Will came west in 1906. He worked in a hardware store in McTaggart owned by Tom Moffat. While there he met Clara (Bessie Ida Maud) Shaw,  the only offspring of Albert and Edith Shaw who had a homestead 4 miles north of McTaggart.  Later he ran a hardware store in Moose Jaw. 

Clara was born in Norfolk County, Ontario on August 27, 1883. The family moved to Saskatchewan in 1899. She returned to Ontario to attend Alma College, graduating in its semi jubilee year of 1906. 

After graduation Clara worked for the Government of Saskatchewan in Regina.

On October 14, 1911 Will and Clara were married at the Palliser Hotel in Calgary. Mysteriously, there are no pictures of this wedding. However, Clara's wedding dress stayed in the family. Below is a picture of it being modelled by her great grandaughter Leah. 

In 2002 the dress and the picture were donated to 
the Briercrest Museum along with the following dedication:

A few years later they sold the hardware store and bought a farm two miles west and four miles north of town. The remaining four sons Don, Jack, Elmer and Murray were born there.

Don, Jack, Elmer and Albert on the 1919 Record

The following commentary is that of son Don when in his 80s:

"I am quite aware of the struggle they had. The income they received from this farm was used completely to maintain their ownership of it. Just about every bit of food we ate was produced in this farmyard or grown in the garden. As time went by it seemed a large scheme or system sort of evolved.

The chickens laid eggs, some we ate and some we hatched and grew to fryers and roasters. The same went for turkeys and geese too.

We milked the cows and grew their calves for beef. We raised pigs for pork, and cured hams and bacon.

The seeds we planted grew into vegetables for the table.

The cattle herd had to be large enough to produce more milk than we needed for food. The surplus milk was put through a separator to get cream that was churned by hand into butter.

When a surplus of butter was produced it would be done up in 1 lb. packages and wrapped in a special paper called butter paper.

Surplus butter and eggs were taken to the local grocery store where the store keeper would issue a credit to be used for the purchase of some raw materials such as flour, sugar and rolled oats to be used in the kitchen. These often came in large heavy cotton 100 lb. bags.

These efforts were done more or less on a daily basis with water pumped by hand from a well and carried in pails, two at a time, to the kitchen. There was no running water, electricity or plumbing on the farm.

I marvel at how my mother, an only child, actually coped with the task of raising five boys with the skimpiest of everything she needed. I cannot remember going to bed hungry. Sometimes I know it was only a bowl of broken up slices of home made bread covered with milk, and if that wasn’t enough there was always more."

Here are two letters from Will to his parents John H and Clara after they had returned to Toronto from their time farming in Pasqua Sask:

• 4 page letter July 19, 1927 re their farm, neighbours, roads, crops, killer pigs, berries, Shaw visit - 316kb
• 1 page letter July 22, 1927 re son Don's exam results - 44kb 

Will and Clara remained on the Briercrest farm until the 1934 when the world wide depression and drought forced them to sell the farm and move in with their sons near McTaggart. They moved to Weyburn in 1940. 

NOTE: Construction of rural power lines began in the late 1940s in Saskatchewan, fifty years after the arrival of the first pioneers. A few rural homes had been electrified prior to this on an individual basis. Each home would be powered by either an gasoline fueled engine driving a generator, or a "wind charger", a generator mounted on a tower driven by a propeller that rotated when there was sufficient wind speed.

Don, Jack, Albert, Elmer & Murray in about 1941

• Albert had four sons, farmed and went on to become a Member of Parliament for the constituency of Assiniboia in the Trudeau government in 1968. He died suddenly from a blood disorder three years later in 1971 while still in office.
• Don farmed, had two sons and retired to Weyburn. He died with double pneumonia in 2005.
• Jack joined the airforce and eventually located in Campbellford, Ontario where owned an ESSO service station, raised three sons and two daughters. He died suddenly from a heart defect in 1975.
• Elmer lived on his farm near Gleichen, Alberta where he raised two sons and a daughter. He died when his pick up truck rolled in 2004.
• Murray raised one son in Montreal and is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at McGill University.

The picture below was taken in about 1950 when Will and Clara travelled to eastern Canada to visit Will's brother Ross in Campbellford, ON. Also appearing are son Albert, his wife Chrissie and their son Ross.

The picture below was taken in May 1958 at his son Elmer's farm. It is perhaps the last picture ever taken of Will. Left to right: Elmer, his daughter Marsha, Clara, Will  and Elmer's first son Murray. Behind them is Will and Clara's 1954 Ford.

• Short obituary - 31kb. 
• Long obituary - 93kb. 
• Picture of sons & grandsons on day of funeral - 45kb.

• 1959 letter from Clara to Jack & Fran - 115kb