Thanks to RW Dickason for becoming a member, volunteering for CHAPS and getting involved in the retelling of this story from More Big Hill Country 1945-1980 . Clarence McGonigle, the seventh child and fifth son of William and Kate McGonigle, was born in the homestead shack with Mrs. Bush as a midwife on December 30, … Read more
by Sonia Turner Note: Wherever possible, land locations have been listed in brackets. The land location of a creek is that of the mouth of the creek. References for this information include Dominion Topographical maps and the Gazetteer of Canada. Atkinson Creek (30-28-6-5) – flows into the Little Red Deer River, and called Beaver Creek … Read more
by Audley and Jim Richards, as told to Wendy Vaughan The Richards Brothers, Bill, James, Albert (Ab), and Dave resided at McLaren’s Depot, Frontenac County, Ontario, where they farmed and ran a general store. In 1902 Bill Richards came West to Calgary and went into the sawmill business with a man named George Hatt. The … Read more
events added. People came from near and far to take part. In 1946 the gymkhana was moved to Cochrane, thus, ending one of the yearly events that were looked forward to each year and had been enjoyed by so many.
This article originally appeared in More Big Hill Country 1999, Page 99. In the early days in the Cochrane area, the spiritual needs of the community around the countryside were served by a visiting minister. Neighbours gathered in a local home and services were generally held by a son or a visiting minister who would … Read more
“More Big Hill Country” has lots of stories of early businesses. There was a time when most homes in Cochrane had a barn for the horses. There were also several Livery stables in town. Murphy’s Livery Stable The Murphy Livery stable was built next to the Murphy Brothers Hotel in 1898. It appears that the … Read more
This article from page 33 of Big Hill Country really paints a picture of the area in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s. THE NORTH BOW ROUNDUPS Before the Cochrane area was settled by homesteaders, a number of ranchers owned large herds of horses and cattle. These herds grazed over the unfenced land from the Morley … Read more
Todays post is from page 89 of More Big Hill Country. The image is of the Davies House which once served as Cochrane’s Hospital and is now home to the Cochrane Historical Museum. The first settlers came into the Cochrane area in the late 1880s and continued to arrive over the next twenty or thirty … Read more
This old article recently came in CHAPS possession. The original photo was taken by Ed Arrol, a teacher at the school. This article was written during the Covid-19 pandemic so the resources of the Cochrane Historical Museum have not been available. Fortunately, CHAPS recently started using G SUITE which converts pdf files to text. This … Read more
March is Women’s History Month, Its October in Canada. In light of that, I thought I’d research the “Chicken Lady” statue on main street Cochrane. Certainly not a complete list, the friends and families of 40 women had their names added to the base of the statue. The sculptors are Don & Shirley Begg and … Read more
