More On The Horses

August 1, 1938

Dick and I digging the new well. We got down to about 9 or 10 feet. We took 40 pails of water out in the morning before starting the operation.

 We had to get up early this morning. Dick rounded up the horses and we put them in the stable. Henry Berner and his son came along ere we had finished breakfast and he vaccinated the horses for the second time. He lost a horse from the disease the day before. He charged 50 cents a horse for the two innoculations making the total cost $1.75 for each horse.

Uncle Horrie and Bud were down here fixing the bull wheel of their binder. Dad and both Uncles went to a meeting at Shawlands with Mr. Fisher and McWean speaking. Arrangements have been made for farmers to get binder repairs and twine up to a certain amount.

Summer of Encephalomyelitis

Bill Nevard wrote a little about the equine encephalomyelitis virus scare .
July 17 1938

The day being propitious I went to North's this afternoon on Gleam. Embers accompanying us. Met Jack Binnington driven in a car by some unknown gentleman. I saw a colt on Sam Wheale's pasture. Mosquitos worrying Gleam quite a bit. I found Mr. and Mrs. North at home. Sid and Ed having gone to visit Percy Radwell and Ethel being at Quill Lake with Martha. Mr. North is feeling worried about encephalomyelitis which is spreading fast in the North and before I left they had decided that Tom should go to Regina early Monday morning in the car to try and get some vaccine. Mike Kowbel and Henry Berner were going with him. Henry has been innoculating horses against the disease and Jack has had four horses done. Mosquitos very bad on the way home.

July 18

I got up at 3 a:m this morning and walked across Karl Miller's to his West line, then walked North on the road until about half a mile from Headlands school where I met Tom North driving to Regina in his truck with Kowbel and Berner. I gave him $13 to get what vaccine he could for our horses and rode with him back to Miller's, then walked home.

In the afternoon I caught Glory and Gleam and rode to North's again. When I got there Tom had not returned. I stayed to supper and after Tom came back he was unable to get any vaccine but ordered some.

July 20

Dick rode to town with Tom North at night and brought the vaccine home for our horses.

July 21

We got up early this morning and had our eleven horses stabled by sunrise. After we had our breakfast Henry Berner came along in his ancient car with a youthful assistant and innoculated all our horses. They were not much trouble , after which he went on to North's and Kowbel's and did their horses. Jack Binnington has one horse sick now.

In the evening Dick and I drove to Murphy Newton's in the wagon with Topsy and Firelight after the two little pigs, which we got with Mrs. Newton's assistance. Murphy being away haying. We heard from Ernest Senft that Fisher, Michelson, and Peake have each got a sick horse.

Lilacs At Winstanley Grove

Yes, lilacs still bloom at Winstanley Grove. The most obvious sign that long ago somebody lived out here in the middle of all this wild land. Possibly planted by Arthur Nevard when he established his log dwelling on the site in the early 1900s. Or maybe by his wife, Margaret Montagu Winstanley who the farm was named after.
Along with a few honeysuckles and carraganna, a cellar hole in the ground and the crumbling concrete remains of the barn foundation, there is not much else to indicate that people lived here.

Hearts Of Oak

Another artifact from the Nevard trunks. This 1906 Hearts Of Oak Society calendar turned up. Apparently Ernest Nevard belonged to the society. I'd never heard of it and had to look up a little information on it.

The Hearts of Oak Benefit Society was established in 1842 to provide a means for persons to save into a mutual fund that could draw upon and provide financial protection in times of sickness. Criteria for membership were strict, for example around 1900 the Society expected all applicants to be of “good character” and earning a minimum weekly wage of 24 shilling (£1-4s-0d) which excluded the lower paid such as labourers, lower skilled artisans and unskilled workers. Membership therefore tended to comprise of the higher artisans, skilled mechanics, small shopkeepers and those who had newly risen into the growing ranks of the ‘middle classes’.

The Society was named in honour of Britain’s navy whose wooden ships of oak had become renowned for saving the country from invasion. With the passing of the Friendly Societies Act in 1850, the range of services and activities of Benefit societies increased and included maternity (lying-in benefits) and death benefit schemes. Following the 1911 Health Insurance Act, the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society were among the first to provide insurance and financial schemes.

Sarah Wagstaff Nevard

My great grandmother, Sarah (Wagstaff) Nevard posing in front of her home at 36 Straight Road, Lexden , Essex, U.K. At age 95 she was still capable of baking bread as evidenced by the two loaves she is holding. Pretty impressive.
This photo accompanied a news story in the local Lexden newspaper at the time. I couldn't find it today so just inserted the original photo.

Two days in Spring 1943

Looking back on Bill Nevard's journals 69 years ago today I see he was busy as usual.
April 18, 1943..........Sunday, and I went to visit Percy Radwell in
the democrat with Gleam and Embers this afternoon. It was my first visit
there in seven years. The grades are still bad in spots but the highway
is getting dry. I found them all home and saw baby John Radwell for the
first time. I asked Percy about hatching eggs but they could not supply
me as they have no roosters. Percy will let us have some Victory seed
oats for 35 cents a bushel. John Senft is getting seed barley and oats
from Percy. Percy cut 15 loads of crested wheat grass hay off 4 acres
last year in 2 cuttings. I heard that Mrs. Thompson's oldest crippled
son died on Thursday.
April 19, 1943
I went to Fisher's this morning to try and get some hatching eggs but Mrs.
Fisher had put her eggs in the basement and thought they would be too
chilled to set. She phoned up Mrs. Goff but their eggs were the same.
Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have not been any too well lately and Tom Goff is
crippled up from being kicked by a horse. Mr. Fisher was hauling water
and putting it down a well. Ernest Senft is now a father. Mrs. Fisher
promised to save some eggs for me. In the afternoon I went on section
25 and got 30 green poles for Dad to make a new hen house with.

Bill Nevard on the right all dressed up in his Sunday best. 1943.

Lucky 13th?

Long time readers may recall an earlier mention that Ernest Nevard first set foot on Canadian soil this day (April 13) in 1903. After a long voyage with brother Arthur on the S.S. Lake Manitoba with the rest of the barr-colonists it was probably good to get back on solid ground. A long way from their home in Lexden, Essex, U.K.
The day before , April 12th was Ernest's 25th birthday. A young man setting out on the great homesteading adventure. I only knew him in his later years as he appeared in this photo from 1954 laying the cindercrete blocks for Dad's new barn.