Rearview
Read Emma's Journal
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Send us your thoughts on this exhibit. We would love to hear what you thought of Emma Averill's journal. What do you think of Emma's story? E-mail us at archiveswebmaster@gov.mb.ca. Your comments may be included on this page.
Emma was my Great Grandmother. I can't tell you how thrilled I was to stumble across this site last year. I have a photo that I was hoping you might add to the site.
The photo is of Octavius and Emma Averill and three of their children: Fanny 7 yrs, Isaac 8 yrs, and Pax 5 yrs. Their other daughter Ethel Arabella 6 yrs, (my great grandmother) is missing from the photo, perhaps because she was ill. It was taken in Bath, England on March 22, 1880, just ten days before they sailed for Canada on April 1, 1880.
I am a great-grandson of Emma and Octavious Averill, whose journal is on your website. Also of interest is that a living monument to them still exists on their farm. Ethel found a tiny spruce tree on the prairie as her father was plowing the sod, and she convinced him to plow around it. It still stands alone on the hill in the middle of the quarter, more than 125 years later. It serves as a landmark, and a family tribute to the pioneers… I like to think that our family knows a thing or two about hangin' in there, and it is gratifying to see that that is being publicly recognised in some small way.
I am a great granddaughter of Emma and Octavious… The little All Saint’s Church Octavious and Emma built still stands north of Clanwilliam and is used occasionally for weddings and summer church services. There are 4 generations of Averill descendents buried there.
It was with great interest that I read the [Rearview] information on the website. I am on the Board of the Minnedosa Regional Archives - a new and small archives… [A donor] donated a copy of a diary written by Emma Averill that had been in her husbands family, to the Minnedosa Regional Archives. She said it was a very interesting story of the early days but did not know who had the original, but she wanted the copy to be in Minnedosa Archives. It has been accepted and accessioned and now we know the location of the original.
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