I presently live at Cascade Court. Prior to that Kenneth and I lived in Restwell Trailer Court although we still owned an acreage at Seebe on the north side of the river. We purchased the manufactured home in Canmore because we felt we should be closer for medical services.
I, Doris, was born in the Coronation area to homesteader pioneers, Joe and Margaret (Forrest) Smith. My father was from Michigan, of English descent. My mother was Scottish. Grandma Forrest, a widow, had a prosperous farm in Nebraska just out of Lincoln. Having four sons and five daughters and hoping to provide a good future for them, she was lured to come to Lacombe by her elder married daughter and son-in-law, Tom and Kate Davidson, who were farming in the area at that time. Many years later they moved from Lacombe to Bankhead and Canmore and had a dairy farm on what is now Bow Valley Trail. Tom and Kate Davidson were the first of the family to come to Canada. After hearing reports of the good land, Grandma Forrest, four sons and two daughters came to the Lacombe area where they bought a farm and looked for homestead land. Around 1908 the three older boys, as well as my grandmother, took up homestead land around Talbot, north of Coronation. Grandma was sixty at the time. Grandma raised beef cattle, probably ranching more than farming. Helping her were my mother Margaret and Grandma’s youngest son, Ray. Because a young gentleman named Joe Smith broke his leg and was taken to Grandma Forrest’s, he first met my mother, Margaret. Years later, in November of 1914, they were married. Mom had ordered her beautiful wedding dress from Chicago.
After leaving Michigan, my father came west to Montana, where he and his brothers worked in the mines, then my father came to Canada. One of the jobs he had was building the trestle railroad bridge at Lethbridge, still a notable span. My father eventually took out land in the Coronation area. After my parents were married, Grandma sold her homestead and, with her younger son who was nineteen at the time, went back to the States. They later returned to Canada and Grandma spent her last days with family, actually my mother, in the Lacombe area.
Joe and Margaret lived in the Coronation area. My father built a nice two storey house for my mother. Thanks to Grandma, the house was well furnished with good linens, good furniture, etc. Born to the family were Raymond (1915), Elmer (1916) and Doris (1920). The youngest, Forrest, was born in 1923. My brothers couldn’t attend school until the school was built about half a mile away. My mother often boarded the teachers. In 1980, for the 75th Homecoming Anniversary of the province, I was privileged to meet one of the teachers who had stayed at our home and she reminisced about what a wonderful place our home had been for the boarders. Mom was an outstanding cook and she loved to have company.
Mom and Dad were active in the community. Due to drastic farming conditions, my parents decided to move back to the Lacombe area and help the family on a large farm.
I went to school first at Jones Valley in the Joffre district, then to the Spring Valley School. My family had moved when my mother was widowed in 1927. After completing grade twelve, I worked in a lumber yard, building pig houses (the boys had gone to war) and granaries. I also worked in a store and lumberyard. Then I heard about a nurse training program at Ponoka (Alberta Hospital). This was a two year program and I got in at the last minute. We were paid even in our probation period, the goodly sum of $40 a month, with room, board, uniforms, included. We were treated very well. From a class of thirty-three, only twelve graduated in 1945 after a two year affiliation with the Royal Alex hospital in Edmonton where we learned pediatrics, maternity, surgical, etc. After becoming a registered nurse, I worked as a supervisor at the psychiatric hospital.
It was common for nurses to leave nursing for a while and join up. Therefore the hospitals were almost depleted. The student nurses were very busy. Ken had been released from the services and was advised if he had a job before the war he should go back to it. So he went back to buying grain for Searle Grain Co. He ended up at the elevator at Joffre. I had been asked by a friend to accompany her and her date, Ken Lyster, to a wedding dance. That is how I met my husband. We were married in July of 1948. We first lived in a nice new company house in Joffre. Working in a drafty elevator was not good for Ken’s health so, with friends, we started looking around for something different.
While visiting a cousin in Seebe we were asked if we were interested in buying a little store. Within two weeks we owned a store. First we had to acquire financing from a bank in Calgary. This was interesting in that the credit manager knew about the Seebe store and questioned its viability. But with me sitting on a bench waiting in the bank and the “men” in a back room to make the deal, we acquired the loan on condition that I would return to nursing if the situation warranted it. Only people working for TransAlta lived in Seebe. The employees lived in company houses.
Work in the store included clerking, meeting the mail trains, delivering groceries and then, of course, there was the usual housework. The store has changed now but the original place was half of a stucco building shared with the Calgary Power office. This store featured a mail area complete with wicket, an oil floor, a potbellied station type stove, pigeonhole shelving and an old grubby counter. The building lacked storage. Immediately, we upgraded to a long “lowboy” store refrigerator showcase with space for many cases of milk, meats, etc. Underneath was storage for many cases of dairy products. Eventually a storage room was added on. We kept the store until 1980.
Along the way we raised a family: Melvin arrived in July, 1954. That winter we moved to a suite behind the store. Rick was born in 1957, the year that the highway made its way through. A daughter, Margaret, arrived in 1961. Our grandchildren are Tyler, Trevor and Kayley Lyster, children of Mel and Kathy. Rick lives at Exshaw, married to Nancy, and his children are Russell, Sandy and Shawna.
I often think that one of the smartest moves of my parents was to move to Canada. I am so proud to be an Albertan. We seem to enjoy life more and meet any challenges that arise.
Doris and Ken Lyster
Margaret, Ken, Melvin, Doris, Richard Lyster, 1965
In Canmore Seniors at the Summit, ed. Canmore Seniors Association, 2000, p.168-169.
