A HARDY FAMILY.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 March 1928, Page 11

A HARDY FAMILY.

CENTENARIAN PASSES. NOTED CANADIAN SETTLER. Winnipeg, Feb. 8. Manitoba's Grand Old Man,' Frederick William Stevenson, is dead. Had he lived till February 29 he would have been 104. He suffered a stroke four days before his death, and died at the homo of one of his sons at Fort Garry, a suburb of Winnipeg. Mr. Stevenson was born beside the Archbishop’s Palace, Lambeth, in 1824, and arrived in Canada when he was eight years old. The family settled in Ontario, eventually hewing a farm out of a hardwood forest north of Guelph. In 1883, after his marriage, the late centenarian moved to Manitoba, in the first flush of prairie settlement. He had a homestead near Brandon, which is now a noted Canadian centre for cattle breeding and distribution. Until last summer he worked his farm, riding, ploughing, stooking, and stacking. He gave up smoking two years ago. He could clearly distinguish without the aid of his glasses. Mr. Stevenson had but twenty-three birthdays. He should have had one in 1900, but for a quirk the calendar suffers from once every 400 years. He was a lay-reader and honorary vestryman of St. Paul’s Church of England, and frequently spoke over the rhdio. His father died at Port Hope 53 years ago, at the age of 64. This was th© first death in the family in 70 years. Mr. Stevenson held a captain’s commission In the Canadian Militia, secured 61 years ago during the Fenian raid. H© clearly recalled the coronation of George IV. A sister married Mr. Molson, founder of Melson's Bank; another married Admiral Vansittart of Bispham Manor.All Mr. Stevenson’s twelve children survive him. Among them is the Rev. Robert Stevenson, of Vancouver. Five years ago he visited members of his family on the Pacific Coast, going and coming without < ipa,uions. Five grandidns and An? great-grand* spn were pall-bearers at; the funcril*