MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
Fredrick Augustus Allen and
Gertrude Welby Allen
Gertrude Welby Allen
A History of Del Bonita and Surrounding Districts,
Pages 254 - 255
Fredrick Augustus Allen was born March 19, 1866 at
Gospel End, Staffordshire, England. In early life Fred
was a commercial traveller. In 1912, he and his wife
and children, Claire, Constance, and Osmond,
homesteaded in Del Bonita, Alberta. He died on a
trip back to England in 1952.
Gertrude Welby, daughter of Thomas and Hannah
(March) Welby, was born February 29, 1866, in
Manchester, England. She died in Cardston
Hospital, Alberta, March 20, 1942.
In the spring of 1913, Fred Allen homesteaded
SE V4-7-1-20-W4th in Del Bonita. He and Gertrude
made many trips throughout the summer from
Raymond to the homestead. In November of the
same year Os and Connie accompanied them.
On that last trip all went well until they reached
Lonely Valley. At that point the team played out.
The weather was bitter cold, yet there was nothing
they could do but stay there. The Horse Shoe
Ranch, which was the next stop on those long trips
was still miles away. However, Gertrude had plenty
of blankets so they made a bed on the top of the
wagon. In the morning they ate frozen chicken and
frozen bread before continuing their Journey. The
cowboys at the Horse Shoe Ranch were very kind
and helped them over the Milk River.
Their shack was similar to a great many more spotted
around on the prairie. It consisted of one room topped
by a one-sided roof, but it was home. That first winter
of 1913-14 was very hard. They had one ton of coal
that Fred had hauled from the nearest town, which
was thirty miles away. To supplement this, Os and
Connie were kept busy gathering and hauling cow
chips from the tops of the surrounding hills.
They had good times too. It was nothing to travel ten
or twelve miles with team and sleigh to someone's shack.
All the furniture would be placed outside and they
would dance there all night. They would not return
home till daylight since there were no fences to follow.
During the first couple of years they never knew where
their mail was. Someone going to town would bring out
all the mail and word would be passed along as to
where to pick it up. Coal and food had to be
purchased for a year at a time since hardly anyone
made the trip more than once a year. Strange as it may
seem, there was no serious sickness that first year or two.
Fredrick and Gertrude Allen were the parents of three
children Claire, Constance, and Osmond.
Claire Gertrude Welby Allen was born August 7, in Glasgow,
Lanark County, Scotland. She was a school teacher
and never married. She taught at Del Bonita. She died
April 14, 1970, in Lethbridge, Alberta, and was buried
in St. Patrick's Cemetery in Lethbridge.
Constance Shaw Allen (Connie), was born December 25,
1897, in Glasgow, Lanark County, Scotland. She
married Ruben Albert Deglow in Lethbridge, April, 1926.
She died in Kalispell, Montana, U.S.A.. To Rube and
Connie, were born three children.
Osmond Fredrick Allen, their only son, was born January 1,
1901, at New Castle on Tyne, Northumberland, England.
He married Venice Wilma Collet, on July 8, 1933, at
Raymond, Alberta. He died May 12, 1943, at Magrath
hospital, and was buried May 14, 1943 in Magrath
cemetery. Osmond and Venice were the parents of
three children.
1, Karma, was four years old when I first remember
meeting Grandma and Grandpa Allen. They would have
been about sixty-seven years of age then and to me,
they were always elderly people. I learned to love them
very much, for their kindness and concern for me. I
always felt loved and at peace in their home. We
grandchildren - both Connie's and Osmond's children,
had many good times in our grandparents' home.
The upstairs was never finished, and was used for a
storage area, and how we loved the times we were
allowed to go up there and "explore". There were old
books and magazines from England, and keepsakes,
that we loved to hear the stories of, over and over again.
It was fun to play hide and seek, and adults would join
in. In the evenings we loved to open the doors of the
coal heater and watch the flames and listen to stories
or play games or listen to Daddy sing. It was always
a fun time to slip into our nighties and pyjamas and
either sit on the rug in front of the fire or curled up
on an adult's lap and snuggle close until sleepy time
overtook us, and we would make the rounds with good
night kisses, prayers and to bed.
I remember Grandma Allen telling us she was only
eighteen, because of her birthday being February 29,
and she had only celebrated that many birthdays on
that date. Birthdays were so important to us, we
thought that was terrible. Daddy's birthday was New
Year's, and Connie's was Christmas, and Grandpa just
missed St. Patrick's.
Claire worked hard in caring for the home of her aging
parents. She carried water in buckets from a spring
about a quarter of a mile away, down the hill from the
house. Later a well was dug beside the house and a
windlass was used to draw water. Claire milked the
cow. cared for her, and raised a beautiful garden of
fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Nothing tasted better
to me than her homemade jams and jellies. It was fun
to sit beside Grandpa and have Rogers syrup on my
porridge, as that was the way he liked his. Claire
did janitor work for the school, and I walked many a
morning with her as she carried water, wood, and coal
to prepare the school to be warm when children arrived.
How those old stoves did smoke at times!
I stayed at Grandpa's sometimes when the weather was
cold, as it was closer than our home. I loved breakfast
time, especially in the summer. The table was beside
an east window, and outdoors, a beautiful yellow rose
bush bloomed - just laden most of the summer. The
sun was so nice and bright and warm. We were one
big, happy family, playing cylinder records, or trying to
play the piano, or just enjoying one another.
Times we didn't like so well as children, were "news"
times, and we had to be quiet so Grandpa could sit close
to the old battery radio and listen. As I recall,
reception wasn't too good at the best of times.
Grandpa was interested in every news broadcast and
to us it came around all too often.
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Mary Tollestrup