YOUNG JAMES ATTWOOD by his daughter Margaret (Mrs. E. Langford) 1967

   Young James Attwod, better known as "Y.J." was born January 10, 1857 in Lobo County, Ontario.

   He left home at the age of seventeen, and always said the reason he left, was that he and his stepmother could not get along.  He referred to his Dad as "The Governor".

   He come West in 1882 first settling in Birtle district, then he moved to Shell River in 1885.  I have a letter he had written to one of his sisters in 1885, telling her, he had seventy acres of crop to seed that year, said he had kept busy all winter "taking out logs", a four-mile trip from his home, also told the sister he had not made any money farming, and if he did not do better that summer, he would give it tip and go "teaming for the railroad".  The year before he had made nine hundred dollars doing that.

    When they first came to Shell River, they managed to get their mail twice a month, but in 1885 were able to get it twice a week.

    He talked about two grist mills, one was steam and one water power, also a steam saw mill was being built at Shellmouth, which was seven miles away.  Two schools in the district, one in Russell and the other Shellmouth which were used as churches on Sunday.  Sunday was spent washing and mending and shooting rabbits, ducks and chickens for the week's supply of meat. He and the other "bachelors" went to the odd dance at Russell or Asessippi.  Ladies were very scarce, and what few there were, are about as homely as a "stump fence".

    Y.J. had the idea of planting onions to make some money, and when he harvested the crop, it turned out to be a worthwhile project, for he sold a carload of onions, and always said that was the first money he had made.

    My mother, whose name was Annie McCallum, had come out from Scotland with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Wallace, in 1898, and Settled in the Miniska district.  Somewhere along the way she met Dad and they were married February 15, l 900 at Binscarth.  They also settled in the Miniska district, on what was known as the Calcutt place.  Elsie and Edward, their first children, were born there.

I do not know just when Dad acquired the home place which is six miles north of Russell, and known as the "Northern Ranch", this is where Mother and Dad really started to farm. they had a team of horses, a buggy and a cow, lived in a log house, which Mother used to say leaked all over. The brick house was built in 1906 and very soon after the horse barn.  Mary, Margaret and Evelyn, their other children, were boon here.  Somewhere along the way Dad started to winter cattle for other farmers and also to buy cattle, money permitting, finally ending up with as many as seven hundred.   By this time he had acquired land known as the hay meadow near Dropmore, and he kept a man to do nothing but herd the cattle up here.  The two men I remember were Stanley Burrelland and Jim Moster.  My oldest sister, Elsie, and Edward used to ride their ponies in the summer time and help to move the cattle from the home place to the hay meadow and it was a lot of work for Mother to do enough cooking and baking to last the man who was with the cattle for at least a week or two, and be ready with more if he should let her know it was needed.

    Mother had a pet horse called Brownie, and it was a highlight for us kiddies to go with her to take the lunch to the field, all dressed in our white stiffly starched dresses, so we could have dinner with Dad.  Between Mother's busy times at home, she found time to go to Ladies' Aid meetings, and have garden parties at the farm.   On Sunday morning, Mother and Dad drove their team to church, followed by us kiddies in our four-seater buggy.  Then we always stayed for lunch at Smellie's and we went to Sunday school in the afternoon.

    Dad continued to farm till about 1920 and by that time he had decided the winters were getting too cold for him and Mother, so he took a trip to Cuba and could very easily have settled there, but Mother informed him she would not live in a country like that.  The next winter he went to Florida, but did not seem too taken with it there, so came home by California, and was so taken with the climate and surroundings, that he bought a home with ten acres of oranges, some plum, peach, pear trees, and some grapes, sent us a snap which said, "a place for us to live, where you won't freeze your nose".  We moved to Redlands, California in 1922, Mother still not too sure she wanted to leave Manitoba, but after our first winter there, she was quite sure that this could be our home.  By this time Bert Robb, Dad's nephew from Ontario, had arrived, so Dad left him in charge of the farms during the winter, but by the time April arrived Dad was packed and on his way to Manitoba.  Suppose he thought they just could not put in the crop and take it off without him.  He usually stayed till November.

   We had moved to California for Mother and Dad to more or less retire, but knowing Dad, that was not his life, and gradually went into oranges in quire a large scale, 125 acres in Southern California and then went to Northern California and bought 125 acres there, and today that is the orange grove that my brother Ed is running.

   Mother and Dad managed to find time to enter in numerous affairs, Mother with her church work, her main project was a nursery room for the tiny tots at Sunday School, completely furnished down tot he toys in the cribs for the very small.  Dad took up lawn bowling and he did enjoy this.  He was also a charter director in the Redlands Foothill Groves.

   Dad was out picking lemons one day.  A limb of the tree broke and let the ladder down.  Ribs were broken and a lung was injured.  This happened in January of 1939.  He really never did recover, and pneumonia set in, and he passed away April 6, 1939 at the age of 82.  Mother continued to live at the home place with her first grandson, John Attwood  Thornquest, whose mother was Elsie Attwood.  She had died in 1926.  She had developed a heart condition and slept away peacefully March 7, 1951.

   Edward Attwood is an orange grower in Northern California.  He is married and has one son, Jerry J. Attwood.

   Mary Attwood married Thomas Heeney and they have five children and live at the home place in California.

   Mary Evelyn Attwood is a supervisor of nurses in Hollywood, California.

   Margaret Attwood married Ted Langford, and they farmed the home place near Russell till Ted passed away in 1956.  we have four children.  At this time James, my oldest son, is on the home farm, and nice to know it is still in the family.

This site made possible by the Town of Russell

Family History Main Page |  Town of Russell  |   Town History Pages

NEW - History being collected.  If you live or have ever lived in the Russell area please click here.

The site created and maintained by The Grain Web.