Lonesome in Canada

Carlstadt Alta
Dec 28th 1910

Dear Seward.

As I have nothing else to do will write you once more. How
was your corn this year? Did you get any results from that phosphate yet?  The crops throughout Canada were pretty short this year. Hundreds of acres of grain up around Gle??, Strathmore, ?amaka, on the C.P.R. irrigated land that was never cut at all. Wheat they reported before threshing would go twenty bushel to the acre went eight and ten. There was nothing raised around here (Carlstadt) except a little green feed, and some potatoes. Some as nice spuds as you would ever want to see. I didn't raise anything but then it wasn't the ground's fault. But wait till next year I will try my luck at it.  I am getting a long fine this winter so far. A little lonesome sometimes, but is not bad living out here. People living all around here now. A family now living on the west half of four came since the last time I wrote you. Some snow here on the ground most all the time more snow here than over by town.
Quite a few antelope around here. I saw a band not long ago with 35 or 40 in the bunch. The redcoat was out after a man over west for killing one as he thought the other day, but he couldn't prove anything on him. A fifty dollar fine first offense hundred dollars the second offense and so on. A few jackrabbits around here but not many. Mrs. Stevenson who lives 4 miles southeast of here died last week of typhoid fever. Age forty years. Was buried at the place as Stevenson didn't have enough money to ship her to Ontario. A family over west here have Scarlet Fever the three small children. I heard yesterday they lost their little girl aged seven years was buried at the place. We have a post office over west at the store. They commenced carrying mail first of December once a week. You was asking once if there was much scrip located around here I only know of 5 scrips located here within a radius of ten miles. They had quite a scramble at the land office in ?? week before last. There was a piece of land thrown open eight mile west of the hat, two men camped on the steps for two day and nights, it was nearly zero weather in the mornings. They filed when the office opened. There was fifteen or twenty men there and all made a rush for the door and tore it from it's hinges, but one of the fellows who camped so long filed on it. They claim it was worth five thousand dollars, was quarter section but I don't think it worth that much. But how it was there came to be land so close to the hat for homesteading yet I do not know.
The people talk about land getting scarce I see only the other day where they have ten million acres ready for homesteading up in the Peace River district. I was talking with a man this summer who said he had pear and apple trees on his place bearing fruit. He said some valleys up in that country were fine to live in but most places the land was poor, lots of this kind they call Muskeg land without any bottom to it as one might say, and also plenty of mosquitoes in the summer. There was hardly a mosquito around here this last summer it being too dry for them.
I have my shack fixed up so it is warmer than a good many others are out on the prairie. I hauled in two tons and quarter of coal from the mine likely will get another load towards spring. Pretty fair coal this winter.  ??nite a soft coal $2.75 at mine. They sell lots of it all around the country. I have a good little heating stove set up and do not use the cook stove much. The railroad where I was working this fall was the ?egreville - Calgary line of the C.N.R. that goes from ?egrevaille via Camrose and Stettler to Calgary. The last one-hundred and twenty six miles from Stettler was graded this last summer. They are going to lay the steel this winter and have it ready for trains in the spring.
Railroad building is just getting a good start here in Alberta and it won't be long we will have as many roads as Saskatchewan. They have a school house built now in the township north of that one. The land over there was taken up a little sooner over there because right next to C.P.R. irrigation block. And the people thought they would have a railroad sooner then here. Maybe they will a little but if they have a road there it will probably build further.
I see my letter is getting long so will stop and take it over to ? or he is going down to Trays in the morning to get the mail there as it is nearer that the post office.

Clyde Arnold
Carlstadt
Alta Canada

Clyde Chester Arnold

Born 10 May 1888
Died 23 Februay 1918
Buried Lyman Township Cemetery
Never Married.  No Children.
Son of Johnson David Arnold and Beckie Zwig Arnold

Clyde Chester Arnold

Clyde Arnold is the second child born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson D. Arnold, near Roberts, Illinois, Mary 10, 1888.
When Clyde was 21 years old he went to Alberta, Canada, where he filed a claim to homestead. 

Creelman Oct 22nd 1909

Dear Parents:

I got your letter the other day lots of news.  And I see you all want to know more about the homestead. I don't think you have been getting near all the letters I have written as I see you are asking questions that I have already told about. 
Wheat is pretty good averaging about twenty bushel to the acre.  Have heard from Mike twice. And from what I could find out from him I don't think he is coming home. I may see him before I go to Calgary or maybe he will come to see me. I haven't seen any papers from the states but the Winnipeg and Montreal, and other eastern Canada papers have quite a lot of news from the states.  I do not sleep in the straw pile. We have a sleeping car that moves along with the outfit. Today is your birthday, is it not Mother? It is raining and sleeting here today. I wrote a letter in Calgary reading something like this did you not get it? Homestead and Preemption information. The grass does not grow very tall would average about twelve inches high. Prairie wool 6 inches high. Spear grass a couple of feet in patches. Slough hay foot and half sometimes more or less. One or two other small grasses. A fair good stand of grass on the land. A few little pond holes on it that is where the slough hay grows. There are some of the them on any farm. Longview is only a small station with a depot, a few shacks and a couple of stores.
Where land is situated.  Now take that last best west pamphlet and find Tide Lake, you see the township to the north part of that lake.  Well the next township east is where my land is right in the bottom row of sections. The east half of section 4.

About twelve miles south of the of the nearest part of the Red Deer River.  3.4 miles west of the South Saskatchewan River. I don't think the rainfall is way too much there.  But over on the fire break six or seven miles southwest of my place, there was moisture enough on the ground when I was there to sprout grain. A person could take some of the dirt squeeze it together in the hand and it would stick together. There is a farmer living just south of the red deer river who has lived there thirteen years. Having had one failure in nine years. And if I remember right I think they said he got his grain in late and a hot wind caught it before it ripened. The terms under which I have to pay of for the 160 are this. 3 dollars an acre. One third of the purchase money must be paid three years after the date of entry for the preemption, and the balance in five equal annual installments with interest at five percent from the date of the preemption entry. Reside six months in each of three yrs for homestead. Reside six months in each of the three yrs for Preemption. Taking six yrs times to get a half section. If anything more you want to know ask me.  Good bye from Clyde.

Seward Arnold Discusses the Chatsworth Train Wreck, Oliver's Grove, and Indians

Seward Milton Lobdell Arnold was my Grandfather's Uncle.  He was the youngest child born to Amos and Lora Johnson Arnold. I knew Seward.  He lived in Roberts when I lived in Roberts.  Seward lived to celebrate birthday number 103.

The following is a very interesting article (probably from the Paxton Record) with Uncle Seward reminiscing about his visits to Germanville Township.

SEWARD ARNOLD IS A LINK TO 1883

The odds on finding someone who had experienced life in the Chatsworth area and was still around to tell about it are about a thousand to one, according to the Census Bureau statistics.
But Seward Arnold of Roberts, who was born on May 17, 1881, remembers much about the area in the late 19th century -- and likes to talk about these times.
"Chatsworth was considered to be an important commercial center when I was a boy," Arnold said. "At that time, the area had few roads, so we just followed traces and took horses pretty much as the crow flew.
"My father made plenty of trips to Fairbury to haul coal, and the family also shopped in Chatsworth. I can't remember 1883 specifically, but I went everywhere in the wagon from the time I was an infant, so I'm sure I was in Chatsworth in 1883.
"I can remember playing baseball on the diamond southeast of town in 1888 when I was seven. I really liked to pitch, and I used to travel around to pitch for several teams. In 1888, I can recall a bright, warm afternoon when I played on the Chatsworth diamond.
Arnold can remember another incident a year earlier than that - the Chatsworth train wreck that made the community an unwilling paragraph in the history books.
"We had a six-passenger buggy then, and we drove out to the site as soon as we heard about it.
"The cars were piled up more than twenty feet high in the ditch, with lumber scattered all over. Women were standing around crying, and men had long poles to pry at the cars and at one of the engines lying beside the tracks.
"While we were there, the engine got moved enough so that the crews could remove three bodies that had been caught underneath.
"I didn't take away any relics of the wreck, but people were cutting off pieces of things and selling them already that day.
"Mostly I remember the crush of people, so many of them crying, and pieces of the cars scattered all over. I was just six at that time, but I never forget how awful it was."
Arnold plowed the last 30 acres of prairie sod known to be in the territory, about two miles southwest of Roberts. The field had five buffalo wallows in it. I took two horses and a small plow, and I had a file to keep the plow sharp. It took more than a week to get it turned over.
"Prairie sod had what we called 'redroot' all through it. Redroot grew big as our arm and was tough. It would throw a walking plow right out of the ground.
While it was not uncommon for a boy to be given farm chores in these days, Arnold did a lot of growing up at the age of 13.
"I had a brother who got TB in 1894, and Dad took him to New Mexico. I ran the place, but then Dad had always thought that kids had to learn on their own. I cared for 565 acres and had three hired men.
"I hauled limestone for the foundations on some of the buildings - and I hauled lumber and the other things we needed in order to keep up the operation."
While on these travels, Arnold went past Oliver's Grove many times before 1900, and occasionally shot ducks at the pond.
"That grove had many of the best hardwoods in the area. People used to think up ways to steal some of the timber.
"Revilo Oliver told me that people were always coming into the area for trees - and they didn't want to pay for them.
Arnold also remembers that horses sometimes got away from their rightful owners in those days. "One man said that he hoped he would be turned into a snake after he died so that he could come back and bite everybody who had stolen things from him," Arnold said.
Arnold remembers the site of a large Indian council house near Turtle Pond, and says that almost a hundred tents were pitched there at one time when the Indians gathered.
"By my time, of course, the Indians been moved to Missouri and Iowa, but many of the log huts were still around down by the pond and near Germanville.
"The bogs just southwest of Turtle Pond were scary. Gas came up from fissures in the ground, and the sod shook like jelly when you bounced around.
One favorite story of the area is that two hunters decided to stop for the night in the bog area, and told each other about the Indian curses put on the Turtle Pond territory as they built a fire. According to the legend, the heat caught the escaping bog gas afire - with the hunters running hard to get away from the flames zipping after them along the ground.
Indeed, the entire area south of Chatsworth is said to be loaded with curses put on by Indians. The Oliver's Grove area was a good place for Indians, what with the water, wood, and wildlife.
After General William Henry Harrison swept most of the Indians out of eastern Indiana in 1807, some of them found their way to the Chatsworth territory - and weren't too happy when white folks began moving in after 1820.
So the Indians began casting jinxes all over, making an 'X' on any spot thought to be sacred or for Indians only. On 'X' was a bad sign, and some spots around Turtle Pond had as many as four 'X' marks as warnings.
By 1832, Indians had supposedly built log formations, stone piles, and signs to ward off spirits and bad people.
The Indians were treatied away from Turtle Pond - although it is said that some of the tribal leaders came back to visit as late as 1845.
It is also said that the Indians buried some important tribal relics in the Turtle Pond area, and that the displaced natives snuck back to Chatsworth years later and destroyed the signs of the sacred burial ground, the worship area, and the clues to the secret buried materials that whites weren't supposed to see.
Arnold can't attest to much of this, because he wasn't there. But he recalls the huts, and he can still remember bits of relics that were scattered around.
At any rate, the Turtle Pond area is filled with bogs, woods, legends, and mysteries - many of which will always remain so.

Amos Silas Arnold

Johnson and Beckie Zwig married 6 April 1886.  Their first child, Amos Silas Arnold, was born 11 January 1887.  Amos only lived for six months.  I have found no details about his death.  He died 17 July 1887 and is buried in the same lot as his grandparents, Amos and Lora, in Lyman Township Cemetery, Roberts, Ford County, Illinois. 

Golden Wedding Anniversary

From the Roberts Herald dated 8 April 1936 an article re Johnson and Beckie's anniversary celebration.
Johnson and Beckie are the parents of seven sons and one daughter:

Amos Silas (died in infancy) 
Clyde Chester (died in young manhood)
Michael Ralph (lived in Minnesota)
David Johnson (lived in Minnesota)
Roger (lived in New York)
Henry Stukley (lived in Michigan)
Ernest Linn (lived on the homestead)
Samantha Elizabeth (Mrs. Fred Rueck, lived south of Roberts)

The most interesting from this newspaper clipping, "united in holy wedlock at the home of the bride's parents, which was known as the Canada Smith farm".  I have never heard this before.  What or where was the Canada Smith farm?  Can't wait to talk to sister Jackie about this.  Is this in Lyman Township?

 

Below:  A cleaner copy of the same article from the Ford County Press, Melvin, Illinois, dated 9 August 1936.  Page 3.

 

The "Canada Smith" farm's location on this plat of Lyman Township dated 1901. 

 

 

The Smith farm is directly to the west of the property of Amos Arnold.  So Carl and Tena Zwigg lived across the road from Amos and Lora in 1886 per this wedding anniversary article.  More research. 

The Smith family relocated from Canada to a farm three miles north of Roberts referenced in this biography of J. P. Smith:

https://archive.org/stream/historyoffordcou02gard#page/578/mode/2up/search/smith

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson Arnold

So 130 years ago, this Wednesday, April 6, Beckie Zwieg married Johnson Arnold in Roberts, Illinois.  6 April 1886.  Beckie's father, Carl Zwieg, must sign for his daughter as she is only 17 years old. 
Some of the details on the marriage license which may not be readable on the computer are Johnson's info: occupation, farmer; age next birthday, 24; place of birth, New York.  And Beckie's info: (No occupation is asked of course.) age next birthday, 18; place of birth, Germany. This certificate also states the bride's mother's maiden name, Tena Hermann.  Married at Roberts in the County of Ford. Witness to the marriage are Chris Anderson and Peter Olsen. 

Grandma Arnold keeps her records.

Mildred Robbins Arnold did a lot of genealogy research in the 50's and 60's.  She researched her Robbins-Day-Bishop families, and she also worked on the Arnold side.  She saved a lot of photos, which we are so lucky to have, and she took lots of notes.  The notes are scratched on little pieces of paper, on photos, and in notebooks.

 

In this particular entry in her .17 cent Walgreens, Penway Composition Book, she has recorded the births of her husband, Ernest Arnold's, grandfather and grandmother and of his aunts, the Johnson sisters from Morrisonville, Clinton County, New York. Their photo now appears at the top of the Arnold Genealogy Blog.

My great, great grandmother, Lora Johnson Arnold, is in the bottom row in the center of the photo. Also in the bottom row on the left in glasses is Elizabeth Johnson and to Lora's other side, Lora's twin sister, Flora.  Neither Elizabeth nor Flora married, and they lived in rural Morrisonville, New York, all their lives. 

The top row from left to right:  Amanda Johnson Johnson (not a typo, she married a Johnson), Martha Johnson Ayers, and Ida Johnson Ladd. 

Narrow Escape for Mary Arnold

Mary Arnold and Mrs. J. B. White (Eunice Abigail Arnold White) are sisters of Amos Arnold.

--The Plattsburgh Sentinel.  14 April 1893.  Page 1.

Mary Elizabeth "Elizabeth" Johnson Obit



Elizabeth Johnson was a sister to Lora Johnson Arnold.

 

Obit from:  Plattsburgh Daily Republican.  28 February 1936.  Page 3.