Life Sketch - George McKay (1871-1928)

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

George McKay

20 January 1871 – 23 April 1928

George McKay, was born January 20, 1871 in Rochester, New York, USA ¹ to William McKay and Francis Wilson,² and is said to have been the first person buried in the Amesdale cemetery.³

Referred to as “a happy wanderer”,⁴ his travels took him to many states of the USA, Mexico, and eventually to Gilbert Plains, Manitoba.  He was a horse trainer by trade,⁵ but he also had “gifts of the tongue”,⁶ and great power of persuasion.  These talents served him well as he went into business selling farm machinery, a lucrative business in the West in those days.⁷

It was in Gilbert Plains that George met his wife Mary Evangeline (Eva) Priest.  They were married in Gilbert Plains, on May 9, 1900,⁸ and their lives were blessed with six children.   Frances Alma was born in Gilbert Plains ⁹ before their move to Langenburg, Saskatchewan where Anne Muriel and Joseph Wilson, were born.  The younger children, William Malcom, Bertha Evangeline and Marjorie (Pard) Winnifred were all born back in Gilbert Plains. 

 In the post-war years, as farming didn’t show much profit in that part of the West, and as the market for farm equipment faded, George and Eva considered making another move.¹⁰   So in 1924 when George’s brother-in-law, Samuel George Ames returned from a scouting trip to the Dryden farm belt with news of better prospects there cutting and selling pulp wood and eventually farming, they moved that fall with their nephew Bert Ames,¹¹ and their four youngest children to north western Ontario.  Their two oldest girls who were already married or were soon to be married remained in Manitoba.

George and Eva settled in Richan, where they operated a small store,¹² and on February 16, 1928 George became the postmaster.¹³  Shortly thereafter, a tragic accident took his life on April 23, 1928.¹⁴  While waiting for the mail train during a spring blizzard,¹⁵ George was struck by a westbound freight train ¹⁶ at the Richan station.¹⁷ 

 

In memorial to George, a close friend described him as “honest, sincere, able to inspire confidence . . . and with an endless fund of stories of his days as a horseman”.¹⁸

George was survived by his wife Eva who continued to run the Richan store,¹⁹ and two years after his death, she became postmistress.   She raised their daughters Bertha and Pard in the family cottage by the lake at Richan,²⁰ with loving support from her two sons, Joe and Bill who continued to live in the area.   She was also blessed by the presence and friendship of her sister Annie Eliza Priest Ames and her family, who lived at Amesdale, just seven miles west along the CN line.

Sources:

¹ Steele, Marjorie Charles, The Priests: Our Family History

² Steele, Marjorie Charles, The Priests: Our Family History

³ Ames, Brian; personal knowledge.

⁴ Clement, Andrew;  The Bell and the Book

⁵ Clement, Andrew;  The Bell and the Book

⁶ Clement, Andrew;  The Bell and the Book

⁷ Clement, Andrew;  The Bell and the Book

⁸ Steele, Marjorie Charles, The Priests: Our Family History

⁹ Steele, Marjorie Charles, The Priests: Our Family History

¹⁰ Ames, Brian; personal knowledge.

¹¹ Kate (Ames) Carlson in her Brief History of the Ames Family

¹² Clement, Andrew;  The Bell and the Book

¹³ Library and Archives Canada; Internet address http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/postal-heritage-philately/post-offices-postmasters/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=12613&

¹⁴ Steele, Marjorie Charles, The Priests: Our Family History

¹⁵ Radford, Fred; personal communication with Brian Ames

¹⁶ JoAnne McKay Wintle, personal communication, July 16, 2015

¹⁷ Radford, Fred; personal communication with Brian Ames

¹⁸ Clement, Andrew;  The Bell and the Book

¹⁹ Clement, Jessie Howarth; personal communication with Brian Ames, March 25, 2008.

²⁰ Stouffer, Ken; personal communication with Brian Ames, June 15, 2007.

Kate Ames Carlson - An Unknowing "Alien"

Citizenship for Women in Canada

(1966)

Canadian citizenship laws have evolved over the years.   Prior 1947 Canada didn’t have any citizens of its own.  People born in Canada were classed as British subjects, with a status equivalent to that of any other subject of the British Empire.

Furthermore, if a female British subject married a man who wasn’t a subject of the British Empire, an “alien”, she automatically forfeited her status as a British subject, and acquired her husband’s nationality.  That law was changed on Jan 15, 1932
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Nearly four months later, on May 7, 1932, Miss Katherine Evangeline Ames married Mr. Joseph Arthur Carlson, a Swede working in Amesdale.  One would have presumed her status as a British subject was secure, but as it turned out the new law excluded some nationalities, and one of those was Swedish.  Consequently, Kate unknowingly forfeited her status as a British subject.  At marriage Kate became a Swede, and remained so after Art became a naturalised British subject.

Throughout their marriage Kate voted in every election, served as an elections officer, and was the most loyal Canadian one could imagine - until the 1970s when her Old Age Security application was denied.  By official letter she was informed by the Canadian Government that she wasn’t Canadian; she was a Swede.   Incredulous and furious, frustrated and several protest letters later, her daughter Elvera was finally able to convince her to relent, give up the fight, and fill out the paperwork to establish her Canadian citizenship.

Dual citizenship, Canadian and Swedish, was eventually granted.  Nevertheless, future vacation travel to Sweden was made just a bit easier since Kate didn’t require a Swedish visa – as did Art.  

One of Dad’s Proudest Moments

By Ted Radford about his Father 

Jim Radford

 

One of Dad’s proudest moments was when he met the King and Queen of England in 1939 when they took a 6-week railway tour across Canada.   As the trains were pulled by steam engines in those days Dad knew where the train was going to stop for coal and water on its way through Northwestern Ontario. He and his brothers, Fred and Bill walked from Amesdale to Niddrie to meet the train and as the train was being serviced they went to the back of the train and started calling for the King and Queen. The RCMP tried to stop them but they came out on the back deck to talk to them and allowed them to take their picture (above).

AMESDALE HISTORY to 1939 and Royal Visit

AMESDALE

Source: Dryden Observer, May 20, 1939

Amesdale, formerly Freda, is situated on the main line of the Canadian National Railway, 200 miles east of Winnipeg.  With the exception of Mr. I. S. Thompson who settled here in 1921, the district was settled during and since 1924 at which time there was only a construction trail between Amesdale and Richan and thence to Dryden.   The Dryden trip was then a two day ordeal whereas now one may make the return trip in fine weather by car in two hours.  The wagon trails in the early days were so bad that traveling in spring and summer was only a series of severe jolts over roots and into holes, in fact one of the settles, in making the trip between Amesdale and Richan in the spring of 1926, was thrown from his wagon five times, once landing head-first on a stump.  This accident led to a strong protest letter written to the Highways Department at Toronto which it is said was responsible for the arrival in the fall of 1927 of a survey party to map out a road to Richan.  At the present time, however, there are upwards of twenty mile of road which can be navigated in good weather by car.

In 1925 there were only 6 married couples in the district but with others moving in and ten bachelors becoming brave enough to ask ladies to join them, the district now boasts of 21 couples.   A school was built and commenced operations in 1928 with eight scholars but after five years it was closed for want of pupils.  While the same condition prevails at the moment, yet the district can now count 20 aspirants to school as soon as they are old enough.  In all the district now numbers 90 souls.  Needed cash for supplies has thus far been obtained from the sale of pulpwood and railway ties.  The district has one store and half a mile north is the emergency landing field over which Trans-Canada airplanes fly daily between Montreal and Vancouver.