Person:James Shearer (24)

from the book"From the Roughbark to the Buttes". It contains the geographical and pioneer history of Rural Municipality of Norton #69, the villages of Amulet, Forward, Khedive, Moreland, and Pangman. Printed in 1981....

The James B. Shearer FamilyMr. and Mrs. J. B. Shearer, of Scottish descent, came from Ontario. He homesteaded the NE 5-8-19 in 1908 and later bought out wm. Peterson on SW 4, SE 5-8-19. It is thought that George B. Shearer was a brother. He homesteaded the SE 4-8-19 and took SW 3-8-19 as his preemption in 1906 and 1908 respectively. The family history is rather hazy in the early years. We suspect that the children: Amy, Harold, Cameron and George were about half -grown when they came west. Some of them attended Dry Lake School. Amy became a teacher and taught at Black Oak school in 1916. Harold worked in Lorne Jacques' store in Khedive for a time. He homesteaded the SE 3 1-7-20 in 1911 and lived there until the '30's. When his parents moved to B.C., he went with them and built them a home a Cloverdale. From then on, he worked in B.C., in the winter and spent summers on his farm. Later he let his brother, George, take over the farm and he stayed in Cloverdale, where he is still living. George never married. He farmed with horses and later with a tractor. He was a great trader, never keeping horses, tractors, or trucks for very long. In the '40's he bought an old black panel truck and hauled cream to Regina. He picked up the cream in a convenient spot and after delivering his load he would bring such things as a case of fruit back for a customer. On one occasion he brought a case of Tokay grapes (the big red ones) for one family. There was no way that they could eat that many fresh grapes, so the lady canned them. George moved to B.C., in 1949. He became a partner in a doughnut factory and later in various other enterprises. George died in B.C., about ten years ago. Cameron met Christine Anne Matthews when she came from England to help her aunt, Mrs. Mime. Cam said he was going to marry Chrissie because she had his name (C. A. M.) already on her suitcase. It was fate! They were married in 1927. Cameron rented Ed Hulet's farm, south of Pangman. They had five children: John, Lily, Ruby, Agnes and Larry. When many of the neighbors moved to the north in the '30's, Shearers went to Carragana. They stayed there until the family was grown and then they moved to White Rock. They lived there until ill health forced them to move to a nursing home at Ladner, B.C. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1980. Cameron is 80 and Chrissie is 75 years of age.....(received via email) The 1901 Census shows his D O B as Aug 27, 1866 out 5 days from our records. It appears as though James B. and his sister Janetta (Shearer) Partington may have been fairly close. In the 1970's, their children Harold Shearer and Alma Partington shared accomodations. It was not known what the "B" stood for in James B Shearer's name but a granddaughter reports that it stood for nothing....James was never given a middle name, and, according to his granddaughter, he made up the initial! She did not know why.I have a suspicion that John Shearers's son James and James Shearer's son James B. were likely very close and that John's James copied James's James B's initial. Whatever the reason, it most certainly caught my attention when I first consulted the census for Elma Township....I was expecting to find James's James...and instead I found John's James. If you are confused by this, you should stop reading now...It only gets worse!

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Ada Jane Shearer and The Shearer Historians. Shearer Family History. (Created in Elma Township in 1938 and maintained by Shearer Reunion Historians. Information was reported by knowledgeable family members and was well maintained in the early years.).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Isa Cleland. Information that Isa researched on the Shearers. (This information was gathered by Isa until her death in 1999. Most is copied from the Shearer Family Tree.).