Karl's New Chevy

Thats my Dad's uncle Charlie (Karl) Hobetzeder in his new 1928 Chevy. Cousin Ivy in the back seat. It was a big step up from horse and democrat travelling the 12 miles to town. It would have been a big expense on a small farm but I'm guessing part or all of the money came from an inheritance from a relative in England. 

"Aunt King" as she was referred to , Harriet King as her name appears in the will, (yes I have a copy of it). Quite interesting to read how the estate funds were divided up in various fractions to all the surviving relatives and descendents. I should look it up to get the actual numbers . Although it would be in British pounds which would not mean much to me. 

Anyway, Charlie had good service out of the Chevy right up to the post war years when he replaced the tired old 28 with a 47 Chev. I think the old 28 was showing it's age by that time. It had survived at least one roll over with no major structural damage. In fact the story goes that they were able to get it back on it's wheels and continue the journey. Tough old car. 

This photo shows Ivy and her dad beside the 28 Chev sometime during the war years. Can't quite read the license plate. 

A Letter From Kate to Canada

Something different this time. A letter written by Kate Goff to her brother Alf in Saskatchewan in March of 1910. Alf had been in Canada since 1903. Kate was employed at Solent House at the time.
Things must have progressed quickly as family history indicates Kate came to Canada later that year with "the Austrian", Karl Hobetzeder who she married that same year.

                                                                      Solent House
                                                                      Southsea, Portsmouth
                                                                      March 30, 1910
My Dear Alf, Tom, Jack:
I now take the pleasure in answering your kind and welcome letter. So glad to hear that
you have had a good crop. I hope you will have another good one this year. Then we shall
soon see you back again. Will the others come as well? Perhaps I might come back. I shall
not promise to.
I am glad to say Alice is better but there will be no more family there now. Rather disappointing
for her husband as he is fond of children. Nell got a son last Sunday week. Both doing well.
And George's wife at Bournemouth has got a son.
How are all of you getting on? It must have been a blow for poor Jack. I feel sorry for him.
Levi, I think, is past work. He told me he had a hard job to get about. They still think a
lot of Nell. They, or he, often go down to see her.
No doubt it will come in handy to him if you can afford it. If it is to be made payable to a
bank then it would be Sherborne. But if to Post Office then Newton, Milborne Port, Somerset.
Alice is shifted, if it is to bank, Bournemouth. If to Post Office make it Pokesdown. Their
address is Erme Villa, Burleigh Road, West Southborne, Bournemouth.
I think they have had a rough time of it. I lent them 2:15 in November. They have not had a
chance to pull round yet. He ask me not to tell Sally. I think they at Clenston are staying on
there. Allie is home. She says Mother's time is all taken up with the pig and chicks. They
had a  hen set for 3 weeks on 13 eggs, then left them. Bet Lot was for stretching his neck
and putting him in the pot.
Lot was very rough before Xmas. Did not know what to make of him. Sally was not much better.
They went up to Bourne for five days. It rained nearly all the time. He saw his brother up
there. They stayed at Alice's house while she was looking after theirs at Clenston. But I am
glad to say they are all alright again now.
I am sending on one of my latest photos. I am not married yet. This is an Austrian. Other one
is gone to China for 2 years.
I am having letter registered in case you would not get photo. Do I begin to look old?
So now I think I have told you all the news at present so must now draw this to close with
fondest love to you and all I remain your loving sister, K. M. Goff. Write soon. XXX

                                                     The photo referred to in the letter.

Karl Hobetzeder and Kate 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

Charles and Kate

Charles and Kate. Or to be precise, Karl Hobeteder and Kathleen Mary Goff.
This studio portrait of them was taken in England sometime after they met and before they came to Canada.
Kate had worked as a domestic and parlour maid in various hotels and resorts along the south coast of England in the 1890s and early 1900s.
Karl , originally from Austria also worked in the service industry in hotels and resorts and this is likely where they met.
In 1910 Kate travelled to Canada to visit her brothers, Tom and Alf Goff who had taken up homesteads in the new province of Saskatchewan. Karl travelled with her and they arrived in July. They had plans of travelling on further to B.C. but ended up staying with Tom on his homestead and were married in December of 1910.
Karl and Kate took on a farm of their own less than a mile from her brothers and never did get to B.C. It was a hard life and I don't think they ever again could afford such nice clothes as in the above picture. Kate died in 1943, ten years before I was born. "Uncle Charlie" lived on until 1963 on the same farm with the assistance of his 2 daughters, Grace and Ivy.