‘He loved the farm’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/10/2020 (1993 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An integral link to the the historic Criddle-Vane family has been lost with the death of third-generation member Percy Nicol Criddle.

Until his death at age 97 earlier this month, he was the last surviving person to have lived at the historic Criddle-Vane homestead as an adult.

He left the property alongside wife Rae and their first five of what would later become six children, his father Stuart Criddle, uncle Evelyn Criddle and aunt Maida Criddle in 1960.

It wasn’t the first time Percy left the property. After growing up at the homestead, he left to serve in the Canadian Air Force as a pilot during the Second World War and then attended the University of Manitoba, where he met Rae. They married in 1950 and he brought her back to the homestead for a decade before their growing family relocated to Vancouver Island.

Their main reason for relocating was to improve their children’s education, since getting kids to school at the homestead could prove trying during the harsh winters. Plus, the warmer climate was ideal for Percy to achieve his dream of opening a golf course.

“Dad and mom hated to leave the farm, but knew they needed to,” his daughter Jo-Ann Saville said. “They returned almost every year until mom passed (in 1985), and then dad continued to go frequently to visit.”

The homestead, approximately 12 kilometres south of Shilo, is now best known as the Criddle/Vane Homestead Heritage Park.

The story behind the homestead is one the shared family takes great pride in, and which begins in the late 19th century with Percy’s grandfather, also named Percy Criddle.

The elder Percy — an Englishman — met and fell in love with a woman named Elsie Harrer in Heidelberg, Germany.

Although he tried to marry her, the City of Heidelberg denied his applications.

The two stayed together regardless, eventually having five children.

He later relocated to England, where he fell in love with another woman, named Alice Nicole, whom he’d go on to marry.

During a celebration marking the homestead’s 135th anniversary in 2017, the Sun connected with descendant Marg Trollope, who relayed how the next part of the story took place:

“On their wedding night, as the story goes through our family, he happened to mention to Alice, his wife, that he had a first love of many years who was pregnant with his fifth child.”

By mid-1882, Criddle decided to relocate the united family to Canada, by which time Harrer’s name was changed to Vane.

They arrived in Brandon on Aug. 12, 1882, before heading out to their homestead property, where they set up tents while getting to work on building a log cabin with the assistance of neighbours.

They moved into the log cabin that December.

By the early 20th century, Edwy Vane, of the family’s second generation, got married and built a house across the river, prompting Percy to follow suit, building the two-storey, eight-bedroom “Big House” in 1906.

While this building burned down in 2014, the two entomologist labs constructed by Criddle’s eldest son, Norman, remain alongside the historic cemetery and an interpretive trail system.

One of these buildings also served as the third-generation Percy Criddle’s home with Rae and kids.

Saville, who left the house alongside her family at age six, said she remembers the toilet in their home was a can her father emptied daily and that they also used an outhouse.

She said her father didn’t know about the history of the Vane side of the family until he was older, but that everyone got along well at the time and still do.

“Days before his death, I asked him about which sections were homesteaded by whom, of the Criddles and the Vanes. He started to tell me and ended with, ‘It doesn’t really matter as it was all in the family.’”

The homestead was acquired by the provincial government in 1970 and later became protected under the Criddle/Vane Homestead Committee, which was formed in 2000 under the guidance of past MLA Charlotte Oleson, who also succeeded in having the homestead declared the 79th provincial park on Feb. 24, 2004.

Although he was 60 years and a few provinces removed from the homestead by the time of his death, Percy always kept it close to his heart.

It was during his time at the homestead that he developed a love for golf, which he carried with him to Vancouver Island, where he designed and built what would become the Glen Meadows Golf and Country Club. With Percy at its helm, it was owned and operated by the Criddle family until it was sold a few years ago.

“He loved the farm and often said when business was trying, ‘I think I’ll go back to the farm,’” Saville said.

“I think he learned his hard work ethic from farming and strong family values from the adults he was surrounded by as he grew up. … People always looked out for one another, and dad always helped anyone who he thought could use a hand throughout his whole life.”

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

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