- 6 _

Looking back on it, I can see what a strain this move must have been for
my mother. Reared in a family of eleven children she had never been very far from
home and always had her mother and sisters to help when she needed help. Here she
was a thousand miles from any one she knew and she couldn't eVen get a good cup of
coffee. I remember our first meal in Winnipeg at a little Hotel. mamma stirred
sugar and cream into what she thought was a lovely strong cup of coffee. well it
turned out to be black tea which she had never tasted. At that time only green tea
was used in Illinois. However for us younger ones it was a great adventure and we
enjoyed every minute of it.

my father had been in Manitoba the fall before and had located our two
sections of land by finding the mounds in the deep prairie grass. It was about
equal distant from Sperling, Lowe Farm, Brunkild and McTavish. On the NbrthéWest
corner nearest Sperling, he erected a small stable and a shack. He had brought
some equipment, and a team of horses, a cow, a plough and tools. He started to make
the foundation for a real house when he suddenly became homesick and leaving the
stock with Lesters, north of Sperling, he took the first train back to Rockford.

He is quoted as having said, "Fan, (his wife) I will never go back to that God-
forsaken country."

However, by spring my mother had bolstered his courage, and so the 18th of
April found us riding out to our new home in a bob-sleigh, drawn by our black team,
Sam and Dick. It was a calm sunny day, and the reflection from the snow gave us
real sunburns. I remember papa saying that Chester looked as red as he did the
first time I saw him.

Twelve feet of snow had drifted over the door of our shack and had to be
shovelled away, and we could run right up on the roof of the stable. The house was
16 x 2h, one storey. In Rockford we had had a fourteen room house, so this was
quite a change. Papa built bunk-beds across one end to make sleeping Space and
furniture was piled clear to the ceiling on the other walls. For lack of an oven,
my first birthday cake in Nanitoba had to be fried. It tasted pretty good too.

Our carloads of goods arrived somewhat later. There were sixteen more
horses, four cows, and there had been a cat and her kittens, but somehow the cats
had escaped in St. Paul. One boxcar contained a dismantled barn from our farm in
Rockford. Each beam and timber was numbered to facilitate its re-erection, and
the following summer it was rebuilt to make a barn 108 feet long. ‘We younger
children had the task of finding and bringing home the stones for the foundation.

We could see the stones on the newly burned off prairie surrounding our place, and
were given a spade and a horse and stone-boat for the job. Occasionally, we found
a stone we could not handle, and Papa and Orville had to give us a hand.

well Spring came quickly at last, and as our land was all unbroken prairie,
my father rented a farm over Nbrth of myrtle from mr. S.P. Hinch of German, Many
of you will remember Hr. Hinch. When he drove out to inspect our efforts on the
farm, he drove a fine team of sorrel horses with red-rimmed eyes. we were overcome
with admiration.

The myrtle neighbours were kind to us, giving us vegetables from their
gardens and helping us in various ways. I remember the Halsteads and Pfrimmers
especially, and also a good neighbour named Strutt.

Summer was dry and harvest light. A steam threshing outfit came when we had
our turn, and so it was the end of October when we were cleared up and ready to move
back to our own farm. It was Hallowe'en and we planned a good early start, but the
pigs broke out and by the time we had caught them it was getting late. Thirteen
miles in the soft, warm dark night, with any of us who were big enough driving one
of the outfits. mamma had the horse and buggy and took the two little girls and the
cats (yes, we had acquired some cats). Ella was supposed to be with me on the water-
tank, but had to drive Chester's four-horse team so he could be free to herd the
cattle along. Eleven o'clock when we got home, tired and sleepy, bed had to be set
up before we could tumble in though.

During the first summer a road was put through past our place. Billy Shewman
(the father of Harry Showman, M.L.A.) had an elevator-grader and horses for the work.
I think there were 20 horses on each grader but I'm not sure. A large tent for
the horses, and cabooses for the men and family, made up the caravan, and with this

  
 

outfit they camped wherever a road was to be made. It was wonderful for us to have
children to play with, We enjoyed Lottie, Lily and Harry Shewman so much, and it