Grandad Jerry - James Herbert (Herb) Jerry



Herbert Jerry (holding gun) with his parents and brothers Edward, Bert, and Bill.

I love this picture of Granddad Jerry. He looks so confident. I could have made it smaller so it didn't bleed into the rest of the blog but I wanted everyone (especially those of us who are older) to be able to see it clearly.

When my siblings and I talk about Granddad Jerry we always mention the moss covered tree stumps on his property that we pretended were pirate treasure. One time while walking around the property with Granddad and Dad we saw a nest of baby snakes. At Rod and Donna McLeod's during my university days I met an older man from Lavallee area who knew Granddad Jerry. He told me while granddad plowed the fields he had one hand on the oxen reins and in the other hand was an axe.When he hit a tree root he’d slam the axe into the root to cut it. I picture him as a large and strong man. Jim and Jan remember the family going to his house on Sunday and he would give them canned peaches. Jan also told me he was always patient and could explain anything about nature. Jim remembers him playing baseball with them until the day he fell down, hit his face on the ground and became quite bruised. After that he didn’t play anymore. He had a red truck and when his grandkids were in the back he’d drive over the curb to bounce them around says Josie.

If you have any stories to tell about Granddad Jerry please let me know and I’ll post them.

James Herbert (Herb) Jerry was the sixth child, fifth son, of Robert Jerry and Sarah Harriet Smith. He was born Saturday, August 19, 1882 in Gosfield Township, Essex County, Ontario. Gosfield Township is in Southwestern Ontario, near Windsor. The family moved around Ontario living in Grey then Essex County and back to Grey County and then to Rainy River District. Bethel Miller tells this story 
“When Dad was 10 years old he went to Ballard’s in Meaford [Grey County] to help with the chores and he received 50 cents a month. His father was right there to collect it. He said that when he went there his pants were so ragged that the girls were embarrassed so Ballard gave him his first months pay and told him to come back when his mother had made him new trousers. Aunt Annie and Grandma stayed up all night sewing and he was back at work the next morning. Ballard could not believe it could be done so fast.”
 In the early 1900’s the Jerry family moved to Crozier, Rainy River, Ontario. Herb met a teacher, Margaret Electa Cranston, here and married her on December 29, 1915. In those days women were allowed to teach until they married. She would have boarded with a family in the area. It must have been hard for her to be so far away from her family in southwestern Ontario. She told the story of meeting her future father-in-law, Robert Jerry to her daughter, Bethel:  

Margaret Cranston (in white shirt) with her students. ca 1914
 “Mom taught school at Alberton #3. After she and Dad were going out together, Robert met her on the road when she was going to her boarding house. She said he wanted to see what his son was going out with. Mom said he wore red flannel underwear and no shirt.”    
 
 Herbert and Margaret were married in her parent’s home in Comber, Essex, Ontario. Sometime between meeting Margaret and marrying her Herb purchased a homestead in Saskatchewan and they moved there right after the wedding. It was in Hawarden, Saskatchewan that they had their four children, Margaret Bethel on March 15, 1917; Josephine Helene on 9 February 1920; Herbert Cranston (Bud) on January 13 1922, and Anna Harriet Emily on June 18, 1923. 

Actually, they were born on Township 28, Range 6, West of the 3rd Meridian, near Hawarden, Saskatchewan, northwest of Moose Jaw. 




Rudy, Sask. near homestead

In August or September of 1924 Bethel Jerry was going east with her mother, Margaret, and grandmother, Nancy Emily Cranston (Taylor). They got as far as Bethune, Saskatchewan where Aunt Josephine Taylor lived when Margaret had a nervous breakdown (flipped was the word Bethel used). They went back to Hawarden and Herb had to put Margaret in a mental institution. It may have been the Weyburn Mental Hospital in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. While Margaret was in the mental hospital the kids lived with relatives in Comber, Ontario. Things got worse for this family when their youngest daughter, Anna Harriet, died of diphtheria in November 1924. 

I’m not sure of the timeline but eventually Margaret was taken out of the mental institution.The kids were in Comber from 1924 to 1929. In 1924 or 1925 Herb moved to Crozier, Rainy River. I’m not sure where Margaret was. In 1927 he took the whole family (his wife was with them) to Leamington for 2 years but there wasn’t much work there so they all moved back to Crozier. It sounds like Margaret was in and out of the mental institution for a lot of her life but I’m not sure of dates. In the 1970’s she was in the Ontario Hospital in Thunder Bay and that’s where she died in 1975. Both Herb and Margaret lived to old age, as did the other three of their children. One hopes that for, Herb at least, that his 14 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren brought some joy to him in his later years. He died while living with his daughter Bethel Miller, at the age of 90 on December 26, 1972 in Fort Frances, Ontario. He had been living with her for a couple of years. Both he and Margaret are buried in the Riverview Cemetery, Fort Frances, Ontario.

Granddad Jerry age 80 in 1962
When you look at the lives of our ancestors, their tragedies seem to be oppressive but they still go on with their life working hard and surviving, just like we do. I always remember Granddad Jerry have having an aura of peace around him. May be that comes with age. 







Bibliography of Sources


_1891 Canada Census; Robert Jerry Household; Holland, Grey North, Ontario; District 68; family 41; Microfilm T6338; viewed at www.ancestry.com; [database on-line]; Provo, Utah; Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario.

­_1901 Canada Census; Robert Jerry Household; Alberton, Algoma, Ontario; District 44; Subdistrict H-1; Household 30; Page 3; Microfilm T6458; Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario.

_1905, Saskatchewan, Canada, Residents Index (SRI), 1800-2012; Hawarden, Saskatchewan, Herbert Jerry; casual mention; www.ancestry.com; [database on-line]; accessed October 7, 2013

The Saskatchewan Residents Index (SRI). Database. Saskatchewan Genealogical Society, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada;

_1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta; Last Mountain, Saskatchewan; Township 28, Range 6, West of the 3 Meridian; page 12; Family 136; Microfilm T-21937; viewed at www.ancestry.com; [database on-line]; Provo, Utah, USA; accessed October 7, 2013 Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario.

_1921 Census of Canada; Last Mountain, Saskatchewan, Last Mountain, Saskatchewan; Township 28, Range 6, West of the 3 Meridian; page 5; Family 49; Microfilm T-21937; viewed at  www.ancestry.com; [database on-line] Provo, Utah, USA; accessed October 7, 2013; Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario

_Canada Maps 1911Atlas; Map of Alberta and Saskatchewan ; Adamson, Julia; www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canmaps; Submitter Stephen Scriver; Online Historical Map Digitization Project; June 23, 2007; accessed October 8, 2013

_ James Jerry Obituary; Bethel Miller Collection; genealogy notes, photos and memorabilia; this obituary will be from the Fort Frances Times, the only newspaper in town; date unknown; privately held by Tara Shymanski, Calgary, Alberta.

_ Information Extracted for Genealogy, Birth; Jerry, James Herbert; Registration #1882-05-007212; issued February 25, 1986; Office of the Registrar General; Toronto, Ontario

_Leamington Post and News; January 13, 1916; p. 3; Marriages

_Ontario Birth Registrations; 1882; Gosfield, Essex; #7212; Microfilm MS 929 Reel  53; www.ancestry.com; [database on-line]; accessed 7 October, 2013; Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Canada.

_Ontario Death Registrations; 1924; Tilbury West, Essex; #12522; LDS Microfilm 2,022,137; Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah; Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Canada.

_Ontario Marriage Registrations; 1915; Comber, Essex; #3887; Microfilm MS 932 Reel 334; www.ancestry.com; [database on-line]; accessed 7 October, 2013; Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Canada.

­

_Margaret Jerry Obituary; Bethel Miller Collection; genealogy notes, photos and memorabilia; this obituary will be from the Fort Frances Times, the only newspaper in town; date unknown; privately held by Tara Shymanski, Calgary, Alberta.

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