Rev. Alex.Barclay answered a call to the
pulpit of the Waskada Man. Presbyterian Church and moved his family there from
Lynedoch ont.
Letter from Rev. Barclay, April 19, 1904
Re: Move from Lynedoch. Mary & Harold
came with me & we brought our furniture, too. It was a long journey, but we
reached our destination in safety & altho' we have not seen very much of
the place we think we will like it when we get settled down into a house of our
own. At present we occupy 2 small rooms for which we pay $5 (1 pound) a month.
Houses are at a premium, but i expect the manse will be built during the
summer. Waskada is a railway town in SE Man. on a branch line of the Deloraine.
It is quite a lively place - two churches ( the Presbyterian the larger of the
2 & quite modern, furnace, heater, etc.), a hotel, a livery, several dry
goods stores & hdwe & implements, a drug store, post & telegraph
office, butcher, baker, etc. - Very much more up-to-date & go-ahead then
dear old Lynedoch. The work & the driving will be about the same as I have
had. the only difficulty will be for a time the finding of my way along the
prairie trail; there are no roads! But I will soon learn. The spring is a very
backward one. There are still patches of snow here & there, & piercing
wind has blown the past 2 days. but by & by we shall have bright warm
weather & crocuses & other prairie flowers will bedeck the plains. The
country here is dead level, but in the
distance there is turtle mountain, which helps to relieve the monotony.
Unfortunately there is no fishing nearby, but game is plentiful:
prairie chicken, wild ducks, wild geese, not to mention prairie wolves, foxes,
coyotes, etc. the people are very kindly & generous & once I get things
into running order, I think there will be steady advance.
Harold
Barclay
Harold contracted inflammatory rheumatism
after the Barclay move from Lyndoch to Waskada. It turned into infantile paralysis (the former name of polio)
& as a result had a serious limp all his life. He succeeded in regaining
the full use & strength of his hands, however, an accomplishment he
attributed to his sister Ella's teaching him to play the piano, at which he
became very adept. When he was 14 years old he bought his first cow in Denver,
photographed her as a prized possession & kept rather business like
records, as shown on the reverse of the photo:
bought July 15, 1911, $75 f.h.age 3. sort of cow: good. sold ----.
no. calves had while I had her: 1.
Sept. 23, 1911 purebred Jersey
Harold accepted his brother Fred's offer
to take him to Chicago, where he could get a job paying as much as $7/week
& then go to business college (stocks & bonds).