Ida Babcock & Herbert Stocks
Ida Maude Babcock, my first cousin, was born in 1909 at home in Toronto. She was the first child of Eva May Butteris Woodley and Fred Babcock. My sister and I always referred to her as Aunt Ida, even though she was our cousin. It seemed best to do that since she was so much older than we were.
In this photo above taken at their cottage in northern Ontario, Ida and her husband, Herb Stocks, are standing on the right side. Their three children are in front – Jim, Mary and Nancy (hiding behind the dog Sandy) and Ida’s brother, Bill, is standing on the left side.
Ida was only a few months old when this photo was taken of her sitting on her mother’s lap on the porch in front of their Toronto house.
Ida was in a prized position in the family as the first child and the only girl. Her birth was followed by the births of five brothers from 1911 to 1936.
This photo was taken about 1922 in front of the family home in Aurora. Ida is on the left beside her mother, May, and father Fred. In front are brothers Jack, Ken and Del. May and Fred had a large property comprised of four city lots, and May filled it with garden beds full of vegetables, berry bushes and fruit trees as well as flowers.
The three oldest boys are seen in this photo, all dressed up for something special. Going to church perhaps?
Herbert Albert Samuel Stocks
Herb Stocks and Ida met around 1928 when Ida was only 19. Herb was born in 1900 in Aurora and worked as a salesman at the Sisman’s Shoe Co. Ltd. Ida’s father, Fred Babcock, wanted her to have some practical training before she married so that she would have a career to fall back on if necessary. As a result, Ida attended business school in Toronto and this proved to be useful later in her life.
Before they married, Herb was able to buy the lot next door to Ida’s parents, and he built a house on it for them to move into. They married on Sept. 13, 1930 in Aurora.
Like her mother, Ida enjoyed being a homemaker, and filled their large lot with gardens full of flowers, vegetables and fruit trees. She had also been a “little mother” to her five younger brothers for many years and they were very good to her. The two families truly appreciated living next door to each other.
Three children were born to Ida and Herb shortly after they married – Jim first, then Mary May and Nancy Margit.
Ida kept very busy while raising her young family. She was head of the Parents’ Association for the local school district, and had an interesting hobby – leather tooling.
Unfortunately, Herb died in 1948 of heart problems at the age of 48. Their three children were 17, 14 and 10 at the time. This meant that Ida had to get a job to support the family. She found work as a field worker for Community and Social Services, which meant visiting clients throughout a large area north of Aurora. Later, she worked in the head office for that department at Queen’s Park in Toronto which meant car pooling every day from Aurora.
During these years, my mother, Helena May Woodley (yes, another May in the family), had a close friendship with Ida, her cousin, who was only a few years older than she was.
Their relationship grew especially close after my father died in 1960 leaving my mother with two young children to raise on her own – my sister was 9 and I was 12. The two widows had a lot in common and our families enjoyed visiting each other.
However, the Woodley, Babcock and Stocks pattern of keeping in close touch with each other began much earlier.
In the story about Eva May Butteris Woodley, you find out that May’s brother, Charlie, was my grandfather. Charlie and his family were living in Lindsay when May and Fred were in Aurora. The families used to visit back and forth quite regularly despite living 70 km apart. My cousin tells me that May would not allow anyone but Charlie to paint her house. One of his careers was as a house painter and she said Charlie was very particular and would only let them use Benjamin Moore paint.
In later years, Ida continued those visits with my grandfather whom she called Uncle Charlie. This photo was taken on one of those visits when Ida’s brother, Del, and his wife, Grace, came along.
One year after Herb Stocks died, Ida’s father, Fred Babcock, died in 1949.
Following these deaths, Ida lived with her mother and cared for her. They also had the support of two of her brothers who lived in Aurora. I remember all of them as very supportive of each other.
In this photo from 1956 we see youngest three generations of the Woodley/Babcock/Stocks line – Eva May Butteris Woodley, Ida Maude Babcock in the middle and Mary May Stocks, Ida’s daughter.
Ida continued to work in her career until she was 65. She died in 2001 at the age of 92 and is buried in the Aurora Cemetery beside her husband. You can follow the story of Ida’s oldest daughter, Mary May Stocks, at this link.
In this post I have highlighted the close connection between my family and the Stocks/Babcock family. Ida May Woodley and William Henry Butteris, were our common ancestors, and you can follow the stories of our families and our ancestors in this series of articles I have recently posted. I hope you enjoy reading them.
