A senior’s story: Merv Drayson

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Published on Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Wayne Hildebrand
The Neepawa Press

Merv Drayson was born in 1924 in Neepawa, the first son of Charles and Gladys Drayson (Hockin). “It was a beautiful February day. Water was running down the streets,’’  With a smile Merv added, “At least that was what I was told.”

Drayson’s grandparents, Thomas and Eliza Drayson (Austin), immigrated to Canada in 1888 from Kent, England.  They settled on the Beautiful Plains in the Mentmore District, in what was then the Rural Municipality of Glendale, southwest of Neepawa. Drayson was not sure why his grandparents immigrated to Canada. Most British immigrants emigrated in search of greater economic opportunities and quality of life. The construction of railroads in the 1880s made it easier to travel and the availability of homestead farmland attracted the largest wave of immigration in Manitoba’s history. No urban centres existed in Manitoba in 1870. By 1911, the population of Winnipeg was 150,000.

Upon arriving in the district, Thomas and Eliza Drayson lived in a log cabin. With their family of nine, they started farming the prairie soils of the Beautiful Plains.  One of their sons, Charles Drayson, married Gladys Hockin in 1922 and began farming. Charles and Gladys had four children: Merv, Gerald, Elgin and Jean.

Drayson recalled growing up on a farm near Mentmore. “Mentmore had a store, elevator, curling rink, skating rink, blacksmith shop, slaughterhouse and a stop on the CNR Hallboro-Beulah branch line. The Gordon School was close by and the Gordon Church was right across from our farmyard. Curling and hockey were very popular in the winter.

On a Saturday night, the hockey rink and curling rink were packed with people. There was no electricity, just coal oil lamps for light and wood stoves for heat. Charlie McCullough and I were the draw masters for many Mentmore Bonspiels.  We would have 40 to 50 teams enter.  The curling rink had two sheets of ice and we made three curling sheets in the skating rink.  Another bonspiel that the entire Mentmore community enjoyed was the Bill Nagle family bonspiel.  In the summer we played a lot of baseball, travelling to Oberon, Brookdale and Moore Park for games.”

Drayson attended Gordon School, completing grades one through eight, then took grade nine by correspondence. He continued with grades ten and eleven in Brookdale.  There were around 25 students in Gordon School when Drayson attended, but enrollment reached 40 students at its peak.  He enjoyed riding his white pony Dolly to school.  At the time, a teacher was paid $464 dollars a year.  The Sirrett family boarded the teacher.

As a child growing up through the Great Depression and Dirty Thirties, Drayson knew that money was scarce.  “Our parents did their best to shelter us from the reality of hard times,” Drayson said. “I do remember my dad burning the entire wheat crop that was destroyed by rust disease in 1935.  Like many farmers, our crop revenue went up in smoke that year.  We did harvest a small amount of poor grain in 1935, which was fed to the chickens.  I remember my dad saying, “This seed is so small the chickens will need glasses to find it!”    

In 1943, when Drayson was 19 years old, he travelled to Winnipeg to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force.  He explained that most young men at this time could expect to be “called up” for World War II military service, but he decided to enlist before being called up.  I asked him why.  “My uncle told me stories of the horrible conditions in the muddy trenches in World War 1, so I wanted to be in the air.  By signing up I got to choose the air force, so that’s what I did”, stated Drayson.

Drayson took his pilots training at seven different training centres in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.  He flew the Cornell, which was the RCAF primary trainer aircraft, as well as an Anson Bomber.  Just as he graduated and received his “wings” (pilots aviator badge), the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Soon after that the war ended, so Drayson never served overseas.  He showed me his flying logbook documenting every flight and plane he flew while in the RCAF.

Drayson returned to Mentmore to farm after graduating as a pilot.  He began dating Marj Nelson and they married in 1949 in the Gordon Church.  They operated a mixed farm with grain and Black Angus cattle.  “Mentmore was an active community at the time,” said Drayson.  “We knew our neighbors well because the post office was in our house for a while.  Some of our closest neighbors were the Seaborne, Harding, Ishenberg, Murray, McCullough, De’Ath, Nagle, James, Stewart and Bremner families.”    

Following his father’s example, Drayson committed a tremendous amount of time to community service.  He was a 4-H leader, chair of the Pool Elevator, Gordon School and Mentmore Curling Rink (his father was the first president of the rink), secretary of the Beautiful Plains Credit Union, chair of the Neepawa Hospital Board, past president of the Neepawa Legion, member on the Langford PFRA Pasture Board, and reeve of the Rural Municipality of Langford for ten years (his father was a municipal councillor as is his son Ray).  Fraternally, Merv is a Charter Member and Past Exalted Ruler of Neepawa Elks Lodge, Past District Deputy and Past President of Manitoba Elks Association, and he represented Manitoba on the Elks National Sports Committee.

Drayson loved curling, skipping a rink that represented Manitoba in the National Corby Cup Curling Championship with teammates Nels Dumsmore, Merv Robertson, and Ron Howe.  Twice he was on a rink that represented Manitoba in the Elks Senior National Championship.

Drayson was from a generation that experienced major changes in agriculture. “I worked with horses, moved on to steam engines, and then combines and tractors that today can steer themselves. Farming was hard work. We raised chickens, pigs, beef cows and milk cows. We milked by hand, separated the cream, canned it, and loaded it on the train in Mentmore for its journey to the Neepawa Creamery,” he noted.

Merv and Marj Drayson had five children: Ellen (1950), Ray (1953), Terry (1955), Karen (1959) and Rhonda (1961).  Everyone worked on the farm. I spoke with Ellen and Ray who recalled the annual cattle drive from the home farm to the PFRA Langford Pasture.  For many years, the Draysons and relatives enjoyed going to the Langford Pasture for family picnics.  Marj passed away in 2010.

Today, Merv lives in Elks Manor in Neepawa, and was on the committee to help build the Manor.  Drayson and Dorothy Babcock are the only two original residents left who moved in when Elks Manor opened its doors.  “It is a great place to live,” said Drayson “I enjoy playing cards, calling bingo, playing crib, and setting up film night on Saturday nights. This week I think the film will be an I Love Lucy show.”

As we were finishing our conversation, it struck me that Drayson has never stopped serving.  At 92 years of age, he has served his country, province, municipality and community. From a young man in Mentmore to a senior in Elks Manor, he continues to do what he can to improve the lives of others.