My Family Tree

JOSHUA WARD FAMILY HISTORY

Joshua William Ward was born in Barwell, Leicestershire, England on
April 13, 1886. He left school after Grade 4 and for the next seven years
was employed as a farm labourer and butcher.

In England he enjoyed the outdoors and fishing and hunting. His favorite
sport was boxing and he spoke very enthusiastically about the night he boxed
three rounds with the champion of the British army.

At nineteen he emigrated to the U.S.A., finally settling in Chicago where
he boarded with the Barrs family and found work in a meat packing plant. In
later years he and Mr. Barrs sometimes reminisced into the night about the
wild and woolly days in Chicago.

In 1908 at the age of 22 he arrived in Birch Hills with a horse, a shotgun
and a bedroll and started to work SW 28. Ward's slough was the favorite
watering hole for all types of murine birds, some livestock and, in winter,
it served as an ice skating pond. Eventually he built a small house and
several outbuildings for livestock.

Lily Hibbins, known to many as "Dot", was born in Sketchley, England,
August 6, 1889. After Grade 8 she went to work in a textile plant,
riding her bicycle many miles to work before daybreak and home after dark.
In 1914 she married Ernest Clarke, a soldier in the First World War.
He died in the third Battle of Ypres in 1917. Their son, Ernest Clarke,
was born September 21, 1915.

In 1920 Lily Clarke with her son, Ernest, came to visit her sister Laura and
her husband, Fred Moore, who had arrived in Birch Hills about 1912 and 191O
respectively. The Clarkes returned to Toronto in 1921 and Josh Ward proposed
marriage by letter. They came back to Birch Hills the next summer and Lily
and Josh were married at St. Saviour's Anglican Church August 2, 1922.
Lance Ward was born December 1, 1924 and George Ward June 23, 1929.

The family moved into a new house in the fall of 1928. I remember improvising
on the washroom plaster during the workmen's lunch break and the result
in still in evidence. A carbon monoxide accident with the electric generator
almost wiped out the family in 1925.

In the late 1920's the farm had three hundred sheep. One boy, a pony and
a dog could shepherd 100 sheep on the road right-of-ways. At least the dog
knew what she was doing. About this time I contracted to keep the golfcourse
fairways cut using 50 sheep. The grass was under control but the fences around
the sand greens were no obstacle to a determined sheep and the greens had
to be continually groomed.

In 1929 I watched the first combine work in the area. The experiment
lasted one day. It was tried on a new piece of breaking. The early ripening
grain varieties had not been developed and the crop in mid-September was green
and heavy. The machine plugged up every ten feet and the crop was finally cut,
stooked and threshed in the usual way. The combine sat in our yard for ten
years without turning a wheel.

In 1929 I watched the CPR link up with the CNR at Northway. The ditching,
grading and granular bed were in place. Labourers would hand set the ties -
two men to a tie. A large steam crane travelling on the tracks would swing
the next two lengths into position. The rails were quickly spiked to the
ties and the steam crane would advance on the newly laid track with the
next two lengths. In one hour they laid approximately 200 feet of track.

In 1932 a new radio was acquired with a large speaker. We all crowded
close to hear the first reception and were amazed at the clarity of the
band music which was received. However, our joy was short-lived when the
radio was turned off to conserve the batteries and the band music continued
from the Town Band practice at the Fair Grounds a quarter of 8 mile west.

Nine head of Jerseys were purchased in early 1930. By 1933 we were
delivering milk on the streets of Birch Hills for 8 cents a quart, 10% of
which was cream. The herd eventually grew to 120 head with 65 milking twice
a day. The farm had the first milking machine in the area. It started
automatically at 5:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. The radio started simultaneously
because Josh Ward claimed the cows gave milk out of their horns with music.

From 1935 to 1945 the herd was a familiar sight on the western fair
circuit. Mixed farming with grain, fruit and livestock was encouraged.
The Experimental Station was part of our farming operation. For many
years ours was the largest herd of Jerseys west of Ontario. Ernest put
himself through University raising pigs during the summer. The Jersey
herd was wiped out with Bang's Disease in 1944.

The Wards were long-time members of St. Mary's Anglican Church where Josh
was a warden for twenty years. He served one term on the local school board
and one term as chairman of the Saskatchewan Dairymen's Association.
Josh was an enthusiastic horseman and his special pride was a team of
driving mules hitched to a cutter or buggy.

From 1954 to 1964 Lily and Josh farmed in the summer and wintered in Florida.
They made two trips back to Britain - in 1926 and 1952. Lily made additional
trips in 1934 and 1971. One of Josh's pastimes was raising pigeons and he kept
a loft of over 100 birds. Lily preserved all kinds of fruit which she picked
herself - strawberries, raspberries, cranapples, plums - but my favorite was
her special rhubarb. She made wine out of danaelions, chokecherries and rhubarb.

Josh died at the age of 76 at Birch Hills, August 18, 1962. Lily spent
the next sixteen years caring for her home and visiting her children. Until
she was 85 years of age she continued to fly each winter to visit Lance in
Toronto, but she was always happy to return west with the approach of spring.
She died in Prince Albert at the age of 84 on November 17, 1978.

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{submitted by Lance W. Ward.}