Jim McConnell's Autobiography 1877 - 1957Canadian pioneer farmer in Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia |
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14. worked the land down smooth, before continuing the breaking of more land as everyone now was doing as a railroad was now here to carry our grain to market. Early in the Spring of 1909, the C.N.R. extended its rails westward, and the town of Rosetown sprung up. Just in a few weeks. streets were laid out, stores were built, lumber yards were opened, and homes built to live in. As lumber was closer now, the settlers began hauling it out and building new granaries for the crops now growing. As more neighbors came -- all friendly and eagerly looking toward the future, the days passed quickly by. Soon the oats were ripe and I had to teach the oxen one more lesson - that was how to pull the binder and turn the corners, and it surprised me how quickly they learned and how well they did it. I soon found myself with seventy acres of heavy oat bundles down and ready to stook up. As the days were still long and fine. the stopking was soon completed. The next question was: who was going to do the thrashing? We soon learned that Dick Hutchinson, our neighbor, had bought a large thrasher driven by a steam engine, and he would be ready to thrash the whole neighborhood. However, Dick unloaded his machine at Zealandia and began to thrash where there were larger fields of stooks ready. Not long after he began thrashing, he was taken down with Typhus Fever. His brother, Jim Hutchinson, had to take over and run the machine. October slowly passed. The weather got colder. The big machine got close until it was right beside my quarter, but the November weather became severely cold and snow came. I went over one morning as they steamed up and asked Jim Hutchinson to thrash mine before he pulled away. He said he could not operate a steam outfit outside in this weather and that he had to get the machine home. And home they went. The cold increased. The glass in my windows filled out level with the frame with frost. Deep snow came and drifted over my oat stooks covering them all out of sight. Soon we heard that Dick Hutchinson had died of the Typhus Fever over at his home where his wife had been nursing him so long. I went to Dick's funeral, and it was the first open grave I had seen in this great new country. That day the weather broke. The snow began to melt, and the south Chinook wind continued to blow all night. Next morning all the snow had disappeared, and the south wind continued to blow warm. My opportunity had arrived -- I must stook those oats. I immediately got the neighbors with teams and wagons and began stacking. In about three days, the whole 70 acres were stacked. And then what -- in less than a week along comes a little thrashing machine driven by a gas engine. It came from the north and did all the small jobs as it came along. Soon it was set by my oat stacks, and in a couple of days all my oats were thrashed and in the bins. And now I must relate what happened just at Xmas time. I had made a trip to the new town of Rosetown and picked up my groceries and some coal. It was rather late when I arrived home and had supper. Then I filled the stove with fresh coal, checked the damper in the pipe and opened the little check damper at the top above the coal fire so that it would burn slowly. After this, I went to bed and to sleep. But alas, it was noon next day before I knew anything more, and then my arms and legs were rigid and stiff. I could not move. The fire had burned out, but the house had the sickening smell of coal gas. After a while, when I was able to get my feet out on the floor, I slowly got limbered up enough to dress and make my way to my nearest neighbor's. I remember that they had Christmas dinner over and offered me some Christmas
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