Stanley Boulton (1892 - 1979)

Stanley Bolton was the seventh of twelve children born to Thomas Boulton and Margaret Johnson. He was born in 1892 and grew up on the family farm at Graham Lake, Ontario.

The photo below of the Benjamin and Ann Boulton home near Reston, MB in about 1910 has Stanley's name written on it that identifies him as the man on the far left. Ann was his aunt, his father's sister. Other members of the family including his sister Abbey Johnson, brothers Abraham and Thomas William and his father Thomas spent some time in the Reston area as well.
  

At some point, Stanley, or Stan as he is often referred to, moved to Griffin, Saskatchewan near Weyburn.  Here is an article about modern day Griffin a tiny town that is showing regrowth due to the oil activity in the area.

A history book that is found online at OurRoots.ca called More Griffin Prairie Wool written in 1967 by Mary Scarrow and Mabel Charlton offers the following information about Stan on page 113 .  My thanks to Debbie Sheardown from Davidson, SK for finding this gem for me.  Stan is identified as the man standing on the right in this wonderful studio picture likely from that time. 

This book also says that a man named Bill Grimes bought the garage in the early 1920's and went into partnership with Stan.  The 1921 Canadian Census finds 29 year old Stanley at Griffin in a wood house on Main Street along with his 87 year old father Thomas.   

During the depression, the garage business seemed to die so Bill Grimes retired.  The lack of money for gas and car repairs meant people went back to using horse and buggy and the services of a mechanic in small town Saskatchewan were no longer required.  Luckily for Stan, he seems to be an adaptable fellow and took his mechanical aptitude to harvest equipment instead.  Playing the harmonica was also one of his talents.  

 

The photo above was likely taken in the forties of Stanley with 2 of his siblings, Abe and Mary Herbison back in the Brockville area. Thanks to Ontario family for sending it to me.

He is pictured above in Winnipeg with his sisters Mary Herbison and Edythe Morris where he died at age 87.  The local RM of Albert History Book written in 1984 says he pioneered the mechanical harvesting industry and I am left curious for more details on that.  Please contact me if you know more of Stanley's story.

Great nieces of Stanley's recall meeting him and tell me he had kept his tools, even at quite an elderly age.  Many of these tools belonged to his father Thomas it seems.  His niece Audrey Morris was able to reunite him with his siblings Mary and Edith for a meal in her home in the seventies.