Today, we pick up where we left off last week, as Jason Poole writes about his grandfather, Olin Stansell Culbert of Woodstock, Ontario, Canada. Olin was the great-great grandson of John Culbert and Mary Ward. If you missed Part 1, click here.
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| Olin Stansell Culbert (1933-1998) and his sister, Lola Marilyn (Culbert) Buckles (1932-2015) were the children of Henry Joseph Culbert (1901-1991) and Willena Josephine Stansell (1909-2005). |
Olin, A Culbert Boy.
Olin Culbert, often known as “Bub” or “Cubby” to his friends
and familiars, was born in Woodstock, Ontario on August 17, 1933 and was one of
two children from the marriage of Henry Joseph Culbert (1901-1991) and Willena Josephine Stansell (1909-2005).
Henry Joseph Culbert and Willena Josephine Stansell were married on August 21st, 1929 in Lambeth, Ontario. Following the ceremony, they honeymooned at Tobermory. It is important to note that Henry Joseph Culbert (1901-1991) is not to be mistaken with his father, Joseph Henry Culbert (1865-1943).
Along with this Culbert boy (Olin) came a daughter a year and a half before him, named Lola Marilyn Culbert, born January 22nd 1932.
Here is a small branch of our family tree to put things into perspective:
John Culbert + Mary Ward (Tipperary Ireland/Lucan Ontario)
Henry Culbert + Margaret Wall (Ripley, Ontario)
Joseph Henry Culbert + Edythe Swalwell (Ripley, Ontario)
Henry Joseph Culbert + Willena Stansell (Woodstock/Port Burwell, Ont)
Olin Culbert + Gladys Langdon (Hickson/Fonthill/Woodstock, Ont)
Sharron Culbert + Peter Poole (Woodstock, Ont)
Jason Poole (Me)
Prior to the pipe smoking, whiskey-drinking, ‘cut a rug’ shenanigans of my grandfather Olin's teenage years (I know what you are thinking, a Culbert boy whom who had the audacity of enjoying the simple things in life? Well, I never!) came an upbringing from two relatively stoic figures in our family’s lineage. My great-grandmother, Willena (Stansell) Culbert, seemed to start the family business by pursuing a 26-year career as a teacher throughout Middlesex County and Oxford County.
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| Olin Culbert's mother, Willena (Stansell) Culbert, the stoic matriarch, celebrating a Culbert Christmas at the home of her grandson, Rick Culbert in Hickson, Ontario in the late 1990s. |
The passion and discipline that Willena put upon her students knew no bounds. Along with that passion came a sharp, cunning wit and. As my uncle Rick Culbert wrote once, “an impressive, if not exhaustive memory”. In her later years, this made conversation with Mrs. Culbert quite amusing. It was said that prior to any story you wanted to share with Willena, she had to be fully educated on the context and characters of the story. Without even getting past the exposition of your story you could barraged with, Who is that, then? And their parents are who? And what did they do? These questions often resulted with two things, the derailment of your story being told and an exuberant realization that Willena may have well taught them, their parents or without fail, a second or third cousin. It is said that the concept of ‘six degrees of separation’ began with only three degrees with Mrs. Culbert in her teaching years but this passion for the family business somehow rubbed off on more the more than 10 grandchildren and great grandchildren who would become educators. Even Willena's own son (Olin Culbert), daughter (Lola Culbert) and Lola's husband (Bruce Buckles) would later become teachers but we are well ahead of ourselves.
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| First day of Teacher’s College for Olin Culbert. |
A note on Willena (Stansell) Culbert. I knew her to live at 560 Peel Street in Woodstock, growing up. This was the main family home for her children, Olin and Lola. Willena often played piano and introduced my sisters and I to The Lawrence Welk Show. She sat in amazement with our mom as we gathered around the TV on our stomachs, chins resting on two hands wondering what on earth we were watching. Willena was a competitive softball player and, at one point, a paid piano player in the 1920’s. This was unheard of for women at the time, but I always got the feeling that Great Grandma Culbert was not easily brushed to the side. More on her life, later on.
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| Willena and Henry’s home at 560 Peel Street in Woodstock. |
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| Willena Josephine (Stansell) Culbert, tickling the ivories! |
Olin’s father, my Great Grandfather, Henry Joseph Culbert, would be more of a ‘Henry-of-all-trades’. He was always known to me as “that good looking man” as stated proudly from his wife. Henry was the driving force that pulled out family’s branch from the Ripley area to Oxford County but he and my grandfather would never miss a Culbert reunion back at the homestead just outside Kincardine.
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| The Oxford County Culberts at the annual Culbert reunion, outside Ripley, Ontario. Back left is Lola (Culbert) Buckles, her husband Bruce Buckles, and Olin Culbert. Up front are Great Grandpa Henry Joseph Culbert with his wife Willena, and a splattering of Culbert kids throughout. |
My favourite story, again from my Uncle Rick, was near the end of Willena's life as she nearly hit 100 years old.
Uncle Rick: Have you thought about dying?
Great Grandma: Yes.
Uncle Rick: You will get to see Henry, Bruce, Olin and Mark (her grandson, my uncle) again.
Great Grandma: Yes.
Uncle Rick: Do you think Henry will get dressed up for you?
Great Grandma: He better!
After living in Lambeth, Olin and Willena moved to London, Ontario. Then, in 1937, they moved to the lakeside town of Port Burwell, Ontario where the family would make a name for themselves and lay down more solid roots.
Henry Joseph Culbert opened up Culbert’s Grocery in Port Burwell before World War Two which he was unable to participate in due to ‘flat feet’. During that great conflict, Henry became mayor of Port Burwell, likely because of a lack of competition but a proud political role for our clan, nonetheless. It is uncertain whether the Culbert cottage at Port Burwell was their home during their time along Lake Erie, but those five years turned into more than 50 years for my family who vacationed at the port for generations. This was before moving to Woodstock, Ontario in 1942.
It was here in Woodstock that Henry worked for the Dominion Store where he made shells for the war at Massey Ferguson, worked construction, and finally ended his working years at Eaton’s Department Store. I was lucky enough to inherit my grandfather Olin's brown, Eaton’s fedora and I wonder if it was purchased for or by Olin at his father Henry’s store.
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| Olin Culbert’s brown, Eaton’s Fedora. |
For Olin and Lola, growing up as the son and daughter of Henry and Willena meant a few things, one of which includes the infamous Port Burwell cottage, as mentioned above. This monstrous outpost became more of a second home to the family growing up and had a hand in raising not only Olin and Lola but all of the grandchildren. This includes my mom, Sharron Anne Poole [née Culbert], also know as ‘Sissy.’ My mom (Sharon) tells of a simple parenting trick of Grandpa and Grandpa Culbert who had to deal with excitable boys and a girl who would often be less than sombre on the two-hour drive to the lake. Olin would often say, “Okay, we’re going to play a game, no one gets to talk until one of you can see the lake.” This, of course was said somewhere between Woodstock and Curries with over 90 minutes to go. This cottage was a constant for the Culbert clan, even as Grandpa Olin Culbert would make his way to what has always been known as The Collegiate.
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| The most recent photo of the old Culbert Cottage at Port Burwell (2021) after some updates. The cottage sits 200m from a cliff, looking out over Lake Erie. |
In his teen years, Olin Culbert became an alumnus of Woodstock Collegiate Institute (WCI), a handsome building in the heart of downtown Woodstock. Think of a modest “Rydell High” on Riddell Street in "the Dairy Capital of Canada." It was there that countless boughs of our family tree, through blood or marriage, got their education and where I am currently employed as, you guessed it, a teacher.
It is the late 1940’s and into the early 1950’s where you would see Olin Culbert and other well-dressed young men smoking their pipes on the north east corner of the school property, across from Knox Presbyterian Church.
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| The northeast corner of Riddell Street and Hunter Street in Woodstock as it looks today. Woodstock Collegiate Institute at left, Knox Presbyterian Church at right. |
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| Olin Culbert at Woodstock Collegiate Institute in 1952. |
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| Close-up of Olin Culbert. |
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| Me (Jason Poole) at Woodstock Collegiate Institute without the Culbert ears. |
It was also here at Woodstock Collegiate Institute that Olin befriended countless of his peers including Woodstock’s most esteemed historian, Doug M. Symons. Doug Symons was the author of “The Village that Straddled a Swamp: An Informal History of Woodstock.”
Doug Symons and Olin Culbert crossed paths throughout their time at Woodstock Collegiate Institute – for some good reasons and not so good reasons. For this, let us fast forward to 2018 to a young man (me) working away at a computer after hours on the third floor of The Collegiate.
The school (WCI) is quiet as a pair of elderly men walk past my office. It is an out-of-place sight, but I think nothing of it. The younger of the two gentleman introduces himself and his father, stating how they both are alumni of the school but, as quick as a whip his father pipes in stating, “I was on the football team here! That’s were where we had science classes!”. I offered to unlock a few of the classrooms for them to see how things had changed, which they obliged but, I remained intrigued by the older gentleman’s age. I asked him when he graduated, and it happened to be around 1950. I proceeded with my curiosity and had a follow-up question:
“You wouldn’t happen to know, the Culberts?”
With a confused look on his face, I could see gears were beginning to spin as his replied, “Culbert? Hmm…like, Lola Culbert?”
Jackpot! I introduced myself as Lola's brother Olin’s grandson. The story took a slight turn at that point when Doug Symons replied, “Oh, I know Olin, he didn’t always like me too much, dating his sister ‘n all!” Whether this was true or not, I guess good teenage drama never dies. It was not all bad since later on Doug published one of his many historical columns in the city’s newspaper, The Sentinel Review, featuring Grandpa (Olin) Culbert.
It was in this post that Doug mentions a trip to Ripley, Ontario with the infamous Olin Culbert, delivering Christmas and New Year's Eve flowers for Chuck Rockett, a florist on the corner Dundas and Vansittart Avenue in the downtown core of Woodstock. The article notes how this was an “experience to remember but not to repeat” mainly due to how deliveries were late “because of ongoing hijinks” between the two young men on their trip. This is not outside the character of Grandpa Culbert but, a 1928 Model A, missing a few floorboards according to Mr. Symons, coasting from the Dairy Capital of Canada (Woodstock) through the heartland of Culbert Country with two lads in the front seat sprouting daisies from the back windows – this would have been a site to see!
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| A 1928 Model A, not unlike the one that braved the road to Ripley with a teenage Grandpa (Olin) Culbert behind the wheel. This one looks to have floorboards. |
In between all this tomfoolery, Olin Culbert met a young farm girl from the 11th Line; a rolling, dusty road in East Zorra Township, named Gladys Langdon. It was at a party, hosted at Willena and Henry’s home on Mill Street in Woodstock (see photo below). As the story goes, some of the parties could get so out-of-hand, and to save all their Protestant souls, the sole picture of a local bishop on the wall was flipped over – nothing to see here, father!
One faithful night, with the bishop turning his back to the group, Gladys stood in front of the sink doing dishes. Olin would later come up from behind, turned her ‘round and kissed her saying, “you’re the woman I want in front of my sink for the rest of my life.” A bold pick-up line but, it was a different time to say the least. The rest as they say is history.
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| After a stint in Middlesex County and
Port Burwell, this house on Mill Street in Woodstock was built by Henry Joseph Culbert and his son Olin Culbert and friends. It held many
parties over the years and was where my Grandparents (Gladys and Olin) met.
This house has not changed. |
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| Life before kids, and me! Gladys and Olin (Grandma and Grandpa) out on the Langdon Farm, 11th Line, East Zorra Township. |
- TO BE CONTINUED -
OLIN STANSELL CULBERT'S FAMILY TREE:
Ancestors:
John Culbert & Mary Ward (2xgreat-grandparents)
Henry Culbert & Margaret Wall (great-grandparents)
Joseph Henry Culbert & Edith Sophia Swalwell (grandparents)
Henry Joseph Culbert & Willena Josephine
Stansell (parents)
Descendants (Children):
Thomas Henry Culbert
Charles Richard "Rick" Culbert
Sharron Ann (Culbert) Poole
Mark Stansell Culbert (1962-1996)
