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| Notes for John Robert SUDDABY | ||||||||||||||||
| "John Robert was born in Wellington County, Ont. in 1858. He married Sarah Jane McKague in 1892 and they lived in Palerston [sic], Ont. They moved to Neepawa in 1896 and finally settled in the bush a few miles north and west of Eden. They built themselves a log house which had to be plastered. I have a very vivid memory of two neighboring ladies in their barefeet vigorously tramping a mixture of clay and cut up straw and then doing an excellent job of plastering the outside of the house. "Stove pipes were run from the stove up and across the room and then through the ceiling and up through the bedroom and then through the roof. On occasion the fires would burn and start a fire in this long string of pipes. John Robert would lift the pipe off the stove and a pan of water would be brought and placed over the hole and the pipe was lowered into the pan. This smothered the fire. "Forest fires were always a danger. At such times the important contents of the house were carried out into the ploughed garden area. A stoneboat with wooden kegs of water would be hauled nearby and used to douse the sparks. Men from Neepawa would be brought out to help fight these fires. My grandmother also used to cook at Bert Walker's sawmill in the Riding Mountains before this area was formed into a National Park. Sometimes the men would find a bear den. They would dig it out and for a while bear steaks would be on the menu. Mother retained a claw and had it made into a brooch. "I remember Grandpa as a very strict Methodist who would take the service as lay minister whenever he was needed. He was also census taker and would be gone days at a time while on this duty. He would take John Levandoski with him to act as interpreter when going through Huns Valley. When he got back home every bit of information was carefully copied into a huge book and brought into Neepawa Land Titles Office. "When visiting my grandparents during the winter season, there was always a black pot on the old iron cookstove. In this pot would be boiling an unappetizing mess of barley. This was fed to the chickens. John Robert died at Trail, B.C. at age 84, in 1942. Sarah Jane passed away at age 91, in 1959. She was buried in Neepawa Cemetery. "Their children were: Gordon, missing in action during World War I, 1914-1918; Mabel, Mrs. Stanley King, Edmonton, deceased; Edith and May both died of scarlet fever during the epidemic in 1903; Ada, Mrs. Charles Freed, a resident of the Yellowhead Manor; Evelyn, Mrs. James Ronald, deceased; Victor, residing in the United States."219 | ||||||||||||||||
| Last Modified Feb 14, 2003 | Created Dec 31, 2003 by Reunion for Macintosh |