Version 6.01

11 February 2025

David March © 2014

IDA ANNA WILLOUGHBY, JEAN M and ELEANOR H WALKER

Ida Anna Walker was born on 20 June 1866 in Durham, Ontario to Robert Walker and Annie Elizabeth Hathaway. Her siblings were Harriett (1868), Robert John Goldsmith (1869), Thomas Willoughby (1877-1963) and Jessie Minnie Elizabeth (1882). Over the years that Ida was growing up, the Walker family lived in various parts of Ontario. They were in Ekrid, Middlesex Co. in 1871, Hungerford, Hastings Co. in 1881, and Walkerton, Bruce Co. in 1891.

On 3 July 1895 Ida married Gerald Thomas Arthur Willoughby in Wiarton, Bruce Co., Ontario. He was born in 1866 in Simcoe, Norfolk Co., Ontario to Nicholas Ramsay Willoughby and Amelia Burke. His siblings were John Henry Charles (1861-1940), Isabella KK (1864), Harvard (1869-1869) and Harold F R (1875). According to his obituary, Gerald and his brother, Dr J H C Willoughby, were two of the first settlers in the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan area, arriving in 1883. He remained for five years during which time he was a teacher in Saskatoon’s first school.

Because of his knowledge of the Sioux language and of the surrounding country, he acted as a scout for the government forces during the Riel Rebellion and acted as an envoy between Saskatoon settlers and rebels. Near the end of the 80’s he returned to Toronto to further his education at the University of Toronto and in a theological school.

At the time of the 1901 census, Gerald and Ida were living in Teeswater, Ontario where Gerald was a clergyman. In 1901 he and Ida went to Cape Town, South Africa where he was pastor of the First Congregational Church. On 28 May 1906, he and Ida sailed from Delagoa Bay, Mozambique aboard SS “Dunluce Castle” and arrived in Southampton, England 6 June 1906.

According to their obituaries, they moved to Saskatoon in 1906. The 1911 census found them in the Humboldt, Saskatchewan district and Ida’s mother was living with them. She was still living with them at 317 6th Ave N in Saskatoon in 1916. By 1921, Ida and Gerald had moved to 106 4th Ave N. After arriving back in Saskatoon in 1907, he joined the Willoughby-Sumner real estate business, in which his brother was a senior partner. He was also in the life insurance business.

In about 1925, Gerald and Ida went to the United States and lived in Florida and California. He returned to Saskatoon on 21 May 1933 and was followed a few days later by Ida. He became Dean of City Pioneers and wrote a series of articles for the ‘Star Phoenix’ in conjunction with the city’s Golden Jubilee. Some were published under the title “Retracing the Old Trail” and can be found on page 3 of Saturday editions from June 10 to August 12 1933. These papers can be viewed for free on the Google News website. Gerald was to begin a new series of articles which were to be published in September, but died suddenly on 1 September 1933. Ida died in Saskatoon on 12 January 1960. Both she and Gerald are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Jean Mathewson (Jennie) Newsom was born on 2 March 1871 in Northumberland, Ontario to Samuel Fletcher Newsom and Eleanor (Ellen) McClurg. On this date, there was a Jean Mathewson born to this couple recorded in the Ontario birth registers. All census records that could be found before her marriage agreed with this date, but all census records found after her marriage gave her birth year as 1877. Her siblings were Mary Ann (b 1858), Samuel Fletcher (b 1865), Eleanor (Nellie) (b 1865), William L (b 1867), James Adam (b 1869), Annie (b 1873) and Wesley (b 1875).

From 1871 until at least 1891, Jean lived in Clarke, Durham Co, Ontario with family members. On 16 May 1904 in the Bronx, New York, she married Thomas Willoughby Walker, a brother of Ida Anne Walker who was discussed above. He was born on 4 December 1877 in Bethany, Ontario and received a BA and doctorate of medicine (1903) from the University of Toronto. They had one daughter, Eleanor Hathaway Walker who was born in Kent, Ontario on 5 April 1905.

In 1910, Thomas, Jean and Eleanor moved to Saskatoon where Thomas gained a widespread reputation as a specialist in diseases of the chest. In 1911, the family was living at 317 6th Ave. By 1916 they had moved to 211 5th Ave N and remained there until at least 1921. On 12 June 1916, Thomas enlisted in the Medical Officers Western Universities Battalion and was second in command of Medicine No XV, in the Canadian General Hospital at Taplow, England and O. C. Medicine No. IV, C.C.S. in France.

Jean died on 5 February 1926 and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Saskatoon. At the time of his death on 26 April 1963 in Victoria, British Columbia, Thomas was married to Jeanne Theodore Groos.

This family tree can be found on Ancestry under the title 3rd Ave Walker/Willoughby Tree.