Musical Twins?

While I don't think of myself or my immediate family as particularly musical (let's just say we're much better listeners than producers), perhaps we were just lacking the opportunity to play in a flute band!

The photo above shows the boys with the whole band: 2nd row (after drums) Jim (James) right and Jack (John) left. The caption on the photo reads "We didn't want to get our picture taken that day. Grade 10 at Princess Alex School, Saskatoon".

If this truly was Grade 10, the boys would have been about 15 (circa 1941). I searched Wikipedia and found the following information about the school:

Princess Alexandra School is a public elementary school which is a part of theSaskatoon Public School Division.^[18] The school first opened in 1906.^[19]Construction began in 1906/07 of 'Riversdale School which was re-named Alexandra School; a four room school house was erected, and doubled in size by 1908.^[20] In 1922 there were both Princess and Alexandra schools in operation on the same land allotment. Princess school was sold and torn down in 1961. In 1962 a new school building was erected on the same property site, and re-opened.

I don't know if any of Margaret and William Gilmour's kids went to school after immigrating to Saskatoon - perhaps Tom will know? If the younger kids (David and Mary) did have a chance to go to school, then they would also have attended this old brick school.

The photo below shows the twins posing in their Pipe Band uniforms with their flutes and was taken in the backyard at 428 Avenue E South in Saskatoon.

Pauline and her Dad, James (Jim) Gilmour, Spring 1975

Pauline (only daughter of James and Helen Gilmour) with her Dad on the back deck of their house in Victoria, BC.

Pauline would have been about 13 when this picture was taken in the spring of 1975; James was 49 years old.  

Home

"Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to   get back to.” 

- John Ed Pierce 

Chloe Straw

Chloe is the daughter of Margaret Rose Gilmour,  the granddaughter of John Gordon Gilmour, and the great-granddaughter of James Gilmour. 

I was actually searching for the announcement of Chloe's recent engagement (to Jules Molloy) but instead found this article published in the University of Victoria's "Ring" newspaper.)  

April 2005 · Vol 31 · No 4

Chloe’s excellent adventure

 

A co-op student fundraises her way to a work term in Costa Rica

 by Lynda Hills

 

Straw

Funding your own trip to work overseas and bringing money to a project can be a challenge, but UVic arts and writing co-op student Chloe Straw found a way to do it.

 

Straw wanted to work and travel, so she conducted research on organizations that were involved in overseas community development, and settled on one in Costa Rica called Youth Challenge International (YCI). Then she set to work.

 

The fee for three months in Costa Rica was $3,535, which covered building materials for the project. Straw took a multi-faceted approach to fundraising. Starting off with family assistance, she branched off to canvassing local businesses for support. Next, she networked with friends and contacts on campus and hosted a ‘Battle of the DJ’s’ event at Felicitas, which included a dance team performance. She then undertook a campus-wide bottle drive.

 

To help with her travel expenses Straw applied for, and won, the Graham Branton Endowment Fund. The $750 award supports co-op students who volunteer for placements overseas.

 

During her first five weeks in Costa Rica, Straw helped re-locate a retaining wall at a children’s rescue centre in Vista Azul. “It was pretty intense,” she says. “I’d never had such a physical task, but the kids who lived there were our continued motivation.”

 

Straw’s second project took her near the Panamanian border and an eco-lodge called Casa Calateas in the small town of Carbon Dos. The group built a green filter to clean grey water coming from the kitchen and filter it into the jungle. They also built roads to improve the lodge’s accessibility and painted the lodge buildings.

 

As part of both projects Straw taught English to local communities, and while at Casa Calateas, she organized a conference for women and youth.
Straw believes the experience was important for her career goals and is now looking into a postgraduate program in international management.

 

“I learned not to put limits on my own expectations because I did things on this project that I didn’t think I would even attempt to do,” she says. “It was easily the best thing that I’ve done.”

Jan and Dad, Summer 2009

Here's Janet (named after our grandmother, Janet, wife to James) and Dad out for dinner in Vancouver, August, 2009. 

We were visiting with Tom and Laurie Henry (Tom's grandfather, William, was our grandfather James' brother; Tom's Mom was Dad's cousin - which makes Tom Dad's first cousin once removed (because they are from different generations) and makes Tom our second cousin (because we share great-grandparents but not grandparents). 

Got that? Whatever the relationship, it's been very nice for all of us getting to know another branch of the Gilmour family - Tom is responsible for most of the genealogical digging and many of the photos I've posted so far. 

Cath [sister to Elizabeth, John Callaghan's wife (John is also Dad's cousin; his Mom, Helen, was James' younger sister)] was visiting from England and also came out to eat - will ask Jan for a photo of all of us together. 

Sometimes a Great Notion - Canadian Style

James and John Gilmour trained as foresters at the University of British Columbia, graduating in 1950 thanks to the free university education that the Canadian government offered to WW II veterans. 

While the twins were lucky enough not to have shipped overseas, they both took advantage of the free post-secondary education.  

This picture shows James Gilmour (left front wearing a floppy hat) and several other forestry students working somewhere near Cranbrook, BC, in about 1948 (presumably a summer job before they graduated in 1950). 

The young men were cruising Christmas trees for various operators wanting to harvest them. 

(Postscript - to James' left, you can just see  the head and shoulders of Roy Flannigan - he went on to become a Park Superintendent for Parks Canada; many, many years later, I worked in the Northwest Territories and became friends with his son, Brian - small world, eh?).

Imagine - A Stirling Streetscape

Blink once and imagine away all the cars. 

Blink again - make the road into a cobblestone street and the streetlights into gas lamps. 

Blink a final time and see the Gilmour boys, James, George and William, strolling home from school through Stirling-town.  

The Wallace Monument

During Tom Henry's March 2008 visit to Scotland, he took some photos in Stirling.  One of them (see photo above) is a view across the valley to the Wallace monument - if you "click" on the photo to enlarge it, you will see the Wallace monument on the hill known as Abbey Craig. 

The photo at the end of this post clearly shows the details of the monument to William Wallace. 

Just this evening, Dad told me that his father, James (our grandfather) told him that our great-grandfather William worked as a mason on the monument - it may have been the reason William moved to the Stirling area (the monument was mostly finished by 1869 but perhaps there was still work to do around the site?  So, Tom Henry's hunch seems to be correct. (Some time ago, Tom sent a letter to the Masons Grand Lodge in Stirling to ask if they have records of the names of the masons who worked on the monument.  They don't, but they told Tom that if William was a mason, there is a very good chance he did work there as hundreds of masons were employed in building it.) 

The Wallace Monument is situated on the top of Abbey Craig, a volcanic crag, overlooking the river Forth and the Forth Valley. This Craig at one time was the site of a hill fort, and in 1297, William Wallace camped there to watch the gathering of the army of English king Edward 1, just before Wallace defeated the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.  

The design of the monument is in the Scottish "Baronial" style and represented a Scottish medieval tower, rising from a courtyard, with a representation on the top of the Crown Royal of Scotland. 

The monument is 220 feet high, 54 square feet at its base, with the tower 36 square feet. The walls are 16-18 feet at their thickest; more than 30,000 tons of stones used in the construction. The monument is open to the public - visitors climb the spiral staircase (246 stairs, so be prepared) to the viewing gallery inside the monument's crown -  the prize? A spectacular view of the Ochil Hills and the Forth Valley. 

To see more pictures and learn a little bit about the history of the monument, you can visit this website: 

 

http://www.nationalwallacemonument.com/

Riversdale, Saskatoon

The Gilmour family home in Saskatoon (see posts under 428 Avenue E South) was located in the district of Riversdale - here is a brief history of the community:  

Saskatoon’s earliest Euro Canadian settlement, a pioneer temperance colony, developed on both the east and west side of the South Saskatchewan riverbank.

In 1890, the railway established a depot on the west side of the river; soon after the Saskatoon settlement split off into two separate villages. The west side was incorporated as the Village of Saskatoon in 1901 and the east side of the river changed its name to Nutana. The name Nutana, many say, is a result of reversing the spelling of Saskatoon.

A third settlement, Riversdale Village, located just west of the railway tracks, was incorporated on January 16, 1905 after people residing across the tracks from of the Village of Saskatoon petitioned the Commissioner of Public Works to have the area incorporated.

In 1906, with the promise of a Traffic Bridge, the Village of Saskatoon amalgamated with the Villages of Nutana and Riversdale to become what is now known to be the City of Saskatoon. Soon after Saskatoon became the fastest growing city in the west.

In Riversdale, many of the buildings built during the Saskatoon’s Boom period of 1900-1912 remain, adding unique character to today’s main business and shopping district.

The multi-cultural quality of Riversdale was established early; during the boom, immigrants of British, Ukrainian, German, and Chinese decent settled in the Village of Riversdale. Today, as in the past, Riversdale is host to a mosaic of cultures.

There are some wonderful old pictures of Riversdale posted on the website where I found this historical information - visit the site below to get some taste of what the community must have been like during the early years when the family had just arrived from Scotland.

http://www.riversdale.ca/walkingtours.php

Why Come to Saskatchewan?

Something I've been wondering about - why did the Gilmours come to Saskatchewan? Of all the Canadian cities, why Saskatoon? When I next see Tom and my Dad, I'll ask them what they know about this.

Postscript - well, I did ask Tom; he's not sure why.

 

One possibility is that the boys may already have arranged work before they came out to Saskatoon -Tom says that during the period 1900-1912, Saskatoon was booming and may have been the fastest growing city in North America - certainly the fastest growing in the West. Perhaps it was this promise of jobs and prosperity that initially attracted the boys. As well, they may have been enticed by the promise of land in the Dominion Land Grants. 

There is an article in the Canadian Encyclopedia by J. Bumsted (available online) which gives an overview of Scottish migration to Canada. 

I loved the photo with the little verse "We're sailing west, we're sailing west...(presumably an advertisement inducing Scots to emigrate to Canada?) so much I have included it below.  

I wonder if the Gilmour boys saw such an ad and were persuaded to leave for a new life in a new land?

Scottish Immigrants Immigrants ready to leave Scotland for Canada, circa 1920 (Canapress).

The "new" church at Logie where William and Margaret were married

Across the valley from Stirling, and just behind the crag of the Wallace monument (our great-grandfather William was a stone mason and likely worked on this monument) is the parish church of Logie.  

The "new church" was built in 1800 after the Old Kirk of Logie became too decrepit to be used.  

William Gilmour and Margaret Robertson (our great-grandfather and great-grandmother) were married at Logie Church in 1878. The photos above were taken by Tom Henry and show the inside of the church and the churchyard.

Tom visited the Logie church in March, 2008; he also visited the Old Kirk and its graveyard. The Old Kirk lies a little ways up the road from the "new church". Read more about this in the post about his visit (Tom Henry's notes on his visit to Scotland) 

Shortly after they were married, William and Margaret's first child, Jean, was born (1878).  Nine children followed (including my grandfather James in 1882). Sadly, one child (Margaret, perhaps a twin to James?) died as an infant in 1882; another boy, David, died at six years of age in 1896.  

"During the late 1800s, thousands of children throughout Great Britain died of typhus, scarlet fever and cholera. In fact, it was only after 1914 that there was a great transition from the age-old pattern of very high mortality caused by infectious diseases, poor nutrition and heavy labour to our more contemporary experience of deaths associated with viral diseases, functional disorders or old age." (Benson, John, Working Class in England, 1875-1914).   

What must it have been like for Margaret and William to have 10 children? And then to have two die so young? It's hard to imagine a time when families were so large (ours was considered large, and we were only 5 kids!) and when it was just a commonplace that most families would lose at least one infant or child. 

Samuel "Esson" Bruce

Samuel "Esson" Bruce
BRUCE , Samuel "Esson" October 18, 1917 - February 27, 2009 The family is saddened to announce the passing of Samuel Esson Bruce of Calgary on Friday, February 27, 2009, at the age of 91 years. Esson was the third son of Samuel E. Bruce Sr. and Isabella Finlayson Gilmour Bruce, born on October 18, 1917, in Saskatoon. Early in 1942, he went to Washington, D.C. where he spent four years with the Australian War Supplies Commission and where he had the good fortune to meet Betty during that time. In 1946, they were married and went to live in Montreal where Esson had a career in Research and Product Development with Dominion Textile until his retirement in 1982. He was a member of a number of societies involved with Textile research in Canada and the United States. Betty and Esson moved to Oakville living there until 1995 when they came to Calgary to be near Susan and Joe. Esson was the beloved husband of Betty Annabel Gardner and the very proud father of Susan Elizabeth Hunter RN (Joe). He was predeceased by both parents; his infant son, David Esson Bruce (1947); his two brothers, William and James and his sister, Margaret. In living memory of Esson Bruce, a tree will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park.

James Robertson Gilmour

James Gilmour -
GILMOUR, James Robertson On August 12, 2008, James passed away peacefully, surrounded by family and friends, in Victoria, B.C. He was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on December 15th, 1926, and he resided in various communities throughout BC while working as a professional forester. He is survived by a daughter, Pauline of Edmonton and two sons, Glen of Needles, B.C. and James of Ottawa; his twin brother John; and his longtime friend and partner, Wanda. He is loved and will be missed. "Have we told you that we love you today? From the Victoria Times Colonist

Mary (MaryAnne) , John, Helen (Nellie), 1907

Photo from Tom Henry: 

From left, Mary (MaryAnne), John, and Helen (Nellie) Gilmour, circa 1907 - the photo was taken in Scotland before the family emigrated to Canada.  

Identical Twins

John and James - identical twins (sons of James & Janet Gilmour) born December 15, 1926 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  

The first photo was taken on the porch at 428 Avenue E in Saskatoon (Gilmour family home) - the photo says that Jim (James) is on the left while Jack (John) is on the right - from the age of the babies, this looks like spring or summer 1926. 

What beautiful boys - James was 44 when they were born, and I believe Janet was in her early 40s - two for the price of one! They must have been such proud parents!

(It's possible that James Sr. was also a twin - he had a sister, Margaret,  who was born in the same year, 1882, but died as an infant. See Tom Henry's research on the Gilmour family). 

Second photo:  Mrs. Henderson (left side of photo - a friend of Janet's - I think she may have emigrated with her to Canada) with Janet and the two boys - hard to tell which is John and which is James. 

From the age of the boys, and the background, I assume this is summer, 1926. 

Don't you love the ladies' hats? 

 

 

First Flight, circa 1938

Jim/James Gilmour dictated these comments about this photo to his partner, Wanda: 

"My Dad took this photo. My brother (Jack) is jumping off the float, and I'm just getting out of the cockpit. The pilot is talking to me, probably telling me how to close the door. We used to go to Waskesiu (Saskatchewan) quite often, I think. We used to tent. I would estimate that the picture was taken in 1938.

 The plane is a Fairchild KR-34C, a bi-plane on floats. The pilot and his mechanic were barnstorming--flying around, soliciting people for rides for 20 minutes for $5 each. They could carry two passengers in the front seat. They flew into Waskesiu Lake. The mechanic walked along the beach, asking the bathers if they wanted to go up. My Dad asked us if we wanted a ride and we were quite enthusiastic--a little apprehensive, but enthusiastic. We were 13, and it was our first ride. So we climbed into the open cockpit, took off, circled over the town of Waskesiu, and came back for a landing. We had to abort the landing because a motorboat came out into the landing path. We went around again, which was fortunate, because we got a ride that lasted longer than 20 minutes. We couldn't speak to the pilot during the flight. Both cockpits were open and you couldn't hear a thing with the roar of the engine and the wind. We had to use hand signals to point to a boat that was crossing the lake. Another memorable thing was that we had no helmets, so our hair just became tangled in knots. We were probably flying at about 80 mph. I remember that the mechanic was particularly friendly. The pilot didn't say much, but the mechanic was a nice fellow. He's at the edge of the photo. Not too many kids went up in airplanes in those days."

[As dictated to Wanda in November, 1986. Years later, James researched the plane's history. It had been built in Montreal in 1930. Its owners in 1937 were W.J. McDonough, Toronto; Brockton Ltd., Winnipeg; McDonald Bros., Winnipeg. In 1938 it was owned by L.J. Waite, Big River, Saskatchewan. It crashed and was withdrawn from use after it was severely damaged in a forced landing on Dore Lake, Saskatchewan. In December 1939, it could not pass the test for a Certificate of Airworthiness.]

 Chris' note: After Dad (John Gilmour) graduated from forestry school and was working from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, he often had occasion to go timber cruising near Dore Lake, site of the forced landing for this Fairchild. 

Was it this early flight that sparked their interest in planes? Both John and James had the "airplane bug" - both took flying lessons, held pilots' licences (Jim was a co-owner of a plane, too, but that's a different post), and maintained a lifelong knowledge of and interest in aviation. Tom Henry (their cousin Annabelle's son) also has the "flying bug". Genetics? You decide.   

Family trees...coming soon to a theatre near you....

Cousins

James/Jim (son of James and Janet Gilmour ) and his cousin Connie (daughter of William and Annie Gilmour). 

James Sr. was the oldest son in the Gilmour family, while William was the third son. 

 

This photo came from Uncle Jim and was taken in Saskatoon during a visit to Connie (and her husband, Cal). 

Three Cousins - 1999

Three cousins from right: Esson Bruce (the oldest cousin - son of Samuel and Bella); James/Jim Gilmour (son of James and Janet); and John Callaghan (the youngest of the cousins - son of Helen and William). This photo was taken in Calgary in 1999.

 

Stirling High School

High school in Stirling - the Gilmour boys - James, George and William -  and perhaps some of the girls attended this school before their father died (1893), and they emigrated to Canada.

If you enlarge the picture, you'll see the astrological symbols carved around the doorway - strange for a school! 

Maps of Perthshire

The "Porch Photo" - Gilmour family

This is the "porch picture" Tom Henry refers to in his history of the Gilmours. I believe Tom got the photo from Esson Bruce, and that the photo was taken in 1912. 

Back row from left:      George; James; unknown; William; Unknown 

Middle row from left:    Bella; Margaret with baby Willie Bruce on her lap; Helen; Jean

Front row from left:      unknown; John; Mary; unknown; unknown

Maybe one of the men is Esson and Willie's Dad, Samuel?  

Helen Gilmour feeding chickens at 428 Avenue E South

This photo shows Helen feeding the chickens at the back of the house on Avenue E South in Saskatoon. 

The photo was received from Katie Venturini and has this caption on the back "Received in Rangoon 25/11/1913. Helen feeding the chickens at 428 Ave E S "

Then and Now - 428 Avenue E South, Saskatoon

Then and now - the house at 428 Avenue E South, Saskatoon. The first photo was taken when James/Jim and John/Jack were boys (1930s?)  while the second photo was taken by Tom Henry in the summer of 2006.  

The first photo came from Uncle Jim (James Gilmour). Both Jack and Jim remembered the crab apple tree in the backyard. 

Jim said that after this photo was taken, his father created a nice garden in the backyard (you can see an earlier incarnation of a "working" backyard in the photo of Helen Gilmour feeding the chickens!) 

Blackford from Tom's Trip to Scotland, March 2008

The first photo shows Blackford from the air. The second shows the Blackford Hotel which was there before 1716 (see Tom's notes), while the third shows the inside of the Blackford Hotel pub. Nice to think that perhaps our male ancestors enjoyed a pint or two here - the modern decor and furniture make it hard to imagine that the hotel is haunted by a ghost named George. The fourth photo is of the moors above Blackford - a chilly place when the wind is blowing. And the last shows the Blackford churchyard. 

Tom Henry's notes on his visit to Scotland, March 2008

Notes from trip to Scotland 8 and 9 March 2008

I went to London with Laurie on the 7^th and stayed overnight. She stayed in London, and I flew up to Edinburgh on Saturday morning.   I rented a car and drove north about an hour to the village of Blackford, where our ancestors lived till about 1870.  I have put on the disk as photo #1 the air photo of Blackford I found on the web.  To put the photos in context, I suggest you read this first, then see the photos as a slide show. I numbered them so they should all come up in order.

I had found a lead while I was digging about on the Internet that suggested that Robert Gilmour (married 1787 in Blackford) was the son of James Gilmour and Geiles Crawford of Auchterarder.  Auchterarder is the next village to the east towards Perth.  I went to Auchterarder and had a look around. There is only a fairly modern church, and the graveyard dates back to only the early 1900s.  With some time on my hands, I headed north to Creiff, which is the biggest town around that part of Perthshire.  I checked the Creiff graveyard, and again found graves back to only about 1900.  And no Gilmours to be seen. So, back to Blackford, for a quick visit to the ancient churchyard up on the hill above the village.  I found a Gilmour grave that I had missed last time-----I have not dug around to see if this John Gilmour is a relative of ours……a brother of one of our guys.  The reason I found the grave this time is that the sun was shining briefly and a previously unreadable tombstone became somewhat readable. I also found some Finlaysons that may be  brothers of Isabella Finlayson, mother of William Gilmour.  I need to check my census records for that one. The dates seem right.

On Saturday before dinner I went to the Blackford Inn, which I had not visited before. This is on “the other” street in Blackford.  (I was staying in the Blackford Hotel, see the photos.)  The proprietors were the only people there, so I had a beer and chatted to them about the history. They know that the pub dates from 1716, because they found a historical record that notes that the government troops who were in Scotland in 1716 to put down the first Jacobite rebellion burned Auchterarder and Blackford to the ground, except for the Blackford Inn, because they needed somewhere to stay.  The owners assured me that their street is the one called Old Street in the census when our guys were there (1840, etc).   They also told me the pub is haunted.  It looks like it should be. I can’t remember the names of the proprietors, but the male ghost is named George.

On Sunday morning I headed off to Stirling, which is only about 20 minutes away.  I had contacted the Stirling Council and found the locations of the graves of William Gilmour and Maggie Ann Gilmour. They are buried in the same “lair” in one of the oldest cemeteries in Stirling, Ballengeich.  It is quite a spectacular and peaceful place, sitting just below the wall of the castle, and high above the valley of the Allen river.   There are no tombstones marking the Gilmour grave (tombstones were for the rich).   In the photos, the grave location is marked by a little bunch of daffodils that I brought.  You will also see photos of a little wren who followed me around while I was looking at the graveyard. 

I took some other photos in Stirling.  One of them (#33 on the CD) is a view across the valley to the Wallace monument, which William may have helped to build (may be the reason why he moved to the Stirling area).  I sent a letter to the Masons Grand Lodge in Stirling to ask if they have records of the names of the Masons who worked on the monument.  They told me they do not, but if he was a mason, there is a very good chance he did work on it.  There were hundreds of masons employed in building it.

In Stirling, I went around to see Bayne Street and Bruce Street, where the family lived from before 1880 to at least 1898 when William died.  You will also see some photos of 27 Queen Street, where David Gilmour, Williams brother, lived in 1898, and of 27 Barnton Street, where they lived sometime after 1898 (address from a schoolbook of my grandfather’s).   I took a photo of the high school which James, William, George and maybe the girls would have attended. 

In the photo view across the valley (#33), just behind the crag of the Wallace monument is the parish church of Logie.  It was built in 1800, when the Old Kirk of Logie became too decrepit to be used.  William Gilmour and Margaret Robertson were married at Logie Church in 1878. I went to the Logie church just as the service was ending and was lucky to meet one of the church people (I don’t know his job title: I don’t know much about these deans, vergers, etc.   Only about priests and choir boys……….)   Anyhow, this man took me around the church and showed me the sights, and also told me about the Old Kirk, a couple of hundred yards up a little road.   The latter has a churchyard with some remarkable 17^th century tombstones, still very legible.   I went around the new Logie graveyard; did not find any Gilmours, or any Fyfes but did find a couple of Robertsons.  (Margaret Robertsons parents were John Robertson and Jane Fyfe. That’s where Jane Fyfe Gilmour,  the oldest daughter of Margaret and William, got her name.)   On the wall of the church there is a plaque thanking a Mr. Fyfe, who served the church for many years and passed away recently.  I asked if there were lots of Fyfes around, and they said there were not. There was one elderly Fyfe lady (widow of the guy on the plaque) who had been at the service that just ended.  I gave the man a photocopy of the marriage record of Margaret and William (which shows the names of their parents) and asked him to give it to Mrs. Fyfe.  I asked that if she thought she was related to our Jane Fyfe, to contact me. 

After Logie, I drove a few miles to the east to the village of Menstrie. That is where Margaret and William lived when they were married.  Not much there…..most of the old buildings have been replaced.  I was planning to go look at Alloa, where the Robertsons came from, but it was blowing and sleeting pretty well at the time, so I suspended the research and went for a beer and a soup at a pub. 

Hope you enjoy the photos.

Best wishes

Tom (Henry)