Practically Everybody Interested in Oil

Wow!  I'm not sure which font size was used for this headline in the Reston Recorder on February 21, 1952 but it couldn't have been overlooked! You can click here to browse the 1952 papers online and see various stories about drilling activity, rumours of strikes and reports of dry holes.  Seventy years ago, the Reston area was agricultural but that was about to change.  With the exploration for oil around Virden in the late 40's and a big discovery in 1951, Reston and area residents were excited to see if the deposits went further south.   The headline making well was located on the farm of George and Ellen (Wilson) Walker in the Prairie Rose District  on SE 21-7-28.  Although the well was soon capped and did not produce as anticipated, the Walkers took a trip back home to Scotland, 44 years after coming to Canada. Can you just imagine to tales they could tell their old school chums of their experiences in Canada? Their real treasure would have been their five children, many grandchildren and today the multitude of descendants who have made their own marks in the world. 

Caption: Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Walker Sr. reading the news of the spectacular oil strike on their farm.  The strike set up a blaze of publicity which made the couple known from coast to coast. The outcome of the well is in doubt, but in any case, the couple have benefitted.  Sale of half royalties amounted to $6500, enough to pay off the mortgage, and leave a few thousand in the bank. 

Photo Courtesy of the Winnipeg Free Press.  March 1952

Gwen Simms and Jim Milliken 1947

I do have a physical copy of this historic Reston newspaper thanks to my cousin Marilee.  Her Mom Gwen (Simms) Milliken had handwritten a note on the top of it to her Uncle Bill Sinclair from Oak River. 

Dear Bill, This country may be “stoney and scarce of bluffs”, but shows signs of much greater things underneath.

 I saved this paper especially for you as I knew you’d be interested in hearing it and had said the same thing.  Love your soon to be wealthy niece, Gwennie

There was no doubt of some ongoing joke between the two about Jim's family choosing  stoney and treeless homesteads in Pipestone rather than God's Country at her family's home at Oak River. 😊 

The title for today's blog post comes from an article that I stumbled across on the Peels Prairie Website here .  It was clipped from a 1952 newspaper in Irma, Alberta which is now a tiny community 90 minutes east of Edmonton. I'm not sure why they picked up the story written for the Brandon Sun by John McNaughton but everybody is interested to read our own history from another perspective.  Practically everybody at least. 

Bonniman the Drayman

Today's post introduces us to another long term resident of Reston whose contribution deserves to be remembered.   Chester Gordon Bonniman was born in 1881 in Woodstock, Ontario. At the age of two he came west with his family to build a new life. His father Alexander was born in Scotland, where their surname was spelled Bonnyman, and came to Canada at the age of 18. In 1883, Alexander, his wife Sarah Eastman and two little boys Franklin and Chester  purchased a farm in the Lambton district northeast of the present town of Reston at 14-8-27.  The school was built on the corner of their land in 1889.  Two girls and a boy were later born into the family.  In April of 1926, Chester Bonniman purchased the livery and coal business from McMurchy Brothers - Colin and Archie Jr -  who began the Ford vehicle business.  The livery barn had been built by Colin Campbell Sr in the early days of Reston when he was a horse buyer and seller and ran a livery barn. It is just out of sight at the far right of the picture below, by the piles of wood. 

Corner of Railway (First) Avenue and Fourth (Main) Street looking north from the top of the elevator

Completes 21 Years of Service -1947

Mr. Chester Bonniman who for twenty-one years and three months carried the mail from the Post Office to the station made his last trip on Monday, June 30. Mr. Bonniman in all that time has never failed to meet the trains.

Officially Mr. Bonniman has been the mail carrier for the past twenty-one years, the extra three months is accounted for by the fact he took over the contract from McMurchy Bros. 

 The new mail carrier is Norman McCartney

Amy Law was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire England to Samuel and Louisa Law. She came west from Ontario with her family but upon the earth death of her father Samuel in 1904, the family took up homestead in the Fry district near Antler, SK.  Amy met the young farmer Chester Bonniman and they were married in 1910. Chester's parents moved to Virden and the young couple took over the farm. In 1927, looking for a new challenge, they rented out their farm and took over the McMurchy draying business in Reston.  Draying has evolved into trucking and along with getting things from place to place, he sold coal and wood for heating.  Hauling pails of water and blocks of ice to houses in town for 5 and 10 cents was an important part of his business as well. Advertising was important to Chester and few weeks went by without his box ad in the Recorder. 

June 1947 New Team

No doubt you have noticed the well matched team of blacks that haul Mr. Bonniman's dray. The new team are Prince and Maud. They replace the well known bay team which gave such a good service for the past four years. Mr. Bonniman told the Recorder that it takes only a few weeks to break a team into the draying business. In time the horses get to know the route and they require little handling. Mr. Bonniman told us of one team he had which he left standing for a whole afternoon and when he got back they hadn’t moved an inch.

First (Railway) Street looking east from the top of the elevator - about 1960

The livery barn that Mr. Bonniman purchased from McMurchy's burned in a fire in the 1930's.  the buildings on the right of the photo above were built to service the Coal and Wood dealership as there was less need for a livery barn. The dray team would have used the eat doors in the bigger building and being just down the street from the train station was convenient when he carried the mail from there to the post office and back all those years. 

It was announced in the Reston Recorder on November 2, 1949 that Chester was retiring from the coal, wood and draying business after 24 and a half years. He sold to George Cheyne Jr, who had been working for him since returning from WW2 in 1944. 

Chester and Amy's only child  Irene Rose was born in 1914.  She married John Oberlin later in life and lived and farmed south of Reston for many years. Fletch Manning wrote in the Recorder about the history of the Bonniman House across from the Memorial Park back in 2004. Chester died in 1951 and Amy in 1960. 

Thanks to Ancestry user lindacarlson_1 for allowing me to use the portraits of Chester and Amy to help tell their story.