Chapter Three

Neighbours

In speaking of neighbours, I mean people who lived anywhere within six or eight miles. Our nearest ones were Mr and Mrs Turberfield, with three small children, on the next quarter section. They had driven up from Yorkton, and had a shack built of boards, not logs like most, and a fine team of horses which I remember as being small but chunky, very wide across the chest, very strong and much admired, and envied by the other men. They were not there for long, but moved back to a farm near Yorkton where the son and daughter still live.

Mr and Mrs Joseph Price were Welsh people, but had come via Chicago and a Welsh settlement south of Yorkton (Bangor), then on up through Sheho, and settled on a farm about two miles south of us.

The Deans and Murrays, all English folk, were farther away to the southeast in what was, eventually, the Bellenden School District, named after the Dean’s house in Dulwich, England, or rather the road on which they lived. As in the case of our family, the eldest son first made the move to Canada, the rest of the family followed. The Deans and Murrays, being quite close to one another, both families English and Baptists, were good friends, and were also among our best friends, and always have been to this day. But we did not see them as often as desired since they were further away, until we started having monthly meetings and Sunday services – of that, more anon.

Then there were people from Ontario. The Lockharts and Tingleys were from Toronto. Albert Ross Lockhart [13] was a printer by trade, and worked for Ryerson Press for many years, but he too joined the rush to procure free land in the west. His wife had died when her second child was just a baby; she had tuberculosis, and Albert tried to save her life by taking her to Denver for a year, as suggested by the doctors, but all attempts had failed. The two children, Charles and Carrie May, were brought up by some of Albert’s many sisters. One of these was Mrs Tingley who, with her husband “Uncle Fred”, also joined the western trek. A second sister, Carrie Lockhart, came too, but did not stay long. Albert had remarried; I remember seeing her a few times in the first year, but the primitive way of life did not suit her, so she left and returned to her native USA. Albert Lockhart later became Reeve of the Municipality of Invermay, was appointed Justice of the Peace, and was thus very active in all civic affairs. He also was my father-in-law.

These were just a few of those earliest settlers. Others were from Manitoba – the Prestons, Meakins, Upex’s, etc., where there were earlier settlements. The Fitchetts, Mitts, and Hoards were farm folk from Ontario, all related by marriage. They lived north of us in the Mason School District.

Mr Berryland Weyman Tibbitt was an Englishman from Cambridge, England. He emigrated to the USA and trained as a lawyer, but did not finish or graduate. He came to Alberta at the turn of the century, and there married an Irish lass. Then on to Invermay in 1910, later became the post-master at Rama, had four sons who now live in Saskatoon, Alberta, and the youngest in British Columbia, here in Victoria. Mr and Mrs Tibbitt are both buried here in Victoria, as they lived the last twenty years of their lives here.

Rama did not exist when we first arrived except as a railway siding, but later on, when my brother and I attended school there, we changed our postal address from Invermay to Rama as it was much closer, though still went to Invermay for various goods and services, notably for the bank after it was opened.

[14] There were quite a lot of bachelors in those early days, “proving up” on homesteads. One of the provisions for getting title to the land was that so many months of the year, for three years, had to be spent actually living on it. So, after signing on, they would build a little log-shack, and live there in the winter months going out to work all the summer, usually in Manitoba or southern Saskatchewan where better established farmers needed, and could afford, hired help. There they not only earned the money to biy their winter groceries, but also learned how to farm, very needful as most of them came from a city. Ronald Cooper was a typical Englishman, as was Eric Freeland, both from well-to-do families in London, England. Ben Davies was a Welshman, as indicated by his name. He and Ron Cooper lived together, and more unlikely companions could hardly be imagined (at least, not until TV’s “Odd Couple” came to be known), the one very gentlemanly and fastidiously clean, the Welshman rough and ready, but good-hearted and kind.

These three spent a lot of time each winter at my parent’s home, enjoying a meal and the conversation of my father who was a well-educated and well-read man. Many an argument would be heard over politics, religion and many other topics. They did not learn much about farming from my father, but I am sure they learned a lot about life and living.

However, these young men had no chance to farm their land, as the First World War broke upon the world. The three young men immediately went to the defence of their Mother Country, as did so many more. Ronald and Eric were both killed; Eric died of wounds in a German prison camp. Ben did not return, so no doubt he also died – I do not remember if we heard that he did. Another young man from the district lost both his legs, but lived, and married one of his nurses! My brother, Eustace, was killed on his first day at the front; he died of concussion when a bomb was dropped – there was not a mark on him, as the chaplain told my parents; because of his inexperience he was unable to save himself. It is possible that he was saved much suffering, by being taken so quickly.

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