Pete Collins’ brickyard was situated about 300 yards directly south of where the old Cochrane Ranche house sat. The house and property at that time was owned by Beynon and Davis, who operated a dairy and pig farm from 1919 until about 1948. However, the year I am writing about was the summer of 1928, which was the last summer the brickyard was in operation.
Today’s post is from pg 29 of More Big Hill Country. This section of the book contains histories of early businesses. The Big Hill Country had many sandstone quarries in the early years and many of the buildings in downtown Calgary are built with this sandstone. The Shelley Quarry Company opened in 1908 and from … Read more
The closest post office was Bottrel, six miles north. Mr. Harbidge had to walk there and back for their mail. He worked in Calgary, returning to the farm on weekends and going back to Calgary, leaving at 12:00 AM on Monday so as not to travel on Sundays. He did this until he was able to stock the farm with animals and work the land on a permanent basis.
Our brother Tom was a big lad and very handy at building things. He built a wagon from old brake wheels, thrown away off the boxcars. He bought an old horse and drove around gathering up buffalo bones for the sugar refineries. They used these bones for bleaching the sugar. Tom piled the bones along the railway track and they were loaded into boxcars when there were enough to ship. We kids had lots of fun playing on the big piles of bones.
Tractors were becoming popular as well as grain binders and threshing machines so in 1916, a local blacksmith George Hope, acquired a John Deere franchise.
If this Western country is to escape a curse similar to that brought upon Australia by the incautious importation of rabbits from England, a curse which has lasted through two generations and is not yet wiped out, every man, woman and child must join in a crusade against the gopher, and the Government must provide machinery to ensure that the trouble and expense fall in fair proportion on every holder of land, rich or poor.
Peter Collins is shipping five cars of brick this week. Mr. Collins anticipates starting his brick plant sometime during this season which will be quite a boon for Cochrane after five years of idleness.
In the summer of 1874, another great event was taking place; the North West Mounted Police were establishing themselves in the Northwest Territories. Having assisted at the annual retreat in St. Albert, Father Scollen, in company with Father Bonald and Louis Dazé, arrived back at the Elbow River Mission on November 2, 1874. Father Bonald was put in charge of the Mission, while the others organized a hunting party to get provisions for the winter. During this hunting trip, Louis Dazé was frozen to death in a snowstorm on November 22, 1874.
“Thomas Davies was superintendent and teacher about 1915. He wore his hair longish and it and his beard were white.” Vivian, a very young child then, thought God must look like Mr. Davies. He travelled in a buggy pulled by his buckskin pony.
He kept trail and pack horses there during the winter. During the summer he did guiding and packing in the Banff area. He served Overseas in the 1914-18 War, and when he came back he joined the Warden Service in the Banff National Park. Peyto Lake is named in his honour. He passed away during the 1940s in Banff.
