by Flora Garson pg 231 Big Hill Country 1977
Andrew (Andy) and his brother John came to Canada from the Orkney Islands in 1902. They worked in the mines at Ymir, British Columbia, almost a year before coming to Cochrane. In 1903 Andy homesteaded the NW¼ 12-27-5-5 and Jack Garson homesteaded the NE¼ of the same section. Jack sold his homestead to David Breen and in 1910 Duncan Kerfoot bought the half section. The NE¼ of 14 in that township had been homesteaded by Tom Oddie and the SE¼ homesteaded by Hughie Stein, who built a shack there. This half section, known as the Stein Place, was bought by Andy Garson. Mr. Oddie purchased the N½ and the SE¼ of section 23 from the C.P.R. In 1910 Andy bought out Oddie and, later on, sold the Oddie place and the Stein place to Bumpy Rhodes. He then bought Section 13 in that township from the C.P.R. He also bought Boney Thompson’s homestead and sold it to Gordon Hinde.
For a while Andy rented the MacKay place in Grand Valley and put up hay, which he baled using a horse-operated baler. Forbes Skinner and Frank McKenna worked for him, and they hauled the hay to Cochrane in three wagons, making two trips one day and one trip the next.
Andy liked to tell jokes on himself. He told that one day while he was at the MacKay place, he was driving a bronc and standing up in the wagon when his dog started barking at the horses. Fearing that the dog would scare the bronc, Andy snapped a line at the dog. The dog seized the line in his teeth and jerked Andy off the wagon.
For many years he dealt in heavy horses, shipping a great many to British Columbia, and some to every other province in Canada except Manitoba. He always recognized one of his Quarter Circle G horses wherever he saw it, even years after it was sold.
One of the most colourful characters in Grand Valley was Ewen MacKay. Jack Garson was getting a ride from town with him, in a hayrack, when MacKay spotted Donald Morrison driving home ahead of him. “I’ll catch him and take a hind wheel off him! ” he cried, and he whipped up his horses. But Morrison saw him coming and drove as fast as his horses could take him. MacKay was gaining on his prey when Carson’s hat blew off. “Stop, stop! ” yelled Garson, but MacKay would not stop. So Garson grabbed MacKay’s hat and threw it off. Then MacKay had to stop, allowing Morrison to gain the safety of his own barnyard, where he gave them the raspberry as they drove by.
Jack Garson took a carload of horses and wagons to the Peace River country and decided to stay there.
In 1924 Andy married Flora McEachen and went to live in Cochrane. Later they resided in Calgary, where Andy died January 15, 1969. On February 2, 1963, Andy Garson wrote the following: ” My brother Jack left the Orkney Islands in 1890 and went to the States, to Portland, Oregon. From Oregon he went to the Klondike over the Trail of ’98. He was there about a year and he came back to B.C. and he was there until 1901. He came back to Scotland and he and I left for Canada right after the New Year, in January 1902, and we came to B.C. and worked in the quartz mine until April 1903. Then we came to Cochrane and took up homesteads.”
