By Mike Rainone for the News
Archibald J. Taylor was born in Bracebridge, Ont., and after moving with his family to England and Minnesota they ventured into Alberta in June 1900.
While searching for new opportunities, they later met with John Hinkley in Ponoka, who told them they could file a land claim for $10 and they would later settle on their new homestead in the Climax district east of town. In 1910, Archie went to work in the power house of the new Provincial Mental Hospital, later working around in the saw mills and building roads until August 1915 when he married Ruby Bidinger and they settled into a new home in town, where they were later blessed with their first son Melvin. Archie, who bought his first Model T for $100 in 1936 was also self-trained as veterinarian and a barber and loved assisting everyone in the town and districts.
After going back to work at the PMH as a fireman, Archie and Ruby moved into their first family farm in the Dakota district in April 1927, where they enjoyed a long and happy life with their children Melvin, Gordon, and Sylvia and celebrated their 50th golden wedding anniversary with extended family in 1965. It is very interesting to note that over the past 91 years four generations of the Taylor family have lived, worked the land, and raised their children and pampered their grandchildren on this happy homestead.
The long and memorable saga of the Taylor clan
Life started very quickly for Archie and Ruby’s second son Gordon, who arrived on the scene August 28, 1926 long before the local doctor, who had been summoned by the only phone in that area at Dick Slater’s home. Hence life in town started for Gordon and his eight-year-old brother Melvin, but would change in a big way on April 7, 1927 when the family loaded the house and all their belongings into two wagons, ventured down the main road via Stuartville and relocated their home at the new Dakota homestead on the quarter that they had purchased for $1,500. Gordon started attending the Dakota School in 1934 and by 1939 he had the job of walking to school early to start the fire, and would eventually take over the position of janitor at a wage of $2 a month. He never lost a running race at the Ferrybank Stampede, and when the phones came in Gordon memorized all the numbers along the line.
Facing the ever-changing road and weather conditions was always a big challenge in those early days, and on July 8, 1927 a tornado hit the area, lifted their home off the ground, and Archie and Ruby narrowly escaped, each tightly holding a child. A couple of years later after Ruby and Melvin had planted a protective willow grove around the entire farmyard they would move the little house off the hill to the location where the present home is now situated. As the little family settled on the farm they would welcome an adopted daughter Sylvia in 1936, while son Gordon had begun his life-time career as a farmer, first with his father Archie and brother Melvin until 1975, then with his nephew Jack and later into the 1980s with Stephanie and her husband Arnold.
Irene Waldowski was 17-years-old when she arrived in Ponoka in 1948, where she started working at the Provincial Mental Hospital with hopes of getting into a nursing career, at first earning $81 a month, which included uniforms and stockings. Irene later met Gordon when he was selling tickets in the Leland Hotel tavern for a benefit dance, and he graciously offered to pick her and her friends up for the dance at the Home Glen Hall, which would be the couple’s very first date. They were married on December 18, 1949 but could not host their wedding dance until February because that winter stayed around 40 below and sometimes the snow was up to the telephone lines. They lived with Gordon’s parents for a year and a half but would later build and move into a tiny 12 by 24 home (with no power) until the new home for the entire ‘Taylor bunch’ was completed in 1965. Along the way Gordon and Irene have been blessed with three children, Stephanie in 1960, Joseph in 1967, and Mikel in 1970. Gordon, who proudly claimed that he always walked away from a fight and has faithfully taught his children as he was taught, stressing the values of honesty, hardwork, and integrity, that a man’s word was his bond, and that the cardinal rule being the love for family, who must always come first. Following are some of the cherished highlights and memories of their now 68 happy and very active years together out on the grand old Dakota farm.
Gordon recalled that only 30 acres were cleared on the quarter when they moved there and the winters were spent clearing bush and using the firewood to keep the house warm as well as sawing logs to erect more buildings, corals, and fences. Thank goodness for that old wood stove, which heated the house 24-7 and cooked and baked the food, and when water was needed to cook, drink, or shower you had to break the ice on the reservoir in the winter as well as catching the rain-water in a pail in the warmer months. In 1941 the yearly income was about $1,900, land taxes were $40, and the power bill was $27 for three months.
• Their early livelihood came from faithfully milking the cows every morning at 5 a.m. and selling the milk and cream, raising pigs/chickens/turkeys/ducks, and geese for meat and eggs, picking berries and raising a huge garden, canning everything from meat to vegetables, grinding grain for the neighbours, and making their own rope halters from binder twine. Gordon was self-trained as a water-diviner, made his own tools, loved to help out the neighbours, and soon figured out how to re-charge the batteries at home that ran their only radio. Irene was always busy around the farm, but also sold the eggs, cleaned houses, wrote a column for the Ponoka paper to raise a little extra cash and always looked forward to feeding the threshing crews and visiting with the neighbours. Gordon later purchased his own thrashing machine and together in the summer they would custom bale, handling up to 50,000 square bales by hand and earning a penny apiece, and always ‘pitched’ in with the neighbours in all areas of the harvest in the district for countless tiring hours and spirited team-work. They both vividly remembered after one horrific winter storm hitching up the big sleigh and heading into Ponoka with a wagon load of neighbours, cans full of cream, and lots of snow shovels. They followed behind the Cat, which they dug out when it got stuck, but they made it, dropped off the cream, picked up their cheques, and returned home with a wagon load full of groceries and empty cream cans for everyone.
• When there was some time for fun the happy couple both loved dancing and music, enjoyed travelling around the district, attended every Fiddler’s Jamboree and Music Festival in the area, as well as most of the shin-digs at the Home Glen or Ferrybank Hall and even played some baseball on Sundays. Irene Taylor really loved to cook, as well as baking special treats to welcome friends and neighbours to the community and neighbourhood, and was extremely proud when her delightful pies and samples from her vegetable and flower garden would win countless ribbons at the Ponoka County Fair. She also loved to write poems and short stories, and as a member of the local Writer’s Club had some of them published in a book.
Today at the ages of 86 and 91 Irene and Gordon Taylor, who still live on the original family farm in the Dakota district, always look forward to coming to town to attend events at the Ponoka Drop-In Centre on Saturday afternoons as well as spending lots of quality time with family and friends.