Raison/Reynolds fonds. — [1920-2000]. — 16 pp. of textual records. — 2 photographs.
Biographical Sketch
In the fall of 1920, Charles Raison (originally from Ontario but living in Detroit, Michigan at the time) made a trip to the Canadian west. He returned with the news that he had purchased a section of land in the Clairmont district near Grande Prairie, Alberta. The land had originally belonged to Dr. Albert Sproule, the traveling dentist. Charles’ family—consisting of wife Orilla, sons Oscar, Clarence and Thomas, and daughter Freda—moved up in the spring of 1921. Mr. & Mrs. Raison stayed on the farm for over 20 years, until they retired in 1943, and Clarence settled in the south Peace; but Oscar and Thomas returned to Detroit, and Freda moved to Ontario with her husband Reginald Reynolds after the Second World War.
The Reynolds family arrived in the Clairmont district in 1918 with their only son, Reginald. He married Freda Raison in 1928, and after the Depression began, both couples homesteaded in the Clarkson Valley School District east of the Smoky River. Reg and Freda returned to Grande Prairie in 1938 when their children came of school age, then moved on to London, Ontario after the war, in 1945.
Custodial History
Records donated by Richard Harold Raison, son of Thomas Harold Raison, in 2012 while on a family history trip to the Peace River Country from their current home in Michigan, USA.
Scope and Content
The fonds consists of copies of two photographs of the Raison men and Reginald Reynolds; two stories written by Shirley (Reynolds) Stoner, the daughter of Reginald Reynolds and Freda Raison; and a news clipping of a poem called “To A Crocus” written by Thomas Raison in memory of the prairies after he had returned to Detroit.
Notes
Title based on the contents of the fonds.
Related records: Two stories about the history of the Raison/Reynolds family, written by Freda (Raison) Reynolds, are included in community history books: Charles Raison Family in Smoky River to Grande Prairie, and William Melville Reynolds in Across the Smoky.
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