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Ce texte a été publié en anglais et n'est pas disponible en français.

Arthur P. Rose Family

By Mrs. Florence Miller

Arthur P. Rose was born in Huntington, England. He married Carrie Oldroyd, who was also born in England, at King's Lynn on November 8, 1868. They were married at King's Lynn on January 3, 1894 and came to Canada that same year, settling first in Souris, Manitoba. They remained there until November, 1905, when they went to Mountain Home, Idaho, but did not like it here so came to Alberta in February of 1906. Arthur Rose, Frank Papworth and Edward Ingram all came out to Sundial to homestead together. Mr. Rose settled on the S.W. 1/4 4-13-19-W.4, - Edward Ingram took a place on mile west and Frank Papworth settled next to Rose's on the east. The Ingram family, some of whom lived in Lethbridge, were cousins to Carrie Rose. Mrs. Rose's sister Laura Oldroyd came out from England for a visit and remained to marry Web Farley.

The first winter they spent in Alberta, 1906-07, was the worst in history; all the wild long horn cattle died of starvation when the snow became so deep they could not get food. My folks told of these long horn cattle that roamed there when they first settled. My mother would go to visit Mrs. Ingram and would take a large cloth of some kind and wave it above her head to scare the cattle away, as some acted like they might go for you, but the cloth always scared them.

Frank Papworth was a bachelor for many years and his father lived with him. He later married a school teacher, but I don't remember the date. There was one young man by the name of Benny Hanson who lived cornerways from us on the southwest. He just lived there a short time and contracted pneumonia and died. I was just a kid at the time and do not remember too many details.

I was born in Calgary in 1907 and was adopted by Mr. And Mrs. Rose in 1908 when I was about a year old. The history from 1906 to 1915 I am not very well versed on. I do recall when I was a child, of new families coming to settle but don't remember names. The First World War was, of course, all the news at that time.

We stayed in Sundial until 1919 when my father sold the farm to Mr. A.P. Hughes of Barons and moved to British Columbia because his health was not good. The doctor told him he should go to a lower altitude, because of he heart. They did not have all the wonderful things to help folks that they do now. We went to live on Vancouver Island and stayed there until 1924, when my father died of a heart attack in March. My mother sold the place where we lived and she and I came back to Lethbridge to live. She passed away in 1954. I married and went to California in 1933 and then came to Nevada in 1946. We do not have any children.

There are not too many activities in Sundial that I remember too much about. My mother and father always joined in with the neighbours on picnics and get-togethers and I remember there was always a picnic or some plays put on by the school children when school let out the summer and we had fun doing this. I first went to school in the one-room school north of Web Farley's and then, when they built the consolidated school which had two rooms, located north of the Edward Ingram farm, I went there until we moved in 1919.

I remember the big wheat crops of 1915 and 1916 and all the farmers were so happy, as that was the first really large yielding crops and most everyone did very well financially those two years. We lived very quietly those days with just the farm work to be done. In the winter when it stormed so bad we were practically shut our of everything; I did not see the neighbours very often.

My best friend was Carrie Ingram, daughter of Edward Ingram. We were about the same age and used to go horseback riding together and visit quite a bit. I knew all of the girls; there were Edna, Pearl, Ethel and Carrie. Pearl was married to Jim Maitland and believe she eventually went to live in B.C. Mr. and Mrs. Ingram also went to B.C. when they retired.

From Drybelt Pioneers of Sundial, Enchant and Retlaw, 1967

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