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(403) 358-9848 4912 – 50th Street · Alix · Alberta

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James Jackson

May 13th 2016
From “James Jackson”, as told by daughter Ethel Favel

The Jackson homestead was registered on March 19, 1909, No.155109. SW1/4 of 32-39-23 West of the 4th about three miles west of Alix. 

“The first winter we came to Canada, we lived in a tent.  It seems impossible, considering that the weather is a long way below zero. However, we were remarkably healthy, not even a cold.  Then [M]other and Dad built a log house into the side of a hill, so that the lower floor was well protected….

Until Stanton School was built in 1910, schooling was a problem.  Arthur and our Aunt Flora, who was making her home with us, rode horseback about five miles to Alix School.  I learned to read at home.  The first day of school at Stanton, Mother took Arthur and me.  There was no road and when we tried to return home we got lost and ended up at a neighbour’s place a long way from home.  The next day Mother again took us, but she carefully marked every turn in the grassy path with white cloth tied to trees.

Game was plentiful.  Deer would come home with the milk cows during the first years.  Ducks were so fat in the fall, they could be knocked down with a stick trying to get airborne.  The soil was so rich, and the gardens gave us rhubarb, strawberries, potatoes, carrots, peas and numerous other vegetables. Raspberries, saskatoons, and chokecherries grew wild and were gathered and canned.

Our recreation in the winter was sledding and skating.  Hockey was enjoyed on the lakes unless there was an early snow.  Christmas was a celebration at Stanton School, with plays, poems, and songs, then of course Santa Claus.  Mary was quite concerned to find Santa had borrowed Father’s ring.  There were candy bags and presents for every child.

The coldest day I remember was 60 degrees below zero.  Mother  took us to school, for she was afraid we might freeze on the way.  She left us near the school and drove home. We entered the school to learn that our teacher hadn’t come.  She sent word it was too cold.  Percy Hudkins was janitor, and he had a fire in the stove, so when we were warm again we went home.  The pupils thought the teacher was really a sissy”. 

This article is from the book Pioneers and Progress, a history of the Alix-Clive area printed in 1974 by DW Friesen and Sons Ltd., Calgary.  Copies of it and of its follow-up Gleanings are available for sale at the Alix Public Library, Alix Wagon Wheel Museum, and Alix Home Hardware