My father, Francis Orton MacLean was born in
Catarague, near Kingston, on May 25, 1884. His
father was Dan MacLean and his mother was Grace
Hutton.

My mother was born at Ganonazie on Feb. 2, 1883.
Her parents were Mary and Francis Hutton.
Mother and Dad were married on Jan. 30, 1906,
in her parents' home.

Mother and Dad had the good fortune to move into
a new home built on the banks of the St. Lawrence
River. It was a stone house with hardwood floors
upstairs and down, and completely furnished by her
parents. Five years ago, when I had the good fortune
to visit my birth home, my grandfather's farm was
declared historic property. I could hardly believe
the wonderful condition it stands in today. Even the
barns. My grandfather had a cheese factory. Five
sons and not one of them was interested in a cheese
factory.

After six years on the farm, my father wanted to sell the
farm and move west. Mother had six brothers in the
West and they seemed to be doing fine. By this
time there were three children to care for. We moved in
to Kingston for a year or so. Then the family moved to
Redcliff, Alberta. A cyclone hit Redcliff in 1914. It
did quite a bit of damage that year. We endured
several that did some damage - mostly broken windows.

My dad was supposed to be quite well off with his $6,000.
He decided to build houses to rent, then retire and live
off the rent. He did build three and one for mother,
but, by the time this was done, rents had melted down
to $5 a month. There were several factories built -
brick plants, rolling mills, glass factory. This made
employment for the people. This went along fine until
the war closed down so many of them. My father
worked in the rolling mill. His job was well paid but
dangerous. He had to wear a fine wire mask over his
face to protect his eyes, as well as a large apron to
cover the rest of his body. It would be very hot when
the rails came rolling through a blazing mass. My
father would try to grab them and send them on to a
vat of cold water.

On Feb, 7, 1920, another boy joined our family. That
made 2 boys and two girls. I remember that winter was
very cold with lots of snow. However we were
comfortable with gas heaters and gas lights.

My father always said "Where there is a cow, there
will be food on the table". He had heard of a man
who had a lovely herd of cattle but was unable
to feed them and so he had some of them up for
sale. Dad bought six of them at first and eventually
bought the whole herd. The dairy was started shortly
after. In a few short years, it meant expanding the
operation or selling. It seems they did not like the
idea of either solution. It was during this time that
Aunt Nettie (Hutton) and Uncle Dave (D.J. Whitney)
decided to pay us a visit. They wanted us to take over
the farm at Lethbridge. In 1929 we moved to the
Ideal Farm along with the herd of cattle my dad had
built up in Redcliff.

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