A copy of his birth record has been found; he was born in 1877, not 1876, so I have corrected that. It also lists his middle name as being spelled “Estus”. (on his marriage record, it is “Eustice”).
An LDS record mentions him being “Wm. Isaac E. Holley”, having a daughter Edna Wright Holley born Jan. 17, 1904 in the Toronto Township, Peel, Ontario, with wife Louise Victoria Foat.
The 1881 census shows him as 6 years old, and his occupation as “going t o school”.
The December 30, 1897 Flesherton Advance newspaper reported that he had just return home from working in nearby Bolton, ON.
In 1901 census, he was living in the household next to his parents,along with 4 of his brothers and his sister Ida.According to the March 5, 1903 edition of the Flesherton Advance, “Mr. Rob and Miss Ida Holley attended the wedding of their brother, Isaac, at Brampton, week before last.” It later states “Mr. Isaac Holley of Snellgrove, who was recently married, has arrived with his bride and is spending the honeymoon with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. Holley.” This places his wedding to Louisa the week of Feb. 15-21, 1903.
He is listed in the 1911 census for Mackenzie District (210), Township 34, Saskatchewan, as being widowed with his 2 daughters, and a cousin named Helen Jones (Who is listed as being 38 years old, and widowed herself, and being born in Ontario).
He is listed in the 1916 census as living in Invermay, SK, along with his 2nd wife Carey, who is listed as being 42, and having immigrated to Canada from England in 1882. He is listed as a farmer at this time, Township 31, Range 9, W2 Meridian.
In the 1921 census, he is still in Invermay with his wife Caroline (1st time we have seen her full first name), and with both his daughters.
The heresay from his daughter Violetta (“Etta”) when she was still alive, that Isaac was a bit of the “black sheep of the family” may hold some truth; in his father’s obituary in the Markdale Standard in 1917, it states that “He is survived by seven sons and one daughter”, and then names them. Isaac is the only one skipped entirely.
He returned to Vandeleur for a visit in July of 1919.
Isaac never seemed to stay in one place for long. After his 2nd wife left him, he took his youngest daughter and moved to Heffley Creek, BC in 1924, leaving his oldest daughter by herself in Lintlaw. His brother George lived at the next small town over (Vinsulla). They moved back to Saskatchewan in 1926. He was a United (Protestant) church member.
Strangley, Isaac is not mentioned in his dad’s obituary of 1917. The Markdale paper for July 12, 1906, on page 8 mentions “Mrs. Isaac Holley and daughter Edna left for the west last Tuesday” (July 3rd or 10th, depending on when the article was written).
In the 1906 Saskatchewan census, he is listed as 29 years old (which would be off by half a year), and the census was done literally within weeks of their leaving Ontario (July 27,1906). Also, the census lists Charley (his brother Charles) as a brother living with them, age 21 or 27 (27 would be correct), and he is single at the time. At the time, they were living with George Sewell and his family (A.E. Surwell, Charles Surwell and Wilbert R. Surwell...ages 84,24,22 and 20 respectively). Other Sewells lived on the next household over as well, and they were originally from Grey County,ON, the same county as the Holley’s, and probably knew each other.After Louisa died, Isaac met with her sister Carrie (also recently widowed) and married her in Winnipeg, to help raise the kids. They split up in 1924, with her moving back to Detroit. From Violetta’s recollection in 1988: Around 1912, they moved to Invermay, where Isaac ran a livery barn for about a year. After he married Carrie in 1912, they moved to White Sand River Bank (Silver Lake) around 1914. Schools mentioned were Nebern and Dunrobin (sp?) school 4-5 miles from Tuffnell. This is just off of highway 16, southwest of Lintlaw,SK. After Carrie left in 1924, Isaac and Etta moved to Heffley Creek, BC (near Isaac’s brother George), while Edna stayed behind in Saskatchewan (I believe with the Boyles). From the Lintlaw History book (from the George Sewell section:)
“My Dad [Charlie Sewell] freighted for the surveyors in the early days. He brought supplies for them from Wadena, Margo, Sheho. He used to tell us of some of his trips. Once he said he and a neighbor named Holley, who had homesteaded with them, went for load each. They had two teams of oxen. They got one team stuck in a slough and Ike Holley had to walk out on the wagon tongue and hold the oxens nose out of the water until Dad got the other team hooked on and pulled them out.
One night my Dad was called to drive to Wadena fifty miles away to get a doctor with horses for Ike Holly’s wife who was going to give birth to a baby. They got back in time to save the baby girl but too late for Mrs. Holley. The girl, I believe still lives in Saskatchewan someplace.” This is referring to Louisa and Violetta.
In 1926, Isaac and Etta moved back to Lintlaw and stayed with Thomas Boyle and his new wife, Isaac’s eldest daughter, Edna.
The obituary of his brother Peter in May 1930 mentions that he lived in Manitoba at the time.
Isaac and Mabel married in 1931 in Invermay, and moved to Lintlaw in 1935.
Ike went to visit Flesherton in early June, 1948, according to the Flesherton newspaper.
From his nephew’s (Elmer Howard) family history:
Isaac was a good matured harem-scarem sort of fellow. He married and went west when I was a boy of 10 or 11, so I knew little of him personally. He had three wives (all legitimate), and was the father of two girls. He died a year or so ago in 1958 I think, aged around 86. He made his home for many years in and around Lintlaw, Saskatchewan.
The Invermay history book has his name spelled “Holly” and “Holley” both. It shows that he had paid a $1.00 membership to join the “Invermay Agrictultural Society” when it chartered on February 14, 1912, showing him as “Isaac Holly, Farmer, Invermay”. Under the name “Holley”, it shows his two daughters attending Dunrobin school in the 1919-1920 school year.