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.

The Church in the Photo

 We found this photo at the Boulton farm recently, appearing quite old and mounted on back cardboard.  I was thinking possibly it was a church in England connected to the Bushby family until I turned it over in just the right light and saw this:

Then I knew why it looked sort of familiar, I'd been to that spot!  In the summer of 2015, I took a trip to southern Ontario to visit my sister and we toured the area where Benjamin and Ann and their family originated from.  The church is known now as St. John Evangelist Anglican Church and it sits at 6543 New Dublin Road in the community of New Dublin, near Lamb's Pond.  Link here for the Google Map.  It appears that regular services are no longer held at this church.  I wonder if Benjamin and Ann were married in that church?  A few tombstones were behind and beside it but across the road were many more, as pictured below called New Dublin Cemetery #2.

 Lorne and his wife Elma were featured in a blog post here and the almost illegible and overgrown one beside it is for Margaret Johnson Boulton, wife of Thomas as written about here. 

 John and Alice were Benjamin's parents, which makes them Randy's second great grandparents.

Abe and Ethel's story is recorded here and I believe Leslie Travers was their son.  

It was a narrow but long cemetery that followed New Dublin Road for quite a ways and I'm sure there were more Boulton/Bolton stones but we were getting tired of walking that day! 

  The picture above is the only other building I photographed that day in New Dublin.  It seems to be their public library, day care center, government office and community center.  The plaque above the door indicates it as being the town hall, erected in 1890 - two years before our Boultons left on their Manitoba adventure!

James Herbert Boulton (1874 - 1948)

James Herbert Boulton  

James Herbert or "Herb" was born on December 3, 1874 at Spring Valley near Brockville, Ontario.  He was the eldest of 5 children of Benjamin and Ann Boulton.  He came with his family to Reston, Manitoba on March 28, 1892 at 18 years old.  According to the RM of Albert History Book written in 1984, he first settled on the Baldwin farm until his house was ready to move into.  He farmed one half section of 6-6-27, seven miles south and one mile west of Reston.

Maggie Sharpe

1913

 He married Margaret Ann Sharp of Halifax, Yorkshire, England on November 5, 1913 and went on to have two sons; Leslie Benjamin (1914-1990) and Bevis William (1917-1978).  

1917

1920's

                                        

Sadly, Maggie died of cancer on October 4, 1931.  The boys later married and had families of their own, some of whom continue to farm the original homestead of Herbert's at 6-6-27.

1940's

Bevis married Margaret Cora McIntosh in 1939 and they had 3 children:  Margaret Ann, William Keith and Carol Beverly.

Leslie married Ruth Elizabeth Howden in 1941 at Waskada and they are pictured above.  Ruth was a teacher who taught at Prairie Rose School near Sinclair, Kinloss (where she met Les) and Lyleton among other places in rural Manitoba.  They had two children, Marjorie Lee and Brian Herbert. Lee has been kind enough to send pictures and information to help with this post.  Thank you.

Herb died in Brandon General Hospital on March 4, 1948 and is buried with Maggie in the Reston Cemetery.

Uncle Anthony (1880 - 1950)

Anthony Samuel Boulton

Anthony standing and Frank, the little head over the radiator in 1930.

Anthony Samuel Boulton was born October 8, 1880 in Brockville, Leeds County, Ontario.  He was the son of Benjamin and Ann Boulton.  Anthony is a family name on Ann's mother Ann Higginson Boulton's side, going back generations in County Antrim in Ireland.  He was 12 years old when the family left Ontario for the west and began farming near Reston, MB.  Farms there were small and there wasn't land readily available for the young sons to be able to farm there.  Anthony originally had the farm at 6-6-27 but when his brother Herbert married in the teens, they switched farms.

Uncle Frank told me he was a quiet, tall thin man who did not say much.  Besides farming he "worked out" for others.  Frank recalled him helping pasture and round up cattle and horses north of Reston, along the Pipestone Creek one year.  He remembered that Anthony  (Uncle Frank said it without the h- "Ant-tony") came home so thin that you could see right through the skin on his earlobes!  Ann was distraught to see her son so thin and gaunt that she said he would never work there again!

Cousin Lee (Boulton) Beck recalled that Anthony was a very strong man and a hard worker.  Another family member told me in the late forties it was Anthony that handled the financial matters of the farm and prevented his brother Tom from "giving it all away" after he became very religious and would have given away their last dime.  

Anthony never married but Frank said with a twinkle in his eye, "He almost did!".  He was sweet on Elsie Boulton's sister "Gertie" as Frank calls her.  Her name was Gertrude Bushby and she had come to Canada with Elsie and their father James in 1913.  British Columbia marriage records have Gertrude marrying Charles McIntyre in Vancouver on September 21, 1926.  A Gertrude McIntyre's death record is in the San Diego, California records for February 8, 1929, making her only 32 years old at the time.  Uncle Frank did remember that she died young.

The photo above is believed to have been taken about 1912.  The men in coveralls left to right are Thomas, Herbert and Anthony.  The man in the white shirt is unknown.  The two boys are nephews, sons of Abigail "Louisa", Russell and Tom Roe.  The tractor is a Hart Parr bought in 1912.  It is pulling an eight furrow plow. 

The above photo is Uncle Frank on the left, Edwin at the reins, and Anthony on the right with a pitchfork.  The Albert History book from 1984 says he enjoyed sports and listened to the hockey games on the radio.  He also enjoyed keeping up with the affairs and politics of the country.

Uncle Frank remembered the two of them going to Brandon Fair together - for a whole week! They stayed with a cousin in Brandon, Long Tom Boulton. (So called to disquish him from Frank's dad Tom who was short!)

Anthony died May 14, 1950 at the age of 69 and is buried in Reston Cemetery in a family plot.

Further memories and stories about Uncle Anthony are welcome in the Comments below!

Abigail Louisa Boulton Roe (1878 - 1963)

Abigail Louise was the middle of 5 children born to Benjamin and Ann Boulton near Brockville, Ontario in 1878.  Her siblings previously featured on this blog include Herb, Thomas, Anthony and Susan.

She was a three year old on the 1881 Ontario census living with her parents, siblings and her grandmother Ann.  She is called Abigail on the 1891 census and she is 13 years old.  The next year her family left Ontario for the prairies, Reston was their new home.  Ten years later in 1901, she is no longer at the Boulton home, according to the census.

Although I can find no official record of the next 3 events, I believe that she married Fredrick Jesse Roe  (1873-1957)  and had two sons, Thomas Fredrick in 1902 and Russell Alfred in 1903.  The latter was born at Mackinak, MB, southeast of Dauphin, according to his obituary in 1975.

Strangely, in the 1906 census, she seems to have been counted twice.  The Boulton home counts her as a 26 year old single "Abagail" and she is also counted as 26 year old Louisa Roe in The Humboldt, Saskatchewan area living with her husband 29 year old Fred, their sons Thomas (4) and Russell (3) along with Fred's brother William (35) and father (65) along with a 14 year old nephew Scott Chester. Their address is listed as Cressman, although I can find no record of this community.  Their household at 20-32-24 W2 had 4 horses, 4 milk cows, 5 other cattle, no sheep and 7 hogs.

Text of the note above, found in the Boulton house:

Winnipeg, July 9th
this is to certify that I will not quarrel with my brother (graney?) (or?) to mark each quarrel down on this paper. (F.?) Roe
Signed Thomas Roe and Russell Roe

What a find over 100 years later!  Who among us has not been in need of a pact like this one?  The bottom of the sheet was blank so maybe it worked!

The 1916 census finds the Roe family of four in the RM of Ellis in township 18 range 29.  Fred is listed as a labourer on a farm.  By 1921 Fred, Louisa and Thomas Roe are in the Birtle Municipality at 14-17-27 as farm owners.  They declare themselves as Methodists.

Back of the photo says - Mother & I and the Anderson sisters & Russell - 1927

(l-r Russell Roe, Anderson sisters, Louisa Roe and Tom Roe)

They moved to Brandon in 1927 according to her obituary and ran a market garden - east of the 18th street bridge about where North American Lumber is now.  The address in old ads is 1418 Manitoba Avenue although the there is no such address now that I can find.

Russell Roe and Helen Ashby                      Russell Roe with

Pearl Campbell and Tom Roe on top               Margaret Kilkenny

Brother-in-laws Fred Roe and Anthony Boulton - photo says 

18th Street Brandon Flood - July 6, 1947

This picture was said to have been taken in at the Roe's Market Garden in Brandon in the 40's or 50's.  

Russell Alfred married Helen Irene Ashby and had three sons - Travers, Eugene and Gerald.  He died in 1975 and his older brother Tom in 1981.  They are all buried at Brandon Cemetery. 

Uncle Frank recalled his Aunt Louisa living on the flats just east of the 18th street bridge, between the tracks and the river.  During the dry years of the 30's he said they had an acre or more of rhubarb plants that they grew for their market garden.  The grasshoppers came and ate every plant, and even sucked the roots dry of any moisture so all the plants were lost.  Rick recalls going to visit with his dad Edwin, perhaps in 1959 and the yard was flooded and they walked across pallets to get to the house.

Roe's Garden ad in the classifieds from 1965 Brandon Sun

Fredrick died in January of  1957 and Louisa on June 20, 1963. Her obituary from the Brandon Sun can be found below.  I would love a photo of Louisa or any of her family to add to this post, if any of my readers might have one.

Found on Newspapers.com

Susan Boulton Bigney (1882 - 1957)

Susan Henrietta was the youngest member of the Benjamin and Ann Boulton family, born on February 22, 1882.  When she was 10 years old, the family left the Brockville, Ontario area for Reston, Manitoba.  Her brothers Herb, Thomas and Anthony have been previously featured on this blog. Thanks to Lee Beck for the picture of the siblings below. 

Aunt Susie, as Uncle Frank called her, married Hazen Ethelbert Bigney on January 22, 1913.  I wonder if the badly water-damaged portrait below was taken at their wedding. It was found in the rafters of an old shed at the Boulton farm in the 1990's. 

Hazen was born in Nova Scotia in 1886 and had come west to work in 1907.  He worked as farm labourer for the Boultons for a time and would have met Susan there and their fate was set. They had one daughter, Ida Mae born June 20, 1914.  One of Ida's daughters and Susan's namesake sent me the photos below of the Bigneys.  Thank you Susan.  

Uncle Frank told me that Hazen didn't know much about carpentry work to start with, but his sister-in-law Elsie's Boulton's brother Arthur Bushby, needed help with the carpentry business and Hazen learned from him.  

The back of the photo above says it was a snowmobile made by Hazen for Sherman Dayton in 1936.  

In 1946, Hazen was tasked with putting up the frame building the Reston Creamery for "Paddy" Paddock, south of the tracks.  The history book Trails Along the Pipestone written in 1981, says it was a 40 by 50 foot building. It also says that Mr. Bigney suffered a serious and lasting injury when he fell from J. Reid's barn loft onto a pile of stones and badly crushed his leg.  Hazen helped build the Hillview Church, north of Reston.

On the 1921 Canadian census, Hazen and Susan lived on Second Avenue, next door to Arthur and Lou Bushby. Lee (Boulton) Beck recalls that her dad Leslie Boulton (son of Herb) and the Bigneys were close cousins and they visited there often. She remembers staying with them while her parents went to the Brandon Fair.  She couldn't accompany them because a bee had stung her foot and she wasn't able to walk very far.  It is said that our memories are made from deep emotion and I imagine she must have been very sad to not have been able to go!   Hazen always found a quarter to give to Lee and she still has a wooden box that he made for her mom Ruth (Howden) Boulton.

from Winnipeg Tribune Dec. 6, 1939
Ida married Lorne Maxwell White of Rivers, MB in 1939.  The clipping above details this event.  They went on to have 4 children who grew up in Reston.  They were named Alexander, Maxine, Raymond and Susan.  Ida and Max are pictured below at God's Lake in Northern Manitoba in 1941.

Susan died in 1957 and Hazen in 1964.  They are buried in the Reston Cemetery.