2007 ~ The Bob and Nellie Garland Fund was established in November.  Bob and Nellie's grandson, John Allan Garland of Penticton, B.C. created the fund to forever carry on his grandparents name through the Carberry and Area Community Foundation Inc.

Eleanor Mary Garland, affectionately known as Nellie, was born in 1875 in Lucan, Ontario.  She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jeremiah Haslam.  Nellie received her education in Lucan, ON and taught school in Wiarton, then Boissevain for two years after they arrived in Manitoba in 1905.  Following her two years in Boissevain, she taught in Carberry for an additional two years.  She was a member and an active worker in the United Church and was a life member of the Woman’s Missionary Society.  Nellie passed away at Fox Memorial hospital on Tuesday, December 26, 1961 at the age of 85 and is presently laid to rest in the Carberry cemetery.  Nellie’s mother, Charlotte, lived with them at Carberry from sometime before 1911 (the year of the census) until her mother’s death on November 19, 1923 at age 81.

Robert Allan Garland, affectionately known as Bob, was born in Greenock, Scotland in 1876.  In May 1882, Bob emigrated from Scotland at the age of 6, with three sisters, under the surname Mathieson. They had been orphaned by the deaths of their mother Margaret, in 1881, and their father William, in 1879.  In Canada, these children were placed through the Marchmont Home in Belleville with four different families in the Huntley area just west of Ottawa.  Bob was placed with Patrick and Frances Garland, who adopted him, having no children of their own.  In 1895, he came to Carberry as a teacher, boarding with Wright Garland (Patrick and Wright were brothers: also William Garland of Portage La Prairie).

On May 25, 1909, Bob and Nellie were married in Winnipeg at the Broadway Methodist Church and celebrated 50 + years of marriage.  Bob and Nellie had one son, Robert Haslam Garland and one daughter, Eleanor Louise.

Bob entered the teaching profession when he was quite young and after teaching in the Ottawa Valley for a couple of years, he journeyed west to Carberry and taught in the old Carberry School and at Petrel, Manitoba before he passed the Trinity College (in Toronto) law exams in 1899.  Bob Garland practised law in the old Bank of Montreal building for nearly 50 years, retiring from practice in 1958.  Bob passed away peacefully on February 5, 1970 – 3 months from his 94th birthday.

Bob was an ardent curler, a hockey fan for many years, and loved a good game of golf even well into his 80’s.  He was an active member of the Carberry Lodge and in 1953 he was the first to receive a “Fifty-Year Jewel”.  Also a member of the Masonic Order A.F. & A.M, Carberry since 1903, he received the 60th medal and bar, which the family still has.

Bob was said to be unselfish and untiring in his services to the Carberry community.  This unsurpassed citizen and public servant, never seeking the public eye, served as a school board member, an officer of the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade, Town Secretary, Town Clerk, and Mayor in 1927.  He was said to be one of the Carberry’s greatest assets.

Bob Garland and his children

Bob and Nellie Garland