From a story in a book written at the 100th Anniversary of the town of Devlin, Ontario

Charles and Agnes Parker moved to Burriss from Ailsa Craig, Ontario about the year 1918. They traveled by train with five of their six children; Wilton, Amy, Ted, May and Grace. The oldest son, Fred, had joined the Army and was overseas at the time.

They bought a 160 acre piece of farmland from Thomas (Pierret?) who owned the local grocery store and post office. There was a house on the property, but there was still a lot of bush which needed to be cleared. The whole family helped to clear the land and plant crops of hay, grain, and potatoes.

They obtained a good sized herd of cattle which supplied them with milk, cream, butter, and meat. Charlie always kept registered bulls; which the neighbours had access to. There was also a flock of sheep. The wool was sheared every spring and shipped to a factory to be made into yarn for knitting the family’s mitts, socks and sweaters.

They also had about 100 hives of bees and were able to supply the local people and stores with honey every fall. An interesting side product of the beehives was pickling vinegar. The broad knives used to take the wax off the frames had to be kept hot by dipping in jars of hot water. As a consequence, the water became sweetened by the honey residue on the knives. When fresh hot water was needed, the cooled water was saved. The sweetened water was put in barrels and allowed to ferment and made into vinegar. Agnes made gallons of vinegar which many of the local ladies used for making pickles.

Soon after coming to Burriss, Amy married Mark Hartlin, a local man, and moved to her own home a few miles away.

Fred married an English girl while overseas. After the war, Fred, Nellie and her daughter Joyce settled in Fort Frances. He worked at the paper mill.

About 1924 May married Mark Hambrook and eventually settled in Calgary.

Wilton, too, decided to strike out on his own. Working at odd jobs for awhile and finally getting hired on at the paper mill in Fort Frances. There he met and married Maggie Dawkins. They lived in Fort Frances until he retired. They then moved to Quetico North, just East of Atikokan. After Maggie died, Wilton moved into Atikokan and eventually remarried.

In the late 1920s, Charlie decided to build a new barn. It was a large building for which he had to borrow money. Many of the neighbours came to help. But the very day the last nail was driven, a cyclone swept through the area, lifting and twisting the roof from the new barn. This was a very big set back and shortly after this, Charlie also went to work in the paper mill, leaving Ted to run the farm.

In 1935 Grace met and married Jim Chambers who had recently moved to Burris from Saskatchewan and moved with him to a homestead in the Township of Carpenter, Ontario, north of Emo.

Finally, the farm was sold and Charles and Agnes retired to Fort Frances.

Ted married Kay Beyers from North Branch, Ontario. He also went to work in Fort Frances and lived there for many years.