Page 16 Hometown Strathroy-Caradoc July/Aug 2025 Page 10 Ilderton and Area Villager • July-August 2025 In 1922, Father married Susie Boyd, a farm girl from Appin way who had been teaching at Bear Creek Public School. My William married Cecilia Calverton in 1884. A new brick house was completed in 1885 on Ivan Drive, and here they raised their family of four boys and two girls. Three of their sons and one daughter all graduated from Queens University. Youngest son Ernest, my father, completed grade school and started at London Collegiate but soon had to withdraw; with his father busy in the carpenter’s shop, and his three brothers at university, there was no one else to run the farm. A Chip off the Old Block by John Caverhill There is an old adage, “You can take the boy away from the farm, but you can’t take the farm away from the boy,” which is to say each of us is shaped by the environment in which we grew up. Entries from my grandfather’s diaries, along with gleanings from our family genealogical history, show some of the components that shaped his life that, in turn, shaped my father’s life and eventually my own life. Back in the 1840s, my great-grandfather Archibald Caverhill left his home in New Brunswick, where he had been both a storekeeper and a minister, and moved to Ontario. Three adjoining farms in Lobo Township were acquired, and he started two new careers: farming and school teaching. Archibald married Margaret Telfer, and they had a typical Victorian-sized family of four boys and four girls. Three of his sons each inherited one of the farms. The oldest son William, my grandfather, settled on the middle farm located on the southwest corner of the present-day Ivan Drive / Vanneck Road intersection. Parents Archibald and Mary had hoped William would become a Presbyterian minister. Accordingly, he enrolled at Komoka Seminary. Here he became friends with an instructor who enjoyed woodworking as a hobby, and William discovered that shaping wood rather than souls was more to his liking. Probably to the accompaniment of much headshaking by his parents, he switched to the Mechanics Institute in London and learned the carpenter’s trade. In 1870, 20-year-old William formed a partnership with Thomas Robson. A new carpenter shop had been built at the intersection of present-day Ten Mile Road and Vanneck Road. In 1872, William bought out the partnership, records showing the transaction cost $1.00. This is not a misprint; perhaps Grandfather was upholding his Scottish heritage and being financially ‘canny’. His three brothers were all part of the business until the second-oldest son, James, was killed in a farm accident in 1883. The young business grew to the point where their father issued an edict. Farming was the primary occupation, and carpentry was secondary to the farmwork. Carpenter Bill, as he was known locally, managed to satisfy both his father and the demands of his business. William probably settled on the centre farm because it was directly across the road from the shop; also, being only 70 acres, it left more time for the carpentry business, which eventually became his main occupation. Weather, the farm, and road conditions dominate Grandfather’s diary; one would never guess he had a thriving carpenter business. Occasional entries such as ‘have been shingling Adam Telfer’s barn’ (May 24, 1904) and ‘put joists on H. W. Zavits’s barn’ (August 13, 1904) are sparse compared to daily entries re: farm and weather.
father, like his father before him, also combined farming with woodworking his whole life. Active in community affairs, he served many years as secretary for the Ilderton Farmers’ Co- op and was secretary for the Medway High School Board from its inception until his death in 1962. He was a firm believer in the values of a good education. While he led a full life, I always had the feeling he would have liked to have gone to university and chosen some other career, like his siblings. I grew up on the same 70 acres. I liked farming, but by the late 1950s, it was obvious the small general farm, which was my style, was no longer viable. I followed in the footsteps of my mother and several other family members and became a teacher, which I enjoyed for twenty years. I also had my grandfather’s and father’s love of working with wood, and after completing the three-year Landscape Design and Build course at Fanshawe College, I finished my career designing and building various landscape structures. Does that make me a ‘chip off two old blocks’? John Caverhill in his Father’s workshop (2012). The workshop is now located at Fanshawe Pioneer Village where John volunteers.
John Caverhill is the younger son of the late Ernest Caverhill and Susie Boyd of Lobo Township. John’s writings often reflect his experiences and observations of growing up on the family farm, attending the one room school, S. S. No. 7 Lobo (Bear Creek School), and Vanneck United Church. John’s sense of humour and story-telling skills are legendary. His keen observation skills have augmented his repertoire .
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