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In the 1900 census Charles and his family were living in Grandmeadow Township, Cherokee County, Iowa. Charles was listed as a farmer age 29 born February 1871 in Ohio, his wife Edith age 20 born December 1879 in Iowa, their son, Everett age 12 months born September 1899 in Iowa. Also his brother Edward Culler age 23 born March 1877 in Ohio, was living with him.
This next was written by Charles', daughter, Marie (Culler) Neel.
Charles E. Culler was born in Louisville, Ohio in 1871, and his wife Edith (Swallon) Culler was born in...
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In the 1900 census Charles and his family were living in Grandmeadow Township, Cherokee County, Iowa. Charles was listed as a farmer age 29 born February 1871 in Ohio, his wife Edith age 20 born December 1879 in Iowa, their son, Everett age 12 months born September 1899 in Iowa. Also his brother Edward Culler age 23 born March 1877 in Ohio, was living with him.
This next was written by Charles', daughter, Marie (Culler) Neel.
Charles E. Culler was born in Louisville, Ohio in 1871, and his wife Edith (Swallon) Culler was born in Benton County, Iowa in 1878. Upon arrival in Canada in 1909, the Cullers had three children: Everett H. age nine years, E. Marie aged six years, and Myra A. aged four years. On February 14, 1915 a daughter, Marjorie Valentine, was born at Lucky Strike.
Mr. Connor, a land agent for the Kerr Land Company, was instrumental in persuading my parents to come to Canada. We came by train, the women and children on the passenger, and the men brought emigrant cars with stock, machinery and household goods. We settled first in the Powell district, northeast of Warner. My father bought a half section here which he disposed of later. If I remember correctly, we lived with cousins of my father's. Rennie Powells, until our house was built of lumber. In 1910, some homestead land was opened up and our family removed to the Lucky Strike area, where my father filled on a half section, about 3 1/2 miles west and south of Lucky Strike. The men from the Powell settlement went to the homestead and put up buildings for the families before moving. All the lumber was hauled from Warner with horses and wagons. My father built a long barn, and the family lived in one end which was boarded up and finished inside. This was later used for grain storage after our house was built.
We left Alberta in December, 1917. Our crops had been fairly good and prices were good. We went to visit my grandparents, Grandpa Culler of Weilersville, Ohio and Grandpa Swallon of Arriba, Colorado. My father said we could take this trip or build a new house. The trip was chosen. Fate plays strange tricks! My parents decided to stay in Arriba. Father went back to Canada the summer of 1918 and disposed of what holdings we still had. At a public sale the fall before, we had disposed of all the livestock, etc. My parents farmed near Arriba until moving into town in 1924, where they lived the remainder of their lives. Charles E. Culler passed away April 30, 1951 at the age of eighty years. Edith Culler passed away March 4, 1947 at the age of sixty-nine.
Everett Culler passed away in 1918 at Arriba, Colorado. I. Marie (Culler) Neel live at Bancroft, Nebraska at the present time. I taught school near and in Arriba for six years. I married Harold W. Neel in 1931. My husband farmed for about nine years. After moving to Bancraft in 1940, he was in the oil station and garage business for 32 years. We have a married son, Bruce, a married daughter, Joyce, and four grandchildren.
Myra (Culler) Schmid lives at 2931 Mountain View Ave., Longmont, Colorado. She graduated from boulder University with a degree in music. Music has always been her "life" and still is. Many happy hours are spent at the organ and piano in her home. Besides teaching music in school for many years, she has given music lessons and given of her time as organist in various churches. She married Hennie R. Schmid in 1932. He taught school and did county agent work for many years. Both are enjoying a life of retirement now. They have one married son, Albert, and two grandchildren.
Marjorie (Culler) Brown lives at Stratton, Colorado. She has worked in the school for several years, first as one of the cooks, and she is a teacher's aide at the present time. She is always helping others in many ways. She has directed the church choir for several years. She married Gene Brown in 1936. He has worked in a bank most of his life, but was forced to retire last fall because of ill health. They have daughters Margene and LuAnn, and six grandchildren.
I remember the Prairie Round school being built around 1910 west of Lucky Strike and down the hill south from the Jim Carrington farm home. For years we carried drinking water in a bucket from the Carrington home. Always two of us would get to go after a bucket of water at recess or noon. I would say some of the happiest school days of my life were spent at Prairie Round School. Our first teacher was Minnie Maddaugh in 1910. She was rather tall and slender. How we first graders loved her, for she was so kind. Then there was Mamie McCollough, one just as well liked as the first one. I believe these teachers boarded at the Carrington home. One of the big occasions was when the teacher came to spend the night in our home. Maggie Brownlee was a teacher, also. She was rather small and always looked nice and neat in her clothes. Mrs. (Jim) Nona Carrington taught our school for one or two terms. She was very musical, so we learned to sing many new songs along with our school work. A Mr. Palmer was the only man teacher we had while I attended Prairie Round. Myra and I were in the seventh grade and moved away that year. I must admit he wasn't a favorite teacher of mine. One afternoon some of us girls got the "giggles" so he wrote our names on the board. We just sat still when the other pupils were dismissed. He asked us why we remained after school. No explanations were forthcoming from us; we got out of there as soon as possible. On previous occasions we had seen pupils asked to hold out their hand while the teacher used a ruler on them.
The last day of school we always had a big picnic dinner with all families around attending. The men and boys had a ball game and the children played various games. There was always a program that day, too. It was celebration enjoyed by all. The first few years in Alberta were the hardest because of building homes when the lumber had to be hauled so far. Also, many loads of rocks had to be removed before the land could be broken. Sometimes big steam rigs would plow the fields for the first time. The rocks were hard on plow lays and our neighbor, Mr. Henry Bye, had a forge so be sharpened lays for the farmers.
Many times one of us children would go along with my father on the three day trips to Warner, when he took grain or hogs to market. We would drive the second team and wagon, right back of his wagon. The Loseys had what was known as the half-way house, and the night was usually spent there going and again coming home. How we loved to get to town and eat at the restaurants and stay all night with friends or at the hotel. In the fall we'd stock up with big boxes of apples, flour, sugar and necessary commodities for the winter. Few trips were made during the long winter months. My parents never had a doctor while we lived in Alberta. Our neighbor, Mrs. Henry Bye, was midwife when my youngest sister was born.
I remember a few times that the crops were hailed almost entirely. The folks held quilts and pillows up to the widows to keep them from breaking. After one of these storms we'd gather hailstones and freeze ice cream by turning a syrup pail inside a larger tub of ice. What a treat that was in the summer time!
My father helped to organize a Sunday school which was held at Prairie Round every Sunday. We always had a big Christmas program, treats and most parents had gifts for the children. Christmas trees were sometimes hauled from the sweet Grass Hills by team and wagon, but if this was impossible, something else was improvised. One year two long ladders were fasten together at the top forming and inverted "V" shape and gifts hung from the rungs. Indeed, necessity was the mother of invention!
A presiding Elder Wagner made the trip to our community from Warner or Lethbridge three or four times a year and held church services after Sunday school. He used to eat at our house and stay overnight sometimes. Rev. McCracken was our minister in later years.
Perhaps our family actively enjoyed most was singing around the organ those long winter evenings. My sister, Myra, would play the organ and we would sing the four parts of church songs and popular songs of the day. Myra took great interest in watching Mrs. Carrington play for our duets, then she would go home and play them on our organ.
In later years we went to Milk River, as it was closer than Warner. How frightened the horses became when we met a car on the road! Usually the driver had to get out and hold them by the bridles. Still later, foremost was closer to us and we usually sold and bought there. What fun it was to go there with our father and eat in those Chinese restaurants. Father seldom failed to remember mother and us children with some special little gifts when he made the long trips to town. One time father and my sister were coming home from Warner and some bananas became so ripe that had to eat them. After eating seven, she still is fond of them. One time the Chinook wind came after my father had gone to Warner in the bobsled. He had to make other arrangements to get home!
There was a coal mine, tunneled in the side of a hill, about half a mile south of our buildings. It didn't produce the best grade coal, but would burn. Neighbors came and dug coal when they needed it. My father bought a better grade of coal at a mine three or four miles east of us. Cow chips were gathered in summer for a quick fire. In the winter when the men came to our land for coal, their children came along and we would all go to the coulee and coast down the hills until their fathers were ready to go home. That was our greatest outdoor winter sport.
Very few farms had wells, but everyone had one or two cisterns which were kept well supplied with water. Some springs in the coulee supplied water for stock. We had a cistern for the house and one for stock, and it was an endless task hauling water.
My father and Ira Culler had a steam threshing outfit. Threshing time was a big holiday for the children as the neighbor families helped each other, the women helping each other cook for the threshing crew. Mother and we children had all the chores to do, as father was gone early and home late when away threshing. Most of the time our cattle were on the range and it was Myra's or my task to ride a pony after them in the evenings. How we wished they were in a pasture so we didn't have to hunt for them.
I remember the R.N.W.M.P. Many times they stopped and ate dinner with us. Any visitors were exciting but especially these men, for they rode beautiful horses and their uniforms were immaculate.
The only contagious disease I remember having while in Alberta was the mumps one spring. One year all school children were requested to go to Lucky Strike to be vaccinated for smallpox. Myra and I walked to the Bert Lemon home to tell them. That was a big word for us to remember and upon arrival at their home I proudly announced that "we all have to go to Lucky Strike tomorrow to be evaporated!"
During the last year in Alberta, we became the proud owners of a second-hand touring Ford car, side curtains and all our family made a trip to Lethbridge before leaving for the States in the fall of 1917. On the way home it snowed. We were so cold even with blankets to cover us. The lights went out and the radiator kept freezing. But--oh how much faster it was, and so exciting to go to the city and back in such a short time!
I remember two very sad funerals in our community; that of Mrs. Will Thompson and Lois Powell, less than a year old. She was Frank Powell's daughter. Four of us little girls were pallbearers.
My grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. George Swallom, moved to the house across the road from us, formerly lived in by Jorgensons, and lived there for a couple of years before returning to the States to make their home at Arriba, Colorado. Indeed, I would say that ours was a heritage rich in pioneer experiences, which our family has enjoyed reliving many times.
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