James and John – “the twins” –  died within a year of each other: John in Kilsyth in 1909 and James in Owen Sound in 1910. John had nine children, all living in 1931, of whom only Alfred (or T.A.)  had his career in the United States. The others stayed in Ontario. In contrast, of James’ nine surviving children,  only Mary Ella [Wyllie] was nearby in Kilsyth. Alexander, his eldest son, was in Regina, Saskatchewan. The others had headed mainly to California.

The data gathered in this posting are about James and John’s children and adult grandchildren. The 1931 Canada Census and the 1930 U.S. Census indicate the financial well-being of the families and single independents. Surprisingly, of the 41 families and singles in this tabulation, only one person was unemployed. A few worked independently (7); most were wage earners, especially in John’s line. For those who owned their houses – and most did – values ranged from $1,000 to 35,000. Values for the seven U.S. properties are at the higher end. In Canada, rural and small-town living lowered the average. Radio sets were in nearly every home in cities but missing on farms and some apartments.

 

James (1830-1910)

James’ first born, Alexander (A.R.), joined the early rush to the Prairies in the 1870s as the railway was pushing west. After several years at homesteading, Alex turned his carpenter skills into a successful business in construction in Regina. He built all his houses, including the one on 2333 Albert Street, where they lived in 1931. The new Saskatchewan Government Telephones Head Office, erected in 1924  at 2340 Albert Street, was a few houses away. The Fleming home was a stucco house with six rooms valued at $9,000. There was no radio. Three of their five adult children lived with Alex and Susan (Bartleman). Grace (24) was a public school teacher, Muriel (28) was an evangelist, and Clifford (33) was a carpenter. Alex died in April 1933; by 1940, Susan was alone in an apartment.

Harold, the eldest, had a taxi cab business. He and his wife Reta lived at 441 Leopold Cres. in a six-room stucco house with young daughters Ruth (2) and Dorothy (11 mo). Their Victorian house, valued then at $8,900, is still in place, painted a regal purple.   Harold died in California in 1935.

Vera married Samuel Lennox in 1929. They lived in Regina but aren’t in the Census – we know they drove to Washington and Oregon that year and may have been missed by the census takers.

Jessie and Robert Nelson’s two daughters, Irene [Turnbull] and Grace [ White], had moved away from the Grey-Bruce area.

Irene’s husband, Percy Turnbull, was a bank manager in Toronto. They rented an eight-room brick home for their family of four children at 1222 Gerrard, Toronto East, for $50 / month and were able to listen to their radio. Whereas many descendants were still affiliated with the Disciples of Christ or had moved to the United Church, the Turnbulls had adopted Christian Scientist. 

Grace was in Stratford married to Bill White, a furniture merchant, and had a young daughter, “Billy.” They also rented a brick single-family home at 126 William Street with eight rooms. They had a radio. 

Mary Ella and George Wyllie bought the farm and grand stone house James had built in the mid-1880s. In their sixties, Mary and George were turning more of the work to their son Victor. In 1931, the three lived in the fourteen-room stone house valued at $3,000, one of the higher amounts in Kilsyth, but were without a radio.

In 1930, Herbert was in Kenmore, NY, with his wife and young son in rented accommodation. He was a cutter in a paper factory. Mary’s other three children – Grace, Stuart and James – shared an apartment in Detroit. Grace was not employed, but her brothers were machinists.

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Several of James’ children emigrated to the United States, a few of whom we can trace through the 1930 U.S. Census.

Jean [Walmsley]  is absent from the Census, but her son Le Roy lived with his wife in Los Angeles. Employed by a wholesale broker as a salesman, he owned a house valued at $15,000 and had a radio. Jean could also have been in Los Angeles with Rothwell, also not listed. Jean died there in 1938.

Robert was a Pentecostal missionary, likely in Japan, where he and his wife were living in 1935.

Margaret [Hayes] was a widow and, at age 68, may have been working as a nurse in Buffalo.  Her son, John Fleming Hayes was doing well as a salesman for an insurance company in Plainfield Union, NJ. His wife Anna and son lived in a house valued at $10,500. His sister Florence was in Westchester NY with her husband Thomas Percival and son. They lived in a house valued at $15,000. James Victor had moved to Toronto, his wife Kathleen’s hometown. As an accountant in a retail store, he earned a substantial salary of $3,800 a year. Their brick house was valued at $4,800. The family with three children was Roman Catholic.  Lastly, Ruth [Hahn] had settled in Mimico, Toronto West with her husband Morgan and their four children – a Baptist family.  Their brick house had a value of $5,000.

Minerva “Minnie” had retired from teaching to tend to her orange grove in Pomona, CA. The house had a value of $12,000. She most certainly had a radio, partly for her love of music and partly for her teenage niece, Hope Thorkildson. 

Hope’s parents, Martha and Peter Thorkildson, were working in the Pentecostal Assembly in Los Angeles, renting at $15 / month. Unlikely to have a radio.

“Dr. Jim”was not in the Census but he had moved to  Los Angeles and, at age 65, might still have been practicing medicine. His ex-wife Louise was in Seattle, renting a house shared with her three adult children and one teenager.

We know that “Dr. Jack” was in Pewamo, Michigan, in general practice. He, Maud and Jack, their son, lived at 61 State Street, valued at $4,000.

John (1830-1909)

John and Margaret (Robertson) ‘s children were, with one exception, within an easy driving distance from Owen Sound. Each year, Christopher, the eldest, brought the family together for a fully catered day at his family cottage in Leith near Owen Sound. 

Christopher Alexander (C.A.), age 74, a prominent citizen in Owen Sound, was modestly listed as an accountant and active in the “College” industry. The description illustrates how understated a census can be. C.A.  was the principal and founder of the Northern Business College, manager and director of Grey & Bruce Trust and Savings Company, head of Fleming Publishing and president of Richardson, Bond & Wright printing (RBW). Until his death in 1945, he was the treasurer for the Ontario Cooperation of the Disciples of Christ.

The Fleming house was at 566 9^th Street East, brick, with 14 rooms, valued at $6,000. The house value compares well with others in the neighbourhood, where only a few were over $6,000.

His wife, Margaret (Donald), was virtually bedridden. Three of their daughters lived at home: Lillian and Frances were public school teachers earning $1200 a year, and Helen ran the household. Agnes Kincaid was domestic help, for which she made $350. C.A., incidentally, reported his income as $3,500. It was likely higher. An early adopter of all technology, C.A. was one of the first in Owen Sound to have a telephone. In 1931, he certainly had a radio, as did all his offspring. His son Howard started the Owen Sound radio station in 1938.

Howard and Martha’s home was at 877 5^th Avenue East, a few streets from C.A., an Edwardian brick house of eight rooms valued at $5,000. As the Owen Sound Sun Times publisher, he reported an income of $6,000. Donald, his son, earned $550 as a reporter. The younger son, George, was a student.

George (or G.D) and Naomi (Beaton) and their children, Margaret (Peg), Mary (Mary Pat) and Christopher, lived across the road from C.A. at 893 5^th Avenue A. East, a brick house with ten rooms, valued at $4,500. They paid their servant, Alma Barfoot, $150. The census enumerator noted G.D. as a publishing company manager making $4,000. More precisely, he was RBW’s general manager and a Fleming Publishing Company executive.

Their sister Lally was a social worker in Toronto, earning $1,500. She was the head superintendent of St. Christopher House, a settlement house at 67 Wales in the Kensington Market area. In 1933, she and Dr. Andrew Thomson married, and Lally turned to raising a family.

Stuart left the Fleming printing businesses in 1927 to join Moore Corp. In 1930, he was general manager at Gillman Fan Fold in Lewiston, NY. He owned his house worth $35,000. Stuart and Cassie (Wright) had three young daughters: Jessie, Catherine, and Ellen.

Mary Jane [McIntyre], age 72, was widowed and living in Owen Sound. Her house at 1342 4^th Avenue West was of wood, valued at $1,800. She did not have a radio. This little Victorian cottage sits today on a well-kept corner lot.

Melvil and wife moved to Chicago. He didn’t have a radio, but he owned his house valued at $11,500. He was a mechanical engineer in a “wholesale” steel company.  

Annie Young, nicknamed “Queenie” for her May 24th birthday, had married Stewart Young and lived in Regina at 2822 Rae Street with their 15-year-old twin girls. The house was of wood, seven rooms, $8,000. No radio. Stewart was a civil engineer with the Saskatchewan government, earning $2,800.

Archibald McIntyre, the youngest, may have been in the United States at medical school.

Melissa [Brown], Samuel, and their son Erskine farmed in Derby Township. They shared semi-detached halves of a brick house. Melissa and Samuel had eight rooms, and Erskine and Nellie had seven rooms for three children: Orlo, Gordon, and Norman. Each part was valued at $1,000

Myrtle Mellisa Brown served as a nurse overseas with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War 1. On her return, she stayed in Toronto as a registered nurse at Christie Street Hospital. In 1931, Myrtle earned $1,440, the same salary as most of the 56 listed on staff. She had missed one week due to illness.

Albert F. Brown and wife Doris in Oshawa rented an apartment of three rooms for $45 a month. The apartment building at 82 Simcoe was brick and held 15 units. He taught at a collegiate for $2,500 a year. The Browns were one of several who had a radio.

Marguerite [Wickwire] and James Leander Wickwire had married a few months before in 1930. At the time of the Census, they were in Port Arthur where James was a construction civil engineer. Salary was $3,000. Whalen Building was given as their address. More likely, this was James’ workplace. The Whalen Building was an early skyscraper completed in 1913, but by 1931, it had to be rescued by the City. Perhaps James was working on the restoration. Marguerite and James owned a wood house with six rooms.

Mary [Monro], Marguerite’s look-alike sister,  and Hugh Monro are missing from the Census. However, they were on the Voters’ List for 1935 in Thorold, Welland, where Hugh shows as a farmer.

Annie [Murphy], born in 1864, was missed in the Census of 1931. She would have been a young and vigorous 67. Joseph had died in 1928, and it seems likely their house on Victoria Street in Aliston, ON. was sold. Perhaps Annie was with her youngest daughter, Bernice, and her husband, Marshall Downey. They were living on Albert Street, renting for $25 a month a brick veneer, single-family home with nine rooms for three children, ages one to five. They did have a radio. Marshall was a salesman in a shoe store making $1,000 / year.

Roselyn [Rose] was on a farm in Adjala, near Aliston, with her husband James, mother-in-law Priscilla and sister-in-law Annie, and Douglas, their teenage son. They owned a large, thirteen-room stone house valued at $1,000, without a radio.

Gladstone and his wife Ethel were also farming nearby in Tossorontio. Their stone house of nine rooms was worth $1600. Kenneth and Dorothy were ten and five. The family had a radio.

Victoria “Vickie” and John Esplen, now in their early 60s, were still in Derby Township farming – probably raising mink near Springmoun. They owned a stone house of fourteen rooms valued at $3,000 – they had a radio.

Hazel was doing well, married to Edward Macdonald Creighton and living in Listowel on Main Street with their daughter Ruth. Edward was a druggist. They owned their brick house of six rooms –– plus a radio.

Pearl and her husband Victor Hunt had relocated to Owen Sound, where they rented a brick home of six rooms at $35 per week. The address was 135 9^th Street West. No radio. Victor was the chief clerk at the railway office, earning $1,800 / year.

John or J.J. and wife Mabel moved from the Derby farm to 2396 3^rd Avenue West. They were living on “income,” perhaps from the sale of the farm, and owned their brick house of eight rooms valued at $3,000. Mabel’s mother, Jean Ewing, age 89, lived with them. Surprisingly, no radio.

Albert (A.E.)., widowed – lived alone in his twelve-room brick house in Kilsyth, Derby, valued at $2,500. No time for a radio. However, he did have an employee, John Duncan, to help with the farm.

Eldest daughter Olive, in 1930, was in Solon, Cuyahoga, Ohio, with James Kent Mcafee and their two children. They rented their house on the farm. One can imagine them sitting in their living room listening to the radio.

Annie Carle and Geroge Donald married in 1929 and departed for Saskatchewan immediately. The move to Kindersley, Saskatchewan, to farm grain was recent. They bought a wood house of nine rooms – valued at $5,000 – had a radio and a one-year-old daughter, Mary Ellen. George’s brother, James Alexander, was helping as a labourer, earning $400 / year.

Vera did not marry. In 1931, she was in the “Village of Islington” (west of Toronto), teaching in a public school for $1,125 a year. She lodged in a house on Dundas Street. We don’t know where Mary, her sister, was. In 1935, she was teaching in Tara, in Bruce County. Perhaps, during census time, she was enrolled in a teaching program. Lastly, Lorna, age 21, was boarding in Owen Sound at 671 10^th Street East and working as a stenographer in a publishing company – probably Fleming Publishing. Her income was $400.

Thomas Alfred – answered to Tom and Alfred – was credited as the Father of Fire Prevention Day in North America. In the 1930s, he was a lecturer and inspector at the National Board of Fire Underwriters. In the 1930 U.S. Census, the census taker described Alfred as a lecturer on forest conservation – possibly the enumerator misunderstood him or Alfred understated his work. He and his wife Inez resided in Shaker Heights, Cuyahoga, Ohio, at 31 Ludlow Rd. They owned their house valued at $20,000. There was a radio.

Their daughter Lois married Judson L. Doyle of Owen Sound and moved to Hamilton. In 1931, they lived in a brick apartment building in a three-room flat for $45 / month. Judson was a production manager in a wire factory, making $2,300 a year. Lois, a graduate of the College of Women at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, was stuck in the apartment as a homemaker. At least they had a radio.   Although both were born and bred Disciples of Christ, the census taker wrote evangelist

Religion

Faith was important to these families.  The US census did not ask for religion, but from the Canada census, we see a strong loyalty to the Disciples of Christ in Derby Township and Owen Sound. A few had moved to the United and Baptist churches, and a couple to the  Church of England. James’ descendants had some leaning toward evangelism seen in Robert and Martha as pastors, Alexander’s daughter Muriel, and some Christian Scientists.