Thomas Boyle Family tree - and side branches

Notes for Richard Wallace WINCHELL


Was the youngest of 14 children. Moved around a lot (had land in Nebraska, then South Dakota, where he met Hilda).

He is living with his widowed mother Nancy, and younger sister Frances, in the 1910 census for McNeeley Township, Tripp County, South Dakota (south-central part of the state).

He is with Hilda in the 1915 South Dakota census, which mentions that he arrived in South Dakota around 1903. He is listed as a farmer.

His World War I registration card shows he was living in Dixon, Gregory County, South Dakota, as a farmer, with his wife (spelled Hylda). He is shown as being medium height and build, with brown eyes and black hair. He was registered September 12, 1918.

Richard, his wife Hilda, and 3 children were living in Bennett, South Dakota as of the 1920 census.

Family moved to Missouri in 1926 where Richard purchased a fruit farm. Richard, HIlda, Lenice and Nirum are shown living in Osage Township, Dent County, Missouri in the 1930 USA census (this is in the Mark Twain National Forest, east of Salem, Missouri).

Due to Lenice’s asthmatic condition, and Richard & Hilda’s failing health, a doctor recommended a change of climate. So, in 1930 they moved to Spirit River, AB, on a “covered wagon top” 1928 Chev truck.

They left Missouri on Sept. 15, 1930, and took two weeks to get to Edmonton, and another two weeks to get to Spirit river, arriving on October 15.

From the Spirit River history book (written by Lenice):

The road came through Smith, Slave Lake, Kinuso, Peace river and across the ferry at Dunvegan (my first ferry ride). I am sure it rained all the way. We weren’t the first to have trouble. A lot of holes were already filled with logs where others had been stuck and I am sure we filled the rest.

Heard about $10 a quarter homesteading, so stayed at one of his brother Ave’s farms, southeast of Spirit River, until he got a homestead a in 1931 or 1932 that was 5 miles southwest of town. The Spirit River ran through the middle of the quarter. The timber was heavy and many loads of logs were hauled to Walt Mueller’s sawmill. Some of these logs were used to build Holy Cross Hospital.

In 1939 or 1940, they moved to a quarter about 3 miles southwest of Spirit River which had been willed to them by the former owner Jim Forbes.



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Tuesday, March 28, 2023