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The last month of summer is shaping up to be a bit cooler and less humid than the previous month. We have stayed close to home, walking on t...
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Cycling along the Confederation Trail, my husband and I always notice the fields along the way. Potato fields are a common sight in a provin...
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It is that time of year again when many of the tourists have left the island for another year. A few remain but cruise ships will bring thou...
Monday 31 March 2014
Communication
Friday 28 March 2014
Right Confused
Tuesday 25 March 2014
The Innocents
Elizabeth Mabel Keller(n) Corbett
10 March 1892 – 2 February 1897
This was the infant, eldest daughter of Clarence and Jennie. She died at age 4 years, 11 months from diphtheria.
This portrait was given to my mother, Eva-Rose, from Anna (Ainslee) Keeler. Anna’s mother, Rose, was Grammy’s (Hazel) stepsister. Rose was Lucinda Corbett’s daughter, Clarence’s second wife.
It is a chalk/charcoal portrait. The only signature on the picture is at the top written in pencil saying, Mrs. C. H. Corbett. Could Jennie have been the artist? It certainly runs in our family and I believe this is where it came from.
Sunday 23 March 2014
Jennie, Part 2: At Last
Hazel really missed Harold went he left for Boston. Because of the era, communication was sporadic at best. They didn't see each other for years. Hazel excitedly wrote her brother when she met the love of her life at the tender age of fourteen, in 1914. The year and her age coinciding were very meaningful to Hazel.
Then in 1918, Hazel married her sweetheart, Stuart Rector and they settled into life in Garrish Valley, near Economy, Nova Scotia. A number of years later, after they had several children, a tall, balding stranger knocked on the door.
Thursday 20 March 2014
Jennie: At Last, Part 1
'The journey to Martha Jane (Jennie) Pretty Corbett was a long one. It began with a two year old girl, her brother and sister. They were left behind when their Mom died of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1903. That longing for Mom and knowledge of her family stayed in the heart of that two year old baby until the day she died at the age of eighty-eight, a country away from where she started.
Tuesday 18 March 2014
Pop Pretty, Part 6: The Big Picture
Sunday 16 March 2014
Pop Pretty, Part 5: The Man
Friday 14 March 2014
Pop Pretty: Part 4, Life Goes On...
Tuesday 11 March 2014
Pop Pretty, Part 3: Tragedy
November 10, 1906 – Died at Dildo – A Telegram was received today telling of the death of Mr. Harry Pretty at Dildo. He worked as an apprentice engineer at the R.N. Co. machine shops and being very ill went to Dildo for his health’s sake. He was a brother to Mr. A. Pretty of the Dispatching Office of the R.N. Co. and was very popular.
Dildo, Trinity Bay. At one time, all the land above the road was owned by the Pretty family.
Evening Telegram – St. John’s, Nfld
June 5, 1908 – Mrs. Pretty Dead – Mrs. Pretty, mother of Mr. A. Pretty, Chief Dispatcher of the R.N. Co.’s office, died at Dildo, Trinity Bay at 4 o’clock last evening. Deceased, who had been residing in town ary Annwent to Dildo in July hoping that a change of air would arrest the progress of the disease consumption. She had been ailing of about a year. Deceased was in her 47th year. Leaves five sons and one daughter to who the Telegram extends its sympathy in having lost their dear mother. Her husband predeceased her about four years ago.
Emily Muriel was the oldest child at home at the time of her mother's death. At eighteen, she had responsibility of the boys, and this is where Old Shop and Mary Ann's family help out. We think that Emily Muriel and the boys, Fred, Sam, Cyril and Robert, ranging in age from, fifteen to seven, went to live in Old Shop. Soon Fred went to work at the railway in St. John's where he boarded on Shaw Street. Cyril eventually lived with Albert, Maggie and their daughter Mildred in St. John's. This left Sam and Robert in Old Shop with their sister.
Albert died in 1910 and Maggie eventually moved back to Port aux Basques with Mildred and Cyril. A year later, my grandfather started work in St. John's as a locomotive fireman, the way paved for him by Albert, Harry and Fred before him. Cyril eventually worked with the railway as well, out of Port aux Basques.
Albert Pretty's headstone
Grandfather Samuel Pretty's Engineman's Certificate
Cyril and Norah (LeMoine) Pretty
Mary Ann's brother and his wife appear to be instrumental in caring for the orphaned Pretty children. Fred and his family stayed in touch with Abner and Phoebe Day. Between 1896 and 1917, Phoebe and Abner had eleven children. They were also very kind and possibly cared for Mary Ann's children after her death as well. While Abner died in 1939, Phoebe lived into her nineties, dying in 1968. Obviously she was tiny but mighty!