A Short Family History
by Frances (Dayman) Jacobson
(Abridged excerpts taken from letters of: 02,04/2002; 02/2003)
Partial DAYMAN Family
Tree
DAYMAN Family Photographs
Part One - Family Background
My Mother's name was Mary Ethel and Father only had
one name, William or Will usually Bill by the C.P.R. men. Both were
born in Abernethy, Sask., living across the alley from each other.
Then Mother was raised in a stone house on a farm 3 miles north of
town. Mother and Dad were married June 3, 1914 in a stone church in
Abernethy and took a month-long honeymoon trip to Vancouver and Victoria,
visiting relatives along the way in Kelowna, etc. Daddy started as
a C.P.R. station agent and was living in Balcarres, Saskatchewan,
the next town to Abernethy, when Roy & I were born.
He worked for a while in Pincher Station. Pincher Station is 2 miles
north of town and includes the elevators. I dimly remember Nemiscam
where we all lived in a sloped-roof shack. Nemiscam is a hamlet S.E.
of Medicine Hat, Alberta. It was near Manyberries, which is still
there today but Nemiscam is gone. Mother was great for taking pictures
so I have photos from every age and place. From Nemiscam we moved
to Maybutt Station Alberta, part of Stirling, So. of Lethbridge, a
Mormon village, they called us 'Gentiles' as we weren't Mormons. Soon
brothers Harold and Elvin (ED) were born, in Maybutt, and a sister
Eileen came along, born in Lethbridge. In August 1921 we moved to
Carmangay, 40 or so miles north of Lethbridge, so Roy and I could
go to a better school. Daddy played for the United Church and led
a 25-member youth choir. He led the Tuxis, a club for teenage boys
to learn Parliament rules and procedures, and also Trail Ranger boys.
He was active in the Free Masons & both himself and Mother in
the Eastern Star groups. Harold Gordon Dayman was born at home in
the C.P.R. station, in Maybutt, AB, on December 23, 1918. All and
of us including Mother had the flu of '1918'. I can still remember
we were all in bed at the same time and the nurse was feeding us.
Grannie Dinnin, Mother's mother, came from Abernethy to help us but
she too got the flu. In the following summer of 1919, we all went
Saskatchewan to visit relatives and Mother carried Harold on a pillow,
as he was so weak. Grannie Dinnin was Nellie (Eleanor) Dinnin, wife
of John Robert Burlison Dinnin, one of founders of Abernethy, Sask.
Part Two - Early Life
We were a scrappy bunch, when I look back, cramped
in a small station
living quarters, five of us all under 8 years old. We were all schooled
at Carmangay, in an old brick two-story school. We went to Church
and Sunday School
every Sunday unless you were 'really sick', earning pins and bars
for attendance. We roved the hills and cliffs west of town, picked
wild gooseberries, chokecherries and Saskatoon berries. In summer
we swam in the Little Bow River, usually ½ mile North of town,
under the C.P.R. Bridge where it was deeper. A lot of us would build
a clay tennis court using clay from the cliffs on the east side of
the Little Bow. We delivered our milk in small 'lard pails' to quite
a few families in Carmangay, rain or shine and both Harold and Roy
had paper routes. We played 'Red Light'*, 'Anti-Eye Over'**, over
the station house (I don't know how it was spelled but it was what
we called out as we threw our ball over the roof). In summer, we played
football and baseball. We rolled tires down our sloped boardwalk too.
We weren't allowed to play at other homes until later. But our friends
carefully 'Vetted' were allowed, meaning we could have anyone over
to our place if they didn't swear (even 'darn'), no staying for meals
or snacks after school, (we couldn't afford it), no lying or telling
tales, tattling or bullying. The first time I was allowed to visit
a friend I was so shy and I didn't know how to visit or even move
from my chair! In winter, we played in the freight shed using the
two freight wagons pushed back & forth as trains, stamping our
'tickets' on the date-stamper, as long as we didn't change the date.
We skated on the river for miles in the winter when the ice in the
town skating rink had melted. Harold was a very good skater and hockey
player. He and our sister Eileen were very close too. Elvin was Mother's
favourite and Harold gave him a black eye once when he wouldn't stop
teasing Eileen, they were all in their teens.
* - "Red Light" - One person 'it', counted
as long as she or he wished (out loud). Others walked & tried
to stop still before 'it' stopped. If caught moving you were out of
that part of game, played until only 'it' left and a new game started
with last one caught then 'it'.
** - "Anti-Eye Over" - Two sides, one side
on each side of building. Freight shed made a good building, as the
roof was long and no dormers. One sides player threw a ball over the
roof and side yelled 'anti-eye over' (Don't know if spelled right
but that is what we yelled.) One player on the other side caught the
ball and their side ran around the building & caught the other
side, who didn't know which end the enemy was coming from. Then that
side had a turn with captured enemy players on their side. It got
pretty wild sometimes! with all the running around.
Part Three - Young Years
Harold was good in school but I don't remember exactly
which were his favourite subjects. He and Roy were always bringing
home wild birds, though. We had Magpies, Crows and even a baby Eagle
that we fed raw liver from the butcher (freehand from a big nail).
We even had a caged gopher until it got out and into our beds (in
the summer, the upstairs was so hot at night that we opted to sleep
outside in a big tent we had). Our old cat 'Spuz' was Harold's favourite
- he smuggled it to bed in his jacket, until once it had some kittens
(in his & Roy's bed). We had a Collie pup once but it got 'St.
Vitas Dance' and Daddy had to 'put it to sleep'. (Vitas Dance was
a nervous illness children and even animals got, thought to be from
too much excitement. One of my friends had it when I was growing up.)
Then an old stray dog had five pups under the station in Carmangay
& we each had one until they tore too many holes in our stockings.
Harold, like all of
us, was a graduate of Carmangay High School and a sports enthusiast
having been active on hockey and basketball teams for several seasons.
Harold built himself a car,
a 'bug' from tin signs and spare parts, painted yellow I think with
red wheels. He hammered and cut all the pieces into shape. He likely
got the motor, etc. from Cook Motors in town. He was so proud when
it ran for the first time. Roy worked for and later managed &
owned a grocery store in Carmangay. So then Harold wanted to work
and worked for several years on a large farm north of town. He then
bought himself a motorcycle
from Don Fraché (later a famous artist) of Lethbridge. Once
he went on a trip to Meyronne, Sask., to visit Daddy Pete & Grannie
Dayman and on the way to Abernethy, on a very hot day, the cycle seized
in Gull Lake. Harold had it crated and shipped back home C.O.D. where
upon Daddy had to pay a high price! (Harold paid him back though).
As far as Harold's love interests went he never had an outright girlfriend
here. Mother hinted once he might have had a liking for Roy's girlfriend
(and later wife Dorothy). But I think that's common for brothers to
compete for female attention and affections.
Part Four - Military Service
Harold enlisted first in the Royal Canadian Air Force
and was trained in three places. I do remember Prince Albert &
Saskatoon, though. He then received his wings and a commission on
March 18, 1943 in Fort MacLeod, Alberta. I remember that I couldn't
go, as I was home very sick in bed. He was stationed in the Maritimes
for a while had a brief leave at home and then was sent to England
in April of 1943. He was very good at writing letters. Harold wrote
that he was so pleased he had picked an 'All Canadian Crew' in England
and was looking forward to his flights over there. His brother Elvin
enlisted with the Army and was a Sergeant in the Pay Corps, in Ottawa,
never being sent overseas. His other brother Roy
was a Private in the Army and was sent to France and fought in the
trenches until injured. He was later re-stationed to England and was
a dispatch rider, a serviceman that carried letters and orders from
camp to camp by motorcycle. After an accident Roy was hospitalized
again and got a severe re-action from the new drug 'Penicillin', being
covered with sores. He was a long time in hospital and finally sent
home to see his new daughter. Harold visited an English family a lot
and Mother received letters and wrote often to them.
The day Daddy got the wire about his death, the dispatcher
told him he had 'bad news' for him and Daddy told him 'to go ahead'
as he had already taken such wires for other Carmangay families. The
day after, Mother received a big beautiful bouquet of roses
from Harold which he said 'was a belated Mother's Day/Birthday' gift.
They also received a letter from a Commanding Officer saying that
they did not send pictures of Harold's funeral, as was the custom,
for those lost were badly burned and not buried in usual coffins.
Later, Harold's English bicycle was sold and the money and his small
bank account and effects were sent home to our parents in Carmangay.
Our family sort of 'adopted' his navigator from Carmen, Manitoba (one
of four survivors) we wrote letters and sent parcels 'in lieu' of
Harold. He was in hospital for months before being invalided home
to Canada. Mother visited him once in Carmen. I can't remember whether
it was he who came to visit them once, a young man with an artificial
hand (it must have been). Mother always said Harold flew Lancaster's
but the accident occurred in a Wellington when the aircraft crashed
on take-off and caught fire, killing him and two other men, an English
flight instructor and an air-gunner, John Christie. Mother always
hoped she could get to England and visit his grave and his comrades.
Unfortunately, she wasn't very good with money and never got the chance
to go.
Letter to William Dayman from RAF Ossington (PDF part. excerpt)
Part Five - Later Years
My brother Ed and wife Muriel were in England and
Wales in 1986 or '87 and visited Ollerton (I'm sure it was quite emotional).
When I was overseas in August of 1988, our church group tour bus inadvertently
went through Ollerton and when I heard the driver refer to it, I told
our minister about Harold and he said 'we could have stopped' if he
had known. I replied I didn't know we would be going anywhere near
the area. I was a little disappointed and so was the Rev. Alec Lawson.
We (our family) all missed Harold (and still do), thinking of him
often.
Hope my printing is easier to read than my writing.
Do Take Care now. - Frances.
"In an email from the family in March 3'05...I regret to have to inform you that Mom -Frances Jacobson- passed away yesterday, March 2, 2005. She had been ill and in hospital since Jan. 29. We had decided on Palliative Care and she slipped away comfortably in her sleep in the afternoon."
The 'Dapper' and the 'Dashing', Harold and Ed in 1943; The official R.C.A.F. photo taken after receiving his commission.
HG DAYMAN Service Record
