Jim McConnell's Autobiography 1877 - 1957Canadian pioneer farmer in Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia |
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16. Fred spent four days there waiting to get his homestead. He would lie on the floor at night, covered with his blankets and then roll them up and use them for a seat during the day. A few weeks later I spent four days and nights the same way, waiting for-the quarter I wanted, because it was near our homestead and also closer to Rosetown. In August 1911 our first boy was born in our first little home, which was encased with sod walls for insulation from the heat in summer and the cold in the winter. Two summers and two winters were spent in that house. In 1912 we moved three miles closer to town - - to the purchased homestead, where we had built a sod stable for the horses and a small frame house to live in. It was in 1912 also that I began to farm with power equipm nL I bought a gas engine and a breaking plow and disc harrows. Later on I purchased a large ten disc plow for use on the soft stubble land that was now too fine for the rod breaker to turn over. At this time I made a serious mistake - - taking in another man as a partner. He was a good worker, but proved to be dishonest and unreliable. After finding him out, I had to take the whole outfit over myself the following year. In August of 1912, during the busy harvesting season, our first little girl was born. When harvesting was over I bought a thrashing machine and we were able to do all our own crops and to earn some money by thrashing the neighbors' crops. We built a new house in 1913 on the purchased homestead. Fred obtained the title lor his homestead and we traded his quarter for a good half section adjoining our own. This, with the other land we had bought, made us five good quarters all told. I also settled with my partner and took over all the liabilities. We had a fine crop coming and things looked prosperous until about August 3rd, 1913 -- when, alas, a sudden hailstorm came and in less than an hour the crop was smashed to pieces. Hailstones the size of small hen's eggs, and driven by the wind, smashed the east and north windows of our new house and bounced in on the floor, hitting the ceiling and walls. The children were frightened and cried, so we opened the cellar door and went down there for protection. The storm quickly passed but left the awful wreck behind. This was our first experience with a hail storm and was the only destructive storm I had seen in Saskatchewan. One piece of good fortune was that we were insured. That was the first year the Municipal Hail Insurance Company had operated in Saskatchewan. After Xmas that year we received a cheque for over $1600 insurance and this helped a lot to work down the hailed-out land and prepare for the next crop. We obtained a few cows to eat the waste and then had our own milk and butter and always had some butter to sell. The following year of 1914 was surely a year of great events. We summer-fallowed Fred's half section. The year was hot and dry with not enough rain and the crops were very light. In June, Fred was injured by a bull which cornered him in the stall and pushed him into the manger, thereby breaking his leg. When Fred called for help, the little girl ran down from the house and pulled the halter rope and tied it in such a way that it pulled the bull's head over to the other side of the stall and Fred was able to get free. He was laid up most of that summer. Then all unexpectedly, about August 3rd, we heard of the war in Europe. To me it was a surprise and a real awakener, for I had believed that the world was now about all converted and had become Christian except for a few places in Africa and Asia. To me, the thought of a great war in Europe was impossible. The next time we drove into Rosetown, we saw boys in khaki marching up and down the streets. The papers gave accounts of German soldiers marching into Belgium, and
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