Sawfish on the Prairies? "Queenie" Bushby (1887-1968)

When we would look at old photos, Randy would pass me some and point to something on the wall behind the person and say - "Look the sawfish!"

           

I thought he was teasing - how would a sawfish show up on a homesteader's house in rural Manitoba? Russ and Rick remember it came from their  Grandma Elsie's sister "Queenie".  It's still in the house somewhere they say!

Myra Elfrida Bushby (aka Queenie) was fifth child of James William Bushby and Patience Emily Wooler.  She was born almost exactly three years after Elsie in Milton, Hampshire, England. In 1923, Queenie left England for Vancouver where her younger sister Gertrude lived with husband Charles McIntyre.  Queenie was a buyer for the dry goods company Fraser-Paterson.  Shortly after, she filed this Declaration of Intention.

This Naturalization Document below is dated nine years later and even includes a grainy picture of Myra.  She never married and was always known as "Aunt Queenie" to the family. 

She was noted to be a buyer for a dry goods company on the 1930 Census when she lived as a lodger at 235 Boylston Avenue in Seattle, Washington.

In 1940, a business can be found at 1206 4th Ave in Seattle called Bushby Apparel Shop with Myra and one employee, Mrs. Lucille Frantz,  doing alterations.  She died (just months before her sister Elsie Boulton) in Seattle on the 12th of January in 1968 and is buried there in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

As for the Sawfish, Google found many listings of similar items of antique sawfish bills (also known as carpenter sharks) and are of a family of rays characterized by their long, narrow, flattened nose.  That's so ironic being that the Bushbys were a family of carpenters!

Table Pitchers

Cream Pitchers are not typical tableware today but at one time, they were essential to serve the fresh milk or cream in coffee, tea, on fruit or porridge.  A few that were found at the Boulton house have interesting stories.  They may have belonged to Ann, Elsie or Merle. 
 The cow's head pitcher below was made in Occupied Japan as the stamp on the bottom indicates.  This makes it easy to date the piece from 1945 - 1952.  As if to prove there is a collector of everything, I found a website Craig's Cow Creamers and entire page of different head models!

Our family used the English pressed glass pitcher above this past Christmas to hold rum sauce for the plum pudding.  There are so many patterns of pressed glass, I was unable to find another just like it but many similar.  

Sandland Ware from Lancaster Ltd in Hanley, England were the makers of this jug with the pattern called Crinoline Lady in an Old World Garden. The company operated from 1944 to 1968 and EBay has plenty of varieties for sale in the pattern.  

None of the jug are particularly valuable but I'm glad to have them for their family connection and they make great dust collectors!

Merle's Quilt

Inside a box of Randy's Mom's things, we found  a wonderful old quilt top, likely made in the mid- fifties.  She attended a local sewing course in 1955 as this blog post told about and her neighbour and friend Jennetta Curtis likely helped put it together as well.

My talented cousin Marilee was able to put a blue border and a lighter blue backing on it and the Reston United Church quilting group put it on the racks on February 13, 2017 to begin hand quilting it. They worked on it as a group on Mondays for just about a month.

One spot online called this pattern Radiant Star but Eight Pointed Star but it also is like the Bethlehem Star pattern too. It certainly would have been a huge job to cut and piece it together before the days of rotary cutters and mats!

Merle's sisters tell me that their Aunt Pearl (Cassell) Gerow was the quilter in their family and she sent many of the pieces that were used to make quilts in their family.  Aunt Allie remembers the quilting frames set up in their house in Elkhorn from time to time.

The blue thread in a combination of hearts and stars sets it off beautifully.  It is a work of art and we are so grateful to the community ladies for completing it.  We think she would be very proud indeed!