Frederick Garrick was born in Germany on November 7, 1874.
Minna Voight was born in Germany on August 24, 1877. They
were united in marriage on April 19, 1897.

They had five children, four sons: Harry, William, Alfred, Walter,
and one daughter.

Frederick and Minna came to Canada in 1902 and first settled
in Nova Scotia. Frederick worked in the coal mines at Glace
Bay, Nova Scotia before moving to Lethbridge in 1906 where
he worked at No. 3 and No. 6 mines.

They moved to Coalhurst in 1910 where Frederick obtained a job
at the Coalhurst Mine. There was a period of time that Frederick
and Minna lived at Wigan prior to Coalhurst but date is unknown.

While living in Coalhurst Frederick and Minna purchased in 1927,
a tract of land composed of all the west half of legal subdivision
ten (10), section twenty-one (21), township nine (9), range
twenty-two (22), west of the fourth (4th) meridian containing
(18.09) acres more or less.

Frederick was a prominent poultry raiser and the Canadian
National Poultry Record Assocation Blue Book, 1930 issue,
advertised Garrick's single comb Rhode Island Reds. His
pen won the 1928-29 laying contest in Lethbridge, Alberta
and led all breeds from start to finish.

Frederick and Minna's Rhode Island Reds won many ribbons
from 1928 to 1932. A newspaper article in the Lethbridge Herald
stated as follows: "Coalhurst is proud that its chicken fancier,
Fred Garrick, whose hens have been entered in the poultry
contest at the Experimental farm, is leading all others in points
obtained. Mr. and Mrs. Garrick are getting results by their hard
work and careful attention to their poultry flocks. The Garrick
birds are becoming quite widely known over western Canada
and orders come from both far and near for both the poultry and
eggs from this wonderful strain of Rhode Island Reds.

Another article stated as follows: "There are fourteen laying
contests in Canada and thousands of individuals watch every
week for the reports issued from the various centres situated
in every Province in the Dominion, some having two or more
contests. The number of pens in the different contests varies,
the smallest being eighteen and the largest number seventy.
There are ten birds in each pen. There are 468 pens in all
containing, therefore, 4,680 layers. These had laid, at the
end of the 32nd week, 502,263 eggs. The normal or average
weight being two ounces each this means 1,004,526 ounces
or 62,783 pounds, or, slightly over 31 tons of eggs!

The Alberta contest, held at Lethbridge, is in foremost place by
reason of having in its group the pen that has laid the most
eggs since November 1, when the present contest began.
A pen of Rhode Island Reds owned by Fred Garrick, Coalhurst,
Alberta, has led the procession almost from the commencement.
Their score is 1719 points and 1491 eggs. This means that their
eggs are much above the two ounce standard, Mr. Garrick has
a second pen with a score of 1682.9 points and 1499 eggs.

Frederick and Minna also raised large crops of ever-bearing
strawberries which were sold along with gooseberries and red
and black currants to Eaton's, Safeway, and residents of Coalhurst.
Fresh mixed vegetables, eggs, milk, cream and butter were also
sold to residents of Coalhurst and surrounding area. Mixed
vegetables, during marketing time, were sold to Eaton's and
residents of the Crowsnest Pass area.

It is interesting to note that, during marketing time, when
vegetables were supplied to Eaton's the money was left there
like a bank deposit and when purchases were made they were
taken off the balance.

Minna was well known as an experienced midwife and, whenever
she put on a big white apron, you knew that she was on her way
to assist the doctor in delivering babies.

It has been brought to the attention of one of the writers of
this history that once upon a time, long long ago, a prominent
committee member of the Coalhurst History Association, when
a wee lad, committed a dastardly deed upon Frederick. The
incident occurred during the night and involved this individual,
fellow cohorts, a generous length of rope, two saddle horses,
and a pair of telephone pole climbing surs or spikes. These
dead end kids of the praires then "borrowed" Fred's democrat
and proceeded to take it apart, using ingenuity, sweat, muscle,
rope and the saddle horses. Our individual in question, with
spurs on, climbed various telephone poles, and the resulting
masterpiece was the democrat in disarray; wagon wheels and
various other pieces hanging from the tops of telephone poles.

Lo and behold this was the wonderous sight to greet Frederick
come early morn. You can well imagine the righteous rage
and mixed emotions which must surely have coursed through
Fred's veins upon viewing his beloved democrat in such a
deplorable condition. Enough to make a person's hair turn
gray or, at the very least, drop out.

Needless, to say; Frederick called in the long arm of the law
in the form of Constable Davis of the R.C.M.Police. Constable
Davis, in the company of Frederick and various other onlookers
which included the perpetrators, viewed the scene of the
unparalleled crime.

Constable Davis gazed upwards at the hanging parts of
the democrat, scratched his head, and in a voice filled
with awe and respect exclaimed! "I wonder how on earth
they managed to do that? And how are we going to get
the parts down?" Whereupon the leader of the gang went
and got the spurs, rope and saddle horse and in full view
of Constable Davis, Frederick and onlookers; put the spurs
on, climbed the poles, threw the rope and with the faithful
horse's help, lowered all the parts down. It is not known
if the culprits were given a good lecture or taken on a
stroll to the wood shed. It is known that it was a case
which was solved in a very short time.

To top it all off - Minna treated the boys to cookies and
milk for their good deed.

Minna and Frederick survived the above episode and, no
doubt, others. They managed to purchase another 55.83
acres consisting of parcel No. S.E. 21-9-22-4. This was land
on which the mine company houses once stood and also
included the famous Coalhurst landmark - The Coal Dump.

In 1942 Minna and Frederick sold their original tract of land
to their son Walter and moved to Vancouver. They retained
the title to parcel No. S.E. 21-9-22-4 and, in 1947, sold it to
Mr. Alex Veres.

Frederick worked in the Vancouver Shipyards until his
retirement in 1949. He passed away, at seventy-eight years
of age, in Vancouver on June 29, 1952.

Minna passed away, at eighty-six years of age, in Vancouver
on July 2, 1964.

Their four sons have since passed away and their daughter
is the only remaining member of Minna and Frederick's immediate
family.

It was not an easy life during the Dirty Thirties" and many
hardships were endured what with the depression and
dustbowl conditions. It is indeed a credit to those early
pioneers of Southern Alberta that they persevered and
overcame these hardships.

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