Douglas Paul Barnard, Master Brainteaser (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 34 theme: "Playtime")

Douglas Barnard from his obituary in the London Daily Telegraph 18 May 1994 p.25 accessed on Newsapapers.com 

Douglas Paul Barnard (aka Douglas St. Paul Barnard) was my husband's first cousin once removed. Born 27 January 1924 in Pakefield, Suffolk, England to Arthur and Laura (Parry) Barnard, his idea of playtime might not be everyone's idea of fun. As a cruciverbalist, his work was his play. (To save you the trouble since I had to look it up anyway -- a cruciverbalist is a compiler or aficionado of crossword-puzzles. And -- full disclosure: I have been a lifelong cryptic crossword puzzle junkie, a hobby shared with my mother and her brother Bob. I am in awe of the work of Douglas Barnard.)

Douglas Barnard's father Arthur was the younger brother to my husband's grandfather John Mathias Barnard. (Whereas John Mathias was a large man standing over 6 feet tall, brother Arthur's service records from when he signed up for the army at age 18 show him to be less than 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing just 124 pounds. Perhaps he was still growing?) After serving with the British army during the Boer War and in India from 1896-1908, Arthur committed to service in the Christian ministry. To this end, Arthur moved his family to Australia in the 1920s. 

Young Douglas grew up in Australia and obtained his education at the Brisbane Boys'  College. He compiled his first crossword at age 15.

He started work as a bank clerk, but soon enlisted in the Australian army at Launceston, Tasmania on 10 March 1942 shortly after turning 18. His capabilities were soon recognized and he was sent on a Junior Leaders Course followed by selection for the Royal Military College. Records indicate he was a Bombardier. His casualty forms list frequent illnesses and problems with his eyes and with his right ear after a gun blast near it. It is difficult to follow his military records with any real idea of what he was doing; there is a very mysterious reference to his having "m/in from Queensland LofC area  GDD" and embarked from Cairns for "Mexico" (yes, with the quotation marks) on 19-02-45 and then having disembarked at Aitape (surely this is in New Guinea?) on 3-1-45.  He was promoted to Sergeant on 8 November 1945 before his discharge from service in 1946. 

Perhaps he was actually an intelligence officer during the War as reported by a couple of sources (see Gilbert article and Best for Puzzles website in Resources below). If his talents were not taken advantage of in this way, a great opportunity was missed. No official source has been found, but his was exactly the sort of mind required at Bletchley Park or its Australian counterpart Central Bureau. 

At the end of the War, Douglas transferred to the Army Psychology Corps. Then in 1946 he entered Tasmania University to study political science. He was expelled for publishing a pamphlet calling one of his professors a Communist. Later vindicated when that professor was discharged, it nevertheless cost Douglas the Rhodes Scholarship he had won to study at Oxford. 

When paralyzed from polio at age 25, he was told he would never walk again. With characteristic determination and ability, he designed his own leg clamp and got himself back on his feet.  

In 1954, Douglas moved his wife and children to England where he found free-lance work, including as an occasional crossword compiler for the London Daily Telegraph. By the time his obituary was published in that newspaper on 18 May 1994, they reported that he had compiled 2,956 puzzles for them over a course of 40 years. They added that "recently his crosswords had appeared on Mondays because their clarity and cryptic elegance were considered a refreshing challenge after a relaxed weekend."

His book Anatomy of The Crossword is a classic for demystifying the cryptic crossword (which is unlike the more straight-forward encyclopedic version more common in North America). Having figured out on my own how the cryptic clues can follow a number of different formats, it delighted me to read this book and learn that the patterns all had names and explanations. He expounds on the use of puns (based on homonyms and homophones), drollery, allusion, dialectic clues, dilemmatic clues, paragrams, anagrams, disjunctive clues, parabolic clues, and finally the all-encompassing cryptic licence that may be taken by the cruciverbalist. Oh, my! 

Barnard's Anatomy of the Crossword, 1963

According to his obituary:

A true polymath, he quickly grasped the arcane details of any discipline. Science, mathematics, computers, religion and philosophy were of particular interest to him, but he was also a talented handyman who rewired, replumbed and restored his large Georgian house almost single-handed. 

He designed and built a large Adam-style mantelpiece, restored a Bechstein grand piano and collected and restored Oriental antiques.  

His interest in politics led him to run as a Conservative candidate in the 1964 election; he did not win a seat. 

Over the years, he set many other brain-teaser puzzles and wrote many articles as a freelance journalist, often under various pseudonyms. It takes a special mind to turn mathematics into playtime.

The Rochdale Observer 24 April 1965 accessed on Newspapers.com

In addition to his Adventures in Mathematics (1967), he also wrote The Puffin Book of Car Games (1977), It's All Done by Numbers (1968), 50 Daily Telegraph Brain-Twisters (1985), Figure it Out (1973), One Hundred Brain Twisters (1966), A Book of Mathematical and Reasoning Puzzles (1962) and 50 Observer Brain-Twisters (1963). So much playtime created by him for so many puzzle enthusiasts!

Here is an example of one of his regular Brain-twisters (and, no, I haven't tried to solve it, before you ask!):

The Observer 10 January 1965 p.39 from Newspapers.com

As to why he added the "St." to change his name from Douglas Paul Barnard to Douglas St. Paul Barnard or D. St. P. Barnard, no explanation has been found. Probably there is some sort of cryptic or mathematical clue. Perhaps the "s" and "t" are needed to create an anagram: absurd lapdogs rant? about grandads plural? Sorry, Douglas, some of us need a more fulsome clue to solve this one!

Some Resources:

• Australia, World War II Military Service Records, 1939-1945 for Douglas Paul Barnard, accessed on Fold3
• Barnard, D. St. P., Anatomy of the Crossword, London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd. 1963
• Barnard, D. St. P., 50 Daily Telegraph Brain-Twisters: a book of mathematical puzzles and reasoning problems, Javelin, 1985, accessed on 25 July 2025 on Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/50dailytelegraph0000doug/page/12/mode/2up
• Best for Puzzles Website, Crossword Who's Who for Douglas Barnard accessed online 25 July 2025 at https://bestforpuzzles.com/people/b.html
• Gilbert, Val, "The Telegraph Crossword is 80 and Still Going Strong", 30 July 2005 from the Narkive Newsgroup Archive  accessed online 25 July 2025 at https://rec.puzzles.crosswords.narkive.com/5ALuWsOd/the-telegraph-crossword-is-80-down-and-still-going-strong
• Obituary for Douglas Barnard, The Daily Telegraph, London, England, 18 May 1994, p.25.

The Andersons at Bawlf, Alberta, Canada (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 32 theme: "Wide Open Spaces")

My maternal great great grandfather Israel Anderson (1829-1910) spent a lifetime searching for wide open spaces. Born in 1829  and raised in Laxarby, Västra Götaland, Sweden, 3 miles from the nearest town, he moved to Norway as a young man to work on a farm there. He married farmer's daughter Johanna Gundersdatter Opsahl and moved to America in 1856 with wife and their first child, my great grandfather Anders (Andrew) Anderson. 

Israel and Johanna went on to have the following children: Andrew b 1855, Sophia b. abt. 1856, Ida b. 1858, Gunelius b. 1862, Olava b. 1864, Annetta b. 1868, John b. 1868, Betsy b. abt. 1870 and Carl Gustaf b. 1873. Johanna died in 1900.  

Over the years, the call of its wide open spaces took Israel and family to several newly developing areas on the American frontier. After first settling in Decatur, WI, they moved on to Northwood County, Iowa and then to Grafton, Dakota Territories, traveling by train and covered wagon. In 1901 son Carl Gustaf moved across the border to homestead in Manitoba. In 1902 son Gunelius moved his family to Canada as well, settling in what became the Bawlf area of what was then the North-West Territories.  In 1903 Israel himself emigrated for a third and final time to join Gunelius in the Bawlf area. He was a widower in his mid-70s.

Alberta was not even yet a province when Israel arrived. In 1903 the land was still part of the North-West Territories, and, of course, before that had been part of the truly wide open spaces occupied by the western First Nations peoples. At noon on 1 September 1905 Alberta became a Province of Canada. Israel had been there for a couple of years by this time.

Google Earth view of Bawlf area - showing the present-day checkerboard of fields that were wide open spaces when the Andersons arrived

The Village of Bawlf was established in the vast Canadian prairies in 1905, the same year that Alberta became a province. Named for Nicholas Bawlf, president of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange, the town came into being alongside the new railroad. Farming and shipping grain were its raison d'être.

Son Gunelius "G.I."  had moved there the preceding year with his family. The following is from a letter dated 17 May 1977 from Ernie and Esther Anderson to R.W. "Bob" Anderson, based on their recollections of  comments made by Gunelius's son Lawrence Anderson: 

"G.I. left Edinburg, N.D., where he owned a hotel, in 1902 and moved to Alberta. Andrew and John came up two years later and bought a half section beside the homestead. Lawrence was saved land, proved it up and got it at age 21. The railroad came in 1906. Israel homesteaded near his sons' farms and was required to spend a few months each year on his homestead, so he had a house on skids that he pulled over to the land in summer and then back to the sons in the winter.    Lawrence said they lived in 2 tents when they arrive in Daysland and lived in them until three weeks before Christmas when their house was finally ready for occupancy. It was bitterly cold, he remembers."

The 1906 census of Alberta shows Gunelius at section 8-45-17-W4M, his sons Emil at 10-45-17-W4M and Lawrence at 30-44-16-W4M. Another brother, John Anderson, had homesteaded at Bawlf just east of his father at NE36-44-17 W4M.

Homestead application of Israel Anderson

Sadly, on 7 March 1910, at age 80, Israel died before proving up his homestead application. 

1910 Post Card from Gunelius Anderson advising sister Sophia of Israel's death

Decades ago my uncle Bob Anderson and his son visited the rural Lutheran cemetery near Bawlf  where Israel is buried. A few years after this, while attending a kids' hockey tournament at nearby Daysland, my husband and I also paid Israel's gravesite a visit.

Two of His Male Anderson descendants visit Israel's burial location 

In 1998, in response to my letter to the Village of Bawlf, local resident and historical record-keeper Lil Bohmer sent me a considerable amount of information based on local knowledge of the family. Lil was a member of the same Bawlf Lutheran Church as the Andersons and was the record-keeper for the cemetery. She provided the burial locations for Israel as well as for Gunelius, his wife Sophia, their daughter Gina Reesor (1891-1928), son Emil (1884-1950) and son Alfred (1886-1954).

Lil went on to say: 

I found in the Daysland History book the enclosed information about Kenneth and Aleda Anderson. Also in the book were copies of maps showing land owners in the early 1900s. Another son of Gunelius and Sophia farmed north of Ohaton. He was known as Ike but a gentleman who knew him said he thought his given name was Israel - after his grandfather. The other son Lawrence, who farmed with Alfred later lived in Daysland. I found several people who remembered Gunelius and family but no one is left who would remember Israel. The house that the Andersons built on their farm was considered a beautiful place. Their neighbours and church friends were all there for Open House when it was completed. A few years ago that house was moved into Daysland to be a neat looking place yet. It was a 2 story. The fact that it had a kitchen nook and a dining room had impressed everyone. 

Israel's grandsons Clarence and Ingwald (sons of Andrew) homesteaded in the Lancer area of Saskatchewan, Canada a few years later. The wide open spaces of the Canadian prairies did not suit everyone. Some of the sons or their descendants ended up moving back south of the 49th parallel. The current crop of Andersons inhabiting Canada's wide open spaces primarily descend through the Israel/Andrew/Ingwald line. 

3 of Israel's sons backed by their sons about 1915: lower left my great grandfather Andrew Anderson in front of his son Clarence, lower centre Gunelius in front of his son Emil and lower right John in front of his son Victor. The picture was taken after Victor returned from fighting in World War I

Teaching in One-Room Country Schools: Idella Edwards (1897-1976) and Elinor Anderson (1926-2016) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 37) Theme: "Back to School"

First Generation: Idella 

Education was of utmost importance to my Grandma. Next to "eat your greens!", her favourite precepts included "get an education!" and (perhaps only aimed at her equally serious granddaughter) "for the love of Mike, smile!" She had lots of other passions and great values to instill, but this week the focus is on school.

Idella ("Della") Edwards was born in Great Falls, Montana on 28 July 1897, the first-born child of Charles F. Edwards and Mary Jane ("Mayme") Wescott. Three sisters and two brothers would come along to complete the Edwards family.

From Grandma Della's Album - with her comment (the same thing she often said to me!)

When Della started school (September 1903) she could simply walk across the street to Longfellow School in Great Falls. However, when she was 12, the family moved to a small fruit farm near Lake Blaine, N.W. of Kalispell and about 30 miles from the western entrance to Glacier Park. Della and her siblings attended Cayuse Prairie School, 3 miles away.

From Grandma Della's Album

Because freight rates were so high, Della's father found he couldn't afford to ship his fruit, so returned to his previous career working on the railroad.  He had always worked for the Great Northern Railroad, but when they had a strike in 1914, he went to Canada to work on the CPR.  This introduced him to the Saskatchewan prairie where he saw a new opportunity. He took up a homestead (N18-20-21-W3M) seven miles south of Lancer, Saskatchewan.  That winter, Charles moved his family to a home in Kalispell until he could get a house built on the half section in Saskatchewan.

When Charles brought the family by train to Lancer in the spring of 1915, Della remained in Kalispell until the summer of 1916 so that she could finish high school. 

Flathead County High School, Kalispell, MT from Grandma Della's Album

From Grandma's High School Yearbook 1916

Charles and some of the other men applied to the Saskatchewan Department of Education for advice in setting up a local school district in the newly developing farming community. A variation on one of the proposed names was approved by the Department; Hill School would be located on the Northeast corner of SE17-20-21 W3M. My Uncle Bob Anderson wrote about these times in "A Partial History of Hill School (District #3624)": 

It was recorded that there were 13 school age children in the proposed district. Five of this group were members of the Edwards family (Everett 15, Marion 13, Ora 11, Grace 9, Merton 6). 

As was true of nearly all Prairie rural schools, a loan (debenture) was asked for and received, to finance construction. But in Hill's  case, approval came later than expected, so the target date of fall, 1915 could not be met. Since approval was not given until late 1915, construction of the 24'X30' school, an 8 horse barn and 2 outhouses was not completed until Nov., 1915. The fall term was held in the Ed Howey farm home, with teacher John Cairns at $70 per month. Hill School was officially opened on Apr. 3, 1916. The first school officials were chairman J. B. O'Connor, Sec.-Treas. Chas. Edwards and Trustees Bert White and A.E. Cavanagh.

The first teacher at the new school was Grace Leggott. She resigned at the end of the spring term because of illness, and the local Board was faced with the task of finding another teacher for the fall. There were more openings than teachers in those early years and qualified people were hard to find. At the local Board meeting, Sec.-Treas. Chas. Edwards mentioned that his oldest daughter Idella had just finished high school in Kalispell, Montana, and was planning to join the family on their homestead. Could she fill in as teacher until someone qualified could be found? The Trustees agreed with his suggestion, and Idella Edwards took charge of Hill School early that fall, just after her 19th birthday. With no teacher training and no background in Canadian or Saskatchewan schooling, she was somewhat apprehensive, and with good reason.

School Inspector G.D. Ralston arrived on the scene late that fall, discovered who was teaching there, and reported to the Dept.of Education.

 A copy of the letter sent to Miss Edwards from the Department of Education on 30 November 1916 indicated that, "although this is not altogether satisfactory it has been decided to allow you to remain in charge until December 31, 1916. Your provisional certificate is enclosed herewith. . . .  If you wish to continue teaching in this province it will be necessary for you to qualify in the usual way. If you will have forwarded to the Department an official statement to the effect that the Flathead County High School, from which institution you obtained your diploma, is an accredited High School, you will be entitled to admission to the Third Class Session of the Normal School."

From Grandma's Album - Central School, Swift Current, Saskatchewan
Location of her Normal School 1917

Della did as suggested and headed "back to school". She attended Normal School for a three month course in public school teaching in Swift Current, Saskatchewan in January, February and March of 1917.  The usual location for learning to be a teacher was the Normal School in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, but it was filled to capacity at this time with the First World War in full swing. Swift Current was certainly the more convenient location for her; Della's class may have been the only one to receive their teaching diplomas at this location.

From Grandma's Album - she is second from left

From Grandma's Album - she is second from right, back row

 

Until the end of the school term, she taught at Oroyo School near Beverly, Saskatchewan.  She then applied for and was accepted as teacher at Wayne Valley School District (SW3-22-20-W3M).  She began teaching there in the Fall of 1917, boarding with a local family by the name of Morice.  

Miss Della Edwards standing in doorway to her school:
Wayne Valley School

The location meant that she was fairly close to her family; the Charles Edwards' were farming south of Lancer. It also meant that she was in the immediate vicinity of the homestead of Ingvald Anderson, whom she met shortly and married on December 29, 1919.  Idella taught until the end of the term in June 1920.  At this time, she and Ingvald were living at his brother Clarence's homestead (23-21-20-W3M) four miles southeast of her school.  She mentioned driving by horse and buggy the four miles to school, leaning over the side with morning sickness, being pregnant with their first child.

In those days, this meant the end of her teaching career as she adapted to the challenging role of wife and, over the years, mother of six on a small prairie farm. 

She was called upon to go "back to school" from time to time to fill in when a local teacher was ill. The remuneration was not great - she was able to treat herself to the luxury of some beautiful handkerchiefs that she obviously treasured and handed down to her daughter Elinor who handed them down to her daughter Joanne. 

Next Generation: Elinor

My mother Elinor Georgina Anderson, Ingvald and Della's fourth child (born 11 March 1926 in Cabri, Saskatchewan) would grow up to follow in her mother's footsteps. Like her mother's, her teaching career was cut short when she chose to marry a local farmer in the district where she was teaching.  

Elinor's path to school was never a particularly easy one. She and her siblings did a lot of walking to school over the dry prairie, swinging the jam pails full of their lunches, but the stories they told of this time were ones of great enjoyment rather than hardship. 

Music at Ararat Springs School - Elinor 2nd from left; brother Jack third from right

School days for Elinor early 1940s at Ararat School - Elinor back row right

High school was not taught in her local one-room school. Elinor completed Grades 9 and 10 by completing correspondence classes at Ararat Springs. Grade 11 proved more problematic.  She worked for her room and board at the home of John and Anna Perry so she could attend high school in Lancer, returning home in April to finish the year there. She was no sooner home than a desperate neighbour, Alf Seip, needed help with his one year-old daughter when his wife was hospitalized with complications of her second pregnancy. Elinor took the job so that Mr. Seip could seed his crop.  In June her principal at the Lancer High School, Mr. Harvey Wallace, stepped in and invited her to stay with him and his wife so that she could catch up on her studies and write the final examinations for Grade 11.  Elinor kept the receipt for the examination fees, which it seems students were expected to pay. (Seven dollars was no doubt a lot of money to her at the time; I wonder if the Wallaces assisted her again or if she used her wages from the Seip job to pay this? For her to have kept this receipt for the rest of her life is indicative of its significance.)

Still determined to complete high school, Elinor put an ad in the Swift Current Sun, seeking room and board in exchange for housework. Bill Dawson, who worked for the Sun, snapped up the opportunity. He and his wife Dorothy had a new baby boy (whose twin brother had died) as well as a two year-old son and needed some help. Elinor had her new home for her Grade 12 year.  Elinor's recollection of her final year of high school:

Working for your room and board meant rising at dawn and making breakfast before school. Wash days were worse as that was also done before you left. After school there was supper, dishes and children to help with. At this time only a portion of Swift Current had running water so water was delivered when you needed it, which was often with a new baby in the house. The outdoor privy had chemical pails which were emptied weekly when the "honey wagon" came around. This all added to "time" - with the only dryer being an outside clothesline. Homework was usually done after 9:00 p.m. in the evening. 

Nevertheless, she graduated from the Swift Current Collegiate Institute in 1944. Her high school yearbook says of her:

ELINORE ANDERSON that smiling one

always has her homework done

But if she hasn't as a rule

She will get it done in school. 

 

 

Elinor Anderson Graduation - banquet and dance held Tuesday 2 May 1944

Like her mother, Elinor headed "back to school" to attend Normal School for teacher training. Like her mother, she was doing so during war years. 

Elinor borrowed the money from her older brother Bob to enable her to attend the Normal School in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan for the term commencing in September 1944. (She always said that she finally had Bob paid back just before her teaching career ended.) 

She made many friends there that year and one gets a sense it was a very special year in her life. (One of her fellow classmates was Alvina Olsen Kantrud who would become a neighbour and lifelong good friend. Alvina was also my first Sunday School teacher, as it turned out.) She has numerous photographs showing a very happy 18 year-old enjoying the freedom of attending classes and socializing without also having to work long hours to pay her room and board. 

Elinor (2nd from right) with Normal School friends Audrey Erjen, Zena Dutton, and Vi Bolley 1945

She was a member of Class "Q".  The class photo has a notable shortage of young men, no doubt a sign of the times.

Elinor's Class at Moose Jaw Normal School 16 February 1945

Their graduation ceremony was held on 14 June 1945 and then it was time to find a teaching position. Fortunately for her descendants, she landed at Jorgenson School in the Leinan/Stewart Valley area north of Swift Current, Saskatchewan. She boarded across the road with the (unrelated) Anderson family, one of whom provided me with the following photograph of Elinor as a young teacher there.

Miss Elinor Anderson, teacher, June 1946

Elinor's students at Jorgenson School May 1946
(apparently they were about to play ball - something she would likely have encouraged)

Elinor enjoyed teaching. She had many stories she liked to tell from those days; I believe her students sometimes pulled the wool over her eyes (by manipulating the clock so that recess was never-ending, for example), but my mother was no fool and soon caught on to their antics. Then, like her mother, she fell in love with a local young farmer. She married my Dad Ken Bardahl in December of 1947, ending her  2 1/2 year teaching career. Dad had also attended Jorgenson School for a part of his education.

Ken Bardahl as a student at Jorgenson School c.1940-41, in the white shirt, middle front row

In a strange twist of fate, my mother would go "back to school" one more time. In 1959 we moved from the Bardahl homestead to the old Jorgenson School where my mother had taught more than a decade earlier. Because it was abandoned, my Dad was able to buy it and its two acre property very reasonably and convert it into a comfortable home. I never heard my mother say how she felt about this move "back to school" but it must have elicited an abundance of memories for her. 

Jorgenson School under renovation 1959

Some Resources:

• Anderson, Robert W., "A Partial History of Hill School (District #3624)", Handwritten original copy in possession of the author, undated but probably about 1989
• Anderson, Robert W., "Normal School at Central in early years as city", The Southwest Booster, Swift Current, Saskatchewan, May 29, 1989, section 1, page 13
• Bardahl, Elinor, personal memories included in Roots and Branches: The Ingwald Anderson and Idella Edwards Family Tree by Robert W. Anderson and Joanne L. Barnard, Chokecherry Press 2000, page 66

Elinor (Anderson) Bardahl and Love of Sewing (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 24) Theme: "Handed Down"

My mother Elinor (Anderson) Bardahl was a woman of many creative talents. Although not what this story is going to be about, she was perhaps best known for her Norwegian rosemaling folk art pieces sold widely and treasured by family members.

Elinor at one of her numerous art shows of paintings and Norwegian rosemaling

Elinor's Rosemaling

She was also accomplished with needle and thread and sewing machine - and that will form the focus of this week's story. Elinor no doubt got her sewing talent from her mother Idella (Edwards) Anderson. And Grandma Della got it from her mother Mary Jane "Mayme" (Wescott) Edwards. Even Elinor's 3X great grandmother Margaret Vought Barton was a quilter whose estate inventory listed several of her hand-made quilts by pattern name. From one set of hands to another, this skill has quite literally been handed down the line. It is sure to pop up somewhere in each generation in a growing web of women connected by blood and by a shared love of sewing.

"Sewing is in My Genes" mixed media fibre art wall hanging by the author 2016
includes photographs of her female line ancestors printed on organza
 and layered over double helix DNA fabric, painted wheat pasted tablecloth and old sewing notions

Wedding Photo for Mayme Wescott and Charles Edwards - colorized

Mayme made her pale green taffeta wedding gown

Stories about Elinor's grandmother Mayme highlighted her excellent dressmaking skills. Mayme's daughter Marion (Edwards) Miller said of the wedding dress, "I have no memory of her telling us about their wedding, but the lovely clothes were kept in a trunk for many years. Her wedding dress was a pale mint green, soft taffeta which she made so beautifully. I remember it well, because I wore it to a masquerade dance when I was 17 or 18. She had quite a time getting me into it as I was more buxom than she had been." 

Marion went on to say, "She loved to sew, made all of our clothes, even coats when we were young, and when she had all of us fitted out, she made clothes for poor children."  Mayme would outfit them to take the train from Montana to Wisconsin to visit her folks, as described by Marion: "She would have us all dressed up so nice.  I can remember the trip when I was seven.  She had made white coats for Ora and me and we had white embroidered hats."

Mayme (back left) with daughters including Della (back right)
Mayme and daughters likely made all their clothing

Sewing was a necessary skill at a time when most clothing was made at home; some women obviously would have enjoyed this more than others. Mayme was clearly one of those who loved to sew. (These days, it costs far more to make one's own clothing than to purchase ready-made disposable outfits. People who sew today do it primarily for expressing their creativity in unique and higher-quality items.)

Wool log cabin wedding quilt made by Mayme Wescott Edwards
for marriage of her daughter Della to Ingvald Anderson 1919

When Mayme and her husband Charles Edwards tried homesteading in Saskatchewan, their eldest child Idella remained in Great Falls, Montana, to complete her high school before joining her family in Canada. Once there, she taught school and fell in love with a young homesteading farmer named Ingvald Anderson. When the rest of the Edwards family moved back to the United States, Della remained to get married. Apparently her parents were NOT pleased with this, yet Mayme created a beautiful log cabin quilt for the young couple's wedding gift.

My mother, the third of Ingvald and Della's daughters, learned to sew from her mother. I recall Mum telling me how her mother required that she and her sisters practice hemming handkerchiefs by hand until they could do it perfectly before she would permit them to sew on her Singer treadle sewing machine.

Grandma Della's thimbles - one decorative, the other well-used
(there was a third one but it had been completely worn through!)

Sewing Head from my Grandma Della's old Singer
that she handed down to my mother Elinor

Elinor came to the Leinan/Stewart Valley community as a school teacher in a one-room country school north of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and, like her mother, fell in love with a local farmer and remained to raise her family there. 

She taught me to sew on that same old treadle Singer sewing machine that had been handed down to her by her mother Della. I was probably no more than 5 or 6, but I loved being able to design and create clothes for my dolls using the well-stocked remnants bin that she kept in her closet. It was a big round wooden cheese tub with lid. She always rolled all the leftover bits of fabric and tied them into neat bundles. I wonder if her mother and grandmother did the same with theirs?

Elinor on left c 1955 wearing  one of her dresses; with friend Eileen and Eileen's daughter Colleen

Shopping for fabric and patterns was one of my favourite shopping experiences as a child. When we went to the Co-Op Store on Central Avenue in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, we would generally aim up the stairs to the mezzanine floor circling the perimeter but open to the main floor below. Being children, we would of course need to use the washrooms in the corner (featuring photographs of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, as I recall) before moving on to the nearby fabric section. Oh, what delight! The pattern books were on one side and the fabric bolts all stacked in rows along the wall. Everything was neat and tidy and very appealing to my aesthetic senses. 

3 of Elinor's children - Sandy on left, John center and Joanne right
Girls are wearing their 1958 Christmas dresses made by Elinor
(they were green with black flocking)

My mother instilled in me a love of sewing, though we also had a 4-H Homecraft Club where we learned a lot of specific skills. I made much of my own wardrobe during my high school years (and well beyond for my own growing family). When I was in Grade 12, my Grandma Della asked me to sew her a couple of dresses, giving me free rein on fabric selection "so long as it isn't some dull old-lady stuff!" How she loved colour!

My sister and I both recall how we would get an idea midweek for some new outfit for a Friday night dance and barely start it ourselves before calling on Mum to finish it for us while we were in school. And she always did. We always had new outfits for Christmas even if it meant she had to make over an old dress of her own or one of her sister's. And we almost always won the Hallowe'en costume contests with her creations; no idea that we came up with ever stumped her.

Others in the community often had her do special sewing projects for them, including at least one bridal trousseau. She particularly enjoyed sewing her daughter Sandy's wedding dress in 1973.

Sandy walking down the aisle with her Dad Ken Bardahl 1973
Wearing the dress made by Elinor

She always took part in community and church activities where she could share her creativity. One of my earliest recollections is of her doing some kind of crazy patchwork stitched onto full sheets of newspaper (removed before quilting) for a charitable project for the church.

Elinor (second from right) in local ladies' group with their charity quilts

Elinor was always full of ideas for creating events. For our family reunion at Waterton Lakes in 2000, she instigated the wearing of historic costumes - and sewed many of them for her somewhat reluctant kinfolk.

Elinor (centre in black and white) with sister Kathryn, brother Bob,
daughters Sandy and Joanne (holding Morgan), Graham

Sandy and Brett with young Morgan

Elinor was a generous grandmother who would willingly share her treasured (and often expensive!) painting supplies to teach her grandchildren how to paint. She was always  there to lend a hand when it came to any craft or sewing projects that were proposed by her grandchildren, several of whom also became sewers.

Elinor keeping granddaughter Angie company - and probably sharing some advice! - 
while sewing on the deck

Angie  teaching a class in Tanzania, Africa 2019

And the web expands. Granddaughter Angie was able to visit Tanzania to share her love of sewing in February of 2019 and commented: "It was the most thankful and grateful moment in my life. We taught them how to make reusable sanitary napkins."

The next generation finds Elinor's great granddaughter Sasha at the sewing machine. When the pandemic hit, Sasha immediately started sewing masks for family. Where will this web expand next?

Sasha designing and  sewing her first quilt 2012

Some Resources:

Miller, Marion Frances Edwards, My Memories, Lexington, Michigan 1978, copy in possession of the author addressed "To Elinor with love from Aunt Marion, Jan. 7, 1986.

Ingvald Theodore Anderson (1893-1958) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 17) Theme: "Land"

Ingvald (sometimes spelled "Ingwald" as it was pronounced) was my maternal grandfather. He was born 3 January 1893 on the family farm west of Grafton, North Dakota to Andrew and Jorgena (Torkelson) Anderson and baptized at the South Trinity Lutheran Church at Grafton on 31 March of that year. The new state of North Dakota had just been established in 1889 but no civil birth records can reliably be found until 1899; thankfully, the Lutheran church in America had a strong tradition of maintaining its own records, a practice that had long been established in Norway.

Birth/baptism record for Ingvald - first entry at the top of the page

He had five older siblings, plus a sixth who had died at the age of 3 in 1885. Another brother Arnold was born the year after Ingvald; tragically, this younger brother also died very young. Some time after the birth of his youngest sister Gladys in 1903, his mother Jorgena's mental health declined to the point where she was admitted into an institution in Yankton, South Dakota. Shortly thereafter, Ingvald's father moved his family to a ranch in South Dakota, perhaps to be closer. With the family story being that she had died, it isn't clear that the children ever actually visited her.  His mother basically disappeared from his life when Ingvald was about 12.

Andrew and Jorgina Anderson family c.1904; Ingvald is they young boy on the far right

The only incident we know from Ingvald's youth is described by his son Bob Anderson:

In 1905, Ingvald met with a near-fatal accident when a friend's shotgun accidentally discharged, the full blast catching him in the left shoulder just above the lung.  He almost bled to death before a doctor reached him, and lay close to death for many days following.  The left arm and hand were  to remain permanently stunted, though not of too great a hindrance to work.  Fifty years later, suffering from neck and shoulder pains, he thought it might be the old wound.  X-rays revealed many shotgun pellets lodged in bone, muscle and skin in the shoulder and neck.

Ingvald in back row centre (see arrow) at Business College, 1909

A few years after the move to South Dakota, Andrew sold out the ranch and bought a hardware and implement business in Haynes, North Dakota.  Ingvald clerked there as a youth. It seemed for awhile as if Ingvald planned to join his father with a career in business but the land seemed to call out to him.

Canada had been encouraging farmers to take up land in its western prairies. For a $10 registration fee, qualified individuals could file at a Dominion Land Office for a selected  "homestead" of 160 acres (1/4 section) of land. Certain requirements to build and reside on the land and to cultivate it had to be met in order to have the land title transferred into the name of the homesteader; this was called "proving up" the land. One of the requirements for obtaining title was that the homesteader be a British subject. A second adjacent quarter-section could be obtained by a process called "pre-emption". Uncle Bob describes Ingvald's reaction to this opportunity:

By the time Ingvald and brother Clarence were of age, arable land in the American West had just about all been settled and a large part of the most accessible acreage of the Saskatchewan prairies had also been settled.  Areas such as the Lancer-Abbey region -- still with no rail service closer than Swift Current -- were still available.  To this area in 1909 came Clarence (age 19) and Ingvald (age 17) and their friend Hans Berg (age 22).  They filed on homesteads on the "flat" between Abbey and the South Saskatchewan River.  Ingvald's homestead quarter was SE6-22-20-W3M.  He had to stretch his age to get it, 18 being minimum age to qualify for a homestead.  They came with horse teams and wagons which held their few belongings all the way from Park River, North Dakota. They journeyed through eastern Montana and north into Western Saskatchewan -- a treeless stretch of prairie.  They mentioned having to pull ranchers' fence posts for fuel to cook with and for heat at their night camps. Clarence and Ingvald both felt extremely fortunate in getting a homestead with a creek running through it (Spring Creek).

Ingvald (right) probably about 1906

On 9 March 1911, Ingvald made application for his homestead; he had proved up his land and received title on 23 July 1914. To fulfill the requirement that he be a British subject, Ingvald became a naturalized Canadian citizen in June of 1914.

Although his original homestead application was for the SE quarter, he eventually built his home on the SW quarter of Section 6.

Ingvald's Homestead Grant (top line) in the Dominion Lands Records

When World War I broke out in the Fall of 1914.  Ingvald went to enlist, but was turned down when the medical examiner told him he looked as though he had already been through the war.  (This was no doubt because of the shotgun accident he had had as a boy.)

Ingvald as a young homesteader

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It was likely in the Fall of 1917 that Ingvald first met Idella Edwards when she started teaching at nearby Wayne Valley School. The two were married in Swift Current, Saskatchewan in late 1919. Children started arriving a year later with the birth of my Uncle Bob, followed by his sisters Kathryn, Eunice, Elinor (my mother), then John "Jack", and finally Helen.

Ingvald back row, second from left
Front row: daughters Elinor, Eunice, Kathryn, probably about 1929

With Della pregnant as winter approached in 1927, the family moved to be near Della's father Charles Edwards in Everett, Washington. This is where younger son Jack was born in December of  1927. While there, Ingvald worked in the lumber industry. But when spring arrived, he made his way back to his Saskatchewan land.

Ingvald on the left, in Washington State about 1927

The Anderson family lived in an unpainted shack made up of a main part that was 12 X 16 feet with a north lean-to 10 X 16 and an east lean-to 6 X 12 feet, the latter containing bunk beds.  There was a plank cribbed cellar under the north lean-to for vegetable storage and cooling milk.  In the winter, snow was melted in a wooden barrel for household use.

The land that Ingvald had homesteaded was to prove challenging over the years, no more so than during the "Dirty Thirties" of the depression and drought. This was the time that my mother and her siblings were growing up; the children seemed to have taken things in stride and had a happy childhood. However, for Ingvald and Della, things must have been very difficult. Trying to feed and clothe this growing family with the economic hardships of the time must have been a challenge.

Uncle Bob described the situation in a story he wrote in 1986 about how local governments tried to help reduce pest problems by declaring a bounty on gophers and rabbits:

In those desperate Prairie years of the early 1930s many things came together to drive farm families into deep poverty. Grain and livestock prices sagged to all-time lows and continued drought resulted in crop failures and reduced herds and flocks. Weeds, grasshoppers and cutworms further thinned the stands of grain. Gophers ate their way in from field edges, gathering and storing grain. Jack rabbits roamed field and pasture, eating at feed stacks in winter.

Horsing Around with Family and Neighbours c1938

Dust was everywhere in the summers and the winters were bitterly cold. Uncle Bob described how the wood fires often burned down by midnight, leaving water in the tea kettle frozen atop the stove by morning. There was no coal to heat their small homestead shack. The prairies were not generally a good source for wood, but Ingvald and elder son Bob would make an annual trip to scavenge what they could, quite often for poplar, willow and black birch in the nearby Sandhills. The following is an account written by Uncle Bob in 1986:

I was down cleaning out the barn that late fall afternoon when the stranger in his shiny new car drove into our yard. Dad was at our wood pile. He had just started, with bucksaw and axe, to convert the huge pile of poles into stove-length pieces to use in the coming winter. 

The stranger stopped his car by the wood pile and got out. In moments I heard Dad's voice, loud and angry-sounding. I couldn't hear what was said, but it upset me just the same. I had never before heard Dad speak to a caller in this way. 

I watched as the stranger paced out the length and width of the pile of uncut poles. I thought I saw Dad hand him some money. The stranger wrote on a piece of paper, handed it to Dad, jumped into his car and left. I thought I'd better finish my job and let Dad cool down a little before I went to the wood pile to ask him who the stranger was.

Later, when Bob could see that Ingvald had calmed down, he learned that the stranger was a government man who had fined them for taking the wood. Bob still had  the receipt in 1986 when he wrote the story.

Received: the sum of six dollars. From I. Anderson. On account of: Dues for six cords fuel wood cut in trespass. Signed (officer's name) Department of Natural Resources. 

Ingvald was diagnosed with diabetes and suffered complications such as poor circulation in his legs and removal of a kidney. Daughter Helen reported that it aged him tremendously.

Della never loved the land the way Ingvald did. By the mid 1940s the family moved to Swift Current where she operated a boarding house. In the summers, Ingvald would return to farm his land in the Lancer area, eventually joined by son Bob. My memories of my grandfather are of a quiet gentle introverted man with a warm sense of humour.

Ingvald about 1955

My brother John and sister Sandy and I were staying with our grandparents at their farm in the summer of 1958 when Ingvald died very suddenly of a heart attack at the age of  65. Sandy had gone with him to deliver a load of grain to the local elevator when he collapsed in his seat. He died, not on his own land, but nevertheless while conducting his farming operations.

Some Resources:

• Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan, Homesteading; located online at https://www.saskarchives.com/collections/land-records/history-and-background-administration-land-saskatchewan/homesteading
• Anderson, Robert W., various writings in possession of the author (many hand-written, some from articles printed in the Western Producer newspaper in the 1980s)