Dad was the son of Thomas Lowrey (this was the previous spelling of Lowry) and Mary Ann Robinson, 5th range of Inverness, County of Megantic, Quebec.
He came from a Scots–Irish pioneering family some of whom had a military background. They were said to have gone to France with Prince Charlie, others fought in the battle of Queenston's Heights, Quebec and two brothers in the family were in the Boer War. An uncle (possibly a great uncle) was in the army in India and subsequently lost his eye sight in a sand storm.
The Wright side of the family were settlers from across the border (United States) and still other relatives raised race horses in Ireland.
Dad worked on the family farm (mixed farming) and also helped an uncle who was blind and did not have a family of his own.
Dad and his brother Will went to Northern Ontario when it was opening up to settlement. They built a cabin and homesteaded crown land as well as some prospecting, backpacking their supplies in from the nearest railroad station, about 30 miles. Dad worked for a while for Mr. Sandy McIntyre of McIntyre mines. When he was prospecting, looking for gold he walked one direction and Mr. Wright went the other hence Wright–Hargreaves mines. Mr. Wright was lucky!
Dad owned a small silver mine on what is now Clarks Road near Monteith. He and Uncle Will started to mine but it was not rich enough to be continued. We called the site Silver Falls.
Dad probably met my Mother, Cassandra Prowse, in Inverness Quebec. She migrated from Liverpool England; her parents were English and Manx. She worked for the Robert Kelso family caring for their children. We are connected by marriage to the Kelso family. My Mother's school friend Marion Hamilton came to Canada from England and subsequently married Dad's Brother Will Lowry.
When Mother and Dad were married in Monteith they had over 200 people at their wedding. They danced all night, had breakfast then boarded the train to visit Dad's parents in Quebec. The weather was very cold, snow in the air, when they went by horse drawn cutter to the station. "A Northern Ontario April".
Dad volunteered during the First World War and trained in Val Cartier, Quebec. He wanted to drive an ambulance in France but due to my Mothers serious illness was granted compassionate leave from the camp, and then the war ended.
Mother and Dad had moved to Iroquois Falls Ontario after their marriage and there their home and all their wedding presents were lost in the 1916 fire, even Dad's pay cheque (Abitibi Pulp and Paper) and the fresh bread Mother had just baked were burned.
Mother and Aunt Dora had time only to bring Tess, who was only a few weeks old and some baby supplies and run to the Abitibi Paper Mill. The mill was concrete, and by the river and had better fire equipment than the town.
To quote an article from the Telegram, Toronto July 30, 1916. "Before drenching rains could halt the fire 500,000 acres were scorched to ashes, at least 203 people died and the settlements of Cochrane, Iroquois Falls, Porquis Junction, Nushka, Kenlo, and Matheson were destroyed.
It was a gigantic fire storm – a dozen forest fires backed by 45–60 mph winds causing tinder dry heated trees to explode like fire crackers. At the Abitibi Mill, Iroquois Falls the powder house, a box car with dynamite exploded and 400,000 cords of pulp wood burned. Because of the company's superior fire-fighting equipment the mill was saved. The town was engulfed."
The mill spread large roles of paper on the floor so people had something clean to lie on. The mill had their own dairy herd which supplied milk for the children. Dad had gone away on the train to fight fires in Cochrane and came home to find only the foundation of their home left. He did not know where his family was and was told people had gone to the mill. Many people on the farms died in the fire, or went down into wells and suffocated. Dad said some were buried where the town park is now. Many could not be identified. That winter people lived in tents which were placed on wooden platforms and banked with snow. Wood stoves were used for heat.
After the fire, Dad built a house in Ansonville himself, putting in the first indoor plumbing, bathtub and hot water heating in town. It was two stories and had beautiful glass french doors at the entrance, a globe chandelier, hardwood floors and an upstairs veranda where Tess and Dot remember lying and listening to the night hawks in the evening. Sadly this house was demolished to make room for another building.
Dad had a cork sided (unsinkable) boat and went fishing with Mr. Woodhouse our Minister and Dad also hunted. He loved the woods and took me for walks giving me his love of them also. During his years in the north he was on the town council, the school board, a church elder and also a Black Knight in the Orange Lodge. He helped build the United Church and the Orange Lodge buildings in town and also helped to lay out the River Road from Monteith to Iroquois Falls.
He bought the Skace's home and Rob Kelso's farm and additional land amounting to 380 acres near Monteith when he became ill. We had two men who farmed for us and one of my memories is of him owning a retired race horse called Grey Lady. Dad continued to work in the mill. He had started first as a river man running the logs down to the mill and had also been studying to be a Veterinarian. After the fire he continued to work at the mill and went on to become a stationery engineer. He studied through a correspondence course, final examination taken at the University of Toronto. He also took agricultural courses from Guelph.
In 1938 when Dad became too sick to work for some time (an operation for stomach ulcers) he bought a trailer and we spent the summer visiting Uncle Will and other relations in Quebec. Eventually (1947-8) he moved to Southern Ontario because it was felt the warmer climate would help improve his health. He worked as an engineer for the sanitarium in Gravenhurst and then the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie before retiring.
Dad had health problems and hard work in his life but he never lost his Irish sense of humor. He said he never became rich but he felt very fortunate in his family. He was always a good neighbor and close to all his family and relatives. He gave me his love of nature, interest in learning and perhaps some of his sense of fun.
"He said he never became rich but he felt very fortunate in his family."— Grace, on her father