HEATH/MORRISON:  Charles Stuart Morrison (1854-1930) was a carpenter and building mover who lived on a small farm near Wardsville, Ontario.  As a 75-year-old man in early April of 1930, Charles exhibited increasingly unpredictable and dangerous behaviour (possibly due to early onset Alzheimer’s Disease).  At the time, Charles … Continue reading No Other Option

ST-DENIS/PRIDDLE:  The above tintype features John Priddle (1819-1908), a carpenter and cabinet maker from Somerset, England and his wife Sarah (Johnson) Priddle (1829-1868), whose family hailed from Henley-on-Thames, England.  After Sarah died in 1868, John married a widow by the name of Jane Philips (Bouck) in 1873.  Presumably, … Continue reading The First of Three

ST-DENIS/PRIDDLE:  The man in the above photograph is Wallace Priddle (1879-1936).  Seated to his immediate right is his wife Aletta (Vannatter) Pridde (1888-1967) and her sister, Emma Vannatter.  Wallace was an amateur photographer and one who did not take his hobby all that seriously, as the … Continue reading Hamming it Up

HEATH/MORRISON:  In 1919 Samuel Morrison (1893-1978), a young farmer of Mosa Township, married a widow by the name of Georgina Nichol from nearby Glencoe, Ontario.  After living together for just over a year, the two separated and agreed to live apart.  However, when Sam discovered that his estranged … Continue reading A Scandalous Affair

ST-DENIS/PRIDDLE:  Pictured above is John Priddle (1849-1919), who was a carpenter, his wife Hannah Brinn (1857-1926) and certain of their family, circa 1895.  The house, remarkably enough, still stands at the corner of Norfolk County Road 45 and the 2nd Concession of Houghton Township.  A modern view of this … Continue reading A House and a Home

ST-DENIS/PRIDDLE  John Priddle (1849-1919) was a farmer of Houghton Township in Norfolk County.  He was also an avid bee keeper in his old age.  He is pictured above sitting among his bee hives, and presumably not long before his death in 1919 – as the … Continue reading The Bee Keeper

ST-DENIS/PRIDDLE:  Next to a family bible listing multi-generational vital statistics, a printed “Family Record” is an exceptional find for any avid genealogist.  The example pictured above, unfortunately, was not completed.  Yet, the information it preserves was used to fill in some of the gaps in the Priddle family history.

HEATH/MORRISON In 1940, the following newspaper article recounted Thomas Morrison’s life as a cowboy, or more accurately, a rancher in Alberta at the turn of the twentieth century. Call of Great Open Spaces Made Cowboy of T. Morrison Back in 1907 a rugged 16-year-old lad … Continue reading Tom the Cowboy

HEATH:  In the 1960s, one of Orburn Heath’s daughters did missionary work in India.  Occasionally, Marion Heath would send her aunts in Wardsville, Ontario letters recounting her adventures – the cover of one of her airmail letters is pictured above.  Dated at Ajmala on 13 October 1967, the contents … Continue reading Out of India

HEATH/MORRISON:  In 1908, George B. Morrison filed on a quarter section of land where the town of Munson, Alberta now stands.  After viewing it, George decided he did not like it and so he filed on another quarter section in the Hand Hills district.  In … Continue reading A Homestead in Alberta