The McFadden legacyThe McFadden legacyby JAMIE SHANKS of the Weyburn Review
He was 25 years old when he filled out the statement for his first and only homestead at three miles north of Weyburn on Dec. 13, 1901.
In the space alotted for his "trade, profession or calling," Louis Henry McFadden - known to his friends as Harry - simply wrote the word Farmer. Was he a British subject by birth or naturalization? Birth. Of whom did his family consist? Myself.
That was destined to change. A century later, the family he established still owns and operates the homestead as it has always done, and this October they will gather for a reunion to commemorate 100 unbroken years of history there.
On Nov. 10, 1898, Harry arrived in the region with his friends Ed Meredith and Lou Gilquist, his oxen leading the wagon which carried a walking plow to NW 4-9-14 along what is now Highway 35.
"They were all single, I think," says Harry's son Russell, 87, who took over the farm from his father on Oct. 24, 1933. Russell subsequently operated it with his wife Dorothy until 1975, when he in turn passed it on to his son Stanley.
The farm itself had humble beginnings. According to the original deed which the family still possesses, Harry's lodgings consisted, at first, of nothing more than an 8 x 12-foot shack. His sister Alice kept house for him for several years until he eventually married Jean Aitken in 1905.
Russell was one of their six boys - finishing school when he was just 13 years old. Such were the demands of farm life in those early days on the prairies.
"When I was 14, I had six horses to drive," he recalls.
"It was all horse farming when I was there. Then the tractors came."
While Russell bought himself a Farm-All International in the early '40s, the farm's first mechanization came in the form of a McCormick-Deering 1530 with steel wheels.
Nothing, however, could prevent the harsh times that befell the prairies during the Depression and the Dirty Thirties.
"You want to talk about tough ones those were the '30s," Russell says.
"The dust blew so bad we didn't have
anything for a few years."
On several occasions Russell travelled to Manitoba with a crew of ten men in search of work. "We used to put in 12 hours a day, threshing every day.
"The men got paid two dollars a day. That was big pay."
As for the McFadden land, Harry had chosen well when he founded his scenic homestead at the turn of the century. Trees abounded, the soil was fertile and a well was dug that provided good, alkali-free water. In fact, the well would later supply the air base that operated at North Weyburn during World War II.
Russell and Dorothy had 10 children - nine daughters and one son. The eldest of those daughters, Shirley Ward, has fond memories of growing up on the farm.
"The best time of the year was harvest time," she says, describing the enamel coffee pot and lunches of cucumber sandwiches they used to take to the men who were working in the field.
"We always hoped the men didn't eat everything," she laughs.
The farm's house at that time had three rooms and a summer kitchen and was heated by coal during the winter months, but not very well. "It was pretty cold sometimes," Shirley says, adding that the house was moved to Cedoux in 1948 and has remained there to this day.
"It still looks straight and tall."
As a "town girl," however, her mother Dorothy had a somewhat different impression of farm life at first. "At the start, I didn't think much of it," she recalls, adding that on occasion she would find herself driving a horse and buggy to go into town.
"She must have been desperate that day," Russell quips.
At that time the farm produced wheat and barley, although they raised some livestock as well which included cattle, hogs, chickens and turkeys. Cream and eggs, in fact, provided the bulk of the income for the family for some time.
These stories - and many more - are likely to be relived and retold on Oct. 10-11 when the McFadden clan returns to the farm for what will be a Thanksgiving in many respects. And the future lies ahead: Stanley's son Norman may follow tradition and extend the family's ownership to four generations by taking over the farm from his father.
"That's his dream," Shirley says.
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