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Annie Dewar
Kaelble - extract of a letter to her family
Dear Children,
So you wanted
to know about my side of the family. My Mothers name was ANNE HARDIE
and she married THOMAS DEWAR, june 13 1876.
My GRANDMOTHER,
who had eight children, -four boys and four girls, lived for 81
years, 1810 to 1891, slept away HADDINGTON, SCOTLAND. She lived
to see my MOTHER after her widowhood, as well as the babe in her
arms, myself, Annie.
As you can see,
my mother's name was HARDIE. The Scottish relatives set a value
on that. It apparently came over with WILLIAM THE CONQUERER in 1066.
They had it traced, but I do not know who or what he was.
My FATHER, THOMAS
DEWAR, was born in Virginia, USA and lived there until he was eight
years old. Then his FATHER, who was a photographer, saw an opportunity-
some new process, and took it back to GLASGOW, SCOTLAND and he made
a large fortune there.
My poor FATHER
was raised to be only a gentleman, which is the way to some extent
in Britain to this day. He had an education from GLASGOW UNIVERSITY
and a gold medal for his knowledge of French. So MOTHER and he started
life in a large house, which was later turned into an orphanage.
I saw it in Dunoon I think. When his father died, my FATHER had
a seat on the GLASGOW stock exchange and two blocks of flats. Ten
years later there was a depression and a law suit and it was all
gone. Hard times had really come. To pay off the debt everything
was sold, with the exception of their clothes, jewelry, silverware
and dishes.
MOTHER'S brothers,
JAMES and JOSEPH were already in NEW ZEALAND as well as her married
sister, CATHERINE ROBERTSON. JAMES was doing exceedingly well as
an IRONMONGER, which is the Scottish way of saying hardware merchant,
and all, like CATHERINE raising large families. MOTHER'S relatives
in SCOTLAND shipped them off in a sailing vessel, around the CAPE
OF GOOD HOPE to NEW ZEALAND. The voyage took three months. Each
day everyone lined up, and got a glass of lime juice to prevent
scurvy.
My FATHER by
this time was in a real mental state, he also had diabetes. In NEW
ZEALAND my FATHER tried office work but could only do beginner's
work as he had no training. So JAMES bought 20 acres out in the
BUSH. In those days men made a living digging KAURIE GUM. The huge
Kaurie trees were still living and men made a living. They took
a pole tipped with metal and pushing it down through the leaf mould
until they could feel the Kaurie gum, which remained from trees
that had died and rotted years ago and dug it. My FATHER tried it,
but was too sick. I talked with a lady 10 years ago, and she said
the huge KAURIE trees are all gone now, also the gum. She said the
Kauries are not evergreen like our Redwoods.
My FATHER'S
diabetes got worse as there was no insulin then and he felt cold
always. I was born, an unwanted but well loved child always. MOTHER
and all five of us were out in the vegetable garden. FATHER had
too hot a fire in the stove and the pipe went through the roof.
Fire, everything burned. All the whole family had were the oldest
clothes which we were wearing. MOTHER really hit bottom, nothing
left but a little jewellery which she had sent to Uncle JAMES hoping
for a sale.
Homeless and
penniless again (JAMES supplied all the money I think ) though all
helped. JAMES family was getting up in the world, and was a large
and socially prominent one. JOSEPH, and his second wife, who farmed
near, took them in. MOTHER preferred her sister CATHERINE's home
in town. The only place for FATHER was in hospital, where he died.
I think Uncle
JAMES bought passage home to Scotland for all of us, and this time
mother and children went on a steamer through the SUES CANAL and
the voyage took 6 weeks.
MOTHER said
the bush is very beautiful (so the wild country was called) . The
Kauries were huge, flowers blooming everywhere, wild fruit and wild
animals, and many insects. My cousin, JOHN ROBERTSON, when he came
to SCOTLAND about ten years later said the BUSH had become colder
and the ISLAND changed very much. The settlers had cut the big trees,
and as the stumps were so large, they planted grass around and raised
sheep until the stumps rotted. They had a problem though, the island
had no bees. Travel was slow and they tried to import hives but
they died en route. JOHN ROBERTSON's family were the ones who were
so good to WINNIE CLARK years later, and of course, NEW ZEALAND
has had bees for years now and no longer has to import all of its
clover seed.
Now, back to
us in SCOTLAND. The relatives settled us in a cottage in a small
village on the FIRTH OF FORTH, called LIMEKILNS. Mother and her
four half-grown children and babe-in-arms, saw her aged mother at
JOHN's house in HADDINGTON, and later when GRANDMOTHER died she
left a will leaving mother an income until I was 21. We lived in
LIMEKILNS until I was four, when we moved to DUMFERLINE for schooling
and employment for all. It is a lovely town and the ancient capital
of SCOTLAND, KING ROBERT THE BRUCE is buried in the ancient ABBY
there. This is kept in perfect repair but QUEEN ANNES palace is
a ruin. At that time large mills made the finest LINEN DAMASK and
there were also coal mines there. MOTHER did not let any child work.
As my legs grew
longer I walked with the other children to the sea three and a half
miles away to the Firth of Forth. We gathered mushrooms, shells,
and waded. Oh, many things that children do. The sea is cold, SCOTLAND
is a rainy land, but very beautiful and always we wore woolen clothing
and stockings.
When I was sixteen
we came to CANADA. I remember when MOTHER decided that. She and
I were in EDINBOROUGH visiting Aunt JANE and Uncle JOHN. This is
a beautiful town. With its CASTLE on the rock, and all its colorful
HIGHLAND soldiers. It beautiful park and famous floral clock. Well,
there was an Exposition to encourage emigration and all the colonies
had booths, and mother looked them all over and decided on CANADA.
We were living in LANGSIDE GLASGOW then. More history there, SCOTLAND
is full of it and I have seen much more than I could ever tell here.
HARDIE went
to Winnipeg next year in 1905 and MOTHER, the following year 1906
and LUCY, JULIA and I and soon CHRIS followed. That brings us to
this side of the ATLANTIC.
My GRANDPARENTS
were gentlemen farmers. Grandfather died when my MOTHER was small.
He had a highland sheep farm with a shepherd and family on it also
MARKELMAINS, where they lived in a big house with grievers cotters
in a three sided square and their cotter lived there. even had two
maids in the house. GRANDMOTHER managed it all, and financially
did very well. It was all set
No wonder Britain
did so much colonizing and fighting, with such large families I
knew off, Well, I am tired, and making lots of mistakes, so, so
long for now.
Lovingly Mother,
Annie Dewar Kaelble.
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