Shown in front of the Albion Road house in 1908 are Archibald Daniel Matheson and Lois Apphia (Nelson) seated. With them are five of their 10 children, left to right, Frances Nelson, Alice Elizabeth (standing behind her father), Lois Priscilla, Alvah Spurgeon, and Frederic Edmund Fanning. Fred was the last Matheson to live in the house and now resides in Alberton. Well known by residents of Albion Cross and surrounding communities, he will be 90 years old this year.

When we bought our present home in Albion Cross in 1978, we were fortunate in subsequently getting to meet and learn something about the family that built and lived in the house before we came. One of the people who corresponded was Alice Doyle (Matheson) who was the second child born to Archibald and Lois Matheson. Alice was born in 1888 and died in Calgary, Alberta, in 1986. Her first child Margaret (Doyle) Wilson, in 1989, put together a record of the family Ifor distribution, prior to a reunion here in 1992. She was kind enough to give us a copy. From this, we would like to present a short record on the background or Alice's father and mother and follow this with a portion of the memoirs of Alice herself, which outlines some details of her early life in Albion Cross. We were also fortunate to be able to obtain a copy of the original deed executed April 29, 1882, from the county records office in Georgetown, transferring the ownership of 100 acres of the 200 owned by Laughlin and Elizabeth Matheson to their son Archibald on which this house was built some time between that date and March 23, 1886, when he married. Archibald Matheson was born on a farm at Dundas, P .E.I., July 27, 1851, the sixth child of a young Scottish couple who had emigrated from the Isle of Skye. Their only tongue was "the Gaelic", and they had settled on a 200-acre farm of virgin woodland which had to be cleared before any crops were sown. As a growing boy, along with his father and brothers, he helped keep watch against prowling bears that sometimes came up at dusk to raid the calf-pen. Parents and children worked long hours clearing the land and raising such crops as their acreage permitted from year to year.

But even with all this farm work, it was necessary, when there were seven boys in the family, that some of them should look to make a living elsewhere. Boston and New York at that time were the magnets that drew away the young people of the Maritimes. Archibald went to New York - this in the days of horse-drawn street cars there. He apprenticed to a master carpenter and, in a short time, proved a very efficient and gifted workman.

Meanwhile, the brother who had been helping his father on the farm became ill and died. Archibald's aging father then asked him to return and help him, offering the north half of the farm if he would remain permanently. Feeling a sense of responsibility and duty towards his parents, he gave up a good-paying job and returned to P .E.I. There he built a fine large frame house for his parents from the lumber felled and sawn on their own place.

Then, in what spare time he had, he built a similar house on his own half of the farm, not more than half a mile from his parent's home. On March 23, 1886, he was married to Lois Apphia Nelson, a young teacher in a neighbouring country school (Bridgetown). Lois was of English stock; on her father's side was a Loyalist family who had come to Halifax after the American Revolution. Her mother's people had come from England to Prince Edward Island about 75 years before.

Lois was the youngest daughter of a large family and was born at Crapaud, P .E.I., on Dec. 29, 1864. Her mother died when she was 14 but older daughters in the household took over the house-keeping duties, and she was able to continue at school. She was a quiet, studious person, and even had dreams of one day studying for a medical doctor.

She attended Prince of Wales College and Normal School in Charlottetown, and began to teach at the age of 18. While visiting with her brother at Brudenell, she was offered a teaching position in the new settlements of Kings County. Here she taught in Forest Hill and Bridgetown, where most of the settlers were Scottish and 'had the Gaelic'.

Early in the 1880s, both these young people had become greatly interested in Baptist doctrine and teachings as various Baptist ministers, travelling through Kings County, preached in Dundas from time to time. Naturally, Archibald's parents were Presbyterian, while Lois' family was strongly Methodist. But they became strong supporters of the newly-founded Baptist Church there. Archibald was baptized by Rev. J .A. Gordon, who was his second cousin. As long as they lived, Archibald and Lois never swerved in their allegiance and loyalty to this church and its interests. They knew many lean years financially, but gave of their means to the point of personal sacrifice. Bringing up ten children on the proceeds of a 100-acre newly-cleared farm in that district was no easy task. Of their time and abilities, too, they gave most generously, always attending Sunday services and week-evening prayer meetings; regularly attending the Baptist Association conferences, and entertaining all visiting pastors and evangelists of their faith. He never missed Sunday School attendance, where he was adult teacher and often superintendent.

For many years he was secretary-treasurer for the church, and a deacon for several decades before his death. She took an active part in Mission Band work, as well as in the Women's Missionary Society work. There she served as president for many years, and was a life member of the U.B.W.M.U.

This was a home where all Sunday work was forbidden. The 'wagon' or 'buggy' as the case might be, must be cleaned on Saturday afternoon for going to Sunday school and church the next day. Perhaps the most permanent visible monument to their memory was the renovating and remodelling of the original little white church building between 1915 and 1920.

It emerged a place of simple beauty and dignity of design that visitors have more than once acclaimed as one of the most beautiful small churches to be seen anywhere. Archibald was not only responsible for the design of its architecture, but did much of the carpenter work with his own hands. It was a proud and happy day for him when he attended the re-opening ceremony.

All his life a very busy man, he worked for the temperance cause to the extent that he acted as special constable under the "Scott Act" in one emergency.

He was many times school trustee for Albion Cross District, also its secretary-treasurer for many years. Around 1900, he was one of the founders and directors for the Dundas Cheese Factory. Still later, he was appointed on a property assessment team for Kings County.

One son, Arthur Daniel Matheson, went to India in 1920 as a Baptist missionary, married Grace Machum in that country, and both of them gave their lives to that work. Another son, Edward Archibald, was killed at Amiens during World War I.

Education was given a very high priority in. their family, of their family of 10, six became school teachers. Of these, five took degrees in arts, theology and engineering. Their oldest son, Alvah Spurgeon, became one of British Columbia's best known educators. He was a school principal and superintendent, winner of the King's Silver Jubilee medal, a Ferguson Memorial Award winner, and member of the senate of the U.B.C.

In December, 1944, at the age of 93, Archibald died at his home in Dundas. Later, his widow, much regretting to leave her home church and community, went to live with members of her family in Alberta and British Columbia. But she never neglected to send back her usual contributions to Maritime Mission work. she died July, 1960, in Calgary, Alberta, at the age of 95, and her will left all her estate to the hospital at Serango, India, where a granddaughter and her husband, Dr. and Mrs. John Vandrick, were then stationed.

prepared by Betty & Fred Foster, from The Beacon newspaper, published February 16, 1993

Copyright
Waldron H. Leard