History

Schools NW of Cochrane

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Page 134 More Big Hill Country 2009

Beaupre Creek School District #4182

The Beaupre district is west of Cochrane on 1A highway and then about 2 kilometres NE on highway 40. The School District was officially formed in 1938 and named after Beaupre Creek, which had been named after an early settler, Louis Beaupre.

The first classroom was the old Cooper House. In the summer of 1925 a school was built, on the school section near the centre of the district. In 1941 the building was moved to SE Sec 29 Twp 26 Rge 5 W5M where a shelterbelt provided protection from the prevailing winds. In 1958, the Dry Creek School was purchased and moved from Balzac. The old school became the teacherage. The school was closed in 1962. In later years, the building became a well-used community centre. Unfortunately, it was consumed by fire in October 2001. The Beaupre Community Association banded together to rebuild, and a new structure was officially opened in March, 2003

Reminisces of Doris McKinnon (Ambler) as recorded in Big Hill Country

The first trustee of the Beaupre Creek School District was Mr. F. G. Buchanan, who later became the superintendent of schools in Calgary.

An old farm house, known as the “Cooper House” was used as a school for the first two years. The partitions were removed to make a large room and a blackboard was nailed to one wall. As it was a very old house and had not been lived in for years, it did not make an adequate classroom. As children, this did not concern us, but the teachers stayed only for a short time. During the two years we had four teachers, one man leaving after two days.

For the first term, our teacher was James Clancy. The pupils were eight or nine children from the three families of McDougalls, Liddells and Amber. Another family, living in the Beaupre Creek School District was the Delbekes. They transferred from the Grand Valley S.D. when our new school opened in the fall of 1925.

At the “Cooper House” there was no specific playground area, but it was a favourable location for interesting recess activities. In the winter, sliding down the snow banks into the coulee was great fun. The old barns made an ideal place to play ‘hide-and-seek’ or ‘runsheep-run’. For a while, we had races rolling down the hill until our clothes began to show undue wear, and our parents put a stop to it.

The school was heated with a wood-burning stove and on cold days, the desks were arranged around the stove. At lunchtime, sandwiches were toasted on top of the stove. In order for us all to have a hot drink at noon it was agreed that my sister and I should bring cocoa and the other children the sugar. Each morning, my mother made a five-pound syrup pail of chocolate milk and at recess, we put it on the stove to heat. One day we forgot to loosen the lid and it blew up, so there was no hot drink that day.

Chapleton/Horse Creek School District #1812

Established in April, 1908, the Chapleton school district was named by Mr. Patterson after his home school in Scotland. The school was built on land NE Sec 24 Twp 27 Rge 5 WSM owned by Walter Crow. At the time of establishment, Jason Malott was the senior trustee. “Chapleton” was officially changed to Horse Creek S.D. on June 7, 1951.

1932-1933 (as remembered by Fred Whittle)

The local school referred to elsewhere as Horse Creek School was originally “Chapleton” and later ”Chapelton”. It was about 2 miles north of our place on the NE Sec 24 Twp 27 Rge 5 W5M. I am sure the site was selected because there was a little spring on the road allowance at that point, water being important for kids as well as cattle.  But imagine a school grounds without one square yard of level terrain! The first building (1909) had windows on two sides, north and south. It was destroyed by fire in 1922. The replacement had windows on the east side only. Have you ever tried to write or read with the light coming in from the wrong side? That building, too, burned down after the Christmas concert in 1924. The carpenters who built the third Chapelton boarded at our place and I recall the fixing of some storm windows for Dad. How deft they were at spreading on the putty.

In the early 1950’s, the historic one-room schools gave way to consolidated schools. Local students were bused to Westbrook. At a later date, still the site of Horse Creek School was marked by a large stone monument bearing a plaque commemorating the school’s beginning. It stands there today tenderly cared for by the Horse Creek Community Association. In 1932 the Chapelton School District was advertising for a teacher. I applied. The school board, my dad, a prominent member, saw fit to give me the nod and so, come September 1, 1932 I began my teaching career, salary $60/month, including caretaking duties. Not many pupils, but all the grades, the Christmas concert, the annual joint picnic – Grade VIIl exams and (shudder) the school inspector!

The Department of Agriculture placed a bounty on gophers – they chewed up the young plants in the grain fields like you wouldn’t believe. The bounty was claimed by “turning in” gopher tails. My students had a little project to raise some money with gopher tails. On this particular afternoon, I had extended the noon hour by quite a bit while the kids caught gophers. And that was the day the inspector paid his visit to Chapelton! I saw my job going down the drain! I gathered the pupils as quickly as I could, he did his inspection routine and he never even mentioned the gopher tail project in his report!

1933-1934

In all my days of teaching I can boast of having taught one grade one pupil. He was Dickie Grey. His family lived on the Hogarth place, a half mile down the road. He was a very smart little fellow and I was taxed at times to keep him busy. Now, in those times Grade VIII pupils faced Departmental examinations – couldn’t go on to High School if they didn’t pass. As examination time approached I spent much time with Grade VIII’s, my job could be on the line! I had given Dickie some work to do “Finished that Mr. Whittle”. Gave him some more ‘busy work’ – “Finished that Mr. Whittle”. Finally in desperation, I said “Wiggle into your coat and go on home.” He did, my Grade VIII pupils always passed.

Cochrane Lake School District #1947

This school district was organized on March 9, 1909 and the school was built on one and one-half acres of NE Sec 34 Twp 26 Rge 4 W5M. Robert Dawson, a stonemason who came to the district from Durham, England, did a lot of masonry work in the area, including the school’s foundation. Sid Chester did the carpentry. Bernice Speer, in Big Hill Country, recalls receiving $15.00 a month for providing room and board for a Cochrane Lake’s teacher, Miss Jennie Anderson, during the 1930s. The school was closed in the early 1940s. The school was moved east to the Inglis district as the original Inglis School had been moved to Cochrane.

Dartique School District #3814

Named after settler John Dartique this school district was established April 24, 1919. Albert G. Butler was the Secretary Treasurer at the time. A school was never built due to a small population of school-aged children. Any children within the district attended Chapleton, Westbrook or Mount Hope schools.

Grand Valley School District #559

Built in 1901, this was the first country school built in the Cochrane area north of the Bow River. Land for the school yard was donated by Donald McEachen. Located in the north west corner of the NE Sec 34 Twp 26 Rge 5 WSM classes started in May 1901 with eleven students attending. In 1919 the Grand Valley School closed as the Chapelton School had opened and students were scheduled to travel there. That was not a satisfactory plan so Grand Valley re-opened in 1920. On June 30, 1932 the school was closed for good.

Weedon School District # 1780

Established on March 11, 1908, records held by the Glenbow Museum show the senior trustee was Mr. E. Brown. Weedon school was located on a two acres site in the north east corner of NE 1/4 Sec 22 1\vp 27 Rg 4 W5M. It was built on land donated by W. Harry Webb in an area known as “The Desert” because of the depth of underground streams and a lack of otherwise plentiful springs. Mr. Kenneth Hammond named the school district after his home village in England. Miss Ford was the first teacher. Weedon closed at the end of June 1943. In April 1964 the school was moved to Calgary’s Heritage Park.

West Brook School District #1647

This School District was formally organized in 1907 but according to Westbrook School, Biggest Little School a history prepared on the occasion of the School’s 50th anniversary, classes actually began in 1906 in a renovated log cabin located on the NW Sec 15 Twp 28 Rge 4 W5M. Built by Chapman Brothers of Cochrane, the actual school building was located at SE Sec 21 Twp 28 Rge 4 WSM on land donated by John T. Boucher. The Reverend H. T. Jarrett both taught school and on Sundays, preached the Gospel. He taught at the log cabin and when the “new” one-room school opened in 1907 he was the first teacher. The West Brook School District #1647 became part of the Calgary School Division #41 in 1939. According to records held by the Glenbow Museum Archives, Westbrook, as we now know it, was two words at the time of formation in 1907.

In 1953 the school was closed and students were transported by bus to the new Westbrook Consolidated School located at its present location on NE Sec 3 Twp 28 Rge 4 W5 adjacent to Highway 22.

Westbrook is the only active country school of those that began with one room. In October 2007 its school population was just under 140 students. The school is comprised of 6 classrooms, a technology integrated library, a modem computer lab, an art/drama room and networked classrooms. The surrounding community seems to have taken “ownership” of the landmark school. During the fall of 2002 the Horse Creek Community Hall, formerly the Horse Creek School, was sold and the community group graciously donated $5,000.00 to the Friends of Westbrook School Society towards improvement of the Westbrook School grounds and outdoor structures.

Deep Dive

What do you miss about Cochrane?

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What Do You Miss About Cochrane?

Cochrane has grown and changed in so many ways over the years—but if you’ve lived here for a while, chances are there are a few things you still miss.

Maybe it’s a business that’s long gone, a familiar face behind a counter, or the way Main Street felt on a Saturday afternoon. Maybe it’s community events, school days, ranch life, or simply the slower pace of a smaller town. Sometimes it’s not a place at all, but a sound, a smell, or a feeling that instantly takes you back.

At CHAPS (Cochrane Historical & Archival Preservation Society), we believe those memories matter. They help tell the story of who we are and where we’ve come from—and they often spark conversations that connect generations.

We’re asking locals, past and present:

What do you miss about Cochrane?

  • A store, café, or landmark?

  • A tradition, event, or way of life?

  • A moment from childhood or early adulthood?

  • A person or group who made the town feel like home?

Your responses may help guide future CHAPS social media posts, inspire exhibits or displays at the Cochrane Historical Museum, or simply preserve everyday memories that might otherwise be lost.

There’s no answer too big or too small. Sometimes it’s the little things that say the most.

If you’d like to share, leave a comment, send us a message, or drop by the museum during our summer hours. Let’s remember Cochrane—together.

Because history isn’t just dates and buildings. It’s lived, remembered, and shared.

Bancroft Family

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Page 272 More Big Hill Country 2009

Bill and Jude Bancroft Family

Bill and Jude Bancroft lived and farmed on NW Sec 19 Twp 27 Rge 3 W5M, about fifteen kilometres north of Cochrane in the Westbrook area. When Bill bought the farm, in the British custom, he named it “Spruce Springs”. Over the years it was known as that on a good day, and “Bill’s Bog” on a bad day.

William Arthur Bancroft was born January 30, 1947, at the Grace Hospital in Calgary, Alberta. His parents, Jack and Betty Bancroft, like most people in the Bearspaw area, ran a dairy farm. The Bancroft family took a 6-month trip all through the United States in 1953 and ended up in Ontario, visiting Bill’s aunt, so Bill started grade one in Belfast, Ontario. They returned home at Christmas time, and Bill finished grade one riding a horse to Glendale School. Time had progressed by grade two and the school bus then picked him up and took him to Bearspaw School. In grade six, he moved from one-room schools to the Cochrane Elementary School in Cochrane. Grades seven, eight and nine were held in the Old Brick School. In grade ten the big move to the new High School on Cochrane hill was undertaken, the students walking up the hill carrying their books.

Bill curled at the Old Cochrane Curling Rink with Don Hutchison, Charles Young and Roger Teghtmeyer. After the games they would go to the Cochrane Hotel where beer was twenty cents a glass.

n 1970 Bill bought the farm from Stan Spicer who had bought it from Karl and Bebe Sammons. Bill continued to milk cows and lived at home so he rented the farm house to Wally and Daphne Admussen for a couple of years.

Judith Lynn Knight was born November 6, 1952 to Harold & Hilda Knight of Irricana. She was active in 4-H and curling. She graduated from Beiseker School and worked at the Royal Bank Main Branch in downtown Calgary. She worked with Bill’s cousin from England who introduced the sheepherder from Cochrane to the grain farmer’s daughter from Irricana and wedded bliss ensued. They were married May 6, 1972 and moved to Spruce Springs where they raised commercial cattle and sheep for the next 28 years.

Jude worked for 4 years with the Royal Bank in Cochrane until she retired to raise a family. During the time that she worked at the bank construction was done to turn a rough gravel road into Highway 22. Bill and Jude drove a small Datsun 510 to work. The workers on the road crew saw her every day and they enjoyed sandwiching her in between two huge dirt movers. All she could see out the front window and the rear view mirror were huge tires. She always thought she would be a little spot on the ground when they ran over her. The guys would wave and grin when they finally let her out.

Bill then worked at the Parrish and Heimbecker Elevator and Feed Mill for Harvey Thompson. From 1978-80 Bill and Harvey operated a mail truck contract that ran from Calgary to Red Deer, stopping at all the small towns in between, three times a night to pick up and deliver the sorted mail. Bill then began to deliver Calgary Herald newspapers to Radium B .C. 3 days a week. The whole family loved to go with him and have a swim in the hot pool at Radium and have supper at Smitty’s Restaurant and be home in time for Jennifer to be in bed to get up and go to kindergarten the next day. In 1987 Bill started to work for the RCMP, guarding prisoners in the local detachment, until his retirement December 31, 2005. All of these jobs helped pay the bills on the farm. Through all of the 28 years of farming Bill and Jude fought to keep the sheep safe from coyotes that loved to dine on lamb chops. Many things were tried over the years including llamas and donkeys and an electric fence to discourage the coyotes from getting in. All of these things worked for a little while until the coyotes, in true “Wily Coyote” fashion, figured out how to get in anyway. In March of every year Shearing Day happened and with the help of many good friends and great neighbours and a lot of laughs they got the job done. Great laughs over how many of the women Bill could get in the sack (the wool sack of course!)

In 2000 Bill had a hip replacement and Jude went back to work for a while with her partner Judy (Spaulding) Mcinnis as interior painters with their company Two Old Broads and A Brush”. At this point Bill and Jude quit actively farming and started practising for retirement. In June of 1996 for their 25th anniversary Bill and Jude took their dream holiday in a motor home and headed north to Yukon and Alaska with Jude’s parents. They spent 5 weeks in a 22-foot motor home and they still speak. They enjoyed this trip and want to go back again. Bill stuck his toe in the Arctic Ocean. Bill and Jude enjoyed camping and touring many of Alberta’s small towns in their camper and motor homes.

Jennifer Isobel Bancroft was born February 25 , 1976 at the Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary. Jennifer took grades 1-9 at Westbrook School and grades 10 through 12 at Cochrane High School. She belonged to Brownies at Westbrook, 4-H at South Cremona and Jumping Pound. She enjoyed Public Speaking and did well at it. She started her work career at an accounting firm in Calgary and then worked at Pasu Farms at Carstairs in many capacities. She managed The Wooden Apple and worked at Madrina’s Restaurant in Bragg Creek. She worked as a secretary for the Plains Indian Cultural Survival School in Calgary. Jennifer belonged to the Cochrane Activettes and enjoyed making parade entries for the Labour Day Parade. She then started work at Agro Equipment in Calgary and transferred to Agro in Ponoka. She presently runs her own company, A Bushel of Baskets, from her home in Lacombe. She met her husband Jay Bruggencate, son of Dick and Elaine Bruggencate of Coronation, through 4-H Alumni. Jay worked for Dow Agro Sciences for 11 years. In 2004 Jay started his own Agronomic Consulting Company “Demeter Solutions” and enjoys working with farmers. On September 16, 2004 Jay and Jen presented Bill and Jude with their first grandchild, Janna Olivia Bruggencate. Jay and Jennifer became the parents of twins, Trina Lynn (2 pounds) and Gerrit William (1 pound 12 ounces), on July 29, 2006 three months early. Unfortunately due to complication Trina passed away on August 4th, 2006. After he spent 100 days in the NICU at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Jay and Jen were thrilled to take wee Gerrit home.

Guy Michael Bancroft was born May 9 1978 at the Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary. Guy took Grade 1-8 at Westbrook and 9-12 at Cochrane High School. He then attended the University of Calgary and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Drama. Guy enjoyed Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, and Ventures. He received his Chief Scout Award and canoed the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City in 1994, a trip he will always remember. Guy started out cleaning funeral cars for Mcinnis & Holloway Funeral Homes, but as this was no way to pick up girls, he moved on to be a groundskeeper at Watergrove Park in Calgary. He worked at a Castle in Scotland and pulled pints in a Pub in London. He spent a summer following the RCMP Musical Ride through Quebec and Ontario, then worked construction, which led to him starting his own painting company “That Painter Guy”. At the present time, he is the Service Manager for Janssen Homes in Calgary, where he resides. Guy started out his Drama career in Grade One at Westbrook School as the Magic Mirror in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He was fortunate enough in 2000, his last year of University, to travel with some of his classmates to Knebworth House in England and perform “The Captives”, a play by Edward Bulwer Lytton, that had never been produced. Bulwer Lytton was famous for penning the lines “The pen is mightier than the sword” and “It was a dark and stormy night”. Guy continues to enjoy his acting and performs in Murder Mysteries at the Dean House in Calgary. Guy is engaged to Megan King, daughter of Ken and Terry King of Forestburg, Alberta, and they were married on June 9, 2007.

The Bancroft family continues to grow! 

Jack and Betty Bancroft Family

Jack and Betty heard from their neighbours on the Lochend Road, Bert & Kay Franklin, that her brother and sister-in-law, Walter (Doc) & May Jenkins had land for sale. Being as there were few real estate agents at the time, word of mouth was very important. Jack and Betty bought the land in 1959. Prior to Doc & Mary Jenkins the land had been previously owned by Lahls and Neelys.

Jack, Betty, Bill and Judy moved from the Lochend Road west of Cochrane to SW Sect 16 Twp 26 Rge 4 W5M and W & SE Sec 16 Twp 26 Rge 4 WSM. Betty named the land “Sweet Sixteen” after the section number and the farm was always referred to as that. They were told Charles Pedeprat built the log house in 1896 and it is still being lived in. The house was built straddling the two quarter lines so that both quarters were occupied for homesteading purposes. Jack put an addition on to the log house and put in the power. There still is no running water. Bill remembered the hot water bottle getting away from him in the middle of the night and it was frozen in bed in the morning. There were no trees on the property. Jack and Betty planted the shelterbelt and carried bucket of water by hand to the trees. Betty grew beautiful flowers that the whole family enjoyed.

Jack Holloway Bancroft and Betty (Hawkwood) Bancroft were born and raised in the Bearspaw area where they dairy farmed. Partners were taken on to milk the cows on the Lochend farm, which allowed the Bancrofts to move to Sweet Sixteen. Jack & Betty milked a few cows and sent cream to the Cochrane Creamery. While living at Sweet Sixteen, they pail fed Holstein bull calves with the skim milk left over from the cream, and raised pigs. When they first moved there was no school bus service so the Bancrofts and neighbours George (Frenchy) & Grace Suel took turns car-pooling the kids to school in Cochrane. In the warm weather the kids would ride their bikes to school down the squiggly road that ran from township road 262 to about the entrance to the Cochrane Ag Society Grounds. Bill and Judy would ride their bikes to the newly opened Cochrane Swimming Pool at the east end of Town to use the yearly passes they had.

In 1961 the Bancrofts took the children out of school in early May and went on a 3-month trip to England to visit relatives. In 1964, the Bancrofts moved back to the dairy farm on the Lochend Road but continued farming Sweet Sixteen and rented out the house.

Over the years the following people lived there: Alex &. Hilda Squair (raised thoroughbred race horses), Buck Eagle (raised horses), David Sweeney &. Marjorie Stakenas who have lived there for over 18 years and raised their family there. Bill remembers Bill Cook stopping in for visits often. He also remembers men digging by hand the telephone poles on the south side of the road. Here are some of the neighhours at the time: Mackays, Marv Laye, Barker (an electrician), Ed & Ruby Labenovitch and Ross & Audrey Young (both raised Guernseys), Cliff & Maryann Sabin, George (Frenchy) & Grace Suel, Gordon & Mildred Davies, Herb & Kay Himmelspach, Gordon & Pat Andrews, Harold & Kathy Barton, Ed & Billy Beynon, Bruce & Dorothy Boothby, Newt & Betty-Lou Gilbert.

Jack & Betty had two children, William Arthur Bancroft, born January 30, 1947 and Judith Isabel Bancroft, born June 15, 1950. Bill married Judith Lynn Knight of the Beiseker area May 9, 1972 and they farm in the Westbrook area. (See Bill Bancroft Story.) Daughter Judith Bancroft married Rodney Gerald Sydenham from the Stavely area on August 4, 1973. They had raised their three children in the Millet-Wetaskiwin area before retiring to Cochrane in 2001. Their son Stephen Paul Sydenham was born June 20, 1979 and is completing a welding apprenticeship. Michael Thomas Sydenham was born October 12, 1981 and graduated with a degree in Engineering from U of A, Edmonton. Michael is presently employed with the City of Calgary. Laura Jeanne Sydenham was born May 12, 1983 and is completing her business degree in Tourism and Marketing at U of C in Calgary.

Jack and Betty moved from the dairy farm into Calgary in August of 2003. Jack passed away on April 27th, 2006 and Betty resides in an extended care facility in Calgary.

William Bancroft Family by son Timothy

William Bancroft was born at Kildwick, near Keightly, Yorkshire, England, on December 12, 1878. The son of a farmer and hackney breeder, he served his apprenticeship as a stonemason before emigrating to Calgary in 1905. Upon his arrival, he bought a second-hand bicycle and rode around the district looking at homesteads, filing first on the SE Sec 25 Twp 25 Rge 3 W5M at Bearspaw. Later, he decided that the SW Sec 35 Twp 25 Rge 3 W5M was better; he cancelled the first choice and proved up on the second. We still have the original homestead shack, which he built in 1905. Father didn’t keep cattle but bought, broke and sold horses. He also cut prairie hay and hauled it to the livery barns in Calgary. Sometimes, arriving at Calgary after dark, he would pull off the road where the Brentwood Shopping Centre is now, and sleep on the top of the load of hay to save the cost of a hotel room.

One day he met a man who wanted to go farming in the Peace River area, so he traded a few head of horses for a house the fellow owned. At that time, it was out on the prairie, but with Calgary’s growth, it was located in the centre of the Sunnyside district. We had the house rented until the middle 1950’s when my mother sold it to make room for an apartment block.

Around 1910, father dug a well by hand, going down 120 feet until he came to where a spring was flowing over a large rock. While he was digging, he had to do some dynamiting, so he put W. P. Biggar, who was driving by with a team and wagon, to time him climbing out of the hole so he would know what length of fuse to cut. Percy always declared that father made much better time coming up after the fuse was lit. A number of years later, a well driller drilled down 8 or 9 feet into the rock to form a basin. This well is still in operation and is capable of supplying all the water needed on the farm.

When the Glenbow stone quarry, located a half mile south of the homestead, opened in 1909 my father worked there as a stonemason. The quarry’s main contract was to supply the stone for the Legislature building in Edmonton. There was plenty of work for a stonemason in Calgary and one of the jobs my father worked on was the Brook Building on 8th Avenue and 2nd Street West.

Prior to 1914, father traded some building lots on Bellevue Avenue in Calgary to Arthur Norris for the NW Sec 34 Twp 25 Rge 3 W5M. He also bought the NE Sec 33 Twp 25 Rge 3 W5M from the Canadian Pacific Railway about the same time.

Like the modern housewife, bachelors in the early days had ways and means of saving work. For example, father would tie his bedding around his waist and swim across a slough a few times to wash them and then spread them over the brush to dry. Another fellow would spread newspapers on his table and when this became soiled or when company came, he would put a clean sheet over top. This would go on until there were two or three inches of paper on top of the table.

Joining the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles in 1914, father went overseas and was severely wounded when caught in machine gun fire at the Battle of the Somme. He returned to Calgary and the homestead in 1919. In May of that year, a big blizzard blew in which lasted three days. He had a number of cows due to calve; as soon as the storm broke, he went looking for them. They had bunched up together in some brush and the snow had piled up higher than their backs making a wind break. Three or four calves born during the storm were fine. A friend, who farmed where McMahon Stadium is now, remembers seeing hundreds of cattle drifting by during the storm. It had been a hard winter and cattle were in poor condition with many dying as they piled up against fences.

While stationed at Longmore in England, he met my mother, Bertha May Holloway, who was born at the “Wakes” Selbourne in Hampshire on May 4, 1893. She came to Calgary July 9, 1920 and they were married the next afternoon at the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer by Dean Paget. They took the train to Glenbow that evening and walked the two miles over the hill to the homestead.

Transportation was usually by horse and buggy, although sometimes they would drive down to Glenbow, tie the horse up behind the Glenbow store and post office, take a red flag out of the tiny Glenbow station and flag down the train. Coming back in the evening, they would notify the conductor who would stop the train at Glenbow to let them off. Only certain trains could be stopped and the service continued until the late 1930’s.

My parents had two sons. Jack Holloway was born December 2, 1921 at the Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary. He married Betty Hawkwood from Bearspaw and farmed in the Glendale district. They have a son and a daughter William and Judith. I, Timothy, was born July 15, 1924 on the homestead at Glenbow. I married Frances Savage from Sedgewick and continue to live on the homestead. We have two daughters, Carol and Anne, and a son, John. Carol lives in DeWinton,Alberta,Anne lives in Calgary and John has a farm west of Innisfail.

Father died January 22, 1934 and Mother, Jack and I went to England in May of that year, renting the farm to Mr. Damgard. While in England, Jack and I attended a small two-room country school in Hampshire. When Jack left school he got a job as a garden boy on a nearby estate owned by Lord Horder, the King’s physician. When I left school I worked as a stable boy at Bedales, co-educational school for children of the rich and famous, about 1 1/2 miles from where we lived. There were twenty-six horses, a riding master and a riding mistress. I remember the students were extremely well-mannered.

Returning to Canada in the spring of 1939, we bought a herd of cows and quota from Ernie Thompson. We shipped milk to the Union Milk Co. in Calgary. Fran and I continued dairy farming until 1989 when our son John, and his wife Dawna, took over the herd and moved them to their farm at Innisfail.

Starting in 1928, the Norris and Bancroft families took turns having Christmas and New Year’s Day dinner. This continued every year except for the five years we were in England until 1952 when the families got too large for the houses.

Walter Gooding, who farmed south of Bearspaw on the SW Sec 24 Twp 25 Rge 3 W5M who knew my father very well wrote the following: “One could not live in a district for twenty years or more without making contact with many different people, some lasting and some otherwise. One of the friendships I made was with ‘Billy the Yorkshireman’! Billy was a man worth making a friend of. Billy used to haul his hay to Calgary and sell it by the load. If you were on the trail going West anytime after midnight and saw a team coming, a load but no driver, you could be sure it was Billy, snuggled down in the hay, letting the horses making their own way.”

Although my mother had lived in the country all her life, she had never lived on a farm until she came to Canada. She soon learned to milk cows and help with all the chores associated with farming. Going to Calgary with horse and buggy, she would drive to a vacant lot at 8th Avenue and 3rd Street West, tie up the horse behind the large sign boards and go shopping down 8th Avenue, driving home in the late afternoon.

Apparently, this lot was a favourite parking spot for many farmers and Indians (sic). Eaton’s eventually built their department store on the lot.

Arthur Norris, who homesteaded the land across the lA highway from my father, was born with a deformed foot, but he drove a Model T Ford touring car. My mother would sometimes ride into Calgary with him. She rode in with him on a Saturday when he was taking two calves to MacLean’s Auction Mart. He had taken the back seat out of the car and as the latches on the back doors were broken, they were held shut by a piece of binder twine tied across the inside of the car from handle to handle. As they made a left tum onto 16th Avenue, where the Home Depot is today, one of the calves fell against the door, the twine broke and both calves fell out into the ditch. They were not hurt and took off across the prairie where the North Hill Shopping Centre is today. Because of his deformed foot, Arthur could not run, but my mother could and she spent nearly an hour, hampered by a long skirt, catching the two calves and getting them back into the car. They went on to MacLean’s without further incident.

In 1949, my mother and I decided it was time we took a holiday as we had been milking cows for ten years without a break. We had a 1947 Hudson car and bought an eighteen foot Ingle Shultz house trailer, made arrangements with Doug and May Masters to live on the farm and look after the cows. We left home on October 17, 1949 in a snow storm, traveled south to San Diego, California. Then went east to Keywest, Florida, north to Norfolk, Virginia, west to St Louis, Missouri, north and west through Minnesota and Montana back to Alberta, arriving back at the farm on March 15, 1950. We had no serious problems and added over 13,000 miles to the car’s odometer. I did all the driving as my mother had never learned to drive. Total expenses for the holiday were $911.00, the average price of gasoline was 37 .3 cents per gallon.

My mother retired from the farm in 1952 and lived in Calgary. She died on November 18, 1983. My brother, Jack died April 27, 2006.

Fran and I still live on the homestead. Fran keeps busy with her watercolour painting. Although we have no livestock, I cut and bale some hay every year. Fran has been a member of the Glendale Women’s Institute for over fifty years and I have been a member of the Bearspaw Lions Club for forty-nine years. We have both been actively involved in the Bearspaw Fair since it started, as well as other organizations in the district.

Bancroft Barn prior to demolition Photo Courtesy Gayle and Larry Want

Deep Dive

Schools South West of Cochrane

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Page 131 More Big Hill Country

Mitford School

Traces of the foundations of buildings in Mitford can still be found on land that is now part of the Stoney Indian Reserve, on the Bow River’s south side. A school district was never established, but the early settlement retained the teaching services of Miss Isabel Monilaws of Kincardine Ontario in 1891 . Her schoolhouse was the old saloon. In Big Hill Country, Isabel Skinner tells that while her father built up their ranch, north of Cochrane, her mother lived in Mitford so that her brother, George, could attend Mitford school. Mrs. Walter Jones also lived in Mitford and her son, Harry, along with George, would lie on the CPR railroad bed and let the trains pass over them, “nearly scaring their mothers to death”. Some others who learned their A B C’s at Mitford were Birdie Radcliffe; Harold, Walter, Leslie and Vera Towers; Violet Smith; Ethel Bassett; Mary, Everet and Joseph McNeil. Miss Monilaws taught school for four years and in 1895 married rancher James Cooper, joining him on their Hillsdale Ranch northwest of Cochrane.

Jumping Pond Public School

District #254 of the North West Territories The first meeting of the Jumping Pond School District was held at Paddy Drummond’s Emporium on Wednesday, September 28, 1892. The Trustees elected at that time were Robert Ellis, John H. Ellis and William J. Wade. This school district comprised of Sections I to 12 in 1\vp 25 Rge 4 WM and Sections 20 to 36 in Twp 24 Rge 5 W5M. (The present day location would be 2.5 miles north of the Trans Canada

Highway, 2.5 miles south, 2 miles east of Highway 22 (called the Bragg Creek Road at the time) and 3 miles west of Highway 22). Built about a 1/4 mile west of “Drummond’s Corner” (Highway 22 and Springbank road) the school was a frame building built on the south side of the road. It opened in early 1893 with Miss Agnes Clark as the first teacher and included as students the Wade children, Martha Ellis and Johnny Goss among others.

This early Jumping Pond schoolhouse served the community as the centre for entertainment. As there was no community hall at the time, concerts, dances and social events were held here. There was a Literary Society, where topics of interest were discussed and they held monthly meetings at the Jumping Pond School. Anyone who had any talent performed, and a local man Christopher Duke, a singer and banjo player, was popular. Church services were held there in the warmer summer months, and in 1908, the Rev. Sales and the Rev. Harrison from the Anglican Church held the services. The school was closed in the early l 900’s due to lack of children in that area of the district and opened again in 1909. Miss Willoughby and Miss Nellie McGlashing were two of the early teachers at the time. The School closed around 1914 and the building was sold to Charlie Cooley who used it for a granary.

Little Jumping Pond School

District #471 of the North West Territories

The organizational meeting of the resident ratepayers was held at the home of Howard Sibbald on April 20, 1898. The school district was to be named Little Jumping Pond School District #471 of the North West Territories. Trustees were Oliver Ellis, Jack Stuart and John Copithorne. This area was quite large and included part of Twp 23 Rge 5 W5M all of Twp 24 Rge 5 W5M and part of Twp 25 Rge 5 W5M.

The little log school was built by volunteers on Section 30 Township 24, Range 4, West of the 5th meridian, west of the Jumping Pound Creek and southwest of Cochrane. The hills on the north provided shelter for the horses that the children rode to school as they were tied to the heavy willow bush north of the school. These hills also provided much entertainment for the children in winter as they slid down the hill on cardboard or an old scoop shovel. In the warmer days the hills were used for nature studies. For 25 years there was no barn for shelter for the horses until 1923, Dave Lawson supplied a temporary barn for the horses and had it moved to the school site, at no expense to the school. Miss N .A. Robinson was hired for eight months as the teacher at a salary of $42.00 a month.

This little log school opened on March 20, 1899 and on November 18, 1928, it was approved that the little log school be closed as most of the early homesteaders in the western side of the district had moved away.

It was decided to move the school so the students wouldn’t have as far to ride so a house, owned by Archie Aris was moved to the east bank of the Jumping Pound Creek. (fhis location is very close to the intersection of the TransCanada highway and the Jumping Pound road. This house was used as the school, at no expense to the school, and was a cold and drafty building that the wind whistled through. A new wood stove couldn’t even keep it warm however natural gas had been discovered fairly close to this building and a pipe was run in and the stove fixed up to burn the gas. This was a big improvement as the gas kept the building warm throughout the night and therefore was lovely and warm when the students arrived in the morning. This was raw gas corning straight from the ground well and some mornings when the children arrived at school it was bitterly cold and the gas to the school was frozen. The older children went out to the wood pile and brought in wood for the stove, lit the fire and it took almost until noon for the little school to warm up. It was not until many, many years later that those students, as grown ups realized the danger that they were putting themselves in as they were burning wood and coal in a stove that was set up for burning gas! This little Jumping Pond School might very likely have been the first rural school house in Alberta to be heated with natural gas (even though it was still raw coming straight out of the ground.)

By 1939 there were only a few students left in this comer of the district and it was closed.

Brushy Ridge School District #1454

Located at NE 1/4 10-25-4 W/5 the school opened in 1906. The first teacher, Mrs. Mary Porterfield was hired at a yearly salary of $600. The school house burned in a wild prairie fire of November 19, 1936. Without delay on November 22 a meeting was held at Mr. Wellington Barkley’s home to make plans for continuing the children’s education. A temporary school was set up in Barkley’s bunkhouse. A new school was officially opened in September 1937. Following are some reminisces of Irene Edge (Greer) as recorded in Chaps and Chinooks: a history of west Calgary volume I.

A new school, very up-to-date and modem for a rnral area, was opened in September 1937. It had a full- ized basement with a furnace, inside closets and a hardwood floor.

On January 1, 1939, the “Large Unit” as it was called then came into existence and took over the jurisdiction of the rural schools in our area.

Mrs. Edge goes on to explain that in the fall of 1956 the children over Grade 6 were bussed to Cochrane and Grades 1 to 6 continued in Brushy Ridge. Then due to the declining enrollment and the trend to consolidate schools the Brushy Ridge School closed its door in June 1962.

The following teachers taught in this new building :

  • 1937-39 Miss Irene Greer (Edge)
  • 1940-41 Mr. Murray S. Carmack
  • 1942 Miss Marjorie Van Der Velde
  • 1943 Miss Mavis E. Gainer
  • 1944 Mrs. E. H. Keding
  • 1945 Mrs. Miriam (Johnson) Callaway
  • 1946 Miss Jennie Mahood
  • 1947 Miss Edna M. Stone
  • 1948 Mrs. Edna M. (Stone) Edge
  • 1949-50 Miss Helen C. Pecover
  • 1951 Mrs. Edna M. Edge
  • 1952 Mrs. Pearl Hill Miss Burton (Mrs. Dave Baughman)
  • 1953-62 Mrs. Edna M. Edge

Clemens Hill School District # 4859

Clemens Hill School, in the Jumping Pound district, was a clapboard-sided one-room building newly built and located on Section 11, Township 25, Range 5, West of the 5th M. ( the south side of the current Township Road 252 and Range Road 51 intersection. This road now leads to the Shell Jumping Pound Gas Complex.) When the doors opened in September of 1930 there were very few roads in this area. The first teacher Miss Bertha Mahood welcomed the students, Bob and Sue Robinson, Dorothy and Clayton Barrows, Harold and Beatrice Hart, Jim Copithome, Herb Rhodes and Paddy Coelen, to the new school. Other teachers were Miss Marjorie Van Der Velde, Miss Eleanor May and Miss Aileen Brander. Mrs. Claudia Edge was the substitute teacher. The student body increased by three students Sheila Copithome, Shirley Baldwin and Dawn Volway. This school’s highlight was the Annual School Picnic held in early June. It was the social event of the summer. Large crowds attended and participated in the various races and ball games with the children. Again, due to declining student numbers the Clemens Hill School was closed and the building moved to a site northwest of the Jumping Pound Post Office in 1944. The school was in the Little Jumping Pond School District #471 and was renamed Jumping Pound School.

Drummond School

During these early pioneer days in the country the school moved throughout the district where ever the demand for a school was needed so that the children did not have to travel excessive distances by horseback or buggy to get their education.

In 1940. a new school was built on a new location one half a mile east of the old Jumping Pond School location. This school was built on the south west comer of the intersection known as Drummond’s Comer. (This corner is presently the junction of Highway 22 and the Springbank Road.) This school was named Drummond School and in 1946 Jumping Pond School District #254 was changed to Drummond School District #254. Trustees were Robert Barnes, Jim Robinson, Mabel Bateman and Sam Copithome. The first teacher was Mr. Nelson, followed by Miss Jean Spiller, Miss Eileen Brinker, Miss Janet McGregor (who also taught music), Mrs. Miriam Callaway, Miss Elizabeth Mehrer, Miss Mavis Gainer and Mr. Lowden. A number of these teachers boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Robert Barnes on their farm located south of the school. Many good times were held at Drummond School. Concerts ‘ dances and parties raised funds to buy a piano and dishes for the school. When Drummond School closed the children were bussed to Springbank. The school building was moved to Bragg Creek in 1952.

Jumping Pound School

The school building, having been closed at Clemens Hill, moved to a site northwest of the Jumping Pound Post Office in 1944. This was back into the Little Jumping Pond School District #471. The school was renamed Jumping Pound School and the first teacher was Miss Ellen Norris (now Mrs. Henry Buckler) who taught there for the year 1944 – 1945. The Jumping Pound School operated until 1957 when the students were transferred to Brushy Ridge School. Some of the students were: Jim, Elaine and Bill Bateman John ‘ Lynn and Janet Sibbald, Lawrence, Mary and David Copithome, Raymond Nicoll, Jean Copithome and Sally McDougall.

Deep Dive

Mystery on the Track: Help Us Identify This Historic Cochrane Photo

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One of the great pleasures—and challenges—of working with historic photographs is that not every image comes with a full story attached. Sometimes the names, dates, and locations have faded, even though the moment captured is clearly full of energy and significance.

The photograph above is one such image from the CHAPS archives.

It shows a four-horse team pulling a wagon at full speed, dust rising from the track, spectators gathered along the rail, and the rolling landscape of Big Hill Country in the background. The scene suggests excitement, competition, and a community gathered to watch something special—but exactly what is happening remains a bit of a mystery.

That’s where we’re asking for your help.

The Contest

We invite you to take a close look at this photo and share what you know—or what you think you know.

To enter the contest, leave a comment (on our website or social media post) answering as many of the following as you can:

  • Where do you think this photograph was taken?

  • What event might this be? (A race, fair, exhibition, or special challenge?)

  • When do you think this took place? An approximate decade is perfect.

  • Bonus: Do you recognize the wagon, horses, or style of harnessing?

If you have a family connection, memory, or story related to events like this, we would especially love to hear from you.

Why This Matters

Many of the photographs in the CHAPS collection depend on community knowledge to fully come alive. Your insights help us:

  • Correctly identify locations and events

  • Add meaningful context to our archives

  • Preserve local history for future generations

In the past, community members have helped us identify long-lost names, places, and even rediscovered forgotten stories—all from a single photograph.

The Prize

One winner will be selected based on the most accurate, insightful, or helpful response. The prize includes:

  • A complimentary 2026 CHAPS membership

  • A copy of More Big Hill Country

Contest Deadline

Entries close on January 31, 2026.

History doesn’t live in archives alone—it lives in shared memories. If you recognize something in this photograph, or know someone who might, please share this post and help us uncover the story behind the image.

Every photo has a story. Sometimes it just needs the right people to tell it.

Community Response

Community members recall chuckwagon racing at Griffin Park Race Track, generally placing it in the late 1970s to early 1980s, though a few memories suggest earlier decades. The track was located north of the Bow River, roughly where the SLS Centre, water treatment plant, and sewage pump station are today. Many remember the site as an active hub with barns, a rodeo arena, and the Cochrane Roping Club, where locals spent much of their summers roping and socializing.

Several commenters believe the wagon pictured belonged to Tom (Tommy) Glass, though there is some uncertainty about who was driving at the time—names mentioned include Tom Glass or Doug Lauder. The WPCA reportedly raced at Griffin Park for a couple of years. One vivid story recounts a runaway team during a race, stopped only when a roper jumped into the wagon to help a recovering driver regain control. Beyond racing, memories include kids playing around the track, families gathering, and the strong community spirit tied to Cochrane’s chuckwagon and roping history

Gerald Chapin of Didsbury provided the best response. We'll be in touch about membership and delivery of a volume of More Big Hill Country.

Mark Boothby

A Peek at Cochrane’s Brickyard History

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pg 17 A Peek into the Past Gordon and Belle Hall Vol. II

In and around 1902 or 1903 when Pete Collins took over the Little Brickyard, he must have bought the entire west side of the Big Hill also. C.W. Fisher in 1906-07 bought land off of Collins to build his mansion on, which is now the Mount St. Francis Retreat. In 1907 Pete Collins supplied the land for the cemeteries which consisted of about five acres. The cemetery at this time was called the Quigley Cemetery as Jimmy Quigley negotiated the deal. Quigley and other residents of the area had members of family buried on their property and these were moved to the new cemetery. The land first planned for a cemetery was located where Manachaban School is now, but somehow got moved to its present site.

Pete Collins must have sold the brick factory when he sold the land in 1919 because in 1928 Collins was there at the factory. I remember him almost cutting his thumb off in some machinery. Jack Beynon did the hiring for the factory and paid the wages at this time. Jack Beynon Sr. was called old Jack or Big Jack, while his cousin who lived on Horse Creek was called Young Jack. The Beynon and Davies men were avid curlers, Beynon being secretary of the club for a number of years. If you were at their house for breakfast after curling the night before, they would be showing how they made their shots with saucers on the table.

Jack Beynon Sr. was also Uncle Remus (sic) in the local minstrel show and was a long-time member of the Oddfellows Lodge. The Beynon and Davies dairy came to an end in 1948 or 1949 and Sid Reed and Sam Peverell had a hog-raising business there for a few years. They built a number of buildings for hogs. O.M. Gilbert bought the property and started an early calf crop business. He built a big calving barn under the hill west and couth of the Cochrane Ranche house. Gilbert was a hard working man of more than middle age and passed away with cancer. A.N. Gilbert, O.M.s son ran the business •for a number of years finally selling to the provincial government for a park.

When my son Allan was fire chief in the early 70s, he was asked to burn the old house that sat next to Collin’s Brickyard on the west side of the creek. There is a lot of history in the 100 years since Cochrane started his Cochrane Ranche that are buried now in the mists of time.

Collins Brickyard, Cochrane, AB
Collins Brickyard Cairn

BRICKYARD AND DAIRY PART OF RANCHE HISTORY

Recently attending the tenth anniversary of the opening ceremonies of the Cochrane Ranche site, I was reminded of the history that is now largely forgotten and very seldom mentioned of the 105 years of past history associated with this site. In the late 1890s a Mr. Little began a brickyard one mile west of the village of Cochrane on the west side of the Big Hill Creek and on what was Cochrane Ranche property or lease. Little died in 1900 and his widow married Peter Collins two years later. Collins owned a brickyard in Calgary but after his marriage, took over the Little Brickyard.

In 1902 Collins built his first kiln. He had a horse driven brickmaker. In 1906 additional kilns were built and brickmaker was driven by steam power. A spur line was put in from the main CPR line and wood was shipped in from Morley to fire the kilns and of course bricks were shipped out by boxcar. The last year the Collins brickyard operated was 1928 as my father and myself worked there.

The Beynon and Davies families came to Cochrane in 1907. Jack Beynon Sr. was foreman in the Collins brickyard from 1907 until 1913. His wife Annie operated a cafe and confectionery in Cochrane. In the old Oddfellows Lodge minute books, it is mentioned that in 1912 they bought 10 suppers at Annie Beynon’s cafe for $3.50 total bill.

Jack Beynon and Edgar Davies joined the army and fought in the first world war. Beynon was wounded in the Battle of the Somme and his wife Annie went overseas and became a nurse in the hospital where Beynon was convalescing. As soon as the war ended they both came back to Cochrane. In 1919 John Beynon, William Davies and Edgar Davies formed a company and went into the dairy business.They purchased 750 acres from Peter Collins on the old original Cochrane Ranche. Jack Beynon, who was a stonemason, built a large stone barn to house the dairy cows. They used the old Cochrane Ranche house as residence and added on the old Cochrane Ranche barn to make hog pens.

The way they worked, Jack Beynon was the hog man, he cooked pig feed in the little hut built into the hill and when the creamery was moved south of the piggery, they brought buttermilk over a long trough held up by A-frames. The buttermilk ran into a tank, which in the summertime was a haven for flies. Edgar Davies looked after the cows and William Davies did the land work with horses and hauled the cow feed. They all milked cows at milking time. The milk was hauled to the CPR station to go on the train, until trucks started hauling milk sometime in the 1930s. Beynon and Davies were always known as the Brickyard and were well known by everyone, especially the younger people of Cochrane. The children, or anyone else for that matter, were always welcome at the brickyard where Mrs. Annie Beynon had a glass of milk and a sandwich, or for the older visitors, a glass of dandelion wine.

Deep Dive

The Rural One Room School

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Page 130 More Big Hill Country 2009

As settlement took place in the area surrounding Cochrane, the need to provide an education to the children became imperative. The first step in setting up a school took the form of an information meeting, usually at a pioneer’s home. That meeting would lead to the formation of a committee of at least three residents of the proposed school district.

This “education” committee would apply to the Minister of Education for approval to carry on with their establishment plans. The department stipulated the school district had to include at least four persons, constituting the School Board, who actually resided in the area and who, on the formation of the district ‘ would be liable to assessment of taxes for school purposes.

In some cases plans to form a school district faced stiff opposition. Bachelors living in an area feared that the establishment of a school district would raise their taxes and, as a result of apparent short sightedness they would oppose the education committee’s plan.

The local school board was the sole taxing authority as well as the only collecting agency. The board would make an estimate of the amount needed to run the school and then set a rate of tax to agree with this. Financing the rural school could be demanding, especially when local residents fell on hard times due to drought, livestock losses or human tragedy. Taxes were often deferred until a load of wheat or a cow was sold or the milk cheque had been cashed. During a tough period, while very few rural residents paid the school tax, the school still functioned by reason of the paid-up taxes of the more fortunate ratepayers in the district.

Apart from taxes, school boards raised some money from rental of the school building for functions such as public meetings, dances and for polling booths on election days. A tuition fee of thirty cents per day per child would be charged students who attended from an unorganized district or from neighbouring districts whose schools, for one reason or another, were not operating. After 1905 the cost of maintaining schools was met by an additional method, legislative grants.

Where did the schools spring up in these districts? The Canadian government intended to use western natural resources and lands to promote western settlement and railway construction. A simple effective survey system divided the arable prairie lands into square townships, each comprising 36 sections of 640 acres (259 ha) with the basic homestead comprising of a 160 acre (64.75 ha) quarter section.

Under the Dominion Lands Act of 1872 two sections in each township were reserved for the support of education. “And whereas it is expedient to make provision in aid of education in Manitoba and the North-West Territories, therefore sections eleven and twenty-nine in each and every surveyed township throughout the extent of the Dominion Lands, shall be and are hereby set aside as an endowment for the purposes of education.”

Where topography determined the placement of the school and its outbuildings, land was either purchased from, or donated by a settler.

Once the school site had been selected it did not mean that the location issue was solved. A shift in the school population often left the school in anything but a convenient place. No one could predict with certainly the number of families that would take up residence in the district or the increase in population of the families already living in the district. When a population boom meant a building had became too small and another was available, school boards arranged for the moving of school buildings from one district to another. In our locale, the Inglis School (north east of Cochrane) was moved to Cochrane during the late 1940’s when enrollment went the other way and dropped below the minimum requirement.

On January 3, 1939, by order of the Minister of Education, Calgary School Division No. 41 was created bringing into one administrative unit some seventy-six local school districts. The new School Division was divided into five subdivisions, each to be represented on the Divisional Board by an elected trustee.

The Minister of Education, Anders Aalborg noted in his 1960 New Year’s greeting to teachers that only 10 years earlier there were 1545 one-room schools in operation. By 1959 the number had dropped to 275 schools. Alberta’s highway system developed rapidly in the mid 1940s and early 1950s. After World War II many rural school districts centralized their operations. The introduction of school buses altered the shape of rural education at this time.

In 1977 the Calgary School Division No. 41 changed its name to the Rocky View School Division No. 41.

Glimpses into the past, based on notes from Big Hill Country, Chaps and Chinooks: a history of west of Calgary and memories of those who attended the one-room schools in the Cochrane area follow. The one room schools have been grouped according to their location in relation to Cochrane and then alphabetically.

Deep Dive

We’ll continue our stories about local schools in the weeks to come.

Son of London Banker T.C. Fooks

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pg 582 Big Hill Country 1977

Tom Fooks, the son of a London banker, was originally from Kent, England, and lived at various places around the world, including occasional stays at his farm on Horse Creek. He purchased the SE¼ of 30, the E½ of 19, and the W½ and NW¼ of 20, all in Township 26, Range 4, W. 5th.

Although Tom himself did little work on his farm, money generally seemed to be plentiful and he was presumably a remittance man. He was considered rather eccentric, but was a very clever individual. He was extremely restless, which probably accounts for the fact that he quit University in England just before graduating as a medical doctor. Tom was also extremely daring; many stories could be told of his escapades during the 1930s in his light airplane around Cochrane, Pine Lake and in the mountains, at a time when any sort of an airplane was a novelty in the skies.

Tom Fooks liked to play jokes, which often didn’t seem very funny to his victims. Once when out flying, Tom spotted a neighbor walking in his summerfallow, so proceeded ·to make passes at him so low that the frightened pedestrian lay flat in the dirt. Another neighbor was delighted to accept Tom’s invitation to accompany him on a drive to Toronto. All went well until Tom decided to stop in the middle of a downtown Toronto street, take the car keys and walk off. His abandoned and rather bewildered friend was left to deal with irate policemen as best he could for several hours.

A very proper English farm couple asked Tom for supper one evening. Tom accepted graciously, and the couple looked forward to an evening with a cultured person from “home.” However, the evening came and went, but no Tom arrived. Around midnight, a commotion at by Tom and his saddlehorse, both tangled in the clothesline. After straightening things out, the sleepy farmer asked Tom to come in, which he did, then he sat there all night, giving the couple the conversation they had longed for, and went home after breakfast!

At one time Tom had a string of race horses, including a well-known stallion, Doctor Joe. However, his horses came to a sad ending when their irresponsible owner went off to Vancouver and left them tied in the barn. When found by a neighbor, some of them had starved to death.

Tom Fooks joined the Air Force at the beginning of the Second World War. He has since disappeared and no one knows his whereabouts.

The final paragraph made me wonder if a web search would find any results for T.C. Fooks. I've included them below and in Deep Dive.

Mark Boothby Tweet

Thomas (Courtenay’s son) went to Cambridge University. In 1925 he won the annual cross-country race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities. A photo of Thomas crossing the finish line can be viewed online4. He knew Lord Burghley – both were in a combined Oxford and Cambridge athletics team that competed against Harvard and Yale5. Lord Burghley later won the 400 metres gold medal at the 1928 Olympics. The character Lord Andrew Lindsay in the film Chariots of Fire is based on Burghley. Thomas married Lucy Day in 1935 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is listed on the 1939 register as a visitor at 43 Woburn Place, Holborn, London, a farmer (married). Thomas was granted a Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate as a pilot in 1946. He was appointed as an Assistant Labour Officer in Kenya in 19526. Thomas died on 19 September 1991 aged 87 in Nairobi, Kenya, leaving an estate of £607,396. The T. C. Fooks Charitable Trust was registered in 1993 with the aims of relieving poverty and advancing education by making grants to suitable organisations. It had ceased to exist by 2011 when it was removed from the register.

https://dartfordhistory.blogspot.com/2018/

Deep Dive

William “Bill” James Scott Family

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pg 700 More Big Hill Country 2009

Bill Scott’s grandfather, William Scott and his oldest son Samuel, age 16, came to Canada in 1932 from County Down, Northern Ireland to look for work as the feuding between the Protestant and Roman Catholic families was something the Scott family wanted to get away from.

They got work at Taber, Alberta and various other farms in southeastern Alberta and in 1925 they returned home to Ireland to bring their family to Canada. They settled on a large farm in the Dalroy district in Alberta and in March 1931 the family moved to the Glenbow district working in partnership with Chester de Ia Vergne.

In 1932, James “Jimmy” Scott (1911-1999) returned to Northern Ireland and married Elizabeth Annie (Lily) Aiken (1914-2001) in early 1934 whom he had known before. Their son William James “Bill” was born on December 15, 1934.

In 1936 Jimmy returned to Alberta bringing his wife and young son with him.

Eric L. Harvie bought the Dr. Morris property down on Glenbow Road in 1937 and Jim and Lily Scott were hired to look after the property until 1941 when Jimmy Scott’s brother Sam joined the Royal Canadian Air Force Jim and Lily moved back to the de la Vergne place to work with his father Wiiliam Scott.

Bill Scott rode a saddle horse to Glendale School from there the first few years with his Aunt Rose. Bill, like most rural children in those days, was quite shy in his first year away from his parents while attending school. Bill attended Glendale School from grade one to eight, riding down Glendale Road, back and forth with companion students, Bob Norris, Dennis, Bill and Shirley Wearmouth , his aunt Rose and the MacKenzie brothers walking alongside. The MacKenzie kid’s father Norman didn’t want the horses eating the cow’s grass so they had to walk instead of ride. Norman and a neighbour Ernie Thompson made the gates so tight to open and close and in winter the snow drifted and buried the fence line gates that it was easier to walk the two miles to school.

Bill attended Cochrane School for grades nine and ten, riding his bicycle with his neighbour Angus MacKenzie. They rode up and down Glenbow Road, along highway IA and the Big Hill back and forth to Cochrane. Bill and his parents were now living at the Drake Place, a quarter of a mile north of Eric L. Harvie’s summer home on Glenbow Road.

Mr. R.C. Burns had bought this property in 1934 and their youngest daughter Marion attended Glendale School from 1935-1937 to grade 3. (Marion was Edith Edge’s attendant when she was the Calgary Stampede Queen in 1953.) Mr. and Mrs. Bums also owned a house in Mount Royal in Calgary and Mr. Bums’ Law Office was in the Grain Exchange Building in Calgary. Mr. and Mrs. Bums were from a farming background in New Brunswick and Mrs. Bums had a fine dairy herd of Ayrshire cows with “Ness” bloodlines, a well known herd in the Maritimes.

Jim and Lily Scott were hired to look after the Bum’s farm and dairy herd in 1946, shipping cream to the Cochrane Creamery. R.C. Bums bought the Harry Hollies farm in 1942, NE Sec 6 Twp 26 Rge 3 W5M which was later owned by Jack Hawkwood.

Sam and Helen Scott and their family came back to work for his father William at the de Ia Vergne Glenbow Ranch, after the war. The Glenbow Ranch was now owned by Mr. Harvie and Sam’s wife Helen and their children had been living in Carstairs during WWII.

Bill Scott attended Mount Royal College in Calgary, near Mewata Park, for grade eleven and grade twelve. Mount Royal offered introductory university courses to students outside of the Calgary area. You had to be a taxpayer in Calgary to attend other Calgary Schools or board with city relatives. Bill boarded with Bella Thomson on 11th Avenue S.W. She was Norman MacKenzie’s widowed cousin and it was fairly close to Mount Royal.

After completing Grade 12 at Mount Royal, Bill worked for two years in the oil business. He then returned to Mount Royal and attended two years of University there. Following Mount Royal, Bill traveled to Norman, Oklahoma and completed his Engineering degree in January 1959, specializing in Petroleum Engineering. At one time, Bill seriously thought of attending veterinary college. During the summer holidays from school and after graduation he worked for Mobile Oil at Weyburn and Estevan in southern Saskatchewan. Years later he had his own small Petro Company.

While attending University at Norman, Oklahoma Bill met Sandra Lentz, who he married in 1957. They had four children Alexis, Jeff, Susan and David. In 1956, Bill’s parents, Jim and Lily Scott had taken over the dairy herd from Mrs. Burns as she had become very ill with cancer. Mr. Bums still kept a few laying hens and in the next four years or so, Jim Scott and Norman MacKenzie worked together during haying season.

In 1967 Bill bought the Verner Jensen farm in the Bearspaw district at the north end of Rocky Ridge Road, along Burma Road for his parents. They continued with their dairy operation until 1986 when they sold their cows and dairy quota. They then ran a beef operation until 1999 when Bill’s father, Jim passed away. Bill’s mother, Lily passed away two years later in 2001. The farm was sold to Inland Gravel Co.

Bill and Sandra’s (Sandi) marriage broke down in the mid 1970’s and in 1982 Bill married Anne Billard and became a father to Anne’s young family.

In 2000, Bill and his family bought a ranch in the Columbia River Valley area near Canal Flats in British Columbia. They built a Black Angus cow/calf operation. Bill’s family is involved in most of his adventures. Angus MacKenzie met Bill and his son Jeff in 2006 at a Soderglen Bull Sale at Airdrie. Here Angus was invited by Bill to drop in someday and see Bill’s Thoroughbred horses at Crossfield, Alberta. Angus plans to take him up on this offer.

Bill and Anne Scott live in the northwest corner of Calgary directly east of the Bearspaw Golf Course, north off Twelve Mile Coulee Road. Bill Scott has never lost touch with his rural background; he just added a little class to it.

Deep Dive

Christmas Greetings 2025

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Merry Christmas to All

The Members, Volunteers and Directors of CHAPS wish everyone all the joy, health and happiness of the season.

It’s always fascinating to look back through old issues of the Cochrane Advocate. This December 1916 edition offers a wonderful glimpse into how our community celebrated the Christmas season over a century ago — the ads, local notices, and small-town stories really bring the era to life.

But there’s also a sobering reminder of the times. Among the festive news is the announcement of the death of Herbert Rhodes at Vimy Ridge, a stark contrast that reflects the realities families were facing here at home.

History has a way of weaving joy and loss together, and papers like this help us remember both.

Thank you to everyone who attended our Christmas get-together at the Cochrane Historical Museum.

It was wonderful to see such a strong turnout and to share the season together surrounded by our community’s history. Your continued support makes these gatherings so special.

Deep Dive

George and Gwen Connon

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By Gwen Connon pg 362 More Big Hill Country 2009

I was born in 1935, along with my twin brother Glen, into a family of 12. We lived in the Big Bend District west of Innisfail, Alberta. This was later sold to become the Innisfail Airport. We moved to the Niobe district, north of Innisfail, about three miles south of Penhold, Alberta. We attended school at Niobe, either walking about two miles each way or riding horseback.

Growing up we attended the United Church, which was held at Antler Hill School. I was a member of the choir there. I rode my bicycle about a mile and a half to take piano lessons. Some of my brothers and sisters went to a 4-H group in Penhold, showing their calves and selling them there.

I attended High School at Red Deer Composite High, staying in the dormitory during the week. In 1951 , I met George. He was from a family of 14 and they lived west of Bowden. George and his family came from Scotland when he was only three years old. Growing up he was active in hockey, baseball and fishing. George went to work for a local farmer that raised show cattle.

After leaving school, I went to work as a bookkeeper at A & B Motors and Burrows Hardware. George left the farm and worked at Central Cleaners for several years. We both loved to dance and then started curling. He was involved in umpiring baseball for several years.

We were married on October 21 , 1953 and George went to work at the Bowden Institution until May 1956. He was offered the job of Farm Manager at Spy Hill Gaol, which wasn’t even built then. There were two big farm homes there. We lived in one and had 10 inmates in the other along with a guard. Construction started soon on the new Gaol. By 1958, they moved us into a new home across the main road from where we were living. George ran a large dairy herd with the inmates doing the milking and farm work.

Our first child, Michael was born in 1955 in Innisfail. Larry was born in Calgary in 1957, Rick in 1961 and Heather in 1966. They all attended school in Cochrane.

In 1969, we decided to move to Cochrane as we were meeting each other on the road, taking kids to various activities they were involved in. We lived on William Street, not far from the outdoor skating rink. Some days I would feed supper to as many as ten boys and then send them out to hockey, baseball or where ever else they were going. Meanwhile, Heather and I would deliver the Calgary Herald, which was an evening paper at that time.

George worked various shifts and he and two other people took turns driving. In his spare time he joined a group of other people helping to raise money for the Indoor Arena up on the hill by the High School.

Michael graduated from Cochrane High School and along with Roy Paul and Mike Schlegel owned and operated Double Action Excavating. I was their secretary for a few years. They did a lot of work for Calgary Power in Cochrane and area. Construction was booming at that time so they excavated several homes in Cochrane, Bragg Creek, Cremona and areas. In 1983, Michael decided to move to Vancouver where he still resides, working in the car business. He and his wife Linda have three children who are now graduated and out on their own.

Larry left Cochrane and worked in Calgary, Red Deer and Lacombe in construction. In 1972 he moved to Vancouver Island where he owns and operates a roofing business. Larry met Darlene LeGas and they were married in 1983. They have two children, Tyler and Christine. Tyler is attending College hoping to attain a Business Degree. Christine left school and works at various jobs.

Rick finished school here and went to work at Town and Country Auto Parts. He married Stacy Tribe in I 985 and they have a son Christopher who will graduate June, 2007. Their daughter, Kelly is in Grade 9 at Bow Valley High. Chris is a football player and Kelly is deeply involved with soccer. Stacey worked for several year at the Cochrane Gas Plant and now is at Mr. P. Potty.

Heather graduated from Cochrane High School. She worked for Fast Gas for awhile and then met her husband Paul Matchim from Newfoundland. They went back to Newfoundland for a three week holiday, which extended to 3 1/2 years when they returned to Calgary. Paul owns a Sheet Metal Business and they live in the city. They have one daughter Melissa. Heather is a teacher aide working with children from other countries who don’t speak English.

During the years, George and I have been very active with Senior Curling, Horseshoes and the United Church. We both loved to camp and fish and travel. We moved to Scotthaven Apartments in 1989 and soon became Manager, which I still do. We meet a lot of interesting people.

George retired from Spy Hill Gaol in 1982 and went to work at the Curling Rink for several years. We also did some catering to weddings, anniversaries and at the Gas Plant.

George became ill with Alzheimer Disease for the last eight years of his life. He passed away March 8, 2005. I had a heart attack in September 2006 but am now feeling very well.

William Duncan Kerfoot killed at Ortona

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an email from Ted Barrow

CHAPS recently received this email from Ted Barrow.

Hi, I was wondering if this would be of interest to the museum. The text below is slightly updated from a Facebook post from two years ago:

“I found this amongst my brothers things when he died last year. It was given to my mother who was widowed aged 22 when her first husband, William Duncan Kerfoot, was killed 80 years ago today at Ortona, Italy. Bill was a rancher she met when she took on a teaching job at the Kerfoot ranch near Calgary Alberta, Canada. They had only been married for a few weeks.

The battle for Ortona is know as ‘little Stalingrad’. While the Americans and British were squabbling over who should get to Rome first the Canadians were sent to Ortega on the east coast to liberate the city. The facists had rendered the cities streets unpassable by destroying buildings and the fighting was intense.

I grew up with his picture and medals on display wherever we lived and I respected my dad for not wanting to hide or deny my mothers past. My middle name is Duncan and I guess thats because Bills middle name was Duncan too. My mum and dad met on an airfield in Canada and married in England after the war and went to live in Argentina where my brothers were born and grew up. I was born in the UK.

I have often wondered what would make a Canadian cowboy want to fight so many thousand miles away from home and how that one snipers bullet changed so much. I wish these plaques were rare but they aren’t. “

I'll be honest and say I'm not sure all the facts are correct here but its the story as I understood it as I grew up with and have always held dear.

Ted Barrow

The following video is from CHAPS 100 Stories for 100 Years Series on YouTube.

Kerfoot Family Notification submitted by Will Pratt

Deep Dive

Jack and Betty Macdonell

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pg 572 More Big Hill Country 2009

Jack Macdonell was raised in Calgary, Alberta and Betty was raised on a farm near Manson, Manitoba. They met while working for the summer at Lake Louise. Their friendship blossomed into love and they were married on July 5, 1952.

The Macdonells came to Cochrane in 1956 when Jack accepted a teaching position at the “new” Andrew Sibbald Elementary School. He taught Social Studies, English Literature, Language Economics and Drama.

Many wonderful drama nights happened because of Jack’s dedication. Some of the plays were “The Valiant”, “Jane Eyre” and “Johnny Dunn”. The community really enjoyed these productions.

Jack eventually assumed the position of Principal and officially opened the new Cochrane High School in 1963 on Cochrane Heights. In 1966 he was appointed Assistant Superintendent for Rocky View School Division and commuted to the office in Calgary from Cochrane.

During 1968 and 1969, the Macdonells took a sabbatical from teaching and went to Reading, England. When they returned, Jack returned to the Rockyview School Division and in 1971 was appointed Superintendent. Jack’s love of teaching drew him back to the classroom when he accepted a position of principal in Bassano, Alberta.

Betty was a great homemaker and cook. She loved to bake. She was involved in the United Church as a UCW Member, a Sunday school teacher and a C.G.I.T. Leader. The children loved her vivacious personality. Betty and Jack mentored many young people over the years. They provided room and board for many students from Morley who found it difficult to attend school regularly from their homes. Betty’s brother Toby arrived from the farm to finish his grade 11 and 12, followed a year later by their sister Linda.

On their arrival in Cochrane, Betty and Jack rented the Sid Reed house and in I958 they bought the Klassen home where Jack pursued his love of building and renovating.

They retired to the Shuswap area of British Columbia where Jack built their home. In the winters, they spent a great deal of time travelling to many destinations. In 200l, due to failing health, they sold their home and moved to a modular home park in Vernon, British Columbia to be closer to doctors. They are living there today.

Betty and Jack have three daughters. Lynne Louise married Blair Pinder. She followed in her father’s footsteps and taught for the Rocky View School Division for several years. They live in Calgary.

Leslie was married and divorced. She has two sons Christopher and Bradley and two grandchildren. She lives in Toronto.

Margo never married, lives in Calgary and teaches music. All three girls graduated from Cochrane High School

Deep Dive

Rev. Father John Lessard

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page 569 More Big Hill Country 2009

Father Lessard started his work in the Cochrane area working with the Sarcee Indians. (sic) His work among the Sarcees was a stepping stone to his appointment to the Cochrane Parish. He spent six years in Cochrane, Alberta, as a parish priest and was also very active in the local community.

Father Lessard was the founder and publisher of the local paper “The Old Timer” which covered the Cochrane and district news for many years. He also sent it overseas as he felt it was important for the men overseas during WW II to have some news from home and keep up with what was going on.

Father Lessard founded the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO), the Girl Guides and he was forming a Boy Scout Troop when he was transferred to his new post.

Father Lessard was an enthusiastic member of the Cochrane Board of Trade and a strong supporter of the local branch of the Red Cross Society. His community work went far beyond the boundaries of his own parish with the result that all sections of the community had benefited from his efforts.

Townspeople, farmers and ranchers of Cochrane and District packed the 1.0 .0 .F. Hall to bid farewell to Father Lessard as he had been called to Edmonton to accept an administrative post in the oblate order in which he was a member. Farmers and ranchers and a number of Calgarians braved bad roads and another light snowstorm to attend this function. One of the features of the evening’s entertainment was the appearance of Norma Piper Pocaterra who came to sing a song or two and ended up, through the insistence of the audience, almost presenting a full scale recital! Mr. Frank Gainer also joined in some renditions to make the evening very enjoyable.

Refreshments were served by the ladies of the community and Father Lessard was presented with a well filled purse, an engraved cigarette case and an engraved cigarette lighter. The presentations were made on behalf of those present by the Chairman Mr. F.L. Gainor and Mr. R.E. “Bob” Moore.

Father Lessard thanked everyone present for their tangible expression of loyalty and good wishes. He said it had been a pleasure to work for the interests of the townspeople because the spirit of Cochrane and district was well known. He was sorry he had to leave the district and also sorry that it meant an end to his work among the Sarcee Indians. (sic)

Deep Dive

Can you date this photo of Cochrane?

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Can you date this photo? The credits on it are from Trevor Beynon dated 1960s.

Here is the original we received. The second photo is an AI-sharpened copy.

Click on either version to expand.

Cochrane 1960's
The 60s Trevor Beynon Aerial-topaz-text-upscale-300w

What do you see that can be dated?

  • West side residential development doesn’t exist
  • Beynons and the rodeo grounds are visible on the west side east of the Creek.
  • Gilberts ranch exists on the current site of the Cochrane Ranche.
  • Cochrane Heights is  under development
  • The elevator is still in place 
  • No sign of development on the east side including  Big Hill Lodge
  • The old pool is still there
  • The trailer park is still on the west side
  • Cant tell if the Shot Tower still exists
  • Esso fuel depot is on south side of tracks beside elevator
  • Hwy 22 intersection and Copithorne mountain don’t exist.

Please tell us what you see and comment.

We will research and update later this year.

Update

Thanks for all the excellent responses. The definitive answer is in the images below.

Click on any image to view.

75th Library Anniversary

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Cochrane Public Library 75th Anniversary Nov. 23, 2025

A very well attended 75th anniversary event was held this past week.  It was nearly perfectly timed to coincide with the founding on November 24th 1950. Hosted by Carmen Erison with speakers Marni Fedeyko Town of Cochrane, Charles Love, Melissa Legacy, Cochrane Public Library, and Gemma Noon of Folklore Research, who presented a video history of the “Willing Working, Women” who realized the need for, implemented and ran the library during its early years. Entertainment provided by Good Vibes Memory Choir who were excellent. Still Water Tea provided refreshments, and Farmer’s Leaf provided gifts.

Four women formed the core group of Willing, Working, Women.

  • Vola McPherson,
  • Nan Boothby,
  • Amy Callaway,
  • Grace Oldfield

Long time volunteers:

  • Emily Lathwell (33 Years),
  • Margaret Beattie (32 years),
  • Catherine Hansen (25 years),
  • Dorothy Steves (21 years)

Ruth Davies used to travel with Nan Boothby to Calgary to acquire and then repair books for the Library collection.

Be sure to click on any of the following images for an expanded view. We’ve more history of the library in the articles in Deep Dive at the bottom of the page.

Timeline of Knowledge
A legacy begins: Celebrating our Founders
Meet the author night: Nan Boothby Library Poster from years past.
former Nan Boothby Library sign on rear of Library
Bruce Boothby (son of Nan), Gordon Davies (son of Ruth), Fay Lewis (daughter of Catherine Hansen), Nan Boothby painting in rear
Thank you card for Boothby family
Thank you card
Library Time Line

CHAPS Library Research

Dave Beattie, Fay Lewis, Gordon Davies, Mark Boothby

Deep Dive

J.A.W. Fraser

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Page 770 Big Hill Country 1977

JOHN ARTHUR WILLIAM FRASER, 1868-1930

J. A. W. Fraser, affectionately known to his friends as “Jaw”, came to Alberta from Scotland around 1890. He homesteaded the Merino Ranch near Cochrane, later moving to the Jumping Pound, where he purchased between seven and eight sections of land. About that time (1892 or 1893), he dropped his original “JAW” brand in favour of XC. From then on, the Fraser Ranch was known as the XC.

In 1895 Jaw Fraser married Dolly McCreight, and a daughter, Dorothy, was born the following year. Dolly died in 1897, and he married Muriel Winter, (daughter of Judge and Mrs. Winter of Calgary) in 1903. There were two daughters of the second marriage, Daphne and Diana.

Early in his ranching career, Mr. Fraser imported Highland cattle, which however, proved to be unsatisfactory as beef. Later he settled for the more conventional breeds of Angus, Shorthorn and Hereford, always buying the best available breeding stock. Eventually a fine herd of roughly a thousand head was built up. He was a pioneer in the field of vaccination against blackleg.

In 1902 Mr. Fraser imported his first Suffolk Punch stallion, “Lord Nelson”, which he bred to lightweight mares, resulting in a heavyweight hunter type, perfect for driving and a good saddle horse too. Many of these horses were sold to the Royal North West Mounted Police and when World War I broke out, they were in great demand as remounts.

Those were the days when men fought at the drop of a hat, and no saga of the old ranch would be complete without some mention of Ted Cook, an ex-farrier Sergeant of the Boer War, and for many years, foreman of the XC. A big kindly man and a great favorite with all the children, with whom he was patience personified, but if a man angered him, all hell broke loose. On acertain occasion, one of the men was sweet on the current hired girl; it was dinner time and Cook teasingly made some derogatory remark about the girl’s cooking – a heavy cup flew across the table and broke just above Cook’s right eye, – there was a sound of overturning chairs and in seconds a terrified girl was screaming, “Mr. Fraser, Mr. Fraser, come quick, he’s killing my Billy!” With a few well chosen words, the boss quashed Cook, at the same time telling the cupwielding Billy to get his horse and get out fast. Later that day the girl was seen, pitchfork in hand, searching for Cook. She left the next day.

“The Boss”, as he was generally known on the ranch, was Game Warden and Fire Guardian for many years. Fires started by lightning were the most spectacular, turning the forest to the west of the ranch into a raging inferno. In those early days, there were of course no telephones, but somehow every man in the country turned up with wet sacks and salt. A fireguard was promptly ploughed, and eventually the fire was put out. Only then, did weary, red-eyed men and horses (smelling of smoke, with singed hair and eyebrows) head for home. The patient horses stood a short distance from the fire, lines trailing; they too should be remembered.

Fire in the hay meadows was an ever present threat, due to sparks from passing trains and careless humans, endangering the essential winter feed for the stock.

In 1908 Mr. Fraser bought his first car, a McLaughlin Buick. Its weight was tremendous and it had an affinity for mudholes; once stuck, only a very strong team could pull it out, but it was a joy in the dry season to whip into Calgary and back (at 20 mph); a gallon whiskey jar filled with water was carried at all times for the thirsty radiator. If one came home in the dark, the acetylene lamps were lighted with a match. As this was the only car on the Jumping Pound, several optimistic mothers-to-be made use of it to reach Cochrane and Doctor Park, in the nick of time. On one occasion the family drove to Banff. The roads, though dry, were appallingly rough – they had eleven punctures! When eventually they reached Banff, it was 8 p.m. and the gates were closed. In those days no cars were allowed into the town after dark. Their lights would frighten the horses!

Feeding the haying gang posed quite a problem in those non-refrigerator days and to augment the eternal corned beef, which was kept in a barrel of brine in the corner of the cook tent, one sheep a week was killed. Mr. Fraser ran 100 head of Suffolk sheep for this special purpose; he did all the butchering himself and buyers were on hand every fall for the hides.

By 1913 the motor car was becoming increasingly popular, and horses for the family chariot, the democrat, were definitely on the way out, while heavy horses were still in demand. In consequence of this change, the Suffolk Punch stallions were replaced by an imported Clydesdale, “Bog Davey. “

The year 1912 saw the beginning of the now famous Calgary Stampede, and it was decided to import Texas Longhorns as a crowd chiller. Wintering these animals posed a problem and eventually they turned up at the XC, where they added a spectacular feature to the landscape.

Many distinguished visitors stayed at the XC, in those early days when game and fish were plentiful and there were coyote hunts and pigeon shoots.

In the months preceding the first World War, a new type of visitor appeared; the place was alive with geologists, the most noteworthy of whom was Cunningham-Craig, a wily Scot. At that time there was an oil boom in Calgary, to out-boom all oil booms, and according to Cunningham-Craig, the Jumping Pound, and especially the XC, was sitting on top of a sea of oil. We were all going to be millionaires! Mr. Fraser, Mr. Pirmez the Belgian Consul, George Rolls and one or two others formed a company called Petrol Limited, with head office in Belgium. This was July 1914. In August the bubble burst, Belgium was invaded by Germany. We were at war.

In 1916 the XC was sold through a transaction effected by Finney-Wade. The family moved to Vancouver Island, but finding himself unable to settle down there, Mr. Fraser returned to Alberta, where he bought the U bar Cat Pirmez Creek, (now Highland Stock Farm, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Donald Matthews, their son, Rob, his wife and their family). By 1920 he found himself really ready for retirement and, after a trip to Scotland, the family once again headed for Vancouver Island, where they purchased “Culraven,” near Sidney. Here they kept a cow and a couple of horses. Tennis and golf pleasured his leisure time, especially tennis, as he had been an outstanding player in his youth.

Mr. Fraser died in 1930, aged 62 years; his wife followed him in 1963. The XC Ranch is now owned and operated by Frank Copithorne and his three sons, Richard, Ken, and Tom and their families.

Deep Dive

The Cochrane Train Station

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page 40 More Big Hill Country 2009

 The Cochrane Train Station, being one of the first buildings erected in Cochrane is worthy of being mentioned. Located on the south side of the railway tracks, it was a 30 foot by 16 foot building. Included in the building were a waiting room, telegraph office, freight shed and living quarters for the station agent.

In the late 1880’s a new station was built on the north side of the railway line. The living quarters were upstairs over the main office and waiting room.

Mr. Johnstone was the station agent when James Quigley was the section foreman in the 1890’s. Francis Towers had been the section foreman when the railway was built. Mr. Pope was station agent from around 1900’s to 1912, replaced by F.L. Gainer. Mr. Pope was fond of bird hunting and raised hunting dogs as a hobby. There is a street in Cochrane named after him. He and his wife retired to Vancouver.

The Cochrane Station was an important stop between Calgary and Field, British Columbia and all trains stopped in Cochrane except some of the passenger trains and the silk trains. The Station was open 24 hours a day. Residents from Cochrane could catch the train into Calgary and return the same day and the Calgary residents could come out to Cochrane and return the same day. It was especially busy in the early days when the Cochrane races were on.

In the early 1920’s the Station was renovated with larger living quarters provided for the station agent and their families. The Gainer family lived there for a number of years as well as other agents in later years. The Thomas family were the last family to live there.

Cochrane Train Station
Cochrane Train Station
Darcy Scott sends this memory. TBT.... This is my grandfather Lloyd Desjardine putting the last bag of mail to be delivered by train from Cochrane to Calgary after this all the mail was delivered via truck ! Shout out to the Hall family for the pic!!

Over the years many interesting people stopped at the railway station including the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip and when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth toured Canada in 1939, their train slowed down when going through Cochrane so that people could see them as they stood out on the platform of the rear car.

When the CPR railway engines were converted from steam to diesel the station ceased to be a 24 hour stop. It was closed and demolished in 1968, however the grain elevator was still standing and used as a seed, feed and fertilizer supply facility.

The Section House was built in the late 1880’s and was home for many section foreman and many families lived there. The house was partly destroyed by fire and the remaining lumber was given to a family in Calgary.

The CPR Water Tank was sold to Mount Saint Francis and moved to the Retreat for water storage. Dan McBain was the pumpman from 1904 to 1908. He lost his life in a drowning accident. Jim Maguire was pump man for over 30 years.

There was always a large pile of cinders beside the water tank and for years these cinders were used for filling in the sidewalks in Cochrane.

The grain elevator was first built by United Grain Growers who later sold it to Parish and Heimbecker. It burned down suddenly in the night in the 1980s

Deep Dive

Nan Boothby Memorial Library

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pg 57 More Big Hill Country 2009

At a meeting of the Cochrane Home and School Association on October 3, 1950 it was decided to sponsor a library in Cochrane.

Nan Boothby and Vola McPherson were chosen to organize the new library and they chose Amy Callaway and Grace Oldfield as assistants. Vola took a librarian ‘s course and these four women became the staff.

The Town of Cochrane offered them a room, in the basement of the Community Hall and the town supplied the lights and fuel. The Home and School Association and the local town people donated books.

The Cochrane Association Public Library was opened at a Tea on November 24, 1950.

All work then and for many years to come was done on a volunteer basis. It was often very cold in the little basement room and it had no windows. The Official Library Board was fanned in January 1951 and consisted of the following members; Mr. AJ. Allen, Chairman, Mrs. G. Oldfield, Secretary, Mrs. AJ. Allen, Treasurer, Mrs. V. McPherson, Librarian, Mrs. A. Callaway, Miss Jean Callaway, Mrs. Nan Boothby, Mr. E.S. Tatro, Mr. Gish, Mr. Fleenor, Mrs. Austin, Mr. G. Broatch.

Fees were set at one dollar per year for adults, children attending school paid fifty cents per year and those not attending school paid one dollar per year. By the end of 1951 there were fifty-five adult members and seventy-four children.

In January 1952, Vola McPherson resigned and Nan Boothby became the Librarian. In June 1959, the Home and School Association relinquished sponsorship of the library.

As a community library, it was now dependent on donations and a very small provincial grant and in 1975 the library moved into another room in the basement of the Town Hall. It was a lot warmer in this room but still the room was too small for very many books or people.

In 1980, the library took a great step forward. It became a municipal library, thus receiving funding from the town as well as a larger provincial grant. It also acquired a new home. The Town and the Province gave the library funds to purchase the recently vacated St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Major renovations were done and the result was a beautiful new library. The name was also changed to Nan Boothby Memorial Library in honour of the woman who did so much to nurse the library through its first twelve years. She served as a Board Member, Assistant Librarian and from 1952 until her death in 1962 as Head Librarian. Nan was a self-educated person and a hard worker in the Community. She was married to John Boothby and they had two sons, Bill and Bruce.

Over the years there have been many people who have given much time and energy as board members and library workers. Through the years the Library Board and Friends of the Library have held many different fund raising events to help. Support was supplied by the Cochrane Legion, St. Andrew’s Church, Ladies Group and Sunday School, Masonic Lodge and Eastern Star, Catholic Women’s League, Light Horse Association, Home and School Association to mention a few. Various groups in Cochrane held many fundraisers and donations were received by many interested individuals. Shell Oil, Jumping Pound presented the Encyclopedia Britannica and the yearbook every year to the library.

After a number of years a brand new larger building was built on Railway Street and slowly has expanded it’s collection. The library offers many programs as well as book launches, storytelling, programs for small children and even computers.

From a small little cold room in the Community Hall in Cochrane the Town now has a beautiful building offering many library services for the citizens of Cochrane and the surrounding area.

In 2007, the Nan Boothby Library has expanded again by joining the Marigold Library System which now allows its users to access any book or information that they may need.

Deep Dive

Rhodes Family

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pg 671  More Big Hill Country 2009

Herbert Rhodes was born in Knottingley, Yorkshire, England on November 5th, 1887, the son of Thompson and Hannah (Pickersgill) Rhodes.

He came to Cochrane in 1908 with his cousin Tom Fozzard. They knew Sykes Taylor who had already settled here and stayed with him. Herbert worked with Sykes for a year before homesteading the W Sec 18 Twp 25 Rge 5 W5M. He called his homestead the “Dog Tail Ranch” because of its shape. It was one quarter mile wide by one mile long . It is now known as Rhodes Hill, in Jumping Pound.

Herbert built the original part of his house 12 feet x 16 feet in 1909 of lumber, obtained from a local sawmill and when he was joined by hjs brother Tom in 1910, they added another 16 feet on to the end of the original cabin as his father Thompson and four more brothers, John , William, Joseph, Charles and a sister had arrived from England. Thompson’s wife Hannah had passed away in England so the family decided to come to Canada.

The Rhodes Brothers based their operations from Herbert’s Homestead and they worked in the Jumping Pound, Brushy Ridge and Springbank area for many years. Later they bought the Brown and Austin homesteads, W Sec 14 Twp 25 Rge 5 W5M.

Joseph only stayed three months and then returned to England and joined the Army in the Coldstream Guards on August 4, 1914 when WW I broke out.

Herbert joined the 89th Battalion CEF in Calgary and later transferred to the 7th Battalion Canadian Infantry. He served in France where he was killed in Action in the famed Battle of Vimy Ridge on November 29th, 1916. Herbert is buried along with his buddies in the Zouve Valley Cemetery, France.

Before Herbert left to join the army and to go overseas he gave his land to his younger brother Charles, a Charles was the only brother that didn’t drink.

Tom Rhodes dissolved the partnership in 1921 and moved to British Columbia. William and John sold their part of the farm to Charles in 1934 and also moved to British Columbia. Emma had only stayed a short time in Cochrane and then she moved to British Columbia. Thompson Rhodes passed away in 1933 and is buried in the Cochrane Cemetery.

Charlie is the back right figure. In the front is Sykes Robinson and John Robinson. The back of the photo is labelled 1922.

Meanwhile Charles had worked for Sykes Taylor, the Munros in Springbank and Richard Copithorne. He was an extremely accomplished butcher and did most of the butchering of meat for many of the neighbours in the district. His great pride was the clean scrape job he did on the pigs he butchered. Another talent he had was barbering and he spent many Sunday afternoons cutting hair for the neighbours.

Charles married Laura Taylor in 1930 on the worst day of the winter. It snowed a foot and a half that day. Following their marriage they built another addition on to the original house on Rhodes Hill, where they lived. Like everyone else in the depression years of the 1930’s they milked cows, shipped cream and grew a very large vegetable garden. Even though the work was hard they were a very happy pair and both sang along as they worked.

In 1932, a son Herbert “Herb” Charles was born to Charles and Laura. Herb grew up working with his mother and father and at six years old he attended Clemens Hill School down the hill and across the Jumping Pound Creek from their home. When Herb was ten years old his mother passed away in 1942. He and his father managed alone, Herb continuing his schooling, and Charles continued in the dairying business until 1946 when due to severe arthritis he had to quit. In 1946, Charles purchased an Angus bull and switched from dairying to raising beef cattle.

Herb finished school and drove a school bus as well as helping his father with the duties of raising cattle, haying, fencing and all the other jobs that ranching demands. In 1965, Herb married Lillian Gathercole from the Lochend district. Lil’s father had been a station agent and so the family moved a lot before they settled in Lochend. Lil’s mother was a nurse and Lil had 10 siblings. Following in her mother’s footsteps with a nursing career, Lil trained as a Registered Nursing Aide in Calgary and worked for many years at the Calgary General Hospital. She worked in the Operating and Recovery Room and loved her work. She was extremely good at it.

Herb and Lil built a new home on Rhodes Hill and Charles lived with them until he passed away in 1973. They raised Angus and Charlois cattle and as well Herb drove the Jumping Pound/Brushy Ridge School Bus Route to Cochrane. This route was the most difficult route in the school division and has often been used for training bus drivers. The topography of the land, condition of the roads and number of large vehicles to the gas plant plus a great distance between stops added to the problems. Herb loved kids and was always concerned for their safety so he had strict rules on the bus. Although some of the older girls found it not too stylish to bundle up in the cold weather, Herb always made sure they had extra warm jackets, boots, mitts and scarves stashed in the upper compartment of the bus in case they got stuck in a snow drift. Parents always knew when the bus was due and if it did not arrive on time they were on the phone down the line to try and locate where the last kids had been dropped off. It was then up to the nearest Dad on the route to get his tractor out and go and help Herb get his bus through. This method worked well for everyone and once radios were available Lil answered many a call from parents and help was dispatched immediately to get the kids safely home. Herb had a system and it worked!

The Rockyview School Division honoured Herb for more than 35 years of safe driving the School Bus. The parents of the children never worried that their kids were safe as long as Herb was at the wheel even when the radio announced that the school was closed due to bad roads and our kids had already been picked up and were well on their way. Many times our kids were the only rural kids at the school along with the town kids that walked due to the weather.

Herb and Lil had two children, a daughter Laura Grace and a son Darryl Herbert. Both children graduated from Cochrane High School.

Laura married Cliff Erasmus and they have one son Lucas. Laura and Cliff built a house on Rhodes Hill in Jumping Pound and Lucas attends school in Cochrane. Darryl is married to Jennifer and lives in Calgary.

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Cochrane Foodmaster Over 100 Years in Business

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Cochrane Foodmaster Over 100 Years in Business by Ian Brooker

At its closing in the early 1990s, Cochrane Foodmaster had operated, under various names, continuously for over 100 years. Its closing is a sad reflection of the effects of our modern world, with its big box stores, supermarkets and easy commuting.

The store’s roots can be traced back to the original Thomas Cochrane family, who came to the area in 1886. They operated a sawmill about three miles west of the present town. In 1887, a town site was laid out at that location, and the name Mitford was chosen. In 1888, several buildings were built, including a general store by Mr. Cochrane.

The store was operated by Alexander Martin for the Cochranes, as Tom was busy with other ventures including building a toll bridge over the Bow River. The charge was five cents for an individual and 10 cents for a team of horses and wagon. The Cochranes also built a brickyard which supplied bricks to the small but growing local market.

In 1894 Mr. Martin joined with his brother-in-law and bought the store from Tom Cochrane. They called it Martin and Foleys General Store. After a couple of years they moved the business to Cochrane. In 1900 they sold to C.W. Fisher who had purchased the building on the north west corner of what became First and Main Street. The building had been a trading store owned by James Johnstone and Tom Quigley. He tore down the building and put up a large building which housed several businesses including a hardware store, newspaper office, shoe repair shop and, as the telephone system came in around 1906, the local telephone exchange. Mr. Fisher moved the Martin and Foleys store into his building and it operated at that location for the next 90 years.

When it became known that Alberta was to become a province, Mr. Fisher also set up the local Liberal Party headquarters in his building and ran for the local seat. He won in 1906 and became Speaker of the House. He remained speaker until he became sick during the flu epidemic and passed away in 1919.

Mr. Bill Andison worked as a butcher for the Fishers during this time. In 1925, he purchased an interest in the store, and it became Fisher and Andison. In 1928, the building burned. The business was moved to the curling rink temporarily while the store was rebuilt, although the building was somewhat smaller than before. At this time it became solely owned by the Andison family and became Andisons General Store, owned by Bill and his wife Agnes.

Bill and Agnes retired in 1955, but the business stayed in the family, as their daughter Alice and her husband, “R.E.” Moore continued to operate it. The store continued to be a true “general store”, carrying groceries, meat, clothing and agricultural products, and RE. became the local “Indian (sic) Agent”, and was responsible for native accounts for food and supplies. Their treaty cheques came directly to the store, so he gave credit to them until payday. He also often took items such as headdresses, rifles, saddles, etc., to hold as temporary payment for supplies. When we purchased the store in the late 1970s, a large number of these items had never been picked up and were still stored in the basement. Some had been there for many years. In the early 1980s, R.E. decided to clean out the basement and returned all these items to the families of the original owners, many of whom had passed on years before.

In about 1966, R.E. and Alice split the store and sold the grocery and meat business to the Keller family. The dry goods section was sold to Wes and Marion Nelson, and once again became called Andisons Store. The meat and grocery business under the Kellers became M & K Foodmaster, (for Moore & Keller). The two businesses operated side by side from then on. R.E. and Alice continued to own the building.

In 1976 we purchased the business from the Kellers and changed the name to Cochrane Foodmaster.

RE. still owned the real estate, and we rented from them. In about 1983, R.E. purchased the building to the west of us, and we knocked out a section of wall and expanded Foodmaster to include a coffee shop. This gave our store the unique distinction of being Cochrane’s first “shopping mall”, as you could now park and enter at the rear of the coffee shop, walk through into the store and continue on into Andisons Store without going outside. At that time the Post Office was right across the street, and everyone picked up their mail there. Customers could come downtown, shop, meet a friend, and pick up their mail. We still carried many accounts for the natives from Morley, so we were truly the community’s “meeting place”.

Our main claim to fame was our meat department. We kept most of the local family freezers filled and did a large business custom cutting local rancher’s beef for them and processing wild game. We had two delivery vans, and supplied oil camps with their groceries and meats as far away as Nordegg. At our peak we employed 34 people.

In 1985 we sold the store to Frank Krause of Red Deer and I moved to Christina Lake, B.C. The store went through several owners over the next few years, and finally closed forever in the early 1990’s.

The building has undergone several renovations since then, and is now the location of HQ Coffee Co., Old and Crafty and Pots and Peppers.

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Andrew Garson

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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.

Garson McEachen Announcement

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.”

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Reg and Edna Munro

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pg 623 More Big Hill Country 2009

Reg and I were both born and raised in the Springbank area. My parents, Mattie Robinson and William Cullen celebrated 100 years. Reg’s parents, Johnnie Munro and Grace Henning, had their centennial in 1994. Grace lived to 98 years and passed away in 2006. We lived on land adjacent to the airport. Johnnie’s parents Martha Hamilton and William Munro both had homesteads. My Grandparents, Lily McPherson and Joseph Robinson homesteaded in Elbow Valley.

I rode three and a half miles on my horse Paddy to Elbow River School until the school burnt down when I was in grade six. From grade seven to eleven I went to Springbank and then high school at Crescent Heights in Calgary. We went to Springbank School on the first school bus; the old bus was a wooden van with no windows on the sides and two benches on each side.

Mr. Allen (teacher) was the driver and didn’t mind making anybody walk if they misbehaved. Reg remembers boxing matches in the boys’ cloakroom at noons and recesses.

In 1966 we purchased the old Mortimer Place from Alan McMahon. Our two children, Diane and Dean, changed school from Springbank to Westbrook and later to Cochrane High. Diane went to University of Calgary and took education. She married Don Demetrick from St. Paul, Alberta. She has been teaching native children at Blue Quills and Saddle Lake for twenty-five years. Diane and Don have two children Laura and Cameron. Laura married Grant Smith from Bentley, Alberta and they have one little boy, Wacey. They own a hydrovac truck used in oil well businesses and pipelines. Cameron is at U of A taking education, 3rd year. Diane has spent many summers helping with the haying. She has seen a lot of country abroad: Australia, China, Hawaii, Alaska, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Mediterranean, and Turkey.

Dean bought a remote ranch at Quesnel, British Columbia. He was married to Joy Veselic from Cochrane and is now married to Roseanne Exshaw. Dean has two girls, Sayla and Jenny and one boy Jake. Sayla and her husband, Dean Renker, have two girls, Holly and Hanna. Sayla is in nursing. They live at Quesnel, a few miles from Dean. Jenny lives in Cochrane and has one boy, Tristan Ash. She is manager of a retail store in Cochrane. Jake is in the electrical trade in Quesnel.

We have had a commercial herd of Simmental cattle for the past 52 years and in 2008 won an award for breeder of the year. I have helped Reg with most things: baling, and stacking hay, delivering calves, fencing and whatever. Our place is called Spring Coulee and our brand is H inverted U on the Right Rib. We are cutting down on our cowherd.

We love to have our five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren visit and spend time with us. We went on a cruise to Alaska with family and neighbours in 2007, something we will always remember.

Reg and I are celebrating our 59th anniversary this year. We have seen many changes, some good and some not

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Mickle Family

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pg 732 Big Hill Country 1977

 Wheeler Mickle was born in Ontario in 1840 and came West in the spring of 1862, via St. Paul and the Red River. At Fort Garry he joined a party of men, and travelled the hazardous overland trail to the Cariboo gold fields in British Columbia. Some were disappointed in their search for gold. Wheeler Mickle decided to do packing on the Cariboo Road.

At first mule trains and horses were used; later camels were brought in. The camels rustled their own food and were capable of carrying heavy loads, but they terrified the horses and mules that were being used.

After packing on the Cariboo Road, Wheeler drove stage for Barnard, a stage line company. The stage travelled the Cariboo Road. This was a rugged road and has been called the eighth wonder of the world. In places the road was supported on pilings or great masonry constructions, and in many places it was cut through solid rock. The level of the road varied from the edge of the Fraser River to dizzying heights, and the curves were so sharp that the lead horses were often out of the driver’s sight.

Wheeler married Lucinda Julia Thomson of Colchester, British Columbia, in October 1870. He took up land in the Nicola Valley of British Columbia. There, their four children, Lennox, Charles, Eddy and Tina were born. In 1881 he came back to what is now Alberta, where he freighted between Fort Walsh and Calgary for the North West Mounted Police. He settled in Calgary and built one of the first dwelling houses there. About the time that the town began to grow, he built a stable and entered into the feed and dray business. When the Mission property facing Seventeenth Avenue was put on the market, he purchased a site and built there. 

Mickle Marriage Certificate

At the outbreak of the Riel Rebellion (sic) in the spring of 1885, Wheeler Mickle, who was known to be an excellent teamster, was hired by General Strange. The Force of General Strange was made up of the 65th Battalion of the Mount Royal Rifles of Montreal, the Winnipeg Light Infantry, a detachment of Mounted Police under Major Steele, cowboy scouts and teamsters.

At Frenchman’s Butte they fought Big Bear’s forces and scattered them so that the prisoners were able to escape. On July 2nd, a small detachment of Mounted Police captured Chief Big Bear, thus ending the war.

 In the fall of 1885 Wheeler went to Manitoba, and the following spring he shipped a carload of cows West. He took up land on the Cochrane lease where, later, the Springbank Post Office was established.

Wheeler and his wife operated the Post Office and a store for a number of years. The Mickles sold out their business at Springbank and took up homestead land in what is known as Mission Valley, north of the Elbow River. His homestead was NW¼ 4-24-4-5.

Letter from Wheeler to Jue - Content advisory

Wheeler Mickle gave Springbank its name. He was a very strong person and his day used to start about four a.m. It has been told that he used to go up to the bush for firewood when he lived in Springbank, and the ranchers living along the trail would hear the noise of the wagon or sleighs going by at four a.m. In the winter he would cut his load of wood and load it up and be back home before dark. 

He retired to Cochrane in 1913 and it was not unusual to see Wheeler walking home from the river at six a.m. with a catch of fish. Wheeler passed away in 1918. 

Tina married Watt Potts. Lennox was killed in a shooting accident at Springbank. Eddy was crippled and lived with his parents at Springbank. In later years he moved up north. Charlie Mickle spent most of his life in the Cochrane area.

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Grayson Family

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by Stuart Grayson pg 232 Big Hill Country

My father, Charles Grayson was born July 1, 1870, at Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, immigrating with his family to Canada as a child. The family moved steadily westward, homesteading in the Qu ‘Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, in 1886. They remained there for twenty years, then returned to Virden, Manitoba, where Charles’ parents spent their final years.

Charles did not stop in Saskatchewan; he continued working his way westward, finally arriving at the Cowan ranch in the Big Hill Springs area in 1886. He was sixteen years old. Here he obtained employment as a ranch hand. He left Cowans to work for C. W. Fisher and later worked at the Union Bank as Ranch and Homestead Inspector, and in still later years as Imperial Oil Agent for Cochrane. He was also a Justice of the Peace and Police Magistrate for a while.

Dad married Blanche Bruce, daughter of Donald and Jane Bruce, in Cochrane in 1902. They had three children, Bruce Gordon, born 1903, Dorothy Maud, born 1905, and Leslie Stuart, born 1907. Mother passed away in November 1907; I was nine months old. Dad later married Mrs. Margaret White, widow of Daniel C. White, of Cochrane. Margaret passed away at Lethbridge in 1961; Dad had predeceased her in 1950.

Gordon worked for the Royal Bank of Canada, for Montelbelli Brothers at Bluffton, Alberta, and for many years in the implement business at Lacombe and Wetaskiwin. He passed away in Wetaskiwin in 1966, leaving his wife Dorothy and two children, Evelyn and James.

Dorothy, a school teacher, married Gordon Lock, of Calgary. She passed away in 1956, leaving one daughter, Joan.

I, Stuart, taught school for a short time, then joined the Alberta Provincial Police in 1930, transferring to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1932, and served with them (including a period of over six years Overseas with the Canadian Army during World War Two, while on leave of absence from the Force – Pt. Lt. Col.)

 I was stationed for a further period of three years in London, England, as Liason Officer for the Force, which included acting as Canadian Representative to Interpol. It afforded me wide opportunities for travel throughout Europe. My last six years of service were spent as Superintendent of the Calgary Subdivision of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, retiring in 1965 with a maximum service of thirty-five and a half years. In 1936 I married Magdalena Platzer of Silverwood, Alberta. She was a teacher and also served Overseas with the Women’s Auxiliary of the Royal Air Force. We have two children, Charles, with the Calgary Public Library and daughter, Gail, residing in Toronto.

Photo from CHAPS archives labeled Grayson

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