Jethro Bachelder's Diary pages 12 to 17

In April Myrtle gave birth to a son. Arthur left soon after for Manitoba. In June Myrtle wrote that she would be in Ottawa June 6th on her way to Arthur. Some weeks before I had been urging Sarah to accompany me to Vancouver to see Lila

who had been married May 14th to a Mr. Molyneux an Englishman born in South Africa. We did not see him. He, with three others in a car had left for California.. We were at Annie's. Lila stayed with us a month then left to join her husband. The 14th of August we started home. Spent two days with Sias Standish in Banff. Spent two days with Arthur and Myrtle. His grain crop had been destroyed by the heat so it was not worth cutting. I know that made Sarah worry and helped to end her life. We reached Ottawa at 6 A.M. on the 14th of September. She said she was not tired. That night I found her crying. She was kneeling at the side of the bed trying to find me. In the morning she did

not recollect it. She was so ill that she never dressed again. She would have no one but me to care for her. It was night and day until I got so fatigued that I wired for Electa in Montclair, New Jersey. She, with an assistant nurse did all they could for her. She died on the 30th of September (1923). She had requested to be buried in Rougemont to be near her first home. The Rougemont people were exceedingly kind. Thus passed one of the noblest women known. Died of diabetes. Dr. Laidlaw said that her heart was so tired that she could not recover. I suffered an irreparable loss. We had lived together for fifty-six years and without one word of discord. Perfect confidence and happiness all that time. God had blessed us with eight children. All led an honorable life. George came one day after the funeral. He returned with me to Ottawa. Etta was with us through all and attended the funeral with Electa. The coffin was banked with flowers.

1912	Arthur Gilmore invested $10,000.00 in an acre of land and built two houses. They were to cost by contract $3000.00. The contractors son Charles Hicks was foreman. Neglected his business and through graft the houses cost $3500.00. The price he intended selling them for. To satisfy the W.&P. Company, they were sold. Arthur and I each taking one at $3200.00. I rented at $35.00 per month for three years and during the war could hardly rent at any price. In 1916 sold to for $3300.00 mortgage at 7%. Did not complete payments until 1927.
1913 -	Sarah and I went to Ottawa for Christmas and saw Dr. Cousens (brother of Sarah) who was very ill. He died April sixth, 1914. 54 years of age.
1914	Bought 220 shares of Northern Mortgage Company $54.00. Also 17 shares for Etta. Paid only 25 percent on each share. Dividends at first were 5%, then during the war 3 percent, then 2 percent, the next three no dividend. I sold 20 shares to Ida and Libby Scott at two percent profit amounting to $700.00. Sent it to Walter as part payment for the house I had bought from his Company. He kept it for his own use and in 1930 is still not paid. So I had to raise the money to pay on the house ($700.00) and the rascal charged me 16 percent for delay in payment. What can one say of a nephew like that?
1915 -	Sarah was forced by that transaction to move everything out to Arthur's and go to work in the kitchens. Walter punished his Aunt too. Where he had eaten his food for many months when he was fourteen years of age. I built a house for Arthur, cost $2300.00. I paid for seed grain and store bills until he owed me $5077.45, which he repudiated. He said it was Mother's money. Dear Sarah received no money from her people until 1918. After her sister Lila was dead, then she got the rent from two houses on Slater Street at $70.00 per month. More than half of that went for taxes. Arthur remained on the farm at Rougemont until he was 36 years of age, so I feel that he is (?) all that he has had from me.
1917-	Mrs. Cousens died, ninety-six years of age.
	Arthur married Louise Birkford from Edmonton. She told Etta that the doctor in Edmonton said that she should never marry. She walked deliberately away from Arthur's house in Winnipeg on three occasions. She said that men admired her on the streets. She had some very bad disease. Also said there was too many in the house. So she packed up to go to her mother's in Cleveland, Ohio, and died there in 1919. The way of the transgressor is hard. It cost Arthur $9000.00 before all was paid on her silly actions. $5000.00 of this was mine. That's the way the money goes, pop goes the weasel! Sarah would not quarrel with her so left in September for Ottawa. Stayed there until the spring of 1918. The disappointment of such a woman marrying Arthur. For Arthur was her favorite son. It hastened her death. Lila had been so enthusiastic for Arthur to marry her. Brought her by train from Edmonton. The woman looked ill, her complexion was dark ashen grey, pale, short, thick set.
1920 -	Lila Cousens died suddenly July 18th. Sarah took first train for Qttawa. Cozzie had wired her to come at once and stay and not return to me. Later Cozzie wrote and sent me $40.00 to come and live with her, otherwise she would die.
1921 -	We spent the winter there. Then I returned to Arthur in Manitoba and went to Ottawa to spend every winter. Francis and Elwyn Cousens lived with Cozzie. Kingsley Cousens lived with Lavene (?--- ) with Clara.
1922 -	Margerite Cousens married Harold Boyd. Had one son. Arthur married Myrtle Standish.
1923 -	In April Myrtle gave birth to a son. Arthur left soon after for Manitoba. In June Myrtle wrote that she would be in Ottawa June 6th on her way to Arthur. Some weeks before I had been urging Sarah to accompany me to Vancouver to see Lila who had been married May 14th to a Mr. Molyneux an Englishman born in South Africa. We did not see him. He, with three others in a car had left for California.. We were at Annie's. Lila stayed with us a month then left to join her husband. The 14th of August we started home. Spent two days with Sias Standish in Banff. Spent two days with Arthur and Myrtle. His grain crop had been destroyed by the heat so it was not worth cutting. I know that made Sarah worry and helped to end her life. We reached Ottawa at 6 A.M. on the 14th of September. She said she was not tired. That night I found her crying. She was kneeling at the side of the bed trying to find me. In the morning she did not recollect it. She was so ill that she never dressed again. She would have no one but me to care for her. It was night and day until I got so fatigued that I wired for Electa in Montclair, New Jersey. She, with an assistant nurse did all they could for her. She died on the 30th of September (1923). She had requested to be buried in Rougemont to be near her first home. The Rougemont people were exceedingly kind. Thus passed one of the noblest women known. Died of diabetes. Dr. Laidlaw said that her heart was so tired that she could not recover. I suffered an irreparable loss. We had lived together for fifty-six years and without one word of discord. Perfect confidence and happiness all that time. God had blessed us with eight children. All led an honorable life. George came one day after the funeral. He returned with me to Ottawa. Etta was with us through all and attended the funeral with Electa. The coffin was banked with flowers.
1924 -	January 24th Cozzie Cousens died. In her will she left the Laurier Avenue property to my children. She had become possessor by Lila Cousens' will. It needed repairs, which I had done so it could be rented at a better price. It was number 171-173 Laurier Avenue, Ottawa.
	In April, Granville Gilmore wrote me to come to Montreal. He wrote that Dr. Davidson was said to be exchanging checks with Mr. Hopton, a man who had moved from the Gilmore estate to (--- ?), amounting to $4000.00. Dr Davidson said that Hopton's mortgage was still unpaid. Granville and I saw Mr. Hopton who told us that he had paid the executor, Dr. Davidson, the $4000.00 and had been asking for a discharge of the mortgage, but had been put off for three years. I informed him that the mortgage had not been canceled in the Registry office and that the interest was accruing all the time and that I would help him clean it up if he would join me to find out where the trouble was. It took several months to persuade the doctor to hand back $1700.00 to the Gilmore estate. He died in May 1925. I got all the papers that had any reference to the Gilmore estate. We applied to Bishop Fa --- of the Episcopal Church in Province of Quebec. He gave me much good advice. As Dr. Davidson had been Chancellor of the -?-- for many years. In the papers we discovered disappearances of nearly $1000.00, but could collect nothing as he was on the verge of bankruptcy. A pretender in Synod and public. Jackal and Mr. Hyde.
	Granville went Saturday afternoons to Magog. Have supper in Waterloo and arrive at his farm at 10 P.M. He has a nice farm of 250 acres with large barn and a magnificent house. Called the Seven Gables, over three-quarter mile on the shore of Lake Magog and four miles north of Magog town. Has started scientific farming. Farmers in that vicinity too shiftless to grow potatoes so Granville grows a large quantity and sells to the farmers who sit on the hotel steps and smoke, -- a nonsensical diversion. Visited ---- Downing in Waterburg, Vt. Two years younger than I.
1925 -	Cleaned up the Gilmore estate at last and sent Arthur and Nettie Gilmore $700.00. Visited John Code and wife. Did not see Nell Ashton. Also saw people in Abbotsford, - John Fisk, Murray Charles. Also saw Dr. Blunt ( ?) and wife in Granby. Had Sarah's, Walter's, and William's names engraved on the monument in the church yard in Rougemont. My step-mother, Caroline Reynolds, erected it in 1888 in remembrance of my father Daniel Bachelder who had been dead six years. I gave the order in Montreal. Cost $300.00.
	Etta and I got permit from the American Consul to take permanent residence in California. September 17, 1925 left Montreal at 11 P.M. for California. On the 1st October reached Omaha. We visited my brother Sias' children - three daughters and one son. Met Olive Hamilton, now Mrs. 0. MacHiver, a very nice young woman. I saw her but few times. We have kept up a correspondence until the present time. She is very thin and ill. Saw Nellie Frazier, also Edith.
1925-	Left Omaha the 14th October arrived in Los Angeles at 12 P.M. the 16th. Arthur Gilmore and Walter met us with their car. Electa and Lila were with them. Their home was 1322 Ingroham St. The girls had agreed. to pay $25.00 a month for use of the furniture in the house. Etta and I bought it later for $500.00. We met Miss Murray of Montreal, Miss Samson of Windsor - near Sherbrooke. Also met Miss Eva Henry of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, all real ladies. How clannish Canadians are. They are all our very best friends. Miss Henry I called a child as she rode in our car and never knew how old she was until 1929. I am very fond of her. The very idea - December and May to such good friends. Bought a second hand Essex car. Just as good after five years as when we purchased it.
1926 -	We certainly enjoyed it. Could not see California without it. In September Arthur, Walter, Electa and I drove to San Diego. Stayed all night, home next day. Saw many old missions on the way there. Has a very large and beautiful park. Uls. Grant's son built a hotel there Best one in the city. Saw orange groves for the first time. All laid out in squares up hill and down. Lemons, walnuts, avocados all known fruits grown in the world. Los Angeles will be one of the largest cities in time. Covers 441 square miles now. 22 miles to the Long Beach harbour. Almost completed, built up all the way to the Pacific ocean. Shipping is far reaching, from all over the world. More than half the petroleum is taken out here. In January 1926 I purchased a lease of six acres of oil lands at the foot of the Elk Hills of Doching and Falp--?- by the U.S. My purchase not yet developed.
1927 -	In June advanced $100.00 to Mr. Lamb to pay Mr. Wilson's expenses to inspect a gold mine in the south branch of the American River, 13 miles east of Plainsville. Mr. Wilson reported that the mine was valuable and advised the purchase.
1822 -	My wife's grandfather (Carden) came from Ireland in 1820. Her grandmother now arrived. She came to Canada in 1823. A sister was here already when Mr. Carden arrived. She told him that she had a beautiful sister in Ireland. He intended to go to Ontario to make his fortune. Miss Ashby persuaded him to stay until her sister Eliza arrived. She said she knew they would marry. She died in 1882. They were married in 1824. Miss Eliza Carden born in 1826. She married Mr. William Cousens in 1840. They lived in Chambley. He kept a dry goods store and did well. The English troops were barracked there. Sarah was born there in January 1848. Mr. Cousens moved to Bytown Ontario, in 1852. In 1867 it was named Ottawa by the government and made the capital of Canada. Mr. William Carden was born in 1800 and died in St Césaire in 1884. Mrs. Carden born in 1805. Died in 1896. A highly respected mother and grandmother. Both from the north of Ireland. Grandma was very fond of me. If I did not go to see her when in the village, next time she would take me by the ears and kiss me. "You did not come to see me the last time you were in the village." She was greatly pleased that Sarah and I married. She was very lonely after Mr. Carden died. She often asked me to take her out in my carriage. A happy past gone.
1885 - ____________	Mr. William Cousens died in April, 1885, 72 years. Mrs. Cousens in 1916 in her 90th year. ________________________________________________________________