My Family Tree

"Ned" or Ed Dyment was born in Northam, PEI in October 1897, the fourth son of James Dyment and Laura Belle McArthur.

By 1911, the family had grown to 11 children. Ed was 13 years old, and both he and his brother Herm had attended the local school in Northam for 5 months that year. Unlike his older brothers Hat, Wilf and Herm and his younger sisters, Ed didn't go on for further education.

As a young man, he worked in the woods in Maine, around Skowhegan, during the winter. One border crossing form was found for November 1915, when he was 18. He was 5'8", with brown hair and hazel eyes, and had $35 dollars in his pocket. He may have been travelling with another young man from Northam, Major Rodd.

Many years later, when driving through Skowhegan he was amazed at how much had changed since he had worked there.

When his brothers Wilf and Herman signed up to go overseas in the first World War, Ned wanted to go too, but was needed on the family farm by his parents. By the time of conscription, he was drafted into the army but it was too late to see active service.

In 1920, he married Bertha Jane Birch from nearby Port Hill, the youngest daughter of Edmund Birch and Elizabeth Maynard. One of their wedding gifts was a gold coin, from Senator Yeo. They were practical people, and it is possible they used the coin to help purchase their first farm on the Northam Road. There were no photographs of the wedding - Bertha thought that was an unnecessary extravagance.

Bertha and Ed had two sons and two daughters. Their first child, a daughter, died at birth.

In 1933 they sold their farm to Ed's younger brother Spurgeon and purchased the William Mann farm in Margate, PEI. Ed wanted a larger farm, but it was a lot of work to get the farm in Margate up to the productivity of the smaller farm in Northam. Some crops, like alfalfa, wouldn't grow at all in the new location. However, the mixed farm allowed them to survive comfortably through the great depression.

Although the family continued to call him Ned, in Margate Edward became known as Ed.

Ed kept his woodlot in Lot 13, and every year he would travel "Up West" and bring his load of wood back to Kensington on the train. In the 1940s, he and his son Earle had a few silver foxes, which fetched about $100 a pelt. Ed also raised a horse or two every year. These would be sold, through a dealer, to local horse dealers or lumbermen who came up from the New England States. It would be frustrating for his sons, who would just get a horse working well with their team when it would be sold. Ed could also draw a horse, free-hand.

He and his wife Bertha worked on fixing up their house and yard, and in the 1960s they won a beautification award for their property. They were very proud of this achievement, and this time there was a photograph to mark the occasion. Ed served as a director of the Rural Beautification Society.

In the 1970s they sold the farm and moved to the town of Kensington.

Ed and Bertha were both staunch Conservatives.

From a note in the Charlottetown Guardian, Ed suffered from rheumatic fever in 1928; this may have contributed to his somewhat early death from a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 74. He drove himself to the hospital in Charlottetown on that day, in spite of what must have been incredible pain.

From his obit:

Mr Dyment had been about as usual on the moring of his demise, talking with friends and neighbours, but later in the day, in Charlottetown, he was rushed by ambulance to the hospital where he passed away a few minutes later.

Ed, as he was known to family and friends, loved life to the fullest, enjoyed meeting friends and neighbors alike; his daily walks in Kensington will be missed by his many friends, but it is in his home where he will be truly missed.