| Notes |
- [Edey.FTW]
This is the story of the Alexander Mose Edey family. This is written by Morley Edey
It was in March of 1892 that a girl, baby daughter, was born into the Watson family, a
large family of about 12 or 13. She was of the younger ones who lived in Ireland. Shortly
after she was born, about 2 years old, her parents died leaving her orphaned. She was
raised in an orphanage. At the age of 16 she was to set sail on the Titanic for Canada,
where a sister-in-law had moved after losing her first husband, and married again to one
named George Kilgore. She had intended to visit and then go back to Ireland. But for some
reason her passage was cancelled, so she took a small boat which took two weeks to come
across to Canada. She later heard that the Titanic had sunk. Her name was Fanny
Watson.
Now in the year of 1892 a baby boy was born to the Mose Edey family, the first born,
Alexander Mose. He grew up and attended school only in the winter months as he had to
help his parents with the farm work. While yet a young man his mother took very sick. His
father got specialists to help her. It took thousands of dollars but of no avail and she
passed away.
Meanwhile, Fanny was working for a Scottish couple named Jack MacCrae. She had been
warned not to have anything to do with the Edeys so she tried to avoid them and her
mistress told her that was not right. "The Edey's are a fine people and respectable, you
should get to know them." One day Alex Edey came over to visit the MacCraes and they
asked him in for dinner. That was the start of a courtship and finally marriage of my
mother and dad, on Dec. 3, 1914.
My mother was Anglican and believed she was saved at her confirmation. My dad was
Presbyterian and I am told took a stand for the Lord at an early age but because they had
no fellowship, did not grow in the Lord.
Then in Sept. 22, 1915, I Morley Edey, was born. This is where my life started.
My mother had a high respect for God and the Bible but did not know how to pass on the
good news of salvation. She did implant in our lives the respect for God and His Word, the
Bible. We lived too far away from Sunday School to attend until 1925 or 1926. We left
our home and moved to a place near our Grandpa and near a small school. There the
Salvation Army had Sunday School and church service. WE enjoyed the Sunday School and
I remember and I got a book from my Sunday School teacher for, I believe, good
attendance. All the while, I believed God and prayed to Him. But never really knew Him.
Then in the spring of 1928, in a hurry, my uncle John and Dad moved to the Peace River
Country to the town of Spirit River.
There we went to the United Church of Canada where I learned the Ten Commandments
and the Apostles Creed which I soon forgot.
Then in 1931 we moved to the homestead in the Bridgeview area, just one and one half
miles south of the peak of White Mountain. We were there twelve days when a forest fire
came and burned everything we owned. My mother was home alone when it came up with
one toddler and a baby in her arms. She went to a neighbours for help. This was at the
beginning of the 1930 depression. We had to start from scratch.
Dad and we boys used to work at the saw mill just two miles from our home and finally we
started and got established again. Dad used to work out whenever possible and we boys
used to work in the harvest field for extra or only money of any amount. In these years
before radio, we boys and my sister Agnes, used to play the violins, guitar, banjo, uke and
we finally started to play for dances and sometimes made a few dollars that way.
We often trapped a little for spending money from the time we were sixteen years old, we
boys hunted for our meat supply. We helped in this way.
There was no incentive for a young person in those days, nothing but lots of time and
nothing to show for it. I took up a homestead when I became of age but never had any
ambition to develop it.
I was glad to get your letter and Questionair. I think that is the best way to jog our
memory. If you sent me one I don't remember it but I will try to answer them one by one.
We were a very priveleged family. We had Parents who even before they made their last
commitment to the Lord were People of High standard. I think I can truthfully say Mom
was the keel and rudder of the Family ship. I used to hear many conversations while Mum
and Dad were in their bedroom. That I wasn't supposed to hear. Dad loved to read and of
course he read something on evolution one time and made mention to Mum. How could we
be sure there was a God & that evolution could be true. Mum came right back with "Dad
How could you ever believe such a thing."
Dad was always a hard working person and always very energetic. We'd go visiting
relatives on a Sunday and he'd end up play 'anti-I-over' or ball or horse shoes with us kids.
Dad while in Manitoba was not always well. He would take sick with high fever quite
suddenly. He used to drive the school van with a team of horses. One day he took sick I
was very young. Probably 7 years old and didn't know how to drive. He tied the horses
lines on the front of the box and lay down on the floor of the sleigh (winter time) and they
went home on their own. His fever would get so high he would go delirious. He would say
all kinds of crazy things that made no sense at all.
When He & Mother were married they went into debt to buy a farm & build a house. It
was right begining of the 1st world war. He had a very hard time making his mortgage
Payment. There was a hired man working for the neighbors. Who used to come to our
house to visit as a friend and made out he was a friend. But He went & bought our home
right out from under us. This hurt Dad very much when a professing friend pulled such a
dirty trick. But I believe God was at work. He quickly rented a place near GrandDads
place less than 1/2 a mile. He & Grand Dad worked together farming. Dad used to cut oak
Posts and hauled wood for sale as well as a few cattle & pigs. I should have told you
something more about Mother & Dad when they were married 1st they wanted to have a
Christian home. Dad apparently made a stand for the Lord when He was a Young Man &
Mother was confirmed in the Anglican (Church of England) when she was quite young. They
didn't want to have cards (games) in their home. But their family were quite worldly and
soon had them involved in worldly games, etc. My Dad was born & raised in the Wellwood
area untill he move to the Peace River Country. In the winter of 1928. Dad & Uncle John
went together sometime in that winter then Mum & us kids came April 28, 1928. I
remember Dad left a horse for Mum to sell so she could buy our tickets to Spirit River,
Alberta. I remember her having a very hard time trying to get some one who would buy it
but when she did She got right on the train with us 6 little kids. Kathleen was only about
4 or 5 months old I believe. So she had her hands full. we packed a big lunch to last I
think 3 or 4 days worth. But in Edmonton she took us all to a restraunt. When we got to
Spirit River it had snowed the day before about 12 - 16 in. And it was mud to the axels
for 2 1/2 miles to the place Dad had rented. When we got there Uncle John & another
fellow were living their & they moved out that afternoon. What mud what a reception.
Dad got a Job with the next door neighbor. His Bosse's name was Jim McGillvary. I
should have said Something about My Mother before now. You'll have to forgive my
disjointedness of tho't. My Mother was the 2nd. youngest of a family I think of 12
children very large family. I'm not sure of how many. Her Father died when she was
quite young her mother died a year or so later. She was raised in an ophanage which she
didn't make public. She love her Matron appently she was a fine woman of high Christian
Principals of the Anglican Church. They learned many skills of house keeping & knitting.
She could knitt very fast and didn't have to watch her needles. When she became 16 Her
sister-in-law who had imigrated to Canada after her husband died (Mum's Brother). She
married again to My Dad's Uncle George Kilgore. Mother was going to Canada to this
Sister-in-law for a visit. She book a passage on the Titanic but for some reason (God's
hand) her passage was cancelled and booked on a smaller ship. It took her 2 weeks to
cross on it. They also encountered ice bergs. When she arrived at Geo. Kilgore after a
while she got a job working as a house keeper for a family in the Wellwood area where
My Dads parents live. I believe their Names where Jack?? or Dave?? Mackey? I'm not
sure if this is the right spelling of their name. Mackey's were good friend to the Edey
family. Now there was a fued bettween Grandad & Geo. Kilgore. Grandad was married to
Kilgores sister. Kilgore caried a grudge most of his life. And wouldn't even go to my
Grandmother's funeral. But my Mother was warned not to have anything to do with the
Edey family. But Mrs. Mackay soon put her wise to this and one day Dad came to visit the
Mackay's and Mum didn't want to meet him. But Mrs. Mackay told her what a fine family
they were and soon there was a couple pretty friendly and finaly marrage Mother came
from Ireland in 1912 and in 1914 Dec 3 I believe the were married & I arrived in 1915
Sept. 22.
Now we are in Spirit River in the fall of 1928 we moved to a house 1/2 mile south of Spirit
river. Dads new Boss Is now a Bachlor named Mark A. Roycroft a very well to do man. He
used to go to Hiwai nearly every winter & Dad look after his horses & place etc. In the
mean time Dad had homesteaded in the Bridgeview area. And used to go out whenever he
had some spare time and Built a small log cabin. The 1st 2 summers or maybe 3 He work all
summer with Mark A. Then the 30's came along and one spring Mark A told Dad he
couldn't keep him on steady anymore. He advised Dad to go to his Homestead and come
back when Mark A had work which would be harvest time. Which Dad did. We moved out
to the homestead I believe April 28 I believe 1931 and on the 12th. of May we burned out.
There was about 6" of snow on the ground. Clare had a toothache and Dad figured it would
be safe to take him to the Dr & have it pulled when he got home everything was gone. I
Believe this was the Protecting hand of God on Him again. If Dad had been at home he
may have died in that fire. We stayed at the neighbors that night the next day we went
to a house near where our old house was it had one ply of ship lap on it & it had dried out
and the wind and cold air came thru every crack and it snowed again that night & we were
all cold but lived thru it. Dad said if he had some place to go he would have left but he had
no place to go. One of our 1st visitors was a cantancorous old Batchelor who drove in with
his team & Buggy and he had gathered some money & a list of things such as chickes &
clothes and many of our needs were temporarily supplied many neighbours far & near came
& helped us build a house which still stands. But in bad need of repair. We've had to
change & repair roofs since then. Mr. George Pring gave us lumber we could work off later.
Which we did & worked there for lumber as wages then traded to lumber for Horses
cows pigs and almost anything we needed. My 1st. cow Dad told me I could go & make my
own deal. I went in fear & trembling to Esher where I made the deal. Later Dad traded
me a young heifer for this cow that is where I got started my herd. I had also along with
Mother homesteaded. But there was no goal to work for and I didn't get very far proving
mine up then One spring We had a picnic at Burnt River (school picninc I believe). the
Chairman of the Board ask Mr. Pring to bring in a Bible School student who were working
in the Spirit River area to come out and have a service at the Picnic. Which they did and
after that a P.B.I. student. A little Irishman by the name of Wilfred Watson who worked
at a dairy farm in Spirit River. Many a day he walked 12 miles there abouts on Sunday to
hold services in our school. Then when he was to go back to school he got some one from
PRBI to take over the services in our school the next spring they brought a big tent to
the district and held evangelistic messages for 2 wk which lasted 2 months. Now, Before I
go into this part of our story we work in the Mill for Mr. Pring and could by many things
even Pork or whole pig we'd buy for $5.00 worth of lumber. We use to hunt for our meat
moose & Dear and sometimes bear meat if we were real hungary. When Clare and I
became of age to hunt on our own we kept the place in meat summer & winter. Mother
canned the meat in summer in winter we froze it. we used to salt it away too sometime;
we let very little of it go to waist. We used to trap for weasels & coyotes to buy shells.
and sometimes clothes. We always brought our wage home to Mum & Dad untill we left
home or went to Bible school. The only spending money we had would be a couple of dollars
from weasel hides. And that we tried to buy everyone of the family a small gift for
Christmas. One day we were looking at our traps. Agnes wanted to come with me for the
walk. On the way we seen these big track in the snow I said it must be some ones horse
wandering around but as I walked in his steps I said to Agnes this horse sure steps short
as it had snowed during the night & partly covered the track so we couldn't see clearly the
imprint but where we came back home we walked along a fence and the track went right
thru the fence & never broke it Then it come to me It's a bear I told Agnes I went
home told Clare & we both took after it with only One rifle. Now this was Sunday we
never, never hunted on Sunday. But Grandad Edey had just come up from Man. and he said
he'd like to have a Bear steak. And Uncle John said Alex boys are the only place you will
get it for you. Of course me & Clare where those boys. so we were bent on getting this
for Grandad Sunday or No Sunday So the hunt was on We had a good Dog with us the
best hunting dog we ever had. He stayed within our sight at all times & never left us
unless we told him too. Now this area there were only black bear and we were quite green
about the fact that this was only a big black Bear we followed his tracts untill we jumped
him & of course we set the Dog on him to tree him but the dog made a few excited barks &
came back to us. he left and we went to get help & more guns we found Dad & Reg at
Frank Brownlees & he gave us his gun & we went back & tried to chase him out of about 5
or 6 acres of heavy willows so we could see him to shoot him but he had different ideas
It went around & around this bush and us trying to get him to leave. We were just about
played out & I had just told Clare that I had to quit when all of a sudden the bush came
alive with a hair raising roar like a male bull & the old bear up on its hind feet coming
toward us & parting the brush with it fore Paws. He was about 12 ft. from us and we both
started shooting. I had six shells in my gun Clare had 7 in his because he was in the lead
with a loaded gun. I shot all my six and said to Clare I'm empty. he said I have one left.
I'll hold him off till you reload. I didn't know I was rattled untill I tried to put the shells
in my rifle. I didn't know which end to put them in at, but finally made it then Clare shot
him behind the ear & finished him off. When that old Bear was 12 ft and coming the tho't
went thru my mind if that bear make one more jump would I end up in Heaven or Hell I
didn't know. We estimated he weighed while alive at around 1000 lbs. He had many bullet
hole (old ones) in him. When we skinned him out we found 11 bullet holes and lead down
both sides of his teeth so all 13 shots must have found there mark. We were big heros for
some time to come. When my Dad & Reg came to where we downed the bear Dad said
That's a Grizzly After we had it out our trapper freind told us it was a grizzly. Now that
winter While PRBI students came to the school to hold services Agnes was the 1st to
accept the Lord then it was I believe Reg & Mum. I'm not sure of the rest but I know
within the year each member had accepted Christ as Saviour & Lord.
The following information is taken from the book, "Memories and Moments" about Willowvale, White
Mountain & Bridgeview.
I do not know the date of publication but I believe it could be in the early 1980's. Apparently this
information was submitted by Clarence Edey.
Alex Edey was born in Wellwood, Manitoba, in 1891, and lived there until his move to the Peace River
area in 1928. Fanny Edey (Watson) was born in Middleton, County Cork, Ireland, in 1891 and came to
Canada in 1912. She tried to get passage on the Titanic but was not able to, so her coming was put off
until August of that year. She came to Wellwood with the intention of going back to Ireland in a year's
time. However, in the meantime, she met Alex and things turned out differently. There were married on
December 2, 1914, making their home in the Wellwood district for the next 14 years.
The family grew to six, Morley, Clarence, Agnes, Reg, George and Kathleen. Then Alex and his brother
John came to the Spirit River district with their families and a box car of settler's effects. Alex arrived in
Spirit River on Tuesday, April 3. Bob Inglis was on the same train but they didn't know each other at that
time. John came a few days later with the box car of effects.
Fanny and children arrived on Tuesday, April 24. There were two trains that came into Spirit River each
week - Tuesdays and Fridays.
We lived in Spirit River until 1931, when we moved to the homestead. The years that followed brought
many exciting times, some pleasant and some not so pleasant, such as fire two weeks after arriving on
May 12. Making roads, clearing the first pieces of land for gardens and crops for feed and the logging
and mill work. Trying to make ends meet in the 1930's was not easy for the parent with a large family.
Hunting and trapping was a part of our life when we came to the homestead, so it had its exciting times
too. In November 1938 was no exception when a grizzly bear came into the district, walking in a foot of
snow, and causing a little excitement for brother Morley and I. We had Dad and Reg on the road east of
the Martin home hoping to chase Mr. Bear out across the road but that didn't work. So after a couple of
hours standing, Dad and Reg became cold and were about to go home when we suggested to them to go up
a little field of Martin's just behind their buildings and we would try and chase him that way. So after a
little more tracking Mr. Bear, he decided he had gone far enough. He sat down twice and tried to make
up his mind as what to do, then the third time he decided to do the chasing. The bush was thick alders
and willows so he came charging on his hind legs and breaking brush with his fore legs. Mouth wide
open and white teeth showing, he was about 12 feet away from us. We fired and he fell to the ground
making a very loud bellowing noise. he did not stay down long, so on his feet again, although very dazed,
he stood up and took 9 more shots through the shoulders and from the chest to the tail end. Then
weakened, he started to stagger back against a clump of willows and with a shot in the neck sank to the
ground where another shot was placed to the head. We had two 32 Winchester Special rifles.
He was hung up at our farm for a month with the insides taken out. We had him weighed on McArthurs'
platform scale and he weighed 595 lbs. The hide was tanned and given to mother.
FIRE
Then there was the fire two weeks after we had arrived on the homestead. It was a nice warm spring
morning on May 12, 1931, very clear with a few curls of smoke coming up in a distance from land
clearing.
Dad and I left for Spirit River to get my tooth pulled as it ached all night. Little did we know when we
left home that morning that it would not be there when we returned. When we arrived in Spirit River
around noon, the sky became very smokey, sometimes covering the sun. There were fires between Spirit
River and White Mountain.
Mother, with two small children at home, decided to lie down with them after dinner, but before she did,
she went out and saw the country becoming very smokey. So she decided to take the children and go to
the neighbour's, who were the Brownlees, just a mile down the road. (They had more clearing around
their house.) So, taking Francis, who was one year old, in her arms, and Kathleen, who was three years
old, she headed down the trail, which was just that, with dense bush on both sides. Mother gave Kathleen
a ball and by throwing it ahead of her and getting her to chase it kept her moving. After arriving at Mrs.
Brownlees, she asked if there were any men around as she had left a horse in the barn which she was
unable to turn loose. Mrs. Brownlee was nervous, too, and said there wasn't anyone around. Mother met
the other children coming home from school and Morley, who was 15 years old, was not with them. So
she sent one of them back for him and his cousin Walter Varnals, who later homesteaded the quarter the
school was on. When they arrived at our farmstead, shortly after 4 PM, everything was on fire. The barn
was burned with the horse inside, and a sow with 9 little ones, was in a log enclosure behind the barn.
The sow managed to get out of the pen but her lungs were so burned that she had to be killed. Four little
pigs were saved with two of them having very badly burnt feet. Hens and turkeys were also burned with
the exception of five hens and one turkey. One cow was loose so she managed to go ahead of the fire and
escape injury.
Dad and I came through all the timber south of McArthurs. We had a disc trailing behind our wagon
which started to squeal, so thinking it was lacking grease, Dad took an oil can and ran back to squirt some
oil on the bearing but just found a root stuck in the disc. While we were stopped we could hear the roar of
the fire west of us. Had we been a few minutes later we wouldn't have made it through. Mother met us at
the corner of our road and told us not to go up to the farmstead as everything was on fire and burnt up.
Mrs. McGovern also had two small children, Lillian and Alex, and she came through two or more miles
of winding trail, which was alive with wild life, till she got to McArthurs. Mr. McGovern stayed to fight
fire at Pring's Sawmill along with several other men. They would have been overcome by heat and smoke
except for a hole dug in the sawdust pile.
The day after the fire Mr. Pring stopped by to chat with Dad and he said he hadn't seen any sign of his
cow. After he left and walked a couple hundred yards up the road, dad heard a bell. The cow had almost
made it out but was overtaken.
The frame house that Jolleys had built across from our farmstead was where our family were to move into
but it too was on fire. Ed Deener happened to pass by and noticed so he took his smock off, dipped it in
the creek and managed to put it out. Then again that evening Dad, Jim Jolley and Walter Varnals went to
check on the fire and found it had started burning again, so they poured water on it and spent the night
there.
After the fire, came the job of rebuilding and getting started again. People were very good, Mrs. Jolley
sent out dishes for us to use and much clothing and other needs were met by neighbours, even to
supplying many chickens. Mr. Pring supplied lumber to help build a new home, which would be worked
out later in regards to payment.
The landscape looked pretty bleak, everything black, the green spruce was a mass of standing black
stumps and stripped trees.
A new house had to be built so a work bee was organized to help with the building which served as the
family home for many years and which still stands today. The roof had been changed some from the
original one.
Bill Moss was a young bachelor at that time and he also lost his little house.
Since these past events, Dad - Alex Edey - passed away in Grade Prairie on August 5, 1972, at the age of
81 years and Mom - Fanny Edey - now 91 years old, resides in the Auxiliary Hospital in Grande Prairie.
The other members of our family are:
Morley - married Barbara Bresnahan - live in Vanderhoof, B.C. and had 8 children - Donovan(killed in a
car accident), Charlotte, Alexander, Eileen, Thelma, Timothy, Ann and Victor.
Clarence - married Lena Brummond - live in Grande Prairie, Alta, and have 5 children - Catherine,
Margaret, Gordon, Darlene and James.
Agnes - married Hieni Germann - live in Nashville, Tenn. have 6 children, Priscilla, Heini-Peter, Calvin,
Luke, Samuel and Daniel.
Reg - married Jean McKenzie - live in Regina, Sask., have 5 children - Norma, Allen, Stewart, Kenneth
and Gwendolyn.
George - lives in Grande Prairie
Kathleen - married Albert Hannah, - live in Halfmoon Bay, B.C. - have 4 children - Lorne, Audrey,
Rodney and Florence.
Francis - married Emma Weme - live in Creston, B.C.
Roy - married Judith Botsford - live in Grande Prairie, Alta, have 3 children - Kerry, Wanda and Douglas.
Additional notes by Clarence Edey, received Sept. 8, 1995
BLACKSMITHING IN BRIDGEVIEW
In the early years on the homestead, things like plows, wagons, sleighs, whippletrees and chains, etc.,
wore out, broke, and needed repair. Alex Edey was the answer to many of these problems. He brought
with him, to the homestead, a blacksmith outfit, forge and anvil, which was used to repair and help the
neighbourhood keep their machinery going. On one occasion, when a casting on a breaking plow broke
and had to be ordered, it took several days to come. Alex was asked if he could make a piece to help them
keep going until the part arrived, which he did. The new part was never used as the piece he made was
much stronger and stood up to the stumps better.
Many mornings in the hot weather, if you passed by the Edey's at four-thirty or five A.M., you would have
heard the sound of the hammer on the anvil pounding out shears for some neighbour.
Blacksmithing was a livelihood for the family also, money was not always received but butter, eggs,
lumber, meat or other items were given in trade. It was a place where his six sons found a retreat on a
rainy day and also learned from watching and helping Dad. Many happy memories are still in their
minds as they remember turning the blower and watching the iron heat in the fire. Then to see the red hot
iron shaped into some useful item on the anvil under the weight of the hammer and the know how of the
one doing it.
Written by Clarence Edey (I believe - {note by Kathleen Hannah}) for submission in "Memories and
Moments of White Mountain, Willowvale, Bridgeview".
|
1891 - 1972 (80 years)
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