Edwin Harry WoollardMy twin brother Fred and I were born at Wabamun, Alberta on October 9, 1919, the first born of Edwin John Woollard and Freida Viola Woollard, the former Freida Lent.
My parents were true pioneers of this district. My father came to Wabamun with his parents, two brothers and two sisters in 1902. His father Barnard passed away one year later and is buried on his homestead NE 18 T 53 R 3 W5. This left my grandmother Woollard in a really tough spot with five children to look after, my father at age 17 being the oldest boy. They managed somehow and were all raised in this district.
My mother came to the Duffield district with her family in 1900 when she was two years old. Her father was David Lent, a Methodist missionary and teacher on the Duffield Indian Reserve.
Ed and Freida were married in September, 1918 and lived on his homestead,SW 18-T53-R3-W5 where Fred and I were born. We arrived on October 9, 1919 and the snow a few days later, this being the infamous "hard winter". My mother really must have had her hands full with two babies and none of the amenities that we have today such as power, central heating, running water, washing machines and of course, indoor plumbing.
In the Spring of 1920 we moved from the homestead to the SW 26-T53-R4-W5. My mother says there was still snow in the shady spots in June that year and the roads were just trails through the bush. Two of my sisters were born in the 1920's, Marguerite in 1923 and Patricia in 1924.
Fred and I started to school in the Sylvan School District in 1926. This school was about two and one half miles away and mostly we walked, Dad took us occasionally. Some of the teachers we had there were Miss Drury, Jim Cassan, Ada Lent (my mother's younger sister), and finally a Mrs. Jackson.
I must recall our venture into fur trapping. Dad told us how to set snares to catch rabbits and we set them near the road on our way to school. We had some luck and Dad skinned the rabbits for us and somebody bought them. When we did catch a rabbit it would be dead in the snow and we never thought of the agony the poor thing went through. One morning one had just been caught and was crying like a baby. We felt so sorry for the animal that we decided to let it go, but it didn't know that and fought fiercely, so much so that two little boys couldn't handle it. We went on to school and of course when we came home it was all over. We took it and the snare and all the other snares home and that was it for our trapping.
Some of the kids we went to school with were Nora McGuire, Nora, Joe and Charley Letendre, Margaret, Mabel and Billy Buck, Joe Cassan and Vernon Astleford, And my sister Marguerite started there.
Another incident I must recall was when Mom thought she would be real good to us and bought us wool combination underwear. Maybe our skin was oversensitive because they really itched and by the time we got warmed up walking it became intolerable. We stripped them off and left them on Percival's fence until we came home.
In 1931 the Bucks and Letendre families moved away, taking most of the school population, so Sylvan School was closed and we went to Rexboro which was a little farther away, about three miles from home. Dad decided we needed a horse to drive to school because Marguerite was quite small and Pat was soon to start. Uncle George Laight lined up an Indian cayuse on the Winterburn Reserve and Dad took the bus down there and rode "Dan" back. The thing was in poor shape and had a backbone about three inches high I think. Dad, whose horses were always rolling fat, had no experience with this and I guess he walked much of the way home. He thought it was no problem, he would soon fatten the cayuse up. "Dan" defied his best efforts and never was much to look at but he served us well for several years pulling the buggy with six of us kids to school every day. Dick Duncan (a cousin) was staying at our place and Carol Stevenson, a neighbour girl, rode with us My youngest sister Lois was born in 1932 and I was finished school before she she started.
I grew through my teenage and just into adulthood during the Great Depression. Roads were poor, transportation was not very sophisticated and money was scarce so our entertainment was mostly playing ball, going to dances, and chasing girls of course. Times were tough but our parents always provided lots to eat and we didn't suffer that much.
About 1935 we got out saw logs to build a new house on the farm, it still stands today as good as ever. When Lester Astleford was sawing our logs I had an accident and broke my leg and was in hospital for six weeks and laid up most of the summer.
In 1939 Fred and I went harvesting in the Dewberry area. We had an old 1925 Star car that Fred got from Uncle Roy Lent. It wasn't in very good shape and broke down East of Vermilion and a guy towed us into Islay, a very hair raising experience because the thing was hard to drive at the best of times and being towed at 40 m.p.h. was frightening. We got jobs stooking and threshing and Fred fixed the car, the timing chain had jumped. The war broke out that September and we got an early snow so we headed for home.
The highway was in terrible shape, it took us two days to get home, low and second gear most of the way.While we were away the family moved into the new house which we had been working on for a couple of years.
In October, 1939 we had a housewarming and birthday party for Fred and I with many people present. Among them was the girl who would become my wife and partner for 50 and more years. Gertie Campbell had come to the party with her sister Murdina whom Fred was going with. When he took them home I went along, and never looked back. I worked in the bush camps in 1939-40 for $1.10 a day and board, a ten hour day.
Gertie and I were married on May 10, 1941, just ten days before I answered my Army call up. I was in the Forces for four and a half years, in Camrose, Red Deer, Calgary, Edmonton and Camp Borden, Ontario .
I got my Army discharge in October, 1945 and came home to my family, Gertie my wife, Freida Anne who was born in June 1942, and Lynne Joy born in March, 1944. That was a happy day. My Grandmother Woollard had died in 1942 and left me her small house which she had built on my Dad's farm. We lived there and I got a job at the coal mine, which was to last almost 40 years until my retirement in 1984. Grant was born July, 1946 when we were still on the farm. We moved to the mine in 1948. Kerry was born in February, 1951 and Laine on June 2, 1956 while we lived there.In 1963 I obtained a V.L.A. loan and built a house on a part of the home farm. I got it from Fred who had bought the farm from Dad. 20 acres in the S.E. corner of SW26-T53-R4-W5.
Dad passed away in 1966 and is buried in Rexboro Church Cemetary. We lost Marguerite in 1975 and she is buried in Surrey, B.C.
During the time the kids were growing up we made many trips to Saskatchewan, B.C, and the U.S.A. We usually took them with us and now as I look back I am so glad we did. They grow up so fast and we have brief enough time with them.
At the time of this writing in Fall of 1992 we are enjoying our retirement, our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren as well as many more family members and good neighbours.