{"id":19996,"date":"2022-02-14T11:36:31","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T16:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=19996"},"modified":"2022-02-14T11:39:35","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T16:39:35","slug":"episode-532-questions-without-answers-i-wish-i-had-asked-edward-freeman-granddad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=19996","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 532 QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS: I wish I had asked Edward Freeman, granddad"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
NOTE: I try to make the stories have broad appeal even if family centred. Maybe to trigger readers own memories.<\/div>\n
 I never asked enough questions of my grandparents.  And I fear my attempt here to record<\/div>\n
the past is ignored by those closest to me\u2026our sons and their children.  I know many friends read the<\/div>\n
stories\u2026Russ, Dan, Faye, Jeannette, Bryce, Owen, James, Mary, Ted, John, Noreen, Sam, Oksana, Doug,<\/div>\n
Chris, Robert, Sandra, Brad, Aidan and lots more.  Marjorie proof reads each story which is a big help.  No one has yet complained when<\/div>\n
I use use curse words to put a title drama into the project.   So far 532 stories. Too many to read. One negative result?  I have gained<\/div>\n
three pounds just when I thought I was losing weight.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

EPISODE 532   QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS  (Questions I never asked Granddad\u2026failed him)<\/p>\n


<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Feb. 12, 2022<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
THE FREEMAN FAMILY, CIRCA 1890.  I AM NOT EVEN SURE WHICH ONE IS EDWARD FREEMAN.  SOME SAY THE TALL<\/div>\n
BOY BEHIND THE FATHER BUT GRANDDAD WAS SHORT.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
HARRY HORSMAN IN FRONT OF EDWARD FREEMAN\u2019S \u2019SHACK\u2019 NEAR KRUGERSDORF 1914.  FIND THE TARPAPER.<\/div>\n
(Granddad, how long does it take to fell a tree and cut one of those logs in the picture?  <\/div>\n
Did Harry help with the cross cut saw? Is this your house? How many logs are needed to build a house?<\/div>\n
How long did it take for your house to burn to the ground?  Why did you not start all over again?}<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
So many questions flood my mind  Questions for which I will never find answers<\/div>\n
because the people who knew the answers are long gone.  When they were<\/div>\n
around I was too wrapped up in my own life.  Such is true of all of us I suppose.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Take Edward Freeman, my grandfather, who is so fascinating to me these days.<\/div>\n
Yet I know so little about him because I never asked.  Sure he told us the <\/div>\n
story about the forest fire and feeing on a work train flat car while burning embers<\/div>\n
showered down.  Were it not for my cousin Ted Freeman, I would not have<\/div>\n
known the full drama as the bridge builders waited for the men on the handcar<\/div>\n
to emerge alive from the inferno at the last minute. He could have told me so much more\u2026<\/div>\n
had I shown any interest.   I was just too wrapped up in myself\u2026like most grandkids.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Just for the hell of it, I have written a few questions I should have asked granddad 70<\/div>\n
years ago.  Why should you read them?  Because, if you are the same age as I am, a<\/div>\n
lot of questions like mine come to mind about your own families.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Questions (that will never be answered)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
1) Granddad, why did you quit your job as head gardener at Eywood Coourt?  You had <\/div>\n
a home far better than you ever had for the rest of your life.  Surely the embarassment<\/div>\n
of tipping your hat to your betters was not that bad. Maybe you did not quit, maybe <\/div>\n
Mr. Gwyer let you go! (i.e. you were fired.) But that seems doubtful as your memories of<\/div>\n
Eywood are so positive.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
2) Granddad, from 1909 to 1912 you tried to make a living selling carrots and such<\/div>\n
to Torontonians. How could you possibly make a living selling vegetables you grew<\/div>\n
in distant Etobicoke?  You had to buy a horse and buggy as well as all the tools<\/div>\n
 How did you keep the wireworms out of<\/div>\n
the carrots?  How did you keep the cabbage worms out of the cabbage?  Didn\u2019t the<\/div>\n
Colorado potato bug ruin your potatoes?   And the corn borers must have chewed<\/div>\n
the corn.  And all these vegetables could not provide an income for12 months.<\/div>\n
You probably had some chickens that had to be  hidden from foxes, raccoons and rats.<\/div>\n
How did you control those nasty chicken lice on their bums?  Seems the market garden<\/div>\n
was a failure.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
3) Granddad, you told Cousin Ted that you built a tar paper covered shack<\/div>\n
on that 12 acre bit of land that had to be cleared first.   How much money<\/div>\n
did you have left after paying costs of emigration?  Where did that money come<\/div>\n
from?  Ted says you told him you made money on the stock market in England?<\/div>\n
What stocks?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
4) Granddad, in 1908 you travelled to Manitoba to check out homesteading but<\/div>\n
when you got back to Toronto, Grandma (you called her Lou) refused to go<\/div>\n
west because doctors and schools were few and far between.  Tell me about<\/div>\n
that conversation. <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
5) Granddad, is it true that grandma was raised as a lady because her father, Dr Price,<\/div>\n
paid for part of her education at the Lady Hawkins academy in Kington?<\/div>\n
Mom said grandma was illegitimate and turned loose of the streets of<\/div>\n
Birmigham until rescued by a person known as Aunt Webb. Which story <\/div>\n
is true?   If she was so highly educated  as a lady then the streets of Birmingham<\/div>\n
story may not be true.  I have sent a note to the Hawkins Academy to see if<\/div>\n
a girl named Louisa Bufton was enrolled around 1885.  No answer.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
6) Granddad, who was Dr. Price?   There was a very famous Dr. William Price<\/div>\n
living in Wales and places where Mrs Bufton lived, a famous but also an eccentric man  who  did not<\/div>\n
believe in marriage.  He sired many children and took some responsibility<\/div>\n
for them.  Dr. William Price.  Could there be two men named Dr. Price in the same place? Same man or not?  Why was grandma named <\/div>\n
Louisa Amelia Bufton and not Louisa Price?   <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
7) Granddad, why did you, in 1912,  decide to homestead in New Ontario.  This was<\/div>\n
a rough wilderness plagued by horrific forest fires.  You must have been aware of<\/div>\n
the 1911 Porcupine fire\u2026yet You took the train<\/div>\n
north to Krugersdorf in 1912 and secured a 160 acre homestead there.<\/div>\n
Free land as long as you cleared 16 acres and bill a cabin.  Where was this<\/div>\n
farm located?   What kind of house did you build?.  Is this picture below<\/div>\n
the house?  I believe that is Harry Horsman in the picture.  He liked your<\/div>\n
14 year old daughter, Elsie, she eventually became my mother.  He was all alone and lonely<\/div>\n
according to mom who I thin liked him as a friend or a bit more than a friend. Is this<\/div>\n
picture the log house that burned in the Great Matheson Fire of 1916 or did it<\/div>\n
burn earlier in the 1913 Englehart fire?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Picture taken in Krugersdorf of Harry Horsman in front of what may have been the Freeman home until it burned to the ground.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
8) Cutting trees with  cross cut saw needs two people.  Who was your helper?<\/div>\n
Did Harry Horsman help you clear those 16 compulsory acres and help build the log house?<\/div>\n
How tough was it to clear those 16 acres.   Were many of the fires that plagued <\/div>\n
Englehart and north to Cochrane started by homesteaders trying to clear<\/div>\n
their land?  You could sell the logs but had to pile the branches\u2026easy to start forest fires<\/div>\n
back then, was it not?  By the way, granddad, I have a bunch of love letters Harry Horsman<\/div>\n
sent to Elsie.  I must tell his story again.  Years ago I made an illustrated film about Harry.<\/div>\n
Mom gave me his letters after Dad died.   I wonder how many women keep letters of old<\/div>\n
boyfriends.   Too bad about Harry.  Dead in the Somme offensive of 1916.  The same year you<\/div>\n
left Krugersdorf.  What happened to your homestead?  Seized by the government?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
9) Why did you stop working on the homestead and take a job as a carpenter \u2014a bridgebuilder \u2014<\/div>\n
with the Temiskming and Northern ontario Railroad?  Had you given up on the idea<\/div>\n
of becoming a farmer?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
10) What were the men like that you worked alongside?  Did grandma really work in a local hotel<\/div>\n
to earn the money to buy that pump organ?  Why was music so important to both of you.<\/div>\n
Violin, pump organ, and singing.   I remember you playing The Devils Dream on the violin<\/div>\n
in 1950\u2019s.  You looked at my hand and said, \u201cAlan, you have long  fingers and should take<\/div>\n
up the violin.\u201d  I think Ted had longer fingers.  He still plays that same violin.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
11) Just what was buried beside the Krugersdorf house when that forest fire swept down?<\/div>\n
Did Grandma really push and shove the organ out of the burning cabin?  How did it <\/div>\n
survive without catching fire.?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
12  Granddad, did you ever regret going to Canada?  Seems you had a better life in<\/div>\n
England.  Was it all a big mistake?    You spent the winters carving oak picture frames<\/div>\n
for old photos of the people on the Eywood estate\u2026like Mrs. Sears the cook who\u2019<\/div>\n
became godmother to mom (Elsie).   Those framed pictures hung in the front room<\/div>\n
of the farmhouse.  Why were they so highly valued?  Were those pictures really<\/div>\n
pictures of \u2018regret\u2019?  The frame of mom is massive, see it below.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
13)  Granddad, I found a postcard that mom brought back from Herefordshire after<\/div>\n
her 1933 trip to England.  You sent the card to Uncle Chris urging him and all your<\/div>\n
brothers and sisters to migrate to Canada.   One reason you stated was for them<\/div>\n
to get away from your father who you hated while you loved your mother and feared<\/div>\n
for her health.  Tell me more about them.  Was he an alcoholic?   Did he really try<\/div>\n
to commit suicide when they lived in Lyonshall?  (maybe best if I not ask those<\/div>\n
questions)  Eventually Anna, Chris and Cliff did migrate.  Aunt Annie died at our house when<\/div>\n
I was small.  She gave me a little porcelain money pig the week she died.  She gave<\/div>\n
Eric A tinware globe of the world.   Funny the things I remember.  I still have the pig.<\/div>\n
  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
14) Granddad, would you say you were the victim of misleading advertising<\/div>\n
by the Canadian government.?   Your trip to \u2018new Ontario\u2019 in 1912 must have<\/div>\n
contrasted with the posters which painted a very rosy picture.<\/div>\n
Did Grandma get upset when things just did not work out?  She never <\/div>\n
complained.  Only complaint I ever heard from Grandma was those winter<\/div>\n
evenings when you played the violin which started Laddie howling in harmony.<\/div>\n
\u201cDad, stop encouragng Laddie.\u201d  Why did she call you dad and not Edward?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Pin\"Railways<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Canada<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Just getting ready for winter occupied much of your time in Canada.  I remember these piles<\/div>\n
of hardwood that took so much effort each year.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
15) Granddad, why did you not tell me about your early life.  Being a head<\/div>\n
gardener was a very elevated position in the stratified English social structure.<\/div>\n
Didn\u2019t you regret your decision to give all that up.  Were there not regrets?<\/div>\n
Seems there were things of which you would rather not speak.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Was life at Eywood Court good?   Why did you leave?  Were you pushed?  There are Push and Pull factors, which was<\/div>\n
dominant?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTE: I try to make the stories have broad appeal even if family centred. Maybe to trigger readers own memories.  I never asked enough questions of my grandparents.  And I fear my attempt here to record the past is ignored by those closest to me\u2026our sons and their children.  I know many friends read the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}