A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
Arthur Clifton Little and Laura Jane Barnum met in Port Moody, British Columbia. They subsequently married on August 17, 1908. Arthur was a captain of his own deep-sea tugboat and transported oil between Port Moody and Ioco, British Columbia. This proved to be a profitable business venture, as there was no road between those two locations. At one time, Harry Irwin Bonnell worked for him as a deck hand. Harry later married Grace Lydia Wood, who was the daughter of Laura Jane Barnum by a previous marriage. With advent of the road being constructed into Ioco, and the arrival of the great depression, Arthur's business failed. Before the depression struck, he had ordered two new engines for his tugs. Apparently, the engines arrived from Rolls Royce in England and were destined to sit on the wharf and rust, as Arthur was unable to claim them when his business foundered. With the depression in full swing, Arthur and Laura took their two surviving sons, Donald and Earl, into the interior of British Columbia to prospect for gold. They remained in the Adames Lake region until the outbreak of WW II, when Arthur found employment on the construction of an Army Camp in Suffield, Alberta. They remained there throughout the war years. For some of this time Grace Lydia Bonnell and her children Ruby Mae and Louis Harry lived in Medicine Hat, Alberta, about thirty miles away. Both of Laura's sons had enlisted; Donald in the Army and Earl in the Air Force. Harry, Grace's husband, was also in the Army. Laura was still living in a house trailer at Suffield and was all alone when in 1944 a telegram arrived to say that Donald had been killed in Sicily. He was only 25 and newly married to an English girl. In 1945 Arthur died of a particularly potent cancer. Family stories tell of the cancer eating through the abdominal wall and the only relief from pain Arthur got was when a thick piece of beef steak was put on the open cancer. A few hours later the meat was apparently in shreds.
A Research Guide to the Genealogy of the Barnum/Barnam/Barnham Family Worldwide
AncientFaces - Family History Photos
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