Treasure Chest Thursday ~ Winter in Saskatchewan ~ Circa 1916 and 1928

         PIONEER LIFE AND WINTER TRANSPORTATION

Joseph Samuel JOHNSON Circa 1928

 Homestead: Section 34,Township 20, Range 11, West 3rd.

 The Village of Milden, Saskatchewan, incorporated 1910.

Uncle Joe with his team of prise winning horses and cutter.

He was and avid horseman and showed his horses at local county fairs and won many ribbons.

Jane "Jenny" Victoria (MORTIMER) JOHNSON - 1916

holding Arlive Mortimer JOHNSON
Handwriting at top is Jenny and Joe's daughter, Hazel Bernice.

In about 1910, my Uncle Joe headed West to join his elder brother, George Albert JOHNSON. Joe and his wife, Jenny, homesteaded on an adjoining Quarter Section. When George and his wife, Emma CLARK, arrived in 1905, the only source of building material was the Prairie sod. George and Emma lived in their sod house from 1905 to 1908, when they were finally able to build a frame house.

The little homesteader's shack became the chicken coop after Joe had proved up his farm and then built the home that the family lived in for the rest of their years.
The two JOHNSON brothers farmed their homesteads for their entire lives.

SOURCE: Photographs provided by Hazel (JOHNSON) DISHAW. Collection of my Mother's photographs. Family story told by my mother Eva (JOHNSON) GATES.

Surname Saturday ~ JOHNSON - A story of survival.

George Albert JOHNSON

Born 1875 - Died 1964 - Aged 89 years 3 months

 George is 85 years old in this photograph.

George Albert JOHNSON was my maternal Grandfather.

"PRAIRIE FIRES"

"Always a source of worry and of fear, a prairie fire caused great concern among the very early homesteaders. The first such fire to cross this particular area was in the fall of 1905. As remembered from conversation by those who were here, it appeared to have started not too far west.


In the long thick grass of many years it swept forward at tremendous speed. Flames rose 20 to 25 feet in the air with thickening acrid smoke. Unfortunate was the odd settler who did not have an excellent fire guard.


One neighbor who witnessed and survived the fire was George Johnson. He had gone west over a mile from their own sod house to see about a fire guard of another settler, James McCracken, when it overtook him on the way home. There was only one salvation - to run through the fire to burned over ground. In so doing he carried scars of that episode to the end.  .  .  ."

SOURCE: LOOKING BACK - The History of the Milden Community; 1905-1965. Published by: The Milden Historical Committee, 1966. Page 14.

In 1969, this 150 page book was given to my parents by one of my father's first cousins. The Village of Milden and the surrounding farming community is where my parents grew up.

NOTE: The fall of 1905 would have been just months after George, his wife Emma (CLARK) and their first two children arrived by wagon on the barren prairies to claim their homestead. George would have been 30 years old; Emma 26 years; Gordon Clark 4 1/2 years; and Mary `Mae` Jane 3 years old. Two more children were born in the sod house. Florence Irene born 1906 and Clifford Fallis born early 1908.

In the spring/summer of 1905 they would have built their first home, the sod house. The family lived in the sod house 3 years, until 1908 when they built the wood frame/cedar house that was their house for the rest of their lives.

This must have been a frightening experience for George and his young family.

Also, over the years, I heard the story of "Grandpa and the prairie fire" as told by my Mother. Although Grandpa did have some scars, fortunately he was not disfigured. As children and young adults, he looked fine to us!

SOD HOUSE IN SASKATCHEWAN ~ 190?

SOURCE: Wikipedia.org -  
This United States Congress image is in the Public Domain.

Wikipedia.org

Notice the very fancy hats that the two women standing in the center are wearing.
One with a 'bunch' of pink flowers. The other has a hat matching her purple dress.

However, I think this photo has had the colour added, that prairie grass just looks too green!

Wikipedia.org article on the history of Sod Houses

UPDATED: Sunday, May 30th 2010 with images from Wikipedia.org. 

2010 - copyright © Carole Gates

Tombstone Tuesday ~ George Albert JOHNSON and his wife Emma CLARK

JOHNSON

1875  GEORGE  1964

1879    EMMA    1956

~ LIFE'S WORK WELL DONE ~

Marriage: 13 September 1899,
Penetanguishene, Simcoe County, Ontario

George Albert JOHNSON was born on 2 November 1875 and he died on 30 January 1964, aged 89 years. His wife, Emma CLARK was born 17 February 1879 (but there are Census Records with dates as early as 1874 for her birth). Emma died 24 November 1956, aged 77 years. (or using 1874 as her birth date, aged 82 years).

LIFE'S WORK WELL DONE ~ George and Emma moved from their birth places in Ontario, first to Manitoba in about 1902, then on to Saskatchewan in 1905. Their first home on the Prairies was a sod house that they built in 1905 and lived in until their homestead was proved up in 1908.

They were prominent members of this farming community, helping to build churches and schools. The village of Milden, Saskatchewan was incorporated in 1911. They spent the rest of their lives in the community that they helped to establish.

George Albert JOHNSON and Emma CLARK are my maternal grandparents.