The Knister House – Adele’s Letter Part 3

(This part of the letter begins by Adella talking about her life in Texas, where she moved to be with her daughter, Shirley Brueggerhoff. Music is the theme of this part of the letter, and her beloved piano)

“They both (Shirley and her husband) both sing in the Presbyterian Choir and Gary in the junior choir. She (Shirley? Not specific) brought my mother’s organ (1875), solid walnut and not high, and wants my parlour grand. I don’t play and sing too much any more but would be lost without it. I must tell you about my piano. It’s no ordinary piano and was maybe tuned only once or twice but the copper strings brot from Germany are long as a baby grand. That’s why it’s so high and was built for the Toronto Ex and came directly to me as present from my father in 1902. Mine is a Knabe but I’ve never played on a better one than it.

The dining room suite cost $1200 and is beautiful. When Shirley and I went home in ’64, my grandpa Thompson’s large bible was all to pieces upstairs in the hall .. I took out two pages (where it was written) where they were married in ’37 in Muddy York (Toronto). They had 7 children. Ma was the youngest and born in 1856, so she got a lot of furniture when grandma (Thompson) died in 1892 and Grandpa came to live with us. The front page, I left .. (where it was written) “Given to John Thompson in 1846”.

By last spring (1965), ALL had been taken, also my sister’s huge hope chest, tall lamps and many things. We gave the new washer to Sherwood (Simon), but one of the other two is a real museum piece.

The walnut cupboard with glass doors in the dining room and 2 walnut drop leaf table came from Langton Norfolk Co. My mother’s old home. We brought the cherry chairs, Grandma’s, with the original cane seats and numerous things. My grandpa made the trunk in then front hall upstairs. Maybe in Ireland.

There was so much to be done and I am glad to hear you are repairing things, papering, painting etc. Shirley put some stoneware, English, in the top of the cupboard (glass) in the kitchen thinking she’d go up when she sold, but it happened at the same time she was moving so she was too busy. The big white potato dish is over 80 years old as are the other dishes.

I have my Grandma’s paisley shawl that my grandfather’s brother bot in Paisley, Scotland in 1847 and cost $37.00. My grandparents (Thompson) came from Armah and Enniskillen, Ireland. When built in 1901, our house was the finest home between London and Windsor.

Hope your not too bord reading this.

Yours most sincerely,
Adele Taylor (Knister)

(ed note: There are another couple of pages in the letter about the politics in Texas. The letter contains some very spicy comments about Lyndon Johnson’s family. I’m not going to repeat them here because our story is not about either LBJ or American politics. Okay, there’s one line I can’t resist “I hate LBJ like poison but I’m a Democrat so I’ll vote for him”. And “With our Socialist Commy government I don’t know how long he will last.” And also because I don’t know how libel laws pertain to people who are dead, I won’t repeat what she said about LBJ’s sister. Many of the women of Ruscomb had very definite opinions about politics. Adele was one of them.

Thanks to Barb Ayearst for sharing this wonderful letter).

The Knister House – Adele’s Letter Part 2

This is part 2 of a letter written to Barbara and John Ayerst from Adella Knister Taylor about the grand home of her childhood. See previous post for part 1.

“Staunton Knister’s dad was a first cousin to pa, and when he had a sale, they bought the TERRIBLE green and gold dresser in the back bedroom which came from England and is walnut (so his wife, Pearl told me). But one of pa’s housekeepers painted it green and gold — wasn’t that awful? …

We gave bushels of things to three museums and others too numerous to mention ..Ethel’s sewing machine and dressers and big table upstairs were left. After her husband died, Ethel moved down to the farm and I went home and washed all the downstairs woodwork and dishes etc. Ethel never had much time for housework — she’d rather be out of doors and tend her cats. I guess that’s why I don’t like cats. Ha.

The two and a half thick stone walls in the basement came out of Amherstburg Quarry in the Detroit River and hauled there on flat cars and it has never frozen in that house with no fire. None o fher her fruit ever froze. We took cars full of things to the Salvation Army in Windsor and left boxes full in the kitchen for them to get but they did not want to come in the house with no one there.

I am thrilled someone bought the place who appreciates it, I could not even think of it for a long time. I was in hospital and bed at Shirley’s for 7 weeks with nervous breakdown. They took a dozen xrays and said it was “fatigue” but found nothing. Memories have no aches and pains. Just Memories.

I think Dr. Charles and Will Knister whose fathers were pa’s brothers, knew how I felt but I went home last May and buried my only sister and came through it fine.”

Next: Part 3 and Adele’s piano.

The Knister House – Adele’s Letter Part One

Written by Mrs. W. G. (Adele Knister) Taylor
February 4, 1966

Written to the Ayearst Family shortly after they bought Adele’s childhood home.

Dear Ayearsts:

You’ll be surprised hearing from me, but as I am the only one left who lived in my old home, I thought I’d better tell you a little about the house. I washed the dishes for the carpenters, painters etc in 1901, as we of course boarded them. After the painters had 8 quarts of varnish and rub downs on woodwork, the architect would not accept it and 3 more were put on, making 11 in all.

Of course, the quarter cut oak doors and wainscotting and 2 floors came off our “other place”. Many times the dog and I went for the cows in the woods across the creek. I gathered mushrooms there on this side of the creek (Ruscom River October 62). While Shirley loved the place it was my home over 60 years, while (sister) Ethel and I each owned the farm on the 6th concession. (I sold 50 acres to Russel Simon for much less than he got for freeway (ed note: Highway 401).

It went on Shirley’s* tuition at Alma College where she graduated in Interior Decoration in 1944 at age 18, and afterward at Texas University. I gave the other 50 acres to my sister Ethel (married name Pembleton) where the barn burned. Some one was kind enough to throw a cigarette on the straw stack while the threshing was in progress, so burnt the barns, stock and all.

Ethel sold her farm about 10 years ago with the stand of oak wood walnut. My cousin Dr. Charles Knister said they sold $12,000 of timber off it.

My mother and brother died in 1917, then my father had housekeepers and alwasy hired men. My father died in 1930.

Tomorrow: the opulent furniture in the house, and the not so opulent green and gold dresser.

* Shirley was Adele’s daughter, who eventually married and stayed in Texas. Adele moved down to Texas to live with her daughter, which is where the letter was written.

The Grandest House in the Village

Technically, the grandest house in Ruscomb wasn’t actually IN Ruscomb. It was about a mile outside the village, on the way to Comber.

There were two houses, each built by a Knister brother. One of the houses was on the Middle Road (now County Road 46). The other was on Middle Road North, which was one road back. Both houses looked very similar, except that the big house on Middle Road North had a TOWER.

When I was a child in the 60s, this house was very spooky. It was abandoned. The owner, Ethel Knister Pembleton was in “a home”, we were told. In the late 1960s, the house was bought by John and Barb Ayerst.

Barb no longer lives there but is still a friend of my aunt. When she heard I was collecting the history of Ruscomb, she sent me a letter that Adele Knister wrote to her about the magnificent house that her father, John Knister, had built in 1901.

John Knister was born in 1857. His wife, Mary Thompson Knister was also born around that time. They had three children, Ethelda (Ethel) born abt. 1884. When I was a child, she was still living. Her name was Pembleton. I found a marriage certificate for an Ethelda Knister to Karl Kendrick in 1914. So it appears that Mr. Pembleton was a second marriage. Adele, born Nov 16, 1885 in Ruscom, married Walter George Taylor on June 5, 1912. Cecil, the youngest child, was born on June 19, 1892. He died on May 23, 1917.

The house was built in 1901 after all three children were born. The letter tells us about the house. It also tells a lot about the life that went on in that house. What is interesting to me is that it provides a glimpse into the lives of Ruscomb’s wealthiest family. All of the old families of Ruscomb did well for themselves and their descendants but the Knisters did much better than most. I don’t know anything about the line of business they were in, other than farming. Maybe they were wealthy immigrants and brought money with them from Germany when they arrived in the earlier part of the 19th century. One way or another, they built a couple of very grand houses.

In the next few posts, I will share that letter that Adella wrote about her memories of the house with the tower.