Photo (Collage of Mom’s Photos):  Family and friends in Saskatchewan provided a strong draw, but earning a living on the farm was becoming increasingly difficult.

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Community Dance:  March 1941

It would be the first time since Harold was born that the new mom and her husband had attended a dance at the Meadstead Community Hall.  In those days almost everyone in the family attended the dance including kids and babies.  Because their were no carriages or baby baskets, makeshift items were used to carry the baby, diapers, bottles, etc.  Laura used an old suitcase for this purpose.  She would just pop open the top and she had a ready made bed for her little boy.

Arriving at the hall after a few months of being absent at the dances there were many people to greet who had not yet seen her baby and proud mom she was, took him around to meet everyone.  When the dance began, Laura tucked him in his bed in the cloakroom and like the good little boy he was, promptly fell asleep so mom could go our and dance.   Fifteen or twenty minutes later when she went to check on him, the suitcase now had the lid closed and it was covered in coats and scarves.

Frantically Laura began fling coats, hats, scarves, mitts and gloves about the cloak room of the Medstead dance hall as she uncovered the suitcase. From outside appearances she had gone stark, raving mad.

“How could I have been so stupid?  My baby boy is probably dead and it is my fault – how could this have happened? Please God, please, please let him be OK.”  These dire thoughts swirled through her mind as she searched for her baby boy.

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Photo (Harold, 2010) Dad worked this field every year trying to make ends meet. He picked those rocks that came back every year as the frost heaved them out of the ground.

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Link to Last Post: A New Beginning
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This Blog Post has become part of a longer book
now available from Kindle Direct Publishing.

Book 2 -Trails North a and West: The Pioneer Way 1824-2024 is now available from Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) (link here)
A preview of the first seventeen pages is provided (link on bottom left on the KDP order page).The preview also includes the Table of Contents.

Note: When ordering four or fewer books, they will be printed and shipped within Canada. Otherwise, an order of 5 or more books may be printed and shipped from the United States. Postage is included in the purchase price when ordering from either country.

If you are thinking of sending books as gifts to others, you may consider having those books mailed directly to the recipient(s), by Amazon, at time of ordering.  In this way, you would avoid Canada Post fees which currently amount to $20.00 or more for one (or possibly two books), if enclosed in a single mailer.

———————–
October 5, 2025

Dear Family and Friends,

Following is a complete index of Book 2 (by Chapter and Sub-Chapter). This index gives you a broad perspective of the book contents as well as a sneak preview of family, friends, and early life acquaintances, who appear in the book. At 483 pages, the book not only provides an in-depth look at our families during the past 200 hundred years, but also includes an overview of major events which shaped their lives in North America.

While Trails North and West is Book 2 of a two-volume set, it was published first as the author felt a compelling need to capture, record, and share more current events, stories, and succession changes which have and continue to impact our families today. The book is divided into three parts beyond the regular introductions: a list of 279 photos; charts; graphics; and an index (copy below). An extensive series of appendices cover additional topics.

Part 1: 1824-1940 Highlights our families throughout their early lives in the Dakota Territories (McNeill/Church) and Michigan (Wheelers), and to Canada in 1910. The McNeills migrated to Saskatchewan, while the Wheelers journeyed to Alberta. In 1924, the Wheelers were forced to make a further move from Alberta to Saskatchewan where they set up new homesteads near the McNeills.

Part 2: 1940 and 1960 Depicts the lives of many of the children of the McNeill and Wheeler families as they spread throughout Alberta, Saskatchewan, and beyond. This was a period in which both a world war and other monumental changes thrust the families into a new world beyond anything they had experienced or even imagined in their early lives.

Part 3: Snapshot Biographies of the twenty-one McNeill and Wheeler children – the children of our Grandparents – along with their spouses. Several migrated to Canada along with their families in the early 1900s while others were born in Canada. (My father was born in the USA in 1908, while my mother was born in Canada in 1918.)

The wider family stories are viewed through the eyes of their children and grandchildren (the author’s first and second cousins) many of whom remain closely connected to the present day. Sadly, all of our Aunts and Uncles born in the late 1800s have now passed, but their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren continue to carry the family banners and legacies into the emerging new world of the 2000s.

Book Prequel: Book 1 Sails and Trails West: the Pioneer Way (1600-1800)

This early part of our history explores many of the reasons that compelled our direct descendants to sail 3000 miles across the treacherous waters of the Pacific Ocean, and into the wilds of North America by oxcart, covered wagon, on foot, and along the many waterways that cover the continent. The challenges they faced is outlined in a decade-by-decade chronicle over the five-hundred year period of the two books.

All things being equal (they seldom are..), Book 1, of this two part series, will be published in 2026, under the title Sails and Trails West: The Pioneer Way (1600 – 1800). The McNeills and Wheelers from an Old World to a New. Book 1 traces our families from England, Ireland, and Scotland, as they join the masses who decided to make new lives in North America, initially settling in what became the Thirteen Colonies.

Many then migrated across the continent into what would become known as the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In this migration process, they came into constant conflict with the Indigenous Peoples whose lands were being flooded and absorbed as if a tsunami had struck the Eastern shores. The stories of the challenges faced by the Indigenous Peoples, and others who were being marginalized in this new land, will become central to the longer family story.

Book 1: Sails and Trails West (coming 2006) and Book 2: Trails North and West, along with other books by this author, will all become available on Amazon Books unless otherwise notified.

One final note: Additional photos from the published books (Grayson Chronicles and Trails North and West) as well as upcoming books, will be posted on the McNeill Life Stories Facebook Page.  Please feel free to join that page for regular updates and as a means to exchange information on book contents or with suggestions for changes that may be necessary. Please don’t be shy about drawing attention to errors as they will be noted and updates made to the books on a regular basis.

Comments may also be added to the various posts on the McNeill Life Stories Blog. With respect to the blog, please keep the comments between 10 and 50 characters. On the blog, and as we seek to limit spam, various adjustments may be necessary. When making any comment please be clear who you are at the beginning of the comment. It is also helpful to point to the family or friend connection as there are many hundreds of us across North America and many other parts of the world. You may also choose to send an email to the author at lowerislandsoccer@shaw.ca

We hope you enjoy this journey from the past to the present, and that it enriches your lives as much as it has ours.

Harold McNeill and Family

An excerpt from the story that took place in the summer of 1943

As the horses dragged the stone boat around the field, Dave trudged alongside picking rocks and tossing them on the platform. The fence lines and small islands in the field were piled high with rocks of every shape, size and colour, discarded there over three decades by Dave, his brothers and their dad. Each spring a new crop would appear so the men laughingly called themselves “prairie rock farmers” ¹.

As searing heat rose in waves from the summer fallow, Dave looked out at another ten thousand rocks strewn across the seemingly endless field. God only knows, it all seemed to so bloody hopeless.

As he trudged silently along he mulled over a life that seemed defined by these rocks:

“What in hell am I doing here? I have been picking these same god forsaken rocks since I was ten and next year, will be picking them again, then again and again. Will it ever end? There must be more to life!

He shuddered, “I need a change or I will go crazy!” As he said this he grabbed a rock and flung it hard against the pile forming in the centre of the field. The horses jumped as it ricocheted loudly, rejoining the myriad still waiting on the field.

Mother Nature – there was no way she was going to be thwarted!  Dave continued to think long and hard about why he continued to stay in Birch Lake. The thought of ‘chucking it all’ and moving on excited him.

End of Introduction

Story written while camping in Parksville, B.C. in May 2009

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Link to Last Post: A New Beginning
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