Clarence Robert Briggs (1915 - 1988)

Born 3 Jul 1915 in Whitewood Grove, Hilliard Twp, Temiskaming Dist., Ontario, Canada

Ancestors

Died 14 Aug 1988 at age 73 in Sudbury, Ontario

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jan Briggs-McGowan [send private message]

Biography

Born Clarence Robert Briggs, 3 July 1915, in Whitewood Grove, Temiskaming District, 2 hours drive north of North Bay, Ontario. Known as Bob, but always as Clarence to his closest friend and cousin Russel Briggs. His parents Wilmot Briggs and Norma Chrysler took the two boys Stanly and Clarence, and went west to harvest in Swift Current, Saskatchewan ^[1]. By the 1921 census, the family had returned to Whitewood Grove ^[2]. Whitewood Grove was a tiny, close-knit community. The Briggs family lived just over the slight hill on the south side of what is now Gravel road, east of where it crosses Garden Road. With two brothers (Wilmot and William Briggs) marrying two sisters (Norma and Alberta Chrysler) then living next door to one another, the two families grew very close to one another, the children always in each other's houses. Their grandparents E.A. and Jennie Chrysler who lived on the northwest corner of Gravel & Garden, operated the general store, the school, and held church services and funerals in their two-room log home. On the northeast corner were W.E. and John Henry Kerr, uncles of grandmother Jennie. Two miles south, and just west of Garden Road, lived the other set of grandparents Tom & Mary Ellen Briggs.
The came the "big fire of 1922" ^[3] which wiped out all the farms and communities over 1,680 sq km. When the flames roared in from the west, leaping across the tops of trees. father grabbed up 6-month old Earl, Stanly carrying a bucket of water, mother grabbed 7 yr old Bob and 5yr old Lorraine by the hand and they all ran down the hill to the Blanche River. When the fire overtook them, dad told Stanly to drop the bucket and run as fast as possible after the others. They survived by throwing their coats over themselves and breathing in the air underneath.

Married Madge Manser, 27 March 1943. Records show Maidstone, ^[4] but was actually at St Mary the Virgin Anglican Church in Nettlestead, which is near Maidstone. Their wedding picture shows them exiting the church.

Sources

• As told to Jan Briggs: Mum told me it was a good job she and my dad never made out before they were married, because exactly nine months after their wedding night my sister was born, and nine months after my dad was home on leave, I was born.

1. ↑ http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/006003/t-21945/jpg/31228_4363974-01109.jpg
2. ↑ http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1921&op=img&id=e003036164
3. ↑ https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/great-fire-1922/
4. ↑ "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV8T-1N8V : 8 October 2014), Clarence R Briggs and null, 1943; from “England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005,” database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1943, quarter 1, vol. 2A, p. 2005, Maidstone, Kent, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.

• *birth record

• Death Certificate