First Born in Amesdale - Gordon Fradsham

On the occasion of the passing of my dear cousin and friend, Gordon Malcolm Fradsham, I want to pay tribute to him as he was the first child of European descent to be born in Amesdale.   Years ago, I attributed that title to June Clarkson.  Gordon may have noticed my mistake but consistent with his kind nature he never took issue with my error.

Gordon was the eldest son of Albert and Margaret Ames Fradsham who met in Amesdale.    Albert was probably working in one of the bush camps in the area, and Margaret had just returned from Manitoba where she was attending elementary school and living with her school teacher aunt.  The couple was married in 1930 at the United Church manse in Dryden, Ontario, with her cousin Bertha McKay, and Jack Durocher as attendants.  The marriage of Albert and Margaret and the birth of their first child marked Amesdale firsts: a marriage, and a birth.  His birth on June 20, 1931 was the first amongst the settlers.  

Gordon Malcolm Fradsham was born at home, on a homestead just north of the railway, approximately three-quarters of a mile east of the Amesdale station.  He was born with the assistance of Margaret’s mother who was an experienced midwife.  The next day, Albert walked the 17 miles to Dryden to get the doctor, just to make sure everything was alright.

Gordon departed this world on Thursday, September 28, 2023.

May you forever keep laughing and smiling dear cousin and friend.

Second Born in Amesdale

June Alma Clarkson

Second Child Born in Amesdale

June Alma Clarkson was these  second child of European ancestry to be born in Amesdale.   She was born to Robert and Myrtle Clarkson in a sheep barn converted into a dwelling, where she was delivered by her grandmother Annie Ames, an experienced midwife.

  

June’s parents had followed Myrtle’s parents, Samuel George and Annie Eliza Ames, to Amesdale in the fall of 1933.   Bob and Myrtle lived in Amesdale for about four years, just long enough for June to be born on June 21, 1934.  The family returned to Manitoba where Robert became a Rawleigh dealer. 

June writes a touching tribute to her mother, whom she said was happiest when serving others.

Memories of her Mother, 
Myrtle Ames Clarkson

by June Clarkson Sobieski

Dated May 2008

"My Mom’s life was one of sacrifice and service to others.  She was a Godly woman who loved Jesus. 

She had a hard life, being the third child and eldest daughter of the 10 children born to Sam and Annie Ames.  The winter she was eleven years old her Dad took her out of school to cook in the bush camp, as Grandma was ill and busy with younger children.  She used to laugh and say she stood on a stool to knead bread for them.   After growing up she often wondered what the bread was like, but said the men never complained. 

Mom married at age 18, and I was the fourth and last child, arriving 11 years behind the rest.

I remember Mom playing our old pump organ by ear and we’d sing the good old hymns by the hour. She made all my clothes, sometimes designing patterns out of old newspapers.   I’d look through the catalogue and pick out a style I liked, then Mom would make the pattern and sew it for me.  I got my first store-bought coat after Mom took sick when I was 17. 

Mom had a keen sense of humour and much patience and wisdom and she was always read you listen and give good advice.  She taught me to knit, crochet and quilt.

Nightly prayer and devotions were special, with Mom reading by the light of the Coleman lamp.  She never had electricity or modern conveniences.  Hydro came in the early 50’s.  Our home was wired and we waited weeks for the hydro workers to come and hook us to the power.   Mom died at 5am.  and that morn at 8:30am, they came and hooked us up.  But Mom never lived to see it.

Mom nursed Dad’s Mom until Grandma died.   Then when I was eight Dad’s spinster sister Aunt Hattie came, to live with us for two years.  My sister married at 18 and moved to Dauphin.  At age 20 she had her first baby, and died in the Dauphin hospital with pneumonia. This devastated Mom and Dad.  They brought the baby boy home and raised him as their own.  My sister’s husband kind of went off and made a new life for himself, so Mom and Dad had full care and responsibility for Bobby.

  

When Bobby was four Grandma and Grandpa came to live with us.  Grandma had had a stroke and was in a wheel chair.  She needed lifting in and out of bed and everywhere.  With Dad away at work, me in school, and Grandpa feeble, all the lifting fell to Mom.  After five years Grandma died.  Shortly after that Mom got stomach cancer.  She had  two-thirds of her stomach removed.  She lived two more years and I stayed home, took over the house, and nursed her and Grandpa who were bedfast by then.  I had to give Mom morphine needles every 4 hours as there was no home nursing back then.  Mom never complained that I hurt her.  She’d often ask me to sing and play “Where the Roses Never Fade”.

A cousin of Mom’s, Annie Tanner Charles, came to help me the last month.  She was a great spiritual support for our family, as well as physical and emotional support.

Mom never complained or felt sorry for herself.  She just worried how we would manage, when she was gone and so concerned about Bobby who was 8 years old by then.  She tried to advise and prepare us.

She slipped into a comma December 17th.  Jesus came for her December 18^th, 1952.   Just before here last breath she opened her eyes for the first time in two days, looked up, smiled, and said "Jesus".   We knew He had come for her and she was peacefully resting in his arms."

Life Sketch: Samuel George Ames (1871-1953)

This life sketch is the fifth in a series of brief biographies previously published on the 

Amesdale Cemetery Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/amesdalecemetery

Samuel George Ames was born October 26, 1871 to William Herbert Ames and Nancy Maria Bartja. As of yet, little is known of his father’s origin.  His mother’s family emigrated from Luchow, Hannover, Germany in the spring of 1852.  Oral history states that the Bartja family was Dutch, which is consistent with indications that their surname has similar origins.

Sam was the oldest of four siblings; himself, Maria Almina, William Edward, and Albert Edward Lyndall.  Between the births of Maria Almina (1874) and William Edward (1877), the family moved from Lambton County to Elma Township, Perth County.  Throughout his life Sam identified Monkton as his boyhood home.

At the birth of their fourth child, tragedy struck on an unusually cold spring day in 1879.  The well-stoked stove set the house ablaze and Nancy was carried outside. She caught pneumonia and died just ten days later, on May 24, 1879.  The baby was adopted by the Lyndall family.  Only a year later, Sam was orphaned when his father fell from a threshing machine’s separator breaking his neck.  The three oldest children were taken in by neighbours.

Sam was taken in by Jane Reid McDonald, the recently widowed wife of Hugh McDonald of Newton, Mornington Township, Perth County, and raised as a McDonald.  Across the road from the McDonalds was a farm owned or previously owned by Joseph Abel Priest and his wife Annie Eliza McDonald Priest.  It was there as a child that Sam first met their daughter Annie Eliza Priest.

At the age of nineteen Sam decided to go West to seek his fortune as so many were doing at the time. It was then that he decided to take his proper name, being thereafter known as Samuel George Ames. Desiring to marry, he corresponded with his childhood playmate Annie Eliza Priest, who was still living on a farm near Atwood in Elma Township.  After corresponding for some time, Samuel wrote Annie a letter asking her if she would come West and marry him.  Coincidentally, that was about that time that the Priest family was in the process of finalising arrangements themselves, for a move West. In reply, Annie said that if when she saw him again in person, she liked him as much as she did in his letters, she would marry him.

When the Priest family arrived in Manitoba, they were met at the station by Sam. Having always known Samuel to be a very quiet young man, Annie was surprised when Sam walked up and immediately greeted her with a kiss.  Shortly after their reunion the couple was married in South Cypress Hills, Manitoba on May 30, 1894. They then drove to Killarney, Manitoba where Sam was working on a farm.

The story of the Sam and Annie Ames family is a happy one.  They were to have a large and very close family.  Ten children, five girls and five boys were born into the family, of which the first two were born while the family lived in Killarney, Manitoba. Edwin (Ed) Alfred was born in 1895 and William (Bert) Herbert in 1897.

When Bert was two years old, the family decided to move to Gilbert Plains, Manitoba on the other side of the Riding Mountains.  With one horse, an ox, and a covered wagon which carried all their possessions, they set out on the long journey across the prairie and over the mountains to Gilbert Plains.  Upon arrival in “The Plains” they settled a homestead close to that of the Priests.   Sam farmed, but later bought a steam engine, a plow and a thrasher, and soon became known throughout the area for the large tracts of virgin prairie soil he broke and the grain he thrashed.

The last eight children, Myrtle Isabella, Olive Alexandra, Hazel May, Joseph Gordon, Katherine (Kate) Evangeline, Samuel James, Margaret Elinor, and Donald Grant, were born in Gilbert Plains.

During the early 1920s Sam became interested in an area of north-western Ontario, and in the summer of 1924 he made a scouting trip to the area.  Before returning to Manitoba he acquired 240 acres of land at a place called Freda.  Freda, later named Amesdale, was located on the mainline of the Canadian National Railway, and consisted of a station house for the section men, a siding where boxcars were loaded with cord-wood from the local bush camps, and two families. I.S. Thompson, a trapper, and J. Soumi, a homesteader and woodcutter were living there.

Sam returned to Gilbert Plains greatly enthused about the prospects of cutting and selling pulpwood and firewood, and farming.  In the fall of 1924 Sam began preparations for moving the family to Freda, and by November 1925 the family was established there.  Their first property was 240 acres of land with a log cabin of sorts located a mile and a half east of the station.

   

Sam would best be described as an entrepreneur.  In Freda he immediately opened a store, and his son Gordon applied for a post office to be opened which resulted in renaming of the community to Amesdale as there was already a Freda Post Office in another Ontario community. He also established his wood contracting venture, and in 1927 he and others organised the Amesdale Lath and Supply Company.  Later he became a buyer and seller of locally harvested blueberries and wild rice.  

Sam also honoured his civic responsibilities, serving on the first Rowell School Board and the Rowell Roads Commission, and making special donations for the construction of the Rowell School.

Sam and Annie spent their later years in a nice frame house just above the spring on their homestead across the tracks from the station.  It was there that Annie suffered a stroke on January 2, 1944. Thereafter, and until Annie’s passing in 1949 they lived with family.  Sam was terribly lonely without Annie and later married May Tizzard, in a relationship that soon failed.  On October 20, 1953 Sam died of a heart condition.

The passing of Sam and Annie left a great void in the lives of their family.  They are deeply loved and dearly missed.  To their family and community they left their examples of industriousness, creativity, and loving concern for family, friends, and acquaintances.  

December 2105

This history was compiled by Brian Ames with the assistance of Beatrice Ames, Margaret Fradsham, and Katherine Carlson.

Life Sketch: Mary Evangeline (Eva) Priest McKay (1880-1953)

This life sketch is the fourth in a series of brief biographies previously published on the Amesdale Cemetery Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/amesdalecemetery

Eva McKay, was born Mary Evangeline Priest on July 31, 1880 in Atwood, Ontario, the eight child and sixth daughter of Joseph Able and Annie Eliza Priest.   At 13 years of age, she moved with her family from south-western Ontario to “the promised land” of southern Manitoba near Glenboro, leaving behind an established life on a good farm, a large home with an orchard, and her education.   Two years later, in 1895 by horse and wagon her pioneering family made the difficult passage over the then rugged Riding Mountains to take our homesteads south of Gilbert Plains.   It was there that she met a likeable and gifted salesman named George McKay, whom she married in May 9, 1900.

The couple were blessed with six children; Frances Alma, Anne Muriel, Joseph Wilson, William Malcom, Bertha Evangeline and Marjorie (Pard) Winnifred, all born in out west.    With Pard just two years old, in 1924 Eva and George and their four youngest children moved to Amesdale, where they filed on one of the first homesteads in Rowell Township, located one half mile north of the CNR station.

  

The McKay family eventually settled in Richan where they operated a small store and post office.  After George’s  tragic death in 1928, Eva continued to run the Richan store and post office, and as a young widow raised her youngest daughters in the family cottage on the shores of Good Lake.  Surrounded by family and friends Eva continued in the area as postmistress of the Richan post office until October 1948.  She was a lifelong member of Women’s Institute at Richan and belonged to the United Church ladies auxiliary in Terrace Bay where she eventually moved to lend assistance to her son William and family.

“Mrs. McKay is to be remembered for her kindness and cheerfulness.  This cheerfulness was not a reflection of her husband.  Each possessed this quality which, no doubt, helped them through those difficulties that we all meet, and must have been a source of joy and comfort to her family.  But it also contributed to the lives of all who knew her, and helped them through the dull days and trying times.  Her kindness followed naturally from her innate goodness, her faith in God, and her confidence in the worthwhileness of humanity.  But she was no student of, nor theorist in, social welfare.  She gave help and comfort where she could, always with a cheerful smile, or an infectious laugh that brightened the dullest day.”

Source: Mack, Austin; “Character Sketch of George McKay”, contained in “The Priests: Our Family History” by Marjorie Charles Steele.

At age 72, in Terrace Bay, on February 26, 1953 Mary Eva McKay passed way after a short illness.  Funeral service was held on March 2, 1953 at the Dryden United Church, Rev. D. W. Fraser officiating.

Compiled by Brian Gordon Ames 

Life Sketch: Annie Eliza Priest Ames (1873 - 1944)

This life sketch is the third in a series of brief biographies previously published on the Amesdale Cemetery Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/amesdalecemetery

Annie was born October 13, 1873 in Atwood, Perth County, Ontario.  She was the daughter of Joseph Able Priest whose parents had emigrated to Canada West from the United States, and Annie MacDonald whose family had emigrated from Scotland.  Notably, she was a descendent of Degory Priest, the twenty-ninth signer of the Mayflower Compact.

In 1893 Annie moved to Manitoba with her parents and eleven siblings.   Upon arrival in Manitoba, the family was met at the railway station by her childhood playmate, Samuel George Ames who greeted her with a kiss and proposed marriage. The couple was married on May 30, 1894. 

The story of the Sam and Annie Ames is a happy one.  They were to have a large and very close family; consisting of ten children, five girls and five boys, all born while they lived in Killarney and later in Gilbert Plains, Manitoba.  Their children always had great love and respect for their parents, whom they always referred to as “Mama and Papa”.  Annie was especially loved and respected by all who became acquainted with her.  Her loving and understanding nature gave great strength to her husband and family, as well as the communities in which she lived.

Annie’s first love and concern was for her family but, when she felt they were taken care of, she was willing to dedicate herself totally to the service of others.  Her desire to serve was splendidly demonstrated by her years of service as a midwife.  Annie showed great dedication in a calling which required patience, understanding, competence, and especially love.  She was called to leave her family and assist others on a moment’s notice and at all hours, but she did it without a thought for herself and with a pure love of the people she served.

When someone was sick Annie Ames was always there to help.   During the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 which ravaged homes throughout Europe and the Americas, Annie was caring for her neighbours.  When called upon to aid her neighbours during the epidemic she went without a though for her own well-being, having faith that the Lord would protect her and her family if she was helping others.  Often have been heard the words, “Not enough good can be ever said about Mrs. Ames.”  Much credit must also be given to her husband who understood Annie enough to let her serve as she wished without protest on his part.  While Sam provided for the physical needs of the family, Annie spread love through her family and the community by her unfailing service to others.

In October of 1925 the Ames family moved to Freda, Ontario and took up residence in a small log house that was quite a change from their spacious home in Manitoba.  At the time, Freda, later to be named Amesdale, was an isolated community with no roads, schools, churches, or stores.  Annie, being a Christian woman, quickly decided that religious services of some sort must be started in the settlement.  An industrious woman, she quickly ordered the government correspondence courses to provide for her children’s education. She also supported her husband in his numerous business endeavors, including a store and post office, pulp wood and railroad tie contracting ventures, the Amesdale Lath and Supply Company, farming, and blueberry and rice businesses.

Annie was noted for her wonderful recitations and charades at the annual Amesdale Christmas Concert.  She was an active member of the Women’s Institute of Amesdale.

Annie had a stroke on January 2, 1944, and was paralyzed on her right side.  The story of how the children cared for their parents when they could not care for themselves is a wonderful example of the closeness of this family. Annie passed away on February 9, 1949.

This history was compiled by Brian Ames with the help of Beatrice Radford Ames, Margaret Ames Fradsham, and most particularly Katherine Ames Carlson.

Life Sketch: Edward Radford (1893-1946)

This life sketch is the second in a series of brief biographies previously published on the Amesdale Cemetery Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/amesdalecemetery

Edward Radford, son of John Radford and Mary Blows, was born on May 15, 1870 in Bourn, Cambridgeshire, England.  On December 2, 1893 he married Harriet Boston in the town of Dunton, Bedfordshire, England. Edward and Harriet settled in Bourn, where Edward worked as a farm labourer, and more specifically a hay bailer.

While living in the village of Bourn six children were born to the Radfords,  Edward (Teddy), who lived only three weeks, then George Edward, William Ernest, Florence Emily, and Reginald Moses.

Mechanization of farming and the introduction of trucks onto the farm reduced the need for farm labour in England.  Edward suffered from health problems aggravated by the damp English climate, and even wore gold rings in his pierced ears were to control these ailments.  At age 39, these and other factors prompted him to emigrate.  On the last day of March 1909 he departed Liverpool harbour for Canada aboard the SS Lake Manitoba.  His family remained in Bourn until Edward established himself in Canada.

Upon arrival in Canada he travelled to Snowflake, Manitoba where he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway in their shops.  Edward may have had some knowledge of mechanics, since as a young man had owned a motorcycle and also worked on with a manual hay bailing machine back home.

Eight months after his arrival in Snowflake, his sixth child Violet Lily Snowflake was born in England, and named by the children for the place or their father’s residence.  It wasn’t until 1914 that the family was able to join Edward in LaRiviere, Manitoba.  Jim and Fred the last two boys in the family were born in LaRiviere.  Five years later, Edward decided to take up farming, and headed north to farm a property he had purchased in the municipality of Ste. Rose, Manitoba.  Edward and Harriet’s ninth and final child, Alice Beatrice, was born there. She was delivered by Harriet without the aid of another person.

Times were tough on the farm near Shergrove, Manitoba, due to soil being of poor quality and very rocky. George and Bill had previously moved to Amesdale, Ontario with Samuel George Ames, so in April 1931, the parents and their three youngest children joined them there.  With George and Bill’s assistance life was better in Amesdale.  Potatoes were grown as a cash crop, and cows, pigs, chickens and some rabbits were raised for meat.  There was always a big garden full of vegetables, and George the hunter of the family always got his moose and deer.

At home on their homestead Edward passed away of a heart condition on March 8, 1946 For a time Harriet remained on the homestead, but eventually she moved to Sioux Lookout, Ontario where Jim and Fred were working for the CNR.  George, Bill, and Beatrice lived in Amesdale with their families.  Reg raised his family in Flin Flon, while Flo and Vi raised theirs in Dauphin.

Fred Radford's Hunting Stories

My brother George and I used to do quite a bit of hunting, moose or deer.   I remember in the 40’s when we got a moose way up towards Thaddeus Lake.  Mother always wanted to go with us, to be with us when we packed it out.   We were about three and a half to four miles north of where my brother George lived, so she went with us.   Along what was just a trail through the bush and we’d dress the moose, cut it up, and put it in the packsacks to carry it home.  After that it became a tradition that mother did every fall when George and I used to hunt.

             Fred Radford             Harriet Radford     George Radford

Speaking of hunting I never forget the time I went hunting north of the Airport Lake.  I was up on a hill and I looked down below and there were three moose.   I took a shot at the bull but I think I missed it.  There was also a cow and a calf there too, and the cow came belting up the hill.  I could hear it coming, but it went out of sight in the bush, then all of a sudden there it was a 100 feet from me.   I had to shoot it as I thought she was coming after me, but I think she was just running and didn’t know where she was going.  But anyway we got that moose.

Years later, after I moved to Sioux, I was hunting with Ostrum.  We used would go in that same area and we did quite a bit of hunting in that area.  The last moose I shot was standing in the middle of the road.  We shot him and he just wandered to a hill.  We just turned the truck around, backed up and put him in.  It was then that I said to Ostrum, that is the end of my hunting, I’m going to hang up my gun. I felt it was getting too easy.  That 1954, and it was the last bit of hunting I did.  I let them enjoy their lives the same as I have mine.

(An interview recorded and transcribed by Fred's son John Radford)