Letter from James Addison Walsby to Aunt Lillie Mae (Van Wicklin) Vowels
Everett, Wash, U.S.A.
Nov 14/1960
Dear Aunt May,
Now we know each other is alive, and my worry has all disappeared concerning it, but as I have said before many things can
happen in the mail and its only a miracle that I received your last letter, the flap was completely opened, its a wonder the letter
did not fall out, it had the appearance of being roughly handled, whether it was poor glue, somebody deliberately opened
it. Now I will start in by telling you about Hazel and Frank Walsby about the time she wrote to you Frank had a promotion by the
Metropolitan Insurance Co. and they transferred him to Regina, Sask. he was appointed manager of Sask. and the whole
family is over there now and their new address is 2665 Winnipeg St, Regina, Sask. I am enclosing two clippings from a Regina
paper (Compiler's note: Marg did not receive clippings with copy of the letter) that Noel sent me, one has Frank's picture on it,
and when you read it you will have an idea of what his setup is, and you will also know what your new nephew looks like. Also
I am sending a snapshot of Noel and one of my stepson in law, the one that wrote my first letter to you, Noel is holding the dog
and I am standing up in the rear, Noel and Ella his wife live only forty miles away and they will see each other quite often.
As I have told you before, Noel is a manager of a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada located in Southey, Sask--and of course
you do not know, so I will assure you that all of George's children and grandchildren are good people and are respected
wherever they live, George un an engine on the Canadian Northern at Winnipeg, for several years and then he was transferred
to Edmonton and was there several years, then he got a transfer to Kamloops, B.C. and was there for many years. He never did
live in Vancouver, he only went there for an operation and when he became seventy years old he was retired, and him and his
wife bought a home at Kolowna, down on Lake Okanagan where he died of cancer about two years later and was buried there,
also his wife about two years later, he had four children, two girls and two boys, Margeret was the firstborn, then Alese, then
Annie, then Frank. Alese was killed on an ammunition ship in the Mediteranian, it was at Colnana at a dance that George and
Frank first met Rip Van Wicklin, Rip is a nickname everybody calls him by that name, even his wife, they are well-liked in
Armstrong. I only met him once for about an hour several of us were on our way from George's funeral and we stopped at his
house and we had dinner there, and I only had a very short time to talk to him so he had to go to work right after dinner and
did not have a chance to ask him all the questions. I wanted to, however. Frank and Hazel have had him at their home in
Vancouver and had a good long talk with him, and that's what started all this letter writing. Frank and Hazel and there girls
are very ancestor curious and they want to know where they sprung from. Five years ago just before I went to Mexico I wrote
them out a family tree, and you are mentioned in it. I expect I am the only one left alive that could do it. I got most of my
information from my grandfather (James Schuyler Van Wicklin was one of his grandfathers and most likely the one to whom he
refers), the many stories that he told me, you were too young at the time to understand it and Rip gave them
Mrs. Philps address, as I understand it she was named May after you, but how she knew your correct address is beyond me especially after
fifty years since you had heard of her. Now to answer some of your questions. Yes, I read my own letters and newspapers
without glasses although I have had glasses for twenty years and had to use them, but about two years ago I suddenly got my
second sight and can read quite good without glasses, and my hearing is very good, I have two thirds of my teeth, but I have
partial plates both upper and lower, yes I was married twenty years, Clara my wife was a good woman and I was quite happy
and content, she has been dead nineteen years, she died of heart asthma and dropsy. I had her to doctors and hospitals in and
out for four years and in my lifetime I have had five operations, one since I have been here in Everett a little over a year ago, of
course the stomach ulcer was the biggest operation, like you said I just got there in time, I had a doctor cure the ulcers once
and I cured them myself three times but they kept coming back. I cured them with kelp ore twice and once with raw carrots and
carrot juice, it was a duodenal ulcer and everytime you cure the ulcers it leaves a crater and the outlet was completely blocked,
the contents of my stomach could not pass into the intestines, the doctor said for me to get into the hospital right away, I will
operate on you tomorrow morning, I was in the hospital twenty days, that was in 1953, I was certainly glad to hear about
Amelia that is the first I have heard of her for 65 years, I was at her wedding when I was a boy twelve years old (compilers note:
This provides a marriage year of about 1895 for Amelia and confirms that James A. is about 77 years old. We have his birth year
as 1881 which seems about right. Also, above he mentions that Lillie was too young to remember James Schuyler's stories so that
confirms a birth year for Lille Mae that is more recent by several years than 1881--we have her b. in 1888)
I operated cranes in war plants and shipyards in the first world war in Portland, Oregon and in the second world was, in
Seattle, of course I was exempt from military duty and this last war I was too old, I was sure sorry to hear that Charlie was so
bad (compiler's note: Charlie Van Wicklin, Lillie Mae's brother) I thought the child he had by Ella McDonald (compiler's note:
that would be Opal (McDonald) Van Wicklin) was a boy but you say it was a girl. Mother (compiler: Melissa (Van Wicklin)
Walsby) died in 1945, 83 years old (compiler: this puts her birth year at about 1862). No, she was
not lonely, she had lots of friends and company and Noel her son was very conscientious and looked
after her continually and I myself feel grateful to him for it (compiler note: Noel must be a son by a
second marriage of Melissa), she is buried at Moose Jaw she broke her hip twice and if she had not
broken her hip the second time she might have lived several years longer, but she was going blind
with cataracs, I was up to see her twice and I had berely got back the last time when I got a wire
that she was dead but I did not go back. A couple of weeks before that I went up there and she
expressed the desire for me to take her back East to see you but I told her she had put it off to
long as in her shape she could not make it. To answer some of your questions, in your first letter,
yes I have made my home in the states since 1901. I have been a citizen of this country for many
years, of course I have been across the line into Canada at least a dozen times to see my people
and on two occasions worked several months in Southern Alberta near High River, I saw forty acres of turkey red wheat, it was a beautiful sight it went 52 bushel in the acrea then i run
a steam shovel on the Grand Truck Pacific in Northern B.C. several months and I craned a shovel at new
Westminster nine months. Well, May, I guess this is long enough. With love and kind regards to you and Eddie,
Addie
P.S. I have in my album a snapshot of three of your young children, I think the oldest boy was named Norman, I often
wondered if your lost any of your boys in the war, I am glad to know that you did not.
I would like to know what year grandfather died, and what caused his death, was it another cancer?
Photo is of Burton and Audrey (Vowels) Smith. Audrey is a daughter of Lillie Mae and she gave a copy of this letter to Marg
Trottman (granddaughter of the Opal (McDonald) Van Wicklin mentioned in the
letter)
Source:
Copy of letter given to Marg Graham-Trottman from Audrey Vowels on July, 2000 visit to Parry Sound, Ont.