Ross/Duncan Family History
December 10, 2022 By: Ellen Ross T00611006 History of the Environment
I had two sets of grandparents the Duncan’s and the Cousens’s. These two families were very different in every perspective. The Duncan’s originated from Oxbow Saskatchewan. Grandfather Duncan was Clifton Edward Duncan and my grandmother was Annie Mildred Holland.
Oxbow, Saskatchewan is a town in the southeast part of the province. It is located on the Canadian Pacific Railway and on Provincial Highway 18 and is near the North Dakota US border. Diverse immigrants (English, Irish, and Scottish) came to Canada and many came to Oxbow as its first settlers in 1882 my great grandparents homesteaded in the area. https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/settling-west-immigration-to-prairies. Although we have the Scottish name Duncan my father was already 3rd generation and there are few remnants of history that go back to my Great Grandfather except for the name. http://www.prairie-towns.com/oxbow-images.htm/
My Grandfather Duncan was born in 1900 in Oxbow, while my grandmother Holland (Duncan) was born in 1902 in Wellington Ontario. They met and were married in 1925. They had 3 children. Edwin Duncan was the eldest and was born in 1926, my father Keith was born in 1927, and Marion was born in 1928. The children were all born in Oxbow.
Information on their life personal lives was not found in writing, however my fathers story telling was from the era before and during the great depression of the 1930s. Life was not easy but at least my family could carve out a living prior to the depression. They were farmers and aside from growing wheat, I am certain they grew a vegetable crop as well. I discussed with my grandmother how she knew how to can fruits and vegetables. When I was young vegetables came frozen, fresh or in a metal can not glass bottles. She said any food that was around was put in a glass canning jar nothing was wasted.
Some authors consider that the drought that came to the prairies started earlier than the 30s. This weather change and with no rain poor conditions resulted for growing wheat and growing vegetable gardens. Eventually farmers were deeply affected by the prolonged drought, insect infestations, and the ultimate economic collapse for many rural farms. The area once known as the “Bread Basket” of North America became the “Dust bowl” of the prairies. My grandparents were not spared with having repeated devastation of their annual harvests.
They stayed as long as they could until my grandfather became ill and died at age 35. Because he died at such an early age an autopsy revealed he had died of a bleeding ulcer. Had there been Penicillin in that day, he would have survived. This left my grandmother, a widow, with 3 small children. I am not sure if the farm was repossessed or she abandoned the farm. She decided to move to back to Ontario. Grandma Duncan had a sister in one of the small rural towns close to Wellington Ontario that took her in.
However, a sad very damaging event that happened to my uncle was he was at 12 years of age he had to stay behind in Oxbow and help other relatives with their struggling farms. This type of practice happened to others but devastated my uncle.
The storms on the prairies in the 30s, left a life time of “storms” with my father (Keith), his mother and his children (me). This is a testament to the power of the environment on lives and how damaging the destruction of the dirty thirties was on physical properties as well as psychologically on people.
Cousens
The Cousens family has more lineage (money) and a little more eventful lives in terms of their “credentials”. Henry Cousens (my – great grandfather) was born in 1854 in Paisley Scotland. He was educated as a Civil Engineer. He married my great grandmother Marion Bryce Middleton and set off for India to the Pune, Maharashtra area. My great grandfather had become the Superintendent of Archeological Surveying in Western India. They had 5 children and all were born in India. When you look at the history of India and the poverty there, British people that came to India, became aristocrats and had servants to wait on them and do anything laborious.
My Grandfather was Major Gordon Seymour Cousens the second eldest son of the 5 children. He was born in 1885. I believe my grandfather was educated in England and gained his military title during the 1st world war. He married his first wife Dorothy Sparks, and had 3 sons. Later on, they divorced.
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He remarried Dorothy Emma Middleton. They had 4 children and then moved the second family to Canada. Although he maintained his title and actually became a Colonel, I think something went wrong with the military career and he settled in Georgetown Ontario. He became the postmaster and started a farm which was to raise foxes. He raised multiple types mainly silver foxes. This was to service the fashion industry. The fox farm went bankrupt with the start of the second world war as this type of apparel was considered extravagant.
The fox farm went bankrupt with the start of the second world war as this type of apparel was considered extravagant. This shows that many things from a social and historic perspective could change quickly with a specialized type of farming in a very short period of time. He still provided for his family and was loved by many as the postmaster.
My mother went on to join the military when she was 18. She became a wren in the Canadian military. She married my father and when you looked at the different backgrounds, I think the marriage was doomed. Once the rose was off the bloom so to speak and after having 5 children the difference in backgrounds started to show. I think my mother was used to an upper-class lifestyle and my father was a farm boy. They divorced and both went on to other marriages with minimal attention to the 5 children they had. They did not worry about higher education for us. Which I think would have helped. That is why I am doing a degree at age 68 to better myself.