This is the history of almost eighty years of Eva Leotta Jean (Bramhill) McGuire, daughter of Clendon Bramhill and his wife the former Violet Bridge of Palmerston. I was born on the farm Lot 21, Concession 2, Minto Township between two railway tracks on May 14, 1920, the second oldest child. Ivan was the oldest and Dorothy, Bernice, Laverne, Ruby, Roy and Percy were young siblings.

I passed my entrance on the year’s work at age thirteen. I was not privileged to go to High School. My parents got permission from the Inspector to stay home as they said I was the oldest girl in the family and an aged grandmother was living with us.

We had no electricity for the first thirteen years of my life so everything was done the hard way. My Grandmother (Clendon’s mother) lived with us until she passed away. We milked cows by hand and separated the cream from the milk. The skim milk went to the pigs, the proceeds from cream and eggs from a few hens was used to keep the food on the table. We did not buy ready-made foods as we do today. We bought staples such as flour and sugar etc. then baked bread, pies and cakes etc.

Grandma cleaned the lamps and lanterns while she lived, then it became a despicable job for me. We boiled the white clothes in a copper boiler on the stove to whiten them and all clothes were hung on the outdoor line, winter and summer. What a job on the fingers to get those frozen clothes off the line! Of course all our neighbours were the same so we did not know any difference.

One winter job my father got involved with was cutting ice on the "ice pond" and storing it for summer delivery to the stores and private homes. There were few refrigerators in town so iceboxes were used for keeping food cool. During a cold frosty winter, when ice on the pond became proper thickness an ice saw was used to cut the block so many inches long and so many inches wide, then ice tongs and a pick was used to move the ice block around. They were loaded on sleighs, drawn with horses and stored in a shed in town or in part of our woodshed. The ice blocks were all packed in sawdust to preserve the ice until delivery time. Iceboxes were filled twice a week.

One Sunday evening Grandma got up on a chair to wind our eight-day clock. As she did she said, "Now Clendon, lets get to bed early. Tomorrow will be a busy day with the ice." As she wound the clock the spring broke and flew back and bruised her finger. Next morning, as she was getting up, she put her feet out of the bed and sat on the side of the bed. She said "Oh I’ve got a terrible headache". She laid back on the bed and went unconscious. She passed away the same afternoon with a severe brain hemorrhage. She carried the bruise on her finger in the casket. By the way, her casket was carried on a horse-drawn sleigh to the cemetery about two miles away.

I was often called to neighbours when some mother was having a new baby or probably having surgery. I guess I was considered well trained at looking after children and of course there were no other jobs for women to make a little spending money. The war broke out in 1939 and women were hired to do jobs on war production. Beatty Brothers factory in Fergus switched from making washing machines and stable stanchions etc. to war production, making the primer part of the shell. I went to Beatty’s in 1942 on shift work and worked until March 1946. When the war ended in 1945, I went on "peace-time" production.

I boarded the last winter with the Honsinger family and guess what – a man came from Thornbury who had bought himself a farm and did not have enough money to make the down payment so came to Beatty’s factory for the winter to make a few extra dollars. Having known the Honsingers he came there hoping to board for the winter.

Russell McGuire invited me to go with him to the Baptist Church Christmas programme. That was the beginning of a romance and we were married on May 18^th, 1946 at my parent’s home who were now living in Palmerston. My starting wage on the war work was 40 cents per hour and believe it or not, after having paid board, I saved some money. I bought a cook stove and a Beatty gas-motor washing machine. After finally getting used to electricity on my parent’s home farm I once again went back to using gas lamps and gas lanterns. At least these were one step better than coal oil.

After four years on the farm Russell had bought at Thornbury, we decided to sell and move to the Palmerston area buying a farm at the head of Wallace Township. It was on the county road, first farm off Highway 86, going towards the village of Gorrie. Our first son Larry Wayne was born on April 20^th, 1947 while still at Thornbury. Second son Lee Roy was born August 19^th, 1950. Our third son, Elmer Russell, was born on May 17^th 1952 and our fourth son Bryan Ross was born September 6, 1955. All four boys were born in the Palmerston Hospital. My girls all turned out to be boys.

We took fifteen crops off the Wallace Township farm. Our stock was multiplying faster than our 65 workable acres could produce the feed so went looking for a larger farm. In 1964 we found a farm near Wingham on the 10^th Concession of Turnbury Township with 269 acres. We had to put all new stabling in the barn for our dairy herd, put in a bulk milk tank and stainless step saver behind the cows. We were able to put the milkers on the cows, take them off and strained the milk in to the stepsaver where it was sucked autromatically to the tank. We had tie-up for forty cows. At one time we had fifty cows milking and had to let ten out and bring in ten more. We soon backed up to the forty cows and continued with that number until Brian, our fourth boy, decided he did not want to farm. We spent ten years on this farm.

We sold the farm in 1974 and bought a house on Highway #4 south of Wingham. After 27 years in the Wingham area our boys and ourselves bought a 4-plex building in Listowel where we now reside. We live in one apartment and rent out the other three.

Their children:
                Larry Wayne born April 20, 1947
                Lee Roy born August 19, 1950
                Elmer Russell born May 17 1952
                Bryan Ross born September 6, 1955