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Don’t miss Halloween dance with “Five plus One Band”

The first Old-Tyme Dance was held last Sunday, Sept. 28 and the dances now will continue the last Sunday
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Picture is of the Pinneke Hotel in Mayville-1906

Botha Booster

The first Old-Tyme Dance was held last Sunday, Sept. 28 and the dances now will continue the last Sunday of each month now until next spring. Friday night dances which they held in previous years have been canceled, so the only dances now will be the Sunday dances.

There is no age limit on these dances, so everyone regardless of age can come and have some fun. Hopefully everyone had lots of fun at the last dance and they would love to see everyone back to these for another year. The next dance will be Oct. 26 with the “Five plus One Band” entertaining the group that afternoon, so they are hoping everyone can attend.

Pick out your favorite Halloween outfit or something orange or black in color to wear if you like, as this one is going to be their Halloween dance, so make sure you come out. Phone Doug Haustein at 403-742-3994 with any questions on any of these upcoming dances.

There has been a change to the Botha seniors’ meeting. Instead of Monday, Oct. 6, the meeting will be held the Tuesday, Oct.7, starting at 12 noon. These are held at the Botha Seniors’ Centre. They are asking everyone to make up one of your favorite dishes and bring it to their potluck luncheon to share with everyone.

The meeting follows right after the potluck, so they are hoping to see all seniors there that Tuesday for this important meeting.

Bingo evening happens again, the evening of Tuesday Oct. 14, starting at 7:15 p.m., with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m. These, too, are held at the seniors’ centre, and they are hoping everyone can attend and try out your luck. Who knows you could be the next big winner.

Coffee is every Wednesday morning starting at 10 a.m. again at the seniors’ centre. They would love to see everyone take a break away from their busy schedules and come and join them for a cup or two of java and a great visit. It’s a very relaxing time and everyone needs some of that in their busy schedules. So please join them.

Quilting takes place on Monday, Oct. 13 starting at 9:30 a.m. at the seniors’ centre. Even if you have never quilted before, they would love you to join them. They would love to teach you the skills they know. So why not join the ladies and learn a new craft? They create some beautiful quilts throughout the year and they would love to teach anyone that is interesting in learning.

Seeing we are walking into a new month, I would like to wish anyone having a birthday or anniversary a great one. If there is anything coming up in the future, please call me at 403-742-5317 and it will be added to our column.

Seeing Botha was Mayville in the early days, let’s look at the history of Mayville for a second. Mayville apparently was located just a little ways away from where Botha is located now, so let’s look back at the early trails and stopping houses they had there.

As settlers came into the area, trails were made by staying on higher grounds and crossings in low areas and creeks at the best possible place. A main trail from Lacombe-Content and just south of the present Stettler location angled to the southeast and around the south end of Sullivan Lake, going through township 38-19-W4 from northwest to southwest. As the settlers came, so did the stopping houses. From Carl Stettler’s Blumenau, a trail led southeast and joined up with the main trails. Part of this trail is still visible in the prairie sod on the N.E. section 25-39-19-W4 and W.J.Baucer’s father traveled it several times.

Another trail went east to Mayville Mills stopping house, Krugerville and the May Park School, continuing three miles east to the Glasier stopping house, then another four miles to Higgins Store and Omega School and on east toward Castor.

As more settlers arrived and the land settled, trails crisscrossed in all directions and problems with livestock and crops came to the fore, so fences were being put up and gates for opening and closing were put into use. This is where our present road system started its development.

Stopping houses or houses were located along the trials by homesteads. Many of these homesteaders started having general stores and blacksmith shops, with some even with post offices. This is when the homesteads moved Mayville to its current Botha location.

At this time travelers could stop by to feed and water their livestock, get supplies and repair broken equipment, and a forerunner to our highway service stations. Many of the stopping houses served meals, and other supplied meals and lodging for the night at reasonable prices.

So in closing, it is very interesting how our roads and service stations and other businesses came into production. Our homesteads and settlers did a wonderful job and did a lot of hard work to settle our part of the country, so let’s take our hats off to them. We really appreciate the hardships they had to go through to make our community what it is today.