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New book has local history ties

Author taught at Clumber School District, (Bredenbury area) and high school in Churchbridge

When your mother leaves a trove of stories as part of her legacy, what else is there to do with them than create a book.

At least that is what the daughters of Janet McLeod have done.

鈥淥ur mother passed away in 1991, at the age of 91,鈥 said daughter Karen Cox, adding, 鈥淪he left many stories.鈥

Cox who lives in the Detroit, Michigan area, along with sisters Margaret Ebert lives in Phoenix, AZ and sister Elaine Blake lives in London, ON., wanted to share those stories or at least some of them with a broader audience.

鈥淲e all served as editors for Memories of the Prairie: A McLeod Family Memoir by Janet McLeod, which is the story of her growing up and teaching in the years 1901-1921 in the area near Yorkton,鈥 said Cox.

Cox said while she and her sisters had a hand in getting the book published, it is her mother who was ultimately the writer of the stories.

鈥淥ur mother, the author of the book we just edited, published and rereleased on June 5, 2020, attended elementary school听in the Clumber School District, in the Bredenbury area, upper grades in the high school in Churchbridge, and eventually took courses at Normal School in Winnipeg at what became part of the University of Winnipeg,鈥 she explained.

As the story goes McLeod was something of a ground-breaker.

鈥淗istory has it that she was the first female from that newly settled area to seek higher education,鈥 said Cox.听 鈥淪he was the daughter of pioneers who emigrated from Scotland in the late 1800鈥檚 as adults and met and married in Canada.

鈥淭hey valued education sufficiently and, seeing how smart she was, made sacrifices to make her education possible.听

鈥淎fter graduating from high school in Winnipeg, and taking what was a truncated course at Normal School, because of World War I and the lack of male teachers, she听began her teaching at an early age.听

鈥淔or two years she taught in schools where she was needed, most notably at the school in the Eden School District, where she met Malcolm McLeod married and 鈥渞etired鈥. (Malcolm was the son of Allan and Mary MacLeod, farmers in the Saltcoats area. There are stories about them in the book.听 My father, for reasons known only to him, chose to abbreviate his last name, using Mc in place of Mac.鈥

Cox said the sisters input into the book was more of a management of the material.

鈥淢y sisters and I, who served as editors of the book, writing just the editor鈥檚 notes, biography, dedication and book cover 鈥渂lurb鈥, have no formal education or training as writers,鈥 she said.

But, their mother had a definite interest in the written word.

鈥淥ur mother, Janet McLeod the author of the book had a natural affinity for the written word, honed, she always told us, by the education she received from attending schools in Saskatchewan, especially the one room schools where her eager ears picked up all of the poetry and English literature being taught to the older classes,鈥 said Cox.听

As she tells it:

鈥淭he year my听oldest brother was getting ready for eight grade exams, there must have been English literature requirements.听 I remember so well the teacher reading Shelly and having the class memorize.

听听听听听听听听听听 Hail to the, blithe spirit

听听听听听听听听听听 Bird thou never wert

听听听听听听听听听听 That from Heaven, or near it

听听听听听听听听听听 Pourest thy full heart

听听听听听听听听听听 In profuse strains of unpremeditated art ...

听What thou art we know not;

听听听听听听听听听听 What听is most like thee?

That was the beginning of my (McLeod鈥檚) love affair with the English language.

听鈥淚ndeed, after we showed her stories to a published writer, we were encouraged to publish them, as it was her opinion that not only was the information in them sufficiently interesting, they were also 鈥榖eautifully written鈥,鈥 said Cox.

Cox said it was the content of the stories which ultimately inspired the sisters to create the book of their mother鈥檚 work.

鈥淲e knew these lovely stories should not be lost,鈥 she said.听鈥淭hey are a detailed, colourful first person account of life on the prairie of Saskatchewan in the early 1900鈥檚.听

鈥淭he experiences of the early pioneers, many of whom were ill prepared to farm, should be a part of the history of what is now often referred to as the bread basket of the world.

鈥淗ow it became so is a story worth telling. The 1872 Dominion Lands act opened the North West Territories for settlement by giving 160 acers to anyone who could cultivate it and live on it for three years.听

鈥淭hat promise attracted people from all across Europe, and, most especially in the earliest days, people from the British Isles.听The Ross family and the Webster family about whom Janet primarily writes in this book were two Scottish听emigrant families who took up the challenge.听The adventures they incurred while homesteading, make for entertaining reading, but they are also a reminder of the hard work that was done to make Saskatchewan the prosperous farming area it is today.鈥

The stories were written over the last years of McLeod鈥檚 life, as a sort of testament to what she had experienced.

鈥(She) wrote these stories in the period encompassing her late 70鈥檚 to just before her death at 91,鈥 said Cox.听鈥淪he was mentally viable and vibrant all of her life and had a remarkable memory.听Her obvious love for the land where she was raised seemed to flow through her onto the paper.

鈥淚t gave her great joy to settle down in a sunny corner, a tablet of lined notebook paper balanced on a book on her lap, a pen in her hard and recall her life, as she says in the opening line of the book as 鈥樷..a child of the prairie鈥.鈥

Since this was McLeod鈥檚 stories, in her own words, the sisters simply smoothed an edge or two, and the book came together quite naturally.

鈥淲e, her daughters, did not try in any way to change what she wrote,鈥 said Cox.听 鈥淭he 鈥榲oice鈥 in the stories is hers. We did do some fact checking to be sure nothing was misrepresented in her writings.听

鈥淲e are also very fortunate that my daughter-in-law, Sandra Vasher, owner of Mortal Ink Press read the stories and encouraged us to make them available to an audience wider than Malcolm and Janet鈥檚 the descendants.听 She was completely responsible for styling the book, which has as its cover a painting done by our mother,听and getting it formatted for sale on Amazon. It is because she donated her services, the book is being offered at cost to anyone who cares to purchase it.听

Cox said the book project was something that became a family joy.

鈥淣one of it was challenging for us sisters; it was a labor of love.听 I think the challenging, technical听work was done by Sandra,鈥 she said.

But, once complete what do the sisters see as the best aspect of the book?

鈥淲e wish our mother had left more stories,鈥 said Cox.

But, the book is still a gratifying one.

鈥淚t adds to the body of stories of the history about the settling of Saskatchewan,鈥 said Cox.听 鈥淛anet felt that many stories have been written about the American west, but too few about the pioneers of the Canadian west.鈥

Of course the stories deeply resonate for the family.

鈥淚t includes a story about our grandparents showing the respect they had for the displaced aboriginal people, the true owners of the plains of Saskatchewan.听

鈥淎nd a story about her husband鈥檚 father, Allan MacLeod, who came down on the side of diversity and inclusion when his Scottish community of Gaelic speakers did not to allow a person of the Jewish faith to open a store in their town of Saltcoats.听 His respected opinion that Levi Beck open his store prevailed against the opposition.鈥

Some stories of course carry more weight than others.

鈥淧erhaps the most poignant story in the book is one about Janet鈥檚 brother, who like so many other young men in Canada in 1917, went off to World War I and was killed in the battle of Vimy Ridge,鈥 said Cox.听 鈥淎s she says in the book, 鈥榦ne more flower of the west picked for the carnage in Europe鈥.鈥

Cox said she hopes the book finds an audience broader than the family.

She noted obviously the book should interest the descendants of Janet Ross McLeod, her Webster and Ross relatives, many of whom still live in the Yorkton area, the descendants of Allan and Mary MacLeod, then added 鈥渂ut most importantly, any person who is interested in the history of Canada in general and in the development of Saskatchewan in particular.听

鈥淚t gives a greater understanding of those who came before and the sweat, toil and tears that went into making this rich agricultural area what it is today.鈥澨

The book is available on Amazon under the title Memories of the Prairie and Other Stories, a McLeod Family Memoir by Janet McLeod. 听The electronic version is, of course, readily available on Amazon for Kobo or Kindle.

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