Normally my blogs are focused on my “treasures” and how they are important to me. I’ve extended this premise just a bit for the two pieces that are the subject of this post. They are both ‘family’ pieces so I’m including a little bit of information about the original owners, my maternal Great-grandparents.
So read on and enjoy.
My Writing Desk
I have an old slant front desk that I’ve owned for over 45 years. When given to me it was covered in red antiquing paint from an earlier attempt to modernize it.
Something about the desk spoke to me and I decided to give furniture refinishing a go. That was an interesting experience. I still remember the big cans of the old Polly-Stripper (nasty stuff) and a few chemical burns. I worked on it in my parents garage and in the end decided to finish it with clear furniture oil rather than stain it.
All in all I think it turned out pretty well.
The old lock and key still work perfectly. The desk was one of the few things I took with me when I moved to Calgary in the early 1980’s. It returned with me to Ontario 20 years later and now lives in our guest bedroom as a place to store clothes and stuff. It is one of the possessions I treasure the most.
During a visit to Ottawa Mom told me that it was her grandfather Sam’s desk.
She remembered it always being locked and off limits to the kids as he used it to store all his business papers. Back then It was stained the brown color most furniture of the era had.
When I decided to write my series of vignettes, I immediately thought of the desk and its original owner. So I decided to do some research. In other words – a call to to Mom.
So really the rest is just me transcribing her words.
My Great-grandparents – Sam and Sophia
His name was Edward Thomas Martin – Sam was just his nickname. He was born in 1892 in Sittingbourne, County of Kent, England.
As a youth he was in service at a big English estate and trained as a gardener. Sophia was a maid at the same estate when they first met.
In his early twenties, Sam and a friend decided to move from England to Canada.
When he arrived in Toronto he found that there was no work for gardeners at all. Toronto had some magnificent estates but nothing on the scale they had in England. Any gardener positions had been taken by earlier arrivals.
The reception from the existing residents was hostile at best. They saw the new arrivals as a threat to their jobs. Sam told her that it was common to see signs in store fronts telling the Limeys to go home.
He persevered and found work as a laborer at a brickworks in Clarkson Ontario. This is the same occupation listed for his father on Sam’s birth certificate.
Sophia joined him in Clarkson and in 1914 Sam and Sophia were married in York, Ontario. They had one child, my Grandfather Andrew.
Edward Martin and Son
Skipping a few years ahead, Sam and Andrew had their own business doing interior painting and wallpapering. I’ve seen some of my Grandfather’s work at Mom’s place – I am impressed at his ability to camouflage a crooked ceiling line using only paint. We lived in a 70’s home – lots of crooked walls and ceilings.
Fostering
Sam and Sophia fostered a steady stream of children over the years. Mom remembers that there was always demand for a space in their home. This leads me to a second piece of furniture I have of theirs.
When Mom gave it to me the top was split and the finish damaged. I knew that the piece had belonged to my Great-grandparents but not much else. As I worked on it I noticed the maker’s name etched into the bottom. Once again a call to Mom.
Her story is that one of the children Sam and Sophia fostered became an apprentice furniture maker. He made this piece for my Great-grandparents in appreciation of them having fostered him – very cool to have it.
I never met Sam. He died a couple years before I was born.