WILLIAM Thomas Towns

  Noted events in his life were:

• Notes for William THOMAS TOWNS:.
The National Burial Index shows William as being in his 13th year at the time of burial.

vii. WILLIAM Thomas TOWNS, b. Oct 11,1852, Asgarby, Sleaford area, Lincolnshire, England; d. Nov 14,1936, Winnipeg, Manitoba..

Notes for William THOMAS TOWNS:

William Thomas Towns was known as Thomas or Tom throughout his life. Thomas was the third of the 5 Towns boys.

Thomas emigrated to Canada in 1873 at the age of 21.

Thomas lived with his brother George and family for at least 18 years, appearing in both the 1881 and 1891 Ontario Census as a farm laborer. (During this period George farmed in Lennox county , first in Earnesttown Township and later in North Frederickburg Township).In the spring of 1893, Tom is believed to have moved with George and his family to Morden, Manitoba, taking temporary accommodation with Mrs. John Towns (sister-in-law) and her family in the summer of 1893 they again moved to Sec. 12-3-19, two miles south-west of Ninga, Manitoba. (There is a possibility that Thomas had already moved West and was already working for the railroad or other farmers).

In the 1901 census for the municipality of Morton, Manitoba, Thomas is not listed with the family. It is assumed that he had embarked on his railroad career by that time. He was sufficiently senior in 1903 to be chosen to take a large gang of men to clean up and re-lay the railroad system across the devastated area left by the Frank Slide, Frank, Alberta on 29 April, 1903.


Tom Towns appeared in family threshing photos and George Mallory Towns remembers him taking several weeks of holidays to help with fall threshing. He was apparently responsible for the water wagon which supplied the steam engine, while Nephew Will was responsible for the Steam Engine and Nephew Reuben was responsible for the operation of the Separator. The threshing crew usually consisted of 8 stock teams and the group threshed at Ninga, Holmfield, doing crops for the Towns brothers, the Dixon families, Smiths, and the two Cockerill farms. George Towns remembers Tom Towns as a tall man who enjoyed his pipe. When working on the Towns farm near Holmfield, he would drive his water wagon behind the farm buildings lived in by Fred Dixon and down to the fresh spring; a spring which still exists today.
It is recorded that Thomas made approximately 7 trips back to England over the years. There is a record of Thomas arriving at Halifax in 1883, aged 32, aboard the Liner Peruvian. Tape C-4512, Page 1.

Thomas never married. He lived with his brother George in Winnipeg after his retirement and until his death. He is buried at Ninga, Manitoba, under his oun Tombstone, next to his brother George. At his internment at Ninga, Manitoba, George Towns remembers the snow being about six feet deep and stated that William Towns had a crew of men shoveling at the cemetery on two different days in order to make passage for the hearse.

In his Will of 28 November, 1930, he refers to his niece Mrs. Herbert J. Ellis and leaves her a sum in pounds, thought to signify a connection to England. Also a mention of a brother-in-law to whom he had made a small loan, a Mr.Walter Barlow and his family of Ms. Gertrude Barlow and Mr.Cecil Barlow. (This is the husband and children of his sister, Ellen Towns). Ellen is not mentioned as she was deceased in 1900.

More About WILLIAM THOMAS TOWNS:
Fact I: " At rest, in loving memory of Uncle". Inscription on lone grey tombstone, Ninga,
Fact 2: Manitoba.