GRANDPARENTS: Henry Woodland ALLEN & Gertrude Georgina COOPER
My father, Jack Allen, was the second child of Henry Woodland Allen & Gertrude Georgina Cooper.
Henry Woodland Allen was the youngest child of William Daisley Allen and Mary Jane Woodland. He was born June 27, 1897 in Sunnidale Township, Simcoe County, Ontario. Although his birth name was 'Henry', as far as I know he was always known as 'Harry'. He died September 2, 1982 at the Creedon Valley Nursing Home in Creemore, Nottawasaga Township, Simcoe County, Ontario. Harry was buried with his wife Gertie in the Angus Union Cemetery in Angus, Essa Township, Simcoe County, Ontario.
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| Harry Allen |
Growing up, I knew that his birthdate was June 27th, but I do not remember ever hearing of his birthplace. I use the location of Sunnidale Township as the Statement of Birth, signed by his mother on July 20, 1918 gives that location. The reason why I have any doubts is that the family had frequently moved around Ontario, as shown by the Canadian censuses each decade. As in the case of Harry, the birth documentation for many of his siblings were delayed statement made years after their birth. The 1891 census listed the family in Sunnidale Township but by 1901, the family was located in Tosorontio Township - also in Simcoe County. However, the Delayed Statement of Birth for sister Lena (born 29 Dec 1895) lists her birthplace as Tosorontio Township. If the family moved from Sunnidale to Tosorontio sometime between 1891 and December 1895, had they returned to Sunnidale before June 1897, only to return to Tosorontio before the 1901 census?
The family had to vacate their farm in Tosorontio Township when the land was annexed by the Canadian government as part of the creation of Camp Borden during World War I. At that time, they moved to the farm in Brentwood, Sunnidale Township which I knew as the Allen homestead during my childhood.
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| Allen farm (Brentwood Ontario) |
Although Harry was the youngest son, he was the one to take over the family farm. Eventually, his youngest son, Joe, took over the operation of the farm.
This Allen farm eventually compromised of several houses for members of the Allen family. As Harry's family grew, his parents moved out of the farmhouse to a small house a short distance from the farmhouse. After their death, this house was occupied by one of their granddaughters, Minnie (nee McKenzie) Boyle and her husband Tom. After their deaths, Minnie's daughter Tressa (nee Winters) and husband Larry Derby had retired and moved into the house. I believe the house is now occupied by one of Tressa's grandsons and his family. When my parents married in 1949, a parcel of land was severed and given to them. Similar was done for sons Garnet and Les. Garnet's widow, Marg, still lives in their house. After Joe took over the operation of the farm and started his own family, a new house was built for Harry and Gertie by son Ivan. At that point in time, neither Ivan or Les were married and were living with their parents. After Joe's sudden death, the farm was sold outside the family. My grandparents' house was also sold after their deaths.
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| Harry playing with some of his grandchildren |
Although I have memories of visiting the farm house and outerbuildlings on the farm, it is the smaller house that I remember as my grandparents' home. Every holiday weekend, we would travel from Kingston to Brentwood to visit both sets of my grandparents. We stayed at the home of my mother's parents', but the evenings were spent at the Allens as my father's siblings would also be there. A 3 bedroom bungalow filled to capacity with grandparents, their 10 children and 30+ grandchildren.
Christmas dinners (2-3 turkeys) often necessitated a long extended table in the large farm-style kitchen for the adults and several card tables either in the kitchen or living room for the children. After dinner, everyone dispersed to various parts of the house: grandchildren to the basement or groups (by age) in the various bedrooms and the adults playing euchure in the kitchen with some of the men venturing to a basement room for drinking and the women trying to chat in the living room - which could be difficult because of the hockey game that would be on the television. Leftovers from dinner would be brought out around midnight - once Harry was convinced to stop playing cards (after he and his partner won the rubber game).
During the evening Grampie would check on his various grandchildren by going through the house with a cookie jar. Instead of cookies, the jar was filled with candy: licorice allsorts or little sugar hearts with messages written on it. In later years instead of candies, the jar was filled with cheesies.
Harry had a sweet tooth, which I did not inherit. He could never understand my hesitation for taking the candy. On one visit, before the rest of the extended family had arrived, I had asked Grammie for a snack of a slice of bread - with just butter. When Grampie saw me eating a simple piece of buttered bread, he criticized his wife "Mommie" insisting that she should have provided jam as well and not deprive me. Even when we both assured him that I only wanted butter on the bread, he could not comprehend that concept.
Harry's sweet tooth was very evident in later years when he was living in the house alone as Gertie's health necessitated that she live with one of her daughters. It eventually came to light that his meals often consisted of a bowl of sugar with a bit of cereal added to the bowl. The last few years of his life was spent in a nursing home and his supply of candy had to be kept at the nurses' station. Even though the supply was monitored, he was always trying to get candy from each new nurse or orderlie that he saw, claiming that he had not yet had any candy that day.
Another trait/habit Harry was known for was chewing tobacco. His big wooden chair was positioned beside the woodstove so that he could spit into the stove from his chair. One could always distinguish his car in a parking lot. He usually choose a light colour, with red highlights, and the driver's side would be covered in the tobacco stains from his spitting while driving. He was not the best driver: he would back out of a farm laneway at a fast pace but once on the road would drive very slow. His driving abilities worsened with age and the only way to keep him off the road, son Joe had to remove the battery from the car. This was after Joe experienced rides with his father telling the flagman at a road construction site to "Watch out!" as Harry drove past the stop sign and cutting through a store parking lot rather that turning properly at the corner. One time when Harry was backing out of a driveway, he hit an oncoming car. He was crticial of the other driver for driving a white car during the winter.
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| Gertie Cooper, Girl Scout |
Gertrude Georgina Cooper was the youngest daughter of John Albert Cooper and Annie Kyte. She was born December 1, 1894 in Blaenavon, Monmouthshire, Wales. Her family immigrated to Canada in 1902 and settled in Mimico, just west of Toronto, in Ontario. For most of her life, she believed that she had been born in 1897 and that year is reflected on her marriage certificate. In preparation for filing for Old Age security in Canada, she had to obtain her birth certificate from Wales and discovered her birth year was 1894! By that time, both her parents were deceased, so I do not believe she ever knew why there was a 3 years discrepancy in her age. When I located a copy of the ship's manifest when the Cooper family emigrated to Canada, her age is listed consistent with 1894 birthdate. The 1901 census for Wales also shows her age consistent with 1894. Harry had a good laugh when it was revealed that Gertie was actually 3 years older than she thought: he told everyone that he had married an older woman.
After several years of heart related health issues, Gertie died at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie,
Simcoe Co., Ontario on February 23 1980. She was buried in the Angus Union Cemetery in Angus, Simcoe Co., Ontario and was joined by Harry two years later.
Their cemetery plot is shared with their infant son Edward (who lived for only a few hours June 15, 1931) and infant twin grandchildren (Brian Joseph and Brenda Anne, children of son Joe and wife Evelyn) who lived for only 2-3 weeks in 1959.
Harry and Gertie were married October 30, 1920 in Mimico, York Co., Ontario. Their witnesses were Gertie's brother Bert and Harry's cousin Mildred McKenzie. For many years, my mother thought her in-laws had been married October 31st as Gertie always spoke of having been married on Halloween. It wasn't until the time of the 50th wedding anniversary celebration that my mother found out the real date. For many years, if October 31st was a Sunday, municipalities in Ontario would celebrate Halloween on Saturday, October 30th.
The wedding anniversary of their parents was always a cause for a family
get together - even though it was only a couple of weeks after the
Thanksgiving get together. It was at that annual get together that the
cousins (under age 11) would draw names for the Christmas gift exchange.
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| Gertie & Harry - 35th Wedding Anniversary |
To celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary, the adult children of Harry & Gertie presented their parents with a set of monogrammed silverware. When my father and his siblings were distributing the contents of their parents' home in the early 1980's, I ended up with the chest and silverware. My older brother Garry, is the eldest grandson but was not married. I assured my aunts that if he ever married, I would give him the silverware. I still have the silverware as well as the chest. I have added pieces to the silverware but have chosen to not replace the chest.
Harry and Gertie's 50th Anniversary warranted a bigger celebration with wedding cake. The 'Just Married' sign (seen in the background of the photo) was an antique as it had been used in the 1930s at the time of the 60th wedding anniversary for Harry's parents. Just a simple change of '60' to '50'.
The sign was kept in the family and used in 1997 for the family celebrations for the 50th wedding anniversary of my Aunt Dora and her husband Fred in March and then in October for Uncle Ab and his wife Helen. I'm not sure where the sign is now.
Harry and Gertie were the parents of 11
children, although as already mentioned, one child died in infancy. The surviving children were 6 sons and 4 daughters. At this point in time, only the youngest, Mary, is still living.
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| Harry & Gertie with their children (1940s) |
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Being a farming family, most of the males never served in the military. An exception was my Uncle Albert (Ab), the oldest child of Harry and Gertie, who served in World War II. At the time of his funeral, I learned from his son-in-law that Ab, had been working in Toronto rather than the family farm and had been exempted at least once by his employer. His employer was willing to continue doing so to keep Ab as an employee. But eventually, Ab chose to enlist so that his brother Jack (my father) could stay on the family farm. Ab had been born with a deformed ear, but still past the medical - being told to shoot from the other side. I only knew Uncle Ab as being bald but he had been born with the Allen wavy hair and the family story was that the army helmet wore it off. (Another family trait is the "Allen eye" - squinting in photos.)
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| Harry & Gertie with their children (taken at the wedding of granddaughter Janet Penfold - | May 1972) |
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In addition to the ten children who reached adulthood, Harry and Gertie were able to enjoy over 30 grandchildren during their lifetime and lived to see the first few great-grandchildren. Despite the size, the extended family always remained close. During Gertie's declining years, her daughters promised that they would ensure that the family get togethers would continue. The local 2 room schoolhouse had been taken over by the township (Sunnidale) and turned into a community hall. The extended family started a tradition of renting that hall for Easter and Christmas (often the last Saturday in November rather than the actual December 25th). Aunt Isobel hosted a winter get together of skating and tobaggoning near her house just outside Barrie. She also hosted a summer BBQ at her home. As the cousins have become grandparents themselves and family members moving further away from Simcoe County, it has become more and more difficult to maintain the reunions - especially after most of the aunts passed away. Several of the cousins took over the organizing and Aunt Alice was able to produce her father's cookie jar for me to fill with cheesies. Over the years the reunions twindled down to just an annual party at Thanksgiving. In 2015, the hall was not available for Thanksgiving, so it was held a couple of weeks later with a Halloween theme. Cousin Connie and her husband went as Gertie and Harry, bringing Twisties as their food contribution. Twisties (pieces of bread dough, twisted and deepfried and eaten lathered in butter) were made by Gertie and the tradition was continued by her daughters, daugthers-in-law as well as grandchildren.
In reflection, I guess I can hold my Allen side responsible for my love of family history. My mother's side has strong family connections for the most part, but not to the extent of the Allens. The frequent get togethers by the family of Harry and Gertie would have been a continuation of the annual Allen reunions held the last Saturday in August at a Provincial Park near Barrie. This annual reunion had originated as family get togethers of Harry's siblings and their families. Even though I only remember attending a couple of these reunions during my childhood (when it fell on the Labour Day long weekend), I grew up knowing many of my father's aunts, uncles and cousins. Unfortunately, many of the meetings were at family funerals.
