Much more than a century ago, hundreds of settlers were moving into this area to challenge the opportunity of carving a new home out of the rich and rolling wilderness, to raise their families and to enjoy the freedoms of sharing their culture, religion and lifestyles with friendly and understanding neighbours. Willet and Annie Orser were later descendants of the United Empire loyalists who had left New York in 1783 to escape persecution during the American Revolution, and eventually settled in Upper Canada.
With the strong pioneer spirit of their ancestors inbred deeply in their souls, Mr. and Mrs. Orser came west and were among the earliest of the Ellice and district settlers who first saw the magnificent valley east of Ponoka in 1896. After taking a homestead on the N.E. of 10-42-23, they returned to Ontario to gather a carload of their effects and then Willet, along with sons Ray and Orval, would make the long trip west on the Colonist train in 1903 to start their new home in the Ellice district. Annie followed with their youngest son Hulbert (Hullie), arriving in the spring of 1903, and then all would live in a tent until the sturdy farm house and barn were built, made from tall timber cut and hewn with an axe, morticed at the corners, and held together with wooden pegs.
In 1905, Willet Orser, who was a carpenter by trade, obtained the agency for the National Cream Separator Company in the districts. His territory was very large in those early days, and covered an area from Stettler to Red Deer, north to Camrose and Wetaskiwin, and west to Ponoka and Rimbey. He would make his sales and service calls in the off seasons from tending to the farm, and with a separator in the back of his classic Bennett buggy, made many friends and did very well in the business. As the young family struggled to establish their new homestead, they still felt that it was most important to attend the inauguration ceremonies of the new Province of Alberta on September 1, 1905 in Edmonton. After the cows were milked at 2 a.m., Willet and two sons travelled to Ponoka in their buggy long before sunrise to catch the special train to Edmonton, which stopped on the south side, took everyone across the river on the ferry, attended the ceremonies, then caught the train back home late in the afternoon. The team of horses had rested in the local livery stable all day, and were ready to take them all on the 20-mile trip back to the homestead in time to milk the cows at midnight.
The boys, Orval, Ray and Hulbert, were all born in Ontario and then moved with their parents to the Ellice homestead in 1903. Orval, who was hearing impaired due to childhood illnesses, married Elizabeth Veitch, settled in a lovely modern house on the homestead, and later adopted a son, John. The couple then left the farm in 1941 and moved to Kelowna, where Orval was killed in a tragic accident in 1947.
Ray Price Orser took a quarter section of land near Gadsby Lake School, then traded it for a lot in Edmonton, became a steam engineer and operated a hoist engine on many of the city’s early building projects and milestones. He and his wife Lillian moved to New York City in 1920, welcomed a daughter Myra and lived there for more than 40 years.
Hubert (Hullie) Henry Orser came west at the age of six years and attended schools at Manfred, Calumet, Rutherford and Ellice. He volunteered for duty in World War I and fought in the trenches in France before being wounded. Hullie returned to Canada with his English war bride, they had a son and a daughter and, after not being successful at farming, moved to Edmonton to work for many years with the Caterpillar Tractor Company, which later sent him to Chicago for training. As well as being a great baseball player, Hubert was a former army sniper and amazing marksman, winning many national competitions. He once won an Alberta Provincial Rifle Association meet in Calgary by hitting 73 out of 75 bulls-eyes at 800 yards and 75 at 900 yards.
Willie and Annie and their family were always assets to the new and growing district of Ellice, becoming very interested in the total development of the area, and along with Ernest Fry would open the first Post Office across the base line of the township. It was named Tristam after Fry’s brother, and was later moved to the palatial Orser home and opened for service on March 1, 1907, with W.H. as the Post Master. For 22 years, he faithfully carried the mail from Tees to his home, where the neighbours would congregate while the letters and parcels were sorted, with hopes that there would be something from a friend or a loved one back home. Willet, who also walked his share of miles behind an old-fashioned breaking plow for many years, also braved blizzards, storms, floods, and few roads to make sure that the mail got through. Among the other great successes over the years in the district, were the building of the district schools, the Presbyterian Church, new roads, the Earlville Creamery, and many others.
Annie was one of the ‘complete mothers’ of that pioneering era, procuring and processing all the food that nature supplied from the virgin land and plowed fields and gardens. Her laundry soap was made in a large iron kettle, and after the slaughter of an animal, she prepared head cheese, and the pork was salted down in barrels for after curing. She was also the doctor, nurse and councillor to her family, later became a great grandmother, and welcomed her first ‘Maytag’ washing machine in 1921. Despite all those many trials, tribulations and achievements of the early settler, they always enjoyed their pleasures, which included quilting bees, summer picnics and winter parties, gatherings around the old pump organ for singsongs, and sharing many occasions together with friends and neighbours. Together they would face the depression of the dirty 30s, drought, winds, hail, rust, frost and all the rest, but together they survived and things would get better in 1938.
In spite of many losses and hardships over the years, the way of life in the Ellice District in those early days was happy among many congenial and sincere generations of neighbours, family and friends. Willet Orser died in 1935 and Annie in 1942, but their sheer dedication and strong family spirit has been proudly carried on and celebrated through countless generations.