S.W. Shaw & Family

The Shaws of Midnapore- Part 1   ©

By R. Neil Brown

Families

Samuel William Shaw ("William") was born in the Town of Wandsworth, Surrey, England, on November 24, 1840.  He was given a rigorous education and became fluent in French and German. His father was Maltman William Stevens Shaw (1814 - 1872), a coal merchant and lighterman (operator of flat bottomed barges) in London.  His mother was Julia Emily Turner (September 20, 1816 - 1903).  His parents had two children:  Samuel William Shaw and Emily Ann Lockett Shaw (who would marry her cousin James Phillips).

Helen Maria York ("Helen"), was born in London, Middlesex, England on August 13, 1846, the youngest of five children of a prominent civil engineer and construction contractor John Oliver York and his wife Helen Kinnaird. Helen Maria York was a small, delicate, woman, who had blonde hair in her youth.  Her early education was in a French Convent, France being where her father lived for some time doing business in the construction industry.  There she became fluent in the French language. She was also a talented amateur painter and did needlework.

Courtship and Marriage  

Both William and Helen belonged to the Established Church, the Church of England, and were from well to do families. They had a difficult courtship; their marriage being opposed by both families on the grounds of their young age and to William’s relative lack of financial means.  After he met Helen, William began to keep a diary, which was written in a code with strange characters.  The first entry was simply “Met”.  Helen was evidently staying with the Shaw family overnight as the second entry in William’s diary on Sunday, January 19, 1862, reads in code: “The first kiss (in the bedroom at night)”.  The next day, January 20, 1862 the diary states: “Mother, sister Emily, Helen and I went to Covent Garden.”   William wasted no time in getting to the point as that day, his diary read: “I told Helen I loved her and Helen told me she loved me or rather I asked her “If she loved me?” she answered “yes”.  We then agreed that our love should last (“FOR EVER”).”

On January 22, 1862, William’s diary reveals that they began to make secret plans to elope.  It stated, in code, “Helen and I sat up half an hour later than the rest during which time we arranged our marriage day.”  On the 30^th of January 1862 they had a party at the Shaw house, at which time William and Helen talked to William’s father, persuading him to agree to their engagement; but at the same time his father advised them to wait a few years before marriage.  They were determined to get married and agreed to tell her father (Mr. York) when he would be home the next week.  On Monday, February 3, 1862 the diary says, “Mr. York arrived-told him Helen left our house.” The next entry in the diary was February 16, 1862 when it relates that William met Helen at Waterloo Station and took her to the Shaw house

There were no further entries in the diary, but despite the discouragement of parents for the courtship, they carried on an active, almost daily, correspondence over the following months and summer, and fall and some of William’s florid, passionate and eloquent love letters, cherished by Helen until she died, have survived to this day.  A typical letter dated November 21, 1862 began: “My dearest & forever most fondly loved Helen” arranging their next rendezvous and ended with the flourish: “In great haste & with my whole love and forever .. Yours affectionately very very lovingly and with an intense devotion…Samuel William Shaw.”  The letters told of their parents continuing opposition to an early marriage, maintaining that they should wait a few years; William’s father telling him that Helen would be an old woman by the time she reached 30; and that he couldn’t get married until he could afford a decent place to take a bride and asked: “Does he want to have her spending the rest of her life peeling potatoes and minding babies?”  The letters from William to Helen lament the fact that they cannot be alone together.  William began to mount arguments against his own father’s opposition on grounds of Helen’s tender age of 15 years; he complained to Helen:  does his father (Maltman Shaw) know that in 10 of every one hundred marriages the brides are 16 to 17 years old?; does he know that all Jewish women marry at sixteen and they live longer than most people?.

The heated romance of William and Helen continued through all of 1862, with much correspondence and them meeting whenever possible, but their courtship was met with increasing restrictions by the parents.  They were allowed meetings such as at Exhibitions of Art but visiting privileges at Helen’s parents’ home were reduced from three to two nights a week and William was not allowed to stay later than 9:00 pm. On Sundays he could come to tea at the York house from 4:00 to 5:00 pm.  Mrs. York was opposed to their love affair and was almost always present at their meetings.  Helen’s father returned to London for Christmas, 1862, but evidently a last appeal for his support for their marriage failed.  

To circumvent their parents’ opposition, William, together with Helen, formed plans for marriage.  These culminated in a plan whereby he arranged for lodging for them for two weeks at Watford, then about 12 miles distant from London.  By establishing residence as a qualification, he was able to get the parish priest to publish the marriage banns necessary to obviate the necessity for parental consent.  William paid for two weeks rent in the flat at Watford and evidently went to the flat a few times each week, but never to sleep there, which would make his parents suspicious.  William visited the church at Watford to make arrangements for the marriage bans to be called and was pleased to find that they could be published three days in succession:  on Saturday, January 4; Sunday, January 5; and Monday, January 6, 1863.  By having the marriage bans read on three successive days, in accordance with Canon Law, if no one was opposed, they could be married on Tuesday, January 7, 1863

Helen had been invited to attend at the Shaw residence to see the New Year of 1863 in, at which time they discussed their plans.  The final arrangements for the getaway were then set out in a letter which William sent to Helen: 

            “If you accept the invitation to our house, the affair will be easy.  We can be married the next day.  If you are not allowed to come, we must take the matter into our own hands.  I will be at the Top of Your terrace in Bayswater Road on Thursday, January 9, 1863 with a very fast horse at 7:45 am.  At 8:00 you can leave your house.  (I will be there ¼ of an hour before in case it is more convenient to you to leave then.)  We drive to Euston Square where we arrive at 8:20 and we arrange that a special train take us there and back (which will be waiting) for us so that we arrive at our destination by 9:00am.  We are then married and back at 10:15. We can then go back to your house together or separately as you may decide and with whatever excuses we may decide on.  It is worth the stake we play for, for once we are married, we do not care for anyone’s scoldings or annoyances, for if you are even in the slightest way harshly treated, we would at once live together.  We could very well manage for now I have very nearly five hundred pounds a year, and if I wished for more I have very little doubt that I could procure it.  We must start rain or fine, no matter what the weather”.  

After confirming that no one in Watford Parish had objected to their marriage at the reading of the marriage banns, a short final note was sent by William to Helen:  it read simply: “All is arranged at Watford. -  S.W. Shaw”

On Thursday, January 9, 1863, Helen and William were married in the parish church at Watford, when he was 21 and she was 16 years old, without parental consent.  They returned to London by train and each went to their respective homes to break the news to their parents; which was not done until the wedding was announced on January 15, 1863 in the local newspaper.

Family Life in England

One can only speculate how their respective families must have reacted to the fait accompli of the marriage, but the marriage and their family flourished, and children were soon arriving with frequency, the first of these being a daughter Helen Alice Julia, born on November 15, 1863 at Stanstead, Kent.  A second child Agnes Egerie Louise was born on June 13, 1866 at Newtown, Kent.  A third child, Edward William Oliver was born on October 18, 1867 at Bromley Kent, but sadly died two days after birth.  The family moved to Maidstone, in Kent for an extended period of years, at a residence called Bower Hill House, where four more children were born:  Evelyn Flora Lida, born May 10, 1869; Hugh Kinnaird Hunter, born August 18, 1872; Maltman William Stevens, born June 4, 1874; and Elphie Mable Idalie, born May 10, 1875.   In 1872, William’s father died and he inherited his father’s coal business.

Sometime between May 1875, when Elphie was born, and July 1878 when Henry Kinnaird Turner was born, the family moved to a residence called Eastgate House, located in Rochester St. Nicholas, Kent, a short distance east of London.  At this address, their last home in England, before leaving for Canada, they had two more children:  Henry Kinnaird Turner, born July 29, 1878; and John Oliver York, born May 24, 1880.  The home is still standing and at various times was used as a Ladies School, the City of Rochester Museum and later the Charles Dickens Museum.  It is an elegant large three level red brick home, which derived its name from its location next to the east gate of the old wall of Rochester. In 1881 the British Census shows that William and Helen, their eight children and two domestic servants were living in the house; William's occupation was shown on the census as a "Coal Factor" (coal merchant). An extract from “Notes on the Rochester Museum” by Edwin Harries, published in 1928 is as follows:    “Sometime between the years 1870 and 1880 Eastgate House ceased to be a Ladies School, (I cannot fix the exact date…Mrs. Knighton was the last lady to carry on the school.  Eastgate House then became a private residence.  Mr. Shaw, a wholesale coal merchant lived there.  He cut the building about a good deal, by installing electric light, which he made on the premises, and other so-called improvements”.  

As noted above, we can better pin the date of their move to Eastgate House down due to the recorded birthplaces of Elphie and Henry Kinnaird.

In England, Helen reportedly suffered from extended periods of ill health, which may have been partly due to the rigours of repeated pregnancies and child birth in those days when medicine was not as well developed as in present times and some of their grandchildren speculated that the change of climate to benefit Helen’s health was a contributing reason for the family’s decision to emigrate to Canada.

 In the years following his marriage to Helen, William followed his father in conducting a successful business as a coal merchant operating under the name “Shaw and Company, Coal Exporters” with its head office in London and branches in Newcastle on Tyne and West Hartlepool.   William was also skilled as a chemist (what we would now call a pharmacist) and in the young science of photography.  He read scientific books and journals voraciously, with a particular interest in electricity, and telegraphy and telephony, and he maintained a subscription to Scientific American after moving to Canada and up until the time of his death.   A few of his reference books and bound volumes of Scientific American remain in the author’s collection.   

. The Journey to Canada

During their time at Eastgate House, they made plans to emigrate to Canada.  The family made extensive preparations for their new life, some of the children learning skills, such as cobblery (shoemaking), garment making, shooting, and trade skills like weaving which were part of the woolen mill industry.  They gathered many provisions in preparation for the sea voyage to Canada, including apparatus and machinery for a complete woolen mill and many personal effects, including tents, bedding, furniture, clothing, china, silverware, yard goods and sewing machine, medicine, food, photography supplies, a large supply of chemicals and medicines, dental instruments, cobblers’ tools and leather, chess boards, a library of books and magazines, 16 guns, and kegs of gunpowder.

At the time they left for Canada, they were accompanied by their eight surviving children.  Another, Irene would be born in the New World. They departed England in early Spring of 1883, the family of 10 being accompanied by a hired man, Dick Lloyd and a cousin Les Turner.  After crossing the North Atlantic by ship in 14 days, their first land fall in Canada was Gros Isle in the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City, a federal immigration centre, where they were required to stay in quarantine, due to the fact that William was opposed to the practice of vaccination, for diseases like Smallpox.  They then continued by ship, arriving in Montreal in May 1883, where they were visited by Oliver York, Helen’s brother.  From Montreal they boarded the train for Western Canada.  As the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway still had not completed the route around the north of Lake Superior (it later would run a steam ship along Superior connecting the eastern part of the rail line with the western), they travelled through Chicago, Illinois and north to Winnipeg, the Canadian gateway to the West.

In Winnipeg, they remained about 10 days and took on many of the provisions for the journey and to establish their lives in the vast, largely unsettled frontier of Canada's North West Territories.  They purchased four teams of oxen, four wagons and carts, harnesses, several milk cows, chickens and geese, grain, farm implements, a wood stove and food sufficient to last for the next two years.

Across the Prairie to Fish Creek

They boarded the west bound train, together with all their baggage and journeyed to the end of the C.P.R. line, which was Siding #11, near present day Swift Current, Saskatchewan.  The woolen mill machinery was left in Winnipeg, to be shipped later, when the rail line was completed.

After unloading their goods and livestock down a makeshift ramp made from telegraph poles and railroad ties, they packed the wagons and carts and set off westward on a rough, unimproved and dusty trail across the prairie, covering 10-15 miles a day. Helen and the children rode and slept in one of the wagons which was covered with a prairies schooner type canvas.  Aside from occasional meetings with railway survey crews they were alone in the wilderness.  They encountered no Indians and no buffalo during the journey, but at one point in the journey, many of their belongings were strewn across the prairie by a sudden dust storm.    They all must have wondered about their decision to leave the lush green Garden County of Kent in England for the desert (and largely deserted) landscape of the short grass prairie and it was during this journey that Helen took the scissors and cut off her long flowing locks; there was little time for hair care in this new life.   

After about a month on the trail, the family arrived in the small settlement of Fort Calgary, where a North West Mounted Police Post was located along with a small but rapidly growing community, consisting of a Hudson Bay post, an I.G. Baker store, a few log cabins, and numerous tents and teepees, all of whose residents were anxiously awaiting the arrival in a few months of the railway line. 

At this juncture, William discussed his plans with a Sergeant of the Mounted Police, who suggested that he take a day to walk south to Fish Creek, where an Irish settler, John Glenn had settled and worked up a farming operation on the banks of the creek, from which he diverted irrigation water.  William walked the 10 miles or so to Fish Creek, which stream was much larger in those days (the watershed not having been destroyed) and which was then in full flood.  He managed to wade across the stream and found a warm greeting from Mr. Glenn, who was raising abundant crops of cabbages and root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and turnips.  Mr. Glenn told him that the soil was good, and that there was "plenty of land" and an abundant supply of water for the planned woolen mill and he would be glad of having neighbours.

Thus, the decision was made to settle on the banks of Fish Creek, south of Calgary, and after a delay of some days while the family waited their turn to transport their belongings and livestock across the Bow River on the newly constructed C.P.R. ferry, the family arrived on the banks of Fish Creek, in what is presently Fish Creek Provincial Park, in the City of Calgary. 

The Shaws of Midnapore- Part 2   ©

By R. Neil Brown

 

Life at Fish Creek (Midnapore), North West Territories

 After arriving at Fish Creek, just west of the present-day Macleod Trail, and the nearby irrigation farm of John Glenn, the family erected a large marquee type tent, walled off with blankets, and began acquiring logs with which to construct the first log home.  Logs were to be found in the Priddis area far up the Fish Creek valley.  The family was fortunate that during construction, the fall that year was an Indian Summer and the good weather stretched into the month of December, when they were able to move into their first log home which measured about 20 feet by 30 feet; complete with sod roof which leaked muddy water when it rained heavily, or the snow melted.  Later, when sawn lumber became available from the Walker lumber mill in Calgary, the sod roof was replaced with a wooden one which better protected the home from the elements.  In 1884, the year following their arrival at Fish Creek, Helen gave birth to her tenth and last child:  Irene Julia Daphne.

At the time the Shaws arrived at Fish Creek, mail service was rudimentary.  Any mail destined for the residents of the area was forwarded through Fort Calgary and left by the stage coach operator on his route south, with John Glenn, the first settler in the area, from whom residents could collect their mail, as and when they came by.  However, Mr. Glenn could neither read nor write, and the job was thrust upon William Shaw.  The Shaws by contrast to Mr. Glenn were well educated and avid correspondents and wanted to have a more formal arrangement for the sending and delivery of their mail.  Thus, only a few months after their arrival at Fish Creek, William Shaw applied to the Dominion Post Office Department in Ottawa, for a post office to be established at Fish Creek, North West Territories.  However, he was informed by the Department that there was already a Post Office established in the name of Fish Creek in the North West Territories, in present day Saskatchewan.   Hence, it was necessary to choose a new name for the Post Office address.  

When William Shaw heard from the Post Office Department that it would be necessary to apply for an alternate name, he decided on a novel and rather amusing way to choose the name.  He tacked a map of the world on the wall of their home and blindfolded his young daughter, which we believe, due to her age of 8 years at the time, was Elphie Mable Idalie, and had her put a tack in the map.  It landed on a place called “Midnapore” in the State of West Bengal, India, which was then part of the British Empire and at that time the only place on earth with the name “Midnapore”.   William’s further application with this name to the Dominion Post Office Department was approved and thus, the post office at Fish Creek was officially established as “Midnapore, North West Territories” on February 1, 1884 and Samuel William Shaw was officially appointed the first postmaster. [1]   The standard oversized oak Post Office roll-top desk which belonged to William, replete with pigeon holes, side boards, letter drawers and even a supply of stamped postcards,  is still kept in the author’s home. 

Soon after their arrival at Fish Creek, the family experienced a cattle stampede when a herd belonging to the Cochrane Ranch was being driven south to new range at Waterton Lake.  These cattle were the remnants of twelve thousand head, most of which had perished during the disastrous winter of 1882.  The Shaw girls were busy washing clothes on the banks of Fish Creek that day when they heard the rumble of the approaching herd and upon sighting the oncoming cattle, fled to the house, leaving clothing, wash tubs, and all, which were trampled and gone without a trace after the herd passed.

In the Spring of 1885, Fish Creek flooded, and caused considerable damage.  The house was inundated to a depth of several feet of water.  A tent which had been used as a summer kitchen and store house was swept away, along with many of its contents.  A cook stove and furniture were later recovered from the mud and debris left behind.  After this incident, a new second home was built on higher ground and in due time the old house was dismantled and moved to a higher elevation, where it was used as a bunk house.  

In the same year 1885, William and a group of area residents, including Henry Wood, Arthur G. Wolley-Dod, and Arthur Winterbottom got together to construct a building which would serve as a church, of the Church of England, and which would serve double duty during the week as a school house.   Helen Alice Julia, the Shaws’ eldest daughter was the first teacher in the school.  The one acre of land upon which the Church was built was a gift of Fish Creek’s first resident, Mr. John Glenn.   The little Anglican Church built in 1885 remains in active use to this day as a chapel of St. Paul’s Anglican Church.  It is now either the oldest or second oldest building extant in the City of Calgary.  The oldest may be the Hunt House, which was possibly built in 1876, however, according to Alberta Historic Resources, adequate documentation for this date is lacking, while one other Calgary building the Major Stewart House was also built in the same year as St. Paul’s, 1885.    William also purchased town lots in the growing centre of Calgary, as they were made available from the Canadian Pacific Railway; and had constructed substantial buildings on them by 1885, according to Burns and Elliott’s Calgary Directory published in that year.

In 1889, the family began construction of the long planned woolen mill.  The machinery had been stored for the preceding years in Winnipeg and was reputedly rusted from the long delay in getting it to Fish Creek.   An expert from Montreal, William Dyson, was hired to help William and the sons assemble the machinery and get the mill in production.  In 1890 the mill began production, taking raw wool; which was then scoured and washed, carded, spun into yarn, and woven into a variety of woolen goods, including blankets and finer fabrics like tweeds and fine wool suitable for making suits. 

York Shaw related the following account of mill operations to Shelagh Jamieson on September 3, 1957: “I began working in the mill when I was about twelve.  My first job was running the carding machine.  There were two long machines.  I fed the wool in and it came out in strands.  Later I looked after the spinning machines. Maltman ran the machinery-the power end of it.   We used steam.   Water had to be hauled in barrels for the boiler.   Maltman was responsible too for the scouring and washing of the wool and had men helping, of course.   Hugh hauled coal and wood.   I don’t think he ever working in the mill itself.   I remember when the mill was running the Indians would sometimes come in and watch.   They’d just stand along the wall and watch the machinery—sometimes a whole row of them.”

Spinning and weaving were done with steam powered machines.  For spinning, a “mule” having 190 spindles was used.  The loom was a large one and produced blankets of extra large size, one of which the author still has in his possession.  Later a machine called a “jack” with 240 spindles was introduced along with extra looms from Ontario. 

To market the products from the mill Helen Maria Shaw opened a tailor shop in a red cottage on Stephen Avenue (now 8^th Avenue S.W.) between 1^st and 2^nd Streets West on the north side.  The tailor shop specialized in suits made from cloth from the mill in Midnapore. The Mill was operated by the family until 1905 when it was sold to Buchan and Berry, who defaulted on payments and after three years the Mill was repossessed by the Shaw family, although it was evidently never again in production. The mill was being used for storing hay at the time it burned down in 1923 or 1924.  

In addition to the operation of the Mill, the family also produced quantities of vegetables, which were taken by ox team and later horse team to Calgary for sale.  William also opened the first store in Midnapore, at first it was just an adjunct to the house but was later a stand-alone house constructed up the hill alongside the Macleod Trail, which was operated chiefly by William himself, and later by his son Hugh.  

William Shaw was a keen amateur scientist.  He constructed the first telegraph line between the store on Stephen Avenue in Calgary to Midnapore.  This line was later transformed into a telephone line which linked the Calgary store with the Midnapore store, the Shaw home and the Father Lacombe Home in Midnapore.  This line stayed in use until 1914, which was said to be when the copper wire, of which the line was made, became a commodity in demand for the First World War.   It is believed that this was the first telephone system in the Calgary region, if not the area comprising the future Province of Alberta. William continued to be take an active interest in chemistry and was a talented photographer who developed his own glass negatives and made many photographic prints.  He also kept accurate meteorological records from the time of his arrival in Midnapore and weather records for the City of Calgary in the years before 1890 are almost certainly the product of his records. 

William was known to be eccentric and one story related that he was observed working in the vegetable garden at Midnapore one hot summer day, while wearing an enormous full-length fur coat.   A passerby asked him why he was wearing a fur coat on such a hot day, to which he reputedly replied: “what keeps the cold out, will keep the heat out as well”. 

William played the organ at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Midnapore.  After St. Patrick’s, the Roman Catholic Church was built, he also played the organ periodically for that congregation; for which he charged a fee of 10 cents a service; ostensibly so that it would not get to be a regular responsibility.  He also loved to play chess and carried on several games by correspondence with players overseas, and for that purpose had several sets of metal chess board characters which could be inked and from which prints could be made for mailing; a couple of which have survived to this day. 

In 1896 tragedy struck the Shaw family when their eighth child, Henry Kinnaird Turner Shaw contracted rheumatic fever and died at Midnapore at the age of 18 years. Hardship again struck the Shaw family, one winter night in 1902 or 1903 when the Shaw family’s second home caught fire and burned down and the family had to take temporary shelter in the barn before a new and better home could be constructed. 

William was an acquaintance of Prime Minister, Richard B. Bennett, and a token of William’s status in the community was his appointment as a Justice of the Peace for the Government of the North West Territories.  Although he exercised his office as a Justice of the Peace very sparingly, he held the position for a number of years and maintained a collection of the Statutes of the North West Territories and the Dominion of Canada, a few volumes of which have been preserved.   

Samuel William Shaw the well-educated, adventurous eccentric, who had taken his wife and eight children across the sea to the western frontier of Canada to start a new life, died at Midnapore in 1919 at the age of 79 years. 

Helen Maria Shaw (nee York) lived on for 22 years after William’s death, in her Midnapore home directly across the street from St. Paul’s Anglican Church, where she attended services faithfully and hosted the congregation with tea and refreshments after Sunday services.  She operated a retail outlet on Stephen Avenue in Calgary as well as owning several properties.   She was active in the Southern Alberta Pioneers and Oldtimers Association and held the position of President of the Women’s Section.    Helen, the matriarch of the Shaw family, a petite and delicate woman who left a life of privilege in England for a life of hardship and adventure on the frontier of the west, and who gave birth to 10 children, died on April 15, 1941 after a brief illness, at the age of 95 years.  

The Children

Helen Alice Julie Shaw served as the first teacher in Midnapore from 1887-1891.  In 1893 she married a Scottish born Alberta rancher, and former member of the North West Mounted Police, Malcolm T. Millar, who became a postmaster and named the post office Millarville, North West Territories. Alberta.  Helen died at the age of 79 years, on January 1, 1943.

Agnes Egerie Louise, married Robert Cadogan Thomas, who started a highly successful business, the Alberta Ice Company which cut and stored ice during the winter from lagoons of the Bow River near Calgary for sale year-round to customers in Calgary and area. Robert also built and operated a hotel business in the City of Calgary.  Louise died on October 13, 1947   at the age of 81 years.

Edward William Oliver was the child who died in 1867 at 3 days of age at Bromley, Kent, England.

Evelyn Flora Lida married Frank Gough and died December 8, 1941 at the age of 72 years.

Hugh Kinnaird Shaw married Augusta Kaye in 1906.  After hauling coal and wood for the Mill, he later ran a steam tractor which was contracted out for freight and construction and continued to run the store and coal retail business in Midnapore for many years. He died January 10, 1960 at the age of 87 years. 

Maltman William Stevens Shaw trained with the Canadian Pacific Railway to qualify as a Second Class Engineer, which qualified him for running pressure steam boilers, and was issued Certificate No. 27 in the North West Territories.  Both the Mill equipment and early tractors were powered by steam boilers.   During the 1920’s he and brother York were partners in a logging business which was carried on at Boom Lake, with a sawmill at Castle Mountain, areas which later became part of Banff National Park.   He later purchased land from the C.P.R. north and south of the original Shaw homestead on Fish Creek and farmed with his son James until his death on January 17, 1960, aged 85 years.

Elphie Mable Idalie married her cousin Walter Phillips.  She died January 1, 1901 at the age of 25 years.

Henry Kinnaird Turner Shaw worked selling the woolen goods from the Shaw mill wholesale.  He died at Midnapore from rheumatic fever in 1896 at the age of 18 years.

John Oliver York Shaw married Mary Victoria Graham in 1905, who died in 1917.  He was remarried to Sarah Elizabeth Kirby in 1922. During the 1920’s he and Maltman were partners in the logging business and York operated a business selling coal and wood.   He later started a successful building moving company -York Shaw and Sons which he ran with his sons Kinnaird and Bill.  York died on May 13, 1961, eleven days short of his 82^nd birthday.  He was the last surviving child of Samuel William and Helen Marie Shaw.  

Irene Julia Daphne Shaw married Reuben (Dick) Goodall in 1907 and they homesteaded and farmed in the Coronation district of Alberta.  She died January 17, 1950 at the age of 66 years.

[1]Note:  There have come to be a couple of alternate stories about how present-day Alberta’s Fish Creek, N.W.T.  became Midnapore, N.W.T..  However, those versions suggest that a letter was addressed to someone in  “Midnapore”, a place in West Bengal State, in the eastern part of India-- a place half way around the world, with no connection to the Shaw family whatsoever, which letter somehow mysteriously ended up in the remote outpost of Fish Creek in the frontier of the North West Territories of Canada, and which was then delivered to William Shaw at a precise time period in which he was in need of a new name after having the prior chosen name of Fish Creek rejected by the Post Office Department. Such suggestions defy common sense, logic and credibility and must be treated as apocryphal. The foregoing version which I have related, whereby the name was chosen by a blindfolded Shaw daughter, was passed down orally from Maltman Shaw’s daughters Frances and Irene to the author and were partly corroborated by information given to Shelagh Jamieson by York Shaw in an interview on September 3, 1957 who stated: “I think Father just sent the name in”.    

Acknowledgements:   In preparing this account, I drew heavily on the written materials, based on letters and records gathered by my aunt, Frances Borgal, (nee Shaw) Maltman’s eldest daughter in her research in England and Canada for a book on the Shaw Family, which sadly, was never finished. I also had the benefit of original letters of Samuel William Shaw and other family records kept by my mother, Maltman Shaw’s youngest daughter Irene D. Brown (nee Shaw) and by Maltman’s son James Miller Shaw.   Many of the original letters of William, his diary, and nearly all of William’s voluminous collection of glass photographic negatives from the 1860’s to 1918, were in Frances Borgal’s possession and lost in the house fire in which she perished.

I interviewed Frances Borgal in December 1977; as well as Maltman Shaw’s children, my mother Irene and James Miller Shaw, tape recorded in December 1977.  I obtained records regarding the Midnapore Post Office and William’s appointment as Justice of the Peace from the Government of Canada.   I also had the benefit of notes made by a local historian Shelagh S. Jamieson from her interviews of   Elsie Douglass, (nee Millar) August 7, 1957; Maltman William Stevens Shaw, August 13, 1957; Hugh Kinnaird Shaw, August 21, 1957; and John Oliver York Shaw, September 3, 1957. 

A picture of Bower Hill House where the family lived in England.  Scanned from photos owned by Bernice Williamson.

In the picture, from left to right are: 1) Louise Shaw, 2) Helen Shaw, 3) Mrs S.W. Shaw, 4) Baby and 5) Lurcock the gardener, as noted on the back of the picture.

Posted on behalf of Cecil Lynn who provided this history of the cattle and horse brands registered in the Shaw family.

Hello:

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Cecil Lynn and I am the grandson of Helen Shaw daughter of H K Shaw. The following story takes place over a period of 40 years.

Back in the late 60's my father Ken Lynn and I had acquired quite a few horses and I asked him one day if he thought if me getting a horse brand was a good idea. He said yes of course, why don't you see if you can get papas old brand XL. I  told him I didn't think they would give me that brand as 2 character brands were not issued anymore. I sent in the application in 1969 and was issued XL bar.  As the years flew by occasionally I would ask my father if the XL brand was the Shaw brand for sure. He would get very mad at me and I would quickly let the matter drop. Once in a while I would come across an old brand book but could never find the Shaw brand.  In the late 80's the province privatized the brand dept and we had to buy our cattle and horse brands for a sum of $225 each. This was a lot of money for Betty and I as we had the quarter circle CL cattle brand and the XL bar horse brand. How well I remember the nite I phoned my dad and told him that Betty and I could not afford the expense of both brands and was dropping the XL bar brand. I could really sense the disappointment in his voice on the phone that nite.  My father passed away on April 17,2006 and shortly after I got a hold of LIS and asked if XL bar was still available and was told it was. I purchased the brand even though at the time I only had one horse.

Around that time I started collecting Alberta Brand books and low and behold I came across the SW Shaw brand XL for cattle on the left hip  and XL for horses on the left shoulder. I was also told by a person in LIS(brand office) that the rules had changed and that if I sent a letter to their office in Stettler with a copy of the Shaw brand (1894) that they had to give it to me. So in 2007 the XL brand for cattle on the left hip came back to the family. I traced the brand . It was first registered to SW in the 1888 henderson brand book which of course was NWT, again in 1894.  Then in 1900 it was in the the name Shaw and Co., again in 1903,1904-1907 but dropped in 1907-12 book. I can only surmise that an error was made and the renewal was not sent in.  So approx a 100 years later it was rescued and is back in the family. The only regret is that Dad didn't live long enough for me to fix the error.

------thanks  Cec

SW Shaw Family Brands   

      

In 1878 the NWT government council passed a law on Aug 2 in North Battleford regarding livestock brands.  The Lieutenant-Governor of the NWT was given the authority to declare Stock Districts in which the Clerk of the local court was given the job as Brand Recorder.  The first Stock District in the territories was in Fort Macleod and David Laird was the man you seen to record your brand.

In the first brand book of the NWT Hendersons was given the job of printing a livestock brand book in 1888.  In this brand book SW Shaw of Midnapore had chosen XL on the left shoulder for horses and on the left hip for cattle. In the 1894 Henderson brand book the brand is registered in the same way.  In 1900 it is changed to Shaw and Company Midnapore.  This carries on again in 1903 and 1904-07.  In the 1907-12 book it has expired.  The brand lies dormant for 100 years because the depart of agriculture will not register two character brands.  In 1998 the province privatizes the livestock brand department and producers are told if they want their brands they have to buy them as a permanent mark of ownership.  In August 31, 2007 Cecil and Betty Lynn Box 27 Madden purchase the lifetime brand XL on the left hip for cattle because of a rule change.  

In the 1947 Alberta Brand Book Maltman Shaw of Midnapore has the XL7 brand on the left hip.  In the 1958 book it changed to Shaw M and son Midnapore.  Also registered in the 1958 book is the brand bar L7 on the left hip.  In the 1970 brand book both these brands are registered to James M Shaw RR8 of Midnapore.  In the 1990 book both of these brands are expired, the XL7 in 1987 and bar L7 in 1989. 

In the 1994 brand book the XL7 brand on the left rib is registered to Janet E Brown RR8 Calgary.  This brand purchased as a Lifetime brand in the 1998 book.  Janet also purchases the X over L on the left shoulder horse brand in 1998 book as a lifetime brand

In the 2005 brand book Bruce and Mary Bamford RR8 Calgary purchase lifetime brand XL7 on right rib cattle brand.

On April 18, 1978 Kennaird Lynn RR1 Bowden registers circle XL on the left shoulder for cattle.  This brand continues until it expires Dec 31, 1990

On Sept 12, 1985 Kennaird Lynn registers half diamond XL left hip for horses.  This brand continues until it expires Dec 31 1993.

In 1969 Cecil Lynn of Calgary registers XL bar on the right hip for horses.  This brand stays active until 1998 when the province privatizes brands.  It lays dormant until its purchased as a lifetime brand in June 2006

In August 15, 1985 Cecil Lynn of Calgary registers quarter circle CL right shoulder for cattle.  This brand stays active and is purchased as a lifetime brand in 1998 and still in use in 2010 in the Madden area.