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Henry Norman Sheppard's diary15 February 1909
Highwood Area, Alberta, Canada
Credits:Museum of the Highwood Archives
15
Cartel music box - c. 1880. This music box was brought to Canada by the Sheppard family in the late 1800s. Bert Sheppard remembered it as the "only music we had" at the Cottonwood ranch. The four boys loved the music box and played the ten songs time and time again.16
Cartel music box brought to Alberta from England by the Sheppard familyCirca 1880
High River, Alberta, Canada
Credits:Museum of the Highwood.
17
The Sheppard family's music box20th Century, Circa 1880
Highwood Area, Alberta, Canada
Credits:Museum of the Highwood
18
Paddy GreenIn the late 1800s, it was up to the pioneers to make their own music, and many brought instruments from their home country. Paddy Green settled in this area in the 1890s, and quickly grew lonely for his music. He had been a concert pianist, accompanying the likes of noted singer Plunkett Green.
He decided to have a piano transported to his cabin but enroute the piano slipped off the wagon and the crate went crashing over a bank. The piano was unhurt but was impossible to move and stood in the bushes for many months. Imagine the surprise cowboys received when they heard classical music floating through the air in the middle of a seemingly empty bit of prairie. In time, folks grew accustomed to Paddy Green's outdoor concerts.
Ranchman Fred Ings remembered Paddy Green well. In one story, he recalls going into a music shop with Paddy. The clerk took one look at the dusty cowboys and simply threw down a pile of sheet music for them to look through.
"Sure," Paddy said, "our grandmothers played these." He selected a couple of songs and walked over to an old piano but after hitting only a few chords he decided that it was out of tune. Sitting down at another piano, he began to play. His musical ability impressed everyone and soon the shop was full of people.
The clerk, suddenly quite cheerful, asked Mr. Ings who his friend was.
"Only Plunkett Green's accompanist," Ings answered. Then the clerk more than willing to show them his wares!
19
Bar U and Mosquito Creek CowboysCirca 1892
Highwood Area, Alberta, Canada
Credits:Museum of the Highwood Archives, 967-010-011
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Not Everyone Enjoyed the Music...Some pioneer music was not well appreciated. One year Peggy Thompson and Lew French used to get together at the Stopping House to sing songs and play the harmonica. This would go on until late in the evening and the cowboys trying to sleep in the next room became fed up. One night, when the couple's singing was in full fling, the boys lined up their six shooters and fired simultaneously through the thin partition dividing the rooms. They aimed well over the singers heads but the blast caused a great hubbub. Eventually things settled down and the cowboys, having gotten their point across, slept soundly once more.
21
HarmonicaCirca 1910
High River, Alberta, Canada
Credits:Museum of the Highwood
22
The First PhonographThe first phonograph brought to the Highwood area is believed to be the one bought by Fred Anderson, a cook at the Oxley Ranch around 1897. It was quite a marvel! Powered by batteries (which could only be recharged in Vancouver), the machine had two sets of ear-tubes attached to each side. Fred travelled between Macleod and Edmonton to show off his brilliant machine. Eight people could listen at one time for ten cents each. Other people in the room could not hear a sound and would watch in amazement as the people attached to the box began dancing a "silent" jig!
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Pioneer Musical Memories1880-1940
Highwood Area, Alberta, Canada
Pioneer Musical Memories
"In the early 1890's a Mounted Police post was established at the Rio Alto. Walter Ings bought a very good piano in Calgary and had it brought to the ranch.
It was probably the first piano in the district. Mrs. Ings was an accomplished pianist, and many a musical evening was enjoyed by those who came to the Ings' home."
- Leaves From The Medicine Tree
"(clergyman) Mr. Smith is an Oxford man ... The singing was really fair but the man played the harmonica shockingly."
- J.L. Douglas, 1886
"She (Alice Andrews) spoke many times of the good old house parties that lasted to the wee small hours. She met Charlie Shattuck, who was a violinist.
He, with Gladys McKeage at the piano, supplied dance music for miles around, playing in Harry Han's Hall, Gladys Ridge, Okotoks, Tongue Creek and as far as Calgary."
- Leaves From The Medicine Tree (1890s)
"As the family (Fisk) grew up they went to more dances, thinking nothing of driving ten or twenty miles in a sleigh with their feet kept warm by hot rocks.
They would dance all night to a fiddle or mouth organ and then drive home in the morning. The big event was the Bachelors' Ball held annually in Okotoks.
These were very formal affairs and the ladies wore evening gowns and gloves, and carried their fans and programs.
Some men even wore dress suits, white kid gloves and patent leather slippers.
The cowboys would carry their best clothes in gunny sacks slung over their saddles, and dress when they arrived."
- Leaves From The Medicine Tree (1900's)
"She (Mrs. Watt) attended the opening of the first real store in Okotoks. It was a great event, and people from miles around came to attend the opening dance.
The music was supplied by one fiddler who knew only four tunes, "The Irish Washerwoman", "The Soldier's Joy", "The Girl I Left Behind Me", and "Shamus O'Brien".
The grownups danced all night to those tunes."
- Leaves From the Medicine Tree (circa 1900's)
"We did not have much to amuse us, so we never missed the opportunity to visit or take in a dance if we could possibly get there."
- Ida Miller, Leaves From The Medicine Tree (1990s)
Credits:
Leaves From The Medicine Tree, The High River Pioneers' and Old Timers' Association, (c) 1960
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Rio Alto Ranch. NWMP detachment is the building on the left.Circa 1890
Highwood Area, Alberta, Canada
Credits:Museum of the Highwood Archives 967-100-013
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Handmade DrumCirca 1910
Highwood Area, Alberta, Canada
Credits:Museum of the Highwood
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