Genealogy Data Page 1915 (Notes Pages)

Bray Joseph [Male] b. 10 JAN 1852 Wandsworth Dist., Surrey, England - d. 20 APR 1939 Highland, Kerns Twp., Temiskaming Dist., Ontario

Source
Title: canada.GED

BOYHOOD MEMORIES OF GRAMPA'S HOUSE
By Mac Lapointe

The house was framed with two-by-fours covered by one inch boards and insulated with dry sawdust. The outside walls were sheeted with sheet-metal panels stamped to simulate stone blocks, a product of the Pedlar Company, and painted white. The summer kitchen attached to the rear had plain metal sheeting as did the roof of the house. In summer there were screen doors which were replaced with storm doors in the winter for added insulation.

Inside the front door, to the right, a stairway led to the second floor bedrooms. On the left was the parlour with its' bay window where house plants were displayed. The parlour was furnished with a sofa, a couple of chairs, Edith Bray's organ and a piano stool, rather than the customary organ bench, leaving little room to spare. A short hall led into the main room, a combined kitchen and dining room, with a pantry under the stairway and a clothes closet behind the parlour. A door to the left of the back wall connected the main room with the summer kitchen. Beneath the floor of the summer kitchen was a well with a hand pump, although an outside well eventually became the main source of water. The well water was quite 'hard' so soft water for laundry was collected from the roof run-off through eave troughs and downspouts into rain barrels. A series of hand powered washing machines located in the summer kitchen served the household over the years.

Flower beds were eventually cultivated at the front of the house and a row of red currant and gooseberry bushes were planted on the right side. An extensive vegetable garden occupied the north side of the house. A wire fence surrounded the grounds to keep out the deer and stray livestock.

(See Photo under Joe Bray's scrapbook)

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