Five generaltions of Livingstons have lived in the
Coalhurst area, helping shape our community. It
all began in 1917, when William James Livingston
and his wife, Anna, sold their mixed farm near
Eldora, Iowa, and lured by the "get-rich-quick"
stories they heard about Alberta, moved to the
Burdett and grassy Lake area, to farm dry land.
Their oldest daughter remained in Montana to teach
school. (Later she moved to the Olds area where
she married.) Their three sons came with them.

They were discouraged when, year after year, their
daylight-to-dark labor resulted in no crops, just drought.
The family was among the first group to buy land in
the newly organized Lethbridge Northern Irrigation
District. In the spring of 1927, their home was completed
on their new irrigated land, situated three miles east of
Coalhurst near the Picture Butte highway. There they worked
and lived through the Depression years and World
War 11.

William passed away in September, 1948. Anna
continued living on the farm until 1953 when she
bought a house and moved into Coalhurst.

Their oldest son, Marshall, married and they bought
land adjacent to his father's farm, and also took up
residence there in the spring of 1927. Marshall had
one of the first threshing machines in the area. He
hired young men from Coalhurst to help him do custom
threshing for farmers from West Lethbridge to Picture
Butte.

During World War 11 the farmers and their wives
had to help each other thresh due to the shortage
of man power. The Livingston cattle brand was
half diamond, LX: L X . Their horse brand was A,
lazy A: 

.Marshall was forced to sell his farm in 1954 due to
ill health. They moved to Coalhurst in February, 1955,
where he lived until his passing in May, 1978.

My parents Wm. James Livingston (a young farmer)
and Anna Klatt were married at Steamboat Rock,
Iowa, on March 7th, 1901. Four children were born
to this union in the state of Iowa.

They all immigrated to Burdett, Alberta in the fall of 1917.
It was a different life on the prairies, but they still
farmed with horses, then changed with the times, from
dry-land farming to irrigation on the Lethbridge
Northern Irrigation District in 1926. Their new home
was two miles east of Coalhurst on Highway 25. They
started with raw land, added buildings and planted
two hundred trees in 1928 on the west side of the
buildings to break the wind from the west. In 1948
when the highway was improved more land was
needed and four rows of trees had to be destroyed.
The remaining trees still grow and are a land mark
on the prairie.

During the early days on the irrigated farm, everything
grew. They produced most of their living on the farm.
They had horses, cattle, pigs and poultry, and grew
the feed for them. They sold table cream to a
creamery in Lethbridge, and eggs and chickens
to the miners families in Coalhurst.

My mother was a real home person. She enjoyed
her family and friends and was always ready to
lend a helping hand. They really kept "Open House".

The grandchildren and their friends spent many
weekends on the farm with their grandparents.

My father died in September 1948. Mother continued
on the farm until retiring in 1955. She moved into
Coalhurst and continued her crocheting and gardening.

She spent ten days in hospital having an eye operation
in 1972.

She decided to leave Coalhurst in 1973, moved to
Sundre to make her home with me. She had to give
up crocheting, and reading became difficult. She
enjoyed company and the family gatherings, and
spent many hours sitting by the window watching
traffic on the street. She celebrated her 100th
birthday on December 13, 1982. Part of the families
were present and pictures were taken. She died
on September 7, 1983, and was buried in Mountain
View cemetery in Lethbridge. Six grandsons were
her pallbearers.

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