The ranch owner, he worked for, was involved with the law and left for Canada advising Albert to go north. He moved north to Saskatchewan and worked building railroad with horses and wagons.
 |
| Great Grandpa Albert |
In 1912 he moved to moved west to Nevis, Alberta to build more railroad. He bailed hay with horse driven stationary bailers and was shipped by railroad. He moved to Lacombe and worked for H.M. Trimble in a lumber yard and elevators. Trimble was a cattle and grain buyer owning a section of land in the Ponoka area. Albert spent a winter or more on this property feeding steers to fatten for sale. They were wintered in the spruce and watered from the Wolf Creek through the ice, which was broken by hand and pick daily. The land had few trees and in 1919 with the help of Mr. Trimble’s two sons and 2 Ford tractors they plowed the land and were able to start farming it.
This section of land was originally part of the Sharphead Native Reserve and had never been broke up. Trimble had 2 Ford tractors and breaking plows that plowed most of the section that summer. There had been a native mission on the South West section of the 27th quarter with buildings and gardens. The native had an outbreak of measles and over a period of 3 or 4 years many of them died. They were buried on the high hill of the North side of the 27th quarter where the power poles stand now. In 1890 there were so few left that the reserve was disbanded and the survivors moved to other reserves taking with them payment for the land in the form of farming tools and livestock from the government. The land was then parceled off and was sold to private owners.
Sharphead reserve started at Morningside road on the south highway of 2A on the east, 1 mile west of Elkhorn road. All mineral rights went with the land and we were lucky enough to get the rights on all 6 quarters. Albert bought the North West section of the 22nd quarter in 1920 and the South West section of the 27th quarter in 1941.
Albert was offered to purchase the land in 1920. He was a bachelor and lived in a shack on the North East section of the 22nd quarter. (which is now our home quarter) My Grandpa Bill, Albert’s second son, said, “I can remember feeding our cow herd in this sheltered are into the 30’s. There was a hay field across the creek that was put up lose and fed there in the winter.
In 1923 Joseph & Agnes Matejka came from Czechoslovakia to Ponoka. With them came Annie Mika, sister of Agnes. Albert married Annie in 1924 and they had 4 children. Charlie, Antone (Bill – my grandfather), George and Agnes.
My Grandpa Antone (known as Bill) was born December 23,1927 in the shack. Grandpa quoted “I can’t remember who helped with my birth. It was cold outside when the water broke, I skated out” There was a lot of wind and dust storms as it was the dirty thirties. The big hill to the east was a big road-building project. The road by our farm was not opened up until 1929 so there wasn’t much traffic here. There was a trail to the North, where highway 2 is now, to Gee road and east to Ponoka. The project was done with horse and scrapper, being done by neighbors working to pay their taxes during the 30’s, did work on the hill.
Four horses on a Fresno (a scraping tool pulled with horses, used to construct ditches and canals – the Panama Canal was dug with one too) was the main equipment with one driver and usually someone on the handle. A plow was used to break up the soil to be moved. The road east of the 2A highway was always a problem, soft ground and high water in the spring. The road always washed out every spring and a new rout to town had to be found!
I asked my grandpa about how the farm looked back in that time and he replied, “The trees around the yard were planted around 1930’s. Caraganas and poplar trees to the west and spruce along the road to the north. I can’t remember if they were watered or not, Imagine they were by running water, pail and running to carry it.” (Catch the joke? He legitimately said that!)
About this time my grandpa acquired his name Bill, to what we call him today. A family friend, Bill Cervony, visited for a few days. My grandpa became very attached to him following him all over, he was called Bill and my Grandpa was called “little Bill”. After he left Grandpa was continued to be called Bill.
Our yard didn’t have much for buildings at this time. The red barn had been built in 1924. A pig shed to the south, slabs and straw roof. A chicken coop near where the present one is. There weren’t much for corals or pens, and no trees for half a mile. Grandpa Bill’s house was two granaries with six feet in-between them, end to end. This space between them was a dugout under for the root house. These granaries were 12” x 14”, a lean to on the east side for a kitchen, and a lean to on the south for a black smith shop. The shack was boarded outside and inside, papered inside, painted, and insulated with sawdust.
The kitchen had a cook stove with a water reserve on the side and a hearth in the next room, which was heated with wood. There was a well dug in the yard and the small garage was built in 1939. The well was 6’x6’ square and 30’ deep. The pump had an engine and a water tank. My grandpa said, “ I imagine us kids spent a bit of time around the tank in the water. Agnes (Grandpas sister) pulled George (the youngest) out of the tank one day. We were very lucky with a tank in the yard.”
He started school at Grand Meadows, half a mile west and a mile north of the school. His teacher was Ruth Evans and taught him for 3 years. There were never a big number of students at Grand Meadow. Four Flemmings, four Courtneys, four Matejkas, one Purnell, and Vern Werner. They hardly had enough to play ball. They had a xmas concert and picnic at the end of the year, driving to school with a single horse buggy. As they got older they rode horse back.
 |
| The famous sheep! |
Grandpa Bill started grade 10 in Ponoka High School, in the brick school, which housed grades 1 to 12. He didn’t have a place to stay when school started and ended up staying at Malita Racher’s with a friend till the end of the year. The next 2 years drove to school from home in a 1938 Ford pick up truck. He had to walk home from school on Fridays for one of the years, 6 miles up hill both ways.
In 1934 the crop was completely hailed out. My Great Grandfather sold all the cows and calves except the milking ones. The land was plowed for the next years. There was no snow all that winter, the winds blew and the soil drifted. In the spring much of the land had drifted away to the bottom of the plow depth. This was the start of the dry years, there was very little snow in the winter and no rain.
In 1937 the weather conditions improved and a new house was built. The basement was dug with a fresno and horses and cement mixed by hand. The inside was plastered and painted. A cistern had been put in the basement and rainwater was collected off the roof. The house had been wired for electricity and a 32-watt wind charger was erected at the south end of the house. Storage batteries were in the basement that were charged form a generator and propeller on a tower. Power was run to one of the barns. A small pump was installed to get the water from the cistern to the taps. Hot water came from the cook stove with a reservoir. A wood and coal furnace was installed in the basement with warm and cold air ducts to upstairs. Quite a change from the shack!
In 1938 the first vehicle by the Matejka’s was purchased. A Ford ½ ton pick-up, green in color. It cost around $900 and lasted a long time and was shared by all. In 1947 a 3-ton Ford truck was bought and some time later an auger was mounted on the side for loading grain. There was no hoist on this truck. When unloading at the elevator the front end of the truck was hoisted up. To unload at home a scoop shovel was used. The first car on the farm was a new 1948 Plymouth blue 4-door. The first week we used it we went to a hockey game in town.
The telephone came to the farm in 1939. A new line was erected to the west to Drummond Corner. This line ran north from there to Gee road and to 2A. On 2A it ran on the main line along the highway, south side of the Stampede grounds to down town Ponoka. The telephone company was Grand Meadow and there were 2 lines in the co. The other line came south of town and followed the Calgary trail main line south to Lacombe. There were 15 to 20 on each line, a different ring for each phone, an operator in town for long distance calls. Cost of phone per month was $1.50 plus long distance calls. During the 30’s some of the phones were not used because people could not afford the rent and lines were not kept up. In 1961 grandpa got the job working on the lines, mostly a headache, so he says. Replacing post, trimming trees, broken or twisted lines after a storm were some jobs. He was president of the Grand Meadow Co. for a number of years. Responsible for collecting unpaid bills was not may favorite task. Rubber necking (listening in) on the line was not uncommon as this was a very good communication chance. If you wanted the line you had to ask for it or it could be a while before it was free. Maybe an hour.
Grandpa married Betty Christine Hoar in 1951, a local girl, and they had 5 children, Dawn, Anne, Lori, John and Mark (my dad). They continued to farm with my great Grandfather Albert (Annie passed away years prior), brother Charlie and wife Sylvia, and brother George. They were a diversified farming operation of Hereford Cattle, Suffolk Sheep, and Yorkshire Pigs. All purebred and supply breeding stock that were sold at spring and fall shows and sales. They had a remarkable four way partnership on the farm and although it is agreed that Charlie looks after cattle records, Bill the sheep records, and George the swine records, all four men share in the work equally and my great grandfather and the boys took turns exhibiting stock at the shows. During this time, the sheep were very profitable usually averaging $50 per head, they had a flock of 125 ewes, with an average offspring of 150% as twins were quite common.
 |
| Uncle George, Grandpa Bill, and Uncle Charles with the Hereford bulls! |
The Matejka Hereford Cattle Herd was established in 1941 with the purchase of 12 heifers from Roy Vold. Charlie, Bill & George were in their teens and in the Ponoka 4-H Beef Club. One of the herdsires used was Britisher Mischief 53rd purchased from Bryce Campbell of Stavely. Grandpa said this was a tall long bull and was used to the age of 13. One of his sons Ponoka Britisher Lad 50S born in 1961 and was used in our herd for 10 years. In 1964 Zento Donald Real 21T was purchased from Harry Cutler and sons of Lacombe. 21T had good females and one of his sons was Champion bull at the Edmonton Spring Sale in 1972. In 1968 BP Brit Eclipse Favorite 72Z was purchased from Bar Pipe Farms in Okotoks (a very well established Hereford farm that is still providing quality breeding stock today). This bull bred a lot of height and yellow hair into our herd of females.
In the 50’s much of the hay was put up loose, with sweeps but practically all hay and straw, too, was cut before the cattle were fed. Alfalfa hay was fed to the sheep. Canary grass, grown on much of the low lying land, is kept for the young cattle. Slough hay was used to good advantage too for cattle feed. The Matejkas always worried about the future and tried to stock pile as much as possible. This came to their advantage in 1956 when the farm suffered from hail damage and they had 9000 bales of straw stock piled that help tide them over. At that time a good reserve of feed and bedding was their insurance, as there was no Hail and Crop insurance back then.
Cultivators started to be used in the 50’s as well as they could do the work much faster.
 |
| Back row: Grandpa Bill, Grandma Betty, Aunt Sylvia, Aunt Agnes, Uncle Charlie, and Uncle George Front row: Aunt Dawn, Aunt Anne, and Jane |
Charlie and his family decided to leave the farming business 1961 and moved to Enderby, BC. His management skills came in very handy having a very successful career in retail, owing a sporting goods store, hardware store, and a jewellery store.
George and Bill decided that they needed to increase their land base in 1972 to continue to be successful, so George moved his family to the Sylvan Lake area, where he continued on with a very successful Yorkshire Pig operation, that is still in operation today with his sons and daughters families.
Grandpa Bill and Grandma Betty along with the odd hired man, continued to operate the Hereford and Sheep business while their large family was growing up. My dad’s sisters all left the farm and moved away to urban areas, and my dad and his brother continued to farm with my grandpa.
Dad married a “city girl”, Kathryn Fry from Airdrie, Alberta, in 1989. She was a city girl who had a lot to learn about farming. Much to her parents amazement, she adapted quite well. My grandmother, Bev (Kathy’s mom), could not believe how this girl who was always dressed like she belonged in a Vogue magazine, now wore her rubber boots from the house to the car, during the wet springs, so as not to get her fancy shoes dirty. Hmmmm for any of you who know my sister Brittney, apparently the apple does not fall far from the tree – must be hereditary.
Mom and Dad went to all the shows and sales, Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary Stampede, Lethbridge, and Regina, with both Sheep and Cattle. My Uncle stayed home and did the work with Grandpa.
Mom always said, the best piece of advice she ever got from Grandpa Bill was one day when Dad was away and she needed to move the tractor. Upon leaving the tractor, Grandpa said “If I can give you any advice for your future, don’t let anyone know you can drive that thing”. Apparently mom really took this advice to heart, as after 20 years of marriage, she still has not had to do any field work. Another time Dad was away, Mom went out to help Grandpa with chores, she told him that she would help feed grain, which was fed by 5 gallon pails, and carried by hand to the feed troughs. Grandpa said he was okay, and didn’t need help, but my mom, who does not generally take no for answer insisted that she feed the yearling bulls. Well . . . Grandpa, who was not much for words, said Okay, they get 18 pails, and walked away. Now anyone who knew my mom she was not much more than 110 lbs, and at 25 lbs per pail, she had a bit of a haul ahead. Funny thing is, my mom has not had to feed grain since either. Mom had a graphics diploma, and worked outside the home running a local printing company, and after us kids were born, decided to start her own business designing sale catalogues, this worked to her success and she still is able to be home on the farm, and work full time.
My sister, Brittney, was born in 1991, myself in 1993, and my younger brother, Albert Tyson, named after my great grandfather in 1997. My older sister Brittney, and I attended many of the shows and sales – we have had our share of naps on the straw bales in the corner of a sale barn, or in the stands while the Auctioneer worked on selling our cattle. In the Agriculture world this was our holidays, or we would venture off to other provinces visiting other families that we had gotten to know through the show circuit. Once my younger brother (Albert “Tyson” Matejka) came along, we did not get to attend as many of the shows, as my older sister had started school.
Growing up our farm marketed Purebred Horned Hereford cattle and Suffolk Sheep. Dad marketed the cattle and Grandpa marketed the sheep. Times changed and trends changed, and dad needed to diversify the cattle, and the purebred Black Angus was introduced to our herd in 1994 with the purchase of Happyvale Neonia Princess 70Y from Brett Penosky of Stettler. Red Angus were added a few years later with Cherokee 18F the grandmother to my Champion 4-H female project.
Grandpa kept the Suffold sheep business until 2009, the last of the rams left in 2010, spring just isn’t the same without the baby lambs.
All of us kids had the opportunity to carry on the family tradition by being the 3rd generation in 4-H and after a few years we started to attend the 4-H heifer show in Olds, this lead to also start attending some of the Junior Breed shows. Lasting friendships had begun, and it is amazing how many friends we have all over Western Canada. Besides our local 4-H shows have exhibited at many breed junior shows including Olds Summer Synergy, All Breeds in Bashaw, Edmonton Farmfair, Calgary Stampede, Armstrong Fair, and Agribition at Regina. We look forward to these great opportunities to get together, such a strong common bond!
And the Albert Matejka family continues on farming in currently in its 91st year of operation, being established in 1920. Watch for our 100th Anniversary in 2020 – should be an event not to miss!
No comments:
Post a Comment