Margaretta "Rita" Armstrong

1888 - 1984  (95 years)

• Name	Margaretta "Rita" Armstrong
  Born	8 Aug 1888	, USA   [1, 2, 3]
  Gender	Female
  FindAGrave	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/213970419
  Immigration	1889	, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  Immigration	1890	, Canada   [1]
  Name	Rita Armstrong
  Residence	1891	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [3]
  	Presbyterian
  Residence	1901	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Residence	1901	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Occupation	1911	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  	? in Training
  Residence	1911	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  	Presbyterian
  Residence	1928	Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-374064
  Died	1984
  Buried	Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Guelph City, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada
  Person ID	I374064	Generations
  Last Modified	9 Jun 2025

  
  

  Father	Andrew Armstrong,   b. 3 Jul 1849, , Scotland ,   d. 26 Dec 1928, Vancouver, , British Columbia, Canada  (Age 79 years)
  Mother	Frances "Fanny" Barclay,   b. 1860, Guelph City, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada ,   d. 26 Nov 1895, Vancouver, , British Columbia, Canada  (Age 35 years)
  Family ID	F257544	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  WATERLOO COUNTY'S OLDEST HOUSE 1817 "BLAIR ATHOL", Blair Written by Marguerita (Rita) Armstrong granddaughter of James Barclay. My maternal grandfather, James Barclay, a builder and contractor in the early days of Guelph, took a fancy to the village of Blair and the surrounding countryside the first time business brought him to Waterloo Township. Having made up his mind to retire early from business and spend the remainder of his life on a farm, he eventually purchased 134 acres of land on the Blair-Galt highway from the executors of Henry Bechtel, the son of Jacob Bechtel who built the house on the property. It consisted of 54 acres on the Grand River side of the road and 80 acres across the road. After some twenty-odd years he sold the 8O acres of Mr. Langdon Wilks and the very fine home he built is on this portion, on top of the wee hill and secluded by the small woods below. From this elevation, in the early days, my grandfather could with the aid of his field glasses, read the time on the Town Clock at Guelph, 16 miles distant. In the portion retained was a 10-acre Island situated in the centre of the Grand River; little of it remains today. My grandfather fenced it in, although warned it would not be wise as the fence wouId likely be swept away if a bad flood occurred. The next year on a Sunday in June, following heavy rains up country the water rose very, very suddenly and it was with great difficulty the sheep and lambs grazing on the island were rescued and the new fence went down the Grand River. He had intended calling the farm " Fawns Park" the name of the family property for many generations in Linlithgowshire, Scotland, but, upon returning to Guelph a few days after he had moved, an old crony, noticing him across Wyndham Street, called to him " Hello, Blair Athol" and immediately he decided it was a much more appropriate name and as long as it was owned by a Barclay it was known as "Blair Athol". The original home built of wood was still standing when my grandfather acquired the property and it was close to the highway; he demolished it, but saved the hearth stone and placed it as the stepping stone to the verandah of the present home and in 1967 there it remains. This second home was built by the Bechtels in 1817 - the date and the initials "J. B. & E.B." are below the gable in the northwest wall. This part consisted of four rooms, two down, one a large bright sitting room, the other the dining room with two large bedrooms above. It was built of stone with walls two feet thick and the "long row" as it was also built of stone. In between was a frame portion which my grandfather razed and built the present higher part of brick, and he had the stone part of the main house covered with stucco and the front portion marked off like brick. This newer part has ceilings eleven feet high, while the older ceilings are eight feet in height. The newer part consisted of a very large living room with an old-country type fireplace with white Italian marble mantel, and in which a hard coal fire could be burned continuously in cold weather, and a large kitchen with massive cupboards; upstairs, one spacious and two fair-sized bedrooms. The staircase had a fine English walnut hand rail and banister and there was a goodsized landing at the top with a big window overlooking the river. To the left was a large square bedroom (in the older part.) Turning right one went up a few steps (due to the difference in ceiling heights) into a long hall; first narrow, then doubling in width and a window in the front. To the right one went down a few steps into the other large bedroom in the older part and on the left side of the hall a door opened into each of the three bedrooms in the newer part. In the jog in the hall stood a specially built large case or cabinet holding the last beaver caught in Wellington County, a very large specimen. In one corner of the sitting room, in the old portion, a huge corner cupboard had been built with small closed doors below and doors to the ceiling above with small hand carved trim. The upper part had a shelf halfway up and the edge was cut so knives, forks and spoons could hang in these grooves. The flooring in the four rooms was of very wide pine planks and the deep window sills were a delight. Going out from the rear door of the kitchen one stepped down into a square closed vestibule; to the right one went into what was called the back kitchen (this is the beginning of the "long row" built of stone) which housed a huge mangle, scales and under the long counter, many barrels of chicken and pigeon feed and there were nice warm beds for the dog and cats as well as a specially fixed place for our bicycles. It was divided into two sections with a three-quarter high board wall- the first was floored- the second, down a step had a dirt floor where wood was kept and a large built-in bin for coal; this portion had a massive sliding door to facilitate the handling of same. To go outside from the kitchen one opened a door, straight ahead, unto a covered wooden walk which was built close to the building and ran the full length and much of the other side was a rustic cedar trellis upon which grew wild grapes for making wine. Along the walk past the sliding door was the door into my grandfather's carpenter and workshop and this, too, was divided into two sections. Up in the rafters were stored the bows of the covered wagon which brought the Bechtel family to Ontario. These, when my aunt, Miss Roberta Barclay, sold the property, were put into storage with the hope that one day there would be a place for them, such as we now have in "The Pioneer Village" but, unfortunately the building took fire and the bows were destroyed. On the walk side of the shop (inside) one went up a few steps, opened a door and there was a nice large room for the hired men; a window to the front and one to the back and a chimney for the stove to heat it. In my day it made a fine playroom for the grandchildren and their friends, from it one could open a door built rather high up from the floor (we had to stand on a chair) and get into a big loft where many would-be treasures of today were housed-things left by the Bechtels. Going farther down the walk one came to double doors and upon opening them one went down a few steps into what was the Bechtel wash house, which had a huge fireplace three feet in thickness a big crane on which a large brass kettle hung for heating the water, and the wine press. In the far right hand corner one went down three or four steps into a tile-floored milk cellar which had a spring underneath and a pump to provide the necessary water for cooling and washing. In my day this was used for storing apples; in the autumn they were placed in specially made bushel boxes with slatted sides and we were able to have apples for stewing and baking until the next season's crop was ready. This milk cellar was underneath the loft above mentioned. At the front down the full length of the long row was a rustic cedar arbour built out several feet from the wall and upon which grew many varieties of cultivated grapes. This provided a fine cool place for the young folk to play since it was also shaded by cherry trees. At the foot of the long row was the stream over which were built several bridges at strategic points - a rustic one to the lower garden where my grandfather grew the finest of small fruits and vegetables at the stream kept the soil moist. Beyond the garden was a very large apple orchard--with almost every known species- all planted by the Bechtels, possibly fifty trees originally. The water came from the dam across the road which was fed by springs and it passed through the farm to a dam my grandfather had constructed, on its way to the Grand River. It afforded good spring water for the animals housed in the barn as they could be let out in all kinds of weather to exercise and drink, and in summer it was available for those in pasture. There was an excellent well with a pump near the house and my grandfather brought from Guelph and placed in front of the pump, a water trough about six feet in length (resembling a bath tub.) It was made of one piece of solid stone, the receptacle part chiselled out by hand and the marks of the chisel are still distinctly visible. This is now at the Pioneer Village, given by James Johannes who acquired a few acres and all the buildings and sold his portion in 1967. The land, as all land along the Grand River had been an Indian camping ground and my grandfather in the early days, carrying a basket, followed the plowman in order to pick up the numerous arrow heads. He had a large collection, but found only one tomahawk. It was made of metal and tampered so hard he could hardly sharpen it on his grindstone. He also found one round stone used by the Indians for grinding, by hand, corn into floor or meal. Indians were buries in a certain spot known to him and he would never allow his men to disturb that piece of land when plowing, he being on the spot to guard it. Until 1955 there was a fine very large barn which my grandfather said was the first bank barn built in Waterloo County and he enlarged it east and west and added extensive sheep sheds to house his purebred Southdown sheep. The stone garage (still standing in 1967) built for a chicken house is all that remains of the original farm buildings, but there was, built by the Bechtels a quaint board-and-batten substantial and well-equipped pig house(my grandfather did not raise pigs) right beside the creek; next to it was a corn crib and then a fair-sized plain wooden building resembling a small house, a portion of which we used for housing our Angora rabbits. Near the barn was a long driving shed built by my grandfather on the village side, the centre open to one side, housed farm implements, the ends closed for carriages and cutters as he had several fine ponies for driving and riding, as well as his Clydesdale farm horses. The barn was built before 1817, I am told, the timbers taken from virgin forest on the property now owned by Mr. Wilks Keefer. A Plate supporting the roof was 80 feet in length and other timbers were 30 to 36 feet in length and 12" x 12" in dimension, a hand-hewn and some bark remained to the end and these were put together with wooden dowels or pins. According to Harry Kinzie whose father, for sometime, was my grandfather's farm foreman the barn measured about one hundred feet in width and seventy to eighty feet in depth. It had a monstrous hay and straw loft with openings for lowering feed and bedding to the ground floor, a granary with many bins and a separate room for the big scales, grain bags, etc. Below were the spacious horse sections with separate quarters for a young foal and its mother; the cattle section (beef cattle-Shorthorns, were raised) with a round room for the calves to exercise; the sheep section and a huge root cellar. A closed-in section of the loft made a fine area for the numerous pigeons. My grandfather was a pigeon fancier, the squabs providing many a treat for both friends and relatives and for a great number of years the "piece de resistance" at very late Christmas Eve suppers following the arrival of members of the family. I was brought up here by my aunt and grand father from 1896, unfortunately he had given up farming and rented the fields for pasture to Miss Wilks, but we enjoyed the prize horses and their young foals and colts. We had only fancy chickens, pigeons, guinea fowl, a pet Indian pony and the usual rabbits, cats and a dog. I have many happy recollections of "Blair Athol" and the folk who lived in the vicinity and think the countryside very picturesque. Waterloo Historical Society Vol.55.1967.

  
  

• Sources

  [S86] Census - ON, Waterloo, Waterloo South - 1901, Waterloo (South/Sud) G-2 Page 14. [S272] Census - ON, Waterloo, Waterloo Twp. - 1911, Div. 7 Page 13. [S2560] aaaWaterloo Township South 1891, Sect. 1 Page 13.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 8 Aug 1888 - , USA Immigration - 1889 - , Ontario, Canada Immigration - 1890 - , Canada Residence - Presbyterian - 1891 - Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - 1901 - Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - 1901 - Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Occupation - ? in Training - 1911 - Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Presbyterian - 1911 - Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - 1928 - Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth