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INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this booklet is to show where our Keillor family fits into the history of Canada. Another purpose is to record a history of the family along with photographs of our ancestors. The most extensively researched early Canadian Keillor information is in the publication authored by W. Eugene Goodrich, a retired history professor from the Mount Allison University. The Westmorland New Brunswick Historical Society with offices in the Dorchester Keillor House Museum is a major site for information.
CONTENTS
BECOMING CANADA
KEILLOR MIGRATION
KEILLORS in UPPER CANADA
KEILLORS in ALBERTA
BIBLIOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHS
BECOMING CANADA
Newfoundland was claimed for Henry VII of England by John Cabot in 1497. The French had been fishing off Newfoundland since 1500s but had not claimed any land or settled there. In 1524-25 the Atlantic Coast region of North America was explored by Giovanni da Verazzano, an Italian who was serving King Francis l of France. He named the Atlantic coastal territory Acadia. The Greek word Acadia meant a refuge or unspoiled wilderness and beauty. Acadia was also an ancient Greek province. Most of the Atlantic coast was named Acadia.
Jacques Cartier explored the Canadian Maritimes and St. Lawrence region. In 1534 he claimed those lands for the King of France and called them New France. He completed 3 expeditions to Canada between 1534 and 1542. Early attempts by France to establish colonies faced problems with internal conflicts and external raids from the British and Indians.
Samuel de Champlain explored the same region of North America between 1603 and 1607. He established the colony of Port Royal in Acadia. In 1605 he gave New France the name Canada from the Huron-Iroquois word “kanata” meaning settlement. He also established colonies at the sites of the present day Québec City and Montréal. He was the first European to describe the Great Lakes. Other French colonies were also started in New France and Acadia.
In 1606 King James l granted charters to two commercial trading stock companies. They were to develop and establish settlements on the east coast of North America. The self governing companies were called The Virginia Company of London and The Virginia Company of Plymouth. Together they were called The Virginia Company. Sir Samuel Argall was a governor of Virginia. In 1613 he invaded and took control of the Acadian lands for England. In 1620 the Plymouth Colony was establishes in New England. In 1624 the Virginia settlements became British colonies governed from England.
IN 1621 King James I of England (and VI of Scotland) granted a Royal Charter to his friend Sir William Alexander for settlement of the Acadian lands. They were renamed Nova Scotia. A Scots settlement at Port Royal was established and renamed it Annapolis Royal. That settlement eventually failed and the land was ceded back to France in 1632.
The Acadians were a mixture of aboriginal Mi’kmaq, Metis and French settlers. They were primarily farmers and lived off the land and waters. In 1632 Cardinal Richelieu mandated a stronger French presence in Acadia and New France. Between 1663 and 1673, settlers arrived from France including 800 unmarried women now called the “filles du roi. They were sent by the king to marry the local men. Those colonies grew and prospered from the fur and timber trade.
In 1670 King Charles II gave control of Rupert’s Land by Royal Charter to “The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into the Hudson Bay (HBC)”. Prince Rupert was the first governor of the company hence the name Rupert’s Land. He was a nephew of King Charles l.
Serious local conflicts for territories in Acadia eventually resulted in Sieur Nicholas Denys being appointed to administer the lands comprising parts of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and New Brunswick. In between was the Isthmus of Chignecto that connects Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Chignecto is from a Mi’kmaq word “siknikt” meaning drainage place.
In the isthmus there were extensive marshlands that were diked and drained by the Acadians to become very productive farm lands. Those lands were not used by the local Mi’kmaq so there was no conflict between them and the Acadians. The Acadians prospered and by 1755 there was a population of over 13,000 Acadians.
Acadia was in almost a constant state of flux because of the conflicts between the French and English over control of the region. In the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht all the Acadian lands were ceded to British control. Because of the small British presence in Nova Scotia, between 1713 and 1744, there was an interlude of peaceful coexistence with the Acadians.
After 1744 there were skirmishes and raids that occurred between the Acadians and British especially in the Isthmus of Chignecto. In 1751 the French built Fort Beausejour on the isthmus to separate the British in Nova Scotia from the Acadians in New Brunswick. The fort was captured by the British in 1755 and renamed Fort Cumberland.
In 1749 Halifax was established as the British headquarters. Some scattered remote French settlements remained until the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The treaty gave all of New France and Acadia to Britain. The treaty ended the Seven Years English, French and Indian Wars. In 1755 many Acadians refused to take an oath of allegiance to the English Crown and as a result 1100 immediately left. They went to the New England colonies and New Orleans. Eventually between 1755 and 1763, 10,000 Acadians were expelled even after they had given their allegiance to the English crown. Their villages and farms were destroyed to prevent them from returning. The British did not trust them.
In order to control the vacant Acadian lands, the British Lieutenant Governor Lawrence issued a proclamation in 1758 inviting New Englanders and disbanded British soldiers to take up the vacated lands. The settlers from New England Plantations were called Planters. Many of those settlers did not tolerate the climate or were not successful so they left and returned to either New England or England. Benjamin Franklin was one of those who came and then left. Some of the disposed Acadians drifted back to the lands.
The battle on the Plains of Abraham resulted in the defeat of the French in Quebec. It was on September 13, 1759 and gave the British control over most of North America. The next Nova Scotia Governor M. Franklin recruited settlers in Yorkshire with a trade or farming expertise and means to emigrate. They were to purchase lands that he and others owned from royal grants. Between 1772 and 1775 more than 20 ships arrived from England carrying 1000 settlers mainly from Yorkshire. It is termed the Yorkshire Migration and was stopped because of the American Revolution. The Revolution was from 1775 to 1783 and resulted in the British loss of the New England Colonies.
KEILLOR MIGRATION
Agricultural practices began to change in England starting slowly in the 17th century and accelerating in the 18th and 19th centuries. Land use changes were instigated by the owners who controlled almost all of the available lands. The owners were mainly the nobility and gentry. The landlords modernized the land management and merged properties to increase productivity and increase income. The changes reduced the need for many tenant farmers, renting farmers, labourers, tradesmen and other service occupations. The changes were somewhat similar to the clearances in Scotland. The effects in Yorkshire were most prominent in the 1760s and 1770s and was the impetus for the Yorkshire migration to Nova Scotia. There was advertising and solicitation to attract independent emigrants because of opportunities and affordable lands.
M. Franklin the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia started advertising in Yorkshire to recruit emigrants. He had title to large tracts of land and was over-extended financially. Previously he had poor results obtaining New England Planters or veterans as settlers. Yorkshire emigrants with farming experience, means and skills were preferred. Protestants, Anglican or Methodists were preferred. Catholics were avoided because of the previous Scottish Jacobite uprisings that had contributed to the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
Catholicism was the religion of the Acadians who were expelled. The immigration started in 1772 and was stopped in 1775 because of the American Revolution. One thousand or more individuals came from Yorkshire.
John Keillor (1695-?) of Skelton-Cleveland Yorkshire and his wife Ann (1700-1755?) had 4 children, Robert, Thomas, John and Ann. Their son Thomas came to Canada from Skelton, Yorkshire. The Keillor name probably originated in Angus Scotland where it is common. In Angus there was a famous Keillor herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle and there is the Keillor Burn (stream).
The name is considered Germanic in origin or Gaelic/Celtic from the ancient Strathclyde Britons. There are many variations of the spelling. Duncan Kellar rendered homage to King Edward I of England in 1296 as did Ranulph de Kelor. Those “Keillor” land owners are recorded in the “Ragman Rolls” which is a signed document of allegiance compiled for Edward I. He was called “The Hammer of Scotland” because he brutally conquered and suppressed all of Scotland except for the outer Isles. Keillor may have come from the Norman-French land owners in Scotland after the Norman conquest of England in 1066.
The Keillor family were amongst the first Yorkshire immigrants. It is presumed they arrived in Halifax on the ship Albion in 1773. That ship left Hull in March and arrived in Halifax in May. There is no passenger list for the trip. There is a record of Thomas Keillor purchasing 250 acres in 1773 for 90 £. The land was on the Chignecto Isthmus connecting Nova Scotia and New Brunswick near Fort Cumberland. It was called Fort Boausejour when it was built by the French. Dorchester was the closest port and village. There is information that their household possessions were transferred to a smaller ship in Halifax for shipment to Dorchester. The ship was wrecked and the possessions were all lost.
On arrival in Canada the Keillor family consisted of the parents Thomas Keillor and Mary (Thompson) Keillor plus their 5 children, Elizabeth, John, Thomas, Robert, and Ann. Thomas was age 44, Mary 39, Elizabeth 16, John 12, Thomas 11, Robert 8, and Ann age 3 years. William was born in Canada in 1773 and Thompson was born in 1777. Mary's two married sisters, Jane Carter who later remarried William Chapman and Ann Trueman also came to Canada at the same time.
Thomas Sr. was a stone mason. He built his stone house on Aulac Ridge and another house near by. While the houses were being built the American Revolution started. Two American armies invaded Canada to capture Montreal and Quebec. The Americans took Montréal because it could not be defended and was abandoned. Gov. Carlton retreated from Montreal to Québec city and successfully defended it against the other American army led by Benedict Arnold. In 1776 the American armies quit and went back to New England. During the rebellion American Privateers were also a constant threat along the coastal regions.
In Nova Scotia Jonathan Eddy and John Allan promoted the American revolutionary cause to the New England Planters and Acadians. Eddy was originally from Massachusetts and Allan was from Scotland. Allan and Eddy had settled in Nova Scotia. They were members of the legislature but were expelled because of non attendance.
Eddy started a rebellion and recruited a small local force. He got approval from George Washington but very limited support. The force consisted of some New England recruits, local volunteers and some Planters. In 1776 they attempted to capture Fort Cumberland . The Keillor farm was close by the fort. There was a small British force in the fort with some loyalists. The fort was besieged for several days until British reinforcements arrived from Halifax. Separately John Allan invaded the little colony on the St. John River but retreated when the British naval ships with Marines arrived. Both Eddy and Allan escaped to New England never to return to Canada.
Richard John Uniacke was a well educated young man originally from Ireland. He was living in Nova Scotia. He was anti-British and joined the Eddy Rebellion. During the siege of Fort Cumberland he was second in command. While riding a horse on a patrol, he came across a Keillor boy, probably Thomas Jr. He was pulling a load of pork that was to be delivered to the fort. The Keillors were staunch loyalists. The muscular 14 year old Thomas refused to give his pork to the rebels. In the scuffle that followed Uniacke was taken prisoner by Thomas who turned him over to the British in the fort.
Uniacke was tried but eventually released because of his influential family connections in Britain. He went back to Ireland and finished his law studies, then returned to Nova Scotia. Later he became a judge and the Attorney General in Nova Scotia. Years later Thomas Keillor was called to testify in a court presided over by Uniacke. Keillor advised Mr. Uniacke that they had met before during the Eddy rebellion when he was taken as a rebel prisoner. After that exchange Mr. Uniacke turned the case over to his subordinates. The Uniacke family became prominent in Nova Scotia history. The Uniacke home in Nova Scotia is now a museum.
In 1777 three years after coming to Canada, Thomas Sr. died at age 48. That left pregnant Mary and her 6 children. The family was better off than most tradesmen because they owned some property in Yorkshire. Mary made arrangements through a brother-in-law Stephen Emerson to manage and sell the Yorkshire properties. Mary was illiterate but she was very capable and eventually increased her land holdings to 900 acres.
The first Keillor to leave home was Elizabeth who married her cousin William Trueman Jr. in 1776. In 1800 Mary Keillor sold her farm to Robert and went to live with with her daughter Elizabeth. In 1780 at age 21 John was the next to leave home. He married Elizabeth Weldon in 1782. He became a very successful resident of Dorchester. He built a large sandstone house in 1813. It is now the Keillor Museum and office of the Westmorland Historical Society. John was a farmer and merchant. He also held a number of parish offices. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace and later a judge of the Interior Court of Common Pleas in New Brunswick. New Brunswick was created a province and split from Nova Scotia in 1784.
Ann married Amos Fowler in 1788 and died in 1798. Amos was a loyalist Planter. He remarried and he eventually bought the Keillor farm from Robert Keillor in 1803 for 1000£. That property is now known as "Fowler Hill” on Aulac Ridge. There is a small Keillor family cemetery on the farm. Thomas Sr., Mary, Ann, Thomas Jr., and William are all buried there. That land is now on the Fort Beausejour National Historic Site of Canada. The others are buried in Westmoreland County near Dorchester or Amherst. Some descendants are buried in the Pioneer Cemetery that is on the Dorchester Penitentiary grounds.
Thomas (1729-1777), Mary (1734-1811), Elizabeth (1757-1825), John Thompson (1759-1839), Mary (1764-1820), Thomas Charles (1762-1836), Robert Thompson (1765-1820), Ann (1770-1798), William Trenholm (1773-1794), Thompson (1777-1799)
Both Thomas Charles Keillor and Robert Thompson Keillor continued to live and work on the Keillor Fort Cumberland farm. In 1792 Robert age 27 married Ann Weldon. He farmed, bought and sold land, was the jailer for the Dorchester Jail and a Tavern owner at the combined court, jail and tavern. The land for the Jail-Tavern was donated by John Keillor, the judge. Robert bought the original Keillor farm from his mother in 1800 for 800£ and sold it in 1803 for 1000£ to Amos Fowler. The two youngest unmarried Keillor brothers William and Thompson both died young of unknown causes. Their deaths likely precipitated the sale of Mary’s farm. Robert had no children and died at age 56. There are records of him purchasing large amounts of alcohol that indicate alcohol may have been a problem for him and a of cause of his early death.
Thomas C married Mary Trenholm in 1789. He was 28. He became a tenant farmer. Eventually he bought a 320 acre farm in Amherst Nova Scotia. He also obtained a land grant. Thomas C and Mary had 11 children. Mary died in 1824 and Thomas remarried in 1827 but his second wife’s name is not known. The farm is near the present Amherst Point Bird Sanctuary.
The Amherst farm could not support the large family. His son, also named William was a farmer. He was sued in 1834 for an outstanding debt that probably bankrupted him. Another son George also sold his farm for a loss in 1835. John was also sued in 1835 for debts. Between 1835 and 1837 there was an economic depression in the USA that would have involved the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick economies. Because of the economy and their failures, William, John and George moved to the Colonel Talbot settlement by Lake Erie near Port Talbot and Port Stanley in Upper Canada. New lands were available for settlement there. Port Stanley was named after Col. Talbot’s friend, the father of Governor General Stanley who was the donor of the NHL Stanley Cup.
KEILLORS IN UPPER CANADA
William Keillor with his wife Nancy (Williams) and their 13 children made their way to
Upper Canada by boat through the Erie Canal. The only mode of transportation to Upper Canada was by the canal or the Saint Lawrence River. The boat traveled partway along the canal but became frozen in the canal over the winter before reaching its destination of Buffalo on Lake Erie. William and his sons contracted to cut wood to keep heat in the boat in return for board and lodging of the family. That area of New York state was mostly virgin land. In 1837 the family arrived at Port Stanley on Lake Erie. They obtained land in Colonel Talbot’s settlement near Iona Station.
Most of the family moved on to Manistee County Michigan. Garrison Keillor comes from that family line. The sons William Trennum Keillor and Joshua Chandler Keillor stayed in Ontario. The father, William Sr. died in Michigan in 1872. His wife Nancy predeceased him in 1864. William T. continued to farm near Iona. He had a family of 10 children.
Joshua C. moved to Tyrconnel near Lake Erie. He was born in 1836 and died in 1922. He married Amanda M. Victoria Allan who was born in 1835 and died in 1920. They they had 8 children, Alvro, Trennum, Margaret (Childerhose), Sydney, Chandler, Laura, Charles and Bertha.
Joshua Keillor was an illiterate labourer who built drains and did tilling. He had a reputation for finding water with a divining rod. He contracted and constructed water wells. He also operated a sorghum press to produce syrup. Mandy Allen's father was originally from Scotland. He came to Cumberland Nova Scotia from the U.S.A. after the American Revolutionary war. He was probably a disbanded British soldier.
Alvro Leonidas Keillor was born in Iona. Ontario in 1857 and died in Wallacetown in 1936. He married Ada Florilla Green who was born in 1859 and died in 1943. They were married in 1880. They had 10 children, Benjamin Franklin (1881-1963), Frederick Anson (1883-1971),Ermyn Idell (Lucas) (1886-1978), Clifford Merriel (1891-1973), Stanley Ewart (1893-1985), Gladys Eldora (Robson) (1896-1980), Sidney James (1896-1918), Glenn Alvro (1902-1956), Alvin, and Clarence. The last two children died in infancy. Alvaro and Ada briefly lived in Glencoe where Frederick was born and then the family moved to Wallacetown.
Alvaro started working in a cheese factory at age 9. He was uneducated but self taught and became a cheese maker. After marriage to Ada he purchased the factory. It was a large building with the dairy on the ground floor and living quarters on the second floor. The whole family worked there starting every morning at 5 am collecting milk. Later it was expanded into a creamery to make butter. After the children left home the cheese and butter dairy business was sold and the factory converted into a chicken hatchery.
Ada Green’s father Benjamin was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1827. He came to Canada in 1848. His wife Ann Eden was born in 1833 in Yorkshire and came to Canada at age 7. They were married in 1855. They had four children Ada was the eldest. Ada’s father died in 1875 from typhoid. His widow Ann was left on her own to raise their 4 children.
Of Ada and Alvaro’s 8 children, 3 sons became medical doctors, Frederick, Benjamin and Clifford. They all served in WW 1 as medical officers. In 1915 Sidney enlisted in the infantry and was killed in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. He was 21. He is buried in the large British Commonwealth War Cemetery located in Etaples France. One daughter became a teacher, Stanley was a horticulturist and lived in Wallacetown. Both Ben and Cliff made a career of working for the Canadian Pension Commission and Department of Veterans Affairs. Ben in Vancouver and Cliff in Ottawa.
KEILLORS IN ALBERTA
Frederick Anson Keillor was born in Glencoe, Ontario on September 1,1883. When he
was young the family moved to Wallacetown, Ontario where his father eventually owned a
cheese factory. The whole family worked in the cheese factory. In 1902 Frederick obtained a certificate of competence from The Western Dairy School in Strathroy, Ontario. With that qualification he managed a dairy that made cheese in Dutton, Ontario. He operated the dairy for two years and saved enough money to go to medical school. He entered the University of Western Ontario medical school. It was a 4 year program. While he was at University he was very frugal because of limited funds. He lived on beans and would never eat beans later in his life. Because he was frugal his nickname was “Dutch”. While at University he played rugby and football.
After graduation Frederick did a six-month internship in Chicago. In 1908 he moved to to Sterling, Alberta and started a practice. He was attracted to the Sterling Raymond area where his brother Ben was a principal and teacher. There was a large Mormon community that would require obstetrical care. He was appointed a Coroner in 1908. In 1909 he married Lillian Martha Lyons, his childhood sweetheart. The marriage was in Wallacetown. They started married life in Sterling, Alberta and their first child Kathleen Ann was born in 1911. In 1911 he was certified to be a Pharmaceutical Chemist in Alberta and North-West Territories.
On January 10,1883, Lillian Lyons was born in Wallacetown. She was the youngest daughter of John and Ann (Campbell) Lyons. John Lyons farmed 100 acres until age 48 when he retired to Wallacetown and entered into politics. He was the Deputy Reeve in 1877 and later the Reeve of Dunwich for the Elgin County Council. He had a small apple orchard. There were 4 children in the family. There was 18 years between the first child and last child. The eldest was Annie who married Walter Chalk. Emma married Duncan Graham later in life and had no children. Edwin had a disability and stayed on the farm. Lillian was the youngest.
In 1811 the grandfather Arthur Lyons was born in Ireland and came to Upper Canada in 1828. He married Elizabeth Taylor in 1837. They had 7 children. Elizabeth was born in Lincoinshire, England in 1815. Her parents, were George Taylor and Elizabeth Clixby who came to Canada in 1820.
In 1912 Frederick and Lillian moved to Edmonton because they did not socially fit into the Mormon community. Frederick started to practice medicine in South Edmonton. At that time the High Level Bridge was under construction and he treated some of the injured workers. On October 31, 1915 Lois Ada Lillian Keillor was born. Initially they had a house on 82nd Avenue, later another house on 84th Avenue. Their final residence was at 10937 83rd Avenue. That house was 5 years old when it was purchased in 1918.
In 1915 Frederick enlisted in the Canadian army as a medical officer with the rank of lieutenant. He was assigned to the British army that attacked Turkey with disastrous results in the Battle of Gallipoli. He became ill on the beach with typhoid fever. He was transferred to Alexandria, Egypt. Later he was sent to England where he was found medically unfit for any service. In January 1916 he returned to active duty. The army records lists service in the R.A.M.C., B.E.F. Mediterranean and France. He never talked about the war except that he learned to play bridge on the troop ships and liked “bully beef”(canned beef). He brought home a souvenir Bayonet and Turkish Fez.
In 1918 he was discharged with a rank of captain. He started work as a physician at the Strathcona Military Hospital. It became the University of Alberta Hospital. In 1920 he started a private practice as a general physician and surgeon in South Edmonton. He had privileges at the General and Misercordia Hospitals. Initially he had an office above the Princess Theatre. His daughter Kathleen occasionally played the piano for the silent movies in the theatre. Later his office was in the Royal Bank Building on the corner of 82nd (Whyte) Avenue and 104 Street.
The family moved back to Wallacetown during the war. In 1918 they returned to Edmonton when Frederick was Discharged. Margaret Virginia was born 22 February 1919. In 1923, 61 acres were purchased near the Whitemud Creek along the Saskatchewan River. The Imperial Bank had repossessed the land from John Walter after the 1915 and 1919 Saskatchewan River floods. The land was registered in Lillian’s name.
In 1927 a strip of land along the river was donated to the city for a roadway to the Whitemud Creek.The road was constructed in 1930. Much later it was named Keillor Road.
The land was cleared and barns were constructed for pigs, horses, chickens, sheep, a dairy herd, a machine shop, a feed mill and root cellar. An ice house was built to store ice cut from the river for refrigeration. It was a model farm with central heating for all the barns and water was piped to all the buildings. At first the water was pumped from the river but because of typhoid fever in the river water, wells had to supply the water. The heat initially came from burning coal and later natural gas.
Two houses were built. The first house is now called “Captain Keillor’s Cabin” and was constructed from field stone and river rock. Logs were floated down the river from Tomahawk west of Edmonton to build the house. A resident farmer lived in the log house and the other house was used for entertaining. During WW ll the farm had a large family garden and raised bees because of sugar shortages. Animals were butchered for the family and some meats were smoke cured.
The two houses are still in use but the barns have since been demolished. The Edmonton Canoe Club was allowed to keep canoes in a storage shelter on the property. Another small 2 room house was constructed for a Remittance Man to live out his life on the property. His name was Charlie. He lost a leg in a farm accident and had a wooden peg leg.
Dr. Keillor was a city alderman from 1926 to 1927 and again from 1929 to 1932. He was on the Edmonton Exhibition Board and president of the Edmonton Academy of Medicine. He was honoured with a life membership in the Academy. Their daughters were married. On August 15, 1936 Kathleen a BSc RN married Arthur McEwan Wilson an agriculturist and they had 3 children. On October 21, 1939 Lois an RN married Roderick Archibald McEwen a dentist and they had 5 children. On June 14, 1943 Margaret a BSc RT married George Frederick Coote an engineer and they had 4 children.
“Doc” as he was called by many acquaintances was also involved in other businesses. He invested in O. A. Brown Livestock Commission Agents and The Pine Bungalows in Jasper. He was a partner in a fox farm. He considered buying the Southside brewery but his wife objected because they were teetotalers.
During WW ll he invited Dr. Joe Kato to join him in practice despite criticism because he was a displaced Japanese Canadian from B.C. Doc retired in 1948 and went on an ocean trip with Lillian his brother Ben and Maude. They played lawn bowls in South Africa, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. He also did a locum at a uranium mine on Great Bear Lake where he fished and canned Arctic Char While he was gone I looked after the flowers and played pool with my friends on his pool table. Much later he wrote a prescription giving me the pool table.
In 1955 Lillian died from lung cancer. She was a nonsmoker. The ownership of the farm passed on to the 3 Keillor daughters. There is a painting by D. D. Berry of the Whitemud Keillor farm printed in the “Alberta Golden Jubilee Anthology 1905 1955”, McClelland & Stewart 1955. It is titled “Whitemud Farm” and is part of the permanent provincial art collection.
In 1958 the farm was leased to LeeColl Stables to board and train horses. In 1962 the city expropriated the hillside part of the farm for Fox Drive. In 1964 the rest of the farm was expropriated. The family had objected in court to the expropriation. Dr. Keillor died in 1971. The farm is now called “The Whitemud Equine Centre”. In 1974 Whitemud Road was officially named Keillor Road. Because of increased traffic on this “rural” road it was closed in 1996. Recently a prominence of the land overlooking the river was enhanced and officially named Keillor Viewpoint.
The Alberta Keillor family name did not get passed on. The 3 daughters have all died. Kathleen died in 1997 and her husband Arthur died in 1983. Margaret died in 1982 and her husband Bud died in 2003. Lois died in 2010 and her husband Arch died in 1988. Seven grandchildren lived in Alberta and five in Georgia. There were 16 great- grandchildren in Alberta but some have moved away.
There were other distant Keillor relatives who were early settlers in Alberta.Two of Alvro’s brothers homesteaded in the Innisfail area. Sidney was buried there in 1912. Chandler (Chad) sold his land and returned to Ontario. Some of the Green family lived in Edmonton. Their son Arthur Green worked in housekeeping for the U of A. A sister of Alvro, Margaret Childerhose lived in Swan River, Manitoba. In the Dorchester Keillor Museum and on the internet there is an extensive genealogical record of the family.
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