Mike Luco Sr., his wife and son, Mike, came to Sundial,
Alberta from Minot, North Dakota in March of 1908. He
shipped a box car to Lethbridge containing three work
horses, three head of cattle, furniture, wagon, ten foot
drill, and a sulky plow with a sixteen inch breaking bottom,
and what other machinery could be crammed into the car.
From Lethbridge this was all hauled to his homestead on
which he had filed in 1907 and built a small house. It was
located ten miles north of Turin. At that time some
homesteaders were still breaking land with wallking plows.
When they saw Dad's sulky plow on which you rode
when plowing, they said it wasn't any good as it only
had three wheels and would tip over if you made too sharp
of a turn. That didn't prove to be the case as Dad didn't
upset the plow once and could break three times as much
sod in a day as those who were using walking plows.
Later Dad bought a steam threshing outfit from A.P. Hughes,
Barons, AB, much like the one he had in North Dakota and
used the steam engine to break up hundreds of acres of
sod for homesteaders in the district.

At that time most years were very dry with very little crop to
harvest. There was also a lot of crop damage from
cutworms and grasshoppers; also from hail and no such
thing as hail insurance. Farmers barely made a living
because of the poor crops. Dad was getting disgusted
with all the crop failures he had, especially after
seeing all those heavy crops of grain and alfalfa growing
on irrigated farms around Coaldale and Lethbridge. In 1919
he bought an irrigated farm two miles south, two miles west
and one mile south of Coaldale. Plescos live there now.
This half section was very hilly and hard to irrigate
and as we didn't know anything about irrigating we
gave it up and traded it in 1920 to A.N. Kessler for 3/4
of dryland (Section 10, Twp. 8, Rge. 19) in the
Readymade area. By this time our family had grown
to five children, four of school age. The nearest
school was the Readymade School five miles away
with one room and Mrs. Reid was our teacher.
We started to go to the Readymade school as did
the Stanko and Yackulic children who had moved
into the area about the same time we did. Soon the
Readymade school was getting over-crowded but we
continued to go there for over a year. Some of the
children going there were the Wahls, Obers, McCanns,
Worthingtons, Rassmussens, and others. A Frank
Poole who just came from England started school
at Readymade. His English accent made us all
laugh when he talked, as we had never heard anything
like it before. I often wonder if he is still in Canada!
On Friday evenings the Readymade school held Box
Socials and dances. Readymade dances were very
popular for many years. Sam Stivers and Bish Davis
were floor managers and called the square dances.
One night a raffle was held and my Dad won a case
containing a set of silver tea-spoons which made him
very happy. I still have the case which reminds me
of the good times we always had at the Readymade
School.

For a time we went to the Owaking School, named
after Ober, Wahl and King. Mr. Budd and Mr. Cannell
were our teachers. This school was vacant for several
years and in such poor condition that it could not be
used during the winter.

Arrangements were then made with the Wilson Hutterite
Colony for us to go to school there with Mrs. Judd as
teacher. In the meantime my Dad and Mr. A. J. Watson,
the school inspector, organized and formed a new school
district, had a new school built and named it "Amiens".
It was built in 1922 just two miles west of the Tudor home.
The cement foundation still remains where it stood.
When it opened our first teacher was a Mr. Wilson from
Calgary. Our next teacher was Mr. Williams from Calgary
also, who later became a dentist. Attending this new
school were the Stivers, Stanko, Luco, Yackuhc,
Tudor, Younger, and Ulekach children.

On May 28, 1922, while we were living on the Kessler
farm our youngest sister was born. Dad went to
town to get a Doctor as we didn't have phones, and
left Aunt Mary Lelekach and myself to look after Mother.
The baby was born before Dad got back with the Doctor.
The Doctor said that everything was alright and that the
baby weighed 12 pounds 8 ounces.

While we lived in the Readymade area our nearest
neighbours were the Mike Stanko family just half mile
north of us. Times were hard in those days. There was
a lot of land vacant and our cattle used to pasture on it.
One Saturday night when I was driving our cattle home
on saddle horse, W. Stanko caught up to me on his bicycle.
He was coming home after working all week at the No. 6
Mine in Lethbridge. He would go back to work on his bicycle
Sunday nights as he had no car. He did this for several
winters. I asked him why he didn't buy himself a car to
travel with as a forty mile trip on bike was surely too
much every weekend. He told me that he was saving
up so that he could buy a brand new car and said that
some day he would own all the land around here. It
all came true for not long after that he bought a new
Durant car also over 1000 acres of hay land from the
C.P.R., broke it up with two new three cylinder
Caterpillar diesel tractors, farmed it and as a result
became quite wealthy. That shows what planning
and determination can do.

Names of our other neighbors were O.T. Lathrop,
George Rowley, George Rider, Vaselenaks, Kenneys,
Fred Ewing, Tom and John Mandeville, and Sam Stivers,
Ambert Kessler and Bish Davis.

We were paying W. Kessler $45. an acre for the farm
we bought from him. Since crops were poor we
couldn't pay the interest, so after two years we had
to drop it. On the 9th March, 1923, we moved to
the White School district where we bought a half
section farm from the C.P.R. payable over a
twenty five year period. We lived there for forty
years. Our father Mike Sr. passed
away on October 24, 1931 at the age of 56 years
and mother passed away October 12, 1966 at
81 years of age. On May 17, 1977 our brother John
passed away.

The Luco Family

Michael Luco, - born August 18, 1875, died October 24,
193 1, and Bertha Mehalko, - born January 24, 1885,
died Oct. 12, 1966 were both born in Lehoczi, Austria.

Mike Luco and his sister Elizabeth were brought to
New York by a priest of the Greek Orthodox church.
Their parents had been killed for refusing to become
Roman Catholics. As the priest's wife was jealous
of Elizabeth she was married soon and raised a
large family in Pennsylvania. Mike Luco was an
engineer for the Northern Railway so saw much of
America.

Bertha Mehalko also emigrated to New York, and worked
for Jewish families. She met and married Mike Luco in
1906. Their first homestead was near Minot, North
Dakota. They had seven children - Peter 1917 (who died
of whooping cough at seven months).

Mike Luco wanted education for his children. One son
attended University of Alberta 1930-3 1, taking an
electrical engineer course, but due to his father's
sudden death Oct. 24, 1931 returned to the farm.
Three other children graduated as teachers. Two sons
attended agriculture college and became successful
farmers. All of the family looked after their widowed
mother and treated her with great respect.

The Luco boys continued to farm in the White and
River Junction areas. They raised grain, alfalfa
and sugar beets. In 1937 they quit sugar beets,
returned to the Sundial area to farm the original
homestead, also rented more land. Mike also
purchased N.E. 1/4 3.8.21 from the C.P.R. in 1938.
He used a steam engine to break the prairie sod.

Insects and weather conditions continued to make
farming difficult. World War II from 1939-1945
improved the economic outlook for farmers. Land
was paid off and new machinery was purchased.

Joe Luco taught school in Coalhurst until 1942 when he
took over the Imperial Oil Agency from R.D. Alexander.
Joe married on July 19, 1947 had three children, all
attended university. Joe died Feb. 22, 1989.

Mike Luco married September 1, 1948 and had two sons.
He died September 23, 1980.

John (Submitted by Betty (Borgen) Luco) was born in
Sundial, Alberta, June 6, 1915, the sixth child of
Bertha and Michael "Mike" Luco. Schools he
attended were White School, Lethbridge Collegiate,
and Olds Agriculture College. He was on the farm
with his brother Mike in the McNally District and
then farmed west of Fort Macleod and Barons.

He loved the land, animals and sports. At one track
meet a controversy arose when John's high jump
was allowed, after diving over the bar instead of
jumping in the traditional way. Some say John
was ahead of his time.

His sudden death on May 17, 1966 was ahead of his
time too. He left behind his wife and four children.

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