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- - Andy never received his Letters Patent to this farm. Tragedy struck them when their house burned to the ground from an overheated stove pipe. He had no insurance, so the family lost everything, including the prized piano they had recently purchased with his inheritance money. The family went to Roche Percee SK where Andy found work in the Souris coal mines.
1953 THE MAN WHO RODE WITH JESSE JAMES :
There will be a big celebration at Kelwood Manitoba next Friday for Andrew McCutcheon who will be celebrating his 10th birthday. Neighbours will crowd into the little home where he lives with his youngest son George, & his daughter-in-law & grandchildren. Old Andy will dance a jig & there will be plenty of food. After his jig Old Andy will return to his favourite chair to watch the fun. His great grandchildren will crowd around him & direct his mind to the past.
Grandpa, tell us about the times you rode with Jesse James, they will ask. Maybe Old Andy won't hear them very well at first, so the children will shout a little louder & then finally the old man will smile & nod & his eyes will mist up a bit.
"When I was a young lad I lived on my grandfather's farm near Mount Forest in Ontario" he may say. "This fellow came out of the bush one day. Said his name was Jesse James. We didn't know he was a hold-up man. Stayed & worked at our place for two or three weeks. Seemed a good fellow. I was around 18 at the time & he was 4 or 5 years older 'n me. Him & me went riding lots of times. Oh, that Jesse, could he shoot. Could take 3 nicks out of a squirrel's tail as he run up a tree."
The children will laugh as they always do. This is their favourite story & they know it by heart. What else happened, Grandpa?
But Old Andy will have forgotten & will be stamping his foot in time to the music. The children will persist until he returns to the tale. Little by little he will tell of Jesse' prowess with a gun - the wild pigeons they shot in the pea fields, of the bears & the coons they brought home. There will be admiration in his voice, undimmed by the greater part of a century.
It is with sadness & reluctance he tells the latter part of the story - of how his grandfather discovered that his new hired man was only using his farm as a hide out after a recent robbery in the States & had hidden his share of the loot in the loft of the barn.
Shortly after this Jesse 'borrowed" a horse & rode away. Down the trail he was joined by an accomplice. The 2 men headed for Mount Forest where they committed a robbery & then disappeared. Old Andy shakes his tousled white head. "That Jesse sure could shoot" he always says.
Andrew McCutcheon was born near Arthur, Ontario in 1852. His acquaintance with the notorious outlaw Jesse James may be a fact but there is no record that Jesse James or any member of his gang ever reached Canada. But, there is a period of time around 1870 when his whereabouts were never definitely ascertained.
Mr. McCutcheon may unknowingly hold the missing link to the James story. His reference to Jesse's age as compared to his own is correct as records show the outlaw was born in 1847. A recent research conducted by the Mount Forest Historical Society revealed no written record to show definite proof that Jesse James was ever in the district but several residents were convinced of the fact because of stories which had been handed down to them from reliable sources. The exact location of a shack in Proton Township, which he once used as a hide-out, was also established.
As a young man Mr. McCutcheon worked in the lumber woods of Muskoka. He helped to make the first rut roads in this area. Here, he recalls many a skirmish with the Indians. At one time he was captured by a marauding band but allowed to go free after they stripped him of all his possessions. He still recalls with sadness that it was here he lost his beloved Bible & hymn book given to him by his mother.
Later he wandered down through the northern States where he worked on small river boats & in the iron mines. In 1889 he was married in Lambston, New Jersey. He moved to Manitoba in 1896 when they took up a homestead. In 1915 they moved to Saskatchewan where he continued to farm at various places. After the passing of his wife in Northgate, Saskatchewan, he returned to Manitoba in 1935. This time he settled on a farm in the Kelwood district. Later he moved into the village of Kelwood but with no thought of retirement.
At 85 years of age he was available for part time employment & worked intermittently for several years. But around the time he marked his 100th birthday, his doctor persuaded him to stop buck sawing wood. He accepts his longevity with apparent unconcern. He continues to enjoy above all three hearty meals a day, his pipe, the visits of his friends & memories of the days when he rode with Jesse James.
Ref: (BY Wanda Neill Tolboom, Winnipeg Free Press 1953)
- 1953 Fall, Andy was cutting wood for the household with an axe when it slipped & he cut his big toe. Gangrene quickly set in & he was hospitalized at Neepawa Hospital. The doctor informed him that in order for him to survive, his big toe would need to be amputated. Andy's replay was "..absolutely not. I was born with all my body parts & I am going to die with them…."
- Andrew was the oldest child born to Hugh Robert "HR" McCutcheon & Rebecca Lamott. Andrew McCutcheon didn't come west - with the family in approximately 1885. Instead, he wandered south to the United States, ending up in New Jersey looking for work in the mines. It was here where he met & married Lillian Simpkin. Lillian was 13 years old. Lillie is buried in an unmarked grave in Estevan, Saskatchewan.
A handsome photo of Andy McCutcheon, Andy is seated, wearing a corduroy jacket & pants & heavy button sweater. He has a heavy mustache with red or fair, graying hair, blue eyes.
-Transcripts by PJ Ahlberg. Thank you. - - -
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1861 - 1954 (92 years)