HardshipsLife in Thunder Creek was not always the so called "Bed of Roses". People had their hardships and tragedies. As far back as 1893, crops were a failure due to grasshopper and drought. Several settlers left and years afterwards I had the pleasure to visit with one of these people; Mrs. Craige. She lived with her family the Northams on SE1/4 2-4-32 W1. Her family left due to crop failure. When she was 12 years old, she rode horse back and drove cattle to Virden, Manitoba. J Southcomb lived on the same homestead until his passing as an elderly man. George and Charlie Taylor's father on Sec. 16 and the Cairns on Sec. 10 and others we knew well. In 1894, seed grain was shipped in by the government. In 1895, there were good crops but low prices, 25¢ and 40¢ a bushel according to grade. I believe from what I have heard that one of the most dreaded occurrences in the summers were the prairie fires. With no graded roads or highways to stop its run or no fire engines to come from the town with a load of water to spray it out, it would sweep across the prairies for miles. The only way to stop it was to beat it out with wet gunny sacks or similar materials dipped in pails of water. I remember when I was a girl they were threshing at Dad's, in the west field and a fire broke out in the field. Every thresherman grabbed all available fire fighting equipment and fought fire. Somehow one spot was missed and started burning toward the machine. Charlie Brawn, the machine man stated looking for something to beat it out. It was just afternoon lunch time and Mother was there in her long shirt and petticoat. She up with her skirt and pulled off her petticoat which was held with an elastic around her waist and handed it to Charlie, who used it to fight the fire. The threshers good naturedly joked about a ladies petticoat saving the threshing machine. Another dreaded experience was the bad blizzard and deep winter snows. One story told by old timers was one settler who went out to feed his stock and took a shovel along. He got lost and had too go with the storm and it took him to the States twenty miles or more away. He ran up against a sod building and stayed there until the storm was over. Another time a man got lost and landed up in a granary in a field The granary was partly filled with grain which this man said saved his life. It had a shovel in it so he shovelled grain from one end to the other all night to keep from freezing to death. Sod buildings were often covered over with snow. Dad told of staying at Moore's one night as he was storm stayed that was before he and Mother were married. Next day on his way home he saw a man digging his way out through a hole on the roof of his sod shack. He also told about when he lived with Uncle Jack before 1907 and how the old sod pig house got snowed over. They dug a hole in the roof and fed the old pig sow by putting grain and shovelling snow through the hole. During the winter, little pigs were heard squealing but feed and snow continued to go down through the hole. Dad said a nicer batch of pigs never was than came out of that sod house come spring. In the early days, the grain had to be hauled to Deloraine, Manitoba; a distance of 60 miles. It was the nearest railroad and supplies were brought in from there. People took there wheat to a mill at Melita, Manitoba; about 25 miles east to get it ground to flour for baking, grits for porridge, bran for biscuits, etc. There were no trees in the district so wood was hauled from Moose Mountains by team and wagon and it took three or four days for a trip. I say "no trees" because Dad said when he cane to homestead six miles north and one mile east of what we know as home, the only sign of a tree between there and Carnduff was a few small bushes on NW1/4 10-4-32 W1. When I was growing up at home, it got to be a quarter section of solid bluff. Mother said many a time when she was a girl she gathered buffalo chips (dried buffalo manure) to burn in the stove One of the biggest headaches to come to any homesteader was the loss of his partner, his wife. This happened in Thunder Creek in 1904. Jim McNally had taken up a homestead in 1899 and got title for it in 1903 and married Mary Moore in 1904. She was my Mother's sister, no doubt he and his bride had many plans for the future and when the baby came the following year happiness reigned supreme. It was short lived as two days later his wife died. Grandma Moore took and raised the baby. Jim sold the homestead and left the district. That baby is Mrs. Gordon Swayze. Thunder Creek was not without its fatalities during World War I. Some boys did not come back from overseas. Fred Lane was a young Englishman who was working for Henry Taylor when the war broke out. He enlisted but before he left Dad told him there would be a job waiting for him at our place when he came back. He came back and worked for Dad and around the district for years. In 1918, the Flu struck the district a terrible blow. Annie Stovin, Bob Scraggs, Mr. and Mrs Daggett, Davy Day, John English, Mrs. Charlie Taylor all died from Flu. Dad was really sick with it too, so sick in fact that one night Dr. Brereton phoned Uncle Jack that if he wanted to see Dad he had better get down as Dad would be gone by morning. Dad fooled them and lived for other twenty years. In the Thirties, hard times came. One could write a book on this period alone. Drought grasshoppers, dust storms took over. Several families moved away and like in the Nineties some stayed and survived. Russian Thistle was cut and stacked for winter feed for cows. Relief grain was shipped in by train and also feed. If you were lucky enough to be at the head of the line of teams and sleighs and get to a box car before the grain ran out you would get a few bushels. The days the relief grain came to Nottingham was Dad's big days. He took some lunch and left early in the morning to spend the day visiting other farmers bent on the same mission and arrived home at dusk. Before going any further I want to relate a little incident to show how neighbours felt about each other. One relief day at Nottingham, Bob Young, Jim Young's son, who was just a lad, hung around and left with his team and sleigh the same time as Dad. Bob stayed with Dad all the way for five miles until the had gone over two bad snow banks with a very bad dip in between the at Casemore's Corner. As soon as they had gone over them, Bob said"I think you will be all right now Mr. Wruth, so I'll leave you as I want to go to the dance tonight". Bob whipped up his team which was much faster than Dad's and was soon well ahead. It was then that Dad knew why Bob had waited for him to leave together&emdash;to see him safely over the snow banks. Relief vegetables and fruit were shipped in from the east. In these cars came hundreds of pounds of cod fish&emdash;a big slab of dried fish about 12" by 15" in size. At first no one knew how to cook them so they were not popular or appreciated. They stunk like the south end of a skunk going north. Mother read in the Home Loving Hearts page of the Weekly Free Press that they should be soaked overnight in lime water. She bought a small tin of lime of 10¢ and had it been more she likely would not have had enough to buy it. All were soaked with a pinch of lime in water. We ate a good many pounds of cod and enjoyed them. Many families never did learn to cook them and threw them out. They were so well cured they would not rot, but just deteriorated lying in the barnyard. Money was practically nil. Horses were sent north to better grazing land. All in all it was a disastrous time for everyone. In World War II, Wm. Taylor, a pilot officer, gave his life for his country. Other lads in the service were Fred Baldwin, Russell Wruth, Bob Young, Jim Muldoon, Edwin Moore, Joe Moore and Dave Moore. All these boys went to school when Miss Gilchrist taught. Fred Lane again enlisted in the service and served in the Veterans, Guard. Later, Mac Moore and Edwin McMillan served in Korea. During all these desperate times and trying times Thunder Creek people still maintained the instinct for survival, inherited from their forefathers and kept the community together. |
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