MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
William Hocken Bice was born in Coriwall England, Jan. 5, 1890 and apprenticed
as an engineer. In 1910 he came to Aldersyde and worked
for a year for his cousin Andrew Bice on land now owned
by Dwight Barrett; he then homesteaded at Shuler near
Medicine Hat. In Dec. 1915 he married Bessie Enid Rowland,
daughter of a pioneer family. (Grandpa Rowland helped construct
the sandstone building in High River known as the High River
Trading Company.) Four children, two boys and two girls were
born of this marriage.
In 1919 we moved to a farm west of High River and later
purchased our present farm on Tongue Creek which was originally
homesteaded by Geo. Ward who had the Brand OW registered in the
Regina office in 1886. Dad operated a mixed farm evolving from horse
operation with six outfits to put the crop in and horse drawn binders
to harvest the crop, to Rumley tractor and powered binders in 1926.
Before this grain was hauled to High River with tandem tank and wagon and six horses; dad delivered the first load of grain to the Pioneer elevator, and also operated a custom threshing outfit for some years.
Dad raised Belgian and Percheron horses, and won numerous trophies
at the Calgary Exhibition along with Hardy Salter. He was interested
in the oil business, worked in Turner Valley for a time and hauled coal
to the old Ranchman well near Aldersyde.
There were four children.
Enid, the elder daughter married and had six children.
She passed away in March 1971 aged 49 years.
My father, W. H. Bice, passed away in January 1973.
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