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Fred and Catherine Facey
1930
49th Avenue (Minto Street), Millet, Alberta, Canada
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Fred and Catherine Facey, 1930. In the mid-1920's, Mr. Facey had a small "Delco Plant" that enabled him to be one of the first people in Millet to have electric lights in his house. A few years later, he got permission from the Village of Millet to sell power to Millet residents and businesses. Along with the help of some high school students, he wired the entire village of Millet, and operated his power plant from his renovated barn behind his residence. In 1927 or 1928, he sold his franchise to Calgary Power.
Mr. Facey came from England with his parents to Ontario. He married Mrs. Facey in Rochester, New York in 1880. They lived in North Dakota until 1900 when they moved to Alberta. They came to the Millet area about 1908 where he farmed what was known later as the dairy farm one mile north of Millet. A few years later he moved into the Village where he was a blacksmith. It was then that he developed a "Delco Plant" and sold power to Millet residents for many years. After selling his franchise in 1928, he operated a garage. Mr. Facey died of a heart attack in 1937. Mrs. Facey lived out her life in Millet in the same house they had bought around 1910, across from the United Church. The house still stands today.