My great, great grandfather, William Kerry and his wife Susannah, arrived in Canada from Portsmouth, England in the autumn of 1812. Eventually they made their home in the County of Lambton, Ontario where they raised eight children. In 1838, Capt. Wm. Kerry was killed in a border skirmish during the 1838 Rebellion and was buried on his farm which then passed on to his son, George Carey who was my great grandfather.

In the late 1880’s George’s youngest sons, Arthur and Myres became enthralled with wanderlust and the promise of free land to settlers in Dakota Territory. The advertisements promised land that would not need to be cleared of timber before it could be plowed and planted. The boys were determined to set off to seek adventure and their fortunes on this new American frontier.

George was loath to see them set off alone, for though Arthur was 21, Myres was not yet 15. And so by spring of 1885, the farm near Euphemia in Lambton County with it’s comfortable home, orchards, stream and flowing artesian well was sold and George, Arthur and Myers loaded livestock, household goods and a supply of hardwood lumber in boxcars bound for adventure. That day George, who was in his late sixties is reported to have said, "Today I leave the only home that I have ever known, and only God knows my feelings."

George’s wife Emily and daughters Mary Emaline and Rachel were left in Ontario and were to join the Carey men in Dakota once living quarters were built.

Meanwhile George and the boys ended their journey by rail in Clark Center. They loaded their wagons with all their worldly goods and traveled about twenty miles north to the land they had filed upon. Here they built a shanty twelve feet square and before they could accomplish anything else, both Arthur and Myres became ill from drinking tainted water. Myres recovered quickly, but Arthur was desperately ill.

We have in the family, the original letter that George wrote back to his daughter Mary Emaline from near Clark Center in April, 1885:

" I feel like wrighting to you to let you know that we received your welcome letter that let us know you and mother and Rachel was well. I only wish we could say so. I and Myres are well but poor Arthur is very sick we have done all we can and Myres has gone for the doctor this afternoon and I will tell you before I close this letter what he says is the matter with him. Poor boy came out here among strangers and take suddenly ill is something I can scarsely bare up under."

A post script at the end of the letter attempts to reassure them , saying:

"Mary do not be alarmed the doctor came and said it is typhoid fever but not a very bad type and he says Arthur will come around but will take quite awhile."

It must be presumed that more suitable living accommodation was built for Emily arrived from Ontario with her daughters during the summer and so preparations began for the approaching winter. The Carey’s were among the first settlers who founded the community of Bradley and many of their neighbors were also from Ontario. They soon organized a Baptist congregation and George was a senior deacon.

I am sorry that my Carey ancestors were never happy in their South Dakota home. When I look now at lush, green pictures taken in the spring of the year 2000, I can hardly believe this is the same land my great grandparents found when they arrived during the terrible drought years of the late nineteenth century. You have to understand the culture shock of leaving an area with abundant water, trees for fruit and firewood and learning to live with little water and "buffalo chips" for fuel. They hated the hot dry winds of summer and were terrified of winter’s blizzards. They missed their friends and families left behind, as I am sure, did all our pioneers who bravely set off into the unknown to open up this huge continent to those who would follow soon after them.

The brush with death that Arthur experienced in April of 1885 was only the beginning of the tragedies that would befall the family. Only three years after leaving Ontario, George then in his early seventies, passed away. Arthur had filed on a homestead of his own, so the farm near Bradley was passed on to Myres with the stipulation that he make a home for his mother and sisters for as long as was needed.

Not all was doom and gloom. In early 1889, daughter Rachel married Frank Rarick and five months later Myres married Mary Ellen Day, one of the sweetest ladies one could meet. In April 1890, Arthur married Nellie McKenny and before the month ended, Myers and Mary Ellen welcomed their first-born, Clara Alberta Carey.

Heartache returned to the family in 1891, first with the stillbirth of Arthur and Nellie’s baby son, followed only seven months later by the accidental death of Arthur.

Daughters Cora Altha Mary, Artha Emily and Katherine Arrabell were born to Rachel and Frank Rarick in 1891, 92 and 93. Valley Lee Carey was born to Myres and Mary Ellen the summer of 1992, and they followed that with the birth of my father, Arthur Albert II, just two days late for Christmas 1894.

In July of 1897, the most devastating of all their loses occurred when Rachel was struck and killed by lightning. Her eldest daughter was only six.

My Aunt "Merle" arrived in 1898; her real name was Lavina Muriel and the new century brought the last of Myres’ and Mary Ellen’s children, Mary Viola born in 1903. George’s widow, Emily had been able to make a return visit to Lambton County in 1893 to visit with her sons and their families and meet her Canadian-born grandchildren. Back in Bradley she was filled with joy at the birth of each new grandchild and in 1901 she passed away. She and George are buried near Bradley.

During the intervening years, Myres farmed his father’s land as well as the land that had been his brother’s, however as the children grew older he bought a house in Bradley so that they would have a better educational advantage and take part fully in the activities of the church. The Carey families always placed high priority on the church and education. Four of Myres children later attended college and three of the girls became teachers (Merle with a B.A., was the principal of her school).

Mary Emaline Carey, who never married, had received voice and piano training before the move from Canada and the family managed to purchase a grand piano for her. She taught music to her own nieces and nephew as well as many other young folks in Bradley. An evening of harmonizing around the piano was prized by the entire family. Mary Emaline was also a leader in the church choir.

Although Mary Ellen had been born and raised in Wisconsin before her marriage in South Dakota, Myres was always nostalgic about the home in Ontario that he and Arthur I had been so insistent about leaving! Many neighbors had fled the drought that plagued the land at that time. In 1905, Myres journeyed to the edge of the Parkland area in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada and was thrilled by the stands of aspen, the lakes and once again the promise of land for settlers.

And so as history repeated itself, a boxcar was loaded in the early spring of 1906 and Myres and his 11 year old son Arthur set off for that new province of Saskatchewan, where they were soon joined on a farm three miles south of Foam Lake by Mary Ellen, Mary Emaline and his four daughters. My father farmed that land until 1950. Mary Emaline was provided for by her brother Myres until her death in 1922. Mary Ellen lived to be 86. Myres Davidson Carey suffered a stroke and passed away in late 1928, ironically, just as the great drought inched it’s way north and his new homeland experienced almost ten years of what became known as "the dirty thirties".

June Carey Pearce