"Celebrating Carl Anderson" by Dan Aire In Legacy November 1998~January 1999

The man of uncommon vision, drive, integrity and confidently optimistic spirit spearheaded the farmers' cooperatives around Brooks. He turned 100 on July 19th, 1998.

Renie Grass, a native of the Brooks area, became friends with Carl Anderson when he was already in his 80s. Repeatedly, she urged him to write his memoirs, but he continued to dismiss the idea. Finally she decided, "If he would not consider doing the job perhaps it fell to me to bear witness to the life and times of this quite extraordinary person I had the good fortune to know." Her new book, Groundwork, Carl Anderson-Farm Crusader tells the story of his life.

Carl Anderson left Nebraska with his family in 1918, lured to southern Alberta by the Canadian Pacific Railways' promise of good, reasonably-priced, arable land. They purchased a farm on the Bow River near Brooks and faced the challenges of an arid landscape, an irrigation system in disarray, and a corporation unenthusiastic about helping to fulfill the promises in their brochures.

Throughout the 1920s, Brooks-area farmers struggled with dropping market prices for their grain and cattle and increasing debt. When the Depression hit, they called for a moratorium on land payments but the CPR refused. Then Anderson and a handful of others led a farmers' cooperative take-over of the huge irrigation project. Rather than continuing to lose money the company agreed. In 1935, the farmers established the farmer-owned and run Eastern Irrigation District. They had persuaded the CPR to transfer the water delivery system, all the farming land and the unoccupied land in the 1.5 million acre block, plus a $300,000 transition fund, to them. Anderson served as chairman of the board of trustees of the EID from 1935 to 1941, and as general manger from 1947 to 1964.

Anderson also lobbied for the creation of cooperative associations to help farmers finance livestock purchases at a time when chartered banks refused to lend them money. He went on to supervise the Brooks area associations for 40 years.

For his outstanding contributions to agriculture, Anderson became an honorary member of the Agricultural Institute of Canada in 1960 and was inducted into the Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame in 1974. This summer, to celebrate his 100th, the Eastern Irrigation District established a $50,000 endowment fund in Carl Anderson's honour for the libraries within the borders served by its water delivery system. It is a fine tribute to the energetic plain-spoken man who has continued to serve his community with such determination.

Renie Gross knows Anderson well and sees his personal generosity and concern for others as defining characteristics. "People tend to think that men of action might not notice a lot about others… When Lee, his wife of 56 years, died, he set up two scholarships in her name: one here [in Brooks] and one in New Brunswick where she was from. The top criterion for applicants is they be single parents, especially women."

Gross writes that Anderson firmly believed that farmers' cooperatives were essential for economic stability and repeatedly showed his personal commitment to their success. "He would take money out of his own pocket so that the association wouldn't go under," she reports.

I asked Renie Gross what she sees as Carl Anderson's economic, cultural, and political legacy in Alberta. "Carl helped form the Bow Slope Shipping Association and the Feeder Associations which gave farmers the opportunity to borrow money to buy livestock. Farmers will tell you that the associations pulled them through," she says.

"Culturally, Carl helped establish 'a place to belong to.' Prior to the establishment of the carious cooperatives, the Brooks area was a raw settlement, and people moved on. Now, many families have lived in the area for three and four generations. Politically, Carl believes in cooperation as a way to run a country, a province, a place."

Does Anderson see the conservatism of today as a betrayal of the cooperative spirit that helped develop Alberta? "I don't think he sees it as a betrayal," Gross responds. "He's somewhat amused by politics. He still believes that people just need a chance and they'll do OK. By and large, the people he's given chances to have proven him right."