In the summer of 1875, Harry Ridgeway arrived in
Springhill, Nova Scotia from Staffordshire, England.
His wife, Harriet, came to Canada later with two
daughters, their family at that time. They lived in a
log house built not too successfully by Harry Ridgeway,
as snow drifted in during the winter months. The
bitter cold was also very evident as the green forest
wood refused to burn in the coal stoves. As time
went on more children were born and Leonard James
Ridgeway was the youngest of ten children. He
attended the Springhill school, but as most of the
other boys, he left school at an early age to work in
the coal mine. Then in 1909, at age nineteen, he
left home and travelled to Western Canada on the
"Harvest Special". This was a train running from
Eastern Canada, bringing workers to harvest the grain.
He arrived in Coalhurst where he lived with his
sister and her husband. He only remained in Coalhurst
for a short time and then travelled and worked in the
Coeur d'Alene and Spokane area. In 1911. he then
returned to Coalhurst to work in the mine, again
staying at his sisters who ran a boarding house for
single men who worked in the mine.

Ethel Rose Taylor was born in Abbotskerswell, Devon,
England. She had two brothers and three sisters, and
one of the sisters with her husband and family,
immigrated to Canada and lived in Coalhurst.
So Ethel and a sister Violet also left England, had
a tedious boat and train journey, but arrived in
Kipp and lived with Mrs. Locke, the sister who
had come to Canada at an earlier date. So Ethel
went to work for Mrs. Barringham, this was
Leonard Ridgeway's married sister who had
the boarding house afore mentioned.

So, Ethel and Leonard met, fell in love and were
married on the Twenty First day of January, 1913,
by Anthony V. Grant, a Church of England Minister
who had to come from Diamond City either by
horse back or horse and buggy to perform the
ceremony. Of interest right now in my home still
remains some over seventy year old wedding gifts
they received at that time.

Their first home was a rented company house and
a daughter was born in this house. Dr. Rose and
Mrs. McPherson, as midwife, were in attendance.
We know the birth was after midnight, as Dr. Rose
told Dad to make sure the coal oil lamps were ready
for lighting as the electricity was cut off to the homes at
midnight. The family then moved to Wigan. A son was
born here with Dr. Rose again doing the delivering,
this time assisted by Mrs. Fred Garrick. Then as
time went on, we again moved back to Coalhurst into
a company house, situated just east of "The Batch"
and next to the "Teacherage". We lived here for
quite a few years and the two children started their
schooling in the one storey, four room school
about halfway between Coalhurst and Wigan.

So we have memories of our childhood days. My sister
can vaguely remember playing with a cousin, and
on this occasion wearing a mask because of the flu
epidemic of 1918. We were very young when we
learned to skate at the old rink near the dump. When
this burned down our skating was done on the frozen
ponds and sloughs in the area.

We attended Sunday School at the Presbyterian Church
where our mother was a member of the Ladies Aid.
We can recall the annual Christmas concert and
Santa Claus arriving with gifts and candy. The
ladies had teas and home made pork and bean
suppers to raise money for Church financing. The
school Christmas concert was also a big night, and
each class took part with songs, dances and skits
taught by the teachers and practised for many
weeks prior to the big night in the Oddfellows Hall.

Also during these years, the big blizzard hit one day
just early in the afternoon. I had already gone to
school, but school let out early as our parents arrived
to take us home. Dad and a car load of mine workers
were between Lethbridge and Coalhurst when the
storm hit. They were on their way to a deceased
miners funeral at the time. Visibility was terrible,
but dad turned the car around and started back to
Coalhurst. Soon after the car had to be abandoned
and the men walked along the highway until they came
to the Patton residence. They remained there for a
while before they faced the weather again. Later
in the day, dad was able to get two horses from
the mine, get back to his car and get it towed home.
The blizzard is also remembered, as a school child
was lost and perished in the cold.

Summer holidays from school were also happy times.
We went swimming in the irrigation ditches and canals.
I think it would be remiss to say that on many occasions
we came home covered with more mud than we had
before we started out for these cooling dips on the hot
summer days. We also had a few occasions for river
swimming if our parents were around to supervise. The
coulees around were great places for hiking, and many
a syrup pail was filled with Saskatoons, Chokecherries
and Gooseberries which grew there and were picked
on these occasions. Halloween was a big night for th
e kids as we went from door to door collecting, in those
days, mostly apples. In the later hours the older
teenagers were out for a little fun and mischief and
morning found all the out houses in every back alley in
town dumped over.

The Monday night movie was a weekly highlight, with
all the good westerns and a thrilling serial to bring us
back week after week. I also remember Peter Pan
and Wings, the war movie with sound effects to keep
us thrilled and excited. The player piano was also
operated to entertain us on these movie occasions. To
this day I can still hear in my mind the bell ringing as the
boys went up and down the streets shouting "High class
moving picture show tonight at eight o'clock".

So our lives were filled with good things in our growing
up days. We had moved to a larger house just east of
the Police Barracks. Here we had a fenced yard, so
dad had a vegetable garden along with a lawn and flower
beds up front. Our skating, swimming and other activities
kept us occupied and it was at this time my sister and a friend
skated into a water pocket during a skating party at Park Lake.
They were rescued by Gerwyn Lewis. Needless to say, that
incident terminated the skating for that particular spring season.

Dad continued to work at the mine, and mom kept busy with
the household duties. I can recall the smell of the Christmas
cake baking in the oven, also the making of Christmas
puddings, boiling nearly all day in a large boiler on the
kitchen range. There was also the smell of vinegar, spices,
etc., used for making pickles from the garden vegetables in
the fall months. Dad and all of us enjoyed his car and our
weekend trips to visit relatives or to picnic in the mountain
areas was a great delight.

So these few memories come from our childhood and
growing up days. We finished our schooling and our
adult days were ahead.

My mother passed away in 1971, and dad in 1981,
but they had celebrated their Golden Wedding
Anniversary in 1963. A lifetime of family experience
cannot be included in this story, however, at the time
of writing (March 1984) 1 know that my life has been
made richer through a loving family and friends
both in Coalhurst and Lethbridge.

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