James Drury : Short Biography

James Drury was born around January 1838 in Murher Parish, County Kerry, to Edmond Drury and Mary Frawley.  Edmond was a farmer, originally from Dysert, near Tralee.  James grew up with his brothers and sisters in Murher Parish - Edmond Jr. ("Ned"), Cornelius, Margaret and Bridget, all of whom grew to adulthood.

Edmond died in about 1850 or 1851 for unknown reasons, leaving Mary as a widow.  James looked for work and found himself in Tralee in the latter part of the 1850's.  He worked for a time for Thomas Mayberry, a surgeon, and sold pharmaceuticals.  However, he looked for a more steady income.  The following is from his autobiography:

Made up my mind to leave Old Ireland the land o’ my birth.  It was August 1861 when I bid adieu to the Green Isle.  Joys and sorrows mixed in my thoughts and silent tears rushed down by cheeks at seeing Dear Mother sob aloud at my departure, perhaps never to meet again in this life. There was no prospect for me in Ireland to better my circumstances, so hard to overcome sentiment and face stern reality.  I was now 21 years of age and had a summons to attend at Scotland Yard, for examination as candidate for the Metropolitan Police, at my own risk, as to trouble & expence. Started aboard the steamer Garryowen from Tarbert to Limerick, up the beautiful river Shannon.  There was a blind man playing a carnet, in good style, led by his daughter, a fair haired young woman, she modestly took up a collection for the player.  I gave my smile cheerfully to that charming young lady I saw aboard the boat.  Modesty is the characteristic of an Irish colleen.  Arrived in Limerick in due time, about 3 hours.  Slept there over night.  Next morning went by train from there to Waterford, rested here one night, next day went by steamer to London, the cargo was all manner of provisions from Ireland, including mussles for consumption by the Londoners.  Arrived in London, had to land by small boat as Tooley St. wharf was a few days ago burned, where the Irish boats unloaded. 

After completing training, James was assigned to the night shift in Wandsworth.  He lived in the police barracks there, occasionally buying pipe tobacco from a shop in Battersea.  He became acquainted with shop owner Magdelene Thompson, daughter of renowned botanist Robert Thompson.  Robert and his wife were of Scottish descent and due to their social status and possibly their Church of England affiliation, they disapproved of Magdelene having a relationship with James, a lower class Irish Catholic.  However, Robert and his wife both died in 1869.  Even without this impediment, James and Magdelene did not go through with a marriage until 1871, only after she was about 9 months pregnant with their first child. Edmond, who was born 2 days after the wedding.

James moved out of the police barracks and in with his new wife and son.  They also lived with Magdelene's elderly aunt, Harriet Smith, a widower.  Harriet possibly did not condone the marriage but was listed as a witness at the wedding.  Magdelene's shop continued to prosper as it was located near a factory.  However, Edmond was having respiratory problems, probably due to the sulfuric gases from the local factory.  Magdelene had 2 more children - James and Robert, both of whom died days after their birth.  Aunt Harriet died in 1875.  Magdelene then had another child, Mary, her only girl, who also died soon after birth in 1876.  In that same year, James developed varicose veins, which prevented him from walking a beat and therefore had to retire from the force.  As he was weeks short of the 15 year requirement to qualify for a police pension, he walked away with only a £91 severance.  The decision was made to move the shop to Sutton in Surrey to relieve Edmond from his respiratory problems (and perhaps to give their future children a healthier place to grow up).  The air was cleaner, however, the business at the new shop was terrible in comparison with the old shop.  Magdelene had one more son, Charles, in 1878.  Fortunately, Charles survived infancy, but this made the family larger, with not as much income to support it.

James and Magdelene decided to emigrate at this point.  Magdelene reached out to some of her late father's contacts in the U.S. regarding buying or homesteading a farm.  One Bostonian wrote her back and discouraged her from doing so as he felt the land in the South was becoming more expensive, and the land in the west was too wild and dangerous for a young family.  James also reached out to his cousins living in rural Georgia, who encouraged him to move there and rent farm land.  However, it was James' dream to own his own farm, so they decided on homesteading in Canada, where 160 acres of arable land in Manitoba cost only a $10 fee.  

In 1880, the Drury family took the train from Euston station to Liverpool for a ship passage to Montreal, Canada.  It was with a heavy heart that they left London.  James had lived there almost 20 years and Magdelene and the boys had lived in the area their entire lives.  Once in Liverpool, they booked passage on the ship Montreal.  James remembered seeing whales and their spouts and of the dancing and singing on board.  Once they reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence, they had to wait for the ice floes to clear out before sailing into Point Cevie.  The family took the train from there to Montreal.  

They were in the city a short time and from there took a train to Detroit, Chicago and St. Paul, Minnesota.  This is because the railways were not yet well-developed in western Canada and the family was forced to reach their homestead via U.S. railways.  From St. Paul, they were able to travel north to Winnipeg and from there onto Rapid City.  By the time they got there, they were out of cash and had to borrow $10 from other homesteaders to pay the fee for their homestead.

James then had to not only work to clear land in Elton Township, near Brandon, for farming but had to build a house for his family.  This took a lot of help from neighbors and months of work.  Magdelene and Edmond likely helped but Charles, at 2 years old, was probably not much help.  Over the next few years, James was able to build a house and the family welcomed another son, Patrick James in 1883.  Helping the financial situation, James kept a record of the weather for the Canadian government, and was able to successfully appeal to the Metropolitan Police for a waiver for a £39 per annum pension.  He also negotiated with the Canadian Pacific Railway for an easement to allow the railroad to traverse his land.

James lived on his homestead in Elton until 1904.  During that time he welcomed another son to the family, Joseph Septimus, in 1886.  Around this time, a large hailstorm destroyed his home, livestock and crops.  He was forced to rely on the generosity of neighbors for the next year while he rebuilt the house and replanted/restocked.  Magdelene died in 1894 after a long illness.  He and his sons were pioneers and saw the area grow.  They were there when local Indians or itinerant traders would camp on their farm.  They were there when the Lakota chief Sitting Bull arrived at the local train station while fleeing U.S. authorities.  When they got to Elton, there were no Catholic churches in the area and they relied mainly on traveling priests, subscriptions to Catholic publications or occasionally attending local Protestant churches for their spiritual needs.  The family was very happy to welcome the first Catholic Church in Brandon, Manitoba in 1902.

By about 1900, James was able to step back, if not retire, from active farming, and leave the farm work to his 4 sons.  This changed when Edmond decided to move to Winnipeg and attend business school.  When he came back, he encouraged James to again homestead, this time near Stoughton, Saskatchewan.  By selling their farm in Manitoba and homesteading again, James would have 3 grown sons to help with the labor, and much more money than he had when he first arrived in Canada.  An added bonus was there was already a Catholic Church in the nearby French community of Forget.  The move was made in 1904.

James continued to live near his home in Stoughton until his death in 1911.  He is buried in the Catholic Cemetery in Forget.