Today, March 23, 2017, family and friends will be gathering in Sioux Lookout, at Sioux Towers, between 2:00 and 3:30pm to celebrate Fred’s 100th birthday.
Biography of Fred Radford
written by his son John Radford in July 2002
Fred was born in LaRivere, Manitoba on March 23rd, 1917 at the family home. At the age of 3 the family moved to Shergrove, Manitoba which is near St. Rose de Lac. The family moved to a homestead where a new house was built and lived off of the land. The family used to walk 4 miles to a one room school house, where the school year started in April and ended with a Christmas concert around the 18th or 20th of December. The weather was too cold so the kids stayed home for the winter.
His brothers, George and Bill, who had moved to Amesdale, Ontario came back to Shergrove in the spring of 1930 and decided it was best for the family to move to Amesdale. The price of grain was so low you were lucky to get $0.35 for a bushel and the grasshoppers ate what you tried to grow. George and Bill found that you could buy a 160 acre homestead in Ontario where you could cut wood to sell and trapping was worthwhile. They found that in the summer time there was an abundance of blueberries to pick and lots of moose, deer and fish to live on. So in April of 1930 the family packed up the belongings, machinery, cattle and a team of horses loaded it all in a CNR boxcar. Bill, Jim and Fred accompanied the goods in the boxcar and the rest of the family traveled on a passenger train. After about two days of traveling in a boxcar they arrived in Amesdale where the rest of the family was waiting. The boxcar was unloaded then Bill and George showed the family where their new homestead was located about 2 miles north of the tracks. There was no school set up in Amesdale at the time so they had to take government lessons by mail. A school was opened in 1932 with about 30 children attending classes in a one-room school. In 1932 Dad bought a homestead about 2 ½ miles east of Amesdale. This was Jim, Beatrice and Fred’s new home for two years. In 1934 the family moved to an 80-acre lot just north of the tracks in Amesdale and this was called a preemption where Dad paid $0.50 an acre for the extra land. This was home until 1952 when Fred transferred to Sioux Lookout with the railway. Between 1934 and 1952 Fred cut and sold wood with his brothers, raised about 60 sheep for wool and meat, used to guide Americans for about 6 weeks in the fall and 1944 started work with the CNR on the section till 1952. Fred asked for a transfer to the car department in Sioux Lookout and on September 2nd, 1952 moved to the new job.
Upon arriving is Sioux, Fred purchased a lot in the north end of town and built a temporary 12’ x 20’ building. At the time Sioux was so busy you couldn’t rent anything to live in, so Fred lived at the YMCA until the temporary house was built. When the house was completed at the end of October, Fred drove back to Amesdale and brought Mother to Sioux to live with him. Fred met Vimy Anning for the first time in January 1953 at a Masonic banquet. Vimy had moved to Sioux from Trail B.C. to work at CNR hospital on Front St.. There was an opening at the car department and Fred phoned Jim in Niddrie to let him know about the job. Jim then applied for the job in Sioux and got it in the spring of 1953. Jim decided to build a house on Prince St. and by the summer of 1954 it was completed. In the summer of 1954 Fred and Jim Nelson completed building the new house at 16 Fuller St. and Fred and Mother moved in. Fred dated Vimy and during that time they found out they were born 5 miles apart by the same doctor. They were married on September 28,1954 in Winnipeg, Manitoba where most of Vimy’s family was. After Fred and Vimy were married Mother moved in with Jim and Mary. On November 2nd, 1955 Fred and Vimy’s son John was born at the General Hospital in Sioux by Dr. Allan.
Fred decided in 1963 that he would quit the CNR and go to work for Sioux Lookout Board of Education at the Wellington School. Fred found working for the school to be much better than working for the CNR and finally got off of working the night shift. In 1980 after Jim had died and Mary retired from the school board working at the Queen Elizabeth District High School, Fred transferred to the high school. Fred hit the age of 65 in 1982 and he also retired from the high school after 19 years of service to the board. Retirement was very good as Vimy was now retired and the two decided travelling was in the cards. They traveled to England, Hawaii and also throughout Canada and the United States.
Fred and Vimy were happy and proud to see their son John marry Barbara Lacalamita from Toronto on July 30th, 1988. The happiest day came when their granddaughter Jennifer Norah Radford was born on August 24th, 1993 in Sioux Lookout.
At the age of 85, life is still good, the garden still grows, volunteering keeps us busy and life goes on.
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