Boulton Cars Through the Years

Looking through old pictures of the Boultons, it sure seemed they loved their cars and were often the backdrop for group pictures. This blog post puts them on display with my best guesses of people and years but would be glad to hear from the family about any mistakes or better guesses!

Thomas and Elsie Boulton with the Model T Ford about 1925. 

 Children left to right - Edna, Edwin, Violet and Annie.

1928 Chevy with Tom Roe, Pearl Campbell, on top and Russell Roe and Helen Ashby on the bumper.

  License plate says 1932.

Same car as above about the same time with Annie, Elsie (?), Edna, Vi, Ida Bigney, Jean and Mary in front.

Vi with a Buick with Montana 1935 license plate.

Vi and Faye in the 1940 Hudson Sedan.  1952-53 insurance papers copied below for this vehicle from Bulloch and Berry Agency in Reston amounted to $10.50!

Frank with the 1929 Nash.  Below is a copy of the transit license he used to get it home from Winnipeg in 1949 and a pink liability insurance card.

Wedding Car for Ewen Pearn and Edna Boulton in 1945 belonging to Walter Pearn. Is it a Model T Ford?

Merle's sister Isobel is posing on her Uncle Grant Gerow's Cadillac in the mid 50's.  Grant and his wife Pearl (who was their father Russell Cassell's sister) lived in Chicago.  

Russ sitting between the fins of a 1959 Chevy in the early 60's.

Rick with his 1963 Ford

Randy and Russell on the left and Rick on the right with a 1964 Dodge.  Quite the fancy clothes boys!

We have not carried on the tradition of taking our kids' pictures with our vehicles over the years and now I'm wishing we did!  It makes a great historical statement but I am glad we had family pictures taken with the old Hudson in 2013.

Sewing for Yourself 1955

Today's blog post features another treasure from the past that has recently been rediscovered in the Boulton house. This delightful scribbler from 1955 is full of sewing samples and instructions from an extension course that Randy's Mom Merle Cassell Boulton completed in 1955 called "Sewing for Yourself".

 This online edition of the Manitoba Cooperator from September 2010 recounts the role of the Home Economists in rural Manitoba in delivering courses like this one.  These courses were informally called the "Rural Womens' University.  Other courses covered topics like cooking, preserving and general home management.

The top of the second page above notes that she was using a Singer Sewing Machine that was 63 years old at the time.  This one belonged to her grandmother-in-law Ann and a down payment receipt for it was shown on this blog post.

These samples would have been done as a group to learn the techniques that would be used to create a final project, likely a dress for herself.

Sixty-one years after it was made, it is in perfect shape.  The zippers glide like the day they were put in!

The Boulton House

The Boulton Home at 24-6-28

When the Boultons; Benjamin, Ann, Herb, Thomas, Louisa, Anthony and Susan left Ontario in March of 1892, they left everything they knew, friends and family behind. Those first few months, they stayed in a wooden building on the farm home of Thomas Baldwin, just south of the present day town of Reston.  Mr. Baldwin was a former resident of Mountain, Ontario and married Alice Munroe on a trip back home in early 1894.  In the summer of 1892, the Boultons took out homesteads and started building their home at 24-6-28 . The picture above dates from those early days. Both winter and summer modes of transportation for the family are were on display in the picture as well. 

If you haven't seen it, Heritage Manitoba has an interesting online resource here  under the Notable People tab called "We Made Pipestone" that features the stories of pioneer contemporaries of the Boultons. It's a large download but very interesting reading.  

A veranda and the Victorian details were added around the time this photo was taken, about 1910. The summer kitchen was a lean-to that was used by the family in the summer but was not insulated and heated in the winter.  Wood for the cooking and heating was kept there for easy access.

The picture above would have been taken around 1910, by the age of the two boys.  The same photo was printed in the RM of Albert History book in 1984 and the caption below it there identifies the people as : Herb, Susan, Annie Kendrick (on veranda), Stanley, Anthony, Thomas, Louisa Roe, Russell Roe, Ann Boulton and little Tom Roe in front.

 This photo is of Edwin in about 1923 with a towering pile of wood, ready for winter.

The home seen here in the background looks the same but I don't recognize any of the people in this picture. 

Picnic on the lawn in the late 40's.  The house seems unpainted but the Virginia Creeper vine on the east veranda would give a shady and cool spot to sit in the summer. 



"Dot" and "Lady" in front of the house

February 1964 showing the wood siding on the house covered with Insul-brick siding and  the trim painted in a striking dark green.
  

The vine on the east side of the house has been there many years and continues to thrive.  In some photos it has been trimmed back but this one from the 1960's with Randy shows it so lush!

Above - the Boulton house as it looked in the fall of 2015

 Five generations of Boultons have lived, worked, played, eaten, slept and visited with neighbours and family in this house for the past 124 years.  More than just four walls, it has a place in the fond memories of many.

Drawings from the 1860's by J.W. Bushby

James William Bushby was Randy's paternal great grandfather and his work shows he was a talented artist while a young boy in school.  Featured in a previous blog post here, he was born in 1852 on the very southern coast of England in a seaside community and he lived there with his parents, Henry and Eleanor along with 3 sisters and 2 brothers. He made his livelihood as a carpenter and undertaker and after the death of his wife in 1908, he spent time with his children in Canada and the U.S. but died back in England in 1931.  

These amazing drawings and the portfolio type cardboard cover were recently found among his grandson Frank Boulton's belongings. Notes on them indicate they drawn in the 1860's while J.W. was a student at Nunhead Grammar School in Peckham!  Online research has found that Nunhead is a district of SE London so J.W. could have been at a boarding school or perhaps the family had moved there.  Much of this area was severely bombed during 1944 and I have been unable to determine if the Nunhead Grammar School still stands.  This source called "Our Schools and Colleges" from 1867 gives the location as Peckham Rye, a park today.  Perhaps someone reading this blog post may know?

  

Back of above drawing of cottage says:  Done by J.W. Bushby, Milton England when at Nunhead Grammar School, Peckham, London S.E.

 

Castle drawing above signed J.W. Bushby, England. 

Above: Both sides of cardboard portfolio cover that was with the drawings.  It took some searching to find the Nunhead School as it sure looked like Punhead to me!  Writing on it belonging to his daughter Elsie Bushby Boulton is enlarged below.   

One of these drawings of your Grandad's

 for each of you children

                                                     Mother

One for June

                  Gertie girl

Gertrude was a sister of Elsie's who had a daughter June, who would be Gertie's girl.  Gertrude and Elsie traveled to Canada with their father J.W. in 1913, following brothers Arthur and Walter. "Gertie" lived in Reston with Arthur and his family according to the 1916 census and married Charles McIntyre in 1926 in Vancouver.  I believe she died in San Diego 4 years later.  

 Faye's picture is above and the back has the same inscription:  Done by J.W. Bushby, Milton England, When at Nunhead Grammar School Peckham London S.E.  

Uncle Frank must have treasured the drawings and it was interesting for me researching where they were done, over 150 years later!