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Birth: 17 Aug 1881, Oldfield, Honley, Yorkshire, England
Death: 22 Dec 1950, Perryvale, Alberta, Canada
Parents:
William Oliver (1852-1933)
Lavinia Pickford Oliver (1863-1943)
Siblings:
George Oliver (1883-1895)
Lavinia “Vinny” Oliver Fell (1885-1965)
Alice Oliver Lewis (1888-1931)
Dinah Oliver Hawke (1891-1954)
Joseph Oliver (1893-1893)
William “Bill” Oliver, III (1893-1956)
Mary “May” Oliver Brandon (1895-1978)
Ernest Oliver (1898-1984)
Edith Oliver Oakley (1898-1974)
Ada “Bessie” Oliver Oakley (1900-1988)
Stanley Oliver (1903-1977)
Spouse: Joseph Rein (1857-1939)
Marriage: 25 Sep 1901, Orillia, Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada
Children:
Joseph “Oliver” Rein (1902-1963)
Frederick Lawrence Rein (1904-1974)
Edna Rein (1906-1906)
Marie Rein (1906-1906)
Annie May Rein Aloisio (1908-1963)
Burial: Perryvale Cemetery, Perryvale, Whitecourt Census Division, Alberta, Canada
Source: www.findagrave.com, #63777271
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Artifacts/Documents:
- Birth, 17 Aug 1881
- Baptism, 5 Feb 1882
- Marriage, 25 Sep 1901
- Confirmation, 14 Mar 1913
- Canada Registration Card, 22 Jun 1918
- Obituary, c. Dec 1950
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From Rolling Hills and Whispering Pines, A Peek at the Past: A History of Nestow, Tawatinaw, Rochester, Perryvale Districts as Remembered and Recorded by their People, Vol. II, (History Book Committee:1985), p. 1003.
REIN, JOSEPH AND ELIZA
by Shirley Ottosen (Rein)
Joseph and Ann Eliza Rein were married on September 25th, 1901. They began farming in the Coldwater area of Ontario. Joseph Oliver [Rein] was born in October, 1902; Frederick Lawrence in September, 1904; and Annie May in December, 1908.
Eliza’s uncle, Joseph Oliver, Had already settled in Alberta at Gibbons when Joe and Eliza decided to go out west to file for a homestead. They arrived by train in Edmonton in 1910 and rented a place to live at Gibbons. About a year later Joe filed for a homestead about half a mile north of Perryvale. By today’s standards that quarter section is not worth much mostly jackpines, sandhills, blueberries and slough grass. However, the Tawatinaw River flowed through the quarter so a supply of water was readily available. Some of the higher land was relatively open and required little clearing before breaking it for seeding. There were also meadows on each side of the river tall with wild hay.
Little land was being cultivated at that time in the Perryvale area. Joe was hired by Thomas Lewis to haul hay and grain for the Lewis Stopping Place. Art Lewis and Joe worked together travelling up to thirty-five miles south, winter and summer, buying grain and hay wherever it was available to be used at the Stopping Place.
Art recalls that in the winter those trips were “darned cold” and he didn’t know now “how a fella could stand it.” In one way, Joe was suited to this job. With his Irish temper he could cuss like a muleskinner. Art also remembered how particular Joe was about a gunny sack stuffed with hay that he always put on the wagon seat. He called it his “dry ass” and was careful to take it inside at night. Once while helping Art Unload a hay shipment that had come by rail, Joe momentarily forgot his “dry ass” in a boxcar. The train pulled out and began picking up speed. Joe Sprinted along the track, gained on the train and retrieved his precious possession.
Art and Joe dismantled an abandoned building left by a sawmill operation and hauled the logs seven miles down to the homestead where they put up the “homestead shack.” The structure was about 14′ by 25′ with one small window on each side. The rest of the family moved up when the home was finished.
My father, Fred, used to tell us what it was like travelling on the Landing Trail. On one trip it had rained most of the time and the wagons repeatedly became mired in the mud. The boys, Fred and Oliver, were walking barefoot behind the wagons, soaking wet and tired. Someone threw a mackinaw over my dad. It soon became sodden and mud-coated and with each step the hem rubbed his calves until they were raw. It was too cold to take off the coat and the men were too preoccupied with keeping the wagons moving to be bothered with a boy’s complaint.
In 1912 the railway was built through Perryvale, passing within a couple hundred yard from the house. However, the railroad brought some problems along with it for my grandmother. Many transients walked the tracks on their way to and from the Athabasca Landing and men often stopped to ask for something to eat. Eliza was usually alone with the three children. Most of the time the men politely waited outside until she brought out the food, but on one occasion a man entered the cabin and threatened her. The family dog ousted this caller and kept a piece of his pants as a souvenir.
At this time most of the land was unfenced and cows ranged far and wide. Eliza didn’t like to leave the children alone, so they all hunted cows together. One evening they had a encounter with what my grandmother was sure was a rabid wolf. The animal began following them and with each passing minute grew bolder and began decreasing the distance between them. Eliza scooped up Annie, called the dog close and they all armed themselves with sticks. The wolf began making short charges at them stopping short of the growling dog. It had a wild-eyed look and appeared to be frothing at the mouth. Fortunately, Mr. Wolf seemed to tire of this and eventually slunk into the bush. Everyone arrived home shaken, but unhurt.
After living in the homestead shack for several years, my grandmother was quite relieved to move into a house located by the church and owned by the Lewis’s. Here they began boarding the local teacher.
Fred and Oliver never did attend school very much. The boys, along with their dad, were cutting railroad ties and shoveling sand in the Crystal sandpit while still very young. At ages 18 and 20, they began going to Saskatchewan in the fall to work on the threshing crews.
About this time Joe Rein, already an elderly man, purchased a quarter section of land at the top of the Perryvale hill from Mr. Telford. Neither Fred or Oliver had intended to spend their life farming, but Joe couldn’t farm the land himself anymore and Eliza had already become quite crippled with arthritis. Fred and Oliver stayed on the farm and Annie took over the household as Eliza became increasingly incapacitated.
In October 1933, after an absence of over twenty years, Eliza made a trip “home” to Ontario with the hope that the change in climate might be beneficial to her health. A large group of friends and relatives gathered at Art Lewis’s to bid her a happy farewell. After a five month absence she returned having experienced no respite from her pain.
In July 1937, Annie married Rudolf Aloisio. Within a week of the wedding both Joe and Eliza were hospitalized. Joe had suffered a heart attack and Eliza had fallen out of the car when the door accidentally opened. It was almost two hours before medical aid could reach the scene, whereupon Dr. Meyer discovered Eliza had broken both her arms and a leg. Recovery was slow and Eliza spent the rest of her life as an invalid. During these years she lived with Annie and Rudolph, unable to do much more than knit.
Mother’s Day was a special event for Eliza. Friends and relatives made a point of dropping by to wish Grandmother a happy day. Outings were few but she was especially pleased to be able to attend some functions such as Charlotte Ward’s surprise for her seventy-fourth birthday.
Joe died at the age of eighty-two in 1939 having spent the last few years of his life almost stone deaf. Eliza followed him in 1950.
The Reins didn’t have much during the homestead years and resourcefulness and thriftiness was deeply ingrained in their children for the rest of their lives. They firmly believed that by hard work one could always get by and by doing so, maintain pride and dignity. Joe Rein only rocked his first grandchild, Melvin Rein, and although we never knew him we feel the security of having roots, a community in which our family name is held in esteem. His grand children have travelled and lived in other places, but I think I speak for all of us when I say that Perryvale is home.
THE FAMILY STEWARD 