Wilbert Jerald Nix (1891 - 1989)

Born 18 Aug 1891 in Stanley Mills, Toronto Gore, Peel County, Ontario, Canada

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Died 18 May 1989 at age 97 in Brampton, Ontario, Canada

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Fred Nix [send private message]

Biography

Wilbert Jerald Nix is born August 18, 1891, in or near Stanley Mills, Peel County, Ontario, Canada [3]. His parents are Thomas Nix (1850-1933) and Ann Elizabeth Ward (1854-1934). Thomas Nix was born in Lincolnshire, England and had emigrated to Canada West (Ontario) with his parents in 1851. Ann Elizabeth Ward’s paternal grandfather – George Ward (1772-1847) -- was one of the first settlers in Toronto Gore Township, Peel County. Ann Elizabeth’s maternal grandfather – William Woodill (1801-1836) – was another one of the original settlers in Toronto Gore.

Stanley Mills is a village on what is now Airport Road, three-quarters of a kilometre south of Tullamore and roughly six kilometres north of the modern Queen Street. There is nothing left of the original buildings; there are no farms; just endless rows of new subdivision houses. Today this land is a part of the city of Brampton.

Airport Road, or the 6th line as it was then known, was the dividing line between Toronto Gore and Chinguacousy townships. Wilbert’s father, Thomas, owns a farm on the west side of the road (Chinguacousy) and on the east side of the road (Toronto Gore) at various times. We think Wilbert is born on the west side of Airport Road, in Chinguacousy [1]. But the actual birth record shows him born in Toronto Gore – the east side of Airport Road [3].

Wilbert’s father, Thomas, farms with his father (Wilbert’s grandfather) in Toronto Gore on a farm near Grahamsville in the period around 1870. They were tenant farmers. Grahamsville, in today’s geography, is the intersection of Steeles Avenue and Airport Road in Brampton. Thomas left his parent’s farm for his own farm in Chinguacousy at some point. But in 1896 Thomas is back in Grahamsville and this time he is a landowner. His 100-acre farm is in Concession 7, lot 14 of Toronto Gore Township (the northern half of lot 14) and this is where Wilbert and his two siblings grow up. They grow up in a Methodist household.

Wilbert is eight years old in the 1901 census living with his family in Toronto Gore and going to school [4]. In the 1911 census he is 19-years old and working an average of 72 hours a week on the family farm [5]. He does not go to high school. There were no high schools near enough to Grahamsville for him to get to without a car – and no one had a car in Grahamsville at this time.

Wilbert marries Violet May Lansdell (1892-1976) in the Grahamsville Methodist Parsonage on March 23, 1916 [1][6]. The witnesses are Lilia Lansdell, Violet’s older sister, and Freda C. Wilkinson, probably the wife of the minister. Violet apparently spells her middle name “Mae” although the birth record shows “May.” The marriage certificate shown at the right also shows it as “May.” The marriage license is obtained on March 14, 1916 in Toronto -- it is not known why they would go to Toronto to get this license. Wilbert gives his address as Malton, the reason being that, while the farm is in Grahamsville, the mailing address is RR #1 Malton. Violet gives her address as Woodbridge. She left her parent’s farm as a teenager and went to live with her sister south of Woodbridge, probably to go to high school. The wedding is at the parsonage of the Methodist Church in Grahamsville. This is where Wilbert goes to church. This seems odd as, in most cases, weddings are held in the home of the bride’s parents or in the bride’s church.

The story of how or where Wilbert and Violet met is not known. It is not clear they knew each other as children as Wilbert would have gone to church and school in Grahamsville and Violet most likely went to church and school in Ebenezer (corner of Gore Road and Ebenezer Road in Brampton). However, even though these two villages are about 7 kilometres apart, Toronto Gore Township is not a large place. And the fact that they both come from Methodist families probably presents opportunities for meetings – church picnics, a barn raising, or a shopping trip to Claireville? It is known that by the age of 19 Violet is no longer living at home. She has moved in with a married sister, Mabel Dobson, on a farm just south of Woodbridge (Steeles Avenue and Martin Grove Road). Wilbert told stories of riding over to Woodbridge in a cutter to visit Violet [1]. A cutter sleigh is a small sleigh pulled by a horse. As there was no such thing as ploughed roads in Toronto Gore prior to World War I, this was the only means of transport in the winter.

Wilbert and Violet have three children:

• Wreford Jerald Nix 1919-2010 + (1) Dorthy Condon + (2) Erma L. Peg 1922-2013

• Garnet Lansdell Nix 1920-2016 + (1943) Mary Helen Paterson 1921-2019

• Wilbert Glen Nix 1925–1994 + Bertha Lenore Agar 1925-living

Wilbert and his brother, Oscar, take over the farm on the 6th line (Airport Rd) when Thomas Nix retires and moves into a house in Malton. They can be found there in the 1921 census records [7]. Wilbert and Violet have two children and Oscar is still single. But the two brothers can’t work together or maybe the farm is not big enough to support two families so, at some point – probably early 1920s -- Wilbert buys the farm to the east on the 7th line (Lot 14, Concession 8, Southern Division, Toronto Gore Township). Mimico Creek runs through the farm. Today the 7th line is Goreway Drive and the Parkshore Golf Course occupies much of what used to be the farm.

Life on the farm is primitive by today’s standards: no electricity, no running water, no indoor plumbing -- an outhouse with the temperature at minus 20 is not comfortable, no refrigeration, and so on. Grain is still harvested by cutting and stooking in the field. It is then picked up in horse-drawn wagons and brought into the farmyard where a local person with a threshing machine finishes the work. The grain is stored in a granary and, down within the grain, Wilbert buries carrots, beets and parsnips to provide food for the winter. When Wilbert started farming all the muscle was either human power or horsepower. Probably sometime after his marriage steam-powered threshing machines began to make an appearance in Toronto Gore. Someone would invest in one of these machines and then pull it, by horse, from farm to farm at harvest time to thresh the grain. Often the threshing machine would be set up in one farmyard and neighbouring farmers would bring their grain to this one place to have it threshed. But probably by about the end of World War 1 Wilbert was using tractors with internal combustion engines. It is known that by 1919 he had acquired a Chevrolet automobile [1][2].

In 1928 the farm is connected to the electrical grid and in 1929 Wilbert acquires a combine. (A combine cuts and threshes the grain at one time.) Both events mean big changes to farm life. The farm grows a number of grain crops --- wheat, barley – and a number of other crops to get both the family and the livestock through the winter. But the main income generator is the milk from the herd of approximately 30 cows. Things are going so well for the family that, in 1929, Wilbert buys the adjacent 100-acre farm [1][2]. Perhaps the timing is not great for this purchase as the Great Depression strikes in the fall of 1929. Whether and to what extent the depression affects farm families in Toronto Gore is not known. Certainly a farm family would have been far better off than people who lived in towns and cities where jobs were lost and long lines of unemployed people had to line up at soup kitchens.

The family can be found on this farm in the 1931 census records [7]. Wilbert is 39-years old; Violet is 38; and the two oldest boys are in school. The family lives in an eight-room, wooden house.

The new farm that Wilbert bought in 1929 has a much better brick house than the wooden house on the original farm. But the new barn is not very good. So the Nix family stays in the wooden house to be near the milk cows. They use the new barn to house the heifers. The hired hand and his wife get to live in the brick house. In about 1939 they tear the old barn down and build a modern new barn (it was still standing until probably sometime in the 1970s). At about the same time the new barn is built (or perhaps before then) Wilbert puts plumbing into the brick house and the Nix family moves into it with the hired hand and his wife moving over to the original wooden house [2].

Wilbert is a farmer until 1946. His youngest son, Glen, then takes over the farm on the 7th line. After 1946, Wilbert works at Copeland-Chatterson, a business forms manufacturer and he and Violet move into a house in Brampton. For a while (?1950s) they have a cottage on Lake Simcoe and sometimes Wilbert goes up to Lake Simcoe in the winter to ice fish. Presumably he goes with fishing buddies although their names are not known.

Wilbert was a kindly man and, as far as is known, never raised his voice. To this day his grandchildren have little things like a jewellery box that he made for them as gifts. He helped his grandchildren with a generous cash gift when they bought their first houses. He and Violet sang in the church choir. Given this singing and a picture of him as a young man with a violin, he must have had some musical training. He did at one point (?1920s) buy his children a piano so that they, too, had musical abilities.

In 1967, as a Centennial project (Canada’s 100th birthday), Wilbert and other Toronto Gore farmers go out to Woodhill (southwest corner of the intersection of Airport Road and Queen Street) and rehabilitate the old cemetery on the “Ward farm” that had fallen into a bad state of disrepair. Wilbert’s maternal ancestors – the Ward’s and Woodill’s – are buried here. They carefully map the location of the burial plots and gather up the remaining headstones to put them into a cairn. This cemetery, known as the “Woodhill Cemetery” or, with its original name, the “Providence Primitive Methodist Cemetery” still exists today thanks to the work of these men. It has preserved approximately 32 headstones that tell a remarkable story of the early pioneers of Toronto Gore and Chinguacousy. When Airport Road is widened in the 1970’s Wilbert’s grandson drives him out to the site of the cemetery to talk to one of the Peel County engineers over-seeing the work. Wilbert has to make sure the widened road does not intrude into any of the burial plots.

Some¬time, probably in the 1970s, Wilbert and Violet sell the house and move into an apartment.

Violet dies in 1976. At the funeral ceremony, Wilbert remains stoic and, at the cemetery, watches as his wife is lowered into the ground. He is supported on either side by two of his grandsons as his legs are not that steady and he walks with a cane. The ceremony over, the gathering departs, but Wilbert is not ready to leave. With his cane, he parts the green artificial turf they use on occasions such as this and gazes down into the ground at the coffin. "There's not room for two down there." The grandsons make clucking noises and assure Wilbert that everything is all right. "No. I bought two sites here and there is not room for another coffin." He won't leave. One of the grandsons leaves to look for a cemetery attendant. Having found one, he returns and Wilbert is assured there is, indeed, room for another coffin. Somewhat reassured, Wilbert agrees to leave.

After living on his own in the apartment for a while, he leaves and moves into Peel Manor, a long term care home on Main Street North in Brampton. He was well respected at Peel Manor. He spends many an hour in the card room playing Euchre with his fellow residents.

Wilbert dies on May 18, 1989, and is buried in Riverside Cemetery (Dixon & Royal York Roads, Toronto) along with Violet [8]. There is room for two coffins.

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Sources

[1] Some information in this biography is based on the personal memories of Frederick Paterson Nix, a grandson, and Garnet Lansdell Nix, a son. The information on the marriage is recorded in the bible of Ann Elizabeth Ward.

[2] Garnet Lansdell Nix “Memories of 95 Years” Oct. 18, 2015 – written on the occasion of his 95th birthday. This provides important information such as the year electricity was installed, the year when Wilbert bought a combine, etc

[3] "Ontario Births, 1869-1912," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FM72-8VC : accessed 3 August 2015), Wilbert Jerald Nix, 08 Aug 1891; citing Toronto Gore Township, Peel, Ontario, Canada, registration number ; FHL microfilm 1,846,445. The record shows that Wilbert Jerald Nix was born on 08 Aug 1891 in Toronto Gore Township, Peel County, Ontario, Canada. It shows his parents as Thomas & Ann Elizabeth Nix. The birth was registered on 31, Dec 1891 and the registration shows Thomas was a farmer. There is a (strong) claim by one family member that Wilbert was born in Chinguacousy Township, the adjacent township to the west. It is known that Thomas Nix farmed near Stanley Mills which is on the dividing line (in today’s terms, Airport Road) between Chinguacousy and Toronto Gore and the 1881 census data puts him in Chinguacousy. Possibly Ann Elizabeth went to a neighbour’s to give birth and this neighbour was on the Toronto Gore side of the line; or possibly, given the 5 months between the birth and the registration, it was just more convenient for the parents to have the birth registered in Toronto Gore instead of Chinguacousy. Whatever the case, Wilbert was born near Stanley Mills on 08 Aug 1891 and it is probably not too important whether he was born on the east or west side of what is today Airport Road.

[4] 1901 census, Ontario, 103 Peel, Toronto Gore, pg 9, household #80: Thomas Nix (47), born in England in [?difficult to read, possibly 25 Oct] 1853, farmer; Hanna E. (46), born 15 (? Or 16) Jan 1854; Etta M (18), born 18 May 1882; Wilbert (8), born 18 Aug 1892, in school; Oscar (6), born .20 Jan 1895, in school. Hanna E [Ann Elizabeth] and the children were all born in Ontario. The family is labelled English and their religion is shown as Methodist. The handwriting on the census record is difficult to read. The automatedgenealogy.com web site transcribes the surname as “Hess” and the collectionscanada search engine reads the surname as “Nice.” The census record shows that Thomas Nix immigrated to Canada in 1889 [he came in 1852]. Also, his actual birth date is Oct 11, 1850. Finally, the name of Thomas’ wife is Ann (sometimes Annie) Elizabeth Ward, not the “Hanna” shown in the census record. The next family in the census record is William & Emma Wright. They have a 26-yr old son, Robert Wright. Robert will marry Etta Melissa Nix at some point [date unknown].

[5] 1911 census, Ontario, 109 Peel, Toronto Gore, pg 7, household #73: Thomas Nix (60), born Oct 1850, farmer; Elizabeth (57), born Jan 1854; Wilbert (19), born Aug 1891, labourer, works an average of 72 hrs./week; Oscar (16), born Jan 1895, labourer, works an average of 60 hrs/week; Amelia Parsons (40), born Feb 1871, domestic; George R. Parsons (6), born March 1905, lodger. All household members with the surname Nix were born in O [Ontario] [Thomas was born in England]. The Parsons were born in England and had immigrated to Canada in 1911. The farm in located in Con 7, lot 14 S.D. [Southern Division], The Nix family is Methodist; the Parsons are Anglican.

[6] Trinty (formerly Methodist) United Church Malton, Peel County, Ontario, Baptisms 1844-1925, Marriages 1858-1925, Burials 1912-1925: on March 23, 1916, the entry records the marriage of Wilbert J. Nix and Violet Mae Lansdell, giving the name of the witnesses and the minister (John R. Wilkinson). Of interest, unless there has been a transcription error, Violet’s middle name is spelt “Mae,” not “May.”

[7] 1921 census, Ontario, 115 Peel, Toronto Gore, pg 11, family #125: Wilbert Nix (29); Violet M (27); Wreford (2); Garnet (8 months); Oscar J. W. (26), brother [ie, brother of Wilbert]. The census record shows the parents of Wilbert & Oscar born in Ontario. In fact, their father was born in England. The family’s religion is Methodist.

[8] 1931 census, Ontario, Peel 140, 37 Toronto Gore, pg 2, family #16: Wilbert Nix (39), farmer on a dairy farm; Violet (38); Wreford (11), student; Garnet (10), student; Glen (6). They own their own, 8-room, wooden house valued at $16,000. They do not have a radio. They go to the United Church. All residents were born in Ontario, as were their parents with one exception: Wilbert’s father was born in England.

[9] Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117358513/wilbert_jerald-nix: accessed March 23, 2024), memorial page for Wilbert Jerald Nix (18 Aug 1891–18 May 1989), Find a Grave Memorial ID 117358513, citing Riverside Cemetery and Crematorium, Etobicoke, Toronto Municipality, Ontario, Canada; Maintained by Stacey_6ofOne (contributor 49726552).

Acknowledgements

This biography was written by Fred Nix, originally in 2015 with minor updates thereafter. Fred is the grandson of Wilbert.