Hard Winter up Here in Canada

Jan 21st 1911
Dear Uncle:
How are you all well, getting ready for spring work I suppose.  Nice sunshiny weather here now but not thawing much yet.  It has been a hard winter up here in Canada.  A few homesteaders in different localities were lost and frozen to death.  One of the pollocks living a mile and half northeast from me let his two small children freeze their faces by staying in such a cold shack he tried to make a ton of coal last him all winter.  A lot of teaming going on now while the sleighing is good.  Two new settlers came in last week and have section five just west from me.  There was seven quarters open in this township last week.  A lot of land to be thrown open for homesteading just north of Edmonton the first of March sixty townships.  So you see there is land for the landless.  The papers have been booming lately for the great peace river district.   You know the Grand Trunk is building in through that country now across by Fort George and Prince Rupert.  I am figuring on buying a team of horses this spring if I can manage to do it.  The horses are selling pretty high around Carlstadt.  But they are far more reasonable up towards Calgary.  I guess will be able to get a fair team for $325 to $350.  I have got to get busy to cut down expenses.  I did not have to pay too much for hired work last year and don't want to start now if I can help it.  I am going to have you send that money up now as I will want part of it.  When I wrote you once before I intended to leave it down there another year but have been compelled to change my mind since then.  If I remember you said once for me to tell you how to send it.  Send it the safest and cheapest way.  I guess that will be by bank draft and registered mail will that be as good a way as any?  Try and get it here by the first Friday in March if you can with out too much bother.  As you know the mail comes out here to the post office on Fridays and I will get it over there you see and then pick my day to go to town and in doing that can catch a ride in.  Seed grain is also high here, oats are 65 cts a bushel wheat $1.25 a hundred pounds, flax three dollars a bushel.  I intend to put in ? what ground I have broke.  Trusting to hear from you I will ring off for this time and give you my address which is Clyde Arnold.  Tide Lake.  P. O. Via Carlstadt, Alta, Canada.

Clyde Arnold Post Card

 

Mrs. Cora Arnold

Roberts, Illinois
U.S.A.
R.F.D. #1
Jan. 30th
Dear Aunt.
I am home again once more after having been away for some time it seems good to get back as there is no place like home.  How are you all?  What is Seward doing these days. This card is a view of Carlstadt.  There is one elevator but it is not shown on this picture.  We are having fine weather here now.  Plenty of snow good sleighing.
Yours truly,
Clyde Arnold
Tide Lakes

Clyde's Accidental Death

Children of Johnson Arnold & Beckie (Zwig) Arnold:

1. Amos Silas b. 11 Jan 1887 d. 17 Jul 1887
2. Clyde Chester b. 10 May 1888 d. 23 Feb 1918.
3. Michael Ralph b. 1890
4. David Johnson b. 1892
5. Roger b. 1895
6. Henry Stuckley b. 1897
7. Ernest Linn b. 1899
8. Samantha Elizabeth b. 1901.

--Paxton Record.  28 February 1918.  Page 7. 

--Roberts Herald.  27 February 1918.  Page 1.

--Buried Lyman Township Cemetery.  Roberts, Ford County, Illinois.

Some other newspaper clippings:

--Paxton Record.  4 December 1913.  Page 7.

--Paxton Record.  25 December 1913.  Page 6.

--Gibson City Courier.  24 September 1915.  Page 3.

--Paxton Record.  4 November 1915.  Page 3.

https://amosarnoldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/06/lonesome-in-canada.html

https://amosarnoldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/06/clyde-chester-arnold.html

https://amosarnoldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/04/hard-winter-up-here-in-canada.html

Post Card from Clyde to Cora (Yackee) Arnold, his aunt.

 

Seven Sons and One Daughter

As mentioned in previous posts Johnson and Beckie married 6 April 1886, in Lyman Township "at the home of the bride's parents, which was known as the Canada Smith farm."  I believe this farm was directly across the road from where Johnson Arnold grew up.  Did Johnson marry the girl next door? 

--Roberts Herald.  8 April 1936.  Page 1.
 
They had seven sons and one daughter:

1. Amos Silas b. 11 Jan 1887 d. 17 Jul 1887
2. Chester Clyde b. 1888.
3. Michael Ralph b. 1890
4. David Johnson b. 1892
5. Roger b. 1895
6. Henry Stuckley b. 1897
7. Ernest Linn b. 1899
8. Samantha Elizabeth b. 1901.
 
1. Amos Silas Arnold was born 11 January 1887 and died 17 July 1887. He was the first burial in the Arnold family plot at Lyman Township Cemetery. Six months old.  I cannot find an obit for his death.

 

Link to a previous post about the Canada Smith farm location.

Link to a previous post about the Arnold family plot in Lyman Township Cemetery.

To be continued . . .

Related?

Just browsing in Find A Grave and found this photo.

Albert Arnold
(son of George Arnold and Hannah Randall)
George Arnold
(son of Thomas and Hannah Arnold)
Birth: unknown  Death: Nov. 12, 1819
Note: in his 89th year; h/o Hannah
Burial:  Brayton Cemetery, Apponaug, Kent County, Rhode Island, USA

Albert Arnold, born 26 Dec 1807 in Providence, R.I.; died 18 Sep 1881 in Victoria, Illinois; married (1) Elizabeth Wall 16 Jun 1834 in Poland,Herkimer,N.Y.; married (2) Samantha Lavinia Huntington 21 May 1845 in Burlington,New York.
Moved from Poland, N.Y. to Victoria Ill. after 1846 with his second wife Samantha Huntington.
He had a land grant deed which was registered in Knox county, Ill. on January 9,1853.
The land grant was originally given to John Brooks for his service in the war of 1812, and was signed by President Monroe. Brooks was a private in Sevett's Artillary, Warrent No. 10,620. Signed December 9,1817.
At the time M. Eliza Arnold's estate was being settled, October 4,1900, the mortgage on the farm was signed off by the two brothers (George in New York) and reissued and sent to Fanny, now Mrs. Barrer.
This is documented in a letter sent by the estate lawyer.
The land grant was donated to the Montgomery County Historical Society, Rockville, Maryland in 1996.

Purchaser: BROOKS JOHN Record ID: 564452
Date: 12/09/1817
Acres: 160
Price: 0.0
Type of sale: Military Tract (MT)
County: 48
Section: 24 Section Part: NE
Township: 12N Range: 03E
Meridian: 4 Purchaser Res: 550
Arch. Vol. No: 807 Vol. Page No.: 283
Cash warrant code: Record corrected: 0

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9577362/albert-arnold

Weatherwax Genealogy

I haven't had a chance to look at this yet. Hoping it might have some connections on our Johnson side of the family in New York.
Elizabeth Weatherwax is the wife of Isaac Johnson, and they are the parents of David Johnson.  And David Johnson is the father of Lora Johnson Arnold. 
I found this on FAG while looking at the photos for the Stickle Cemetery in New York. 

http://weatherwaxgenealogyblog.blogspot.com/

Zwig, Zwieg, Swig, etc.

Today I am adding information about Charles/Carl Zwig, Swig, Zwieg, etc. and his family to my Family Tree Maker program.  Here are some details about this line of our family . . . Beckie Zwig married Johnson Arnold in Lyman Township in 1886.  They are the parents of my grandfather, Ernest Arnold.

I did not note a date on this article but I believe it was from 1996.  It was published in the Gilman Star.  At that time I was living in Gilman, Illinois, with my son.  I responded to the ad, and over the years Patti Belden helped me add to my documents about the Zwig line. Much of this information came from Patti. 
Patti and her husband came to the Lyman Township Cemetery; Mom, Jackie and I met them there to help in her genealogy searches in Lyman Township.  Patti's connection was through the Wagner line.  Becky Zwig Johnson's sister is Emma Zwig.  Emma married Patti's great grandfather, Henry Wagner.  So Patti and I did not share DNA, just family information.

 

A previous post on this blog with more info about Patti:

http://amosarnoldgenealogy.blogspot.com/search/label/Zwig%20Wagner%20Emma

I guess the most frustrating in the Zwig research is the spellings of the names.  On this marriage license of Johnson Arnold and Becky Zwig, Becky signs her name "Becky" even though the license has her name spelled "Beckie." 

It is Charles Zwieg, Tena Hermann, and Beckie Zwieg.  But it does give a birthplace of the bride, Germany.

The headstones of Carl and Ernstine Zwig located in Lyman Township Cemetery, Roberts, Ford County, Illinois, more name spelling variations.

 

Carl Zwig and Ernstine Zwig.

Lyman Township Cemetery records show that a William Hermann who died 12 February 1885 is buried in this same plot as Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Zwig. There is no stone for this burial. I would assume a brother to Ernstine Hermann Zwig.  More research.  Not sure where the following note came from.

 

Obit for Carl Zwig. 

--Newspaper Clipping.  No identification.


Don't believe everything you read in old papers.  The following article has it all screwed up. Carl Zwig died at the home of Mrs. Johnson Arnold according to the death certificate. His name is not Zwick and his daughter would be Mrs. Johnson Arnold.

--Paxton Record.  25 May 1909.



Ernstine Zwig Obit. 

--Paxton Record.  29 August 1907.  Page 2.

Carl Zwig and Ernstine Hermann, a married couple, probably arrived in the USA in the year 1872 or 1873.  I believe William Hermann, Ernstine's brother may also have come with them (just a guess.)  Becky Zwig Arnold, their oldest daughter was born in Germany in October of 1869, and Emma Zwig Wagner was born in DelRey, Iroquois County, Illinois, in 1873. 

Emma Zwig, her life story is a little more complicated . . .  

Emma married Henry Wagner 28 March 1892.  This was the second of three marriages for Henry. 
He first was married to Minnie Harter who died at the age of 17 on 17 December 1891, six days after giving birth to their daughter, Alice.  Minnie is buried at Lyman Township Cemetery, but no stone can be found per Find A Grave.
Henry Wagner then married Emma Zwig 28 March 1892.  Henry and Emma had one son Charles Wagner.  Emma raised Minnie's daughter as her own. 
And after Emma died in 1940, Henry then married Delia Snyder on 7 December 1943. This was the third marriage for Delia also.  Married March 1895 to Roberts Bridges and married in 1921 to J. W. Snyder, former mayor of Gilman, Illinois.  Delia is buried at Lyman Township Cemetery.

 

Henry and Emma's children:
Alice (the biological daughter of Henry Wagner and Minnie Harter Wagner) married William Wagner
   Children:  Verleda E., Wayne, Maynard

Charles married Bess Kelso
   Children: Kelso, Mary Beth

Above Photo:  Henry Wagner.

Above Photo:   This is only a guess.
Standing in the back L to R:  Charley Wagner, Kelso Wagner, Henry Wagner (Henry was identified in this photo by Patti Belden.) 
Middle row, Emma Zwig Wagner, Alice Wagner
Front row:  Mary Beth Wagner
More Research.  Have posted to the RIH Facebook page for comments on identifications.

I have in my notes that Emma was first married to John Wagner.  I can't find any supporting documentation for this entry.  More reseach.  (I don't think this is true.)

Some updates to a previous blog.

https://amosarnoldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/04/golden-wedding-anniversary.html

Articles

Some interesting articles I gleaned from newspapers.com relating to Johnson and Beckie (Zwig) Arnold.

--Paxton Record.  11 December 1919.  Page 7.

This article leads me to believe they lived somewhere else prior to the corner of Adda and Locust Streets location. It states "They will reside in the residence property which they purchased some time ago . . ."  They must have been renting out this home to the Forster/Foster family.  I saw an article that said Johnson lived on North Street (but I can't find it now of course.)  More research. 
They must not have lived in the North Street home very long, as the next two articles are their purchase of the Locust Street home in
1920.  

--Roberts Herald.  1 September 1920.  Page 5.



--Paxton Record.  25 November 1920.  Page 1.

--Map of Lyman Township.  1916.

The Burn's Addition is to the west of the High School Gym in Roberts, across Locust Street.  I believe Johnson and Beckie lived in the little yellow home on the corner of Adda and Locust.  We remember it as the home where the Bob Hoover family lived.  I thought my great grandparents built this home, but the above article states it was the residence property of the Baylers.   

I found the following article about the North Street home, but not sure it
makes sense.  The wording in the article is very confusing (as some of these older newspapers obviously had no proofreaders.)
More research.  What home on North Street did Johnson own? 
 

--The Pantagraph.  Bloomington, Illinois.  14 January 1922.  Page 12.

 

 --Paxton Record.  29 September 1938.  Page 7.

 

So Johnson and Beckie purchase a home in Roberts some time prior to 1919 (several years prior) on North Street.  They move into this home in 1919.  Then the next year, they purchase the home on Locust Street (above photo.)  Here they will live out their lives.  Both Johnson and Beckie died in 1938.  And the above article talks of the sale in 1938 to Mr. Fred Sturm.

 

No Arnolds here, but a nice shot from the front yard of the home on Locust Street.  Some Roberts ladies. 

Jerry Sturm identified some of them when I posted this photo on the Roberts History Group Facebook page:  "Starting on right, first lady not sure, next is my Grandma Ida Sturm, not sure, sure, Mrs Seng or Schuler?, Gerty Sturm, not sure last two. Picture was taken at Fred and Ida Sturm's front yard across from high school."

Johnson & Beckie Arnold Stone

--Buried Lyman Township Cemetery. Roberts, Ford County, Illinois.

This stone is maybe 5-7 rows from Route 115 and rather to the middle, but a little more to the south.  And as you can see from the photo not far in from one of the cemetery gravel roads.  The stone engravings face the west.