Our home, Swan Pond Farm

The house was built in 1801 as a two-story log cabin, and then was "modernized" in the 1920-era with white clapboard siding, a kitchen and bathroom where the back porch had been, and an addition of both an upstairs and downstairs space, symmetrical around the once-side, now-central chimney. The roof is still tin, making a lovely sound when it rains. The white oak tree in the front is estimated to be around 350 years old. Boxwoods, hosta, iris and daylilies make up most of the gardens.

Baby Samuel Beckett Torrance and his mother, Elizabeth Petunia Beckett Torrance

This is a photo of my maternal grandfather, Samuel Beckett Torrence, age 1, with his mother, Elizabeth Petunia Beckett Torrance. We never knew Elizabeth; she died when my grandfather was 8 or 9 in the Influenza Epidemic sweeping North America in the winter of 1917-1918. Their family of eight children and two parents lived in Oxford Mills, Ontario, an hour's drive south of Ottawa along the St. Lawrence River.

Elizabeth died of the flu and her body had to be held for burial, along with many others, until the spring thaw. The family story, told in whispers, is that her husband, William Torrance, was so grief-stricken at her death that he committed suicide. In any event, all eight children were orphaned, and sent to live with their maternal grandmother, a Beckett. Their aunt Tressa eventually took them in until the eldest, sister Wilda, married Fred Little and took the youngest girls to live with her. The boys, Morton and Sam, left home at the tender age of 15 and 16, and traveled across the border to Florida, to work in the fancy hotels of Miami and Palm Beach.

Aunt Lyla and Uncle Harry James

This is a photo of one of the six Torrance sisters, Lyla Torrance James, with her husband, Harry, and a big fish.  Aunt Lyla was the sister, just younger than her brother, my grandfather, Sam Torrence, who he credited with saving his life during the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1917-1918.   Granddaddy got the 'flu, along with his mother, and was put to bed in the coldest room in the house, the parlor.  At that time, fevers were treated by withholding food.  Lyla sneaked food to her brother during his bout.  He didn't die, of course, but many others did, including his mother.

 

Uncle Harry was Aunt Lyla's first and only husband.  She married him relatively late in her life, because he couldn't marry her until his first wife died.  Harry and Lyla met and fell in love while his wife was a patient in a mental hospital.  I stayed with Harry and Lyla many weekends at their home in Whitby, Ontario, when I went to art school in Toronto, in the mid-1970s.

Moriah Armstrong's family, 2004

This is a photograph of Moriah Squire Armstrong, her husband, Daniel, and three of her four children: Terra (20), Lorian (27), and Juli (22). Missing is Jamey. They live on Rock Island, about an hour south of Vancouver, BC, in the Puget Sound. Moriah is the only child of Jack and Mildred Squire. Mildred, nee Torrance, was a younger sister of my maternal grandfather, Samuel Beckett Torrence.

Aunt Flora

Flora is one of six Torrance sisters, the next to youngest of 8 children.  My grandfather, Sam Torrence, was one of her older brothers.  They grew up in Oxford Mills, Ontario in the early 1900s. 

Future fried green tomatoes

Some of our family web links: 

- A website of our old family photos, including pages by our son Conrad, age 13, and Nicholas Beckett, age 18, is at https://home.comcast.net/~swanpondfarm/

 

- Our farm online album at http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAsmTRm4bNnBA

 

- More of Nicholas' adventures in NH at http://beckettadventures.blogspot.com

 

- A website of Honicker family photos is at http://honickerfamily.blogspot.com

 

- A website of Lisa Ross Birth & Women's Center in Knoxville, TN, where Cliff works as the chief administrative officer is at www.lisarosscenter.org