|
Margaret
Fowler 1838 – 1923
Mrs.
Margaret Fowler, pioneer of the Hullett district in Manitoba, was born
in Upper Canada in the township of Tuckersmith, on February 28, 1838.
Her
parents, James and Agnes Martin, were born in Scotland and came to
Upper Canada early in the 1830’s, homesteading in Huron County.
Maggie Martin (Mrs. Fowler) received her schooling in a log
schoolhouse. The tutors came from Scotland and were good
teachers, for when she was over eighty, she could write an interesting
letter with very few words spelled wrong.
She
used to recall an incident during her school days. The
schoolmaster used to take the class skating, all hanging on to his
coat-tails. One big girl pulled too hard, and a tail tore off, so
they stuck it into a back pocket.
When
Maggie Martin was nineteen, she married Charles Fowler who was
twenty-three years old. They were married March 20th, 1857, at
Clinton, in Huron County.
Charles
Fowler was born in Yorkshire, England, November 4, 1834. At the
age of seven he came to Upper Canada with his family, and they
undertook the gigantic task of making for themselves a home in the
wilderness of Huron County.
After
Charles and Margaret Fowler were married, they farmed for many years
near Seaforth in the Hullett district. They had eight
children: James Alexander, born May 1858; Agnes, born March 2,
1860; Charles, born February 14, 1863; Ann Elizabeth, born
December 10, 1865; Margaret Jane, born in 1868, but she did not
live much over a year; Dina Mary, born December 9, 1973; William
Isaiah, born April 12, 1877; Maggie May, born Mary 19, 1881. They
were all born in the Hullett district of Huron, Ontario.
After
farming in Ontario for twenty-five years, the Fowlers decided to go
west to Manitoba where homesteads could be taken up, so in 1882 Mr.
Fowler and the older boys came out to Manitoba and homesteaded on N.E.
28-3-16, the farm now owned by R. Foote. They built a log shanty
and a stable, then Mr. Fowler returned to Ontario, leaving the older
members of the family to live on the homestead.
The
next year, in 1883, the rest of the family moved out to Manitoba.
The nearest railway was Brandon, so it was a long drive to the
homestead, but they had Fowler relatives living near where Nesbitt is
today, so they stopped there to visit.
Isaiah,
a little boy of five, remembered how they let him out to run behind the
wagon, through the tall prairie grass, the last quarter mile to the
homestead.
The
Fowlers brought horses and purebred shorthorn cattle to Manitoba.
The
Fowlers found themselves pioneering for the second time. The
children (Dina, Isaiah, and later May) went to West Derby and Northcote
schools until Hullett School was built in 1892. It was named
after the old school district of Hullett, Ontario.
Neighbours
lived miles apart in those days, but Margaret Fowler loved to visit,
and she was always a welcome and cheerful visitor where there was
sickness. She used to ride miles on her white pony, attending to the
sick. She was midwife at the birth of most of the babies born
around there in those early days.
Church
was held in the homes in those early days. The ministers used to
travel around the country. The Reverend Andrew Stewart held
services in the Fowler home. The Fowlers were Methodists.
In
December 1885, their daughter, Agnes, married a bachelor neighbor,
Peter Finnen, and in 1886 Ann married Peter’s brother, Alex.
James
married in 1887 and lived in the Tisdale district a few years before
moving to Mather to the farm his grandson still farms.
Charles
married Edith Dafoe on January 1, 1890, and Dina married Thomas
Christian, a young Englishman, in 1893.
The
Fowlers moved to 33-3-16 in 1890, after Ed. Midford built them a frame
house which was situated on a hill on the bank of the LIttle Pembina
River. This house is still in use today.
The
married members of the family had all settled close to the home farm,
and the grandchildren loved to come and visit. In the summer,
their grandmother always gave them a pail and sent them to the bush to
pick berries for their mothers. One granddaughter balked at the
idea of always having to pick berries, so she went into the bush and
filled her pail over half full of leaves and put a few berries on top.
Mr.
Fowler’s heart was not very strong, and in November 1896 he died.
Mrs.
Fowler made her home for many years with her son, Isaiah, and daughter,
May, until May married William Massey in 1912, and Isaiah married Ada
Beacom in 1913.
From
then until her death on September 11, 1923, she made her home among her
sons and daughters. Due to an accident, one of her knees was
stiff, so she went on crutches for many years. She could reach a
long way with a crutch, and many a naughty child received a tap on the
head. She loved to rock the babies to sleep, and many the nuts
she cracked as she rocked to and fro, and sometimes little fingers
didn’t move away in time either.
Mrs.
Fowler saw the bushlands of Ontario made into fertile farms, and the
western prairies, which were as the Indians left them, develop into
prosperous farmsteads, towns and even cities, in a short span of years.
She
saw
Canada become a nation in her lifetime, and not only saw it, she helped
to make it one.
|
|
