by Frances Dionne pg 633 Big Hill Country 1977
Dad came West as a child, with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Fenton, and his brothers and sisters, from the Lakehead in Ontario. The first move was to Needles, British Columbia, in 1911, then in 1912 the family moved north of Cochrane to what was called the Sprinthall place, near where Mrs. Maier lives. From there, Dad attended school at Weedon for a few years. Then the family moved to where Mr. and Mrs. Bill Boothby live now.
Robert Fenton passed away in July 1916. Dad (Slim), being sixteen years of age, and the youngest of a family of thirteen children, left home to work at different jobs. He always worked with horses. In 1919, he and a number of other cowboys moved a large herd of horses from the United States to winter pasture in the Grande Prairie district of Alberta. He later went to work for Mr. and Mrs. Pines southeast of Carstairs. While there, he broke many broncs for them and for neighbouring farmers. During threshing time he drove a four-horse team on the water tank for the steam engine. The threshing outfit was owned by Earl Brown of Crossfield, in 1920.
It was at this time that Slim met his bride-tobe. Mabel Lillian Ferguson had come West from Battersea, Ontario, in 1903, with her mother, brothers and sisters, to join her father who had homesteaded nine miles southeast of Carstairs in 1901. She and Slim were married in 1922.
Mom and Dad lived for a few years in the Cochrane area, returning to Carstairs where they lived until 1930. Then they moved to Cochrane Lakes to a half section on the Correction Line. We lived in a bunk house for two years, not settling on a location to build a house until a water supply was found. Dad, Elmer Ferguson (Mom’s brother) and Ray Lovell dug a well just over the knoll from Cochrane Lakes School. They dug for eighty feet and never hit water so abandoned it and dug another, further north, where they were successful, obtaining good water at about the same depth.
At this location, Dad and Uncle Elmer built a two-storey house from logs that Dad hauled from Brooks’ mill, where he had had them squared on three sides. Lynn recalls going with Dad as a very young boy to get a load of logs and having a runaway with some of the broncs Dad was breaking at the time. They were going down the hill past Perrenouds on to the Horse Creek road when the running gear ran up on the horses’ heels and scared them. Dad called to Lynn to hang on like a puppy to a root. The horses finally slowed down going up the steep hill on the other side of the creek.
Ray Lovell also helped in the building of the house and other buildings. Ray will always hold a cherished spot in our memories as a kind and thoughtful man. I recall our parents telling of the time that he walked from where he was working east of Cochrane, to our place one very cold Christmas Eve, with candy and nuts for us all.
Dad broke horses for many people and worked the farm land as well. Particularly remembered are the team of beautiful greys that he broke for Mel Brown. Like so many other farmers at that time, he paid his taxes by working on the roads. He usually worked with the fresno putting in culverts and bridges. Roy, the eldest son, put in many long days helping Dad on the road.
Dad purchased a shingle mill and made shingles from poplar and pine lumber. Many buildings in the district were shingled for the first time, or re-shingled, and there are numerous ones in the area that still have good roofs made with the shingles from this mill. Mom and Dad had four children, Roy, Lynn, Frances and Joy. They all attended Cochrane Lakes School. Roy, and Mr. and Mrs. Ken Elliott (Joy) and family, Ray, Rocky and Hector, reside at Westward Ho, Alberta. Lynn and his wife, Dorothy, and their children Dan and Wendy, and Mr. and Mrs. Alf Dionne and their family, Mabelyn, Gayle, Gladstone and Joy, all live at Cochrane.
Our home was open to many as they rode through. Don and Dave Malloch used to trail cattle and horses from their parents’ farm west of Airdrie to their homestead back in the bush at the head of Grand Valley. They always welcomed a warm place to stop in winter and to enjoy a cup of coffee and Mother’s good homemade bread. One very cold and blizzardy night a knock came at the door. It was Don and Dave. They had put their saddle horses in the barn and fed them, and Don had to help his brother to the house. Dave was chilled through and he sat a long time near the well-stoked heater sipping hot coffee before he recovered from the near-freezing that he had experienced. Meanwhile, Dad and Don were enjoying games of cribbage, long into the night.
Herman Kober, as a young cowboy, made his home with us for a while. He was very efficient at fixing harness. He kept our undivided attention once, as he tore Dad’s saddle apart and rebuilt it into a real swell saddle with a large roping horn. Dad still used this same saddle and rode right up until two weeks before he passed away).
Among the many cowboys and friends, too numerous to mention, are the Walt Thomes. Sunday afternoon visits with regular treats of peanuts and candy are so often thought of when our family is together, and thoughts turn to the fascinating hunting stories that used to be told.
Our parents moved from the Cochrane Lakes district in 1943. They purchased the Bob Hogarth farm in Horse Creek, where Lynn and his family still live.
In the 1930s, Dad started entering the Calgary Stampede in the Chuckwagon races, now known as the Rangeland Derby. In the first years he was in partnership with Lane Berr , better known as “Lone Breeze.” Breezie was the skinner and Dad rode as an outrider, then Dad started with his own outfit. Phil Cook painted longhorns on the wagon can as, which as to be the trademark for the Slim Fenton outfit until the 1950s.
Dad drove his first outfit to Calgary and with him went three local boys as outriders, son Roy, Phil Cook and Jim Burtson. During the years of wagon races there were many others who rode, such as Alf Dionne, Chet Baldwin, Chick Coelen, Mac Leask and Bill Boothby, who always chased the wagon on a grey horse named Blue. During those years of chuckwagon racing, the drivers could use the whips, which got to be more of a hinderance than use, so Dad, along with other drivers, met with the officials and had the whip abolished. Dad drove for many years, going to Saskatchewan in 1949, where he won the big trophy at Meadow Lake. He entered many rodeos in the United States and British Columbia. He spent his last years at his home in Princeton, British Columbia, where he worked as cow boss on a nearby ranch owned by Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Sellars.
Mom passed away April 23, 1960, and Dad on November 13, 1968.
