Forest Hesp 1888- 1971

 

1888. Walter Forester Hesp was born 22/1/1888 in Albion Township, Peel Ontario to Henry Hesp and Isabella Wauchop.

1891C. Forest Hesp, 3, Methodist, is living Albion, Cardwell, Ontario, with his widowed father, Henry, 35, farmer . Henry was born Ontario but his parents were both born in England . Living next door to them are David Hesp, 57, farmer, born England, Elizabeth 53, born Ontario, parents born England, Sarah 20, & Thomas 15

1901C. E. Forest Hesp, 13, Methodist, is living Bolton, Cardwell, Ontario, with his father, Henry, 44, born 11/9/1857, farmer, Susanah 34, and stepsiblings William R.6, Mary I. 4 and C. David 1. Henry was born Ontario but his father was born in England, his mother in Ontario. .

1901-1911. Forest Hesp moved from Ontario to Alberta - his father stayed in Ontario

1911C. Forest Hesp, 23, farmer, single, no religion, is living by himself in Red Deer, Alberta . Maybe next door to a Thomas Hesp 1876- a relation??, a reason for moving west?? Could you find out what he received at Coronation??

1914. 22/6/1914 Forest Hesp married Nellie Frances Agar - where??- presumably in Red Deer, Alberta - funny the date is known, but not the place!

From the stated birthplaces of their children, they must have moved 200 k E to Coronation by 1915. Then 200 k S to Strathmore by 1918 before moving back to Coronation by 1923- and maybe to Throne by 1939- or maybe Nellie was just in Throne for Beverley's birth or just happened to register it there

Strathmore is ~200k S of Red Deer, ~40 k E of Calgary . Coronation is ~195 k E of Red Deer. Throne is ~ 15 k ESE of Coronation

 

1916. Forrest Hesp , 28, farmer, protestant, is living 36, 10, 4, Whiteside Municipality-township 36 , Battle River Alberta with his wife Nellie and daughter Violet, 0- Ancestry 1916 Census of manitoba, Saskatchewan & Alberta The above address actually included the town of Coronation

1918. Emily Hesp was born to Forest & Nellie on 16/5/1918 Strathmore.

1921CC. Forrest Hesp, 28, farmer, methodist, is living in Bow River, Alberta with his wife Nellie 25, and 4 children, Violet 5, Estelle/Edith 4, Emily 3 & Nelda 1, children all born Alberta ; Forrest and Nellie born Ontario, as were their parents - Ancestry . Census address also given as Municipality Bow Valley #219 Local Improvement Dis #218- likely~20 k S of Calgary, at least 50 k W of Strathmore. This very odd!

CAN anyone enlighten me on where they are living in this 1921CC- does hash 219 mean anything to Canadians??

From Donald Klippert: 2016


I searched the 1921 census of Canada on Ancestry the other day and Forest Hesp and his family were living in Township 24, Range 23, west of the 4th meridian. This is approximately 9 to 10 miles east of Strathmore, Alberta. All of those other designations such as Local Improvement district #219, Bow River (which may have been a census division or defunct rural municipality), etc., are obsolete and don't mean anything to present-day Albertans. Presently, rural Alberta is organized into counties and municipal districts - I'm not sure what the difference is - and Strathmore and this location where the Hesps resided both lie in the County of Wheatland. Quite a number of the small, old rural municipalities were re-organized or amalgamated into the larger counties and M.D.'s back in the 1940's, I believe. The only thing that has not changed is the legal description of land, which read: section, township, range, meridian. This goes for Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. So if you see 12-25-1-W5, that means section 12, township 25, range 1, west of the fifth meridian. The fifth meridian passes through Calgary, btw. The prime, or first meridian, is near Winnipeg, Manitoba.

1922. David Forest Robert Hesp was born in Strathmore to Forest & Nellie- Nellie's father was a Robert and Forest's grandfather was a David

1923. The family moved to Throne & the children went to school there . - this from obituary of David Hesp http://www.mhfh.com/hesp-%E2%80%93-david-forest-robert/.

hesp-family

Forest & Nellie with, l to r, Emily, David, Violet?, Nelda, Estelle? ~ 1929?

Forest & Nellie had 12 children in all

forest-nellie-children

Photo of   Nellie Hesp (Agar)  & Forest Hesp   taken ~ 1934 with their 7 children born before then, 1 having died
Laura has guessed at the children in the photo,
top row -          Nelda born 26/1/1920,    Emily 16/5/1918,     Estelle 3/2/1917
middle row -    David 13/2/1922,             Nellie,  Forest,              Violet 13/10/1915

bottom row -    Helen 12/3/1930,          Stanley, 17/1/1932

1945. The family moved to Edmonton- details in Barbara's story below

 

1954. Forest and Nellie seemed to have settled back in Ontario in St Catherines ; their Stanley grandchildren remember them always living there

1965. Forest & Nellie attended the wedding of their granddaughter, Laura Stanley

laura-stanley-1965-wed

Feb 12, 1965
From left:        Arthur A. Stanley,   Grace Stanley (Hudson),  Bruce Taylor,   Laura Taylor (Stanley),  Nellie Hesp (Agar),  Forest Hesp.

forest-nellie .nellie-forest

Nellie & Forest - occasion?, someone's wedding?? - & at Christmas 196x?? - their house?

1968. Nellie Hesp died 8/3/1968. -Murray. Buried Victoria Lawn Cemetery, St Catherines, Ontario

1971. Forest Hesp died 8/9/1971, Calgary Alberta - he apparently moved back to Alberta after Nellie died but he is buried Victoria Lawn Cemetery, St Catherines, Ontario

 

   "Grandma Hesp loved scrap books and she used to save catalogues and magazines for my sister, Carol, and I to look through when we visited.    We would spend hours being busy cutting out our favourite dresses  (especially bridal) and gluing them into scrap books.    Grandma loved paper dolls and was an avid gardener.    Her roses were the best on the street.    She was a large woman, not only in size but in presence and I think she may have dominated poor Forest sometimes, but I can't be sure of that.     With so many members in the Hesp family we had large family reunions every year."

"About 10 years ago, Carol and I, along with our Aunt Helen went to Calgary for a reunion.     Everyone connected to the family got together to drive to Coronation to try and find the original homestead.  The government was eager to have settlers come out from Ontario to build homes and farm the land so they were giving huge tracts away for free.   This trip held lots of memories for the older members.   We found traces of the homestead - an old well, an outline of where the house stood, some very old pieces of equipment."    

Forest seemed to be already in Alberta- Red Deer - in 1914. So would he have qualified for free land? And if he received it in Throne/Coronation, why did he go down to Strathmore?? Would any deeds-- or register of deeds- exist anywhere?

He did have a homestead in Throne but could not make enough out of it to support the family : this from Nelda's daughter Barbara:

The booklet   “Beginnings” was put together by Aunt Estelle 1917 and Aunt Violet 1915 from notes written by Grandma (Nellie Agar/Hesp). Carol/Laura has a copy of this and Barbara, daughter of Nelda Hesp 1920 has all the diaries of Nellie Agar/Hesp .  

Forest Hesp lived in the Strathmore area, Nellie lived in town where Emily, Nelda and David were born.  Forest dug irrigation ditches by hand, opening them up to let water in and closing them up to stop the water. He would live during the week with the farmer for whom he was working.  He worked for a farmer who did not pay him a cent for all his hard labour  as a farm hand for the year of 1921.  Nellie was pregnant with David, had 4 little girls, no money and needed a place to live.  She was charming, talkative and desperate.  She persuaded the hotel manager in the town of Strathmore to let the family live in a small “apartment” on the upper floor of the hotel for free over the winter.  David was born February 13, 1922.  That spring  (1922) Nellie with 4 little girls and a baby boy (all on her own) took the train back to Throne where Forest had a homestead and near where her parents, Mary Ellen and Robert Agar lived on a larger more prosperous farm.  While in Strathmore when Emily and Nelda were babies, Nellie started the first library in Strathmore.  She charged people so much to borrow a book and then used that money to buy books and set up her living room to hold all the books.  She always had an angle of how to make some money in order to accomplish her purpose.  There were always lots and lots of books in whatever little place they lived.  I have a picture of the house where Nelda was born January 28, 1920 (it was on main street).

Forest and Nellie moved back to Ontario because Nellie decided- back in 1909 when she was 13- that one day she would move back to Ontario.  She did not want to move to Alberta with her parents.  She had a choice she could live with her Aunt Annie and her husband who was a Methodist minister or go to Alberta with Mary Ellen and Robert Agar.  Her parents were strict but her Aunt and her husband would probably have been stricter.  Forest would probably have stayed in Alberta.  He returned to Alberta after Nellie died March 8, 1968.  Nellie and Forest moved back to Ontario in 1954 from Edmonton, Alberta.  Forest was a horse buyer for Red Top foods (pet food) when Nellie and Forest lived in Edmonton.  They moved to Edmonton in about 1945 or 1946 (Aunt Beverly would know the year).  When they left Throne times were very hard.  They had no money.  They had a farm auction of their equipment, animals, etc.  and some person with the municipality took all the money they made from their sale for back taxes for the homestead land.  It was after the time of the “dirty thirties”  drought, crop failures, no money.  People could not pay their taxes.  Food from Ontario was sent west to feed people.  

Mary Ellen Agar died in 1942 and Robert Agar sometime after that (I would have to pull out my Agar family tree)-1953. They  had money.  Mary Ellen had her own bank account, her own homestead 1/4 of land over 100 years ago.  They believed in equality for women.  When they died they left money to their 6 children and with that inheritance Nellie was able to buy a house in Edmonton.  She then rented out every square inch of extra space to boarders, renters whatever to make money and Forest went to work at a salaried job.  She bought more houses, painted them, fixed them up and flipped them.  She made the money in the family.  She had made enough money by 1954 to buy a brand new car, holiday trailer and off they moved to Ontario.  They lived that 37 Thorndale Ave., St. Catharines, Ontario.  I have a letter Nellie wrote describing that house.

 


 

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