Educator, cleric.
Born at Hamilton, Ontario on 18 June 1858, son of John B. Lent (1834-1913) and Margaret Rebeckah Coons (1835-1912), he became a school teacher by the late 1880s and lived at Bradford.
On 14 August 1888, he married Annie Eleanor Francey (1865-1930) at Baltimore, Ontario and had a dozen children: Louis Llewellyn Lent (1889-1971, husband of Mary Orlo Pullar), Mary Velma Lent (1890-1973, wife of Donald Ferguson McDonald), Verna Luella Lent (1892-1947, wife of Aubrey Clifford Dennill), Lillian Frances Lent (1894-1981, wife of George Frederick Duncan), Maida Victoria Lent (1896-1987, wife of Richard Herbert Duncan), Freida Viola Lent (1898-1992, wife of Edwin John Woollard), Ada Alberta Lent (1900-1996), Jennie Alexandra Lent (1902-1976, wife of Laurence William Jackson), David Frederick Lent (1904-1980), Royden Lent (1906-1977, husband of Joan Elizabeth Curry), Irene Eleanor Lent (1910-1913), and Lee Arba Lent (1915-1996, husband of Mary Isabella Lawrie). He became a lay Methodist minister in 1900.
He and his family moved west just before the turn of the century, taking up residence in what would become Alberta, near White Whale Lake [Wabamun Lake] and was appointed an issuer of marriage licenses In November 1902. In 1903, he acquired a land grant for SW4-53-3 W5 near Wabamun Lake and established a homestead. He was a Temperance candidate in the 1914 Alberta provincial election. From his work in ministry, he would return to working in rural western Canadian classrooms, obtaining a First Class Certificate (1913) in British Columbia, was School Principal at Cupar, Saskatchewan (1916-1917), and in Manitoba as Principal of Eden School (1920), Beausejour School (1920-1921), and Balmoral School (1922-1923), and a teacher at Emerson School (1923-1925).
He died at Smithfield, Alberta on 19 August 1938 and was buried in the Smithfield Cemetery.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
1906, 1916, and 1921 Canada censuses, Library and Archives Canada.
Western Land Grants, Library and Archives Canada.
“Northwest appointments,” Manitoba Free Press, 27 November 1902, page 4.
“Teachers added to Provincial list [First Class Certificate],” Victoria Daily Colonist, 1 August 1913, page 14.
“Platform suggestions,” Winnipeg Evening Tribune, 8 December 1916, page 7.
Death registrations, British Columbia Vital Statistics.
Wm L Schwab family tree, Ancestry.
Smithfield Cemetery burial transcriptions & Memorial ID #133004911, FindAGrave.
We thank Ken Duncan for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 1 July 2024
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