MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
Charles was born in Wigan, Lancashire, England, February 2,
Charlie never worked in the mines in England but became a
Charlie, my father, had brought all the tools, prepared to make
By the spring of 1904 he had four little boys, and he took
There was no school in West Lethbridge at that time, and
There was a long table in the long narrow kitchen of the farm
In 1926 Dad bought an irrigated farm, raw land covered with
Dad and Mother had a very hard time keeping us kids
Dad and Mother lived in a little house on the farm, and
Charlie and Ada Watmough came to the District of Alberta,
1875. His father was cable inspector for the coal mines
in that area, and they should have been a well-to-do family.
Unfortunately his job kept him among the wealthy mine
operators who thrived on alcoholic beverages, and
subsequently he became addicted to it. I heard of one
case where a cable supplier brought in samples of his wares
for my grandfather's inspection, along with a case of fine
whiskey to add to the persuasion. Grandfather kept the
case of whiskey but he judged the cables unsafe for use.
Charlie and Thomas learned their lesson well from their father
and never had a smoker's breath or a hang-over.
very efficient "clogger". He made and repaired clogs for miners,
children, and even the girls in the cotton factories. He didn't
find a clog to fit any foot, he made it to fit. He continued as a
clogger after his marriage in 1897 to Ada Sumner, born in
Wigan, on January 4, 1875. Their first two sons were born
there, and in 1901 they packed up all their belongings and
came to Canada. After a long boring trip across the country,
and riding the narrow guage railway from Dunmore, they
arrived in Lethbridge in May, 1901.
his clogs for all the "Wiganers" who had preceeded him,
but soon found out that clogs were not the right footwear
in our cold and slippery weather. He went to work in No.
3 mine, and soon got on as a clutch operator on the haulage
ropes down the mine. At first he used a kerosene lamp
which was later replaced by a carbide lamp. By the spring
of 1902 he had acquired a small piece of land bordering
13th street on the east and 18 avenue, N. on the north,
complete with a two-storey house and a small barn. He
also had a small team of horses and a light wagon.
up a homestead in West Lethbridge. In order to prove up
on the homestead the family had to live on it for six months
of the year, so they moved back and forth until 1907,
when they moved out to the farm to stay. Charlie still
kept his job at the mine, so the farm work was left to
his wife and the oldest of the boys. By this time there
were five boys and one girl.
Coalhurst was still only a dream of the mining company
which later built the mine and most of the town. The older
boys went to school in North Lethbridge during the winter
months, but after they moved to the farm there was no
school until 1911, when West Lethbridge school started.
The family increased by five on the farm.
house, and all thirteen of us sat down at mealtimes, each in
his own place. In the early twenties there were often twelve
lunches to pack as Dad and the five older boys went to
the mine at Coalhurst, and six of us walked across the
fields to school. I can still remember the happy days we
spent out in the pasture, picking mushrooms in the spring,
and cactus berries in the fall; and always hearing the
exhaust blast from the powerful steam hoist at Coalhurst.
We could see the two "buggy wheels" turning in opposite
directions on the top of the tipple. Much later I learned that
those wheels were about twelve feet in diameter.
tepee rings of rocks, east of Coalhurst, S. E. 23-9-22. All
the idle men and boys of Coalhurst knew where this farm was.
They wore deep paths through the coulees going down to
the river, almost every decent day. When they pushed down
the fence in the Windmill Coulee he never thought of
prohibiting their passage, as the farmers do now, he simply
built a stile where the path crossed the fence line. That stile
is still there, but no one ever uses that pathway anymore.
The river is polluted and berry bushes are washed out with
spill water. The happy chanting of the young boys from
Coalhurst trotting down the path to the river to match their
skills with red horse, skip-jack, gold eye and sturgeon is no
more. The only break in the silence now is the odd howl of
a coyote at night, or the snarl of a hill bike in the daytime.
clothed and fed during the depression, but somehow
there seemed to be enough meals to match the mealtimes.
The food we could get on the farm, but the clothing was
a little harder to come by. The shoes I wore to the barn
were the same ones I wore to school. Dad grew alfalfa
hay, and usually sold the second crop to the Quarantine
Station for the guineapigs and rabbits. He sold hay to
other farmers too, and this, along with eggs and cream
was almost our entire income. In 1936 sugar beets
became a common crop, and after a few hard years
things started to look good again. In 1937 one of the boys
took over the homestead farm which gave us more time to
work at home. In 1944 I took over the farm at Coalhurst.
passed away a few years later - Dad in December 1946,
and Mother in March 1948.
N.W.T., with two children and a few trunks and boxes in
1901, and by now their descendants number a score and
their value assessment into the millions.
Return Individual Histories