175 The Royal Canadian Legion www.mbnwo.legion.ca SEARS, Charles “Charlie” WWI Charlie was born in Katrime, Manitoba in 1894. Grade 8 was as far as one could get at Irvine Country School. Like most young people of the time, he had to go to work after attaining that level. His employment was usually farm related but when World War I broke out, he was operating a general store at Golden Stream, Manitoba. He sold the store and enlisted in the 12th Field Ambulance, a battalion recruited almost entirely of young men from the Gladstone area. He served with the CEF Infantry in France and in Belgium during World War I. Charlie never talked much about the war. When questioned, he would simply reply that he spent three of the best years of his life kicking mud puddles off the roads of France and Belgium. It seemed he was sickened by the horror and futility of war. On his return to Canada when the war ended, he tried farming but after three successive crop failures wound up broke and in deep debt. He ventured to the USA for a while where he found employment erecting steel hydro towers near Detroit, MI. On his return to Katrime, he purchased a steam engine and a threshing machine and went into the custom threshing business. Marvyl Marie Lundy came into Charlie’s life when he was threshing for Bob and Libby Hodgins near Katrime. Marvyl would come to help her aunt Libby feed those huge threshing gangs and a romance was kindled between her and Charlie. She lived and worked in Winnipeg for a while, but they kept in close touch and were married in 1926. After marriage, they lived in Winnipeg and MacGregor, Manitoba for short periods of time. In 1926, Charlie saw his first combine at work. While it was an awkward cumbersome machine, it impressed him to the point he sold his threshing outfit, whose days he rightfully assumed were numbered. He and his new bride moved to Wellwood, Manitoba and started a general store and implement agency in partnership with his half-brother, Bob Wells. Their oldest son, Frederick Charles Sear was born in 1928, at a nursing home in Carberry while Charlie and Marvyl were residing in Wellwood. In 1929, the three of them, accompanied by Marvyl’s mother, Alma Lundy, moved to Carberry where they acquired some property west of Fanny Street from the CPR. Using the expertise of a local craftsman, Len Harkness, they built a small service station, garage, and three log tourism cabins on the corner of Fanny Street and First Avenue which was the #1 Trans-Canada Highway at the time. Twin sons, Lorne Edward and Arthur Harry, arrived at the old house on Fanny Street in 1931, Lorne, just before midnight on October 5, and Art, a few minutes later on October 6. Dr. Waugh had delivered hundreds of babies, including many twins, but this had never happened before. He insisted the births be registered on different days. Due mostly to long hours of hard work, business quickly outgrew the small Fanny Street premises.When the former Central Garage on Main Street came up for sale in 1933, Charlie purchased it and moved his North Star Oil and McCormick-Deering Implement Agencies uptown. The family lived upstairs in a huge suite, where they resided until 1961 when Charlie sold the North Star Agency to Art and Lorne. He later sold the rest of the business, hardware replacing implements, and he and Marvyl retired to a small house on Lisgar Street where they lived until 1965 when they both passed away. Charlie in April and Marvyl on Christmas Day. Charlie and Marvyl were both avid supporter of ball and hockey teams, Carberry Fair and just about everything else they felt was good for the town and district. Charlie became the first president of The Royal Canadian Legion Branch in Carberry when it was formed in 1944. He served ten years on town council and was one of the initiators and first directors of the Manitoba Agricultural Museum in Austin.
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