Benjamin Tyler Coon John Marshall Davidson Ditrich Family Abraham Dodd Christopher Storrar Donaldson The Ermacora Family Sir Alexander Galt Louie and Mary Gresl William Duncan Livingstone Hardie The Livingstones George Rollingson Nicholas and Marcella Sheran William Stafford

by Anne Van Vreumingen

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Vickie's Story

She later met and married Ian MacKay and had three children, Beverley, working at Canterra Oil, Calgary, Cheryl working at A.G.T. and just recently married Patrick Cady, also of Calgary while Bill remains in Lethbridge working at the Regional Hospital.

I would also like to mention a very special person to our family history (Johnny Walker) who was not only a friend but worked endless hours on the farm with our Dad. He was very much a part of our family and to this day we often mention that without (Johnny) as my Dad called him, chores would have been left undone.

The youngest sister Sara was the last one to be born. She also helped with all the chores, and we have many happy memories. She is married to Jake Marshall and lives now in Lethbridge. She has 3 daughters, Betty Jean, Marlene and Brenda Lee and one son Jeff.

The coalmines, of course, played an important part in our lives, and there are many stories and anecdotes to tell about those early days. My father worked in the Coalhurst Mine from approximately 1914 to 1935, and was killed during the big explosion when 16 miners were killed. It was hard on all those families, most of them our friends. It was not like today, where the Companies make provisions for the widows. However, the Mining Company offered to buy clothing for the families that lost their breadwinners. They sent us to the Hudson Bay Company in Lethbridge, where we were fitted with black funeral clothing. The write-up in the "Lethbridge Herald" tells only part of the story! We all suffered deeply, there were only 2 girls left on the farm and poor mother was not able to keep it. It was all too much for her and she sold the farm, for very little money, to the Wesselman family. Mother and the 2 girls moved to Kimberley, where Hector and Bertha lived. She received a widow's pension of 35 dollars per month, hardly enough to live on. Mother was 57 years old by then and was plagued by arthritis. We all helped her a little bit and we managed to come through the ordeal.

Right now there is a story shown on T.V. called "The Citadel" and this shows in every aspect how life in the mines was in father's day. The whistle was blowing when the accident occurred and mothers and children were running to the mine to see if it was one of their people. The doctor we had for many years was Dr. Inkrote, and anyone reading this article and watching The Citadel on T.V. will agree that it was much like in our days!

Lots of things come back to me while I am writing this. For example, Christmas was always a highlight. We had lots to eat and father cooked a turkey, duck or chicken that we had raised ourselves. Even in hard times we would hang our stockings, and the next morning we would find a Japanese orange, peanuts, a striped candy cane or a story book that we would either colour or read. I can't remember having a Christmas tree, not until I got married. Other things that come to mind is the memory of my mother and my oldest sister Treasa cleaning and cooking the fish that the men folk had caught in the "Old Man River". They put them in sealers and we had fish all winter. We were pretty lucky to be on the farm with our family, there was always plenty to eat and we never went hungry.

We had a dog called "Spotty". Once he had a large growth on his neck, he was deadly ill and would have died, but father and my brother Hector decided to operate! My father took his straight razor, clipped the hair on the neck, cut the skin and took out the tumor. Mother put Spotty in a warm blanket with a hot water bottle and after a few days he came around. But he could never bark again and us kids used to say "Pa, you cut his "barker" out!"

Father had a dray and two horses "Mabel" and "Browny". He would go to Coalhurst to try and sell some vegetables and eggs, so we could buy other staples. The Community Miners Hall was one of his favorite spots and he would stop for a few beers and a visit with his friends. Often he would come home empty handed and all the produce gone. He would often give it away to people that were less fortunate than us. With the mine closed all summer and no work, people would have no money and would promise father that they would pay sometime later. Once in a while dad would come home with sugar, coffee and other things. Mother would ask where he got the money and he would tell us that some lady had stopped him in the street and paid him the money she promised to pay him years ago. He would give to other people sometimes not even knowing their names. He was a very generous man and we loved him dearly. He made home-made wine from choke-cherries, which we trampled in a barrel, barefooted and we had pink feet for many days! Dad had a way with kids! He would tell us that the Government Inspector was coming to see if we had cleaned the weeds in front of the farm, and of course we believed him. Maybe it was true in those days! He was a very proud man and wanted us to live truthful and respectable. That, he said, was all he asked from us.

Coalhurst Community days were exciting and we all looked forward to them and marked them on our calendar. I remember the McDermotts, Bublicks, McDonalds and the Chinese store. On sports days there would be races, baseball, high jumping and we all entered. Our fathers and mothers would come to watch us. The prizes were usually 25—15 or 10 cents.

Also in school we had many games we played. I belonged to a girls' soft-ball team and we had summer picnics and also the Christmas concerts were fun. My brother and I sneaked once in awhile behind the barn and smoked! There was some very dry manure and we put that in a corn-cob pipe and we took matches from the kitchen. But our mother had eyes in the back of her head and she would catch us and we would be sick for days. That is probably the reason why I don't smoke today.

I also remember from my younger days in Wigan, how the Indians would come to scrounge for anything they could use. Mother would always give them some eggs, a chicken or odds and ends she knew they could use. We were always afraid of them and stayed pretty close to mother. But, when we were naughty, mother would threaten us, saying that when the Indians came again she would give us away! I don't know if that helped but I do remember that when those Indians came again we would hide under the bed and we would be very quiet until they had gone.

Oh! I could go on for ages! But this book would get too thick and we have to leave room for other old-timers to write their stories. We hope that some of our dear friends, whom we haven’t seen in years, will read these lines and maybe get in touch with us!

The Ermacora family had a Re-Union in Trail, B.C. last summer. There were hundreds of off-spring from my father ad my uncle Giuseppe. We had a wonderful time and ate lots of spaghetti gallons of beer and wine and danced our feet off.

This article titled "Ermacora Family" by Anne Van Vreumingen is reprinted from Our Treasured Heritage: A History of Coalhurst and District (Lethbridge, Alberta: Coalhurst History Society, 1984. The Heritage Community Foundation and the Year of the Coal Miner Consortium express their thanks to the author and the Coalhurst History Society for this material.