Thomas Edwin Boulton (1875 - 1961)

Thomas Edwin Boulton

Thomas Edwin Boulton was born at New Dublin, Ontario on January 26, 1876.  On the 1891 Canadian census he was living near Elizabethtown in the Brockville district of Ontario.  Thomas was 15 years old and living with his parents Benjamin (age 55), Ann (45), two brothers James (16) and Anthony (10) and two sisters Abigail (13) and Susan (9).  Also in the household is 81 year old widow Ann Boulton, Thomas' maternal grandmother.  Their surname is spelled "Bolton" on this document and throughout the years it switches with and without the "u".

In  March of 1892, when Thomas was 16 years old, the family left Ontario and moved west to a wooden building on SE 10-7-27 W1.  In the summer of 1892, they took up hometead five miles southeast of Reston, Manitoba on SE 24-6-28. 

On the Municipal Assessment Roll for 1893, Benjamin was assessed at $450 for the NE quarter and his son James H. for the NW quarter at the same assessed value.  There is also a column on the form called Statute Labor where the number "2" is filled in along with a $1.00 amount for each quarter. This would likely refer to 2 days of labor on roads or other public areas that was a requirement for the land owners in those days.

Once Thomas was old enough to have his own quarter, more land was aquired and they would have worked together to farm it.    

Thomas Boulton bought the land directly east of them in 1901, the SW quarter of 19-6-27 and in 1906 the NW quarter of the same section.  In 1913, Thomas aquired the SE and SW quarters of the home section 24-6-28. 

On May 4, 1914, Thomas married Elsie Norah Bushby who had immigrated from Sussex, England the year before.    

Local history books say that Thomas served on the Kinloss School Board for several years and that he was a member of the Reston Pool elevators.  Both Thomas and Elsie were members of the St. John's Anglican Church in Reston. The picture above is from the late forties or early fifites with their grandson, Richard Edwin, between them.

 

Thomas and Elsie - this photo was perhaps taken while celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in 1954.

Thomas and Elsie's gravestone in the Reston Cemetery is pictured above.  Notice that Thomas' year of birth is 1875, as it is in some family records. 

His birth record, found online and pictured above, indicates he was born on January 26, 1876 and the birth was registered on February 1, 1876.  He was delivered by a Dr. Moore and the name at the bottom is who filled in the registration.   

Obituary notice from the Reston Recorder