An Immigrant Farmer’s Story
A young man from Sweden settled in Southern Alberta in 1910 to establish a farm that would continue for several generations.
Around the beginning of the previous century many young people from several countries in Europe emigrated to North America to settle the undeveloped continent. About 30 million people fled Europe to avoid commonplace poverty and hunger during the decades before and after 1900.
This is the story of one such person. He was born in a small farming community near the west coast of Sweden in 1881. He was the second youngest son in a family of six boys and one daughter. He went to school until grade 8 and took compulsory army training at about the age of 21.
In 1905 this young man and one of his neighbors left Sweden to start a new life in America. They headed to Moline, Illinois where they spent a few months working in the John Deere factory. He then went to work on his brother’s farm in Minnesota. Another brother arrived from Sweden in 1907. The two ‘employee’ brothers weren’t exactly comfortable working for their ‘boss’ brother. They acquired some farm equipment and started looking around for a farm of their own. The Canadian Pacific Railway was advertising land for sale and in 1909 they took the train to Calgary. They made a deal with the CPR to buy three quarters of land at a price of $30 per acre. This was a high price at the time because it was irrigated land. Unirrigated land was priced at $13.
The property they purchased was in the Irricana (Irrigation canal) area and they moved there in 1910. They came with a carload of settlers’ effects including some horses and machinery. While they were building a shack, a wife and daughter stayed at a hotel in Langdon. Both brothers worked for the CPR hauling supplies with horses and wagon. They also broke the prairie and started farming. The married brother bought some adjacent land and set up his own farmstead.
The unmarried brother returned to Sweden in 1913 to bring a young lady back to America where they were married in Minneapolis. Her aunt lived there with her family. One of her brothers was also nearby. Once they were on the farm in Alberta they worked hard and were able to purchase additional land. They broke the land with horses. A neighbor did the threshing for them.
They travelled the Old Carbon Trail with horses and democrat – to Carbon for coal and to Calgary for supplies. A trip usually took two days.
Most of the crops in the early years were good but the 1915 crop was a big one. They were able to buy a steam engine and a separator that year. Profits from custom threshing supplemented the farm’s income. For the first few years an engineer had to be hired to run the steam engine. A seven-furrow plow was also acquired to break the prairie sod. Pulled by the steam engine, it required a plowman who rode on the plow and set the levers for depth control.
1917 was a bountiful year. Crop prices rose while the World War raged in Europe. They threshed for 44 days without a break for wet weather.
The farmhouse had been built by a neighbor in 1912 and in 1918 a huge multi-purpose barn was built. There were horse stalls and milking stanchions plus a loft for storing feed. More land was purchased, and the steam engine and plow were used to break this land.
1919 was a dry year but otherwise farming prospered. Over time the house was added onto and conveniences such as a windmill to generate power were purchased. In 1920 a seven-passenger Buick touring sedan was acquired. The Buick replaced their first motor car which was a Model T Ford.
By 1920 four children had been born on the new farm – 2 daughters and 2 sons. The kids walked to their one-room school which was less than a mile away from the farmhouse. A highlight for these kids was a road trip to the west coast in 1927 in the Buick. They camped every night going across B.C. and returning through the American states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
The first tractor was purchased in 1926. This was an 18-36 Hart Parr. It was better than the steamer and had a great deal of power. It was used for 15 years. Horses were still used until 1937. The steam engine had been disposed of in 1929.
The 1927 crop was damaged by hail and some of it had to be plowed under. 1928 was a memorable year for farming – one of the best years for grain harvest. A big improvement was the purchase of a 1-ton GMC truck to haul grain. A 1927 Buick seven-passenger sedan replaced the 1920 Buick. This one was driven until 1940.
In 1929 dry weather set in and crop farming was a failure. This was the beginning of hard times, the depression/dirty thirties. Grain prices dropped to a low of 30 cents per bushel for wheat and 10 cents for oats. Cattle were 2 and a half cents a pound; bread 5 cents per loaf; hamburger 5 cents per pound. Dust storms were common in the 1930’s. In the mid 1930’s farming changed. Tillers or one-way discs appeared. They were used extensively, even for seeding. They left stubble on the surface so helped to prevent soil drifting. A significant improvement compared to turning the soil completely over with plows.
Fertilizer wasn’t used until 1946 and herbicides in the 1950’s.
The family always raised chickens and milked 4 to 8 cows. The boys started milking at the age of eight. Cream was sold for cash income. Surplus skim milk was fed to the hogs. Market hogs were delivered to the Union Packing Company in northeast Calgary.
After local high school all four children graduated from the University of Alberta. The boys with degrees in Agriculture and the girls in Home Economics. The boys returned to the farm and the parents retired to Victoria in 1948 where they passed away in 1955 and 1964.
The boys farmed together for three decades through the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. They grew cereal, flax and grass seed crops; and raised cattle, hogs, and chickens. The 1947 rye crop yielded a unique windfall, selling for $3 to $4 per bushel while wheat was just over a dollar and oats & barley were less than a dollar per bushel. These lower prices didn’t improve during those three decades. Both boys married and raised families.
The first diesel tractor was purchased in 1961. It was a 4010 John Deere. Combines were a Super 27 Massey Harris followed by a Super 92 and then a 510.
The boys lived into their 90’s and the girls around 100.
When the next generation started farming in the 70’s they used four-wheel drive tractors and Gleaner rotary combines. Straight-cut combining started in the late 70’s and the first minimum tillage farming and continuous cropping was in the early 80’s. New breeds of livestock were imported from various countries in Europe. These and many other innovations and improvements have contributed to more efficient production.
Now the following generation has grown up on the farm and their kids (the fifth generation) are helping with farm work.
Similar stories to this one have taken place over all of the Great Plains of North America. New immigrants have joined them every decade along the way to start their own stories.
Further reading: Encyclopedia of the Great Plains
