| Note* | His mother and father were Caroline and Henry, and they were of United Empire Loyalist stock.The brick house still stands in the same place, owned now by a nephew, Ralph Kirbyson, his mother, Lena Kirbyson, living in Utterson, Ontario, is the only one of the for girls, and Ellis the only one of the four boys still living. When Ellis reminisces about his boyhood, he tells of getting a strapping every day at school for three months but seems to be purposely vague about why. Was it, as some of his children suggested, because he was busy putting girls' pigtails in ink wells or perhaps scaring them with frogs and lizards? Could it be that he lingered overlong on the way to school, satisfying the curiosity that is still sharp today as to whatmade things go? Or could it have been his spelling? A ruggedindividualist, in all the thirty four years I have known him well, Ellishas steadfastly refused to spell the English language any way except theway it sounds. 'Through' has never been anything except 'thru', andnever has any word been spelled with two letters when one would do. Ithappens to be a trait handed down through the generations, and our ownthirteen-year-old daughter, Geraldine, once wrote, 'Auntie Mary took hercat to the hospitable.' Ellis finish his formal schooling at the seventh grade, and he was quitepleased to be done with it so he might get on with real learning, and aquest for information which is still keen at ninety. In the years till he was twenty one, Ellis worked at a multitude of jobs,most of them out-of-doors -- tapping maple trees for maple syrup, cuttinglogs, peeling tanbark from hemlock logs for tanneries in Bracebridge.Hides were shipped in from Chicago in bond, tanned at Bracebridge, andshipped back to the States to be used for shoes. No duty was charged onany part of the transactions. This leather could not be sold in Canada. In Muskoka Lakes he built cottages for wealthy tourists and ran steam andgasoline yachts, working in Toronto in the winter. In 1904 he worked for twelve months at the site of the St. Louis WorldFair, helping to build the race track, ice houses, etc. It was at thistime, no doubt, that Ellis's interest in World Fairs was aroused, for heattended two others, and it was not until after a great deal of seriousconsideration that he decided to pass up Expo '67. In September, 1933, while on the farm at Windthorst, despite dust storms,depression, and the 'dirty thirties' he decided that his two oldest boys,Harry and Jack, should attend the Chicago World Fair. They set out in anoverhauled Model T Ford, with a great deal of nerve and not too muchmoney. Before they reached Portage la Prairie, a bearing went out on theconnecting rod. Ellis hitched a ride into Port la Prairie and back, andwith the repair part he obtained, the three of them fixed the trouble bythe side of the road. It took them half a day, but it never occurred toany of them to have it done by a Garage. The same bearing gave trouble after they crossed the border, and they hadto be pulled by a road gang. Significant of the times and the depressionis the fact that the road gang made certain that they were not down therelooking for jobs before they consented to pull them. Jack was driving when they reached 'the Loop' in Chicago, and he saidthat one of his greatest thrills was reading the names on the nightclubs, and knowing that they were the same clubs whose bands he listenedto nightly over the radio back on the prairie. Before leaving home theyfixed the back seat of the car so that they could remove it and make abed. Two of them slept in this, and the other one under the car exceptwhen it was raining and they just kept going. Coming home the Model T developed alarming noises, and they arrived hometravelling at twenty miles an hour, after a holiday of three weeks. Theconfidence and experience that Harry and Jack acquired on the trip toChicago served them well in later years when they found it easy to feelat home in cities. It was during the Muskoka years that Ellis married the first time -- hiswife died and left him with a little dark-eyed girl, Verna. In 1911, leaving her with her grandparents, he headed west. He purchaseda MacLaughlin car and shipped it to Port Arthur, intending to drivethrough Ontario and eastern Manitoba to Winnipeg. Reaching Port Arthur,he found no roads west, so he shipped it to Duluth and drove from thereto Winnipeg. The car had acetylene gas lamp headlights and oil sidelights and taillights. During the time he stayed in Winnipeg, Ellis attended a fair, itstarted to rain in the evening and the oil lights went out. Aplainclothesman stopped him and proceeded to lay down the law. It endedwith the officer taking down Ellis's license number, '28' and Ellis droveoff., chuckling diabolically because the policeman failed to notice thatit was Ontario '28' and no Manitoba, and some poor chap from Manitoba wasgoing to make it very confusing for the law. Ellis left the next day for Regina in the rain - it took him two days;fastest he drove was forty-five miles an hour. It was a tripe of mudholes, a great contrast to our lovely Trans - Canada Highway. For the next year Ellis lived in Regina and worked with cars. He wasthere during the cyclone in which his boss was killed. He told of a manin a canoe who was found a quarter of a mile away, still in the canoe,unconscious. It was during this time that Ellis came down to Grenfell to fix HaroldSpicer's automobile. Harold had a sister-in-law, the former Susan LouiseCoy. Doll had been married and her husband had drowned on LakeKatepawa. Doll had been married and her husband drowned at LakeKatepawa, and she lost a baby daughter. Following these tragic eventsshe attended finishing school in Boston, Massachusetts, later returningto Grenfell. Harold thought Ellis was just the man for Doll, so his carnecessitated a great deal of attention and many trips to Crooked Lake,and other various jaunts where Doll and Ellis were paired off together.Doll was also of the British Empire Loyalist decent. They couldn't have been too reluctant for they were married on the 9th ofOctober, 1912. The Coys were pioneers in Grenfell -- Mary Coy was oneof the first white women, and they had the first cabin on Crooked Lakeand in the Qu'-Appelle Valley. Some discussion took place after the wedding as to wether they shouldpurchase a hardware store in Bulyea or go north. Ellis said that he hadalways had a hankering to go north, so Doll said, 'Let's go !' Thus it was, that following the lure of adventure and prosperity, theSmalleys went to Athabaska Landing, one hundred miles north of Edmonton,where Ellis built houses and a boat - the 'Black Fox'. The town wasbooming and houses rented for $50 a month. They were years of varied emotions and experience - prosperity,adventure, danger, and accomplishment for Ellis; worry, loneliness, aproductive and social life for Doll. During these years Verna came to live with them, and Harry, Jack and Ermawere born. Doll's sister visited, and when Ellis was home it must havebeen very gay. One incident related how the sisters curled Ellis's hair,and forgetting this, he went to church in ringlets, much to the amusementand concern of his family when someone noticed. At Athabaska Ellis obtained a contract to haul the mail to Fort McMurray,a distance of two hundred and fifty - two miles, twice a month except fortwo months - in the fall when the ice was forming and in the spring whenit was melting. In the summer he went in The Black Fox as far as hecould, but rapids made a fifty mile portage necessary, and from there hewalked and hauled the mail with horses hitched to a toboggan. He cachedhay and oats at twenty - mile intervals along the river. He managedtwenty miles a day. One trip that nearly ended in disaster started with The Black Foxcarrying the mail and pulling a sailboat, accompanied by Ellis and a ladfrom the village, Charlie Anderson. They reached Grand Rapids andtransferred the mail to the sailboat, fastened a sweep behind forsteering, for the channel was too narrow, rocky, rough and steep to useoars. The rapids were in levels - seventy - five or eighty feet would besmooth, then they would dip into bubbling and boiling water. About thethird level the sweep struck bottom, lifted the pin in the back of theboat, and left them no longer in control of the steering. The sailboatswung sideways on a small rocky island in the middle of the channel andthey were unable to move. After they had been there an hour, an old Indian came along and talked tothem. The water was about twelve feet wide but very swift and deep andtoo dangerous to swim across. The Indian promised to come back in themourning and Ellis and Charlie settled down for the night as it was darkby then Besides being dark, it was very cold. Charlie had been unwell,so Ellis gave him his coat and the boy went to sleep. Meanwhile Ellisbroke up a part of the deck with an axe and made a fire in the fryingpan. This he did all night, dozing once in a while but waking again tofix his frying pan fire. 'It was a long night' he commented dryly. In the morning the Indian came back with help. He brought a 'trackingline.' This was a rope the Indians used to pull their boats up the riverwhile they walked along the shore. They tied the tracking line to theboat, and pulling and pushing, they managed to get into shore. The boatwas leaking badly and had to be repaired. Ellis walked back to The BlackFox, got his tools and spent a whole day on repairs. Charlie and anIndian took the mail and the boat on to Fort McMurray and Ellis went backto Athabaska for the next lot. During the winter he walked. There were a few trappers' cabins, andtelegraph operates at Collins River, fifty miles; Pelican, one hundredand ten miles down; at House River, one hundred and fifty miles; and FortMcMurray, two hundred and fifty miles, according to schedule. At theseplaces he was able to send messages to Doll. He was away for abouttwenty - five days altogether. Many times he slept under a spruce treein a large eiderdown quilt. He removed his coat and moccasins, leavingon two pairs of very heavy woolen socks. In the morning he gritted histeeth real tight - 'nobody to talk to anyway' and pulled on his shoes andcoat. The horses had to be fed first, they had spent the night under blankets,too. 'Very hard on horses,' Ellis said, and I could not resist adding,'How about men, Then ?', but Ellis said it was a healthy life. He alwaysstarted a cold as soon as he arrived home but it disappeared on thetrail. The horses fed, the fire was poked up and re-lit if necessary.A half - gallon copper kettle was hung over the flames, full of snow,which produced water for scorched tea. Bacon was cut with an axe andfried, and pieces of bannock were placed in the snow close to the fire tothaw out. On one Athabaska trip it was 60 degrees below zero with awind. He made it to Fort McMurray all right, and back to about twentymiles from Athabaska where an old trapper's shack was situated. As theywent to leave the ice the lead horse broke through in a spot along theedge where a current of dark running water flowed, and Ellis fell inhimself above his waist. He took the other horse upstream and managedto get to shore with no further trouble. He was quite surprised to see a light in the window of the cabin. Heknocked on the door but no one answered so he went in. Three hunterslooked up, mouths open, and said, 'Who are you? How did you get here?Ellis said, 'I'm the mail man, I'm carrying the mail through.' 'Well, how are you traveling? You look as if - are you swimming?'Ellis must have looked quite alarming, standing there dripping as heanswered the obvious, 'I fell in the water.' He asked them to make up the fire while he tended the horses before hisclothes froze so the he couldn't walk. The shack was very smoky, and Ellis had to go out in the night to chopwood as the hunters failed to provide much. I wonder how they would havemanaged without Ellis. It was on of his most dangerous experiences forhad he not been able to get warm, he certainly would have froze to death. There were many other adventures in the north. Many times he had theR.C.M.P. for passengers on The Black Fox, often with prisoners - once anIndian girl who had murdered her baby. The time doll waited allChristmas day for him, gradually opening parcels at intervals to satisfythe children. She saved Grandma Coy's till the last thinking it wouldbe something special, and when Ellis finally arrived home and they openedit, it was chickens! When Erma (more commonly known as 'Sue') was born - how he walked all dayand night to get home before she arrived. Sue has always been late -and was that time, so Ellis had time to shave off his beard. Themidwife warned him that the baby would be a girl if he did, and she was! On 21st of June, 1918, Doll and Ellis, with Verna, Harry, Jack and Ermaleft for Grenfell to start a new life on the farm at Windthorst,Saskatchewan. The decision to move was motivated mostly by the feelingthat growing children needed a father who was with them far more than themail job allowed. Their worldly goods was loaded on two flat cars: threehouses, a tractor that Ellis built, tools and household goods - and sincethe Smalleys have never thrown anything away - belongings of every sortand variety, much of which served a useful purpose during the hard - upyears on the farm. The freight was $234. (Some friends of ours recentlymoved to Regina in a van which also picked up two other families' goods,and the cost was around $500!) The houses had been taken apart withwalls plainly labeled - you can still see these labels on these buildingson the farm here fifty years latter. About the first thing that Ellis bought was a Ford car that cost $3000.The family moved down on the 2nd of July, and for some time they lived ina tent while they put the house together. They worked hard, butaccording to the diaries they kept, Sundays were reserved for reading.'Read papers all day.' If Ellis did any work, it was labelled 'Played atthe barn, the house, 'etc. This habit of reading is still with him, andhas made him the well - educated man that he is. His knowledge of thegeographical and political world to this day is astounding. His cleargrasp of world affairs puts us all to shame. Ellis has always read aloudto Doll while she crocheted, knitted or did the mending. Mostly theyread non - fiction, but occasionally a 'Perry Mason' or some book whichhas been banned for a while. To this day they never go to bed beforetwelve. They subscribe to a number of periodicals, including some fromRussia, United States and China. This curiosity that Ellis and Dollhave, has filled their years with zest for living which has kept themyoung and clear of mind. In the winter of 1919 Ellis joined the Growers' Association and attendedMasonic meetings at Windthorst. He was very active in helping to formthe Crocus (W.O. Mitchell, please note.) School District, and he workedhard at it, writing letters and holding meetings that winter. Ellisbecame secretary, a job he held until 1944. He held an office in theWindthorst branch of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool after it was formed,until 1944. Doll and Ellis attended the C. C. F. meeting in 1933 whenthe Regina Manifesto was drawn up, a cause which they have alwayssupported, although Ellis likes to suggest that the New Democratic Partyis not quite radical enough for him. ('What are you, Dad?' asks sonHarvey, tongue in cheek, 'I need to know so I can argue against you.')In 1936 J. S. Woodsworth spent the night at Smalleys, and he only one ofmany Socialist Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assembliesand other public figures who enjoyed the fellowship and Hospitality ofProspect Farm. Ellis was one of the farmers who made the famous trip toOttawa in 1942. Ellis had bronchitis that winter of 1919, and an entry in the diary says,'torment started. Sent Verna to town for cure - 75¢.' The terse entriesin the diary do not describe the anxiety and lack of sleep Doll sufferedin nursing her sick family with primitive cures and few visits from thedoctor. Ellis' sister, Annie, was with them, and she , too, seemed tohave required nursing during that period. Ellis never did hit it off too well with his mother-in-law. Mary Coy wasan outstanding pioneer woman - she and her husband, Harvey, came west in1882. They pitched their tent on the corner of Portage and Main inWinnipeg. Mary Coy did a great deal of nursing, and among the births sheassisted at was that of William J. Patterson, who was to become premier,and later Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan. She served on theGrenfell school board for many years, and helped many childrenfinancially to continue their education. She was a charter member of theSaskatchewan Homemakers' Clubs, and helped with all worthwhile causes inGrenfell. Her interests included active support of the Liberal Party andperhaps this helped to cause disagreement with Ellis. One amusing entry in the diary tells of the family going to Grenfell forChristmas with the cutter. Ellis' entry, 'Doll says we had a good time.' They brought a cow home in a trailer and Ellis must have been in goodspirits at the prospect of getting back to the farm, for it kept jumpingand Ellis merely said, 'The cow jumped over the moon.' Since he neverdid have too great a love for cattle or dogs, this was an exceedinglymild statement. The years on Prospect Farm were busy years in the main. Harry, Jack andErma were born in Athabaska; Art next ('Another little farmer came toProspect Farm today.' says the diary), then Ethel, Harvey, and finally in1928 the twins, Maxine and Bob. Doll was very busy. Sometimes she had ahired girl and sometimes she didn't. Mostly till the the boys grewbigger, Ellis had on , and frequently two, hired men. Very often theteacher boarded at the Smalleys so there were many to cook, clean andcare for. Doll made her own soap, cheese, and hundreds of loaves ofbread, often from home - ground flour, and baked hundreds of cakes andbran buns and washed tons of clothes. Ellis did a great deal of custom work of various kinds - fixing cars,machinery, engines, and cleaning grain for the neighborhood. The men whobrought the grain always stayed for meals, which proved a tribune to thewarmth of the Smalley hospitality. Often their wives came with them, andsometimes the men stayed all night. At the time of the Golden Wedding afriend said in making a presentation, 'It was truly 'A house by the sideof the road'.' Ellis always had time to talk economics or show hisguests the many useful and ingenious features of the farm. His basementwas a workshop of delight for young or old with its lathe, forge andarray of tools. The elevator that he built for cleaning grain. The manylittle conveniences in the house, the electric lights, the electricchurn. Doll's cheese vat, many things to make life easier and challenging. As for Doll, some members of the family insist that she always got herown way in the end and any differences that the two had, and even Ellishad his suspicions. I have heard him say, 'Damn it all, how did thatwoman manage to get me doing this - I never intended to do this!',perhaps when he found himself hanging out the clothes or drivingHomemakers to a convention. I think a good deal of the time what onewanted the other did, too, for they were very congenial. She was anxiousthat her children grow up knowing the niceties of life. So every Sundayshe served dinner on a white linen tablecloth, with her cut glass,silver, special china, flowers, serviettes, bread and butter plates, andfrequently several forks. I treasure the memory of those leisurelydinners and good conversation that we shared when I first came toSmalleys. Those were the days of Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, and CharlieMcCarthy on Sunday nights on the radio. The Walkers lived about a quarter of a mile away. They had sevenchildren who made Smalleys their second home. An alarming story isrelated about Cam Walker who used the shortcut through Smalley's yard onhis way home from school. Cam, who operates the Kipling Locker Plantnow, always stopped in at their home, and regardless of who was or wasn'taround , if lunch was forthcoming, went to the bread box and cut himselfa piece of bread and jam to fortify himself for the rest of the wayhome. Doll had and has, a warmth, sympathy and understanding that stillattracts young and old, and makes all her family, includinggrandchildren and great - grandchildren her friends. Her grasp, interestand questioning have inspired Ellis in his studies and accomplishments. Ellis never had too much use for doctors and avoided them wheneverpossible. The diaries tell of Ellis hurting his finger in the chopper sothat a sort of extra piece of skin and flesh stuck out making a sort ofextra long finger. Ellis cornered the hired man, and giving him a chiseland hammer ordered him to cut it off. They said that Hector demurred,but finally turned very pale and obeyed. The diary states, 'Ellisamputated his extra finger and does not wish NICE people to talk aboutit.' Of later years Ellis has tolerated the medical profession whenstrictly necessary. Our family are delighted when he returns home froman appointment bearing his X-ray plates which he has insisted on having,and with his pockets full of articles that he wishes to read, and that hehas torn from the magazines in the waiting room. In 1944, the Smalleys moved to Victoria to spend the winters, returningin the summer to farm. They built a beautiful home, doing the workthemselves. On the trips home they fulfilled a lifetime ambition andtravelled widely through out the States and Canada. They made severaltrips to San Francisco, where Maxine (Smalley) Marson lived with herhusband, Earl, and their seven children in a beautiful home in Belmont.They went to Los Angeles, gazed on the Grand Canyon, wandered through thePetrified Forest, toured caves, and enjoyed the beautiful RedwoodForest. They returned to Athabaska and Muskoka, and crossed the CanadianRockies twenty - five times. They developed a system for driving. Onedrove one hour, then the other. The last trip they made home with thecar was in 1964 when Ellis was eighty-seven. That same year he hauledgrain from the fields for his sons till he decided that it was easierwork driving the combine, so he did that. Ellis drove his own car untilhe was ninety. When he went for his last test, the traffic officercongratulated him on his many accident-free years of driving, but feltthat a man of ninety should not drive any longer. Doll had to quitdriving a while before on account of her eyes. After they moved to the coast Ellis had two cataract operations. Thefirst one was quite grim, so it was with anxiety, right after the secondoperation that Doll went to see him. When she entered the room, he wasnowhere to be seen. Alarmed, she discovered him on his hand and knees,measuring the hospital bed. He thought it would be nice to have one ofthem at home. Life was not always easy. The years of the depression were hard with bigfamily and no money. Harry went into the implement business; Sue toNormal on a shoe-string, helped by Grandma Coy, and Jack even rode therods for a while, eventually returning to the farm. Art, Harvey and Suewere all in the Armed Forces, Sue serving overseas in Holland. It was atime of anxiety. Bob's death in 1941 was a sad blow for all; Art, too,passed away in 1956, leaving his widow and little boy, Jim, and an emptyplace in the family circle. The folks came home to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1962and it was a glorious occasion. Verna came from Ontario; Max, Earl andfamily from San Francisco; Nick, Sue and their eight boys from Victoria;our daughter from Alberta, and several from Regina. For three days wewere all together and making the most of it for we all knew it was aonce-in-a-lifetime thing. There were forty-nine of us not countingAunts and Cousins. Ellis is an atheist - his philosophy is that his immortality is in hischildren and in that which he has done to leave the world a little betterplace to live in because he has been here. I know that it is, and thatthe ripples will go for a long time. A neighbor from Victoria once saidto us, 'If I didn't know that he was an atheist, I'd say Ellis is thebest Christian I know.' He is a genuinely kind neighbor and friend. ++++++++ Since I started this, Ellis has become ninety-three. Our daughter-in lawwrites that he is busy replacing his picket fence, followed around by hisgreat-grandson, Gregory, aged three, who is the fourth Ellis, and whoinsists on having a hammer and nails to assist in the project. 'Grandahas rigged up a contraption so he painted over one hundred pickets in ahalf hour: Ann writes. Ellis is exceptionally well and active. With some recentbirthday money he bought a pedometer so that he could see how far hewalked in a day, and he chalked up quite a few miles. He has installedmonkey bars in the hall and he can still skin the cat though the tallLapshinoff boys can't. He still listens to the news at least four timesa day and is still convinced that he could fix the world before breakfastany morning if they would just let him. And maybe he could. +++++++++ Time has elapsed again, and now it isSeptember, 1972 and almost time for the 60th Wedding Anniversary. Tenyears have added many new grandchildren-in-law, and great-grandchildrentoo. The ten years have seen happiness and tears, as all years do. ButEllis and Doll are unchanged. Ellis is 95 now, and besides hisgardening, fixing and newscasts, he is busy looking in the crystal ball,a recent gift, with these words, 'I wonder what the American dollar willdo today!' Doll still feeds cookies to the 'Dagwood people' who knockon her door; crochets afghans for every new baby and new bride, andargues with Ellis when she feels it is necessary. We, your children, salute you! Our love and congratulations on your 60th!' ++++++++++++ This account can be found in the booklet, 'From Muskoka to Victoria inNinety Years !', by Dorothy (Garnett) Smalley, in the possession ofDonald Raymond Coy, 3806 51st SW., Seattle, Washington 98116-3615 -e-mail: don3127wa@@juno.com. |
