Immigrant youngster in old age

It was in the year 1816 that Alexander McDonald and his family emmigrated from Lochaber, Scotland to Canada. They established the homestead, Mabou Ridge, in what is now Inverness County in Nova Scotia. Included in that family were ALLAN, born in the later 1790's, and our ancester DONALD, born about 1800. This is the photo of the pioneer ALLAN, with his son Donald. Father and son look to be about 80 and 50, so the photo was taken circa 1875, in the very early years of photography. The photo was sent to me by a descendant of Allan and Donald, a resident of Massachusetts.

Allan the Ridge and Mary

My (Ran's) paternal grandparents. In the orignal picture Gramma Mary looks no older than forty, perhaps a bit younger, and Grampa Allan doesn't look much beyond that--although it's hard to guesstimate because of the great beard of the day. So this is a very old photo taken very close to 1880. I would think it was a big day with lots of preparation. It's unfortunate that my interest in this picture wasn't what it should have been while there were still people who would know the date and the occasion.

Boston wedding

Wedding picture of Ran's Beaton grandparents, Margaret (McIsaac) and Alexander, living in Boston at the time. Alexander was born in 1851 so this occasion would also have been around 1885.

Alex and Archie (Dan Archie) MacDonald

Dan and Archie, sons of Allan and Mary, settled in Washington/Oregon in the late 1800's, and Alex eventually in Saskatchewan, where he was joined by his little brother, Jim, Ran's father. Archie lost his life in an industrial accident (forest), perhaps not too long after this photo was taken.
(Jim (Angie) MacDonald, Woodland ca, did some analysis on this photo comparing it with other photos particularly uncle Dan and Maude's wedding picture, and show that the photo backgrounds and props are identical. It is an indication that the photos were taken on the same occasion-- uncle Dan and Maude's wedding).
Mary's brother, also a Donald MacDnald, had left Cape Breton for the west coast some years earlier, and was joined by his nephews in their late teens and early 20's. Donald's sojourns predated continental railway systems and there is family lore that includes him in Oregon Trail saga and that is probably to be expected. The railway reached Washington and Oregon in 1883, when Donald would have been in his early to mid 40's, based on Mary's year of birth (1840).
"The first emigrants to make the trip were Marcus and Narcissa Whitman who made the trip in 1836. However, the first mass migration did not occur until 1843 when approximately 1000 pioneers made the journey at one time.
This trail was the only feasible land route for settlers to get to the West Coast. From 1843 until 1869 when the first transcontinental railroad was completed, there were over 500,000 people who made the trip in covered wagons pulled by mule and oxen." (Frontier Trails of the Old West--200atJeu Publishing)

Ran's father, James (Jimmie Allan the Ridge)

This is a picture taken, I would say, at about age 20.

Sometime after this photo was taken, it was combined with that of Archie (lifted from the photo above), and Jim's photo was touched up, adding a shirt and tie. (Photography was relatively crude in those days but art certainly was not). Although my father's picture was taken in the first years of the 20th century the touch-up and the inclusion with Archie's photo was probably done somewhat later, perhaps on the occasion of Archie's death or perhaps when Jim, the last of the boys (all of whom) to grow up and leave Cape Breton for the west. How difficult both occasions had been for their parents in those days of difficult travel. The picture was a family icon throughout my childhood, mounted forever on the living room eastwall--large, in a prominent gilted frame.

Family at the old homestead, probably 1921

The adults in this picture, l to r, are my father James, my mother Jessie, my aunt Sarah, My aunt Katie Belle, and my grandmother Mary. My mother has my sister Margaret sitting on her hip and my father is holding my brother Dannie's hand. Standing next to Sarah is my cousin Mary Sarah (Sister Mary), Katie Belle's daughter. Margaret died at age 9.

Jessie (Beaton) McDonald

Ran's mother,1936, age 40. The old stables back there, with its galvanized sidings farther back than it appears--and the copy, not the barn, is skewed. Beyond that is the cow pasture and beyond that, the Atlantic. The photo is not sharp enough to show the horizon and some distant mountains of northern Cape Breton. The dairy farm was in the last stages of its closing. There would have been a couple of cows, a horse, and a few chickens. Allan's painting of Archie Beaton and the rink is set from the other side of the stable barn and facing it.

Ran--age 9 (1936)

Altar boy. Serplice (White top) and sutan.

Age 12

Standing or walking under the omnipresent clothes line

and later

Ran's age here--17 or 18, I guess.

University

University freshman (first year)--Saint Francis Xavier University (St. FX). Ran didn't graduate from St. FX--rather, some years later (1974) at U of Sask.

1942

Dannie (with the hat, and not a real good picture of him), Allan (his 'get this over with, bye' moment), Alex (kool, man), Mary (looking as though she organized this shot), and Marg (age 8, happier times). I spent this entire summer at Sangaree, not getting home from school on the last school day, and not returning home for the first day of the next term. It was a wonderful summer. Sangaree is a relatively large island on the Mira River, It was used mostly for young campers.

Dannie was not yet 24, Mary was 20, Allan 18, and Alex 17. Kaye, Phonse, and I were missing from this one.

Jim and Jessie McDonald--Ran's parents

About 1950.
The old cedar shingles in use those days look a bit ragged in photographs. To the right is the old home of the Irish family, Curran, who were part of the original settlers along the Sydney harbour south side. My folks bought most of the farm in 1929. They built the house that they are standing by, and where I grew up, and another next door on the other side (in the direction that they are facing). The old house was expanded and accomadated three families.
The depression of 1929-39 created a situation where collecting revenue from milk custmers and renters with children was not a dependable source of income. The folks closed the business enterprises around 1938 (over a period of time) and my father went into the coal mines.

McDonald family reunion--1950

Ran's uncle Dan and aunt Maude with their daughter Harriet, from Kelso. Washington, and my uncle Alex from Calgary (where he had retired to live with his daughter, Helen) came down to Cape Breton to visit and a reunion. It was a special time particularly for Ran's father and aunt Sarah. It was the last time Ran's folks would see Alex, but his father visited Dan and Maude and family in Washingon in 1958.
In the rear are Ran's mother, his aunt Sarah, uncle Alex, brother Alex, uncle Dan, Allan Beaton (Sarah's son), Ran's father, and aunt Maude. In front are Margureite Power and Belle Cox, Sarah's daughters, and the little boy on the right is Jim (Angie), my brother Danny and Florence son, now retired in California.

Kaye & Marshall

Ran's sister Kaye and Marshall (Desveaux) at a 1950's Columbian Ball