"Sarah was born in England, in 1850, and was brought as an infant of three months by her parents to reside at Little Britain, Ont.
"Her first marriage was to John Freed in 1882, coming to Manitoba and settling on a homestead at Miniota, where three children, Ellen, Charles and Jesse, were born. Upon the death of her husband in 1888, she came to Eden and resided with her brother Joseph Bonney. On the advice of her brother she applied for and was granted homestead rights on NE 32-15-16. This land adjoined the homestead of her cousin Fletcher Martin, whom she married in 1891. From this union her last son, Harry, was born in 1892.
"Sarah died in 1927 at Eden, in the home of her son, Charles. The funeral was held on December 20, from the home of her son to Riverside Cemetery. Rev. R.G. MacKay conducted the service.
"One day when Dad was about 18 months, Grandma was in town shopping for necessities at the local store. After finishing her order she turned to pick up Dad and found he was missing. Upon inquiry, she finally located him in the arms of an Indian woman who was showing off his very white skin and reddish hair to her friends where they were having some work done at the blacksmith shop. My Dad's hair later became very black, but he never lost his milk white skin.
"I remember my Grandmother as quite a large woman. At times I remember her sitting on a hewn homemade chair with very substantial legs, very carefully lowering the level of milk in a tall milk can. When the cream showed through the window on the lower side of the can, she would turn the spout off. Then she would carefully run the cream into a container. This was then either put into the earthen root house at the north side of the house or placed into the running water of the creek to keep it cool. This cream was later churned into butter. Some of this butter was sparingly used at home and the rest was taken to town where it was traded in at the store for much needed staples such as sugar, tea, salt, and dried apples.
"During the long winter Grandma would place all the ashes from the stove into a wooden barrel outside. In the spring she would carefully catch the liquid caused from the melting snow and rain which ran through the ashes. This lye she then used with rendered fat to make all of her soap.
"Another incident showing how much care was taken of food. A log footpath was laid across the creek where Grandma cooled her tall cans of milk. Grandpa wa helping by carrying the can part way across to where she wanted it put. He slipped and landed in the creek with a mighty splash. Grandma's first instinct caused her to shout, 'Fletcher, have you spilt the milk?'"219 |