My paternal great-grandfather, Barnard, emigrated from England to Ontario in the late 1800's and was a fisherman on Lake Superior (Nipigon) until, at the age of 52 years, he decided to take his family west to the Northwest Territories in 1902. In less than a year he was dead and buried on his homestead and his widow, a woman born and raised in Toronto, was left to carry on raising the family and making a living in a harsh and unfamiliar country. My grandfather, Edwin, was at sixteen the oldest boy of the family and became the man of the house at a time when that phrase had meaning. My great-grandmother Annie opened a store on the homestead, which was right on the Lac. Ste. Anne Trail and did a good business. My grandfather set up in the freighting business and did well for several years, hauling fish to Edmonton and freight and mail as far west as there were customers to warrant it. When the railway was being built in 1910 he did well hauling freight to the bridge builders as far west as Edson, but the completion of the railway meant the end of long distance hauling by horse and sleigh. Grandpa then got some mail contracts and carried the mail from the railroad to the rural post offices in the area. He married my grandmother in 1918 and they lived on his homestead next to great-grandma's place and in 1919, in a genuine log cabin, my father and his twin brother were born, the first white twins in the area.In 1920 grandpa and great-grandma sold up their places and moved to great-grandma's other homestead, two miles north and west, and the family has lived here ever since. My grand-daughter is the sixth generation living on this homestead.
The first house built on the place when my grandparents moved to stay (1920) was later used as a chicken coop. My great grandmother's house (1928) is gone, sold and moved to another farm in the area, it is still occupied. One cousin lives in my grandparents second house (1939), another occupies their third house (1960), my fathers house, about a quarter of a mile east, was built in 1964 and the mobile home which my family occupies was moved into the same yard in 1971 by my brother when he got married. We bought the mobile in 1980 when he moved to Saskatoon to work for the Canadian Labour Congress and we were moving from Wabasca and I have since made several
additions.
I had lived in Edmonton and in Northern Alberta for fifteen years, got married and had two children and a life, but when we moved back to this land I knew I was "home again".
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