Our mother, Anne Jamieson, daughter of John and Margaret
(Scott) Jamieson became the bride of Mathew Farries,
son of John and Jean (Scott) Farries in December, 1886
in Ontario. There were seven children born to this union:
Margaret, Mabel Mae, Malcolm Collin Cameron, John
Mathew Jamieson, Arol, Grant, and Elizabeth Annabell.

After being ill for eleven years with diabetes, our father,
Mathew Farries, passed away May 7, 1907. In those
days there was no insulin and not much knowledge of
diet. Under those circumstances it was amazing that
he lived for eleven years.

Two years later Margaret, Mabel and Cameron left for
Alberta and went to Grassy Lake. They made their
headquarters with Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob Farries
and the family, till such time as they could find work.

In 1911 when Mother decided to migrate from Lucknow,
Huron County, Ontario to Alberta she packed all her
belongings. A neighbor who was going to Alberta at
the same time agreed to pick up her furniture and
load it in the same railway car with his.

We came west on a harvester's excursion. What must
have been a nightmare to Mother, was a wonderful
adventure for the four younger members of the family.

The colonist cars that made up the train had bunks
without mattresses and we had our own bedding.
There were slat seats. There was a small stove at one
end of the car. We brought our own food and
could warm it up and make tea or coffee. We were
four days and nights on the trip.

We arrived at Grassy Lake in the middle of the night.
Just before we reached our destination the train ran
off the track. However there was no damage done
and we just got off the train there instead of at the station.

We were weary of that railway car long before we
reached Grassy Lake, where we were met by our
Uncle Bob Farries, our sister Margaret and a friend.

It was harvest time. Jack and Arol worked on a
threshing outfit. Grant and I helped Mother as she
cooked on a cook car for a threshing crew. After
threshing we all went to Lethbridge and rented a
house at 1001 - 3rd Avenue South. Mother, Margaret
and Mabel were going to run a boarding house and
were partly organized when they decided to work
at the Y.M.C.A. They were in charge of the Y.M.C.A.
boarding club, a group of twenty-five business men,
doctors and lawyers. Grant and I went to school.

In the early spring of 1912 the McIntyre lease was
to be opened for homesteading. Mother and Jack
decided to file, and were among the first twenty in
the line up that extended to the comer, and around
the comer for a whole city block. There were some
chilly days and nights and they either had to be in
their places, or have someone to hold their places for
them.

To the group from Ontario our place was home, and
our large coffee pot was in great demand day and
night. It made a great many trips to the lineup at the
land office. A month before they were to file on the
land people had makeshift tents along the fence.
For safety and sanitary reasons the city officials had
them all move out and each person was alloted an
eighteen inch square on the sidewalk. Each person
paid a dollar and had a number to correspond
with his own square of sidewalk. This freed people
from the hardship of staying in line for another month.
They filed on their homesteads on the first of May, 1912.

1wonder if they would have been so enthusiastic had
they known of the privations and hardships ahead.
Most of them were practically out of funds and
some were hard put to get enough to pay the ten
dollars initial payment on their homestead. Many
of them filed on a pre-emption at the same time.
Consequently there was a family or bachelor on
every half section.

Our immediate neighbors included Harry Orcutt, Steve
Atwood, George Weatherley, Buck Hayes, Harry Bowen
and Bert Campbell. There was an open Hudson Bay
Company section to the east. Later this section was
bought by Henry Sirrell who was from England.

My first trip to the lease was in July, 1913. It was time
for the summer holidays. Mother and Mrs. Katie Lucky
hitched her horse and one of our horses to a democrat
and drove to Lethbridge. At that time it was a sixty-five
mile trip.

They arrived in Lethbridge and stayed over night. We got
an early start in the morning, and we were almost to
Magrath, when Babe, our horse, went lame and we
took her to the blacksmith shop. The blacksmith said it
was a sprained fetlock. We had to wrap it with bandages
soaked in vinegar.

When we got through doctoring the horse we went to the
Kirby restaurant and had a steak supper. In those days the
steak covered a platter about twelve by eight inches. The
vegetables were served in little side dishes. There was
dessert and tea or coffee, all for forty cents. Katie was
a big woman with a big appetite, but I was amazed when
she ordered another steak. As soon as the waitress left
her she spread her linen napkin, flipped the steak onto it,
and rolled it up and she said, "There's my lunch for tomorrow".
She calmly tucked it inside the front of her dress.

Grant Farries enlisted in the armed services during World
War 1. He obtained land through the Soldiers' grant and
lived in the district till his death June 7, 1935, at age
36. Arol Farries enlisted at the same time as Grant
did, but owing to ill health he was released just before
the war ended. Both Grant and Arol enlisted with the
Mounted Police.

We sold our land to Louis Secretan. Mother passed away
on June 26, 1954 at the age of eightyseven years.