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2. On the HOMESTEAD

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On the Homestead
1910
Hand Hills, Alberta

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As western Canada developed with the building of a trans-continental railroad spanning the nation from the east coast to the west coast, new settlers were needed to populate the western provinces. To entice people to the rural areas, the Canadian government launched a massive campaign to encourage people from other countries and eastern Canada to try a new life on the prairies.

Under the Dominion Lands Act, townships were surveyed and within each township, the land was measured and divided into 36 sections. Each section was 640 acres (259 hectares) or one square mile of land. For a $10.00 filing fee, new settlers could acquire a quarter section (160 acres) of land which was known as a "homestead."

Their agreement with the government was to clear and cultivate a certain number of acres of their land, build a house and live there for at least six months of the year. All these requirements were called "proving up," and had to be met within the first three years. Then, landowners could rightly claim their quarter section and obtain their papers of ownership.

Some settlers could only afford what the land provided and they built their first homes with sod. The sod on their land was free and plentiful and could be cut easily from the ground with a horse-drawn plow.

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Tar Paper Shack
1905
Drumheller Region, Alberta

Credits:
Hanna Archives Collection

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Transcript of Harold Chambers in conversation with Nora Woloschuk

Homestead Museum, 1994, Drumheller, Alberta

Harold Chambers: "I was born in Drumheller February 10, 1915. In 1917 my parents or my Dad or somebody was talked into taking a homestead out in the Hand Hills.

At that time, the roads were just wagon trails. There were no graded roads any place between here [Drumheller] and the Hand Hills. It was getting fenced in so you had to more or less stay on the road allowance.

I remember at that time, I presume was about April, I don't know for sure, the prairie grass was quite high and luxurious. And so, we set up housekeeping in our prairie shack there."

Nora: "What would the shack be made out of in those days?"

Harold: "Shiplap and tarpaper. It was approximately 14 feet by 28 feet. It was more or less on the crest of a hill. Water had to be taken up from a coulee."

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Hay Rack
1920
Hand Hills, Alberta

Credits:
Photographer: Sterrie Lenfesty, Lenfesty Family Collection

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Johnny Caswell in conversation with Carrie and Brent Trout

June 2005, Drumheller, Alberta

Carrie Trout: "You've been here all your life? Was this a homestead at one time?"

Johnny Caswell: "It was. They homesteaded ...my Dad's brother and his friend came out here to Canada from England. And the village, you know, the boys there, was no future for them at all. They were just working for a few cents a day at just whatever you could work at. And no, no hope of ever owning anything …and of course once the fellas started coming over here and you know maybe it wasn't as good as they bragged about. It probably wasn't. But you know how when you write home. You're not going to tell them the bad part, you are going to tell them the good part. And, the good part was, miles and miles of miles and miles. And you could have some of it.

And so of course my Dad's brother he was older than my Dad. Him and his friend they came out and they came to Granum, Alberta. And they homesteaded there because that was open. This didn't open up until 1909, and Lethbridge [and] Granum and that opened in [19]05 when the place was made a province. So, they homesteaded there for awhile.

And, I don't know why they didn't like it, but they didn't like it. And, they heard that there was land still here for homesteading. It didn't open up until 1909 you know, so they threw all their belongings on a hay rack and headed north.
And, they of course [were] looking for water …and they came across the river and they came up on this side and they said well where is the next water? Well east, go east…and you'll run into a creek so that is what they did and they ran into the Michichi Creek.

And they filed on the northwest of 32, Dad's brother did. And the other guy, he filed two miles south here on some land there and he broke that all with oxen."

Carrie: "Did any of your family farm with horses?"

Johnny: "Oh ya. 'Cause he, Dad came in [19]13 you see. There wasn't too many tractors at that time. And actually what mystifies a lot of people is the fact that they seem to associate Calgary you know with the opening up of this area and it wasn't so. Camrose [Alberta]. Dad came from wherever he landed off the boat, probably Montreal [Quebec] or something like that. And got the train west and he ended up in Camrose. And Munson [Alberta] was the end of steel. The steel came down from Camrose and of course when it got as far as Munson, it held up for awhile and then, by 1917, the big coal strike hit Drumheller. And then the, the idea then was to get down Fox Coulee. Well, I think it must of took 'em three months to get down to Fox Coulee [Alberta] ...I'm just telling what my Dad told me."

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Horse Drawn Cutter
1910
Homestead Museum, Drumheller, Alberta

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John Shields in conversation with Carrie Trout

June 30, 2005, Hanna, Alberta

John Shields: "In the [19]20's, Dad and a friend of ours Doc Kerr. He was a vet and they were called out in the middle of the winter way down… southwest of Oyen [Alberta] to somebody's place. And on the way back it started blizzarding and storming and darkness set in. And they had no idea where they were going and they were riding in a little cutter with a top over it. Then the horses just kept on plugging along in this terrible storm and it was pitch black and then they stopped.

And my Dad got out of the cutter and he said 'I had to put my hand on the rear end of the horse and follow it up to the front.' And then it was right at the front, there was a little cabin or shack out there with a light glowing in the window and it was a bachelor shack. He had one room in there and them horses went through that storm and went up to that shack, they didn't go to the barn or a bluff of trees they went to that shack where there was safety. So they stuck the horses in the corral or in the barn that night.

The fella only had a little bit of flour in the house and he made Dad and Doc Kerr some biscuits. So the next morning the storm was over and they were able to get in, to hook their team up. And they went into Oyen. And, in Oyen there was a fella there who spent the night because of the blizzard and Dad loaded it up all with groceries and told him to drop it off at that guy's place on the way back. You know, and the next summer that fella came in and paid Dad for the groceries. 'No…' he said he didn't want to take charity."

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At the Morton Homestead
1905
Hand Hills, Alberta

Credits:
Morton Family Collection

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Merle and Irene (Karg) Morton in conversation with Carrie Trout

June 2005, Hand Hills, Alberta

Carrie Trout: "Was there any special natural resources or any reason or geography why your family chose this area to settle, in?"

Merle Morton: "I don't think there's any special...it's just a place that…they come out from Calgary, I guess from…that's where Grandpa, well I, this is where Grandpa and Billy Raby, they lived in a dugout kind of a thing in the hill for the first year anyway."

Carrie: "Like a sod house?"

Merle: "No, it was dug into the ground. I don't know what they put over the top."

Irene Morton: "Like a cave?"

Carrie: "Really?"

Irene: "MmmHmm. A lot of them did it. A lot of the homesteads..."

Carrie: "Ya, it's kind of interesting to read the old homesteader's letters you know. I got a hundred…talking about the land. I got some good land. So and so and I went out and bought this block and it's got good…talking about the earth that's there and stuff. Verdant Valley has that up. One of their letters was up."

Merle: "Oh, at their fair."

Carrie: "Ya, ya."

Irene: "You know it'll be…four years [in 2009] and it will be a hundred years that this place has been in the Morton family."

Carrie: "Really?"

Irene: "Yup. So for ninety-six years. He has ... homesteaded ...since 1909."

Carrie: "Quite the legacy to leave someone."

Merle: "It's a lot of pressure on somebody... like we even feel it. There's a third generation here…that there's pressure… that you have to keep it….going."

Carrie: "Ya, ya…well Darrell didn't have to…he had his own little quarter and he could have just…and it's not too far away. But he, he really wanted to keep the homestead earlier. And it was a town I guess, Stonelaw…at one time. They had dances there."

Irene: "Oh ya…I've just read about that."

Merle: "Stonelaw?"

Irene: "Yes, in the 'Harvest of Memories.' "

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Sister and Brother on Horseback
1943
Hand Hills, Alberta

Credits:
Morton Family Collection

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Merle Morton in conversation with Carrie Trout

June 2005, Hand Hills, Alberta

Carrie Trout: "So your father homesteaded here?"

Merle Morton: "My grandfather…"

Carrie: "Grandfather…"

Merle: "Kingsley [Morton] was his name. Ya, he homesteaded here and then Mum [Frances] and Dad [Lawrence] got married and they just moved around the community, just wherever they could find a vacant place, it seemed like. Us kids come along, and I was the second one…they never got that place down in the hills until I was probably six years old…we hardly had a home of our own. Then I guess that was the second generation and now I'm the third…come back into the homestead I guess…"

Carrie: "So your parents stayed…in this community…but not right here."

Merle: "No, Dad never…once he, Dad left home…when he was fourteen he ran away."

Carrie: "Oh!"

Merle: "Him and a buddy, they rode the freight trains out to Vancouver. Somewhere out that way, Dad bought a…well he didn't buy it…I guess it was a homestead probably in the bush but he never proved up on it, so he didn't…when he finally came back…he must have met Mum then and got married."

Carrie: "He just was…in the Depression, was it the Depression when he did that?"

Merle: "I guess it would have been in the Depression…I really don't know what year he... well he was fourteen. And he was born in 19[17]. So that would have to make it [19]30…ya it was in the thirties. I guess the boys thought they were working too hard at home, so they decided to find an easier way, but I guess they didn't…if I remember right, the guy that he went with got killed. Didn't he Mum? They were jumping freights and he didn't get on the train right and got killed. So I believe that's why Dad came back."

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Hauling Hay on a Hay Rack
1924
Hand Hills, Alberta

Credits:
Delia Museum Collection