Cold Morning At The Century Shack

I call it the "century shack" but in fact it will be 115 years old this summer. My grandfather, T. Goff and his brother , Alf, cousin Jack all spent their first winter in Canada in this little log shack. No, not the red barn at the beginning of the vido. About 10x12 feet built of vertical poplar logs. It must have been "cool" but maybe if they kept the wood burning stove well fed it would be ok. Jack was reported to have stated that he would be "back in Dorset for next Christmas" although he never did go back. Saskatchewan winter must have been a shock for these Dorset lads who likely didn't see a lot of snow before.
It had warmed up to about -15F when I did this latest Roosty6 video tour this morning. Made me appreciate the modern gas heat even more.

Groundhog Day

February 2 is traditionally known as groundhog day. The day when this large rodent ventures forth from the snow covered frozen ground and gives us a clue as to how much longer the winter will last. depending on if it sees it's shadow or not.
We don't have groundhogs here in Sask. and if we did they would be hibernating beneath the deep frozen ground knowing there will be nothing for them on the surface but cold and snow for the next month or two.
In family history it is also the birthday of great Uncle Alf Goff. Born in Chetnole, Dorset in 1870. He got out of Dorset in his 20s and sailed for Australia where he worked on a sheep farm for a few years before returning to England . Not for long though as he and his younger brother Tom then sailed for Canada and spent some time working on the railroad and threshing crews eventually returning to England. They must have liked Canada though for they returned to take up a homestead in 1903 in the land that would soon become Saskatchewan. Alf farmed full time until he died at the age of 72 in January of 1942.

Alf with cousin Jack who lived and farmed next door . 

Alf in Australia in the 1890s.

A Letter From Jack

This is the only written correspondence I have by Jack (John) Goff
Date I am guessing at 1941 or 42. Written to his niece.

My Dear Niece
I received your welcome letter yesterday and did as you asked me and I guess the boy is home by this time as dad was down this morning before I was up.
I have not heard from Leslie for a long time but Sandy told me a long time ago that they expect him home for harvest but have not heard any more about him.
No dear, I did not hear any more about Sandy going up any trees but I see him very often in town. He has left Mr. Van and is home now.
Say you must have a snap herding just a couple sheep. Wish I was close enough to come and give you a hand with them but I would not give you a hand painting. I do not like that job a little bit.

When you come home let me know and I will meet you at the bus if I can and if I am not there, come on down. You know where I live. So I guess that's about all.
                                                                                                        Your loving Uncle
                                                                                                          J. Goff

Family History Mystery

One of my grandmothers has become what the genealogists refer to as a "brick wall". We know her name and where she came from but beyond that she is mostly a mystery in spite of many hours spent searching the net. 40 years previous, one of my aunts did the same search, without the benefit of the internet though. Snail mail between Sask. and England took a long time and money was spent on postage and genealogists to no avail.

Although we have the names of Mary's parents (George and Kathleen Mary Lane)  there are no supporting documents to show her origins. She always stated her place of birth as Margate, Kent. She had a sister, "Nellie", who died as a child. She was an orphan by the age of 15. She worked as a domestic, later in restaurants and resort towns along the south coast of England before coming to London. A postcard she sent to her friend Kate Goff in Canada shows the Railway Hotel in Broadstairs , Kent, where she was working at the time.

At some point in her early working years she met and became friends with Kate Goff. Kate came to Canada in 1910 with Karl Hobetzeder. She wrote and convinced Mary to come to Canada also. Kate thought that Mary might be a suitable wife for her cousin, Jack Goff who farmed just a mile away. But that did not happen and Mary married Kate's brother, Tom Goff in November of the same year she arrived. 

Mary came to Canada on the Virginian arriving July 1st, 1911 in Quebec. From there by train eventually to Saskatchewan. I don't know but am assuming that she lived with Kate and Karl (who had been married December 28, 1910) until she married Tom Goff on November 27, 1911 at the farm home of Arthur and Daisy Nevard (Winstanley Grove) on NE24-24-14.

One of the first creatures she noticed in Sask. was the prairie gophers which she thought to be rats.

The friendship between Mary and sister in law Kate (Goff) Hobetzeder dissolved sometime in the late 1920s. Unkind words and angry letters were exchanged and for the last 15 years of her life Kate never visited Mary and Tom's farm even though only less than a mile away. The actual cause of this rift is not known.

It was through Kate Goff that Mary Lane came to Canada. Kate and Mary were friends in England before Kate came to Canada with Karl Hobetzeder. They settled about 3/4 mile from where Kate's brothers, Tom and Alf homesteaded. In fact Kate and Karl lived with Tom in his log house their first while here in 1910. Kate persuaded Mary to come to Canada thinking she would be a wife for either brother Alf or cousin Jack Goff. As it happened, Mary married Tom Goff.

Mary Elizabeth Lane

The Virginian was a 12,00 ton steamship owned and operated by the Allan Line out of Liverpool, England.  Mary purchased ticket #60876 on the 23 June 1911 sailing of the Virginian from Liverpool, one of 789 adults and 174 children on that trip.  The ship arrived at Quebec at 9pm on the 30th of June and passengers cleared Customs on 1 July.  Mary was listed on page 8 of the ship's Second Class passenger list

May seems to have traveled alone.  She is listed as 25 years of age, able to read and write, English by birth and travelling to meet a cousin in Headlands Saskatchewan. Her occupation is listed as ‘domestic'.  Mary was booked to continue her trip West from Quebec on the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR).

(reference : National Archives of Canada microfilm #T4778

What Would Jack Say?

That question came to mind a while back whilst contemplating the price of cultivator shovels and diesel fuel. Which have both reached levels that make it questionable how we even turn a profit at this farming business. My dad used to tell the story of how his Uncle Jack was out to the farm to visit one day in the early 1950s. Dad was proudly showing him his new cultivator. Of course Jack was curious as to the price of this machine. Seems to me it was in the $700 range. When Jack heard that he was a little shocked and replied that when he was farming he had bought a cultivator for $75. I wonder what he would say about the price of machinery today? Actually I can pretty well guess.

Great uncles, Alf and Jack in the 1930s

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.