My Parents: Aden and Ruby Wagar
After my grandparents, William Ross and Ellen Wagar, moved from Big Beaver, Saskatchewan, back to Ontario, my parents, Aden and Ruby Wagar, decided to do the same. They settled in Dyment, Ontario, along with them.
Around 1928, Aden and Ruby established a homestead north of the village, across the railway tracks. Their oldest children—Clayton, Richard (Dick), and my sister June—walked to school at what is now the present-day hall, which at that time served as the schoolhouse. The walk was long, approximately a mile and a half to nearly two miles from the homestead.
They often walked with other children from the area, including Len Rustan and his sisters Clara and Agnes, Orvie Henderson, and the Richardson boys, Bert and Einor. My brother Henry was not yet of school age, so he was spared the long walk, especially during deep winter snowfalls. Occasionally, when the snow was especially heavy, the children were able to ride to school by horse and sleigh, which made the journey easier. As they used to say, “the good old days.”
The family lived in Dyment until 1937, when they moved to Dryden in search of better opportunities. Two more children were born there: Marjorie in 1937 and Betty-Lynn in 1945.
Tragically, my brother Richard (“Dick”) was killed in a workplace accident in 1943 while doing construction work on the Dempster–Alaska Highway, which was being built during the war. He was buried in Dryden.
When my grandfather William Ross Wagar passed away in 1953, the family decided that he should also be buried in Dryden, near Richard, even though he had donated the land that later became the Dyment cemetery.
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