Frederick Blake Porteous, my grandfather, is one of the very few people I've documented on this site of whom I have memories.

Fred was born on the 28th of November, 1882 in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. His father, George, was working with Scrimgeour Brothers as a cabinet maker and furniture designer at the time of Fred's birth.

The family had moved to Dundas, Ontario by 1888, but there is some possibility they lived in Berlin (now called Kitchener) before that time. There is an 1886-1889 Waterloo County business directory entry for a George Porteous whose address was given as King Street. My father has said that his father used to joke that William Lyon MacKenzie King's family were neighbours. I've uncovered another George Porteous in the 1871 census; this person also lived in Berlin. Perhaps he is the person in the 1886-1889 Waterloo County business directory.

The single event that confirms that they resided in Dundas is the death of Fred's mother, Margaret Reid (her name is given as "Maggie" on her tombstone), in May of 1888. Margaret is buried in the Grove Cemetery, which is on a hill under the ridge of the Niagara Escarpment. My grandfather was 5 years old at the time of his mother's death. The cemetery has a record of a "baby Porteous" who was buried in their "Potter's Field" earlier in the month, so I strongly suspect that Fred's mother died of complications arising from childbirth.

I've lost track of the family until Fred's father remarried in 1892. The wedding took place in Dunnville, Ontario, but the marriage registration indicates that George Porteous was living in Guelph, Ontario at the time. Perhaps Fred's step-mother, Agnes Clark Moir, met his father while teaching a sibling. In any event, there is a four-year gap that I have yet to fill in, and I've drawn a blank on the 1891 census, despite extensive searching. Would that it were fully indexed!

Fred's father worked at a Guelph furniture company by the name of Burr Brothers. The company was eventually taken over by a "conglomerate" known as the Canada Furniture Company. Its headquarters were in Toronto, so it's quite possible that George Porteous made a good number of trips to that city (Fred's parents, George and Margaret, were married in Toronto in August of 1874).

Fred attended Guelph Collegiate. We were fortunate enough to find his gradebooks in an "archives" next to the school library. The former Burr Brother's factory is now a senior's home and is located directly across the street from the collegiate:

About 1902, when Fred was only 19, he is said to have taken the train to Indian Head, Saskatchewan and from there to Yellow Grass. I know that Fred's sister Clara and her husband, Samuel Taylor, lived in Yellow Grass. Perhaps they moved to the town shortly after they were married (16 May 1902, Winnipeg, Manitoba) and Fred followed shortly thereafter. Perhaps Fred stopped in Winnipeg on his way to Saskatchewan, or may even have lived in that city for a brief time. I know that Fred's aunt and uncle, Margaret (Robinson) and Mark Porteous, lived there between 1897 and 1910. The couple, who were married the year before their nephew Fred was born, migrated to the Dakota Territory and from there to Winnipeg where Mark worked as a carpenter.

I recently learned that the province of Saskatchewan is in the process of indexing their birth, marriage and death registrations. Check this link for further details.

Fred's father died in April, 1904. About a week before his father's death, Fred returned to Guelph. He stayed for only a brief time before returning to Yellow Grass, this according to a short article in the Guelph Mercury:

We don't know exactly what Fred did for a living during his first years in Saskatchewan. The 1906 census does not show his occupation, but it does at least place him in Yellow Grass. He lived with his sister Clara and his brother-in-law, Samuel J. Taylor, and 5 servants. By the time of the 1911 census, he was boarding in the town of Pangman; he was identified as a "Bookkeeper".

Fred married Mary Catherine Bell at the manse of the Knox Presbyterian Church on 8 Jan 1914. One of the witnesses was my grandmother's older sister, Lillie J. Bell.

...in progress...

Trips around North America by train

Gardening