Prior to 1905 the present day Province of Alberta had not become a Province but was part of the North West Territories. There were Royal Mounted Police barracks on the St. Mary’s River north-west of our ranch, and on the north branch of the Milk River south of our ranch. Also at Writing-on-Stone. The Mounted Police made very regular patrols and generally stopped at the ranch to have our foreman sign their patrol reports. There were a lot of fine fellows on the police force in those days, many of them coming from well-to-do English families. A few early ranchers had come into our territory ahead of my father. They had squatted down in spots which appealed to them, some of them homesteading on Government land and others just squatted down. They thought it foolish to but land when they could use all they wanted for nothing.
I remember the two Wayne brothers, Bob and Ted, who were bachelors and had dug a cellar shelter in the bank of a coulee which became known as Wayne’s coulee and which empties into the north branch of the Milk River. They were Englishmen and personal comfort meant nothing to them. On cold, raw days they would be riding with a ragged old coat out at the elbows, and rumor had it that they generally depended upon a flask of whiskey to provide inside warmth. Their dish-washing generally took place about every four or five days.
The late Bill Kirkaldy, who died in Swift Current just a few weeks ago, was another one who I remember settled on a coulee which is called Kirkaldy coulee and which also empties into the north branch of the Milk River. The present Kirkaldy Ranch belonging to the Knight Sugar Company, and which Company is now owned by the McIntyre Ranching Company, was named after Bill Kirkaldy. He also was a bachelor at that time and a very good neighbor, although his small ranch was located about 20 miles from our ranch.
Charles McCarthy was our nearest neighbor, his ranch being about 11 miles west of ours. His brand was D-K on the left ribs. One of his sons, Wilson McCarthy, grew up on this ranch and was a good early time cowboy. He is now President of the Denver and Rio Grand Railroad Company, with homes in Salt Lake City and Denver, Colorado. Occasionally I meet with him and we always enjoy talking over old times.
The late Walter Ross, who had come to our part of Alberta some considerable time before my father did, had established the Brown Ranch on the St. Mary River. He was a real Scotchman with two small sons, George Graham and John Alexander. His wife had died shortly after the birth of the younger son, John, or “Jack” as he was called. Mr. Ross was a remarkable character who had many friends and I do not believe that he had many enemies. He disposed of the Brown Ranch and then acquired about 11,000 acres of land immediately to the south of us around the year 1900 and built a big, square stone house, with walls about two feet thick, on a hilltop overlooking a large lake, which is now known as Ross Lake.
Through the years, from 1900 until about 1923, he passed by our place many times on his way from his ranch to Lethbridge and return, occasionally staying overnight with us. He became the principal owner in the J. H. Wallace & Company ranching business. The younger son Jack, who had graduated from a Military College in Ontario, became a Major in the Canadian Army during the first World War and was killed in action overseas. George, who spent a great deal of time, after completing his schooling in Ontario, with the J. H. Wallace & Company ranches, became a member of the Canadian Air Force during the First World War. After the end of the war he disposed of his ranch south of our place and became our “Flying Rancher,” with ranches some seventy miles east of us acquired through the liquidation of J. H. Wallace & Company. Through the years we have had many common interests and have done a lot of “fence post” figuring together. He is an original thinker and always figures out the cost of things in terms of cows, and is a cow man all the way through.
(To Be Continued)
