by Frank Wills pg 421 Big Hill Country 1977
I am the oldest son of Harold and Mabel Wills. Both of my parents came from England: My dad was born in Canterbury, Kent, and my mother (Miss Everett) was born in the heart of London, within the sound of Bow Bells, which made her a true Cockney. They were married in Calgary on Christmas Day 1911. My dad homesteaded at Mossleigh, Alberta, and I was born at Gleichen, Alberta, in 1912.
There were five other children in our family: Phyllis, who worked for Wilf Carter at Carstairs at one time and also for the Pat Kerfoots in Grand Valley; Mabel, who worked for Archie Baptie in Cochrane, Cliff, John and Doris.
When I was six years old my family moved, in a covered wagon, to a two-storey house on a half section of land, twelve miles west of Airdrie. Their objective was to raise horses, and at one time they had about thirty head. My dad’s brand was Y Anchor Bar and is still owned by my brother, John, who farms part of the home place. Our neighbours were Bert Solley to the west and Porters to the east. Airdrie was our nearest town for mail and supplies. The well on the property was drilled by the late Dave Malloch. My dad broke our land with a Sulky plow.
I went to Abernethy School at the age of seven. I had to walk two and one-half miles each way in all kinds of weather. For three years our teacher was Miss Jean Lamont (Mrs. Laurie Johnson).
I left school in 1928 at the age of sixteen and went to work at the Merino Ranch, south and west of Cochrane. Dave Murray’s brother was the foreman at that time. I left the Ranch in the late fall and went to work for Stan Ward, clearing timber off the land for the lA Highway between Exshaw and Gap Lake. We used horses and cables to pull the stumps. Frank Ells was adjusting the cable when the horses jerked and his hand went through the pulley. His fingers were so badly crushed he had to have all the fingers on one hand removed.
In 1931 and 1932 I worked for Paul Swanson cutting mine timber, George Nelson and I worked from dawn till dusk on a contract and made $0.75 to $1.25 per day. While there, I helped cut some building logs for the Dartique Lodge. One night, while going to a dance at the Lodge, I had a f!at tire on my Model T Ford – this I repaired on the dance floor while everyone danced around me.
While working for Tom Baptie in 1934, I met Mary Clarke and we were married on December 26, 1935. We had $4.65 between us. We lived on several places in that area, including Joe Gray’s and Andy Garson’s. Later, we lived on Oscar Clarke’s farm where Mary trapped gophers. We put them in gunny sacks and took them to Colpitts’ Fox Farm at Springbank, travelling the distance with a horse and Bennett buggy. They were worth 2c per pound or $3.00 per sack. The smell still lingers but we were big-time spenders at F. W. Maggs’ and Billy Andison’s stores in Cochrane after each trip. Money was hard to get and we were grateful for every cent. One dry year, when relief feed was sent in by the Government, we were not allowed any because we did not own our own land. Walter Hutchinson Sr., rode over to our house and told us we could have one load of hay, as much as we could haul on one rack. We only had four calves and one horse to feed, but they would not have made it through
the winter without this feed. Around 1937 we moved to Joshua Glennon’s farm in the timber area of Grand Valley. I worked in the bush and Mary looked after Mr. Glennon for two years. We purchased a piece of Hudson Bay land close by (SE¼ 8-28-5-5), adjoining Paul Swanson’s ranch on the south boundary, for $5.00 per acre. I worked again, periodically, for Paul Swanson, where George Nelson and I hewed mine ties with broadaxes. Then I purchased a sawmill. I was rejected for War Service because of deafness in one ear, so instead I cut lumber for crates and boxes which were used for shipping food and supplies overseas.
I broke forty acres for Donald and Helen Patterson and received clear title to Helen’s homestead which was close to our Hudson Bay land. I had a Hart-Parr tractor with steel wheels, and in the summer I pulled the grader on the Grand Valley road to work off my taxes.
In the late 1930s we attempted to raise purebred Herefords and did not have much luck so we tried Holsteins. Their purchase price was $5.00 to $7.00 per head delivered from Yankee Valley, fifteen miles east of Airdrie, to our place south of Swanson’s. We sold our cream to the Cochrane Creamery and fed the skim milk to the calves and pigs.
Going to Cochrane in winter was a two-day job, snow was deep and there were no snow plows. In 1944 when the snow was really drifted, Mrs. Dyck, one of our employee’s wives, who was expecting a baby, started labor. It was early morning and I tried to go for Mrs. Jack Hammond, a Registered Nurse who only lived one mile away. The snow drifts were higher than the truck cab, and I had to return to camp. I sent a hired man on horseback and he returned sometime later with Mrs. Hammond riding behind him. We soon realized we needed an ambulance and Mr. Dyck and I towed our truck with the cat tractor to the nearest telephone, which was at the Harry Sherriff farm. We phoned for the ambulance, waited at Harry’s until it arrived, then towed it into camp and out again with the Cat. It was a sixteen mile round trip and took all day. Unfortunately, twin boys born, John and Frank, only lived a short time and died in hospital.
In the winter of 1946 I had a sawmill camp on Coal Creek in Grand Valley where the roads were impassable, even for a horse. Alex Howes, our neighbor, was stranded in Cochrane and unable to get back to camp. He hired Eustace Bowhay, of Cochrane, who had a plane, to fly over the camp and drop parcels of bologna and macaroni. The snow was so deep it took Jim Howes thirty minutes or so to find the parcels. We had numerous sawmills in Grand Valley and I remained in the lumber business until 1972.
In 1955 we purchased, from Jack Poynter, part of the NW¼ 17-26-5-5, ten miles west of Cochrane on the lA Highway. We built a new home on a hill overlooking the Ghost Dam and facing the mountains. Mary passed away July 18, 1964. We had one son, Glenn, married to Roberta MacKinnon. They have two children, Robert and James.
In 1968 I married Maureen Scholefield, who, in 1961 and 1962, taught Physical Education and was senior girls’ supervisor at Crowfoot and Old Sun Indian Residential Schools at the Gleichen Blackfoot Reserve. Later she worked for the Canadian Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service in Calgary; she also worked for Agness Hammond at the Ghost River Ranch. While at the Gleichen Reserve she was adopted into the Red Gun family and given the name OTS•SKA•BIN• AGEE which is Indian for “Blue Eyed Woman.” We have one daughter, Kathleen, born July 1971.
In 1974 we sold our property on the lA Highway and moved to the SE¼ 25-26-7-5 where we are building a new home. For the past sixteen years I have been working with the youth of our area in the Boy Scout Movement, an interest shared by both Mary and Maureen. I formed, and was Cubmaster of the First Morley Indian Pack and was the first Cub and Scout Leader for Beaupre. For the last twelve years I have been District Commissioner for the Mountain Road District, which area covers Calgary to the British Columbia border.
Bennett Buggy – In the depression years of the 1930s, many people had cars, but no one could afford gas. The body of the car was removed and a pole fastened to the chassis so the car could be drawn by horses. Mr. R. B. Bennett was our Prime Minister at the time and was blamed for the hard times and they called their converted cars “Bennett Buggies” after him.
