any rate.

The Hern's new home on Castlefield Avenue in north Toronto, a pleasant walk away from us on Eastbourne Avenue, through Pears' Park. Margaret and Myrtle rejoiced in the propinquity the move had brought them.

Wally tries being a Life Insurance Salesman

"Wally, impressed by his [brother-in-law] Benson's success, thought Life Insurance salesman would be right for him too, and Benson did not discourage him. The Sun Life was persuaded to take him on and train him. He made one small sale and then, after a long while, another. The sociability of contacting prospects gave him much pleasure, he could while away hours chewing the fat with almost anyone, but aside from that he was no salesman. Neither did he have the necessary convictions about life insurance. Finally, he gave up trying to be a salesman."

"Times were becoming depressed. After he was let out of Sun Life there seemed to be no other employment for Wally in Toronto. He settled down, uncomplaining, to reading the newspapers, for the positions vacant ads, he said, and rolling cigarettes for himself, and others who wanted them in the household, on an apparatus he had bought. Myrtle took in a boarder or two. Then Margaret and Edith began working and contributing money for their keep. They were loyal children to both parents, and seemed to accept that Wally should not contemplate employment beneath the dignity of an ex-mayor of Stratford, who had also, in other respects, been one of its prominent citizens."

Wally finds work in England.

George Johnston's stories continue: "In October '36 Walter Hern found employment again. He was brought to London, England, as referee for ice hockey, a newly popular spectator sport there. It seemed a gift for him. He set himself up in a comfortable flat in St. John's Wood and invited me to use it sometimes as a warm location for my labours with the pen. I went one evening when he was at a practice, but found it so warm I could not stay awake." .... "Uncle Wally, or U. Wally as we knew him among ourselves invited [me] to a hockey game at which he was officiating. He urged me to make use of his flat again, and I gave it another try, with no better success."

Wally gets hit by a bus

"On this second occasion, having dozed off as before, I was roused by the phone at abut eleven p.m., and a man's voice asked me in a London accent, if I knew one Walter Hern. I said I did. Well, don't be alarmed, sir, the voice said patiently. Your mite's been it by a bus. The calmness of the voice alarmed me from the first, but I was sufficiently alert to ask for more information. Walter Hern is in the Outpatients' at St. Mary's Ospital, the voice told me. Being attended to. It game me directions for getting there, and I followed them at once. The Outpatients' Clinic was dimly lit by a gas jet. Behind a desk in an alcove that was somewhat more brightly lit, sat a mildly authoritative-looking young woman in a white smock. A row of men and women, middle-age to elderly, all with unhappy expressions on their faces, were partly visible in the gloom, seated on a bench next to a wall, some with bandaging on a hand or foot or forehead. When they heard me tell the lady at the desk that I should like to know about Walter Hern they looked unhappier than ever. Ow, e did look orful! they all agreed. I joined them on the bench. After a while the desk lady gave me a sign and I stood up. A door opened, a wheeled stretcher came through it and across the waiting room to another door and on it was U. Wally, covered by a sheet except for his head, over one corner of which was a neat bandage. Hoo! hoo! hoo! he was saying through a tube stuck in his mouth, and he stunk of anaesthetic. For the week and half that he was in hospital I visited him regularly, and then I arranged a room for him at Thirty Doughty Street, rooming house and of the Admirable Mrs. Crichton, as we called her" .... "U. Wally got tea and toast for himself in his room and then came to our flat in Lamb's Conduit Street and spent much of each morning sitting by our coal grate, burning our coal, as we never did during the day, and reading our copy of The London Times. He would stay for lunch and then go the the Strand Palace Hotel and write letters home on their stationery. If a flunky eyed him he would say to himself, I don't have to care for you, you're nothing but a shit! or so he told us, at any rate." My roommates' "patience with all this must be considered supererogative, though they did find him and his ways somewhat entertaining, if unintentionally so. He would tell us about his sightseeing in London, how impressed he was by the Albert Memorial, for example. We were not to miss it, it must be one of the really great monuments in the world. He also informed us about one of our own favourite haunts, St. James' Park."

(On the right is a picture of the Albert Memorial at it appeared in August 2009 when Bob McEwan, Wally's first cousin twice removed, visited London. The memorial is just as impressive and unchanging in 2009 as it was 70 years ago when Wally visited it.)

Wally goes home

"At last he ran out of money, he had completed his convalescence, he was homesick and went home."

We have no record of what happened in the rest of Wally's life. The last note I have of Wally Hern dates back to the 1960's when his first cousin Bob Hearn (Lois' father) recollected that Wally had died sometime in the recent past.

The Hern Cousins: Wally (pt. 1)

Lois' grandfather Robert Hearn had a older brother John. Of John's four sons, one achieved fame as a goalie with the Montreal Wanderers, the illustrious hockey team which won the Stanley Cup for five years in succession beginning in 1906, and a second son who became "famous regionally" as a hockey player in Stratford. Riley, the one who became truly well-known is standing on the left in the above picture. His younger brother Wally is standing on the right. Albert and Frederick the two older Hern boys are sitting in front. This blog is about Wally. Born in 1882, Wally was the youngest of the seven children of John Hern and Frances Barnes. The family lived first in St. Marys and then in Stratford where the father John worked as an ostler at one of the large hotels.
Wally appears to have been a natural athlete. By the time the report above appeared in the St. Marys Journal on 10 February 1898, Wally already was the county speed skating champion for the five mile distance.

At the same time, the world of scholarship may not have been as satisfying for Wally as was the skating. In the St. Marys Journal of Nov. 11, 1897, W. Hern (presumably Wally) in Form II at the Collegiate Institute is recorded as achieving a 44 in arithmetic, and a 59 in Botany. Then, on Dec. 7 the newspaper reports that Walter Hern got a 36 in Latin, a 55 in Euclid, and a 44 in Physics.What was not in doubt, however, was Wally's proficiency as a hockey player. In the 1898- 99 season he played for the Stratford Junior team in the OHA league where the correspondent from the Stratford paper wrote on 1 Feb. 1899: "probably "Wallie" Herne did the best work on the forward line for Straford. He made many good rushes and on one occasion took the puck from one end of the ice to the other and scored the first game of the evening. It was a grand play and "Wallie" was the hero of the evening." During this period Wally lived with his mother and his older brother Riley on Brunswick Street in Stratford. He worked as a clerk in a dry goods store earning a salary of $100 a year. He continued to play hockey in Stratford and was considered good enough to be offered a professional contract in Montreal. According to family stories, Wally refused this exciting opportunity because he could not envision himself leaving his widowed mother on her own.Here is Wally with a group of friends in 1907 on a road trip to Humber Bay near Toronto. A notation on the back of the photo says that they were entertained by the Eatons. Wally is second from the left in the front row.

Wally later married Myrtle Black, a young woman who sang in the choir of the Centennial Methodist church. Myrtle's sister Margaret also sang in the choir. In later years, Margaret's son George Johnston wrote some reminiscences of his family in which his Uncle Wally figures prominently:

Wally and Myrtle visit with her Margaret"Myrte and Wally came and stayed for a fortnight, their young daughters Margaret and Edith with them. Wally then had his gents' furnishings shop and was well off and full of confidence. He had been mayor of Stratford for a term. While Benson (Margaret's husband) was in town, minding JOHNSCO'S thriving business, Wally put in the time, good-naturedly, with Myrtle and Margaret and the children, taking them shopping and on other junkets in his expensive, leather-upholstered McLaughlin touring car. Afternoons he spent at the Burlington Golf and Country Club. During the second week he proposed an excursion to Toronto.
They should take in a ball game, he said. The weather seems to have smiled on the trip there, and the picnic lunch on the beach at Sunnyside was sand and fly-bitten but a cheerful festivity. Then the two women were taken to Riverdale Park, where there was a small zoo, and left there with the four children. It seemed a likely enough place. The McLauglin stayed with them a a sort of headquarters. Neither Margaret nor Myrt knew how to drive.
There was no forgetting that afternoon for the men. Back they returned from the game in high spirits and were brought up short with It's about time! and fretfulness in their children of a degree they had not encountered before. An unforgiving calm descended for the drive home, and the children dropped off to sleep almost at once. By and by the women dozed off too."

( Stories to be continued in the next blog.)

Excursions to Grand Bend in the 1930's

The beach at Grand Bend has been a destination filled with fun and excitement for generations. Here are two pictures taken of Lois and her friends on the beach in about 1930. Of course, no one among Lois' group owned a bathing suit. When they went to the beach, they -- like lots of other young people -- needed to rent a bathing suit. Lois remembers that suits came in two qualities: cotton and wool. While the cotton suits were cheaper, they were also far more revealing, and Lois always hoped that the guy she was with would give her enough money for a wool suit. (Lois remembers that it was seldon that she would have any money of her own.) At the bath house you would pay your $1 and for that, you would be rented a bathing suit and access to a private change room where you would hang your clothes. The bathing suit would very likely still be wet from the person before you. However, for the rental period you would be free to paddle in the lake, take pictures, or play in the sand. In the top picture are Kelly, Lois' younger brother and his girfriend Eileen Dunsmore (on the left), Lois, and Gerald Riley whose family was a good friend of the Hearn Family. The second picture includes Lois' younger brother Ivan. He is the guy in the wool suit, the tie, and the hat. Surely, the suit was desperately uncomfortable on a hot day on the beach. Either, Ivan didn't have the money for a bathing suit, or quite possibly, he felt he looked more attractive in his formal suit than he would in a bathing suit.

The Short Course of 1933-34

Lois' mother died in the spring of 1933 leaving husband Bob and seven children, ranging in age from Roberta at 1 and Vic at 3 through Don, Ivan, and Kelly, to Lois at 18 and Lyle at 21. While the shock and sadness undoubtedly hit everyone hard, I think it would be fair to say that-- of the children -- it was Lois who was forced to make the biggest adjustments and the biggest sacrifices. After the initial period of mourning, the boys returned to their regular routines. But for Lois, the world had completely changed. In place of being her mother's helper, she now was the one in charge of all the cooking, cleaning, and washing needed by a large family. The new role involved an awful lot of work, but it also involved sacrifices. One of the early sacrifices that needed to be made, was to forgo the chance to attend the Short Course offered by the Perth County Department of Agriculture in St. Pauls during the winter of 1933. The course ran 5 days a week for three months from December 1933 to February 1934. The men studied theory of agriculture and travelled to area farms to judge livestock. The women, who met in the upstairs room over Hauke's store (which was reputed to be a very cold place in February) studied nursing, interior decorating and home economics. While the information given was doubtlessly useful, I suspect that the reason why so many young people attended was because the course offered a chance to socialize with other people in surroundings something like a "college experience." At the top, is a picture of the participants. You will notice that Lois is missing (at home looking after children) and so is Gordon (living in Stratford with his Uncle Charlie and Aunt Alice Ballantyne while he attends Teacher's College.)

Mae Hearn's apron

For Christmas this year I was given a red-striped apron with a bib and long apron strings that can be pulled around and tied in front. When I put on my new apron for the first time I was reminded of a story which Lois sometimes tells about her mother's apron. Mae Hearn, had a reputation for being a hard-working and meticulous housekeeper who always wore a white apron. Here is a picture taken about 1932 showing Mae in her apron. Whenever visitors dropped in unexpectedly, Mae would greet them at the door in an apron that looked as clean and fresh as if she had just put it on. The apron was so suspiciously white that someone once suggested that Mae must keep an unused, clean apron hanging by the kitchen door to be used whenever visitors appeared unexpectedly. Lois, however, says that there never was a fresh, "visitor-ready" apron hanging by the side door. The explanation is even more simple. Unlike some of her descendants, Mae was not a messy spiller-type cook. While my apron will very quickly show signs of my cooking and greasy hand-wipes, Mae was able to keep hers spotlessly white.
Post script June 2017: I have recently recalled an addendum to this story.  Lois explained that it was Mae's sister-in-law Minnie Hern (herself a meticulous housekeeper) who first expressed the believe that Mae must have had a fresh apron hanging by the door in case visitors appeared. On one occasion, however, when Minnie stopped in her sister-in-law Mae was not to be found. Minnie found Mae in the basement where Mae stored all her canned fruit. And the apron was as white and clean as if she had just put it on!

Lois' first set of dishes

Lois' first set of dishes was collected piece by piece from a gasoline promotional offered by Earl Tyler's Garage in St. Marys. Every time Bobby Hearn filled up his car at Tyler's garage, he was given one piece of china. In turn, that piece was given to Lois, and over many months, her collection grew to the point where there were enough dishes to serve as her first dinner set. The art deco pattern on the china evokes the sounds of the far east which may explain why this pattern is called Orient. These English dishes were produced in the Staffordshire factories of Alfred Meakins whose family began making china in the mid 1800's. Vast numbers of these dishes were exported to North America. While this pattern has been discontinued, it is still possible to see them in antique shops. Currently dinner plates of the Orient pattern are being offered for about 15$ on ebay. In England the same dish can be had for something closer to 5$. Lois' set was used for many years and gradually -- through breakage -- disappeared. All that remains is the dish pictured here and a small sugar bowl.

Our Hearn Cousins

My uncle Kelly who was Lois' younger brother married Eileen Dunsmore in the Fall of 1937 and he left the homeplace "without so much as a banty rooster" as he sometimes rather ruefully remarked. In December of the same year Lois Hearn married Gordon McEwan. Children followed quickly: Shirley Hearn and Betty Lou McEwan in 1938, Barry Hearn in 1939, Lois Ann McEwan and Donna Hearn in 1940. Bob McEwan in December of 1942 and Sheila Hearn in January of 1943. Linda Hearn and Terry McEwan, the babies in each family, followed later. In 1944 when the picture below was taken Lois' brother Kelly had joined the army. His wife Eileen was left alone with four young children. On occasion, she would come to Dicksons Corners to visit for several days. That meant 7 children and 3 adults in a tiny cottage, without running water or indoor plumbing. (Proof of that fact can be seen in the infamous two-holer outhouse in the background of the picture.) Of course, cooking was on a wood-fired kitchen range. Lois remembers that eating was in relays and that children slept crossways on the beds. Bathing those seven children was a challenge. My cousin Shirley recently remarked that she tried hard to be among the first group in the tub so that she could be there when the water was the cleanest! For over 60 years now these two families have been deeply interrelated. After Gordon and Lois left Dicksons to return to St. Marys, they bought Kelly's house, while Kelly and Eileen moved to a bigger house closer to the dairy but only a block away. Even then, the relationship was deeply intermeshed. Kelly stabled his milkwagon horse in the barn on the property which the McEwan's now owned. Because the barn had no water, Bob McEwan remembers that it was his chore to carry water out to the barn for his Uncle Kelly's horse. A boy who weighed less than 65 pounds, and large and sloppy bucket were not friends, as you may imagine! Later, Kelly and Eileen bought the huge Dan Wilson house next to the McEwans. That meant that the two families now shared a property line. So the relationshiop continued, but it is fair to say that the Hearns and the McEwans have different personalities and styles. This means that the relationship between the cousins has been somewhat elastic over the years. At times, during our adulthood we cousins pulled apart, but then, more recently as age and events have crept up on us, we have drawn back together, perhaps an unconscious salute to the commonality which we share.

Ada's Autograph Book

In the spring of 1892, several weeks before her eleventh birthday, Ada Hern, Lois' aunt, acquired an autograph book. Carefully, she wrote her name and address inside the front cover and then proceeded to number the 62 pages in the book. One can only imagine her excitement at owning such a book and then her anxiety to get some autographs in the book. Not surprisingly, the earliest entries are those of her mother and father and her younger brother Robert. The book has poems and autographs from friends and neighbours and relatives. The last entry is in 1900 when Ada would have been 18 or 19. While there are no entries after that point, the autograph book must have remained important to her. Through the many moves and upheavels in her life, Ada's autograph book remained with her, and after her death as an old lady in the 1960's the autograph book was moved to me.

Bethesda Sunday School - Possible Origins

These two paragraphs from an article by Ryan Taylor likely explain how Bethesda Sunday School began at a crossroads in Downie Township.


"Because Methodism had evangelism as its base, there was a tradition of Circuit- riding missionaries through out the province. Small churches were established even in remote villages. Tiny country churches sprang up at crossroads without any houses around them. They served the farming community in the vicinity.

The farmers in a given area would be glad to have their own church nearby, however small it was. They might also find themselves in a disagreement with their neighbours or the local preacher on some theological point and begin a new congregation. The result was a proliferation of these little log cabin churches dotted on back concessions."

I don't know if this accounts for the Sunday School being established on a 1/4 acre lot on the SE corner of Lot 6 Concession 12 on land first settled by John Edwards in 1854. At his death in 1862 the lot was subdivided into 8 pieces for his children. A short time later in 1865 the Sunday School was built. Could there be a connection between John's death, the splitting up of the land, and the establishment of the Sunday School?
Methodist Church Records In Ontario
By: Ryan Taylor, Biography and Archived Articles

Bethesda Sunday School - Pt. 2

Bethseda Sunday School played multiple roles in the life of the community. It allowed individuals such as Mae Hearn to express her deep religious beliefs and it offered her an opportunity to impart those beliefs to her children. While the music and the lessons must have been a welcome diversion from the steady work of the week for the younger people, I am certain that the chance to meet and to socialize with other young people was especially welcome. On occasion the young people put on plays and Lois remembers Norman McCully whose family owned a large farm near the four-mile bush, and Percy Switzer whose family farm overlooked a wonderful sweep of land in the Trout Creek valley, acting in those plays. Often, Norman adlibbed his lines, much to the consternation of Percy whose obvious discomfort only added to the delight of the audience. In the 1930's Stella McLeod, who lived with her sister Lulu and her brothers Roy and Fred on land also overlooking the Trout Creek valley, began a girls' club. The club met monthly and it was the members of this club who did the spring cleaning of the Sunday School. I don't know of any pictures taken of the group, but possibly, this picture of the young women who attended Helen Laing's wedding includes members of the club. In this picture in the back row are Anna Dunbar, Mary Shrubsole (whose family lived at the bottom of hill in the Trout Creek Valley), Stella McLeod, Hazel Stewart who married a Kemp and whose grandmother was the midwife who attended the births of many children in the area, and Margaret Dunbar the sister of Anna. In the front row are Lois Hearn, Isobel Snoddy who married Ted Murray, Marie Ballantyne who married Earl Boyes, a man who figures prominently in this story, Annabel Aitcheson, and Mabel Tyler.