Pat & Corinna’s Family History - Person Sheet
Pat & Corinna’s Family History - Person Sheet
Spouses
Marriage2 Mar 1881, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Notes for Thomas Fraser Kirkham
According to his grandson, Thomas Walton Kirkham:
“Thomas Fraser Kirkham was a tinsmith and a plumber in Winnipeg in the 1870’s. His shop had one of Winnipeg’s first phones and he gained fame by always taking off his plug hat (typical shop headgear) whenever he talked to a lady on the telephone.
He left Winnipeg for Lethbridge in the spring of 1883 and opened the first tinsmith shop at 510 3rd Ave. South. He later bought a lot one-half block away at 321 6th St. South and had a house built with a form of root-cellar basement. This home was built by the time of arrival of his wife, Martha, and son, Earle, who came on the first train to operate on the narrow gauge coal railroad that was built to supplant the river boats. It is believed it was Christmas Eve, 1885. On July 21, 1888, second son, James Stanley, was born, about the 3rd or 4th white child born in Lethbridge. He was named James after his grandfather, James Lougheed, and Stanley after the New York reporter Stanley who discovered Livingstone in the heart of Africa that year.
Thomas Fraser Kirkham was considered progressive and business-like. His wife Martha was a founder of the Presbyterian Church. She met Paster Charles McKellop and his family and kept them while the house was built. She later was the founder of a group of the Presbyterian Church circa 1924. The pulpit and the altar were dedicated to her. During the 1885 Riel Rebellion, Indians made Martha very nervous, and she gave them food to keep them happy. Indian Scouts, Joe Healy and Jerry Potts were ‘household visitors’.”
“Thomas Fraser Kirkham was a tinsmith and a plumber in Winnipeg in the 1870’s. His shop had one of Winnipeg’s first phones and he gained fame by always taking off his plug hat (typical shop headgear) whenever he talked to a lady on the telephone.
He left Winnipeg for Lethbridge in the spring of 1883 and opened the first tinsmith shop at 510 3rd Ave. South. He later bought a lot one-half block away at 321 6th St. South and had a house built with a form of root-cellar basement. This home was built by the time of arrival of his wife, Martha, and son, Earle, who came on the first train to operate on the narrow gauge coal railroad that was built to supplant the river boats. It is believed it was Christmas Eve, 1885. On July 21, 1888, second son, James Stanley, was born, about the 3rd or 4th white child born in Lethbridge. He was named James after his grandfather, James Lougheed, and Stanley after the New York reporter Stanley who discovered Livingstone in the heart of Africa that year.
Thomas Fraser Kirkham was considered progressive and business-like. His wife Martha was a founder of the Presbyterian Church. She met Paster Charles McKellop and his family and kept them while the house was built. She later was the founder of a group of the Presbyterian Church circa 1924. The pulpit and the altar were dedicated to her. During the 1885 Riel Rebellion, Indians made Martha very nervous, and she gave them food to keep them happy. Indian Scouts, Joe Healy and Jerry Potts were ‘household visitors’.”