MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
Ernest Bates was born July 21, 1878, in Yorkshire, England.
Ernest then built a house west of Coalhurst on 19-9-22, and
Ernest and Lillian had two children: a son and a daughter.
Ernest remained on the farm he had homesteaded, until his
Lillian passed away in l975 at the age of 89 years.
As Canada was a promising land, Ernest decided to immigrate,
leaving Bradford, Yorkshire, and taking two weeks to cross
the atlantic. He came to the prairies on May 3, 1903, just in
time to experience the big May snow storm of 1903. At first
he worked on the C.P.R. at Coutts, then moving to Lethbridge
until homestead land opened up in surrounding district, in 1905.
started to break the prairie sod for farming. He hauled water in
a tank to the drilling crew, during the sinking of the mine shaft
at Coalhurst. The drill had to be kept coot as it drilled
through the rock. On November 1, 1911 Ernest married Lillian
Start, whose father Stephen Start had a homestead in the
Coalhurst area to the west. Lillian had come from Bideford,
Devon, England in May 1910, with her mother and sister
Beatrice, to join her father already here.
They both attended Coalhurst Schools. The worst years were
before irrigation came in. The dry summers and grasshoppers
made farming almost unbearable. But patience always paid off.
The Bates family were always visited by some well-known
Indians, Jim Snake and his son, Mike Mountain Horse, who
was an R.C.M.P. scout, and served in World War 1. Ernest
always kept a lot of cattle and horses- his brand was XG.
During the first war Ernest served several terms on the
Coathurst School Board.
death in 1965, at the age of 87 years.
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