Mrs. Henry Wheller, of Walsingham, Ontario whose maiden name was Margaret Becker, is the daughter of Jeremiah Becker, the trapper, and step-daughter of Abigail Becker, the heroine of Long Point. She was present on the Island at the time of the wreck of the conductor, taking charge of the home and younger children, and afterwards assisting in the care of the men. 1889 

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I see from the papers it is stated she received $1,000 with which to stock the farm. If any such sum was ever raised she never got it. When she wanted the $550 with which to buy the fifty acres, she had to go to law in order to get it, and then only received $535. The remainder of the money for the purchase she had to furnish herself. When we moved on the farm we had two cows and a yoke of oxen. One of the cows drank sour sap and died, and the other was killed by a tree falling upon it while browsing in the woods. Mother wove and spun to get money for another cow. She always worked very hard to get clothes for the children. She was always very anxious for me to go to church, and for this I am thankful. I saw she had others to clothe, so went out to work, though this was against her wish. No mother was ever more truly good to her children than our step-mother was to myself and the others.

One of her sons, my half-brother, was believed to have been drowned in Port Rowan Bay. His body was never found. It has always seemed sad to me that she saved others but her own were lost.

Father, having nothing to farm with, got discouraged and thought he could earn more at hunting on the Point. He went over there and was there only a few days when a heavy storm came up. He was obliged to leave his shanty. He seems to have hoisted his trunk upon the roof where it was found, and a part of his clothing frozen to it, as if he had been sitting upon it. Afterwards he had apparently tried to make his way to another shanty some three miles distant. He had gone about two miles when he seems to have sat down on a log and frozen to death. His body was not found for nearly three months.

She and her small boys had to do the farm work�yoke the oxen, get ready the year's wood, plant and dig potatoes, and do other things about a farm. One time she tended ten acres of corn for a neighbor, besides doing washing and other hard work As was stated in the paper concerning her, she was at one time unloading a load of wheat in the barn, and as she was pitching the sheaves in the mow the horses took fright and ran out of the barn, throwing her to the floor, breaking her toes and her arm, which she afterwards set herself. At another time while hunting eggs she fell from the mow upon her head and shoulders. Her arms have been broken four times.

At one time, just after we moved to the Point, father and two of the boys took the sail boat and went over to Port Rowan. There was a heavy storm came up and they could not get away for a number of days. I never knew mother to get so uneasy as at this time. She feared they had sunk to the bottom of the bay. They had gone to obtain provisions for we were nearly out of eatables. There was a row-boat in the water about half a mile out in the marsh. She said, �I will wade out and get that boat."� This she did, wading until the water came up to her arms. She got the boat and tied it to the landing. She intended the next morning to row to Port Rowan, a distance of seven miles; but fortunately, just as the sun was setting we saw them coming.

As already told, before the Long Point incident, she saved a child from drowning in a well, and a man from a similar fate at Nanticoke, by throwing him a plank and holding him up till assistance came.

There was an iron-laden vessel wrecked on Long Point Island, near the lower lighthouse, the crew of six escaping to land. On reaching the lighthouse they found the keeper had gone for the winter to the mainland. As they were starving they broke into the kitchen, and finding a few frozen potatoes they devoured them and searched for more food, but found none until they reached our place. Only four of the six succeeded in walking to our place; the other two gave out about a mile and a half away. Mother sent the boys with food and raiment for them. A little later they were able to get to the house. This makes twelve lives in all she succeeded in saving.

My brothers, O. C. Becker and Edward Becker, who helped mother attend to the fires and the men of the Conductor, are still living, the former in Saginaw, Michigan, and the latter, who is still lame, lives in Clair, Michigan. As a memento of this incident I have the trunk mother gave to me which she received from the mate at the time of his rescue. He claimed to have been wrecked three times, and each time this trunk had followed him ashore.

When my father married Abigail Jackson, she was a slender young girl. She worked hard and devotedly to make us comfortable, and has often since expressed her pleasure in us. We are, you may be sure, proud of her. She really raised three families, seventeen children in all. It is her boast that she raised her eight boys and not one of them uses tobacco or liquor.

Mother is proud of the gold medal she received from the American Humane Association; and also of a letter received not very long ago from our last Governor- General, Lord Aberdeen; and Queen Victoria's letter. She is in her sixty-ninth year. Some have believed her dead for some time, but we are thankful to be able to say she is still with us. Last summer we almost despaired of her life through a poisonous spider bite. She is well again and this spring has made her own garden. She is a woman of large build and weighs two hundred and fifteen pounds.