Dear Railway Children

By Gwynneth Knowlton Wallace

Gwynneth Wallaces childhood was shaped by two interesting influences.
Her childhood home was a small town on the western Canadian prairie. Danish farmers had founded a town in which the minister and the church were shaping, and Danish was the first language for most. The close-knit community enjoyed the beauty of the surrounding prairie wheat fields in summer and winter sports in cold weather.
The second influence was the fact that her father was the railway station agent, and Gwynneth grew up in the station house.
In her adult life, she wrote letters for her children, who had scattered, and also to her grandchildren, nieces, and nephews, as she recalled all the fascinating things that went on in a railway station. She called the letters her Dear Railway Children and shared with her young readers the adventures of her early life. Late she gathered copies of the many letters and had them printed as a book for children fascinated with her story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503542594

Gwynneth Knowlton Wallace

Gwynneth Joyce (Knowlton) Wallace was born in Calgary in 1929, to Ted and Faye Knowlton. She grew up in Standard, Alta, attended Mount Royal College in Calgary and received a degree in Nursing from UBC, Vancouver. Her graduation day was the day of her wedding rehearsal and the following day she married Robert Wallace, a theological student from Armstrong BC. Together they served United churches in Abbey Saskatchewan, Lake Cowichan BC, calgary, Montreal and Toronto and after retiring to Nova Scotia, a number· of congregations in the Annapolis Valley. They raised five children, Dolly Lansdowne, Bella Bella BC, Brenda Wallace-Allen, Blomidon, Craig, Edmonton, Scott (TJ Scott), and Mark, Los Angeles. Gwynneth became a vital presence in the lives of her children's partners, her much loved grandchildren and her adored great grandchildren. She also had an enduring impact on extended family, "almost family" and a worldwide circle of friends. Gwynneth was an innovator and leader in Public Health throughout her career, at one point representing WHO as an intercontinental traveling planner in Heart Health. She was a· recognized leader in every community in which she resided always seeking_ out opportunities to cultivate an interest in the arts, most recently founding the popular Grow with Art program at NSCC Kingstec. Gwynneth was a great observer of life which she documented through photos and journaling. This observation of detail is reflected in a number of books she wrote or cowrote. She lived with cancer for 30 years before finally quietly "slipping the surly bonds of earth" June 28th at home in the presence of family. We will gather to remember her as a mentor, host, educator, advisor, leader and nurturer of dreams at a memorial service to be held on July 21st at 2:00 at St. Andrew's United Church, Wolfville. Gwynneth would have appreciated donations to the Valley Hospice Foundation or Grow with Art. Arrangements have been entrusted to the White Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, Kentville.

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Copyright © 2015 by Gwynneth Knowlton Wallace.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 04/10/2015

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 1

Dear railway children:

May Young was five years old when she watched her father, Benjamin Franklin Young, known as BF, preparing for her and her three brothers to travel on the first Canadian Pacific Railroad train to make the run to Eastern Canada. BF was a veteran of the American Civil War. He immigrated to British Columbia and established the first ranch in the north of the Okanagan Valley. He was a hardy, risk-taking rancher who prided himself on his land, his horses, and his family.

May’s mother, Annie, was a beautiful, cultured woman who, in her teens, had traveled to the west from Quebec by boat, crossed the Panama isthmus, and pack-horsed from the Oregon Coast into the valley. She was a gentle, gracious woman who offered hospitality to many settlers coming to the new land in the nineteenth century. The Youngs were the leading citizens in their part of BC.

The year was 1885. BF had listened to stagecoach drivers and cowboys telling of the rapid progress of the building of a railway. Crews were blasting the road through the Rocky Mountains from the west while other workers were laying track across the prairies into the foothills, working through the eastern mountain range at the rate of five to seven miles a day. The dream of Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, was about to come true—a ribbon of rail that would bind Canada into one nation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

BF wanted his wife to visit her parents whom she had not seen for many years, and this was the opportunity for his children to travel to Quebec to meet their Irish immigrant grandparents.

Finally, the good news filtered across the hills and valleys of British Columbia to the Young ranch. The last spike had been driven at Craigellachie in the BC Mountains. The railway was complete! BF, Annie, and the four children were ready. Following his plan to have his family on the first transcontinental run, BF helped his family pile their luggage, food, and supplies on a big wooden, flat-bottomed boat (a barge) and boarded. The barge, pushed along by BF, the boys, and hired men, all with long poles, had fifty miles of river and a lake to travel in order to reach the closest railway stop at Sicamous. The river was swifter than they had expected, and the progress was slower than BF had calculated. They missed the first train, but they continued on.

Soon the second train to cross Canada pulled in, and they were ready. BF, the usually cool ranch boss, was so excited he bought a ticket for himself to ride as far as Calgary with the family. It was as thrilling as he had expected. He got out and bought a ticket to Winnipeg. At Winnipeg, the excitement, the view, and the wonder propelled BF to the ticket window, where he bought a ticket and continued with Annie, May, and the boys all the way to Montreal. Here, the happy, rugged pioneer watched Annie’s family welcome them all home. BF returned home, leaving the family for several months in Quebec with plans for little May to go on to Philadelphia to BF’s sister, who offered city life and education to her brother’s daughter from the Wild West.

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Little May was our grandmother. In her ninety-two years, she often told the story of that first train ride. Years later, she moved as a married woman with her