Mr. and Mrs. George Louis Gygi and family emigrated
to Canada from thc city of Paris, Bear Lake County,
Idaho April 8. 1902. On May 25, 1906. Mr. Gygi took
out his citizenship papers and was declared a
Canadian.

On arriving in Canada the Gygis settled in the Stirling
area where Mr. Gygi was employed as a brick layer
and was overseeing the making of the bricks. He
assisted in the building of the Stirling schoolhouse.
He often told his lamily of how he walked back and
forth to work in Lethbridge.

In 1904, the family moved to Spring Coulee where Mr.
Gygi accepted the job as Section Foreman for the
Saint Mary's River Railroad which ran between Stirling
and Cardston. This was a narrow gauge line and was
absorbed by the A.R.and 1. (Alberta Railraod and Irrigation
Co.) about 1910 or 1911. On April 12, 1912 it taken over
by the CPR. All this time that Mr. Gygi was working as
foreman, Mrs. Gygi was fast becoming well known in her
own right, for her splendid cooking. She cooked and
served many delicious home-made meals, not only to the
trainmen, but to others who travelled this route as well.

In 1917, the family moved to Magrath where Mr. Gygi took
up farming just west of the town, living there until the fall of
1940, when he purchased five acres of land on what was
then the outskirts of Lethbridge. He resided there until
his sudden passing away January 1,1941. Mrs. Gygi later
moved into the city where she made her home until her
illness and passing April 11, 1952.

The name Gygi is a well known Swiss name and has a
lineage dating back to 1547, originating in the village of
Kappelen bei Aarberg, Bern Switzerland. Mr Gygi himself
was born May, 29, 1871, in Kappelen. At the age of
18 years, he joined the Swiss Militia, and about three
years later at the age of 21 emigrated to the U.S.A.