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Winnifred Cemetery

Memorials	:	147
Location	:	Winnifred, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate	:	49.9091400, -111.2079500
Description	:	DRIVING DIRECTIONS: Travel north of highway #3 on Range Road #95 through the community of Winnifred. Turn right onto the last gravel road at the north end of the community (it is the next one after Dunbar Ave and is unmarked). The cemetery is less than a kilometer from Range Road #95. OF THE 109 KNOWN GRAVES 37 ARE SIMPLE WHITE UNMARKED CROSSES. Information obtained from the original Cemetery Journal, (thank you Lee) newspaper stories/obituaries plus information from "Winnifred: Our Trails, Trials and Memories" published in 1965 Author: Ruth Johanna Collins has enabled us to identify some of the individual... Read More	DRIVING DIRECTIONS: Travel north of highway #3 on Range Road #95 through the community of Winnifred. Turn right onto the last gravel road at the north end of the community (it is the next one after Dunbar Ave and is unmarked). The cemetery is less than a kilometer from Range Road #95. OF THE 109 KNOWN GRAVES 37 ARE SIMPLE WHITE UNMARKED CROSSES. Information obtained from the original Cemetery Journal, (thank you Lee) newspaper stories/obituaries plus information from "Winnifred: Our Trails, Trials and Memories" published in 1965 Author: Ruth Johanna Collins has enabled us to identify some of the individual graves, in some instances the names are known but not the exact location of the grave. The aforementioned history book indicates there are a number of isolated graves in the area such as: - In 1911 a Polish laborer who died on the CPR rail lines was buried in a casket made of CPR grain doors in Bow Island on the south side of the tracks where the grain elevators were in the early 1960s. - One of Jimmie Johnson's children, who died at an early age, was buried on the homestead in Township 10 Range 9. - Josephine (Colthorpe) Smith remembers riding past a homestead between the Colthorpe farm, which was near the river, and Winnifred and seeing 4 small graves in the yard. All 4 children in the family were apparently the victims of diptheria. The parents had more children later. The Colthorpe family left the area in 1922. These graves have not been idenified/located, at this time. (Dec 2014)(Page 46) - On Page 169 the following information is provided: During the 1918 flu epidemic whole families were stricken and when one died the rest were too weak to bury them. Neighbours helped when possible and permits were issued to inter the bodies on the farms. Some of the remains were later moved to cemeteries and others remain in isolated graves. - In addition, we learned there are two marked graves on NE 13-11-11 W4 where John Egan & Earl Lavenne share a headstone. BACKGROUND Winnifred is an unincorporated community in Alberta, Canada within the County of Forty Mile No. 8. It is located approximately 50 km (31 mi) southwest of the City of Medicine Hat and 14 km (8.7 mi) east of the Town of Bow Island. Winnifred, originally a whistle stop at Mile 31 on the Dunmore Junction also known as the Turkey Track, was upgraded to a siding in 1885 named after a daughter of J.R. Whitlaw, one of the charter members of the Turkey Track. In 1903 the only buildings were the section house where William Savage lived; a dugout for the section hands; and a small two room building that housed the telegraph office. No more than ten people lived in the surroundings. Four years later in 1907 the Alberta Government opened up district between Grassy Lake and Winnifred for homesteading. Settlers from Eastern Canada and the Mid-western States flooded the area taking up almost every quarter section of land for miles, unaware of the drought-ridden nature of the area. With lack of water and wood, settlers relied on wells for water and small coal deposits in the area for heating. The first few businesses in Winnifred came in 1908 and the spring of 1909. P.J. Demarce opened a store on the south side of the tracks; William Hickmore imported lumber from Lethbridge for a Hotel and eating house; while J.S Fisher, of Whitefish, Montana, opened the Fisher Mercantile. In 1913, most the businesses expanded and moved across the tracks, where they joined F.W. Brown's Hardware; Quong Chon's combination laundry and café. The Fritz Sick brewery of Lethbridge built an up-to-date hotel. The site of the Union Bank was diagonally across from the Fisher Mercantile building. The boom years for Winnifred were 1915-1916, when heavy rains produced bumper crops. It was to good to be true, in 1918 the Fisher Mercantile went bankrupt and the first of many homesteaders started moving away. The hotel went the same year and was moved to Brooks. The news paper The Winnifred Record, which started out so bravely to chronicle the development of the community, folded shortly after. The 1920's were harsh years for the remaining settlers, with drought, clouds of grasshoppers and finally hordes of rabbits who ate everything that looked like grain. More settlers packed up and left and with the help of the government moved to homesteads in central and Northern Alberta. By the mid 1930s, dust storms completed the task and farm after farm was abandoned. It took thirty years for the determined homesteaders to appreciated that without irrigation the land was best suited for ranching.

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is Winnifred Cemetery?
Winnifred Cemetery is located at Winnifred, Medicine Hat Census Division ,Alberta , T0K 0G0Canada.
Winnifred Cemetery cemetery's updated grave count on graveviews.com?
147 memorials
Where are the coordinates of the Winnifred Cemetery?
Latitude: 49.9091400
Longitude: -111.2079500

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Nearby Cemetories:

1. Whitla Cemetery
Whitla, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.8952910, -111.0513930

2. Winnifred Hutterite Colony Cemetery
Winnifred, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.9978100, -111.1201400

3. Lavenne & Egan Isolated Graves
Bow Island, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.9170400, -111.3751600

4. Highland Cemetery
Whitla, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.9605100, -111.0507700

5. Bow Island Cemetery
Bow Island, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.8595000, -111.3719500

6. Burdett Cemetery
Burdett, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.8431000, -111.5164200

7. St Anthony Roman Catholic Cemetery
Maleb, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.7072340, -111.1142640

8. Seven Persons Cemetery
Seven Persons, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.8736300, -110.8804600

9. Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Cemetery
Bow Island, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.6978500, -111.3835100

10. Fertile Plains Cemetery
Maleb, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.6691600, -111.2695300

11. Murray Lake Hutterite Colony Cemetery
Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.8598782, -110.8135607

12. Prospy Cemetery
Etzikom, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.6257660, -111.1329960

13. Redcliff Cemetery
Redcliff, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 50.0661600, -110.7941500

14. Saamis Prairie View Cemetery
Medicine Hat, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.9926500, -110.7409600

15. Grassy Lake Prairie View Cemetery
Grassy Lake, Lethbridge Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.8429920, -111.6995750

16. Assumption Cemetery
Grassy Lake, Lethbridge Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.7269500, -111.6251600

17. Hillside Cemetery
Medicine Hat, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 50.0280100, -110.7114600

18. Kin Coulee Cemetery
Medicine Hat, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 50.0248760, -110.6840970

19. Highfield Christian Reformed Cemetery
Burdett, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.6112900, -111.5293000

20. Carlstadt Cemetery
Alderson, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 50.2744200, -111.3457900

21. St. Joseph's Cemetery
Foremost, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.5609900, -111.4290900

22. Wisdom Bethel Evangelical Cemetery
Medicine Hat, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.6988000, -110.7036700

23. Forty Mile Pioneer Cemetery
Foremost, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 49.5289100, -111.4416500

24. Box Springs Cemetery
Medicine Hat, Medicine Hat Census Division, Canada
Coordinate: 50.1858200, -110.7312300

Winnifred Cemetery

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