It's hard to believe we are now into August. Where is the summer going? Hopefully everyone has been able to get out and enjoy themselves with some summer activities such as holidays, camping and so on. If not, hopefully you can get away and enjoy your holiday, camping out some et cetera this coming month.
Please contact me at 403-742-5317 or Facebook me and let me know how your summer has gone so far, so we can get some of these in our column, like other copmmunities do.
A big congratulations go out to Sara and Tyrell Carstairs on their new baby daughter, born on July 20. Her name is Nora Ann Carstairs, and her other siblings sure love her and proud of her (Hadleigh and Katie). The proud grandparents are Robin and Gwenda Gravely of the Botha area, and Ron and Cheryl Carstairs.
Bingo happens tonight at the Senior Center at 7:15 p.m., so make sure you join in on the fun. Who knows, you could be the one winning the jackpot or other games.
Looking for a great hall to hold your special upcoming events? The Botha Hall is a great place to hold it, with very reasonable prices. You can even barbecue outside for a crowd and serve your guests inside. So make sure to call Shaun Derr at 403-742-4811 and reserve your special date. Shaun will be happy to answer all your questions and concerns. The hall now also has a new handicap washroom, which will come in handy.
Unfortunately there will not be a Botha Playground Program this summer due to lack of interest. This was a great program for all children to attend, so hopefully next summer it will start up again.
Seeing not much is happening in our little village this summer, so we will continue looking back at the pioneers that use to work in the elevators that were in the Botha Area years ago. These people are very interesting and very hard workers. So hopefully everyone doesn't mind hearing of these men.
One of these pioneers were Jack Ferrier. Jack was born to Thomas and Mary Ferrier and was raised in a small farming community called Brig Of Erin, just on the outskirts of Perth, Scotland.
In 1906, Jack and his brother Tom left Perth and sailed by boat to Canada to look for homesteads. They landed in Montreal and came west by rail, landing up twenty miles southeast by Gough Lake. Here they built a wood shack with a tin roof. In the long cold winters, they had a lot of rough times as at nights the wood stove would burn out and it got so cold in the house the water in the tea kettle froze solid. They were happy when spring finally arrived.
In 1908, the rest of the family came to Canada, where they picked up a few more quarters of land and built a house and a large hip-roofed hayloft. Jack, to help pay for the materials, worked at Meeting Creek buying grain at the elevators, which he did until 1913. At this time he also went back to Scotland and married his long-time sweetheart, Agnes White. On Aug. 22, 1913, they sailed back to Canada. This just happened before the First World War. Jack tried to join the army, but because of his broken arm (previously) he was refused,so he went back to work at the elevator in Meeting Creek.taking Agnes with him. In 1915, they returned back to the farm and Agnes had a hard time adjusting to a new life style as she was born and raised in the city. She knew very little about country living.
In 1921, Jack applied for a new job at the Botha Elevators and got the job and they moved into the elevator house.In Jack and Agnes lifetime they had seven children and were busy raising them. For an enjoyable event, Jack entered six horses in the Lacombe Horse Show. A fancy wagon was attached to the horses. Jack decorated the horses with fancy harnesses, scotch tops and fancy ring spreaders. Jack brought home several ribbons which he won, as Jack was very proud of his horses. But unfortunately in the dirty thirties sleeping sickness spread through the country and quite a few horses landed up with it. Jack ended up putting several horses down.
Another hurtful event was when his parents passed away, and were buried at the Botha Cemetery. His father passed away in 1922 and his mother in 1928.
An event Agnes really loved was her gardening, so in the dirty thirties this really came in handy to feed her family.
In 1951 Jack passed away and 1966, Agnes followed him at the age of 84 years.