Memories of Mayholm

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If we don’t put our history out there, it’s not going to be there in any way, shape or form,” commented Lydia May, as she flipped through the long and detailed history of Mayholm Farm, compiled so her children and grandchildren would remember the family’s connection to the property.

These days, there aren’t many homes still standing or properties held by the same family for over 100 years.

Mayholm Farm in Lake Lyster is one of the few.

According to May, history can quickly slip through the cracks if people don’t take the time to think about who came before them on the shores of Townships lakes, or which families worked the land, now subdivided, or built up with shiny new housing developments.

To illustrate her point, May explained that the original name for Lake Lyster was actually Lester.

In the early 1900s a surveyor with the name Lyster came through the area. Whether it was done by accident or deliberately is unknown, but after the surveyor’s visit, all documentation described the town as Lyster.

“Things happen, I guess. We’re human,” May said, adding that in those days, people were too busy trying to earn a living and keep clothes on their backs to worry about a typo.

“In this day and age, so many don’t have the mind to remember,” May said. At the request of her children, May pieced together the life and times of Mayholm.

The May family, of Irish, Scottish and English descent, emigrated from Europe, and made their way to the area, coming up through Maine.

Wilber May and his wife, Mildred Jane Martin, bought the property now known as Mayholm, from John Fox in 1903.

“Wilber and Mildred were entrepreneurs,” May said.

At that time, the train had a big impact on the economy of local towns.

Barnston was a hub at the time, May said. Wilber and Mildred ran a dairy operation, selling cream and butter as well as eggs, vegetables, and maple syrup at a local market.

In the 1920s, the farm was passed on to Wilber and Mildred’s son Cecil May, who married Loretta Markwell in 1926.

According to May, one of the favoured pastimes of the day was skating from the northeast to the northwest side of the lake in winter.

Cecil and Loretta had three children; Wilson, Esther and Cecil Jr.

While Wilson, the eldest, chose a career as a fish culturalist, he maintained a close connection to the farm. In 1951 he married Lydia (the storyteller).

Wilson and Lydia May built themselves a house in the village near the farm. Wilson would work at the fish hatchery during the day, and help on the farm in the evenings.

In 1988, Wilson and Lydia took over the farm in order to keep it in the family, although they rented out the land to a neighbour for his dairy operation. With a market garden at the village house, maintaining two households was too great a task, May explained.

“We are so much like our ancestors, like it or not,” May said, explaining the importance of understanding what they endured daily.

Today, Mayholm, totalling around 200 acres, has been passed on to May’s two children, Gregory and Gillian.

While the furniture and decor have changed over the years, May said efforts were made during renovations to preserve original structures on the property whenever possible.

When her children and grandchildren come to visit Mayholm, May is ready to share all the stories she has collected about the four generations of Mays that have called the farm home.