HOME, SWEET HOMES: A Picture History of Some of the Homes of My Ancestors

     Sometime between 1861 and 1871, my great-grandfather, George Elliott, moved his family to Huntingdon Twp. In Hastings  Co., Ontario. I don’t have any pictures of their home the way it looked when they lived there, but this first picture was taken in 1961 — 100 years or so after they moved there. George Elliott, a grandson, is standing where the drive shed was. Note on the back of the picture says, "George Elliott June 1961 -- taken at grampas old farm Crookston. This is where the drive shed was. The barn was in the background and the house to the west. They are gone."

     The second picture shows me, Martha Scott Jessop, standing in approximately the same spot in 1993. Note how tall the lilacs are! It was a cold, rainy day in May when my mother and I drove all over northern Hastings County looking for this spot. It was the highlight of our trip to actually find it!

      After my grandparents, Tom Scott and Martha Elliott, were married, they lived in the village of Crookston, not far from the Elliott homestead. This picture of their home was also sent to us by Daddy's cousin, George Elliott. Can you imagine how hard it would have been to leave this lovely home and go west to the lonely prairies of Alberta — and try to make a home out of a homestead shack? 

     When Martha joined Tom in Edmonton, the city was growing by leaps and bounds. Housing was scarce, so many people lived in tents. There were over 1,000 tents in Edmonton with more than 3,000 people living in them. So Tom and Martha and their three children joined them for the summer. The Edmonton City website has a really interesting article about "Early Tent Communities" at https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/edmonton_archives/early-tent-communities.aspx which tells about the times. We don't have a picture of the tent they lived in then, but about 50 years later, Daddy profited from experience and built these tent homes, complete with wood floor and partial walls, for us to live in at Alms Place on Finley Point. 

     We haven't any good pictures of the home they moved into when they finally could live on the homestead, but Daddy described it this way: "The cabin in which we lived was a two room affair. It was probably 20 feet long and 14 feet wide with one door on the south side, and three windows, one on the east, one on the south and one on the west. It was built of spruce logs, the cracks chinked with sticks and mud, and a peaked roof which consisted of boards running up and down with more boards laid over the cracks. It was a good roof to keep the sun out but wasn't very effective against the rain. In those days in Alberta it would rain sometimes for a couple weeks at a time. I can remember Mother setting pans in the middle of the beds to catch the drip coming through the roof and going to bed with an umbrella over her head to run the water off." 

     These pictures show enough of the house that you can see the chinked spruce logs and the roof as Daddy described it.

Next is the “new” home Grandpa Scott built on the homestead. The picture was taken in 1965, Martha and Jo Ellen standing by the door. Edith and I have been trying to figure out just exactly when this home was built and what buildings were on the property when the family was growing up. Mostly, we find we just have questions with no answers. But even though it looks tiny and a bit primitive, I can just imagine Grandma Scott loving the comfort and convenience of her new home!

     The next few years will have to be filled in by Edith; but many years, and many wanderings later, Daddy wound up in the Flathead in Montana. Our first home there was a small, one-room shack perched on the mountainside overlooking the lake. Someone had built wooden steps down the side of the mountain to the lake for quick access when needing fish for breakfast. At least that's what Paul used them for.

 After a couple of weeks, we moved to Alms Place on Finley Point. Going up in the world -- it had two rooms and running water! That's where Daddy pitched the tents in the orchard for summer living. Edith and family joined us here for awhile.

     The Great Scott Motel will always be "home" for many of us who lived there -- no matter how long or short the stay. It was kind of all the things you want in a home rolled into one. When this picture was taken, Gary and Nancy had been visiting with their three oldest children, and were packing up their station wagon to leave again.

     The last home Daddy built was in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, on "The Ranch", which later became Pinesdale. Daddy would tell my mother and my aunt Ramona how many square feet they could have and then they would design their homes. It always worked out well -- they came up with good ideas that made beautiful homes.

This picture was taken the first winter we lived in the Bitterroot, before the home was finished. Daddy only lived in it about five and a half years. He died here in 1972.