In the year 1884 Mrs. Anne Matthews, a widow of many
years, arrived in Manitoba from Huron County, Ontario. The family
settled on the south half of 15-8-27. She brought out seven boys and
five girls, some of them already old enough to apply foe homesteads of
their own.
Mrs. Matthews served her community as an unofficial nurse and coroner –
she would line the coffins in her home where her son Albert constructed
them.
Mrs. Matthews was always available in the surrounding districts when
illness struck and help was needed. She was a mid-wife to many of the
early settlers but when she lost her own daughter Edith (Mrs. Dave
Wynn) in childbirth she refused to go out again.
In the early years church services were held in her home for those of
Hillview south and east for many years. The Ewart Women's Institute
paper says the first wedding was Amelia Matthews to George Hartley.
Reverend Beymore was the first minister. He preached in Anne Matthew’s
home for seven years.
Mrs. Anne Matthews died in 1918 at the age of eighty-one and is buried
at Enderby, B.C.
Historian Ellen (Bulloch) Guthrie paid tribute to such unsung heroes in
“Pioneers of the Pipestone”:
“Special tribute must be paid here to two of the women of those early
days, namely Mrs. Fairlie and Mrs. Ann Matthews; with the skill born of
their many experiences, and their unfailing attitude of helpfulness
they came into the homes and proved a real blessing; many times they
were sent for in cases of illness and they never failed to respond to
the call. The generous service rendered by such women can never he
fully appreciated and to all such, we of a later generation, pay
tribute. Both have passed on to the Better Land but the memory of their
good work lives on.”
Adapted from Trails Along the Pipestone, page 249
Adapted from Pioneers of the Pipestone. page 30
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