The Edwin Moore Family

    In the year 1888 Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Moore of Brightside (near Sheffield) England, decided to come to Canada. Edwin Moore had operated a dairy in England. He was also a skilled baker and confectioner.  Friends in Canada, Mr. L. L. Roberts of Russell, and the Pagan family of Endcliffe, had urged them to come to Canada so in June 1888 Edwin Moore, his wife and his four children, Madeline, Isabel, Victor and Violet, left England. They travelled on the same train as Mr. A. E. Struthers. This was a special train chartered by Dr. Barnardo to bring a group of boys to his industrial farm situated five miles southwest of Russell. Edwin Moore describes Russell at that time as having about seven houses as well as some stores and business places. Edwin Moore bought S.W.1/4 24-21-29. To earn money to keep his family and build a home he settled his family near the Barnardo Home and worked as a cook there. He cooked for up to 200 boys and a staff of 40.

    As soon as his home was ready he returned to his land and commenced to farm. He operated this farm for over half a century, then he retired with Mrs. Moore to the town of Russell. Edwin Moore was active in the formation of Brightside School. The first ratepayers meeting was held in his home. He was the first secretary and chose the name Brightside after his English home. The first teacher, Miss Boddy, was chosen from forty-five applicants and proved to be a good and capable teacher.

    Victor Moore has many memories of the early days of Brightside. Their next door neighbours were for some years an elderly couple named Treble. They were both over seventy but fiery industrious and hard working. Mr. Treble dug a larger patch of ground by hand, using a spade. Some of this land was used for a garden, some for a little grain.

    Victor Moore tells of a steam boat going up the Assiniboine River and later being abandoned due to the water going down. He tells of clearing land by hand and of pulling trees up by the roots with horses or oxen. In 1898 the Moores did not get threshed until midwinter when a horse power outfit from near Togo threshed for them. They used twelve horses to run the machine and it was fed by a man from each side. Another man had to cut the bands. The separator had no blower so the straw was either stacked or drawn away by a bucking pole. Others formed a stook ring with from six to eight teams to bring in the stooks.  At that time men were paid $1.00 a day for this type of work. The early steam outfits needed about twenty men to operate so that the threshing meant a great deal of work for the women providing: food for such a large gang of men.

Mrs. Isabel Waddell (nee Isabel Moore) tells many stories of the early days. One of her early memories was the family driving to Boggy Creek, north of Roblin to pick raspberries.  They would take bedding food, and as many pails, crocks, etc., as they had. They usually stayed two or three days and had a grand time picking berries by days sleeping in the wagons by night and exploring the evergreen forests and swamps in their spare time.  She remembered too having Sunday School in the various homes and the pleasure the children took in singing hymns and learning Bible stories.  She tells too of the butchering and curing of meat. Beef was usually done in the fall and kept frozen in boxes during the winter. Pork was more often prepared in the spring, as the meat could be cured and smoked.  Then the hams and bacon were well wrapped and buried in the grain to keep cool and free from flies. Making butter was a major part of women's work in the early days. As there were no creameries for many years all the cream was churned by hand, using a dash churn (a large crockery churn with a large wooden dash that had to be lifted up and down by hand).  This was quite a job as at first the cream was thin and would Spatter, then it would thicken and make one's arm ache lifting the dash up and pushing it down.  Some women had barrel churns that had to be turned by hand.

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