Clifton Stories

How very wonderful to have two pictures sent to me this week from Ipswich, Suffolk.  The first picture is of the house on Burlington Road where the Maybery family lived while Rev. Maybery was the minister at Tacket Street Congregational Church from 1873 to 1876.   Laura Cloke shared the picture of the home she and her mother have been researching.

The second picture this week was from a gentleman associated with the church (Tacket Street , now called Christchurch) where Rev. Maybery served until his death in 1876.  The picture is very old and thus a bit spotty but is a real treasure, don’t you think?

Back now to five Maybery children who have been taken in by a childless aunt and uncle  after their parents have both died: one in 1876, and the other in 1879.  Their father had been a minister, and their uncle is a  merchant. They had been living with their mother in Bristol for 3 years after their father died.  We don’t know if Mrs. Maybery was sick during that time. We do know that there were family members near.  Their maternal grandparents lived just around the corner.  One house was on Freemantle Square and and the other on Freemantle Road.  Coincidently, there are houses for sale on both of those streets this week in Bristol.  You can see the modern refurbishment of houses that were there in Bristol of 1871 or earlier.

In contrast with Georgian houses that have been refurbished, there is in Bristol a Georgian House Museum where the house  has been restored to the way it was in the Georgian period when it was built.  The house at this link seems similar to the house on Chantry Road where the Mayberys were living with Eliza Sinnock in 1901.

Census documents do not provide answers to all our questions about the upbringing of the 5 children by their aunt and uncle, William and Eliza Gibbons. Being a teacher, of course I have wondered about the education that the children had.  Sometimes in the census documents children after a certain age are labeled as a “scholar”  in the space where employment is to be recorded.  In the 1881 census, there is no record of that nature for the 5 children who range in that year from 4 to 10.  Other 9 and 10 year olds in the document are listed as “at school” or as “scholar”, but mostly the designation is used for children over the age of 10.  Although there is no “governess”  listed, there is domestic help in the Sinnock home.

I found one reference to Crofton House School that Alfred  attended.   After education became compulsory in England in 1870, there were many kinds of schools.  One website attempted to list the many schools in Bristol and give a little information about each.  A Mr. Charles E. Cooper started a school called Crofton House  and  advertised his school as providing ‘high class education for sons of gentlemen’.  It is not clear how long the school remained in operation or if the other two boys attended.

By the time the next census is taken in 1891, the children are ranging from 14 to 20.  They now have on the job training provided by apprenticeship in their uncles’ business. Perhaps the girls attended a “school for young ladies”.  There were several nearby.

Only the 14 year old is listed as a scholar.

At the young ages of 19,16, and 15, the three boys are listed as Provision Salesman (Alfred), Apprentice Provision Warehouse (Arnold) and  “ditto”  for Frank.  According to the Dictionary of Old Occupations , the meaning of “Provision” is food supplies.    The main import for Mr. Gibbon’s business was flour.  William Gibbons was a partner in a business called Gibbons, Sinnock and Co.  His partner was his brother-in-law, Alfred Howard Sinnock. The business of Provisions involved  importing, wholesale and retail levels. According to one source, the company had been started by 1879 with the help of a loan from St. Augustine bank.

Instead of 5 adopted children, Alfred Howard Sinnock had his own large family.  Alfred had married Emma Clara Richards  in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, on April 15, 1862, when she was 18 years old.  After giving birth to  Edith, Ethel, Harold, Gilbert, Edgar, Edna, Annie, Hilda,  Gertrude,  Emma Clara Richards died in September 1890 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, when she was 46 years old.  It’s hard to know if her death was a factor in the break-up of the business of Gibbons and Sinnock, but she died in September of 1890, and the company dissolved in June of 1891. After she died  it seems both Alfred, her husband, and William, his brother-in-law, continued in the wholesale importing trade but with different relatives for partners.

Mr. Sinnock continues in the importing and wholesale business with another brother Frederick William Sinnock while William Gibbons is in business with his nephews who had been raised as his sons.

The years  around the turn of the century also brought more changes for the Maybery family.  By the 1901 census in England, Mrs. Gibbons,  is now a widow, and  with the grown Maybery children, is living on Chantry Road  Number 12.  The information about William Gibbons legacy to Eliza follows.

This house seems to be a step up, looking larger than the previous house called Grafton Villa on Arley Hill.  On Arley Hill, the family had been close to their mother’s mother, Susan Matthews Sinnock, who lived with a maid-servant in a house nearby.  But in 1897, William Gibbons had died, and then in 1900 Grandma Susan had died.  William had lived for 61 years, and his mother-in-law who had given birth to 13 children had lived for 87 years.

When William Gibbons died,  he left a legacy of  £12763  pounds.   

UK Inflation Rate, £12,763 in 1897 to 2018

According to the Office for National Statistics composite price index, prices in 2018 are 12,523.81% higher than prices in 1897. The pound experienced an average inflation rate of 4.08% per year during this period.

In other words, £12,763 in 1897 is equivalent in purchasing power to £1,611,177.44 in 2018, a difference of £1,598,414.44 over 121 years.

Please note:
I do not understand  how the above figures were calculated.  I just visited a site that seemed to know how to figure out what  the buying power of old wages or legacies would be today.  I used it once before to figure out how rich Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice  really was.

What was it in the growing up, studying, working, and grieving in Bristol of the late Victorian years that would culminate in a decision to take a trip to Japan and come home the long way through Canada.  Were there funds available now that had been tied up before?   Why Japan, why Canada, and why Moose Jaw?   Tune in later folks for Mayberys on the move.  It’s time for a Transportation Theme:  Boats and Trains.

 

 

 

What could I have in common with Maggie Siggins, 1992 winner of the Governor General’s  Award for literary merit?  The answer is John R. Green.  In Siggins’ book The Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm, she tells the story of every person who owned the property near Pasqua, SK where the Eberle murder took place in 1987.  She writes the history of one particular farm  from 1883 to 1987 and  reports that not one of the men who held title to the land lived a “mundane life”. ”Not one escaped a fate full of astonishing surprises.”

The theme of Ms. Siggins’ book, she says in her preface,  is Greed.

For the men who owned this land were often not dedicated “toilers of the soil”; most hated getting their hands dirty. They were businessmen who hired other people to do the hard work.  They were land-speculators who got rich by exploiting anybody who showed signs of weakness. The defeated down-and-out half-breed was their favourite prey. 

For a time early in the 1900s, Mr. John Robert Green owned a portion of the farm about which Ms. Siggins writes, so she spends 38 pages of her book telling his story.  In her preface to Mr. Green’s chapter, she writes this assessment of his life and character.

No one made more money than he did.  He had cast aside his calling as a schoolteacher because it was a poor-paying proposition and got into real estate just as the West was booming.  Quickly he made a fortune. But farming, he said, was his first love, and he collected grain fields as nonchalantly as he did rare coins.  Yet there developed a serious split in his personality–the intellectual versus the money-grubber–and in later life he paid for his neurosis.  He died a stern sick old man, who was not at all well-loved. 

Although Siggins does not think very highly of Mr. Green and doesn’t mind saying so repeatedly in her book, and although I regret the behaviors  and influence that caused suffering and injustice to many people, I don’t think it’s wrong to note some admirable qualities as well as his shortcomings and willful transgressions.

Yes, Mr. Green was one of a number of early Moose Jaw businessmen who was involved in land speculation and the acquisition of lands through some corrupt practices relating to Metis Scrip.  The process of taking land that had been designated for Metis people was widespread, and it seems the government did very little to control what was happening.  More here.

The moral issues raised by the kind of deception and manipulation involved in these kinds of transactions by realtors, speculators, and politicians may have been in some people’s minds when the Moose Jaw Times announced the formation of a Literary and Debate Society for the town of Moose Jaw in 1895.

J.R. Green was a newlywed when he was invited to take part in a debate in the Moose Jaw Town Hall.  He would be on the Moose Jaw team who were opposed by a Boharm team made up of three farmers, one of whom was his brother Fred Green, joined by James Pascoe and R. Grant Thomson.  The Moose Jaw team included in addition to J. R. Green, J.W. Sifton, (the school superintendent, and J.E. Caldwell,  a bright young lawyer.  The resolution to be debated was: Be it Resolved that “ambition is more harmful than beneficial to mankind.”   Apparently the audience selected Boharm as the winners of the debate.   Interesting to me was the fact that both Mr. Sifton and Mr. Caldwell ended up in the area of the city that Mr. Green is most famous for.  Mr. Sifton’s house was across the back alley from 1037  Clifton and faces Main St.  Mr. Caldwell moved into a house facing ours across the street.   Here’s a review of the story of  his acquisition and development of “the avenues” west of Main.

Archives CPR Land Sales Search Results
4 Search Aciain
Your Search Found 1 Records Pages: Previous I 1 I Next
Call Number: M 2272, volume 93, contract number 23773
Date of Purchase: 1903 APRIL 4
Purchaser(s): GREEN, JOHN R.
Land Description: SE-5-17-26-W2
Number of Acres: 160
Price per Acre: $30.00
Status of Purchase: PAID IN FULL

 

J.R. Green bought the one very desirable quarter section of land  from the CPR in 1903 and released it gradually to realtors at the height of the building boom in Moose Jaw.  People said he “bought land by the acre and sold it by the foot.”   He paid $30 an acre and the 50 by 100 foot lot our house would be built on was purchased for $300 in 1911.  So how much profit did he make on 160 acres?   I don’t know if the lots purchased were “serviced”  as a city lot would be today with electricity and water/sewer access included in the price of  $300.  Surely he had to pay someone to survey all the lots . Did the city put the roads and lanes in?  Here’s a problem for your math students, Mrs. Mc.

J.R Green was often in the Moose Jaw papers.  One large column features him as a “Prominent Citizen” and focuses on how admired and respected he was in the community.  His involvement with the Board of Trade and his attempts to have the University placed in Moose Jaw were considered important contributions to the community.  He also made a contribution to the city by providing the land for the Wild Animal Park.  There is good information about the history of the Wild Animal Park at the SAIN (Saskatchewan Archival Information Network).

 My sympathies for him have to do with two things mostly:  one that he was a debater. More and more these days, I appreciate the art of well-articulated disagreement and the benefits of exploring differences in a civilized manner.   But more so, my heart went out to him and first wife, Annie, because of the tragic death of their infant son, Arthur, who was scalded by crawling into a tub of boiled water as his mother prepared to bathe him.  The child died after suffering terribly for a couple of days.  What parents would ever recover from that?

I have decided to include the obituaries that the paper published for Mr. Green and his first wife, Annie.  Both of them died unexpectedly and relatively young, her especially.  Obituary writers used to be quite the story-tellers.

MRS. JOHN R. GREEN DIES SUDDENLY; SHORT ILLNESS

WAS WELL KNOWN IN CHURCH CIRCLES AND LOCAL PATRIOTIC WORK

After a short illness Anna Maude, wife of J. R. Green died at the General Hospital Saturday afternoon at 6:30 o’clock. The late Mrs. Green was out to dinner at the home of a friend Wednesday evening and was enjoying her usual good health. Later in the evening, however, she complained of not feeling well, and Thursday evening it was found necessary to call a physician.  Friday, he advised an operation, but the patient would not give her consent.  She was suffering so much Saturday morning that she was immediately rushed to the hospital and prepared for an operation.  Upon operating, the doctors found that it would be impossible for her to live.  She died shortly afterwards.

The late Mrs. Green was 43 years old, is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Beesley, now in California.  She was born at the well-known Marlborough Farm near Moose Jaw.  She is mourned by her husband, three sons, Wilbert, Allan, and Jack, her father and mother, three brothers and two sisters. John, W.R. and Arthur Beesley, all of the Moose Jaw district, Mrs. J.F. Miller, Swift Current, and Sarah E. Beesley, California.

The late Mrs. Green was a Methodist in religion and was an earnest worker in the church.  She was also an active member of the W.C.T.U. for many years.

The funeral which will be conducted by Rev. H. T. Lewis and E.J. Chegwin, will be held from the family residence, 59 Athabasca West, Tuesday afternoon, at 2 o’clock, and will proceed to the Moose Jaw cemetery.

Mrs. J. F. Miller, Swift Current arrived in the city today, to attend the funeral.  Mr. and Mrs. .J. G. Beesley, and Miss Sarah Beesley, parents and sister of the late Mrs. Green, who are living in California, have left for Moose Jaw, but will not arrive here in time for the funeral.

Source: Moose Jaw Daily News  August 21, 1916

Moose Jaw Public Library Archives

John R. Green, Well Known Resident of Dist., Died Monday (Obituary from Moose Jaw Times July 12, 1938 Microfilm Moose Jaw Public Library Archives

Widely known and respected throughout Western Canada, John R. Green passed away in a local hospital on Monday morning in his 68^th year. He was born at Rippingdale, England, on September 28, 1870, and the family emigrated to the United States, later coming to Canada and the Moose Jaw district.

The family made their home for two years at the Henry Battell, later Brubaker, farm, and during his early days John R. Green walked into Moose Jaw daily to attend school, which was held at a variety of places, including two rooms in the Brunswick Hotel, with J.N. McDonald as teacher.

He received his high school training under William Rothwell at Victoria School, and there being no normal school available, engaged at once in his chosen profession of teaching.

In 1895 he taught school at Boharm and later at Pioneer and Marlborough, and it was while  teaching at the last named school that he met his first wife, Annie Maud Beesley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Beesley, pioneers in that district who later moved to California.

For a time Mr. Green was principal of a school at Nelson, B.C., and on returning to Moose  Jaw, he established a real estate, insurance and financial business.  He was agent for the Manufacturers’ Life Company.  Mr. Green was also the first collector of customs in Moose Jaw, and he homesteaded in the Marlborough district.

The deceased took a prominent part in local affairs and was especially prominent at one time in Board of Trade activities.

In 1905, Mr. Green unsuccessfully contested the Moose Jaw constituency in the Liberal interests for the first legislature of Saskatchewan, being defeated by the late John Wellington, who ran as a Conservative.

He was widely known as a student of economic matters and his services were much in demand for addresses to service clubs and other organizations over a wide territory.

At the time of rapid development of the Western prairies, Mr. Green was extensively engaged in the real estate business, during the late 90’s and the early part of the present century.  He was one of the largest realtors investing in Southern Saskatchewan lands at a time when settlers came into this locality in large numbers; and he himself was one of the largest property owners in this part of the country.  Mr. Green farmed on a large scale, and this year had about 3,000 acres under cultivation.

When Moose Jaw first started to grow, Mr. Green invested heavily in local property, and placed on the market one of the first subdivisions, High Park West, a quarter section lying immediately north of Caribou St. West and between Main Street and Fifth Avenue.

After disposing of that property he acquired the Alex Thompson and Ostrander farms immediately south of the city—a total of one and one-half sections, and here he made his home.

Through his generosity, Moose Jaw came into possession of the now widely famed Wild Animal Park, a lease of which former farm property was granted to the wild Animal Park Association.

By his first wife, Mr. Green had three sons, Wilbert now of San Pedro, California; Alan and John both farming in Moose Jaw district. A fourth son, Arthur, predeceased Mr. Green.

In 1920 he married Alida Blakely, daughter of R. W. and Mary E. Blakely of Toronto. By this marriage there are four children, Robert, Harry, David and Mary, all of Moose jaw.

This blog is about a plot of land and a building, one domestic space  in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada that was owned and sold by a dozen families over the last 115 years.

Because the property is part of traditional Indigenous lands that are the subject of the Qu’Appelle Treaty (Number 4), the first acknowledgement must be to the Cree,  Salteaux, Assiniboine and Métis peoples, Indigenous Nations who traveled, hunted, and found shelter in the areas now populated by the city of Moose Jaw and the farms and villages in the vicinity. Before the first plows were brought into the area, according to Leith Knight, Moose Jaw historian and archivist, the first wooden dwellings were the wintering cabins of Metis buffalo hunters who preferred to stay on the plains after the fall hunt. The peoples who moved and told their stories all around this place for hundreds of years did not consider themselves “land owners” or “settlers”.  Yet they surely must be acknowledged as the rightful storytellers about Beginnings.  And if we are wise, we will acknowledge and listen to their powerful narratives, listen and learn.

Welcome to my new blog!!  I’ve been telling some of you for years about the interesting things I have found in researching the house we live in and the families who have lived here since 1913.  Now instead of cornering you at every outing with new tidbits about who lived and grew, married, gave birth and died in our house, I can put my stories in this blog….and you can take it or leave it!!