These meetings start out with a potluck luncheon, so please make up one of your favorite dishes and bring it along to share with everyone. The meeting is held right after the potluck luncheon.
Then, that same Monday, Joshua Morris will be celebrating his birthday, so if you are talking to him, wish him a great day. Happy Birthday Joshua, hope you have a fantastic day.
Bingo takes place tonight, Wednesday April 29, starting at 7:15 p.m., so grab your friends and come out to the seniors’ centre tonight for a great time.
On May 31, make sure you come on out to the Botha Hall and dance to the music from the "Ralph and Friends" band. They are a fantastic group of players, so make sure you mark this on your calendars.
Old Man Winter unfortunately decided to hit us all again this past weekend dropping about four inches of snow, so hopefully, this will be the last time until fall.
As I was looking for information about Botha, I discovered Botha was previously named Mayrville, which was just a little ways from where Botha is located now. One point I found was that on Jan. 11, 1905, the Mayrville post office opened with Will Gibbon as the first postmaster, which was interesting. The building he owned was a two- storey building, with his family living quarters on the upper floor and the post office and store on the main floor. Will also ran a lumberyard, by then Mayrville was a good-sized place with quite a few businesses.
In 1906, the Mayrville Hotel was just nearing the end of its construction and on Dec 21,1906, the first dance was held in it to celebrate the opening of the hotel.
Mayrville was located on the NW-34-18-W4 location and was partly on Bill Harmon’s land and part on section 33-CPR land, which was close to the correction line. On the correction line, there were two stopping houses where travelers could stop for a meal and/or lodging for the night before they started again on their journey. The Pinneke Stopping House was on Charlie Hatt's quarter facing north and the other stopping house was named Mills Stopping House, which was on the location of Clarence Hankins farm.
In 1907, a number of residents paid a visit to the Underwood workshop and saw it with mixed emotions. The people were inspecting the flying machine, which Botha now has as a memorial to the Underwood Brothers for the countries first flying machine.
A replica of this machine is located just west of the Botha Arena, so when you’re in this area, make sure you stop and take a look at this. It's very interesting to see.
I will end here for now, but in the future columns, we will dig into more of Botha's history and some of the people that made Botha what it is today. There is a museum started here in Botha, too, at the old United Church, so make sure you phone the village and find out more information on this and the hours of operation.
Also if your looking for a reasonable hall to rent which just had a few new improvements make sure you call Shaun Derr at 403-742-4811, and he will gladly help you out, thank you.