Getting Fuel at the Corner

Isn't this just the most attractive receipt you've ever seen for wood and Galt coal from 1910? This Emerson brand horse drawn plow predated the days of hydraulics to lift machinery out of the soil, so I suppose they were all “foot lift”. It inspired me to go looking for T.W. Jackson's story and here's what I've found so far. As always, more pictures and information is welcome to ssimms@escape.ca

Thomas Wesley Jackson was born in the York region of Ontario in 1859. He married Annie Meredith in 1886. She had been born in Ireland in 1866 and came to Canada with her family the next year. 

They headed west in 1882 to homestead with the York Farmer’s Colonization Company near present day Yorkton, Saskatchewan and he was elected to represent the district of Qu'Appelle in 1883 - 1885 according to this source.  They can be found farming on the 1891 Mantoba Census in the district of Selkirk and subdistrict of Inchiquin with 3 children. I’m not sure where exactly this is but Inchiquin was the name for part of the later RM of Albert at the tail end of the 1800’s.   The railway pushed its way into Reston in December of 1892 and the Wesley and Annie Jackson saw an opportunity. Lodging for newcomers and temporary visitors would have been  badly needed and their home was built and named Jackson’s Boarding House in 1893. The beautiful brick boarding house is today the home of Rick and Lorelei Bloomer but formerly Harcourt Berry and Arthur Bushby’s called it home as well.  

Tragedy occurred in 1900 when Annie and Wesley Jackson's  2 month old son Albert Rice died.
The 1901 Census shows the parents with 3 children living in Reston along with 4 boarders, including Thomas Mutter, Albert Smith, James Stringer, and Sinclair McMillan.  A lady helping with the domestic chores, Lily McLaughlin is also listed. William Richard was born later in 1901.  

Compounding the Jackson tragedy, Annie died in 1904 shortly after the birth of another son, Ernest. Both Annie and Albert are remembered on a handsome pillar monument with their names engraved in the Reston Cemetery. Her death may have likely brought about the end of running a boarding house but a focus on the wood and coal business grew.

T.W. Jackson’s business on the bottom left and Jackson’s Boarding House beside it about 1910

The 1906 census shows the 47 year old widower and five children, two horses and 8 cows living on 8-7-27 which I think is on the golf course somewhere or on the west side of First Street and the same 5 years later in 1911. He was an agent for coal and wood and had a draying business right beside his former  house on the corner of 4th Street and 1st Avenue. The second floor of the long narrow building had a hall on the second floor that was used for entertainment, meetings and other gatherings. Like the Berry Hall, it seems unusual that gathering spots were private businesses but Jackson Hall was the first meeting spot for the Reston Masonic Lodge before they built their own building in 1928. After WW2, the hall was the Legion Clubroom for a while. 

 

The above photo was found on Ancestry from user Eliza823. It is identified as William Richard Jackson and his father Thomas Wesley taken about 1930. I am guessing it was a photography studio backdrop of the Tia Juana Bar and have found a few other similar images online. Perhaps these portraits were taken at fairs on in studios like the ones at Moose Jaw and the West Edmonton Mall as they are today.

On the 1921 census, Wesley and youngest son Ernest were living in Vancouver with his sister Ella Stott and her family. Wesley was a merchant and Ernest a student. Wesley died and was buried in Vancouver in 1934. 

On the 1916 Manitoba Census, son Howard is the only Jackson left in Reston, employed as an agent.  He moved to Yorkton in 1919 and sold Case Implements and was city clerk.  He seems like my kindred spirit when he retired in 1959 and took on recording the early days of Yorkton by collecting postcards. The Jackson Collection can be viewed online here.

The Reston fuel business was purchased by the Grieg brothers as is shown for Thomas Boulton's purchase of Royalite fuel in 1915. Hill and Company bought the business for a short time until William Mennie and his son Alexander D. ran the dealership for almost five decades before Ross Benzie took over in about 1970.  There several places to get fuel in Reston but I believe this business was a bulk dealership for farms.  Please correct me if I'm wrong! 

The building was torn down in 1972 with an office being built on the same lot for Mr. Benzie and his wife Ella who did the books  .They  sold to toKen and Eileen Milliken in 1980.  They operated the Imperial Oil bulk dealership until 1993.  What appears to be an empty windy corner in Reston has a long history which was all uncovered from that fancy receipt!