1914 Wedding

This letter to my grandfather was written in great detail by his sister, Emily,
back in Lexden, Essex. Describing the wedding of their younger brother, Cecil Nevard.
I was tempted to leave out some of the minute details of the pink helitropes and such
but thought at least one reader might find them of interest.

36 Straight Road Lexden,Essex
April 16, 1914


My Dear Horrie

Now I have some news to tell you I will write . I went up to London last Saturday and saw Cecil married to Ethel. It was a
double wedding as her twin sister Alice was married directly after Cecil and Ethel. Of course one service answered for both.
The wedding took place at St. Mark's , Battersea at 1:30 p.m.
Mother went up with Cecil on Friday morning. Miss Dumm, Mrs. Cornish's aunt, went up with me. We met Will at Colchester
Station and the 3 of us travelled up together. It was raining fast when we left here but by the time we reached Liverpool St. it had
cleared up fine in time for the wedding. When they left in the afternoon the sun was shining bright. It couldn't very well shine on
them in the church as the windows are high and the church is rather dull. Not so bright as Lexden church. The Rector of St. Mark's
married them. Our Rector, Mr. Evans promised Cecil he would go up and marry them and he fully intended to but two youngest
girl Spurgeons wanted to be married on Saturday. The Rector tried to persuade them to put it off and tried to get another clergyman
to take it but could'nt. You see a great many clergy object to marrying anyone on that day as they consider it Lent.
The service was fully choral. The organ played selections before the service during the time the people were assembling in the church.
We drove in style in a motor brougham. There were 6 motors employed for the bride's guests, etc. The service was very nice. The
processional hymn was 281, Lead us heavenly father lead us, and the other was 578, O perfect love all human thought transcending.
The bride looked very nice dressed in cream crepe de chene with long trains. The dresses were trimmed with real lace. They had
white tulle veils and wreaths of orange blossom, carried bouquets of white carnations, lilac and white heather.
Ethel's two bridesmaids were dressed in very pale pink, almost flesh color crepe-de-chene and Alice's were in pale helitrope.
They all wore tunics (which is like a coat without sleeves) of cream lace tied around the waist with a girdle or sash. On their
heads they wore little round caps of lace with a frill round. The ones that wore pink dresses carried helitrope lilies, and those
that wore helitrope carried bouquets of pink carnations.
The reception was held in St. Mark's hall adjoining the church. It is a very large hall. You could put the institute inside it. There was
a long table down each side of the hall. On one table the presents were arranged and the other was for refreshments. The large
wedding cake stood on a table in the centre of the room. It was 2 tier, a large cake at the bottom and smaller one above, then a
receptable above full of lovely white flowers and smilax trailing down.
Mr. Cornish provided lunch for all the guests who cared to go to the hall before the service. We had ours at the house. The bridal
group with Mr. and Mrs. Cornish and the 2 best men had their photo taken with the cake in center of group. There was plenty of
nice dainties to eat, champagne,tea, coffee and other drinks. Piano and two violins played lively selections during the afternoon.
The brides and their bridegrooms changed their costumes in dressing rooms at the hall and each left in a motor about 4 p.m.
Cecil and Ethel for Lowestoft home, Alice and Bob, or rather, Mr. and Mrs. Duminel I should say, en route for Bournemouth.
We left the hall about 5 p.m. and returned to Mrs. Cornish's house again. We had supper and left just after 7 p.m.. Mr. Cornish
provided a motor brougham for us to drive to Liverpool St.. We had a good view of London along the embankment. We passed
St. Thomas' hospital, St. Paul's cathedral, Bank of England, and a lot of other places too numerous to mention. Mother,
Miss Dumm and I came home but Will stayed on until Sunday night, being his first visit to London he wanted to see all he
possibly could. We left a party of friends at the house.
Louie went to Sax station to see Cecil and Ethel as they were passing through. She took them some butter, eggs, bread and
pickles. Cecil has a very nice house and nicely furnished. Mrs. Newton, his landlady, very sorry to part with him...............

"Daisy"

Today, February 25 being the anniversary of the funeral of my great Aunt , Margaret (Daisy) Nevard, seemed like a good time to add a photo and a few details on her.
Born Margaret Montagu Winstanley in December , 1873 in Milbrook, England. Always known as "Daisy" she had some training and worked as a nurse in England before coming to Canada in 1909 to marry Arthur Nevard and live in the newly constructed log house on his homestead in Saskatchewan which they named "Winstanley Grove". Her medical training was quite useful out on the prairies, miles from a doctor. She often perfomed the duties of a mid-wife, travelling with a horse and buggy and favourite dog "Pants" .
Daisy and Arthur ran a boarding house/hospital for a time in a Regina home at 2081 Ottawa Street from about 1914 to the end of WWI, then returning to the farm .
Daisy died relatively young at 59 years of age from an apparent stroke. Buried at Lipton cemetery, 76 years ago today.

Letter from Arthur to brother Horace

Letter written by Arthur Nevard to brother Horace about Feb. 10 of 1916.
Letter completed by Daisy Nevard.
2081 Ottawa St.
Regina, Sask.

Dear Horrie

I received your letter this morning alright. I am glad you received the JBs alright. I sent them instead of a letter
as I have been busy since the beginning of December getting ready for moving and since we have been in here
I have been busy fixing up the house but we have got it comfortable now. We have one patient in the house. She
has been in for two weeks and is going out on Sat. She comes from Pense, the first baby. She is doing well now
but has been a hard case. Cissy Southward from Cupar is here too. She is taking her normal class. She will be
here about another month. We have another lady from Cupar for a week or so. There is another one coming in any
day now.
I think it will pay alright when the warmer weather comes as the coal bill is high now the winter being such a cold
one and the house a larger one too. 12 rooms and bathroom. We had to spend quite a bit of money for new floor
cloth, bed, etc. but you see Daisy has been helping me pay off the farm debts so I could not very well refuse.
Besides she thinks she can make more money here than going out and nothing venture, nothing have.
The 68th are recruited up to full strength now I guess and may be going any time now. There is another regiment
being formed now, or will be in a week or so. The 195th I think it is. They wiill begin to recruit as soon as they can
find quarters for the men. The Lieut Col. is here now.
We have lots of snow this winter here. It is drifting quite a bit and makes a lot of work for the street cleaning dept.
and the street railway to keep the tracks clear.
I had my notice from the city and sent in my application but don't know the result yet and I would not care if it
was the end of March as it would be easier getting another job but they are not so plentiful now. I think several
have left the city hall. They are sick of it as this is the 3rd time at any rate that the civic staff have been considered
for cutting down and in fact even since the war started the council has been trying to cut wages and do away with
all the help they can but it should not be necessary to do it every new council that comes into power as it only
shows that the heads of departments and the commisions don't know their business in my estimation.
The Rev. Earp is at Winnipeg taking an officer's course. He is trying to go with the 68th to the front as Army Chaplain.
I think he has made up his mind anyhow to go to the front one way or another. I have not seen any Lipton fellows
here although there may be some. Grace Church congregration is made up chiefly of women. There are about 70
men gone in the Army. J. Took is teaming coal for Whitmore now. Joe and T. Borden are down on the farm at
Mclean. They are finding out they have a pretty tough proposition I believe and Joe is not happy at all. He would
sooner be in the Army he told me. Frank Borden's wife was not cut out for a farmer's wife and they have found it
out to their cost. They have not said it in so many words but that is the conclusion I draw by putting 2 and 2 together.
I hope you will get along alright with the broncho busting. I guess you won't do much til the snow goes by the look
of things.
As usual A is in a hurry and asks me to finish this off. We are doing alright, not making big profits yet out
of our new venture but just paying our expenses. As you know expenses at this time of year are great.
My love to Mary. I thought she owed me a letter but it seems its the other way. Jenny Dobson, Mrs.
Brinkworth's sister is dead and buried last week. We have a Mrs. Holland of Cupar here, a notorious woman
from Cupar. Her husbands in jail for bigamy, a lady from Pense, and Cis Southward who is studying
for Normal. She is a nice girl.
A says let the others look at this letter. He he's no time for writing to all. We hope to see you down here one
of these days. The folk are about the same. They came in to our place after Church on Sunday evening.
Mr. Earp is going as chaplain of the 68th. We will miss him.
Much love to you all, especially Mary and Dick. Hope all are well.

Daisy

January 15, 1942

January 15 and it is 67 years since the funeral for Alf Goff. This photo was taken the morning
of the funeral. It shows Alf in the coffin , a plain pine box resting on trestles outside the
door of his log cabin. Through the open door can be seen the wood stove with the kettle still
resting as he left it only a few days earlier.
By the angle of the sun it must have been around 10 o'clock in the morning and they would
likely have soon set out on the journey to Lipton for the funeral that afternoon. A long 12
miles by horse and sleigh with plenty of time to think. January, traditionally the coldest
and most depressing time of the winter. It must have been a sad time for my grandfather
and the rest of the family, losing the oldest member of the trio that had emigrated here
from Dorset, England back in the spring of 1903.

Back In Dorset For Next Christmas

Those were the words that my Grandfather's cousin, Jack Goff said around the time of his first Christmas in Canada in 1903. Out here on the homestead in the district of Assiniboia that would later become the province of Saskatchewan it was a pretty harsh change from a winter in the south part of England. Jack along with his cousins, Tom and Alf Goff had just arrived on the homestead in May of 1903. Homesteads were cheap, 160 acres of land for $10 but a man had to work for it. They had to build a place to live, good enough to survive a Canadian winter, break a few acres of land. Plus buy some horses or oxen to pull the breaking plough. The closest settlement was Fort Qu'appelle some 20 miles south which was a long journey in the days before roads.After spending their first few months in a tent they managed to construct a 10x12 foot log cabin in which to live which was a big improvement over the tent. Still, it must have been a real eye-opener when the snow came and the temperature dropped to the -20s for long periods. It was likely during a spell of that weather that Jack made the statement that he would be back in Dorset for next Christmas. He never did make it back to Dorset though. As they made progress on the farm he may have come to accept the extreme weather conditions as normal. Or it may have just been lack of funds to make a return trip to England that kept him here. He farmed the land for another 40 years before retiring to town. Here's a picture of the little homestead shack as it stood in 2003, a hundred years old.

The Littlest Immigrant

The youngest of my ancestors to leave England for Canada was my mother's cousin, Ernest William Nevard, or as everyone knew him, "Bill". Born in 1902, he was only 4 years oldwhen he boarded the ship with his mother to sail to Canada and join his father, Ernest, who had come to Saskatchewan to homestead in 1903. Bill had very little formal education learning all the basics from his parents. He was a voracious reader and prolific writer writing many short stories and works of fiction on whatever scrap paper was available at the time. He also loved to draw and left many pages of his own unique type of art. Bill began helping out on the homestead as soon as he was able to and went on to farm the land himself until 1948. He loved his horses that he farmed with and they all had names. When farming became more mechanized and tractors were taking over from horses, this must have helped him decide to leave farming and seek other employment. Bill worked at the Fort Qu'appelle t.b. sanatorium for the next 20 years until he retired. He enjoyed his retirement, gardening re-building the old farm homestead house and spending part of the summers there. He died at age 73 doing a job that he enjoyed, cutting firewood on the farm on a sunny morning in November of 1975.

A Century Apart

100 years apart, approximately. Thats about how much time is between these two photos.The home of my mother's uncle Arthur Nevard. I took the lower, colour photo today, November 27, 2008. The early black and white was taken in the early days of the 1900s, not long after the house had been built judging by the bare, unplastered poplar logs. Since there were no churches nearby, an Anglican service had been held in Arthur's homeon the day this photo was taken. It must have been a full house with all those people packed into the little log cabin. Today only a depression in the ground marks where the cellar was. The rusty kitchen stove beside the remnants of the brick chimney, the collapsed log walls laying nearby. 97 years ago today my grandparents were married in that little log house.