PAUL (1901-1959) & EVELYN (1905-1994) CHURCHWARD 

Paul, the son of a well-known portrait painter, was sent to Canada in 1919 to learn farming from Stanley Rackham who was a brother of Arthur Rackham, an artist who illustrated the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale books. Paul knew nothing of the rigors of farming and settling in a new and strange land.  However, he soon adapted and in 1933 built a log house for his family by dragging the logs, with horses, two miles up from the riverbank and cutting and shaping the logs with an axe.  All the corners were notched and the logs were cut square.

Evelyn (Cornish), came to Lloydminster from England in 1912 with her family.  They crossed the ocean one-week after the Titanic and they too struck an iceberg and had to be towed into Halifax.  They joined her stepbrother Fred Ayling who had come out three weeks after the Barr Colonists and settled in the McLaughlin area.  Quoting from her journal: “We traveled by train to Lloydminster.  This trip took about five days on one of the old trains made especially for immigrants.  The seats were of slatted wood and very hard.  I think the backs came down so that we could lie on them but of course we had no cushions or blankets.  I remember particularly being very hungry on the train.  It would stop at various places along the way and there would be huge chunks of bread with a sliver of meat in them but we could not afford them.   We arrived in Lloydminster in the middle of the night and went across the street to the Alberta Hotel.  The lobby was lined with hard chairs and brass spittoons and we slept in those chairs for the balance of the night.  The next morning we children went running out on the board sidewalks.”

Evelyn graduated as a registered nurse from the Eudowood Sanitarium and Marie Bloede Memorial Hospital in Maryland and took a post graduate course in orthopedics from the Children’s Hospital in Greensprings, Maryland. She met and married Paul in August 1926.  They eventually settled in the Hillmond area and were instrumental in getting the Tweedsmuir School built around 1937.  In 1944 they moved to the Percy Marshall farm one mile north of Lloydminster and soon after bought the quarter across the meridian that had previously belonged to Mr. Barstow.  Here they farmed and bred registered Yorkshire swine that were successfully shown in Lloydminster, Edmonton and Saskatoon.  They also bred and showed registered Shorthorn cattle and ran a successful kennel operation, breeding and showing Cocker Spaniels.

They were active members of the Community.  Paul was a Director of the Lloydminster Exhibition Board and the Credit Union.  Evelyn was a charter member of the Quota Club and was very active with the Saskatchewan Mental Health Association, traveling all over Saskatchewan speaking at public meetings.  She was also a member of the Lloydminster Drama Club, starring in several productions and making costumes for many.

Paul died in 1959 as the result of a tragic farm accident in 1953 that left him a quadriplegic. He was disabled and bedridden and was cared for at home by his devoted wife Evelyn until his untimely death.  During this time Evelyn ran a successful printing business from her home and managed the farming operation.  She also found time to travel to Mexico and the Middle and Far East.  Evelyn spent her final years in Calgary and passed away in 1994 at the Bethany Care Center in Cochrane.  Up until the end she was still furthering her education by reading voraciously and in 1985 she enrolled in the University of Calgary at the age of 79.  She was as curious as a two-year-old and just as tireless in her pursuit of knowledge. During her life she suffered through two bouts of tuberculosis, endured a painful degenerative spinal condition and was clinically blind but still found the strength to shuffle along to the ripe old age of 88 despite the best predictions of 20th century medicine.  She believed in charity.  She believed that kind words and generous deeds were not to be kept to family members - they were to be distributed according to need amongst everyone in our community.  She was always a  bold and outspoken champion of the underdog.

Paul and Evelyn leave two children, Jack (Sylvia) living in Victoria and Pauline (Hugh) farming west of Cochrane, Alberta.  Their descendants also include Jack’s daughter Holly (Al Mulloy) and Pauline and Hugh’s children - daughter Josette (Scott Taylor; grandchildren Evelyn & Jonah) and sons Mark & Chris.

- information supplied by Pauline McGregor