Diana Campbell was born in 1868 at Resetta County,
Ontario. She joined her husband, Peter Guthrie, on their new homestead
in the Hillview area in May of 1890. Ellen Guthrie Bulloch, pays
tribute to her in a chapter entitled “Interesting Personalities.” The
passage is worth presenting as written:
Before the closing of this chapter a special word must be written of
Mrs. Peter Guthrie. Although she did not come in the very earliest
days, when she did arrive on the prairie in 1890 conditions had not
changed, very much, and Mrs. Guthrie was exactly the type of woman to
cope with the difficulties and problems of the time; being most
practical she could turn her hand to any task inside or out, and one of
her accomplishments was the planning and building of a swinging
partition in her home. In the smaller houses of that time the arrival
of the threshing gang put a severe tax on the accommodation and getting
a sufficient space to set the necessarily long table was a problem.
Mrs. Guthrie solved the difficulty by building a partition which at
threshing time could be turned back into a smaller room thus leaving
the extra space for the table.
Another exploit of Mrs. Guthrie's was the killing of a wolf.
The animal had come near the buildings, been chased by the dogs and had
hidden in a hole near the stable. Mrs. Guthrie had been watching, and
catching up a heavy shovel, the only weapon close at hand, sallied
forth; she crept as close as possible, then aimed a blow at the beast
which stunned him and he was easily finished.
Mrs. Guthrie always claimed that it must, have been an old or
wounded animal, but sometimes that is the most dangerous type and it
was characteristic of her to accomplish her object without waiting to
consider the difficulties.
She did not, hesitate to hitch up the ox tram and go visiting down to
the "Settlement" as the present Lanark district was then called. "When
it is realized that this meant fording the Pipestone at
Milliken's Crossing, that the oxen not being driven with reins as were
horses, simply ran down the steep bank and had to be persuaded up the
opposite one with the whip, it will be seen that it was a trip not to
be lightly undertaken, but Mrs. Guthrie was quite capable of making her
visits and arriving home in triumph at the end of the day.
Mrs. Guthrie died in Reston in 1946.
Adapted from Trails Along the Pipestone,
page 246
Adapted from Pioneers of the Pipestone. page 47
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