Photography
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed when my search of this old place came up empty handed.
I thought I hit the jackpot when I started looking for history on this one. Yet it turns out that what I found contradicted itself. So, I’m going to consider this one another one that left me empty handed.
But, it was not all for nothing. While trying to make sense of the stories, I found another old abandonded house that I have put on my to do list this coming summer.
John, originally from England, came to Canada as a young boy. First settling in Cannington, Ontario and then moving west to Southwestern, Manitoba.
In 1882 John married Elizabeth and settled on another homestead. There they raised two boys, Sidney and William. As a young man Sidney purchased a 1/4 section of this same parcel of land and raised two sons of his own.
When Sidney’s son Cecil got married and needed a place of his own to farm and raise a family, he bought the southwest section of this land, close to his parents and started a family of his own.
Now this house has been in my to shoot binder for some time but Christian then discovered this old car behind the house and as much as I love old abandoned houses, when you add an old car to the mix, it makes it WAY better.
This was one of many locations we shot on this particular afternoon and thankfully since Christian had already been here, he was gracious enough to come back with me and take a few more shots of his own.
I did not post a photograph but this is another one of those old brick houses where the brick is now starting to fall off. I am going to assume that when the roof goes, the water leaks down between the wood structure and the brick which then causes the brick to fall off. There are a few of these red brick houses in the area and recall that there was a family that owned a company that made these bricks.
The other night while hunting for houses, we came across this old house from many moons ago. Easily shot from the road, we stopped for a couple shots to add to our list of houses photographed. I wish I had kept better stats since the start of this hobby.
This is the house where I stepped on the board suspended over a hole. I was content on the road. I had been here many years ago and had investigated inside during that visit.
The sun was starting to set which was giving off that golden hour glow which I love.
I have a new system for keeping track of houses I want to shoot and houses I have shot. Its a work in progress and it appears to be a lot simpiler than the big old binder that Christian teases me about. I will hold on to the binder because when I search for the history, I do use the original page to record notes and the name of the blog post, date and contact information for permission.
John Turnbull was the first recorded landowner of this section in the RM of Roblin and was the first trustee of the Badger Creek School District.
The third recorded owner of this land was born in Quebec. He attended McGill Law School and also served as King’s Council in the Sherbrooke Court.
In 1895 he married and started a family with his wife, Luna. They had 5 children. In 1914 when the war broke out, Albert was a Lieutenant Colonel. He joined the forces in the regular army and became a Major. Albert and his eldest son, who was 17 at the time, voluntereed for overseas service and were sent to England with the 117th Eastern Township Battalion. Albert returned to Canada but his eldest son was sent to Germany in 1917.
When the eldest son returned to Canada from Germany, the family decided to go west and in particular, the Cartwright area. Albert arrived in the area and found land and then returned to Quebec to purchase a herd of jersey cattle. John and Albert set back out west to their new home by railway, with the jersey cows. Albert and Luna’s oldest daughter remained in Quebec. Luna and the younger children made the 4 day trip by railcar and arrived on December 30, 1919. Upon their arrival the families new neighbours had a hot meal prepared for them.
During my search of this family I came a cross this photograph of Albert and Luna with one of their jersey cows.
In 1921 50% of the herd developed TB. After thorough cleaning of the barns, Albert went back to Quebec and purchased more jersey cattle. He showed the animals in Brandon and Killarney. These cows which caught a lot of attention at the Killarney and Brandon Fairs.
In 1925 Albert and Luna went back to Quebec where Albert continued to practice law until he passed away in 1932 following an appendectomy. Luna passed away in 1946 after she fell and broke her hip and was recovering in hospital.
John, the oldest son, took over the farm when his parents moved back to Quebec. The family gave up the farm in 1933. He bought a farm North of Winnipeg for a short time but headed back home to Quebec.
I have no idea if it was the Turnbull family that built this house or the second landowners, the Taylors from whom Albert and Luna puchased this land from.
After John left the farm, his sister and her husband moved to the land and raised a family on this homestead. Then their son took it over but moved to Virden and later Pilot Mound.
CRUMBLING MEMORIES 