Family History Collection  -   Index

Thomas J. Lawlor

REMINISCENCES OF AGNES G. GRANT - Oct. 16, 1961
Daughter of THOMAS J. LAWLOR   

PIONEER MERCHANT OF KILLARNEY.

Thomas James Lawlor was born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, on December 12th, 1853, and was of Irish-Scottish extraction.  His father, Daniel Lawlor, was born in Nova Scotia to parents of United Empire Loyalist stock.  His mother, Agnes Brown Crawford, was born in Glasgow, Scotland.

Thomas J. was the eldest of a family of six – three sons and three daughters.  He received his early education in North Sydney and later attended Commercial College in Boston, Mass.  Upon completion of his education, he operated a general store in Dartmouth, N.S., until 1882.  In that year he heeded the “Go West, Young Man” call and travelled to Manitoba with high hopes.
Upon arrival in Winnipeg in 1882 he entered the employ of Thibaudeau’s Wholesale Grocery firm, as a salesman.  His selling route took him as far west as Regina, and in the course of carrying out his duties, he was often forced to travel great distances on foot to meet his widely scattered customers.

In 1883, Mr. Lawlor built a two-storey structure at Tisdale, north of Killarney, for use as a general store.  Tisdale was selected in anticipation of the C.P.R. being routed through this point.  Unfortunately, in 1885 the railroad was extended west from Manitou south of lakes Lorne, Rock and Pelican to Killarney, and the plan for a more northerly route through Tisdale was abandoned.  The store at Tisdale was dismantled in late 1885 and on January 2nd, 1886, Mr. Lawlor arrived in Killarney with supplies of merchandise and building materials.  More lumber was brought in from Rosenfeldt and a Mr. Mills of Gretna, who was the first carpenter to arrive in Killarney, commenced work on a two-storey brick building.  This was the first real building to be erected on the new townsite.  It stood on the corner of South Railway Street and Broadway, facing on Broadway.  Other buildings soon followed, and the town gradually extended south from the railroad along Broadway.  While Mr. Lawlor’s store was under construction a brisk business was conducted on the sidewalk!

On November 6th, 1886, Mr. Lawlor married Sarah Frances Brown.  She was born February 6, 1859, the daughter of George Stairs Brown, jeweller and hardware merchant of North Sydney, and Sarah Howe Austen, a niece of the great political figure the Honorable Joseph Howe.  The marriage ceremony was performed in Winnipeg by Rev. D. M. Gordon, D.D., of Knox Presbyterian Church.  Upon arrival by train in Killarney, the bridal couple was escorted by a torch-light procession of early pioneers to the Grand Central Hotel.  The latter was located by the South-East corner of the intersection of South Railway St. and Broadway Ave. – straight across the street from the new store.  The bride and groom “honeymooned” at the hotel for a week, while the newly plastered walls of the upstairs of the store dried sufficiently for occupancy.  This was to be their first home.  Mr. and Mrs. Lawlor lived in the store building until a growing family necessitated a move.  Three sons, George, James and Thomas were born there.

The first school was built on the correction line South-East of the town by Andrew McNamee, Sr., in 1883.  This building was used for many community gatherings, in addition to serving as the centre of learning.

A second school of more lasting construction was built on the East side of Broadway in 1891 by Alfred Leitch.  Fifteen years later, in 1906, the first high school was built just south of this school on Broadway.  The builder in this case was Snyder Bros. of Portage la Prairie.  Mr. Lawlor, who was Killarney’s Mayor from 1905 to 1906, had the honor of laying the cornerstone for this high school.  Five of the younger Lawlor children eventually graduated from this school, one son going on to study Law, one daughter to Nurse’s Training in the Winnipeg General Hospital, and two daughters to Winnipeg Normal School.

Now let’s get back to Mr. Lawlor’s store.  As it was the first business building erected, it naturally was a hub of activity.  This was a general store truly – it supplied the customer with needs of all descriptions – groceries, hardware, dry goods, furniture, etc.  As was the custom in many pioneer towns, the storekeeper was most liberal with credit. Indeed, if he had not operated on a credit basis, business would have been very slim. Many of the farm families were carried on credit with the hope that fall would bring a harvest sufficiently bountiful to take care of the store account.  If the harvest was poor, it meant that Mr. Lawlor simply awaited the next harvest.  Before the first Bank came to town, a large safe in the rear of the store was used by grain buyers and other business people for cash storage.  Mr. Lawlor installed a large scale on the north side of the store.  For a nominal fee, grain, livestock and everything imaginable was weighed here. 
 
For one winter the town’s first Post Office was located in the rear of the store.  Mr. Charles Bate, Postmaster, later operated in a more permanent location, when he built on William Ave. an edifice to serve as his own residence, as well as a Post Office.  Many years later this building was acquired by the town for use as a library and museum.

In the early days there was, of course, no undertaker in Killarney, and when a death occurred, friends and neighbors rallied round the bereaved family.  The casket was generally home-made, of lumber lined with cotton batting and covered with white china silk.  The outside of the casket was covered with white velvet for a child and gray, blue or black for adults.  The work of lining and covering was usually done at the store as the materials were obtained there.  Handles and name plates were also supplied by the store.
Much of the store’s bulk food supply was stored in large barrels – granulated sugar, brown sugar, soda crackers, tea biscuits, raisin biscuits, ginger-snaps, molasses, syrup, apples, etc.  Coffee, tea and cocoa came in large square caddies and were sold in bulk by the pound.  Cheese came in large round cakes and was sliced with a copper wire.  Cheese, dried prunes and dried apples were always in great demand – especially by bachelors of the district.

The keeping of syrup in barrels brings an amusing story to mind.  It was told by Byron Mason, and concerned a church service which was held in the Tisdale boarding house in 1889.  A young bachelor of the district attended church that morning.  Remembering that his syrup can was empty, he took it along to have it filled at the store.  The weather being extremely cold, the storekeeper placed the can under the 56-gallon hogshead and turned on the tap, intending to turn it off before leaving for the service.  As this gentleman also served as choir leader and mainstay of the bass section, he hastened off to the service for the opening hymn.  All went well until the last hymn, when halfway through the first verse his mind presumably strayed to more mundane matters.  As choir-leader, he held the key to the situation – each verse became faster and faster, and the gasping congregation finished that hymn at breakneck speed.  Needless to say, he did not stay for the benediction, but made a hasty exit by the back door and arrived back at the store in record time.  Fortunately for him, the molasses was slower than the music, and things were not too bad; the bachelor got full measure, plus some for the floor, and it provided a good laugh for some time after.

General stores were few and far between in south-western Manitoba in these early days.  Farmers came from great distances to the store, bringing produce such as butter in large wax-lined wooden pails, eggs, chickens, turkeys, etc. to exchange for groceries, tobacco and clothing.  The women folk generally accompanied the men on these visits to town and the store was a great meeting place where topics of the day were discussed and disputed.  These gatherings were commonplace for the man to carry a rifle when making these trips to town as bears, wolves and coyotes were numerous – particularly in the bush areas.

Mr. Lawlor was an avid supporter of the Liberal party in Manitoba.  In 1888 he travelled to Scotland for the federal Government and was instrumental in bringing thirty Crofter families from Scotland.  The Killarney Guide of February 25th, 1937, in paying tribute to Mr. Lawlor upon his death on February 17th of that year, made the following reference to the Crofter settlement.

“After many vicissitudes and some failures, most of the families became excellent settlers.  To  T. J. Lawlor must be given a large share of credit for the final emergence of these people from the difficult position they found themselves in in a new land; he provided necessary provisions on credit to tide them over the winters and bad crops, acted as friend and advisor until they became established and independent farmers.”

A further reference to the crofters may be found in Lady Aberdeen’s little book, “Through Canada with a Kodak.” In October, 1890, Lady Aberdeen accompanied her husband, the Governor General of Canada, to Killarney.  The following excerpt is taken from her book:
“Tuesday, October7th, 1890:  Went to a little hotel for breakfast and by nine were ready for our  start.  Killarney is rather a respectable little place for only four years old.  Mr. Lawlor, who has taken charge of the Highland crofters whom we had come to see, had arranged to drive us.  So off we went, Aberdeen, Coutts, Mr. Lawlor and myself, in what they call a ‘democrat,’ a sort of long four-wheeled cart, with two seats, one behind the other.  It was a perfect day for our forty-mile drive across the prairie; not much sun, but a bright shining always in the long fleecy clouds, which extend themselves in long, long stretches of manifold shapes in the way in which we have come to look upon as especially Canadian.  No wind, but an indescribable brisk, bracing air which we want to inhale in long breaths all the while.  Driving on the prairies is unlike any other driving.  The soft elasticity of the ground carries one over all the bumps and jars and ruts; and roots and hillocks are all passed over as the most natural things in the world.

Our first visit was to the old Irishman O’Brien, who constituted himself the godfather of the place; and insisted on its being called Killarney.  I am afraid my smothered exclamation of amusement at the first sight of the lake, remembering our first sight of the real Killarney, was taken as disrespectful by our cicerone; but in truth, it is the prettiest thing we have seen in Manitoba.
After seven or eight miles we came to the first crofter, one John MacLeod, who had been one of the grumblers about small things, but said he thought he would get along well now.  Then came John Nicholson’s section.  He was one of the most successful, but unfortunately, he and his wife were away from home.  He had 55 acres under cultivation, with 900 bushels of wheat in his granary.  We saw two of the Lewes family, John Campbell and his wife, Peter Graham and his wife, a tidy capable-looking little woman with five bonny bairns.
After leaving the crofter settlement we came in sight of Pelican Lake, and then descended a steep brae, a sight which rejoiced our hearts.”

The crofters on their first arrival in Killarney were not without their discontented, who grumbled considerably, but as Lady Aberdeen remarks:       

“ -  the spirt of the country soon fell upon them, there was work and hope in the atmosphere; by the second year actual crops gave earnest promise for the future, and by the third, with its excellent harvest, indolence and grumbling had been completely pushed aside and forgotten, in habits of hard work and confidence in a future of plenty and success.”
    In 1892 the Lawlor family moved from the upstairs of their store building into their first house.  This house was located south of the railway near Williams Ave.  During their one year’s residence in this house, a daughter was born (Agnes).  In 1893 the house was moved one block west to Clarke St. and a wing was added, making it twice the original size.  In this humble home, of wooden frame with brick veneer, plaster walls and plain board floors, the family lived for fifty-five years.  Here Jessie, Bruce, Frances and Leonard were born, completing a family of eight.

Furniture for the house was brought by train from the Hudson’s Bay Store in Winnipeg.  China, cutlery and linen came from Halifax, along with the most valued possession, an organ, ’round which was held many a happy sing-song and choir practice.  Mrs. Lawlor played the organ for church services and Sunday School in the old school house before churches were built.  Later a piano replaced the organ.  The home was comfortably furnished with the usual pieces of the time.  Love of reading brought to the home a fine library.  In the living room was the old family bible, a stereoscope with numerous pictures, fancy brass and flower bedecked coal-oil lamps, and a Singer sewing machine, one of the first in the district and in constant use for over half a century.  A coal-oil lamp hung over the dining room table, around which the family sat on a typical evening, Father with his newspapers and books, Mother with her mending basket and knitting, and the children with their homework.

In the kitchen was a large Majestic coal and wood stove where all the family cooking was done.  On one side was a reservoir for hot water and on the other a large reservoir where huge blocks of ice were melted for the family washing in winter.  Ice was cut from the lake and sold at a dollar for a bob-sleigh load.  A large cistern in the basement provided rain water in summer, running off the roof into eave-troughs and being piped down to the cistern.  No one worried about fluoridation!

In the fall of the year the basement was filled with chopped wood, coal, home-grown vegetables, barrels of applies, shelves of homemade jams, jellies, fruit and pickles, and crocks of home-corned beef.  The back kitchen stored supplies of frozen pork and beef.  A one hundred and sixty foot well provided the family and several neighbors with good drinking water.

In pioneer days, buildings were heated with cordwood brought from Turtle Mountain by sleigh and burned in box stoves, with pipes going into the rooms.  The pipes were extended in fancy shapes called drums to give more heat.  Later furnaces were installed and coal brought in by train.  Registers were set in the floors and made for warmer homes, with a continuous heat.

The yard was large, with a stable for a team of horses and a cow.  A straight ladder led to the hay loft, where the children played house.  There was a large pasture north and west of the house, where now several smaller homes have been built.
The old house still stands, but time has stripped it of its charm.  Gone are the cool verandahs, where sunlight played through Virginia creeper, and the air was sweet with hedges of caragana and lilac – like so much of the past, it only lingers in the memories of those who for over half a century shared in the joys and sorrows of building a home, a family, and a community.

Social life was centered mostly in school and church.  Parties and dances were held in homes.  Box socials, strawberry festivals and oyster suppers were held to raise funds for church and community, and a good time was enjoyed by neighbours and friends.  Sunday School picnics, Christmas Tree entertainments, circuses, bonspiels and carnivals were highlights which were enjoyed by many.  There were numerous concerts and lectures, with artists coming from Winnipeg and the East.  Pauline Johnson was one who lectured in the old Presbyterian Church, wearing her native costume.

T. J. Lawlor took an active part in the Killarney Fair, which was third largest in the province and considered exceptionally good, and drew crowds from great distances.

What was most enjoyed was the beautiful lake where children and adults boated, fished, swam, skated and tobogganed.  In early days, horse races with cutters and snow boats were popular pastimes.  The old skating rink was always a happy meeting place where we skated, curled and played hockey.  Football, baseball and lacrosse were enjoyed, and for a time Killarney supported a professional baseball team.

Mrs. Lawlor’s activities, apart from the home, were in Ladies Aid and Missionary societies of the church, where the ladies quilted, put on fowl suppers and dinners to raise funds.  Her real hobbies, however, were Algebra and French, at which she spent many a long winter’s evening.

T. J. Lawlor belonged to Masonic, Foresters and Old Fellows Lodges, and took an active part in all town and community affairs, acting as mayor for two years.

In pioneer days all denominations worshipped together in the old school house where student ministers and laymen took the services.  Both parents were Presbyterians, and helped to build Erskine Presbyterian Church on William Ave. in 1898.  The family attended morning, evening and mid-week services, the children Sunday School, and the young people “Christian Endeavor” after the evening service.  Parents were strict and demanded obedience, and were taught to live the golden rule.
Clothing was simple and comfortable with heavy wool throughout for winter, as walking was the main means of transportation, and buildings were either too hot or too cold, and draughty.  As was the custom for men, Mr. Lawlor wore a buffalo coat, fur cap and gauntlets, and a buffalo robe for the sleigh.  Mrs. Lawlor wore a long coon coat with sealskin cap and gauntlets.
In summer, everyone wore heavy cotton clothing and black stockings.  For very special occasions, girls wore white stockings.  Dresses were long and limbs were never exposed, and sheer clothing was unknown.  Wholesale houses in Winnipeg and Eastern Canada provided the store with clothing used by the family and customers.

Transportation was by foot, horseback, horse and buggy or cutter, teams, democrats and sleighs.  Out-of-town trips were usually to Winnipeg or Brandon by train, leaving Killarney around 7 A.M. and arriving in Winnipeg around 4 P.M. or later, a day’s journey, stopping at all small towns en route, and at La Riviere Hotel, for noon-day dinner, a pleasant break in the trip.

There follows a brief history of the individual members of the Thomas J. Lawlor family.  Two sons were overseas in World War I:
Thomas W. Lawlor – joined the 108th Winnipeg Battalion, going overseas with them in the 196th  University Canadian Contingent in October, 1916, as a private.  He served with the Machine Gun Corps in France, and suffered mustard burns and shell-shock.  Later he was sent to Egypt as a Flight Cadet, returning to Canada as a Lieutenant in 1919.  He went North to the Peace River country where he practiced Law in Spirit River and Grande Prairie for forty years, becoming Crown Prosecutor and later Queen’s Counsel.  He died May 30th, 1959.  His wife and three daughters survive.

James W. Lawlor – resided in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., and returned to Canada at the outbreak of the war.  He went to France with the Canadian Railway Construction Unit.  Railways were torn up in Canada and used in France, men working under constant shell-fire and bombings.  In the fall of 1918, he was hospitalized in London, England with knee injuries received jumping off trains.  No trains were allowed to stop, as they would be ready targets for bombs.  He returned to Canada a Lieut. In 1919 at the close of war.  Later he returned to his home in Washington and carried on in the general construction and railway business until his death on October 14th, 1936.  His wife and son James William Jr. and two daughters survive.

Jessie Brown Lawlor, Registered Nurse – entered Winnipeg General Hospital as a nurse in training the day the war was declared in 1914 and was buried the day the armistice was signed in 1918 at Lashburn, Saskatchewan.  She nursed in the Lashburn hospital during the dreadful influenza epidemic in 1918 until she herself fell victim to the disease.
Harry Bruce Gordon Lawlor – died April 17th, 1897, a baby of seven months, and was buried in Killarney Cemetery.
George Brown Lawlor – died August 2nd, 1911, at Merritt, B.C.  He was twenty-four years of age.  Burial was in Merritt, B.C.
Frances Isabel (Mrs. J. N. Leckie) – died September 16th, 1923 at Regina, Saskatchewan, at twenty-four years of age.  Burial was in Regina.

Leonard Percival Lawlor – died August 10th, 1954 at Victoria, B. C. Burial was in Victoria.  He was 54 years of age.
Thomas James Lawlor – died Feb. 17th, 1937 at Killarney, Man.  Burial was in Killarney Cemetery.
Sarah Frances Lawlor – died Mary 17th, 1947, at Norwood Grove, Man.  Burial was in Killarney Cemetery.
Of the family of eight children one daughter, Agnes, Mrs. J. P. Grant, survives, living in Norwood Grove.  There are nine grandchildren, and eighteen great-grandchildren.