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| John William Holmes and Florence Alice Green on their wedding day, March 11, 1893 |
John William Holmes was the eldest of eight children born to John (a furnaceman by trade) and Maria Holmes (nee Crooks), born January 31, 1871 at 36 Aarons Row, in the Kirkstall area of Leeds, Yorkshire (West Riding), England. According to notations on his marriage license and the ship's passenger manifest on his immigration to Canada, he became a "Fire Range Fitter", or installer of cooking stoves.
Florence Alice Green was the third of five daughters born to Joseph (a portmanteau maker) and Ellen Green (nee Ellen Marie Bladon) She was born July 29, 1870 at Milnes Grove, Hunslet. She became a tailoress after completing her schooling. (Hunslett is an area of the city of Leeds, quite near Kirkstall. I have been unable to discover a street named Milnes Grove in that area. However, I have found a small street named Milnes Grove in Castleford, Yorkshire about ten miles south-east by east of Leeds, but I doubt it is relevant. Dave)
John and Florence were married March 11, 1893 in a Wesleyan Methodist ceremony in the Hanover Place Chapel, in Hanover Square in the City of Leeds. While in England they had four sons, Alfred, Harold, Arthur and
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| John and Florence Holmes with their sons Alfred, Harold and Arthur |
Apparently John took up work there as a wheelwright. It was in Winnipeg that their first daughter, Lily, was born. (Read the account of that night by her sister Myrtle!) In 1906 John decided farming was the way to go, so he moved to a spot near Cut Knife , Saskatchewan, and filed on a homestead. (Southwest 1/4 of Section 18, Township 44, Range 21 West of the 3rd Meridian) Click here to view location maps
A Mr. Tommy White came out at the same time and took up a homestead east of the Holmes'. That fall they erected a sod house large enough to accomodate two families. However, Mr White obtained employment in Battleford for the winter and moved there with his family. It was too cold in the house with only one family, so John erected a tent inside and they kept it much warmer through the coldest part of the winter.
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Alfred, Harold and Arthur, looks like new winter coats! Photos courtesy of Elsie Evjen (nee Holmes), scanned and submitted by Dale Evjen. |
In 1907 John erected a 4 room log house, later adding a kitchen onto it, and began breaking land with oxen. The nearest place to haul grain to and get supplies from was in Paynton, 22 miles distant. Oxen are not speed merchants, so any trip "to town" was a two day affair, and if the trip was to be undertaken, they made the most of it, bringing home large quantities of supplies; apples and flour by the barrel, dried fruit, crackers and such in boxes, and syrup in large pails.
Naturally, storing large quantities of foodstuffs invites predations by opportunists such as mice, which were always a problem. Since cats just weren't to be had, they sent off to the T. Eaton Company in Winnipeg for one! Sure enough they got a cat, one who lived to a ripe old age and served to diminish the mouse population a good measure.
A creek ran through the farm providing a plentiful water supply, (even if it had to be carried up to the house in buckets) as well as providing a swimming hole in summer. In the winter the kids had fun sliding down the hill and on the ice, even though they never had skates. The railway ran adjacent the property, and the bridge over the creek permitted access between the house and barn when the creek was too high to cross normally in the spring runoff.
April 2nd, 1911 saw the arrival of their second daughter, Myrtle. By this time Alfred, the eldest, was already gone off to work.
October 7 1912 saw the passing away of Florence Alice Holmes of "Bright's disease". She was buried in a plot on land that was intended to be a new cemetary, but shortly afterward it was decided to locate the cemetary elswhere, so she is the only one buried there. This left John with quite a family to look after.
Help arrived in the summer of 1914 in the form of Florence Annie Orman, another native of England, who brought with her a daughter, Elsie, who had been born in Waterloo, Ontario May 17, 1914. On December 12, 1914 John married Florence Annie Orman, and eventually legally adopted Elsie.
March 4, 1916 was marked by the arrival of another daughter, Edith Annie. By this time her older brother Harold was in the army and overseas with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Alfred and Arthur joined up as well on the same day in May, 1916. Alfred saw service in France with the Infantry and was wounded there. Arthur was taken ill (probably tuberculosis) in Canada and after a long hospitalisation was discharged as medically unfit.
December 17, 1917 saw the arrival of another daughter, Devina. It was around this time that John went to work for the Canadian National Railway, and started at Tatsfield, commuting to work from the farm on the "jigger". (For those unfamiliar with the term, a jigger is a small gasoline motor powered vehicle used by section hands to travel on the railway. Dave) In early 1918 he moved to Gallivan, living in the station house and working as a section foreman. Myrtle and Lily went to school in Gallivan.
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From the archives of Wilma "Billie" Holmes |
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In November 1918 John was widowed again as Florence Annie contracted influenza and died on the second of the month. This left him again with a young family to care for on his own, five daughters, the eldest thirteen, the youngest eleven months. He continued to work on the C. N. R. as well as running the house, cooking meals and sewing dresses and sunbonnets for the girls. The youngest, Devina, was placed with and cared for by another family until she was about five years old.
In 1920 John transfered back to the Tatsfield section and lived on the farm, again commuting by "jigger". Shortly after the move back to the farm Florence Annie's aunt Ellen Waring came from England to look after the children. Alfred bought the farm from John in 1922, and in 1924 John was transfered and moved with the girls to Macrorie, Saskatchewan. It was here that Ellen Waring passed away. Lily was working in Battleford by now, and was sent for to come home and care for the younger ones.
1925 brought a transfer to Swanson, Saskatchewan. Here John met Blanche Watson Norton, a former English barmaid. They were married June 19, 1926. John Holmes remained in Swanson, living in the section house until he retired and was pensioned. After retirement, he remained in Swanson, and was school janitor for several years. Blanche passed away in 1946, but John lived until September 12, 1949. He was 78 years old. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, (Block 107 Lot 21 Section N 1/2) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewn.
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WebMaster: Scott Holmes Brampton, Ontario |
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