MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
Alma Miner Carter
and Eunice Pulsipher
and Eunice Pulsipher
A History of Del Bonita and
Surrounding Districts, Pages 291 - 292
Alma Carter and Eunice Pulsipher were married in Logan,
Utah, September 16, 1887. This remained their home for
a while but in 1902 the decision was made to come to
Canada.
Alma came to Raymond, Alberta, with the Willie Bullock
immigrant train and had a house partially completed
when his wife and five children arrived March 3, 1903.
The children were Ervin, Ferl, Lamonde, Esther, and
Elmer.
In 1914 Lamonde filed on a homestead and preemption
E1/2-27-1-20-W4th. He worked there in the spring and
summer but would return to Raymond for the winter.
In 1915 Lamonde brought Elmer with him to make
the necessary improvements. A home had been hauled
from Raymond by team to reside in.
In 1916 the rest of the Carter family moved from Raymond
to Twin River. Ervin, Esther, and Ferl had married by this
time so they didn't come with them. Melvin had been
added to the family in Raymond in 1907. With them the
family brought thirty-four head of cattle that Alma had
purchased at a Calgary auction, lumber for a home, and
all their possessions. They settled on a site about one half
mile west of Robinson's.
Approximately one hundred acres of homestead land was
farmed. The cows were milked and the milk used for
cheese which was sold at twenty-five cents a pound.
Wheat was bootlegged to Cut Bank, Montana, and hauled
by a four horse team. Everyone was bootlegging. Wheat
could be bought for fifty cents per bushel and sold in Cut
Bank for as much as one dollar and twenty-five cents per
bushel.
Eventually someone didn't pay his livery stable fee. There
was trouble and this person had his wagon confiscated.
This brought an end to the bootlegging. Introduction of
the Border Patrol and customs offices to enforce laws
between countries began.
A saddle horse was traded for five wolf hound pups to be
trained for coyote hunting. This pack was trained to work
as a team. The trick was to make the hounds remain
behind the horse until a coyote was spotted and the rider
could get as close as possible. The lead dog was to
catch the coyote by the hind shank and flip him, letting
go, and continue running. The coyote would roll over
giving the pack time to close in for the kill. Now the hunter
had to rescue the coyote for the pelt, peel the skin off his
hind feet, tied the feet together and loop them over the
saddle horn, pull the hide down over the coyote's head
leaving ears, snout, and toenails intact. The horse had to
be trained to put up with all this. Pelts were worth five or
six dollars then.
There was always a trapline to check out for pelts of smaller
animals. Badgers were drowned out of their holes with
barrels of water and shot when they surfaced. Cowhides
were tanned and made into leather. Twine was twisted
into strong rope for lariats.
Sundays were spent rounding up wild horses and running
them into a corral. Working them into a comer, the men
would jump off their saddle horses onto one of the mustangs,
just holding onto the mane. Needless to say they learned
how to ride well. This was probably the beginning of rodeo.
Esther and her husband, Forest L. Packard, helped to build
the road to Milk River. Esther cooked for the road crew.
Her first baby was born at the home of her parents with
her mother and Mrs. Joe Foggin assisting.
Lamonde had ridden for the doctor but his horse upset
crossing the swift current of the river. The sodden, furry
chaps he was wearing almost sucked him under. The
current swept him toward a jutting rock which he managed
to thrust his feet against with such force it threw him out
onto the bank. Mr. Gagan who lived on this side of the river
from the Herman Hillmer residence witnessed the whole scene.
He gave Lamonde a fresh horse and he continued on to
Magrath. Jack Martin was sent to Magrath to tell Lamonde
and the doctor that the birth had occurred and all was well.
No need for the doctor to come.
Water had to be hauled on a stoneboat from a mile west of the
Carter home. Lots of wells had been dug as deep as thirty
feet by windlass but all were dry. The family moved to the
present location.
Esther and Forest Packard moved to Nampa, Idaho and raised
a large family there.
Melvin rode a year for the Pool Company Ranch. This was a
cooperative group of ranchers who put their cattle together
and leased a township of land and fenced it. This was the
beginning of the Twin River Grazing Reserve.
At the age of sixteen Melvin signed on with the Baker Cattle
Company to trail cattle to Sweet Grass and load them on the
railroad for Chicago. It took five days to get them to Sweet
Grass. The third night out the cattle stampeded and only hard
riding could head them in the right direction without getting
run down. There were twenty-eight carloads of cattle.
Melvin accompanied them right to Chicago. In 1924 he
moved to Idaho.
Lamonde married Viva Jones in 1920 and they continued
farming and ranching here for a while and sold out and moved
on.
Alma became ill and Elmer had to phone from the T.R.
McKenzie residence to Lethbridge for a plane to come take
him to a hospital. The plane landed behind the tree belt
but cracked a ski in the process. Alma and Eunice flew to
Lethbridge and she obtained an apartment near the hospital.
They both remained there after his release. They came
back to the farm for the spring and summer. The altitude
wouldn't allow Alma to remain and they moved to Raymond
again for the rest of their lives. Alma died October 17, 1939
and Eunice on November 20, 1945.
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Copyright © 2000
Mary Tollestrup