BOB LOVE

Robert Love was a great-uncle to my husband John (a brother to Grandpa Bill). He grew up on the farm next to ours and farmed with his brothers in our area for a short while. Nola told me that Robert attracted the girls like "bees to honey" so when a new schoolteacher came all the way from Exeter to teach at nearby Shipka it didn't take him long to get her attention. He married Edna and they were very happy together.

Robert and Edna purchased property in Thedford (across from where Widder Station Golf Course is in 2009) in 1937 and proceeded to go into the onion growing business. Their first building for onion storage was a horse stable from Mt. Carmel which Bob dismantled and brought back to be reconstructed on his farm. Over the years, Bob and Edna's business prospered and they grew red, yellow, white, Spanish and multiplier onions.

Another well-known onion grower in the area was Harvey Dafore, and rather than compete with each other, these two men worked together and supplied seed to all of Canada.

Robert sponsored several families (mainly from Holland) to immigrate to the Thedford area to work in the onion fields - with names such as Smeekens, Cornelius, Van Loonen and Vandervelden. John Vandervelden mentions that they landed in Halifax in 1953 and then, after a two day train ride, arrived at the station in Thedford. Bob picked them up (parents with seven children) and took them to a house he had arranged, complete with furniture. There was a hot meal on the table with food they hadn't seen since before the war. Bob loaded them all up in his car on Sundays and drove them to Forest to go to a Roman Catholic Church and took them on Sunday afternoons to visit other Dutch families. He also arranged for a half a beef and pork at the local freezer locker. Edna, being a teacher, gave them English lessons.

The sponsor was required to provide work for one year. After that year, Bob helped the immigrants purchase small farms (approximately 20 acres) and acquire a share in the Thedford Co-op. A share gave its holder the right to a certain amount of space at the cold storage for onions and carrots. Storage was very important to the growers because they didn't have storage buildings on their own farms.