|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 1912 - 1973 (61 years)
-
| Name |
Marion Elma Matchett |
| Born |
8 Jan 1912 |
Regina, Saskatchewan  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Died |
21 May 1973 |
Victoria, British Columbia |
| Person ID |
I05931 |
All |
| Last Modified |
29 Feb 2008 |
| Father |
Thomas Allan Matchett, b. 6 Aug 1867, Omemee, Ontario , d. 20 Jan 1950, Victoria, British Columbia (Age 82 years) |
| Mother |
Sarah "Sadie" Elizabeth Hastings, b. 6 Jan 1872, Lemonville, Whitchurch Township, York County, Ontario , d. 12 Jan 1944, Regina, Saskatchewan (Age 72 years) |
| Married |
19 Dec 1894 |
Indian Head, Saskatchewan |
| Notes |
- If Mary Ann (Minnie) was the serious concerned daughter of Adam Hastings then certainly Sarah Elizabeth (Sadie) was the happy, jovial, devil may care daughter. It was said of Sadie that she never missed a party or a trip and loved the companionship and good fellowship of friends and family. They could have added, like her brothers Adam, Clary and Charlie, she never missed a scotch and water.
Educated at Norland and Lindsay, Ontario, in October 1888 she stood second in the third class at Lindsay High School with 760 of 1000 points. She completed her matriculation and taught part-time in Haliburton Township before joining the family in the North West in 1892. She was employed in 1894 as a teach at Balgonie where she met and married Thomas Allan Matchett.
Thomas Allan Matchett was of Irish stock. His grandfather had come from Ireland in a group of 400 Irish protestants from County Fermanagh. His grandfather had come from Ireland in a group of 400 Irish protestants from County Fermanagh. They settled as a body in the south half of Emily Township, Victoria County near the Village of Omemee. The north half of the township was settled by Irish catholics and brave was the man who dared cross the line on the 12th of July.
The Matchett family came to the North West in 1884 and settled in the Davin-Balgonie district. Thomas and his four brothers (George Christopher, William Richard, Henry J. And Robert) along with the father would all prove homesteads. Thomas’ homestead was the SE 12-18-17-W2 with a pre-emption on NE 12-18-17-W2.
As a young man, Thomas drove a mule team freighting supplies from Qu’Appelle to Prince Albert in the North West Rebellion of 1885. He worked on the Sir John Lister-Kaye corporate farm in the Balgonie district for a salary of $5 per month. He would later recall being invited to dine by Lady Lister-Kaye in a private railway car and was totally embarrassed at the experience of “dining” with English nobility. He worked on a ranch at Baintree, Alberta but returned to Balgonie at the urging of his mother who firmly believed cowboys lived a ribald life of sin and wanted no part of it for her Methodist son.
He developed and nurtured a profound respect and love of horses. While he could neither read nor write, he could name and recite without error the pedigree of hundreds of horses on sight. He was a shrewd, hardworking businessman and farmer.
Thomas A. Matchett was a Conservative; a fact with certainly displeased his father-in-law and brothers-in-law. At election times family gatherings were kept to a minimum as the debate always flared as to whether Louis Riel was a martyr or a traitor.
He sold the homestead to Anton Diewold, August 26, 1901 in consideration of $1,600. Thereafter, he and his wife operated a general store and bought grain for the Winnipeg Grain Company in Balgonie. In 1910 they disposed of their holdings to J.K. Wilson and moved to Regina. Here they purchased 2277 Hamilton Street which would be the family Regina home for 24 years. Thomas operated a livery stable in the 1800 block Cornwall Street. It was totally destroyed and all the stock lost in the Regina cyclone of 1912.
In 1913 he purchased a 480 acre farm near Lumsden in the Wascana valley, 24 miles north-west of Regina. It comprised 160 acres in the valley through which passed the Wascana river and an additional 320 acres of first class cultivated farm land above the valley. He maintained his farming operations through the depression years with but on seed grain advance, a remarkable feat considering the difficulty and vagaries of the drought that wreaked economic havoc in Saskatchewan. A testimony to his skill, hard work and farming determination.
He moved to Cadboro Bay near Victoria on Vancouver Island in 1944 and lived his retirement years with his daughter, Alice, near his granddaughter Marion Elizabeth (Betty) Soutar.
The Wascana valley farm is today a recreation park area operated by the City of Regina.
Sarah Elizabeth Hastings Matchett is interred in Regina Municipal Cemetery while Thomas Allan Matchett was cremated.
About 18 miles east of Regina City at the south-west corner of the Balgonie cemetery there stands two blue spruce trees. They are alone and are in strange contrast to the surrounding flat prairie and scrub brush. They were brought from British Columbia and firmly planted in 1924 by Thomas A. Matchett as a living tribute to the immortal memory of his mother and father who are there buried.
|
| Family ID |
F1401 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
-
Copyright © Wurm-Hastings. | Powered by TNG
| |
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set