Albert Parkinson was born in lowa in 1879. His wife
Lilly Pearl (Knowles) was born in 1880. They were
married in 1900. They were living in Stevens,
Minnesota when they decided to move to Alberta in
1910. They first settled in the Pendant d'Oreille district.
His father and mother, James Richard and Mary Parkinson
come to Canada at the same time and lived with them.

Bert and Pearl had three children. Two more children
were added to the family in Canada.

They moved to Bradshaw in 1923 and Spring Coulee
in 1929. Great grandfather Parkinson had only one eye.
1, Mildred Lee Sloan. stayed with both sets of
grandparents. We would walk to the train, about half a
mile, with great grandfather to pick up the newspaper.
He used to rock me in his arms and make me a doll out
of a beer bottle wrapped in a bandanna handkerchief

Bert Parkinson farmed the home farm east of Spring
Coulee until 1944. His daughter and son-in-law took
over the farm. Bert Parkinson used to do a lot of
custom threshing in the fall and built a number of
cisterns in the district. He also did butchering for the
crews of the oil rigs. He helped build the Vernal school.
He often went swimming in the canal or in the river
where we went with the horse and buggy.

Bert Parkinson remarried and moved to Kelowna with
his new wife, Florence, and step-daughter. He bought
a home there and worked in a lumber yard. He passed
away in September 1952 after a long battle with cancer.

Pearl (grandma Parkinson) died in August 1968.

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