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ETHEL AND DICK HOWARD The invitation says ‘‘Golden Wedding Party’’ and it is to be an afternoon and evening, com plete with pot luck supper and dance. The Howard family are inviting friends to join this celebration of fifty years of marriage for their parents, and the site will be Camp Morton, near Gimli, and the day is July 24th, 1982. Dick started life in Winnipeg. His dad got into dairy farming and they moved to near Lilyfield. Then, in 1915, in midwinter, to a farm near Oak Point. The nearest school was Radway. There Dick had seventeen teachers in five years and quit school at age teat Hiddad had taken up a homestead, and the whole family managed a living on the rather unproductive soil. Dick went to Saskatchewan to thresh when he was nineteen, and came home with money in his pocket, in spite of a conti nuus card game the threshing game maintained. He has never fully enjoyed playing cards sin Dick took up one of the last two homesteads in the Oak Point area and began farming for himself. Early in life he , a love of music and dancing, and as a little boy was taken along to district parties and attended later as a young man. The first time he heard a square dance caller he was enchanted with the whole idea, and still delights in that kind of music and dance. The Howard’s had a piano in their home and his English born Mom played it for all to enjoy. Ethel Fisher was born in St. Vital. Whe she was born her dad went for Dr. Hayden who came from Norwood, on horseback. At age two she went to England with her parents, and they had planned to return there the next year to stay, but the outbreak of World War I put a stop to that move. Ethel attended schools until Grade Seven, then on to Chicago where her carpenter father and a group of friends had found construction jobs. By the time she had graduated from high school, the family were ready to return home to Canada. Ethel had been valedictorian with the highest marks, and gave up an offered university scholarship to make the move back to Canada. Her Normal School training in Winnipeg had to wait until she was older for Ethel had made the mistake of graduating at age 16. Her second problem was her American credentials, and even though she passed the training at Normal, she was given an inte rim first class certificate. After many years of teaching, she tried in for a permanent certificate, and found that a summer school course would qualify her for that eve, but by then she decline Ethel’s first school closed at Christmas holiday, but she was taken on at Radway. Here she met Dick. Their marriage ceremony was at Regent Park United Church, St. Vital on June 25th, 1932. In the midst of a world wide depresssion they bravely set out to farm. The house they started in left much to be desired, so Dick undertook to build a log dwelling and it was much more comfort able. The Howard’s first son died in infancy. It was a sad little procession of horse drawn vehi cles to the local cemetery. When the second baby was due, Ethel went to Winnipeg for the deli very. Ray proved a healthy lad. The girls, Linda and Doris, were born at home with the help of a neighbour mid-wife, and they too proved healthy youngsters. The years on the farm were tough but good. The Howard’s can honestly say they have never been in debt ors 1936, a statement few can e. The farm was sold in 1945, and eventually the new owner paid for it. The family moved to Clarkleigh and worked on a dairy farm they had been supposed to take over. That deal failed to materialize, and the family mov ed to Vivian. That trip of posses sions by horse drawn wagon is an epic tale of endurance on the part of Dick and Ray. Ethel has applied for a school with teacherage and when she got one near Gimli, a quite different life started. Dick work ed for twenty-five years for Armstrong Fisheries. Only once did he actually go fishing, and found he was not cut out as a rough water fisherman. He was in charge of ordering shipments. There were many nationalities involved in that industry, and Dick says it proved a very educational time. Following that he worked for six years for the Town of Gimli. The Gimli years meant many involvement. The church they attended was Lutheran. Ethel was Women’s Institute to the core, believed in its work, and still does. After her retirement from tea ching, a way to keep busy unfolded for Ethel. She wrote for the Selkirk Enterprise as Gimli correspondent, later for the Lake Center News. Her column, Gimli Personalities, covered the area in the way this particular column hopes to achieve. In 1954 the Gimli Chamber of Commerce recognized her work, and a friend wrote Ethel’s column on Ethel’s activities as a tribute. For seven years she helped compile the Gimli history which proved to be a prize winning book. Ethel also also on the directorate of the Society of Crippled Children and Adults of Manitoba. Many more thank you words were heard when the Howard’s retired to Birtle seven years ago. Ray and his family were settled here and it seemed a logical place for retirement. Their new location has meant new involve ments. They are active in the New Horizons group, especially the dancing and lawn bowling. A United Church again sees the Howard’s attendance and work. Ethel and the Women’s Institute are still a reality, the recent provincial convention she enjoy ed attending as keenly as ever. The Howard’s family is scat tered. It now includes seven grandchildren and one great grandchild. Visits involve long trips, and the Howard’s enjoy these and other jaunts. They have visited England, most of Canada, and once bought a bus pass in the United States and journeyed many places, includ ing Kentucky, whice Dick has always wanted to see and which proved no disappointment as a scenic place. Dick has a hobby of walking, and bottle collecting, with the help of borrowed canine friends. He says it gives fresh air and we know it helps with the litter problem. Ethel says she thinks Dick’s family wasn’t too fussy about his marriage to that young Rodway school teacher. But, they were proved wrong, and fifty years later the Dick Howard’s and their family are a happy, useful and strong clan.
Newspaper Details
Birtle Eye Witness
Birtle, Manitoba, CA
Wed, Jun 23, 1982
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Diana B.
NC, USA 27 Jun 2026
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