Jim McConnell's Autobiography 1877 - 1957Canadian pioneer farmer in Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia |
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17. we had to realize that we were at war with Germany. World War I had begun. At this time, the prices for farm produce were very low. The 1914 crops were light, and they brought little more than the cost of producing them. 19l5 came in with very little ready cash and there was a great deal of unemployment. The crops were got in, the June rains came. and there was a good growth. so that all over the West an unusually heavy crop was harvested. The 1915 crop was often spoken about for its abundance. As we thrashed, we got a few loads of wheat hauled to town and sold to pay expenses, but the bulk of the whole crop was just stored in bins on the farm as we tried to get our own and the neighbors' thrashed before winter. In Europe, the German Army had taken over most of Belgium and began to invade France. As resistance increased from the Belgian, French and British Armies, they dug in the ground as a protection from rifle and shell fire and then began French warfare which continued to the end of the war. The great Russian Army began to invade Germany from the East, but for lack of guns and equipment, were soon forced back and kept continually on the retreat with terrible losses to the Russian Army. This brought on discouragement which led up to the Russian Revolution in 1917. Lenin took over control of Russia and soon after made a peace settlement with Germany. Most of that winter we were hauling our wheat from the 1915 crop and storing it in bins in town until we could get cars to ship it out. 1916 was a fairly wet season with some real cloudbursts in June in our part of the country. Our slough at the barn and the big slough on Fred's place filled up with water and continued full all 1917, and only dried up in 1918. In the Fall of 1916, under the strain of war needs, the Government of Canada relaxed the Sabbath Day Act and allowed work to be done on Sunday, such as thrashing, or any kind of work that was considered necessary to the war effort. It became hard to get help on the farm, as all available young men were being trained for the Army. In 1917, a connecting rod came loose on the tractor and broke the crank case. I traded it in and purchased a new tractor, still believing that the heavier, larger tractor would be best as it would run a larger separator. The new engine was well built but very heavy and never had the power it needed. There was continual worry to get the work done and this, together with my health which was not good, was the chief factor that later on caused me to rent the land and move away to British Columbia. The war continued in 1918 with all its uncertainty, threat and danger. The Germans had made peace with Russia in the East and had moved their Army from the East, so they were able to bring a great advance into France. Then they had opened fire with their "Big Bertha," a powerful long-range gun which was said to be capable of throwing an explosive shell for 75 miles. This brought a grave threat to the City of Paris. No one knew what might happen next, for Germany was still fighting outside her own borders and still holding invaded ground. It proved dangerous and very slow to try to push back an army protected by trenches and earth embankments with barbed wire entanglements in front of them. So the struggle continued on into November. On November 11th, I was grading a road past our place, using my big new tractor and the Municipal grader in order to raise the road above all high water levels. In the afternoon, some of the cars passing us stopped and told us the great news -- that an Armistice had been signed with Germany and that the war was ended. The first great war that had affected the whole world for over four years had ended
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