momentsandmemories

Sergeant Major Glen Crowe (1917-1966)

Glen Crowe was a local boy with a life altering story.

George Glendon Crowe was born is one of five children in Nogies Creek to Eva Quibell and John Crowe He graduated school after grade 8 and worked in lumbering and eventually mechanics until he volunteered in Peterborough (1939) for the Canadian Army. A call came out for soldiers to volunteer for a secret ‘suicide’ mission. Glen boarded a train with other fearless men and headed to Helena, Montana There the Canadians were joined by a rag-tag bunch of American soldiers many of whom had not volunteered to be there

After many weeks of training in commando combat, skiing, parachuting, enemy weaponry and more the First Special Service Force (FSSF) was formed. Their mission was to parachute behind enemy lines into Norway in 1942. Churchill cancelled the mission so the unit was sent to Alaska to roust the Japanese there but they were already gone So the FSSF boarded trains to the Eastern seaboard of the USA and went to Morocco From there they infiltrated Sicily, Italy, Corsica and France The Force was used by the military to do the impossible. They scaled mountains at night held by German forces.

Sergeant Major Glen Crowe

They lived in dirty fox holes on the beaches at Anzio then slipped behind enemy lines at night

They would leave notes of their bodies stating in German that ‘The worst was yet to come’. One of the most famous FSSF members was Tommy Prince. The Germans called them the Black Devils which turned into the Devils Brigade.

Glen was wounded twice in action and was one of the few Canadians to liberate Rome in 1944 The Force was disbanded in 1944 and the Americans and Canadians, now fast battle buddies were separated forever In 2015 the Force was recognized by United States President Barack Obama with the Congressional Medal of Honour (America’s highest military honour)

Kawartha Lakes Memories and Moments

Glen returned from the war, married Ruth Thurston, the daughter of Roland Thurston and Mary Sutton and raised two children in Bobcaygeon but sadly the ravages of war weighed heavily on him He suffered from PTSD and developed heart disease Glen seldom spoke of his experiences and was strongly anti-war and anti-military He would never have seen himself as heroic although his bravery was commended many times in dispatches

The Bobcaygeon Legion, Branch 239 has commemorated Glen’s war service and he's remembered as a true son of the village

Submitted by Glenna Burns (nee Crowe)

The Hilton Family

of Hilton's Point Road, Kawartha Lakes

Like many communities, Kawartha Lakes has roads and streets named after significant landmarks, influential individuals, and families that shaped the region These names serve as a window into the past, offering a glimpse of what once was and leaving us to wonder about their historical significance

On the east side of Head Lake, there is a road named after one of the first pioneering families that occupied that area called Hilton’s Point Road, named after the Hilton Family

John and Elizabeth (nee Greenwood) Hilton came from families who worked in the dangerous and unhealthy cotton mills near Manchester, England Seeking a better life for themselves and their only child, 6-year-old David, in 1857 John then 28, and Elizabeth, 32, emigrated through New York to Canada in 1857.

The Hilton family crossed Lake Ontario, landed in Port Hope, and spent a year or two in Cavan Township. By 1861 the family of three was living in a one-room log house on land in Laxton, located at the east side of Head Lake on the edge of the Canadian shield where John cleared trees, removed rocks, and began farming.

After fulfilling the government’s requirements of clearing a portion of the lands and paying $135, the 148-acre Hilton Family farm on Concession 7 in the Township of Laxton was officially registered in David Hilton’s name on March 20, 1874

Hilton Family Home, c 1903

From left to right: Jane Hilton, John Hilton (baby), Mary Ann Montgomery (Jane’s sister), David Hilton

The Crown Grant was sealed by ‘Queen Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith’ Intriguingly, a later deed dated April 23, 1881, saw David transfer the property to his father, John, in exchange for $500 The exact reason why the original grant was made to the son and the lands were later transferred to the father remains a mystery

The barn was completed in 1871 and the brick house was built in 1882, both of which still stand marking the original homestead of the Hilton family

Kawartha Lakes Memories and Moments

John Hilton died in 1892, at the age of 63 Shortly after John Hilton’s death in 1891 Sam Hughes wrote in the Victoria Warder newspaper that John Hilton was a wellrespected farmer whose last act before he died was to go into town by horse and buggy to vote for Sir John A Macdonald in the general election of 1891 John Hilton's Last Will and Testament, dated October 10, 1891, reflects the strong bond between father, mother, and son. In it, John bequeathed his entire estate to his son David, with the condition that David provides his wife (David’s mother), Elizabeth, with a comfortable home

Sadly, Elizabeth at the age of 67 passed away in 1892 Both John and Elizabeth found their final resting place in the cemetery at Hilton’s Point Road and Highway 35, just north of Norland

Home in Coboconk, c 1908

From left to right: Jane Hilton, Archibald Hilton, Mary Ann Montgomery (Jane’s sister), John Hilton and David Hilton

Meanwhile, David's personal life had taken a positive turn in 1889 when he married Margaret Jane Bailey, daughter of James Bailey and Margaret Jamieson However, the couple's happiness was short-lived, as Margaret succumbed to dropsy in 1898

Undeterred by adversity, David found love once again On November 21, 1900, at the age of 48 David married 31-year-old Jane 'Jennie' Prudence Montgomery, the youngest daughter of John Montgomery, and Catherine Fee of Janetville, in Manvers Township south of Lindsay. The Montgomery family had migrated from the Protestant (Methodist) north of Ireland in the late 1840s to escape the potato famine that devastated much of the population of Ireland at that time Together, David and Jane cultivated their Head Lake home and shortly thereafter in 1902 and 1903 celebrated the arrival of their first two children, John (known as ‘Jack') and Archie It was around that time that Jane’s older ‘spinster’ sister Mary Ann Montgomery became a permanent part of the family unit. Before then Mary Ann had looked after her parents who had recently died. Living in that time, before any “social safety net”, family members looked after their own David and Jane took in Mary Ann, who lived as a valued part of the Hilton family for 34 years until she died in 1937

Kawartha Lakes Memories and Moments

In 1907, David Hilton decided to sell the Head Lake farm to neighboring farmer Alfred Newton Winterburn for $2,700 The Winterburn family took over the land, continuing its farming legacy until 1940 when it changed hands again, becoming the property of the Goslin family The Hilton family relocated to 43 Water Street, Coboconk, in 1908, settling in a house nestled by the Gull River not far from the local school where Jack and Archie began their elementary school education. During their five-year stay in Coboconk, David secured employment at the local sawmill, which involved hard physical labour, supporting his family, and embracing new opportunities

A moment of joy arrived on July 1, 1910, as David and Jane welcomed a set of twin boys, Wesley (‘Wes') and Alwilda Theodore (‘Ted’) further expanding their loving family

After the twins turned three, and David Hilton’s heart condition was diagnosed precluding him from carrying on the heavy work at the sawmill, the Hiltons made another move, this time to 56 Angeline Street South, Lindsay, directly across the street from the current Leslie Frost school. The purchase price of their new residence, accompanied by a 4-acre lot, was recorded as $1,500 in the deed David transitioned into the less risky role of a groundskeeper for a local golf course

In March of 1922, as Jack was almost 20 years old and Archie was soon to celebrate his 19th birthday David thought that the boys could handle the hard physical labour involved in farming, something his heart condition prevented him from doing The Hilton family, then consisting of David, his wife, his sister-in-law, and his four boys, relocated once more this time to a farm, east of Lindsay, situated on the Downeyville Road, Lot 21, Concession 10, Ops Township David and his family devoted the next ten years of David's life to farming on this land until his passing on July 16, 1932, at the age of 80. David was buried in Lindsay Riverside Cemetery

Kawartha Lakes Memories and Moments

Life on the farm during the Great Depression of the 1930s was not easy for the Hilton family Jack and Wes found some employment related to the construction of Highway 35 By 1935 Ted and Jack had married local girls and had left the farm Jack immersed himself in his work with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), while Ted found employment in Toronto and Oshawa, first as a milkman and later as a service station operator. In 1936 Wes was living in Lindsay, working for Purity Bakery and later Trent Valley Bakery delivering bread throughout Haliburton County to camps and resorts By 1937, Archie Hilton, the last remaining Hilton brother living on the family farm in Ops Township, left for Toronto in search of employment which he found first at the Don Valley Brickyard and later at the CPR as a freight car checker. Wes remained in Lindsay and looked after his mother Jane.

The Hilton family farm in Ops Township was leased to a tenant for a few years and was eventually sold in 1939 In 1940 Wes married Brenda Hutchinson In addition to his bread truck route, Wes helped out at the Hutchinson family farm located on Post Road, east of Lindsay. Also in 1940, Jane Hilton moved to Toronto to live with her son Archie. After Archie's marriage in 1942, Jane lived in Toronto with Archie and his wife Agnes Sadly, just as the Second World War was ending and a few month’s before Archie’s first child was born, Jane passed away at the age of 76 and was laid to rest in the Riverside Cemetery in Lindsay alongside her husband and near her sister Mary Ann The Riverside Cemetery is also the last resting place of David and Jane’s sons Jack and Wes Hilton.

John David Hilton, a great-grandson of John and Elizabeth Hilton, of Hilton’s Point Road, and a grandson of David and Jane Hilton, currently lives a few blocks away from the Lindsay Fairgrounds in the City of Kawartha Lakes

Submitted by the Hilton Family

Kawartha Lakes Memories and Moments

The Jenkins Family

of Little Britain and Oakwood, Kawartha Lakes

English Roots in Little Britain.

On December 29, 1846 James Jenkins married Fanny Beer, the daughter of John Beer and Ann Wood, also of Devon England at the Milton Damerel Methodist Church, Devon, England Together the Jenkins family welcomed 10 children, Joseph, Elizabeth Ann, William, James, Henry ‘John’, William, Mary Grace, Emily Jane ‘Jennie’, Fanny, Thomas, and Charles

Sadly, when Fanny was 54 years old she was killed in a horse and buggy accident

James remarried to Rebecca Horn and passed in 1882

Many of James and Fanny’s children found their way to North America to find new beginnings when their father passed Of the 10 children who survived into adulthood, 7 of them moved to North America in which 6 moved to Ontario and 2 of them built their lives in Kawartha

Lakes

c. 1990

The oldest son, Joseph, travelled with John and Jennie on board the ship The Sarmatian from Liverpool to Quebec and arrived on October 12, 1878 Joseph settled in Little Britain and John continued on to London where he worked on the railroad

James Jenkins and Fanny Beer, c 1840s

'Buttermore' the home of James and Fanny Jenkins of Milton Damerel, Denon England

Kawartha Lakes Memories and Moments

Jane stayed with Joseph for a few years until moving to Jersey, United States with her husband Edward Together they became the caretakers of the ‘Parker House Castle ’ James was the first of the Jenkins children to come to Canada arriving in 1870 James initially rented farm land in St Thomas and then purchased a farm near Belmont, Ontario. Fannie arrived in Ontario in 1882 and found home in Chatham Kent, and Charley arrived in Montreal with his brother Thomas on September 20, 1882 Eventually by train, the two boys arrived at Mariposa Station Thomas continued his journey to St Thomas to join his brother James and his family to help on the farm and Charles met up with his brother Joseph in Little Britain

By 1882 Joseph was fully established as hotel manager and was presumably more than happy to put his little brother Charles to work Joseph ran the Dominion Hotel in Oakwood after former owner, Duncan J McKinnon, retired Joseph did this until he moved to Little Britain in 1887 and opened the Victoria Hotel, the former Globe Hotel, when it closed in 1886 due to prohibition (The Hotel was taken down in 1920 when the community hall was built that same year) Joseph ran the hotel until his death in 1907.

Joseph married the daughter of John Thompson and Anne Wiley, Catherine ‘Cassie’ of Darlington Township on January 23, 1882 in Little Britain

Joseph and Catherine welcomed 4 children

Charles Jenkins lived with his brother Joseph and he helped with chores at Joseph’s hotels in Oakwood and in Little Britain Charles was later employed by the Little Britain Post Office where he met Mary ‘Minnie’ Parkinson of Mariposa

Charles and Minnie were married on June 6, 1894 and welcomed 7 children, Robert Charles ‘Herald’, Wesley Vrooman, John Casey, Milton James, Flora May and Frank Parkinson and Joseph Clare between 1895 and 1912

During the early years the family lived on land owned by Charles’ brother, Joseph- Concession 10, Lot 16

Charles Jenkins, c. 1917, 48 years of age

In 1908 Charles purchased Lot 15 on Concession 7 in Oakwood and purchased the neighbouring southern half of Lot 14 from James Frise in 1912

The Jenkin’s children all would have attended S S No 9, as it was directly across from their farm.

Not only did Charles farm, Charles served on Mariposa Council for 8 years: 1913, 1914, 1915 as Councillor, 1916, 1917, 1918 as Deputy Reeve and 1919, 1920 as Reeve All of Charles and Minnie’s children stayed and built lives in the Oakwood and Little Britain area

Herald and Wesley were both drafted under the Military Service Act of 1917 and served in the Great War When Herald returned he took up plumbing and electrical work and in his later years became a barber Wesley took up farming, both in Oakwood and Little Britain Flora married Robert ‘Stuart’ Henderson, in the early years their family farmed the Henderson family farm and in 1949 the family moved to live with Minnie on the Jenkins farm. Frank was first a truck inspector, and later he worked for the Liquor Control Board in Little Britain. Joseph taught school and after he was married took up farming

When Charles passed in 1936, the southern part of Lot 14 was passed to his middle son, John Casey and was in the family until John’s daughter Margaret Lidkie sold the farm in 1999. Lot 15 was passed to his fourth son, Milton and eventually passed to Milton’s son Ernest Hamill Jenkins.

When Wesley returned from war he married Lucretia Campbell, the daughter of August Campbell and Harriett Isabella Prouse, on December 31, 1919 Shortly after they married, Wesley and Lucretia moved out of his family home and purchased their own family farm on the 12th Concession north of Oakwood.

Wesley and Lucretia welcomed 4 children on the farm, Mary ‘Isabelle’, May Iona, William Charles Campbell- Richards father, and Betty Grace Lucretia

Speaking with Wesley’s grandson, Richard Jenkins, he remembers growing up with his grandparents at the ‘big house’ in Oakwood.

Richard’s parents, William and Jean, were married in Lindsay and built a modest home across the farm laneway at William's parents house in 1949 Raising 3 sons in this house, the house was moved in the mid 1980s closer to the Jenkins farm house

Wesley and Lucretia's 60th Wedding Anniversary, c. 1979

Top Row: Children, Betty, William, May and May

Bottom Row: Lucretia and Wesley Jenkins

When Wesley retired from farming the farm was passed to his son William and Wesley and Lucretia moved to Perry Street in Oakwood. Richard remembers that his grandfather “didn’t quite retire, he was always over at the house helping out with the farm.” The Jenkins farm continued to have pigs, chickens and cattle until Richard was in high school, “the chickens were first to go, then the pigs, and eventually only 30 dairy cows were left.”

Growing up on the farm everyone did their share

One of Richard’s first jobs was selling strawberries at the Oakwood Store making $1 75 an hour

The store was owned by Blake and Cheryl Drinkwalter at that time. He remembers Mr Reid Torrey (Torrey Family Story also found in Kawartha Lakes Moments and Memories) coming in from Eldon Township selling Torrey farm potatoes at the store

Richard recalls that the original ‘big house’ burned down right around the time that the Old Quaker Meeting House (Concession 12 Lot 21, Mariposa) was removed in 1939 and some of the wood from the Meeting House was used in the home’s new front stair railing

For grades three to five, Richard attended the Brown School, his grandfather Wesley was the caretaker, on the corner of Peniel and Eldon Roads with Mrs. Sherman Moore. For grades six to eight, he attended Eden School with Mrs. Prentice and Miss Newton before attending LCVI in Lindsay

William sold the farm to Peter R Brown in 1973 and Richard’s parents moved to Long Beach, Cameron, as “Mom always loved the water ”

The framed farm auction poster that was given to Richard and his two siblings as a surprise from their mother, 10 years after the farm had sold.

Thank you

The Jenkins Family Jenkins, Richard. Interview. Conducted by Laura Love, July 5, 2023.

Resources

The Jenkins Family History Book, James and Fanny Jenkins of Devon, England & Their Descendants by Marion MacIntyre, 1991

Used with permission

The McQuarries

of Concession 3, Eldon Township, Kawartha Lakes

Lauchlin and Isabel McQuarrie were well-known figures in Argyle for over seventy years

Isabel McQuarrie, nee Campbell c 1917

Though he died in 1922, no one seems to know exactly when Lauchlin came into the world. His monument in the Argyle Cemetery says 1836 Other sources place his birth year closer to 1840 or 1844, and a census taken on the Scottish island of Iona suggests that he was born on Christmas Day of 1845. Regardless of when he was born, there can be no question that Lauchlin would have had living memory of making the voyage across the Atlantic with about four other siblings and their parents, James and Catherine McQuarrie They – like many Scottish and Irish migrants – were fleeing the effects of agricultural famine in the old country, and arrived in Canada sometime between 1850 and 1852 By the middle of that decade, they had settled on the Third Concession of Eldon Township

In 1874, Lauchlin married Isabel Campbell (1848-1918)

Isabel came from a line of Campbells who had settled between Lorneville and Argyle. Lauchlin, too, already had family in the community; his Aunts Catherine and Euphemia McQuarrie had arrived in the southern reaches of Eldon Township sometime prior and married into the McInnis family

Lauchlin and Isabel would go on to have eight children, raising them in a log house on the Third Concession of Eldon Their kids all led remarkably different and interesting lives

First up was Catherine, better known as Kate (18751941). She married Charles Lyon and settled on the Lyon farm in neighbouring Thorah Township, where she reared three daughters

Laughlin on Carriage

Kate was followed by Duncan (1877-1936), a life-long bachelor who devoted his life to breeding horses, farming, and ranching He was found deceased in a rainwater cistern at 59 – whether he died of natural causes or had taken his own life was the subject of much debate in Argyle for decades thereafter

Lauchlin and Isabel’s third child was Christena, known to everyone as Tena (18791964) Though she was unmarried, evidence suggests that Tena McQuarrie had a brief romantic relationship with a Vancouver-based labourer for a few years in the early twentieth century She spent most of her adult life in Toronto, working for over thirty years as a saleslady at the Robert Simpson Co department store James McQuarrie (1881-1936) entered the picture two years after Tena. Trained as a schoolteacher, he spent his entire career in the automotive sector – most notably as the Russell Motor Car Company’s senior salesperson In this capacity, James travelled across Canada to establish dealerships, and also played a key role in securing the RMCC a contract to supply the Department of Militia and Defence with armoured vehicles when the First World War broke out in 1914

Isabel, known to family and friends as Belle (1883-1953), went to work with her older sister Tena at the Robert Simpson Co Store in Toronto

Described as both fat and obnoxious, Belle nonetheless had a charming side to her and was famous (or perhaps infamous) for the “smothering kisses and hugs” that greeted her nephews whenever she went to visit the family farm back home in Argyle

Lauchin and Isabel’s youngest daughter was Effie (1885-1967). A lifelong educator, she taught in Bexley, Dunsford, and Peterborough for a few years before moving to Toronto in 1912

Effie would spend the remainder of her teaching career in the city, save for a year spent abroad in 1923-1924, when she and three other Toronto-area teachers travelled to New Zealand on teaching exchange Gregarious and apparently great fun to be around, Effie was a prolific postcard-writer and photographer

John, Effie and Jim McQuarrie,, c 1915

Lauchlin and Isabel McQuarrie’s youngest two sons were Dan (1887-1970) and John (1894-1963) The former enrolled at the Lindsay Model School in 1908 and emerged as a qualified schoolteacher – but would also try his hand at laypreaching as a Presbyterian catechist and worked in automotive sales before being appointed as Victoria County’s Register of Deeds, around 1930. Dan later became the Industrial Commissioner for the Town of Lindsay and would devote his life to his community, serving on the Board of Education, as President of the local Red Cross, and as President of the Lindsay Rotary Club John McQuarrie went to work at the Bank of Hamilton’s Toronto branch when he was in his early twenties before being “taken on strength” as a Lieutenant of the 109th Battalion of Victoria Haliburton Counties, in 1916. While on active service in France, John had the misfortune of being gassed and shelled – injuries that would affect him for the remainder of his life Following the war, John worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway, de Havilland Aircraft Company, and later for Massey-Harris

Only three of Lauchlin and Isabel’s eight children went on to be married and have families of their own. These included Kate, who became the mother of Isabel, Catherine, and Jean Lyon; James, who married Nell Rear and begat Kenneth and Helen McQuarrie; and Dan, who with his wife Adaline McCurdy had a family of five: Jack, Jean, Allan, Jim, and Eleanor McQuarrie Lauchlin and Isabel’s grandchildren led interesting lives, entering the fields of education, housekeeping, law, manufacturing, and veterinary medicine, among other professional pursuits locally and elsewhere.

Lauchlin and Isabel’s descendants continue to contribute to their communities across Ontario and as far away as British Columbia, Texas, and England And to think it all began in a lowly log house on the Third Concession of Eldon Township, here in Kawartha Lakes!

Submitted by Ian McKechnie