| Memories
of Keady
By
Melvyn Campbell Brocklebank (Mel)
Born July 26, 1922 at Parr, Alberta
Toprow - Left to right - Wilda Stott, Jean Greenfield,
Mary Henderson, Miss McLelland (teacher), Jean Cordick, Wilda Cordick,
Mary Kergan, Grace Henderson.
Second row - Left to right - Douglas Greenfield, Islay Cook, Gena Brocklebank,
Erla Ruhl, Bernice Gallbraith, Arnold Cook.
Third row - Left to right - Chester Kuhl, Harvey Ruhl, Duncan Spencer,
Ben Greenfield, Arnold Kuhl, Jack Riely, Gordon Henderson, Howard Kuhl.
The phot is kind of fadded with time - so poor Grace Henderson is dim.
In June,
1936, George and Catherine Brocklebank and their three children, Celia,
15, Melvyn age 11 and Georgina age 4, arrived at Keady from Alberta. George
was speaking with somebody at Williamsford and they said they might need
a grist mill at Keady. We had a 1928 Chev with a small utility trailer
and very little money.
Keady
was just a crossroads with a few houses. The first thing to do was fInd
a place to live. We rented a small house for a dollar a month. The general
store was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Bowman and they said that Lorne Cook
had operated a grist mill the winter before, so we hunted up Lorne Cook,
He said he was not going to operate a grist mill anymore. He offered us
employment, for the summer - George as a farm labourer and Mel, twelve
years old, looking after one thousand small young turkeys. George was
paid a dollar a day and Mel 25 cents a day, plus noon dinner and supper.
I had
to keep the brooder stoves running and food and water in the feeders and
keep the young turkeys warm and fed. If the young turkeys got cold they
would pile on top of one another to keep warm and smother those on the
bottom of the pile.
The
residents of Keady were Jack Stott, blacksmith, the general store, run
by Mr. and Mrs. Bowman, a school where the teacher was Miss McMullen and
about three other houses, one occupied by Julius Kuhl, a retired farmer,
one by Mr. and Mrs. Art Galbraith and one by Lorne Barber.
There
were two churches - the United Church with a manse, and a Baptist Church
with no resident minister. There must have been a few other houses, but
they escape my memory.
There
were several farmers in the vicinity - Chris Kuhl, Julius son, Henry Ruhl,
a farmer who was married to Julius Kuhl's daughter, Stan and Mel Henderson,
two families of Wepplers, Mel and Harold Smith, Neil Welsh, and two Agnew
families.
I was
twelve years old at that time, until July 26 (I'm 87 now), so I'm trusting
to my memory. In my spare time I cut stove wood using a crosscut saw,
with Lorne Barber who was lame and had a temper. He would get angry and
throw the crosscut saw into the bushes so we would have to stop work and
look for it in order to start work again.
That
September I attended the public school in Keady (which is now gone) in
Senior fourth . The other pupils in Senior fourth were Clara RubI, Neil
Gilchrist, and Jimmy Sinclair, and Mary Henderson.
There
may have been others but I don't remember. The teacher was Miss McMullen,
she later married one of the Weppler boys. Thanks to Miss McMullen I passed
my Grade 8 exam the next spring with honours.
In the
summer of 1937 I worked for Elgin Sherman for 50 cents a day. I thinned
turnips with a hoe, and scuffled to keep the weeds down. I used a little
blood mare that Elgin had and she was smarter than me.
I had
to turn the right way to head her into the next row or she would make
a complete circle and head for the barn. (I worked with horses in Alberta
since I was eight years old so it wasn't new to me)
When
I wasn't scuffling, I was hoeing. It seemed to me there was about five
acres of turnips. However things looked bigger to me in my younger days.
For
the next two years I worked as a farm hand for Milton Sherman, D.A. Smith,
and several other farmers when time permitted, for any farmer who wanted
a man's work for a boy's pay. At threshing time I usually got the job
of carrying the grain up the gangway to the granary in bushel boxes. When
threshing was over I went to silo fillings. First we cut the corn stocks
down with a short handled hoe and put them in bundles, then gathered them
up with a team and wagon and took the corn to the silo where we put it
through the cutting box, and blew it into the silo. Usually there were
a couple of older men, seniors, who walked around in the silo to pack
it down.
We ate
well - one farmer Hughie Cook, said we must have filled the silo with
pie because we ate so much, especially us younger guys.
In the
summer of 1939 I cut cordwood (soft wood) for a man named Jones at one
dollar a cubic cord. And cedar posts for two cents each. I used a Swede
saw as this was before chain saws were invented.
After
we arrived at Keady my father bought a disc plough and a disc harrow and
a used tractor and did custom work for the farmers. In the winter he operated
a grist mill before Mr. Beatty bought the building, and operated the grist
mill himself. In the winter I worked for Mr. Beatty for fifteen cents
an hour at the grist mill.
My father
had a friend named Jim Welsh (they were both First World War vets) who
was able to give me a job as a fireman on the steamship S/S/ Ashcroft
in the spring of 1940, where Jim Welsh was second engineer. I was seventeen
at the time but turned eighteen in July.
The
next year when I signed on the skipper, Captain Davis said "Well,
how old are you this year?" I worked on the Ashcroft as a stoker
firing the boilers in the summers of 1940 and part of 1941 when I became
an oiler, and worked as an oiler until September 1942 when I joined the
army.
In the
winters of 1940-41 a group of us young people would go skating at Kilsyth
Rink. I had an old car. As I remember it there was myself, Mack Hall,
Mary Kergan, Celia (my sister) and the D.C. minister's daughter (but I
don't remember her name), Clara RuhI and the Cordick girls Wilda and Jean.
Some times when the snow was too deep George RuhI would take us in the
sleigh with a team of horses. I had bought a used pair of skates from
Irvine Cordick for two dollars.
We moved
to Hepworth in the spring of 1942.
These
are some of my most vivid memories of Keady.
Markham,
Ont. Aug 24, 2009
To whom
it may concern;
I hope
this is interest to someone. My health is failing but my memory is still
ok.
Sincerely,
Melvyn
Campbell Brocklebank.
 |
