A Canadian Pioneer Family Story
Francis William Muir leaves Donegal Ireland in 1835 at the age of sixteen on board a ship bound for Saint John New Brunswick. His travels over the next thirty plus years includes farming in New Brunswick, Omemee Ontario and High Bluff Manitoba.
Arriving in High Bluff in 1878 wife his wife Elizabeth Lytle and their eight children he chose to purchase land in the area and continue farming.
We learn about the farm with families like Moss, Cuthbert, Donnelly, Barron, Dalzell, Owens, Greenlay, Tidsbury, Lytle, Moggy, Garry and others.
We come to admire the entrepreneurs like Hicks, Cox-Smith, Jacksons brothers, Eddie Fisher, and Andy Forsythe as they become part of the community.
Two men from High Bluff Clarke Metcalf and Melville Jackson become pitchers in two different professional baseball leagues.
The High Bluff community finds hours enjoyment in participating in special events like dances, card games, bonspiels, O Grady Cup challenges, baseball tournaments, and even an attempt to win the Central Manitoba Baseball Championship.
The Muir family and the High Bluff community learn to adjust to clashes with aboriginals and deal with floods, cyclones, grain rust and World I and II.
Throughout the story we learn how a successful farm life has to change and evolve over the years in order to survive.
Small Town Baseball -Friendships and Friction
The second book is about a group of teenagers who grow up in a community that finds baseball as their initial common bond. Their
experiences both off and on the ball diamond contributes to many of their personality traits of the future.
The last chapter provides insight into their lives twenty years later.