6054 Highway 201: The Gerald Gaul House

Architecture Style: Vernacular

Built: 1932

Isaac Longley wanted his three surviving sons to each have a piece of family land. David Bent Longley was given the lands east of his younger half-brother, Fletcher. David married Mary Clark, and they farmed here on the southern slope of the mountain. Here he built a house as the other Longleys did, a fine, pleasing 19^th century home.

David and Mary left the farm to their son Robert.  His wife Catherine was especially remembered by the community as “a kind and wonderful neighbour” who acted as a midwife when needed. They had children, but as so often happens, it was hard to keep the farm in the family. Frank Herbert lived in Lawrencetown, and Robert Stanley was a missionary in China. A daughter, Minnie, died young, at 20. Clarence ran the farm for a time, but he had no children and it was sold out of the family.

Douglas Gaul bought the house in 1920. He and Samantha Norah [Franey] brought up their family here. Around 1929, just as the Great Depression was closing in, the Longley farmhouse burned. In 1932 Douglas and Norah’s son, Gerald, built a new house on the old stone foundation of David Longley’s home. But farming was hard. Gerald gave his cattle to his mother and he and Ethelwyn moved in with John Rasmussen, one of the Danish immigrants who came in the ’30s.  John had purchased the Elliott farm. Douglas and Norah “quit claim” to the house Gerald had built, and the farm was deeded to Gerald and Murray in 1947. They, in turn, deeded it to Gerald’s brother Vincent. Vincent farmed, and trapped and traded furs, and used one of the upper back rooms for storing his furs.

Redford and Mabel Height bought this property, adjacent to theirs, for the hayfields, and rented out the house for some years. “The second lot” was eventually deeded to their son James in 2002. James and Faye Height lived in this home under the most challenging of circumstances; they raised a blended family of six children aged 6-12, established a very successful new business, studied, worked, and made their way together. Their energy was astonishing and their accomplishments remarkable.