Janice Lowe Willsey fonds. — [1900]-1985. — 2 cm of textual records. — 62 photographs.
Biographical Sketch
Janice Lowe grew up in the Beaverlodge district of the Peace River Country. She is descended from several families who were early settlers and farmers in the area: James Cahoon, who homesteaded at Lake Saskatoon in 1915; Milroy and Marie English, who arrived in the Lake Saskatoon district in 1917; and Maurice and Lena Lowe, who came to the Beaverlodge area in 1927. She married David Willsey, son of Melvin and Rose Willsey, in 1972.
Custodial History
The records were collected by Janice Willsey from various family members and the original documents, along with copies of the photographs from the family album, were donated to South Peace Regional Archives in July 2016.
Scope and Content
The fonds consists of 62 photographs of the Lowe, English, Cahoon and Willsey families; and personal papers for the Lowe family which include records relating to World War I, land agreements, vital statistics documents, and financial records.
Notes
Related records: fonds 610 Jack and Betty Lowe fonds
Accession No. 2016.027
Photographs in this fonds are copies of the originals.
Table of Contents
| Series 647.01 | Jacob and Prudence Lowe family |
| Series 647.02 | Joseph and Katherine Suder family |
| Series 647.03 | Milroy and Marie English family |
| Series 647.04 | James and Nellie Cahoon family |
| Series 647.05 | Melvin and Rose Willsey family |
| Series 647.01 | Jacob and Prudence Lowe family. — 1910-1977. — 2 cm of textual records. — 35 photographs.
Jacob Peter Lowe and his wife Prudence (Quinn) Lowe came to the Stony Plain area of Alberta from Ontario in 1909. After several moves, they settled at Winterburn, Alberta. Prudence died in 1924 and the family relocated to several areas: Jacob sold his land to John Suder and moved to Vegreville with the younger children who were still in school; and Maurice, Chester, Susie and Esther moved up to the Peace Country in Northern Alberta. In his later years, Jacob also moved to the Beaverlodge area to live with daughter Esther and Bert Cunningham. Jacob passed away in 1948, but descendants the Jacob Lowe family still reside in the Beaverlodge area. The series consists of personal papers for Jacob Peter Lowe, personal papers for Maurice and Lena Lowe, and photographs of three generations of the family: the Jacob and Prudence Lowe family, the Maurice and Lena Lowe family, and the Joe and Marjorie Lowe family. It is divided into three subseries: Jacob and Prudence Lowe (1910-1939); Maurice and Lena Lowe (1906-1970); and Joe and Marjorie Lowe (1951-1977). |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| SubSeries 647.01.01 | Jacob and Prudence Lowe. — 1910-1939. — 1 cm of textual records. — 5 photographs.
Jacob and Prudence Lowe came to the Stony Plain area of Alberta from Ontario in 1909 with 10 children: Dora, Maurice, Jack, Susie, Aggie, Chester, Myrtle, Edna, Edith and Esther. Four more children were born in Alberta: Marjorie, Irene, Eva and Joseph. In 1911 the family moved on to Winterburn. When World War I began, Maurice and Chester enlisted in the 194th Battalion in Edmonton. They were sent overseas in November 1916. After the war, Jack married Betty Zeigler, and Maurice married Lena Suder. In 1924, Prudence died and the next year, Jacob sold his land in Winterburn to John Suder and moved to Vegreville where he built a house on his son Jack’s farm. About this time, a number of the children moved up to the Peace Country: Susan with her husband Peter Whelan to Prestville, east of Rycroft; Maurice and Lena to Beaverlodge; Chester to Beaverlodge where he married Thelma Chandler; and Esther and her husband Bert Cunningham to Beaverlodge, taking with them the youngest Lowe child, her brother Joseph. Later father Jacob also moved up to live with Esther and Bert. Son Jack and Betty Lowe made a trip to the Peace Country in 1929, but returned to live at Vegreville. Chester and Thelma Lowe also returned to Vegreville after World War II. Jacob passed away in 1948. The sub-series consists of five photographs of the Jacob and Prudence Lowe family in Ontario and Winterburn; a 1925 Agreement for Sale of Land (SE Section 34, Township 52, Range 26, West of the 4th Meridian) by Jacob P. Lowe to John Suder; Jacob Lowe’s Last Will and Testament dated 1925, including hand-written instructions and a codicil; a letter from John Suder to Jacob Lowe regarding the final payment of the mortgage on the purchased property in 1943, and the receipt for the final payment made in 1944. |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| SubSeries 647.01.02 | Maurice and Lena Lowe. — 1906-[1970]. — 1 cm of textual records. — 9 photographs.
Maurice Lowe was born May 1, 1892 at Bying Inlet, Parry Sound District in Ontario. In 1909 he moved with his parents and siblings to the Stony Plain area of Alberta, and in 1911 on to Winterburn. When World War I began, Maurice and his brother Chester enlisted in the 194th Battalion in Edmonton. They were sent overseas in November 1916, where Maurice was transferred to the 49th Battalion in France. He fought at Vimy Ridge in April 1917, was wounded at Passchendaele in October 1917, and wounded again in the fall of 1918. He was in hospital in England when the war ended in November 1918. Returning home after the war, Maurice married Magdaline “Lena” Suder in 1922. Lena was born January 25, 1894 in the Electoral District of Edmonton. In 1927, Maurice and Lena moved north to the Peace Country and took homestead land in the Beaverlodge district where they lived for the remainder of their lives. Maurice and Lena had seven children: Allen married Annie Schenk; Bertha married Rober Hauger; Ruth married Gordon Albright; Joseph married Marjorie Cahoon; Beulah married Harold Sanderson; Agnes married Jim Patterson; Margaret married Jim Hodgson. The sub-series contains: 1916 Attestation papers for Maurice Lowe, Regimental No. 904485 with the 194th Overseas Highland Battalion; a 1918 Army Orders document listing Lance Corporal Maurice Lowe as a recipient of the Military Medal; two 1922 marriage certificates for Maurice and Lena; correspondence with the Veterans Association regarding pensions; financial records from their farm at Beaverlodge; two pages of biographical memoirs written by Maurice; and seven photographs. The photos include a couple of Maurice in World War I uniform, Maurice and Lena’s wedding in 1922, their first home on the farm east of Beaverlodge, and several in later years. |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| SubSeries 647.01.03 | Joe and Marjorie Lowe family. — 1951-1977. — 21 photographs.
Joseph Lowe was the fourth child of Maurice and Lena Lowe, born on the old William Hodges farm near Beaverlodge in 1929. He attended Bush Lake School. As a young man he worked in saw mills south of the Wapiti and seismic crews when oil exploration began. In 1950 he purchased a quarter section of land north of Beaverlodge, and in 1951 married Marjorie Cahoon from the Mountain Trail area. Joe and Marjorie had six children: Janice, Brenda, Darlene, Darcy, Lorraine and Douglas. The sub-series consists of 21 photographs of Joe and Marjorie, beginning with their marriage in 1951. Subjects of the photos include their children, the farm near Beaverlodge, and Beaverlodge High School Graduation in 1970. |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series 647.02 | Joseph and Katherine Suder family. — [1900-1920]. — 3 photographs.
Joseph and Katherine Suder arrived in the Spruce Grove area in 1892, shortly after their marriage in Waterloo, Ontario. They came in company with Katherine’s family, the Hodels. Katherine was the fourth daughter of George Hodel and Eva (Hare) Hodel, who had emigrated from Grumbach, Germany in 1878, coming to Ontario in 1890 and to Spruce Grove in 1892. Joseph and Katherine Suder had 15 children, only ten of whom survived to adulthood: George (Sept 19, 1892-April 6, 1977); Lena (Jan 25, 1894 – Feb 4, 1971); Annie (May 1, 1895 – Mar 20, 1945); John (Aug 17, 1896 – Aug 18, 1945); twins Amiel (Mar 8, 1898 -Sept 8, 1898) and Irving (Mar 8, 1898 – April 1, 1899); Joseph (July 7, 1899 – Aug 18, 1901); Kate (May 21, 1901 – Feb 28, 1997); Henry (Mar 18, 1904 – Mar 21, 1904); Josiah (May 15, 1905 – Feb 25, 1999); Elizabeth (May 20, 1997 -Apr 19, 1992); Wesley (Mar 24, 1910 – Aug 9, 1932); Milton (Nov 28, 1912 – Aug 1, 2009); William Gordon (Aug 3, 1914 -June 12, 1916); and Mabel Grace (July 23, 1916 – Mar 15, 1917). Their daughter Lena married Maurice Lowe and moved up to the Beaverlodge area in the Peace Country in 1927. The series consists of three photographs of the Suder family and the home they lived in at Spruce Grove. |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series 647.03 | Milroy and Marie English family. — [1905-1960]. — 7 photographs.
Milroy English and Marie (Orme) English were both born in the United States. They were married in 1896 and came to Canada in 1905. After homesteading in Saskatchewan, they sold the farm and started over again in the Lake Saskatoon area in 1917. Milroy went three months before the others to get a home ready, and Marie traveled by train to Grande Prairie with six children: Nellie, Ethel, Emma, Kathleen, Stacey, and Lloyd. A seventh child, Hazel, was born at Lake Saskatoon. Daughter Emma died during the 1918 influenza epidemic which affected the entire family. Milroy was sick for several years and died in 1923. Marie then took a homestead in the Mountain Trail area near Saskatoon Mountain. Nellie May, the oldest child of Milroy and Marie English, was born in Indiana. After the family came to Lake Saskatoon, she married James Cahoon, from Lisborn, Ireland. The couple had six children and after Nellie died in 1935, her two youngest children, Roy and Marjorie, were raised by Marie English. The series consists of seven photographs from four generations of the English family, including Marie English, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series 647.04 | James and Nellie Cahoon family. — [1900-1960]. — 1 p. — 6 photographs.
James Cahoon was born in Ireland, and served with the Imperial Police Force on special assignment to trouble spots such as Rangoon, Bangkok, Singapore and Sumatra, Burma and Malta. He came to Canada about 1900 where he joined the Ontario Police Force, serving in Kenora, ON. About 1915 he took homestead land in Saskatchewan, and in 1918 moved on to the Lake Saskatoon District where he purchased the SW ¼ of Section 34, Township 71, Range 8 which had been homesteaded by Harry Meikle. He married Nellie English and the couple had six children: James, Sam, Robert, Arthur, Roy and Marjorie. Nellie passed away in 1935, and her mother, Marie English, raised the two youngest children. James passed away in November 1955. His four sons lived mostly in British Columbia. Only his daughter Marjorie, who married Joe Lowe and farmed near Beaverlodge, remained in the Peace Country. The series consists of Certificate of Birth for Roy Cahoon, born December 3, 1925 at Wembley, Alberta, and six photographs of various members of the Cahoon family. |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series 647.05 | Melvin and Rose Willsey family. — [1940]-1985. — 11 photographs.
Melvin Willsey arrived in the Wembley area of the Peace Country in 1917, as a small child with his parents, Frank and Margaret Willsey. In 1921 the family, which eventually had 13 children, moved to the Aspen Dale district. Melvin attended school at Lower Beaverlodge, 5 ½ miles from their home, until the Aspen Dale School was built in 1928. World War II started in 1939, and in 1942, Melvin and two of his brothers (Dan and Jack) enlisted in the war. Melvin served mainly in Holland, and was there when the Armistice was signed in 1945. After the war, Melvin married Rose Hotte, daughter of Adelord and Cloredia Hotte, a French family from Ontario via Saskatchewan, who arrived in the Beaverlodge area in 1927. Melvin and Rose raised four children on their farm at Aspen Dale. The series consists of 11 photographs of the Willsey family, including Melvin Willsey and Alfred Hotte in World War II uniforms, Rose (Hotte) Willsey before and after her marriage, the wedding of Melvin Willsey and Rose Hotte, and the two oldest Willsey children, David and Louella. |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||