Albert Fisher was born in Wisconsin. He came
to Canada and farmed at Enchant, Alberta.

Reatha Fisher, born in P.E.I., married and
lived in Lowell, Mass. After her husband's
death, she and her daughter Gladys came to
Calgary. She married Mr. Fisher at Enchant
in 1912. They homesteaded a couple of miles
east of Shanks Lake. Their nearest neighbors
were Riley Larson, the Winters, Baxters and
Rasmussens. At that time the cattle of the
McIntyre Ranch were a lot of trouble.

Mr. Fisher, along with Stanley Greep and
George Spence, played the violin for dances
at the schools.

Mrs. Fisher's daughter, rode horseback
to school, first to Hacke School and later
to the Shanks Lake School.

They moved to New Hampshire, U.S.A. for a
couple of years. They spent one winter in
Wisconsin, then came back to Alberta for a
winter in Magrath, where Mr. Fisher worked
in a coal mine at the Pot Hole Coulee. Then
they came back to the old homestead for a
season. A winter was spent in Calgary.

In 1924 they came back to Del Bonita and
opened a general store on Weatherley's farm.
His store was moved by horses to the present
site of Del Bonita, where they had bought
five acres of land. They built a house and
later built the present store.

Around 1925 to 1929 there was prohibition
in the U.S.A. and there was a lot of
bootlegging. The bootleggers used to
stop at the store for gas and food.
The folks from Montana came mostly on
horseback to our dances. There was no
customs office at the border at that time.

When the elevators were built and the
railroad to Whiskey Gap, the farmers from
across the border hauled their wheat there,
where it was shipped in bond to St. Paul
and Minneapolis, U.S.A.

In 1943 the store was sold to Charles
Secretan and the Fishers moved to
Lethbridge, to an acreage on the south
side. In 1945 they bought a farm at
High River where they lived until 1956,
when they moved into High River. Mr.
Fisher passed away in 1958 and Mrs.
Fisher moved to her daughter's in
Lethbridge in 1961 where she lived
until her passing in 1972.

Return Pioneer Histories