Clifford Burton Culbert (1912-1991)

Cliff and Gladys Culbert, 1990

107 years ago today…

Clifford Burton Culbert was born 10 September 1912 to Myron Manford Culbert and Effie Pearl Taylor in Biddulph Township near Lucan, Ontario, Canada. 

Clifford Burton Culbert, age 4 months. Great-grandson of John Culbert & Mary Ward.

Cliff's birth announcement in the Exeter Advocate, 19 Sep 1912, page 1. Typo in spelling of Mr. and Mrs. Myron Culbert.

Cliff Culbert was Myron and Effie’s first born child. Cliff was the only one of their children who wasn’t born on the Culbert homestead at Lot 19, Concession 2 (The Coursey Line.) Cliff was born at Lot 20 where Myron and Effie lived as newlyweds. At that time, Lot 20 belonged to Cliff’s father, Richard Culbert who lived and farmed on Lot 19, known as Poplar Farm.

Cliff's father's name is misspelled. It should be Myron Manford, not Miron Manfield.

Effie had a bad feeling about the house at Lot 20. Following Cliff’s birth, Effie swore that she would never have another baby in that house, ever again. So the young family packed up and moved to Poplar Farm at Lot 19, where Myron had been born and raised. Meanwhile, Myron’s parents moved into a house on Main Street in Lucan. 

Poplar Farm near Lucan, Ontario on the Coursey Line, 1920s. Cliff was raised here along with his five brothers. The house was built by Cliff's grandfather, Richard Culbert. Photo courtesy of Cliff's daughter, Marilyn (Culbert) Harrison.

Cliff (left) with brothers Ivan (centre) and Ken (right). Photo courtesy of Ivan Culbert's son, Phil Culbert.

Cliff had five younger brothers: Kenneth Arthur Culbert, Ivan Hector Culbert, Milward Taylor "Mel" Culbert, Merton Manford Culbert, and William Earl Culbert. 

Myron & Effie Culbert with their six sons. Back row, left to right: Ken Culbert, Mel Culbert, Mert Culbert, Earl Culbert. Front row, left to right: Cliff Culbert, Myron Culbert, Effie (Taylor) Culbert, Ivan Culbert.

Cliff attended S.S. No. 2 Biddulph (Atkinson’s School). 

S.S. No. 2 also known as Atkinson's School in Biddulph Township, Middlesex County, Ontario. A one-room schoolhouse serving all elementary school grades.

He walked two miles back and forth from home. He then attended Lucan High School for a year and a half, riding a bicycle the three miles each way in good weather and going by horse and cutter in the winter.[1]

Cliff Culbert in 1929, age 16.

Cliff left high school to help his father on the farm. Cliff was also was hired out to other farmers to earn spending money. One winter he hauled manure—loaded it by hand into a sleigh and unloaded it by hand—for $1.00 per day. Another winter he cut wood—cut, split and piled it—for $1.00 per cord.[2]

Cliff had plans to be a farmer. In the late 1930s, his father told Cliff he could have the Cobleigh farm[3] on the Coursey Line if he took over the mortgage. Cliff got a cow, a sow and four ewes from his father and paid half the cost of upkeep on the implements they shared. He kept track of all his expenses and at the end of a year was lucky to have $100 for all his work.[4]

Cliff Culbert

Cliff turned his back on farming and moved to London, Ontario in the fall of 1940 when he was 28. The Second World War was underway at this time. Cliff was a member of the Reserve Army but was turned down for active service. When he moved to London, he got a job at Wyatt Furniture, 349 Talbot Street, where he worked until 1943.

During his time at Wyatt Furniture, Cliff got married. On 14 June 1941, Clifford Burton Culbert, age 28 married Gladys Lillian Beattie, age 22.

Cliff & Gladys' wedding day. The best man (right) was Cliff's brother, Milward Taylor "Mel" Culbert.

Cliff’s parents, Myron and Effie had married on that same day, 30 years previously in 1911.

Effie and Myron Culbert on Cliff and Gladys' wedding day which was also their 30th wedding anniversary.

Cliff’s wife, Gladys Lillian Beattie was born 30 May 1919, the daughter of Lorne Edward Beattie and Lillian Pearl Ironside of the 13^th Concession of London Township. When Gladys was about 10 years old in 1929, the Beattie family moved to Lucan. Gladys’ parents owned and operated an electrical store/gift shop on Lucan’s Main Street.

In the late 1940s, Gladys (Beattie) Culbert's parents opened an electrical store/gift shop next to the Bank of Montreal at the corner of Main Street & Alice Street. In this photo from the 1960s, you can see construction where the Beattie's store would have stood years earlier. Credit: UWO Archives.

Gladys had two brothers: William Ironside “Bill” Beattie (1921-1940) and Kenneth Alexander Beattie (1930-1998). During the Second World War, Bill Beattie enlisted with the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve. He served as an Able Seaman on the H.M.C.S. Margaree, a destroyer. The Margaree was involved in a collision in the North Atlantic Ocean. Bill Beattie died, lost at sea on 22 October 1940, age 19. He is commemorated at the Halifax Memorial in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There is also a headstone for him at St. James Cemetery, Clandboye, Ontario, and his name is on a headstone at the Medway/Decker Cemetery in London Township.

Cliff and Gladys Culbert spent the first five years of their marriage in London. The newlyweds lived in an apartment in a house at 119 McClary Avenue at the corner of Wellington Road.  

119 McClary Avenue, London as it looked in 2014, about 70 years after Cliff & Gladys lived here.

In 1943, Cliff joined the Kelvinator Company of Canada where he spent two years doing war work. Kelvinator was a manufacturer of refrigerators and electric refrigeration units. However, during WWII Kelvinator made military supplies for the war effort. 

Kelvinator at 1152 Dundas Street East, London, Ontario. c1941.

Around 1944, Cliff and Gladys bought a house at 790 Quebec Street, London. Google Street View shows a vacant lot where the house once stood, beside the East Carling Public School.

Both their children were born in London. Clifford Wayne Culbert was born 29 April 1942, followed by Marilyn Lillian Culbert on 6 September 1944.

Cliff's parents, Myron & Effie with Cliff's children, Wayne (left) and Marilyn (right) at Poplar Farm, September 1945.

Around 1945, Cliff joined Richards-Wilcox Canadian Co., a manufacturer of doors. It was here that Cliff learned welding.

Cliff, Gladys, Wayne and Marilyn moved to Lucan in 1946. Cliff’s brother, Ivan Culbert operated a grocery store/bakery on Main Street. Ivan persuaded Cliff to come and work for him for a couple of years. Their brother, Mel Culbert ran the other half of the building as a dry goods store.

This building on Main Street in Lucan formerly belonged to Cliff's brothers, Ivan Culbert & Mel Culbert.

Cliff and Gladys built a house beside Gladys' parents on Main Street, across from what is known today as the Lucan Community Memorial Centre and Arena at the north end of town.

Cliff and Gladys had this house built on Main Street, Lucan in the 1940s. At that time, the houses in the village didn't have street numbers but today it's numbered as 250 Main Street. This image is from 2018. When the Culberts lived here, the house had white siding with red trim.

Cliff and Gladys' house is on the left. The house on the right (244 Main Street) belonged to Gladys' parents, the Beatties.

On 9 January 1947, Cliff Culbert was initiated into a fraternal organization, the Masons. The ceremony took place at Irving Lodge #154 in Lucan. Cliff became Master of Irving Lodge in 1956. Cliff was a 33º Scottish Rite Mason; an Honorary Degree awarded by the Supreme Council. It is generally awarded for outstanding and selfless work on behalf of the Rite or in public life.

Part of an obituary for Cliff Culbert, detailing his involvement in the Masons. Prepared by Charles P. Corbett, a Director of the South Huron Mason District Fifteenth Degree Team of the London Sovereign Chapter Rose Croix Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite.

Cliff returned to Kelvinator in 1948 when the company resumed making refrigerators after the war. Cliff worked in their inspection department on quality control. 

1957. Left to right: Cliff's son Wayne Culbert, Cliff's mother Effie (Taylor) Culbert, Cliff's daughter Marilyn Culbert, Cliff's wife Gladys (Beattie) Culbert, and Cliff's father Myron Culbert. Photo taken at Myron and Effie's house on Alice Street in Lucan. The framed photograph above Gladys is a baby picture of Cliff's brother, Ivan Culbert. Photo courtesy of Marilyn (Culbert) Harrison.

In the late 1950s or early 1960s, Cliff and Gladys sold their house on Main Street and moved to 210 George Street in Lucan.

210 George Street, Lucan

In 1977, Cliff retired. Much of his working life was spent at Kelvinator until the plant was sold in 1969. He then joined Canadian Canners (later Nabisco) in Exeter and worked there until he retired.

Gladys worked part-time as a clerk in the Lucan Post Office from 1953-1956. Then, she worked full-time at the Lucan branch of the Bank of Montreal for the next 21 years. Gladys took early retirement in 1977 to coincide with Cliff’s retirement.

Bank of Montreal in Lucan, 1960s. Credit: UWO Archives.

The old Bank of Montreal building (above) was at the corner of Main Street and Alice Street. Unfortunately (in my opinion) it was torn down in the late 1960s and replaced by this…

Cliff was an active, life-long member of the Lucan United Church. He served as a Sunday school teacher, and Superintendent, Secretary Treasurer, and Member of Session. 

Lucan United Church on Main Street at the corner of Francis Street. Photo taken on 31 May 2015 on the day of the church's final service. Photo by Cliff's niece, Mary Jane Culbert.

Cliff also served his community as a member of the Board of Education, the Area Community Centre Board and Municipal Council in the Village of Lucan.

The Culbert brothers in 1976. Left to right: Cliff, Ken, Ivan, and Mert. Their brother Mel died in 1958. Their youngest brother, Earl is missing from the photo. Photo courtesy of Ivan's son, Phil Culbert.

Culbert brothers in 1990. Left to right: Mert, Cliff, Ken.

In 1978, Cliff and Gladys sold their house in Lucan and moved to Twin Elms Estates Mobile Home Park, a retirement community in Strathroy, Ontario. Cliff was a member of the Strathroy Golf Club.

Strathroy is about 39 km (24 miles) southwest of Lucan.

Cliff Culbert died on 13 March 1991 in Strathroy. He was 78.

Cliff and Gladys' daughter, Marilyn says, "After my parents retired they went to Florida from October to April so I never had Christmas with them after that. The last year they went to Florida, Dad got sick and had his gallbladder taken out and that's when they found the pancreatic cancer. In a year he was gone. They never told me how sick he was so it was a shock when I finally found out."

Gladys died 16 December 2018, age 99 in Leamington, Ontario. Cliff and Gladys are buried in St. James Cemetery, Clandeboye, north of Lucan.

When a relative, Grant W. Taylor was seeking biographical information about the descendants of John Culbert and Mary Ward, he wrote to Cliff in 1987, asking Gladys' birth date. Cliff replied, "Gladys' birthday is May 30, and if you wish the year, it will be on our tombstone at St. James Cemetery after she is deceased."

In this passage from a letter to Grant Taylor in 1987, Cliff was looking back on his life and recalling the happy times spent with family before the outbreak of the Second World War…

The Taylors, Herns, and Kerslakes whom Cliff refers to were on his mother Effie’s side of the family

CLIFFORD BURTON CULBERT’S FAMILY TREE:

Ancestors:

John Culbert & Mary Ward (great-grandparents)

Richard Culbert & Jane Eleanor Fairhall (grandparents)

Myron Manford Culbert & Effie Pearl Taylor (parents)

Descendants (Children):

Clifford Wayne Culbert (1942-2016)

Marilyn Lillian (Culbert) Egan Harrison

Desecendants (Grandchildren):

Francis Clifford “Frank” Egan

Sean David Egan

Dayna Lyn (Egan) Cowan

Footnotes:

[1] "A History of the John Culbert-Mary Ward Family and Their Descendants 1828-1995, Volume 1, Branches 5-6-7-8-9" by Grant W. Taylor, page 93.

[2] Ibid., 94.

[3] The Cobleigh farm (probably Lance Cobleigh's farm) was on Concession 2 (the Coursey Line) in Biddulph Township, not far from Poplar Farm, the Culbert homestead. I think it may have been Lot 21 which is the property once owned by Susan (Culbert) Crawley (daughter of John Culbert & Mary Ward), and Susan's husband, Philip Crawley, and later, their son, George Eli Crawley. I'm told that Lance Cobleigh sold the farm to Myron Culbert in the 1930s. Myron later sold it to his son, Mert Culbert who later sold it to his brother, Mel Culbert. (This needs fact-checking.)
[4] "A History of the John Culbert-Mary Ward Family and Their Descendants 1828-1995, Volume 1, Branches 5-6-7-8-9" by Grant W. Taylor, page 94.