My grandfather was born November 18, 1864 and my
grandmother Kathern Anna Tubbs was born June 20, 1874.
They were married on February 1, 1892. The Hipp family
migrated to Canada from Sikeston, Missouri, U.S.A. in
1909. Their first born was a son, Willie Hipp, born August 8,
1894. There were seven more children born into the family,
however, due to the time, medical knowledge and disease
types of that era, they all died in early childhood, with the
exception of three daughters.

Bill Hipp, as he was better known to the old timers,
homesteaded with his family in the Taber area.
Grandfather was very prominent in the life of Taber
and district, arriving during the rush of settlement, and
lived in the Taber community for many years. The
heavy demand for coal around the turn of the century
impelled a sudden influx of coal miners and their families
from all parts of Canada as well as the U.S.A., to settle
the dry land farms and work the mines in Southern Alberta.
It was during this time in history that Grandmother's brother
Alfred Tubbs and his wife Katie, and their family moved
to Canada from South of the border. Al Tubbs was a
hoistman and steam engineer for the Bay Mine during
the teens and 1920's. His wife passed away in 1929.
They had five boys and three girls, and in the early
thirty's moved to farm in the Retlaw Vauxhall area.
The Hipp family established a home in the Taber
area and engaged in farming a few miles north east
of Taber town, keeping up their own town house
as well as maintaining their farm residence.
Grandfather had a large Rumley Steam driven tractor,
a light bottom plough for sod busting, and a large
threshing machine. He found many an opportunity to
expand his operations, and besides farming he embarked
into grain threshing and contract hauling. With an
increased demand for his services, he employed
between 35 and 40 men full time in varied activities,
as the Hipp threshing gang ranged far and wide each
and every fall for years. There were 16 teams and
hayracks, a large cook house mounted on large steel
wheels, as well as two large bunk houses mounted
for mobility. In the capacity of chief cook and bottle
washer, as well as water hauler and cookhouse flunky,
was an old gentleman named Perry Balis Williams,
better known as Cousin. He emigrated to Taber with
the Hipp family from Missouri, His day began at 4:00
a.m. and ended way after sundown, usually seven days
a week. He spent his lifetime working for the Hipp
generation, and passed away in Coalhurst September
2nd, 1947. Cousin never did get married. He claimed
that in his youth he never had the money and time,
and in later years nobody would have him.

Slowly the coal mines folded up. The dry land farmers
failed to produce, and grandfather packed up and
moved to the town of Coalhurst, Alberta, in 1926.
He purchased an irrigated farm of 160 acres
approximately one and a half miles north of Coalhurst.
Rebbeca and Dave Berry and family moved from
Taber to Coalhurst with my grandparents, and did
most of the farming and chores of the day. In the
late 1930's the Berry family moved to a place of their
own in the Whitecourt and Westlock area. Myrtle
and Paul Pontarolo had their farm adjoining the Hipp
farm on the north, and in 1931 Florence and Pete
Travalia moved from Taber to a farm owned by a Mr.
Whitney, which adjoined grandfather's land on the south.

Grandfather and Grandmother Hipp left Coalhurst
on July 18, 1940 to travel to Westiock, Alberta, to
visit their youngest daughter Rebecca and family.
On the Edmonton trail north of Calgary they were
to become the victims of a double tragedy. At 1:30
P.M., July 18, 1940, while crossing the railroad, they
were struck by the Chinook passenger train, a fast
Calgary-Edmonton train owened by the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company, bringing their lives to an end.
They left behind a heritage we are proud of.

Part of the heritage and lasting memories of grandfather,
are the trees, that still stand in proud majesty throughout
Park Lake, that grandfather was instrumental in obtaining
and planting within the park area, back in the early 1930's
assisted by other old timers from the L.N.I.D. territory.

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