happiness

The Great Fire of 1936 – One Young Mother’s Escape from the Flames

The Great Fire of 1936

One Young Mother’s Escape from the Flames

By Melissa Ramsay

A November Morning

Late on the evening of November 18, 1936, Jack Copithorne came up the hill from his nearby home to see his cousin Percy. Jack had noticed what Percy’s wife, Edna, later described as “a pin point of smoke southwest on the range.” [1, 2] Edna also remembered seeing “a very small puff of smoke up west in the part we now call Sibbald Flats.” [3] The men were concerned. Cattle were still grazing on the range near Jumping Pound and Moose mountains, and the season had already been extraordinarily dry. Percy and Jack decided to ride to the roundup camp early the following morning. [1] “I remember setting bread and baking it that night, along with fries and other food to send up with the wagon later in the morning but the wagon never left home,” Edna wrote. [1] By morning, the small column of smoke had become a devastating prairie fire. [1, 4]

A Country Ready to Burn

“The year of 1936 was the driest one anyone could remember in our district,” Edna recalled. [1] The Depression had brought years of hardship to western Canadian farming and ranching families. Little hay or grain had been harvested, and Percy was already worried about finding enough feed to carry the cattle through winter. [1] “The dirty 30s seemed to be extra dirty to us when we lost our beloved parents,” Edna wrote, while acknowledging that many Canadians were suffering even greater hardships. [1] Percy and Jack left on horseback around four o’clock on the morning of November 19. By the time they reached Frank Sibbald’s place, they encountered the advancing fire. [1, 3] The wind drove smoke, dust and burning debris across the countryside. Percy and neighbouring ranchers worked to protect buildings and livestock. A tractor was sent to plough a protective furrow near Sibbald’s house. [1] But, as Edna remembered, “there was just no way of stopping that fire.” [1]

A Decision to Leave

At home, Edna was caring for her young daughter, Sheila. She was also expecting her second child, Marshall, the following March. [3] “I was quite stout, expecting Marshall in March,” she recalled. [3] The district’s party telephone line connected seventeen households. The Cochrane telephone exchange, where Ernie Crowe served as an Alberta Government Telephones agent, helped residents

receive news of the advancing fire. Edna remembered a final warning from the operator to seek safety in the creek. [3, 5, 6] Instead, following advice to leave by car, she attempted to reach Cochrane. Visibility was dreadful. [3] As they turned north, the Messer family’s recently renovated house was burning. Farther along, Brushy Ridge School was also in flames. Edna could see no sign of the children. [3] The road to Cochrane was no longer safe. They turned east, hoping to reach Calgary by another route. Along the way, Edna saw burning buildings and animals fleeing before the fire. Some were already engulfed in flames. [3] They turned south again, hoping to reach the Coach Road and continue toward Calgary. They never made it. [3]

Trapped on the Road

Near the Wallace property, the wind had blown a large wooden hay stacker through a fence and onto the road. Smoke and cinders made it almost impossible to see. The car crashed into the structure and became trapped. [3] A young man was driving for Edna. As the stacker’s boards caught fire, he climbed out and tore away the burning pieces, which were carried off by the wind. [3] Inside the car, Edna and Sheila struggled to breathe. [3] “Fortunately I had a big jar of milk with me for poor little Sheila, and we used that to wipe our eyes and nose and mouth so we could breathe.” [3] Edna feared that the car might explode. A pail containing tools and loose hay hung from the stacker close to her side of the vehicle. [3] “Suddenly my side of the car was a wall of flames outside but it soon burnt out.” [3] For a time, mother and daughter were trapped in the smoke and heat, uncertain whether they would survive. [3]

The Rescue

Early that afternoon, as the air began to clear, Edna remembered Uncle Sam Copithorne coming along the road. He was surprised to find Edna and Sheila there. Sam took them to Vera Wallace’s house for a cup of tea, then drove them home. [3] Ronald Wallace, who was nine years old at the time, later recorded another account of the incident. He recalled that his father and uncle Bill encountered the burning hay stacker while travelling toward Brushy Ridge School. They found a car caught in the wooden structure, beat out the flames and chopped it free. [7] Ronald remembered that the men took Edna back to the Wallace home before continuing toward the school. The accounts preserve different details of the rescue. They do not establish whether Uncle Sam and the Wallace men were present together or arrived at different times. [3, 7] Percy did not return home until evening. [3] “Imagine my worry for him, and of course he thought I was safe at home all that time.” [3]

For much of the day, husband and wife had been separated by the fire, each unaware of the danger the other had faced. [3]

The Fire’s Other Victims

While Edna struggled to escape, the children at Brushy Ridge School were facing their own ordeal. Ronald Wallace remembered that by ten o’clock that morning, the classroom had become so dark with smoke and dust that the pupils could no longer see the blackboard. [7] At approximately eleven, Mr. Callaway came to speak to their teacher, Miss Davis. She sent an older pupil, Carl Wilson, to warn the Messer family, then instructed the remaining children to collect their coats and run across the road to the Callaway house. [7] Ted Callaway eventually loaded his wife Mamie, their children Bob and Evelyn, and nine schoolchildren into his car and drove north toward Cochrane. Miss Davis and several others remained behind, eventually finding shelter at the Edge home. [7] At the Cochrane Hotel, the evacuated children waited for news of their families. A Calgary reporter photographed them and later treated them to doughnuts and hot chocolate. [7] The school and its barn were destroyed. The Wallace family’s horse, Queenie, had been sheltering in the barn. Harry Edge managed to rescue her, but she suffered such severe smoke inhalation that she had to be put down the following day. [7] Across the district, other families suffered terrible losses. Harry Johnson later recalled losing his barn, all his feed and seventeen purebred registered cows, although the family home survived. [8] Bob Callaway remembered the ferocity of the wind and the eventual relief when it eased and rain began to fall. [9] The fire swept across the countryside, destroying buildings, fences, telephone poles, feed and livestock. [1, 3, 7, 8]

What Remained

When Edna returned home, the ranch buildings were still standing. The fire had passed dangerously close. [3] She remembered it jumping the creek, “about a mile jump from one hill top to another,” just north of their home. [3] Although the buildings survived, the family’s livestock and grazing land had suffered terribly. Approximately twenty recently weaned calves had been blinded by the fire and had to be put down. [3] The ranch had already produced too little winter feed because of the drought. What had been harvested was destroyed. Survival was only the beginning of the family’s difficulties. [1, 3]

The Days After

When Percy returned from trying to save livestock, the family’s beloved collie, Buster, was missing. Edna remembered how much they loved the dog and how little hope they had of seeing him again. [1]

The following day, people travelled from Calgary and Cochrane to see the devastation. The countryside was blackened. Fences and telephone poles had disappeared, leaving miles of burned ground. [1] Percy’s cousin Claude Copithorne was driving through the Brushy Ridge area, approximately three miles north of the ranch, when he noticed something move. He stopped and called out. Buster came racing toward him and jumped into the car. [1] Claude continued his journey before visiting Percy and Edna, bringing the missing dog home. Grandma wondered about that reunion for years. [1] “We often wonder if Buster recognized a Copithorne about Claude, or if there was something familiar about his voice.” [1] With thousands of people travelling through the area, the family found it remarkable that their shy dog had approached Claude. [1]

Another Narrow Escape

The following week, as the ranchers searched for winter feed, Percy’s brother George offered to take Percy, Frank and Clem Gardner north toward Olds in his newly purchased car. [1] A few miles north of Calgary, the car struck loose gravel, rolled into the ditch and overturned approximately four times before coming to rest upside down against a telephone pole. Remarkably, no one was injured. [1] Grandma recalled that everything inside the car was “all mixed up like a pup’s breakfast.” [1] Later that week, the men reached the Olds district, where arrangements were made to winter cattle on farms with available straw stacks. [1]

The Long Winter Ahead

Percy later described the fire as the worst feed crisis he had experienced. [10] That evening, when the situation seemed hopeless, Kenneth R. Coppock, secretary-manager of the Western Stock Growers, visited him and offered to help. [10, 11] Coppock helped Percy locate straw stacks in the Olds district and arrange government-supported transportation for the cattle. [10] Percy recalled that approximately five hundred or more cattle were distributed in small groups among different farms. Not all survived. [10] At one farm, some cattle were receiving too little water. Snow-blocked roads prevented Percy from checking on them for weeks, and several died. [10] Percy remembered what happened to the dead animals with a distinctly rancher’s sense of humour: [10]

“Instead of cows living high on the hog, the hogs were living high on the cows.” [10] Edna remembered the extraordinary snow that winter, piled as high as ten feet beside some roads. [1] “What a winter that was!” [1]

Men from the ranch spent time in the Olds district caring for the cattle, while the family worked to rebuild its feed supply and prepare for the following year. [1, 10] For Percy, spring brought a welcome homecoming. [10] “It was a happy day the following spring when I trailed them home from Cochrane. It took some of them longer than others to make the trip, but they sure knew their way home.” [10]

Remembering the Fire

Nearly ninety years later, many of Edna’s grandchildren continue to travel the roads through the countryside where the fire once burned. Grandma knew how to tell a good story. She also knew how to live the life stories are made of. And she was always happy to share a story over a cup of tea. If you were lucky, there might even be cinnamon toast.

Sources and Endnotes

1. Edna Avis Brown Copithorne, “Edna’s Story 10 (FGK 127),” The Sattvic Life, 20 November 2021. https://thesattviclife.com/2021/11/20/ednas-story-10-fgk-127/

2. Melissa Ramsay, family geographical knowledge of the neighbouring Copithorne homes (2026). Edna wrote that Jack “came up to visit Percy”; “up the hill from his nearby home” is the author’s geographical clarification.

3. Edna Avis Brown Copithorne, “Grandma’s Account of the Great Fire of 1936,” The Sattvic Life, 9 February 2023. https://thesattviclife.com/2023/02/09/grandmas-account-of-the-great-fire-of-1936/

4. Bob Callaway, “The Brushy Ridge Fire,” in Big Hill Country (1977), p. 718, reproduced by CHAPS in “Blue Sky Memories,” 13 January 2019. https://chapscochrane.com/blue-sky-memories/

5. CHAPS, “Walter Crowe Family.” https://chapscochrane.com/walter-crowe-family/ (Ernie Crowe’s Alberta Government Telephones agency, 1929–1948).

6. CHAPS, “Miscellaneous but Necessary,” telephone exchange section. https://chapscochrane.com/miscellaneous-but-necessary/ (party lines and switchboard operations).

7. Ronald Wallace, “The Prairie Fire That Drove Us From School,” reproduced in The Sattvic Life, 29 October 2024. https://thesattviclife.com/2024/10/29/the-prairie-fire-that-drove-us-from-school/

8. Harry Johnson’s recollection in CHAPS, “Alfred Callaway Family of Brushy Ridge.” https://chapscochrane.com/alfred-callaway-family-of-brushy-ridge/

9. Bob Callaway, “The Brushy Ridge Fire,” Big Hill Country, p. 718; reproduced in CHAPS, “Blue Sky Memories.” https://chapscochrane.com/blue-sky-memories/

10. Percy Copithorne, “Pigs Living High on the Cow — Percy’s version of the 1936 Fire,” The Sattvic Life, 21 December 2024. https://thesattviclife.com/2024/12/21/pigs-living-high-on-the-cow-percys- version-of-the-1936-fire/

11. Margaret Buckley, “Merino Ranch,” reproduced by CHAPS, 14 April 2020. https://chapscochrane.com/merino-ranch/ (identifies Ken Coppock as secretary-manager of the Western Stock Growers Association).

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happiness

A week in the life of a rancher’s wife in the 1950s.

I found a little booklet that Grandma wrote outlining her daily kitchen routine. It’s in a notebook that also has the rough copy of a letter to the lady my mom was living with in Florida, so I assume this was written 1955-57. It’s quite the routine she had, honestly I’m tired just writing it out!

Daily order of Work for Kitchen

  1. Save cream – 1 quart or large C. Jug
  2. Wash separator and milk pails
  3. Stack dishes properly soak pots and pans
  4. Check and reorganize foods, put away
  5. Wipe off refrigerator and all work surfaces in need of cleaning
  6. Wash dishes
  7. Shut door to dining room and sweep floor
  8. Wipe off surface of range. Clean spilled food from oven
  9. Dry damp work surfaces, wipe off marks on cupboards and window sill
  10. Clean sink. Rinse dishcloth or mop and hang out to dry when possible
  11. Take out garbage
  12. Clean wash basin and sink in porch

Time for above: 1 1/2 hours. Done at 9:30 am.

Monday Morning

  1. Put on porridge (cream of wheat 1 1/2 cups, water over brim in double boiler with 1 tablespoon salt in it)
  2. Coffee – 2 tablespoons. Fill pot 1/2 full of water to boil it. Then fill it up to to pour it
  3. Toast – one loaf un buttered
  4. See that all is on table – cream, sugar, milk, butter, jam, etc
  5. Fry 8 eggs, boil 2 white eggs 2 minutes
  6. If time bring up vegetables – wash enough spuds for diner to bake, peel enough potatoes and parsnips for supper or wash beets for dinner.
  7. Wash separator as soon as you have finished your breakfast, let stragglers look after themselves
  8. Fill wash tubs
  9. Do dishes and tidy kitchen
  10. See that there is no ugh meat ready for dinner and make a rice pudding
  11. Help with laundry.

Monday Afternoon

First put on meat to boil

Try and get some of the ironing done

5 pm make ginger bread with shipped cream for dessertA

After supper is cleared and floor swept, set table for breakfast.

7 am Tuesday

  1. Breakfast: porridge, coffee, toast, see that everything needed is on table, cream, milk, butter, etc.
  2. Defrost refrigerator
  3. 3 poach 8 eggs and boil 2 for 4 minutes
  4. (If time) Prepare enough potatoes for both dinner and supper (for dinner scallop them, plain boiled for supper). Also either turnips or cabbage for dinner and either carrots or peas for supper
  5. Wash separator etc as schedule
  6. Grind meat and make meat loaf
  7. Make Johnnie-cake for dessert
  8. Wash refrigerator

In afternoon do ironing, but at 2 pm put on pot roast on little stove and make chocolate blancmange pudding for dessert, near supper time whip cream for it.

After supper is over and kitchen tidy, set table for breakfast and mix dry ingredients for pancakes. Put syrup on table and griddle iron on little stove. Put beans to soak.

7 am Wednesday

  1. Breakfast: Porridge, coffee and pancakes, see all necessary things are on table and boil 2 eggs for 4 mins
  2. 2 (if time) Prepare enough potatoes for dinner and supper (french fry for dinner, boil and mast for supper)
  3. Put beans on to boil. Use left over carrots creamed for dinner or make macaroni and cheese.
  4. Wash separator as schedule
  5. At 10am put on steam pudding for dessert
  6. Prepare enough apples and make sauce for supper
  7. Cold meat for dinner, try and have steak for supper
  8. Put beans in oven for supper (sometimes have devilled eggs or salad instead of beans)
  9. Wednesday jobs (as convenient) – clan basement. Wash steps. Wash separator outside. Bring in week’s supply of vegetables.
  10. Last thing at night, mix dry ingredients for biscuits for breakfast.

7 am Thursday

  1. Breakfast: porridge, coffee, and hot biscuits, also put on enough bread for 2 people. Scramble 9 eggs and boiled 2 for 4 minutes
  2. Hope for enough potatoes to warm up for dinner but if not, prepare some for supper. Put them in with roast for supper
  3. Have cabbage or beets or peas for dinner and for supper, warmed up beets or prepare parsnips or make Yorkshire pudding
  4. Wash separator and dishes
  5. Make stew for dinner
  6. Make custard for dinner dessert
  7. Put soft water on to warm to wash cupboards and woodwork,. First Thursday, clean inside cupboards on east side. Second Thursday clean inside cupboards on west sideA
  8. At 2 pm put in roast for supper and make Boston Cream pie for dessert.

7am Friday

  1. Breakfast: porridge, coffee, meat if possible or friend eggs and toast and boil 2 eggs 4 minutes
  2. Prepare enough potatoes to scallop for dinner and to bake for supper
  3. For dinner have cold meat and either turnips or a salad. For supper, parsnips or warmed over vegetable
  4. Wash separator and dishes as scheduleH
  5. Help with sweeping all through house
  6. Make apple batter pudding for dinner and lemon pudding for supper
  7. In afternoon, clean cook stove thoroughly
  8. Make meat balls or hamburger for super (fry all thins on little stove)
  9. Last thing: put prunes to soak

7am Saturday

  1. Breakfast: porridge, coffee, toast, fried eggs, and boil 2 for 4 minutes etc
  2. Prepare enough vegetables, carrots and potatoes for dinner and supper. Riced potatoes for dinner and warmed in oven for super. Creamed carrots or if not enough, scalloped cabbage
  3. Put on pot roast for dinner
  4. Wash separator etc as schedule
  5. Make plain cake with whipped cream for dessert for dinner and boil prunes for the supper dessert
  6. Make ice cream or set jello for Sunday dessertMa
  7. Scrub and wax kitchen floor and have cold meat for supper
  8. After supper is over and table set for breakfast, etc, prepare dry ingredients for pancakes.

Sunday

8 am (if possible 8:30 am)

  1. Put roast in oven
  2. Breakfast – as usual – pancakes
  3. Prepare enough potatoes for both dinner and supper (have rolled for supper, boiled for dinner). Peas for dinner, salad for supper)
  4. Clean up as schedule
  5. Supper – cold meat -fruit
  6. Last thing at night put on wash water and cut up soap for washing Monday.

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happiness

Missing Martha Brown and other notes (writings by Frank Brown)

I found an old notebook of Frank Brown’s (my great grandfather) – it’s actually “The Cooper Notebook” from 1936, and like most things in my ancestry is agriculture related. This one seems to be about sheep, as the foreword in the book states:

This notebook is used and distributed in the hope that it will prove useful in everyday use, and at the same time, provide an immediate reminder of the more important aspects of sheep dipping and the uses of Cooper Products.”

I can honestly say that I, in my every day life, have managed to live a lot of years without knowing about the important aspects of sheep dipping, but I am a little bit wiser now. I’m still not sure that I will need it in my every day life, but one honestly never knows. I have learned a lot of things that at the time seemed useless, but then became essential to my well being so never say never.

The notebook is mostly full of people’s names and addresses, but there were several things Frank wrote about his late wife, or life in general. Poor Frank seemed kind of lost after the death of Martha.

My dear wife who died Sept 29, 1935

Always so thoughtful, unselfish and kind.

Few in this world are equal to find

A beautiful life suddenly come to an end

She died as she lived

Everyone’s friend

Always remembered.

And another one

My wife passed away Sept 29, 1935

Nothing can take away

The love a heart holds dear

Fond memories linger every day

Remembrance keeps her near.

Written by husband F. Brown

A few random writings:

Some noises are enormous,

Some are teeny small

Some make my ears all tingle

Some I hardly hear at all

Another one:

When things don’t go to suit you

And the whole world seems upside down

Don’t waste your time in fretting

But drive away that frown

Since life is oft perplexing

It’s much the wisest plan

To bear all trials bravely

And smile whenever you can.

Also:

A heart that never knew a Pain

Is like a Land without rain

Is like a land that never knows

A springtime flood or summer Rose

So let us thank our God for this

Our May-time, our December

The first embrace, the Parting Kiss

The things that we Remember

The day with neither rain or sun

Brought never flowers to anyone

Thank God for Joy and grief and strife

We live upon the Peaks of life.

As I’m sitting in Cold February weather and dreaming of June flowers I’m not sure I totally agree with him on this one, but I do love the clear blue skies of winter when they are here.

You suns and skies

And clouds of June

and flowers of June

Together

You cannot Rival for one

Hour this clear

December’s weather.

And:

Long delay in kindness

Takes the kindness all away.

The gracious life of love

Can’t ever lose its power.

When the great Scorer comes

To mark against your name

He writes not what

you lost or won

But how you played the game.

And a couple of warnings about dealing with people:

The honey bee has a red hot foot

The wasp has a slender tail

A bumblebee sits down quite hard

While the hornet turns you pale

The sting of the bee is hard to bear

It makes you ache and fret

but the sting that is made

By a trusted friend

Is the one you don’t forget.

Lastly this gem that was found on a lose scrap of paper, which gives an image I can’t quite get out of my head:

And when your time is over

And you’re a hopeless wreck

May you step back through your

Asshole and break your bloody neck

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happiness

Christmas in Ottawa in 1930 (Letter from Edna to her dad Frank)

My, it seems Grandma had a few suitors. Good on the man who sent her chocolates, but thankfully Grandpa sent her stationary so she could keep writing him. Practical.

512 Cooper St. Ottawa

January 13, 1930

Dear Papa:

I received your letter a few days ago but never seem to have a chance to do much writing. I enjoyed Xmas after all. Dalton phoned up early Xmas morning asking if I would like to go in so they came out for me in Roy Kennedy’s car (That is Gertie’s husband). Jim was there too, there was 14 of us for dinner. The girls were awfully nice with me then and they all couldn’t treat me nicer. I guess they were just shy at first. They want me to go straight back there when I leave Ottawa and stay a few weeks with them. I sure like Ottawa though and am having a grand time here. If I can get a job here I think I will stay in Ottawa. It’s a beautiful city and the people are sure full of fun. We went all through the Parliament Buildings. They sure are wonderful, I saw where Bennet sits etc. the Strutts are all conservatives. We also went through the museum and saw a lot of skeletons from Red Deer. Harrison drove us over to Hull and Alymer in Quebec one day. We drove across a mile long bridge to get there. We saw Snake River on the way down to Ottawa and the house where Ruth was born. While we were at Hull we saw the Eddie Match factories, they seemed about a mile long.

The weather was pretty cold the first couple of weeks, but since then it has been thawing and raining ever since with one or two cold nights once in a while. They are expecting it to turn cold now anytime s they haven’t had the real winter weather yet. The snow isn’t as deep as I expected it would be, they seem to use a lot of horses here, they use so many sleighs in the winter time. There’s two big dairies near here and they have a lot of big grey Percheron teams just like those from Acme. I often see them. How are all the horses? Strutts have a car, Harrison drives it all the time and takes us out often. Momma went back to Aunt Betsey’s a week ago last Saturday and I guess I’ll head back out the end of this week.

They have about 17 canaries here and some of them will soon be hatching young ones. They sure are lovely singers. Did you go to Beadle’s for the Turkey dinner? How is old Tom and Beadles? O. Fenton sent me a box of chocolates for Xmas, and Percy sent a writing case, and _______ a box of hankies, and Harry Johnson sent me a big box of writing paper and Bill M sent me a silver powder case with a satin cushion top.

If you see Ore Fenton will you thank him for me for the chocolates?

You were asking what I think about taking that farm at Olds. I think that 560 acres is too big a place for a man your age to take on. You need a tractor to do the work on a farm like that and why do they want to sell when the ground is all ready for another crop? Of course Olds is a good country and if they didn’t want too much for it, it might be a good idea to take it on shares with someone.

Well I want to go downtown this afternoon so I had better close now. I find it hard to find time to sit down and write a long letter wand they never go to bed before 1 o’clock at night. I’m sure having lots of fun here and hope you don’t find it too lonely. I wish you could sell out and come East now.

Well good-bye for now

With love

From Edna.

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A Frank Brown poem about his late wife Martha (aka Edna’s parents)

This is a poem written by my great-grandfather mourning the loss of his wife, my great grandmother. I wish I had listened more to the stories Grandma told me about her parents.

Lamentation for My Dear Wife who Died September 29, 1935

The summer sun will shine again

As brightly as of yore

The west wind blow a soft refrain

The waves caress the shore

The featured choir will trill sweet song

Bright flowers will greet the sight

The moon will rise mid starry throng

To mount the throne of night

But Not for me will nature smile

Nor birds their carols raise

No more can summer skies beguile

Nor flowers enchant my gaze

The moon may still her radiance shed

Just as on nights of yore

But what wails when hope is dead

And my Dear wife I’ll see no more.

Though quenchless fires will inward burn

To a high degree I know

Yea though I see all life’s glory turn

To dust and ashes now

But I’ll strive to pay this utmost price

Though bankrupt is my soul

And climb Cochrane Hill of sacrifice

Where duty points the goal…

Fond are the ties that are broken

And the rose that is faded and gone

But in silence this Dear rose is budding

And will bloom forth in heaven again

So shall it ever be in the bright morning

When hearts awakening see the shadows flee

Oh in that hour and fairer than dawning

My glorious thought – she is with thee.

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Dear Edna (A poem written about Grandma)

I’m assuming this poem was written by one of her schoolmates. I believe this was when she attended the end of high school in Calgary. It was written as a note, so the first part here is the note Penny wrote, with the poem attached at the end.

Edna, care of Barbra

Dear Edna,

Please excuse this paper, but as usual I am in bed writing of course very naughty, but supposed to be good? I am a very poor writer as Barbra knows. I also hope you will forgive me, my being so forward as to write but as you are Barbra’s friend, you will understand. I am not a poet, but I often write lines of junk to Barbra to tease her. I will do my best to make you a poem which will be a very poor best. As you are fond of horses and a good rider, maybe you will understand my craze for race and show horses. Thoroughbreds are my favourite. Well I am slow at hitting things quickly, I hope you hike out to the weasel-head on Saturday. Here is my poor poem.

Edna

Edna sweet and pretty

Blue eyes and flaxen curls

Oh, loved by all is she

Especially envied by the other girls

Her beauty is well known

Her saddle o’er the gate

So carefully thrown

While for a pony she does wait.

It won’t be long

‘Ere she does ride

Tracing the breezes strong

By Barbra’s side

Out in the moonlight night

When the stars are bright

With love and hopes

From Penny H.

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Just a Thought at Twilight (A poem by Edna)

Just a Thought at Twilight When my Spirit’s Low

Music is throbbing in my ears

A Christian hymn sung at twilight

Faintly it dies with the breeze then nears

As the human notes gain in might

It’s Sunday evening and the first day of May

I’m thinking of my home in the foothills

And I wish I were there to enjoy this day

Where the meadowlarks voice throbs and trills

The city has many large and magnificent churches

Where the people gather in crowds to worship God for an hour or two

But all day in the country where’er your eye searches

Your heart humbly praises the Master of the picturesque view

I wish I were back to my kinfolk again

And to the hills and the mountains dear

To help plow the fields and to plant the rich grain

Which feeds all these mouths who at the farmers sneer

(On the back is written: Please return to me because this is the only copy I’ve got and I have promised to send Jean all my attempts at poetry. E.A.B.)

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The Story of Grandma’s Colt “Kitchener”

Grandma loved horses at least as much as I love horses, so it brings me a lot of joy when I read her stories about how much she loved riding or being around horses. I had never heard the story of Kitchener before, and I’m not sure what club she was part of for this story/photo – perhaps 4H or something like that. I also have no idea why the person marking this story gave her such a low grade, personally I thought the story was great – who knows what the actual assignment was though.

My Colt

In the first week of my colt’s life, there’s s not much to write about but head and legs. If his body would have been a little bigger, his head wouldn’t have looked so big, for it was a really dainty, innocent looking little head. He had a little yellowish, white nose, with wide nostrils and small mouth. His eyes were large and brown with a good width between them. He seemed to be proud of them because he was always rolling them and showing the whites of them. He had very smooth, sharp pointed ears and their size was in right proportion to his head. With the slightest sound, he would turn an ear to hear it and when the flies bothered him, for he was born the first of July 1923, he would lay both his ears down flat on his head, showing he was angry. As he gets older, his head gets more beautiful. He had a long, long neck this first week and a little fuzzy fringe of mane. His body was long and thin and a gold colour, for he is an English thoroughbred. He had very long, thin legs and a little curly tail that he was always switching.

The mother of my colt is my own and favourite pony. She is very high lifed and frisky or I could ride her to school. However, I can ride her in the fair and she has taken first prize every time she was put in. I kept my pony and colt in a little field all by themselves where the grass was tall and green. Every morning and evening I feed my pony oats or a bran mash and when my colt was old enough, I fed him oats. Every day I put a little halter on my colt and tied him up and cleaned him. In the cool evening I would coax and lead my little colt around until he would follow me anywhere. I soon began to make him trot and lope as well as walk. To do this, I had to take the long buggy whip and touch him just hard enough to make him trot or lope. I never bothered my colt much in the heat of the day when the flies were bad because he was always in a bad temper and sometimes would try to kick or bite me. It was very hard to pick a suitable name for him, but at last I decided to call him Kitchener.

As the fall was drawing near and school opening, I thought it would be alright to put him and his mother out in a field with the other horses where there was two or three straw stacks. I did this and they kept fat and frisky all winter. About the middle of February, I put a halter on my colt and put it in the stable by itself. The first week it was very lonesome for its mother, but it soon forgot her. During the winter it had grown more shapely but it had long, shaggy hair. Morning and night I fed it linseed and oats. Every Saturday I would brush and clean him and lead him out. When he’d first come out he’d buck and jump around me in a circle. After he had raced around me for a while, he would come up to me and I would give him a little salt or brown sugar.

One day after he had taken exercise, I tied him up and put a saddle blanket on him. He took no notice of it, so I put on a little saddle that weighed about five pounds. He drew away from me, and seemed a little nervous of the saddle, but I petted and talked to him and he soon took no notice of it either. Nearly every night when I was going to feed him I would step outside of the stable door and call him. He soon started to answer my call by his ringing whinnies and I could hear him paw the stable floor with his iron like hooves. When I would first go in, he would nibble and bite at my coat sleeve while I fed him. And when i would be getting his oats ready he would toss his head with a conceded little whinny.

On the first of May, my colt was shiny with a satin like coat and was well shaped. He would roll his eyes and always held his neck in a bow and would toss his head and let out a fierce, ringing neigh. He had strong muscular legs and a long body and neck. He was very easily trained. When I would tell him to get over, he would move to the other side of his stall and when I told him to back up, he would back up. All together he seemed a very intelligent little colt and I hope he will someday be a good racehorse.

Teacher note: your story is a good one, but the booklet is not well prepared 4/10

Additional note: took cold Dec 20, 1924. took sick Dec 24, 1924. Died March 8 1925

Poor little Kitchener, poor Grandma.

Here’s a poem that she wrote that I found in a stack of papers that is about this beloved little colt.

Kitchener

You want me to write of my favourite horse

Oh, you don’t understand I know of course.

You don’t know how deep in my heart

Had sunk the love from which I had to part.

I’ve had many playmates and many a chum

But their affections couldn’t equal this dear one.

He would play whenever I’d want to play

No person so agreeable as he was always.

I guess you have never played games with a horse

Perhaps you will think I am fibbing or worse.

But it’s the truth; oh, I know how true

How clever and playful, I can’t tell you.

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happiness

Cochrane Hill – a poem by Edna

Grandma sure loved her hometown. She told so many stories , sharing her love for the little village where she was born, that is now a small city pretending to be a town. I am not sure when this poem was written, it was found with articles from the 1920s, but this was typed out, so I’m assuming it was later on that that. However, if Grandma could see now “the hill, now streamlined to follow the mode, as tourists go speeding….” It certainly isn’t anything resembling a cow trail anymore. The mountains and the view though, they’re the same. It’s still a beautiful little area, it’s home.

Cochrane Hill

The foothill country in the days that are gone,

Had trails that led you hither and yon.

And many a well worn path was trod,

Till great, deep ruts were buried in sod.

One of those trails is history now,

A trail that’s not forgotten somehow.

It’s a long, long slope that curves until

You know you’re descending the Cochrane Hill.

The hill, now streamlined to follow the mode,

As tourists go speeding where Natives once rode,

No more is a cow trail, but a road that will last

Though present day traffic is heavy and fast.

Decending this hill you come into view

Of the beautiful Bow, all misty with dew.

And the Rockies, majestic, mighty and tall.

Truly a sight remembered by all.

You may like the view from a plane in the air,

Or even the view from a Pullman chair.

But just about sunrise when morn is so still,

Oh give me the view from Cochrane Hill.

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happiness

A Letter from Flora Zinn

Who was Flora Zinn? I had no idea until I found this letter, and I still have no clue how she was connected to Frank, but she was a woman I’d like to know more about- actually I’d love to know more about her entire family. I did a quick search, and you can find a copy of her obituary here, and also a little biography about her and her sisters here. Two of the four sisters had masters degrees in the early 1900s. I find that amazing, and so inspirational. Talk about a group of accomplished women!

Milton, Wisconsin

July 9, 1940

Dear Mr. Brown

This is the middle of the third week of my vacation and right well am I enjoying it. There was just enough of being busy and of leisure to satisfy me in the weeks I was in Milwaukee, and last Friday I came here to the home of my sister Ruth and brother in law Leman Stringer to spend a week or ten days. They live in the oak woods and I told you about Orchard Farm as they call it. Leman has planted a young orchard of apple trees which is doing well. He works hard and enjoys it though he never expects to get rich. If he manages to eke out his salary as a college “professor” he will be satisfied. He is now mowing – I hear the sound of the motor of his small hand propelled tractor. He had a very small piece of alfalfa. Otherwise he doesn’t try to raise any crops except an adequate garden. He has a flock of young chickens which they eat or sell before winter. A good deal of the land is covered by oak woods and until this year he has rented a large part of it to a neighbouring farmer for pasturage. This he doesn’t intend to do anymore, and he is interested in reforestation.

We have had delightful weather for the past two or three weeks since a rain up almost three inches in three days. So the country is green and beautiful. Leman says a shower would do good now again. And a little more heat would make the corn grow faster even if it would be a little less comfortable.

The air is sweet with the scent of clover, wild roses, and new mown hay. There are wild gooseberries, raspberries, crabs, cherries, grapes, hickory nuts, lots of varieties of shrubs and wild flowers and even the end of a lake, which though not spring fed and so rather stagnant at present has white and yellow water Lillie’s in bloom on it.

It is a grand place to be in. I have been rather lazy so far – just helping a little with the housework, mending, reading, and taking some jaunts in the woods. I think I should go out and pick some wild gooseberries for my sister to make jam with. One drawback is the numerous mosquitoes.

How are your crops by this time? I can imagine that it must be difficult to sell a farm for cash now. My brother in law has been unable to sell their house in the village for cash, although he would much like to do so in order to settle up his indebtedness on this place.

My sister Zea and Ruth and niece Mary drove to Colorado to the wedding of my nephew and had a fine time. I couldn’t go because my school wasn’t out. Now Zea has gone again to visit friends of hers in Cleveland, Ohio. She drove alone and expects to be gone two or three weeks.

About the war, it seems to do little good to discuss it. It has happened so fast that we don’t know what to expect next. My sister Ruth thinks that the W.S. should enter at once on the side of England. I can’t feel that way about it because I am really a pacifist and feel that we can do more not only for ourselves but for England and democracy by remaining out of the conflict. Many people who might favour active participation feel that the W.S. is not equiped with enough airplanes and war machines to give England adequate aid before her crucial time is past.

Now for some gooseberry picking. Don’t work too hard yourself

Sincerely, Flora Zinn

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