Hunt Johnston Rolston Large was born in
Shelbourne, Ontario, on June
17, 1876, and died April 10, 1947, According to information received
from his son William in Saulte Ste. Marie, Ontario, he came west at the
turn of the century. He probably came with the C.P.R. as it moved west
along the southern route through Waskada, Coulter and Lyleton, between
1900 and 1903. In any case he did start a business in the village of
Coulter under the name South Antler Steel Works. His business cards and
announcements indi¬cate that he ran a general repair and machine works,
making many different types of farm implements and small items such as
wiffle trees, double trees and cement mixers.
According to people like Mr. Wesley Mallo, 82 year old pioneer of the
Coulter district, Rolston was very well liked. He apparently had a
winning personality, and even people with whom he had deal¬ings, and
may naver have paid, all had a good word for him. One thing for
certain is that H.J.R. Large was extremely clever. He was a first class
steam engineer, a blacksmith and a master mech¬anic of no mean ability.
When automobiles started making their appearance on the main roads,
Rolston, according to articles in the Melita newspaper accounts of that
era, was given credit for repairing cars left on the side of the roads
because the driver knew very little about the new means of
transportation. One article of 1909 states that an American
visitor to Coulter could have been left stranded had not Rolston come
to his aid and made repairs and adjustments to his car.
Although Rolston Large may not have been blessed with many worldly
possessions, he did have a big Irish heart. There are many stories of
how he tramped through the snow drifts in cold weather, to take some of
the pioneers their weekly mail, receiving in return a sin¬cere thanks
and a hot meal.
There was a time too, when Rolston saved
the life of a man who had
become tangled in the wheel of a threshing machine. Rolston coolly took
a heavy hammer and broke enough of the large wheel, which was
endangering the man's life, to free him. The victim, although
badly injured and somewhat marred by the accident, was
forever grate¬ful to Rolston, who thought nothing at all of the
incident, even though he himself could have been injured. It was
incidents like this that made people like him, and it is little wonder
that he was able to get financial backing for his boat building
enterprises.
Many people have asked "Why would a man build a big boat in a small
village like Coulter"? The answer would probably be much the same as
the one given by the man when he was asked why he wanted to climb a
high mountain - it was the challenge.
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