A Family Legacy - The Grants & The Linneys

William Grant (1861-1958) “Pioneer Citizen”

[Photo of William inserted here]

The sixth child of Alexander Grant, Sr. (b. 1807) and Annie McDonald, I knew William as “Great Grandpa Grant”. He was the only one of my Great Grandparents whom I ever met. He inhabits a very warm spot in my heart. Although I’ve designated him as a “Direct” ancestor, he was not direct for me personally. He was a direct ancestor for the Grant half of our family.

[Image of William’s ancestral tree inserted here]

William was born 9 April 1861 in Grantoun-on-Spey, Invernesshire, Scotland – a mere three days before the beginning of the Civil War in America. We know from the story of his father, Alexander Grant, Sr., that William lived with the family through their emigration to Canada around 1871. Although he was at the family home in Kincardine, Ontario when the 1881 Census was taken, we know that young William traveled the Canadian prairies (then known as the Northwest Territories). He was part of a team of surveyors sometime before July 1881. How do we know it was before then? Because that’s when the famous Lakota Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and his followers left Canada and returned to the United States. William had met Sitting Bull. Here’s some background leading up to young William’s fascinating story…

Following the 1876 massacre of General Custer’s entire U.S. cavalry unit at the Battle of Little Big Horn (Montana), Sitting Bull was the most notorious figure on the Western frontier of the United States. In an effort to flee the U.S. military, the Chief and his followers fled to Canada. The Manitoba Daily Free Press reported on 5 March 1877 that Sitting Bull and his “large army of warriors” had entered Canada on or before early February of that year, near Wood Mountain.

[Picture and story of Sitting Bull inserted]

Sitting Bull and his people survived in large part by hunting buffalo, which were fast disappearing from the western frontier. As a result, they found themselves near starvation at the start of the 1880s. At that time, William’s surveying party was traveling from Medicine Hat to Valley River, north of Edmonton. [Reid’s note: In a 1958 Winnipeg Free Press article, the writer states that the year was 1883. That would have been based on William’s somewhat hazy memory (he was 97 at the time). Sitting Bull was no longer in Canada in 1883.]

According to his great granddaughter Trudy Hansford (nee Miller), William was somewhere between 18 and 20 years old. As William told her the story: “He saw Indians in the distance and thought that, if he ran, they would chase him, and who knows what would have happened to him. He was scared but he said they were just as scared as he was. They were starving.” The braves apparently accompanied William on the way to their camp. You can imagine that their Chief, Sitting Bull, would have been most interested in meeting a young man with the surname “Grant” – the same surname as that of the then-sitting U.S. President, Ulysses S. Grant. Trudy goes on: “When they met, they all sat down to smoke in peace. William gave them some hardtack [or bannock, a variety of baked flat bread] as that was all he had. Chief Sitting Bull took some for himself and his braves. Sitting Bull then gifted his personal pipe to William.”

Sometime after he died, William’s grandson Charles donated that pipe (and one other) to the Seven Oaks Museum in Winnipeg, where they are still held [as of March 2024]. They were on display through the early 21st century. He also donated a mustard pot & spoon, and horns from a muskox (“that had red velvet between the horns to look nice and people put them above their doors”).

As a child, I remember visiting the Museum and seeing the pipe displayed – labeled as being Sitting Bull’s pipe and attributing its ownership to William Grant. Sometime after 2009, the Museum changed all of its labelling cards to include both French and English. At that time, the label read only: “Peace Pipes” – no attribution to either Sitting Bull or to the Grant family. A change in leadership at the Museum may have led to a question about the pipe’s provenance.

After all, following Sitting Bull’s death in 1890, many people claimed ownership of something once held by the infamous Indian. Of course, no one had a paper signed by Sitting Bull saying that he gave the pipe to William. Nor would there be any fingerprint records. So there would be no way, other than scientific chemical analysis perhaps, to prove the authenticity and origins of the pipe. All we have is William’s word. But keep in mind: William came from a deeply religious family – two of his brothers became Ministers. This was clearly a family of truth-tellers.

One problem here…William’s pipe didn’t resemble the one held by Sitting Bull in the photographs taken of him.

[Pictures of Sitting bull’s pipe inserted here]

The picture on the left shows Sitting Bull holding a pipe in 1885. I zoomed in on the pipe (below, middle). I’ve also included a photo of William Grant’s pipe at the Seven Oaks Museum.

You can see from the photos that the two pipes aren’t identical. But consider these facts:

Sitting Bull is dressed in immaculate attire in the photo

The pipe in the photo also appears new/unused – perhaps given solely for use in the photo

The year of the photo is 1885, several years after his meeting with William Grant

There are other pictures of Sitting Bull holding a pipe, and in each case the pipes are different…and darker in color than the one in this photo of him

If anything, William Grant’s pipe looks more authentic than the one in that photo of Sitting Bull.

[Picture of William Grant smoking Sitting Bul’s pipe inserted here]

From my standpoint, there is every reason to believe that William Grant’s pipe was indeed a pipe that he received as a gift from Sitting Bull.

In total, four things were donated to the Seven Oaks Museum:

the peace pipe

a decorative pipe with an Indian head on it

a mustard pot and a spoon made out of buffalo horn (it looked like a small egg cup)

horns from a muskox

[Picture of Seven Oaks Museum inserted here]

It’s particularly interesting to me that William met with Sitting Bull, the very same Indian Chief who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. And William’s older brother, Rev. James Grant, married Hannah Cody a distant relative of Buffalo Bill!

The 1881 Canada Census shows William as a resident of his parent’s home in Ontario:

[Image of 1881 census table inserted here]

William arrived in Winnipeg on his 21st birthday in 1882 and took a job as a coal-oil delivery man for Imperial Oil Company.

[Image of Winnipeg in 1880 inserted here]

This article from the Winnipeg Tribune dated April 10, 1956, provides some memorable moments from William’s early days, including how we met the woman who would one day become his bride.

[Newspaper article inserted here]

Like William, Margaret “Maggie” McKenzie was born in Scotland. William paid for her trip to Winnipeg. She arrived on New Year’s Day, 1885. On 27 December 1886, the tall 25-year-old William married Maggie. She was two years his senior.

[Image of church marriage record inserted here]

The Angus McKenzie listed below William & Maggie on this record was apparently Maggie’s brother.

The only decent pictures I have of Maggie are the two that follow. The second one is taken in the living room of their home at 473 Scotia Street, Winnipeg.

[Two photos of William and Maggie inserted here]

By the time the 1891 Canadian Census rolled around, William & Maggie had their first child, Alexander (b. 1889). William’s occupation is difficult to make out but may be ‘boiler maker’.

[Image of 1891 Canadian Census lines inserted here]

The 1901 Canadian Census shows two more children – Charlie (b. 1892) & Nellie (b. 1896)

[Image of 1901 Canadian Census lines inserted here]

At this point, William is an engineer, following his studies in Civil engineering and surveying in Ontario. What the 1901 census doesn’t tell us is that William & Maggie had twins on New Year’s Eve 1897 – Marion Hazeldean and Shirley Milton. [These four names – Marion, Shirley, Hazelden and Milton – are all cities in Ontario where the family had lived.] The twins died within days of each other in January 1899. William’s great granddaughter Heather explained: “We were told the twins died of ‘Red River Fever’. Around this time there was a major fire on Main Street. To maintain the required water pressure to fight the fire, untreated Red River water was fed into the domestic water supply which at the time was primarily supplied by artesian wells, thus contaminating the water supply. This was the origin of Red River Fever, a form of typhoid. The outbreak was primarily felt in the poorer sections of the city, especially the North End, where few homes were connected to the city’s sewer system.” She added: “My Dad said that Great Grandpa Grant had been at Kildonan Cemetery for Marion’s burial, and returned home to learn that Shirley had died while the burial of her sister was taking place.”

An interesting aside here…William’s grandson – Raymond Brantford Grant – and his wife Joyce, had twins they named Maureen and Heather. As I learned from Heather: “When we were little, he always called us by his twins’ names, Shirley and Marion. Even at a very young age, we knew to respond to those names when we were with him.”

In October 1903, tragedy again struck William & Maggie. Charles, their second child, died.

For some odd reason, I can’t find any members of the family in the 1906 Manitoba Census.

William was employed in West Kildonan, where the first roads were built under his supervision. Kildonan Park was established in 1910 (though not built yet), and William had a hand in shaping it. To quote the Manitoba Historical Society: “numerous driveways and bridges were built to transform the park into a showplace”. The Park covered almost 100 acres and cost just over $163,000:

[Image of Park details inserted here]

I found this 1911 architectural rendering of the Park’s layout, as William would have known it. The park wouldn’t officially open until 1915.

[Original architectural drawing inserted here]

More importantly, it was in 1910 that William and Maggie built their home at 473 Scotia Street, just steps beyond the park’s boundary (see the record below from the City of Winnipeg’s Assessment & Tax Division).

[Image of Assessment record inserted here]

The 1911 Canadian Census tells us that William’s mother Annie, now age 90, was living with them. William again listed his occupation as Engineer; Alexander listed his as “Clerk”.

William and his family are living in Kildonan, west of the Red River… on Scotia Street.

[Image of 1911 Canadian Census lines inserted here]

The 1916 Manitoba Census shows Alexander and Nellie still living at home (listed as “dwelling

house” #507). Alexander’s occupation is listed as “Bookkeeper”. The census confirms that William helped build Kildonan Park.

[Image of 1916 Manitoba Census lines inserted here]

In the 1921 Canadian Census, Nellie is the only child living at home with William and Maggie. William was still an engineer and may well have been working on Winnipeg’s first municipal golf course, now called “Kildonan Park Golf Course”, next to the park.

[Image of 1921 Canadian Census lines inserted here]

Canada conducted a Census of the Prairie Provinces in 1926. It shows William, Margaret and Nellie all living together at 473 Scotia Street.

[Image of 1926 Prairie Provinces Census lines inserted here]

We have this picture taken at that house (c1950). William is with his granddaughter Marilyn Joy Grant.

[Photo inserted here]

Below (left) shows William, Margaret and their son, Alexander, probably c1920. The one next to it gives you a sense of the dignity and character of this very tall man (~ 6’ 4”) much later in his life.

[Two photos inserted here]

In the 1931 Canadian Census, William and Margaret are living alone.

[Image of the 1931 Canadian Census lines inserted here]

Further along in the census line we see he’s listed as an electrical engineer with Central Power’, making $1.900/year…

[Image of the 1931 Canadian Census lines inserted here]

William’s grandson, Raymond, had been assigned by the family to take care of him, helping out with whatever was required. Raymond often fondly recounted his time spent with his grandfather, including his help in building a kayak, with which Raymond then explored the Red River. Apparently, when Raymond returned home from those visits, there was an unspoken rule that he was not to speak about his time there. William’s granddaughter, Edith, attributed that to the fact that her mother, Edith Gertrude Grant (nee Langton) simply found it too hard to hear about, following the premature death of her husband Alexander – William’s son. Edith had often seen her mom standing at the window, completely lost in thought – probably about her memories of Alexander. With everything she was dealing with, just keeping her young family

afloat, Edith believed her mom never had an opportunity to properly mourn Alexander’s death.

My only real-life memory of Great Grandpa Grant was at his 93rd birthday party in 1954. I was three years old. I remember my Dad driving the family car into William’s driveway at 473 Scotia Street. It scared me a little because I could see the Red River but not the driveway itself. I remember worrying if we went any further, we’d end up in the river! Several pictures were taken at that birthday party…

[Two photos inserted here]

William was actually the last of his immediate family to survive. His first loss was the 2-year-old twins, Marion & Shirley, in 1899. His second son, Charles died in 1903, at age 11. His oldest son, Alexander, died in 1924 (just shy of his 35th birthday). His oldest daughter Nellie died in 1934, not quite 38 years old. And finally, his beloved Maggie died in 1946 (almost 85). But William wasn’t alone. His son Alexander’s wife, Edith Gertrude (nee Langton) treated him dearly and ensured he had the love, devotion and support of her own full family.

In his last years, William had two caregivers live with him, Essie and Jim Smith (below).

[Photo with caregivers inserted here]

The picture on the wall behind William is of his brother Charles, who died at age 21. The picture of the twins just below that are of his great granddaughters, Maureen and Heather Grant.

William died on 15 June 1958, not long after the following article appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press…

[Newspaper article and accompanying picture inserted here]

William’s obituary, published in the Winnipeg Free Press, labelled him a “Pioneer Citizen”…

[Image of newspaper obituary inserted here]

William was buried in a family plot at a cemetery just north of the Chief Peguis Trail.

Of particular importance to me [Reid] is Great Grandpa (William) Grant’s work on Kildonan Park. I lived on Polson Avenue, near the Red River. So my brother Grant and I, and our friends, visited the Park frequently, often riding our bikes on the dirt bike trails that ran along the river and by the creek. We swung on the extremely tall swings and made “parachute jumps” off of them when they reached their apex. We cycled closely behind the mosquito fogger, holding our breath and closing our eyes, to get a good dose of repellant for the day. We picked up errant golf balls that had found their way off the golf course and into the Park…and sold them to golfers. We had toboggan rides there. We swam at the pool. We played football there. We enjoyed family picnics there. I took my wife (then girlfriend) Wendy there to skate on the pond for our second date in 1971. Grant and I spent numerous summer vacations rollerblading and walking through the park. My Mom, Dad and I strolled through the flower gardens more times than I can remember. Grant, Janet and I met at the eastern flower garden to discuss what to do about our Dad when his Alzheimer’s became too much for my Mom to handle. As a family, we attended countless performances at Rainbow Stage. I’ve driven through that park every time I returned to visit Winnipeg. Grant and I agree…that park has a soul, and it’s tightly connected to ours. And yet I never knew until I began researching his life that William made that park what it is today – the “perfect” park.

I don’t know for certain whether Great Grandpa (William) Grant worked on the Winnipeg Municipal Golf Course (now “Kildonan Golf Course”) adjacent to Kildonan Park, but it’s highly likely he did. I have a similarly strong connection to the Golf Course, having played my first ever complete game there…and having played it with family and close friends so very many times.

To say the least – Great Grandpa Grant left a huge imprint on my life.

I leave William’s story here, although I thought you might find interest in exploring his will, most of which I’ve copied below. It’s definitely worth looking through. His executrix was his son Alexander’s daughter, Edith Gertrude (nee Langton). Among other points of interest, his property and possessions totaled $9,527.57. His home on Scotia was 1 ½-storeys and 1,926 sf.

[Images of William’s will inserted here]