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- Jay
Telfer may have handed over the reigns of the Wayback Times to
Sandy and Peter Neilly, but he is still going to be visible in
the newspaper.
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- The
longtime resident of Prince Edward County will be writing Jay's
Blog, a column on his ongoing love of antiques and life in the
Quinte Bay area.
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- Jay's
Wayback Times, founded in 1995, published 1.7 million papers
in 11 years and more than 258,000 kms
- were
traveled for visits
- and
deliveries to antique
shows, stores and markets.
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- Jay
Telfer's final issue
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- Ad Rates / Articles
/ Classified Ads / Editorial
/ Home / Links
/ Showtime
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- Jay's Wayback Blog
- About lives, then
and now
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- By Jay Telfer
- There are ties to the past in all of us.
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- I had written this tale way way back in issue 14 in 1998,
and with the passing of my parents, it has become fresher in
my memory. I did some more editing and added more information.
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- Isabel Livingston Telfer, my late mother, hinted broadly
that we were “related” to Dr.. David Livingstone, the
African Explorer, with the extra "e." (I have always
had problems with spelling.) Never anything definite, but "if
I wanted to grow up and be like him ...”
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- I believed that, read all I could about my “Great Great
Uncle Explorer...” and bragged about it to anyone. But my
father let me know after mum’s death that there was no connection
at all.
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- To me, it was a pretty nifty challenge to be the best at
whatever I put my mind to. I think it worked. But what a mean
thing to do to her children! The way mum hinted, I might as well
be related to the Queen.
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- The Livingston Family,
Jan. 1, 1931: Elsie, Robert Jr.,
- Robert and Elizabeth,
Fairlee, Jay and Isabel
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- In 1910, Mr. Robert Livingston, with his degree in Electrical
Engineering from Edinburgh University, crossed the Atlantic and
settled into Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to assist in building the
White Rose Flour Mill. His wife, Elizabeth, sailed in 1912 with
two very young girls and a son. She had sent a package earlier
in the year and that package was lost - in the Titanic.
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- The clan grew by two more to include Elsie, Robert, Isabel,
Fairlee, and my uncle, Jay.
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- My mother, Isabel, was the two-year-old girl who crossed
the Atlantic. (We used to joke that she sailed right behind the
Mayflower.) She was the last surviving member of the original
Livingston family.
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- But Robert Livingston gave me one of the best gifts of all.
It happened when a young dashing fly boy from Scotland named
Telfer appeared and swept Isabel off her feet, married her and
moved her back to Oxford, England during the last two years of
the war. Robert, thinking he would never again see his daughter,
sat and wrote, not of his history, but of his father’s history.
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- In his sixty-three page longhand account it told of Robert’s
grandfather’s life as a boat builder, his teaching night
classes on boat building, and of his father, David, running off
to sea at age thirteen and sailing to Jamaica for the sugar trade.
It talked of him having burnt his hands at age eight during a
celebration with fireworks at Queen Victoria’s Coronation!
- the writing does bring the family a little closer than hearing
it said in passing.
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- It told of him rounding the South American horn in 1847 -
a scary feat with constant sea storms - and landing in San Francisco
as the first mate at age eighteen. How many young people do you
know who could be first mate on a fourteen foot boat, or a sixteen
foot car guiding the pilot/driver with no cup holder?
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- The captain got sick on the voyage and the crew all abandoned
ship in order to find 1847 gold around San Francisco. He looked
after the ship until the Captain returned 6 months later - as
usual, no health care early on in the US. He sailed south to
Chile, where he met with a German man and they began a silver
mining operation. They came with newer ideas over the normal
Mexican method. They did very well.
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- During the operation, they allowed the miners to get rid
of rats in the mine. But when too many dead rats were being brought
out and thrown over the fence, it was discovered that the miners
were bringing in dead rats, filling them with silver ore and
then tossing them over the fence in order to pick them up at
nightfall. It was likely the first security check for the South
American miners.
-
 My
great grandfather David worked and lived in Chile for 13 years
until he got sick. He arrived back in Scotland a very wealthy
man. He married his old Scottish sweetheart (a very patient girl
who waited for about twenty years).
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- (Photo at left: Statue of David Livingston at Victoria Falls.)
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- He had four children, including my grandfather, Robert. He
put half his money into Scottish Building Rentals and the other
half into the railways. He lost money in the rental venture;
the railway kept him a man of leisure for the rest of his life.
He built a large house and assisted in building a school. He
loved sailing and he also loved to get into philosophical arguments
with his wife’s brother. Robert could tell when the discussions
got heated, simply by watching his seated father’s pant
legs as they were hitched up and crept up his legs!
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- His wife was a three time a week church-goer and when her
minister said there would be an end to the world in a major climax
at the beginning of the 20th Century, she prepared herself and
let the family know their ends were near. David and Robert could
not dissuade her in her beliefs.
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- What bothered my Grandfather Robert about his father was
the fact his two very bright sisters were not allowed to carry
on with their studies past the “public” 8th Grade.
“They would marry...” he was told. It is a very personal
and fascinating tale.
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- And what does it all mean? Brother Ian received a copy of
Robert’s story, given to all three of us by my mother in
1986. He had never heard about Great great grandfather David’s
silver mine in Chile. Ian has been President of four gold mining
concerns in South America, America and the rest of the world
for over twenty years. It must be in the genes.
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- Uncle Robert Livingston Junior’s sons and daughters,
Bob, David, Penny and Mary held a Livingston Family Reunion in
Moose Jaw at the end of July 1998. My late father and my sister,
Margaret, from Minnesota attended from our clan and enjoyed it
all. I wished I could have been there.
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- There are ties to the past in all of us. I want to posthumously
thank Robert for his own exciting written journey, his own still
growing family from Moose Jaw to Toronto to Vancouver Island,
and especially his wonderful written words.
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- When an eighteen year old leaves the house to seek his or
her fame and fortune, what do they care about history, especially
your history. But when your child has their first child, there
is a need for knowing what happened in the past.
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- I wish everyone would do that; talk to their parents or especially,
write of their parents' past, their stories, or their own lives
and pass it on to the next generation.
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- It is always a handle to the future.
Other articles by Jay Telfer
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