H.J. Badger & Alice Ida (Luse)

Source: Our Side of the Hills history book

H.J. Badger and Alice Luse were married in Iowa in the mid-1880s. His name was Hannibal Joseph, but legend has it that only his wife ever dared to address him as Hannibal. Generally he was known as “Badger” or “H.J.”

Because of the ever-present desire for free land, the Badgers left Iowa in 1889, travelling in a classical covered-wagon style. The Badger family settled near Lohman, Montana, not far from Chinook.

In 1904, the lure of open range and free land caused Badger to move yet again, this time into Canada, but still in the Milk River drainage system. Since the area was still being administered as a territory, he applied to the Dominion Government and received a land grant of 640 acres encompassing the junction of Battle Creek and “Lost Dutchman Coulee” (later known as Porcupine Coulee). It was here that he and Alice brought their family, and established what would come to be known as the Badger Ranch. Horse power was still a prime requisite for the many settlers coming into the country, so they concentrated on building a horse herd and later went into cattle. To be sure of a supply of fodder, they developed a system of flood irrigation, which was effective.

The Badger Ranch didn’t survive the death of H.J. Badger in 1923. In the mid 1920s the ranch was gone.

 Gunnar Benson

Source: From Sage to Timber history book

Belle Parsonage Lloyd memories:

“The [Gunnar]¹ Benson family lived up Battle Creek. They lived there about 10 years [1896-1907]² and had come from Wisconsin. They had seven children, six girls and Johnny. In the fall of [1907]³ Ida, age 17 years, was ill with consolidation of the lungs. Dr. Graham saw her and advised them not to move her, however, they tried to get her to Medicine Hat in a covered wagon, a distance of about 60 miles. She died on the way and is buried in Medicine Hat. They eventually left the Cypress Hills and went back to [Nebraska].”

From W.X. Wright story by Heather S. Beierbach:

“At some point W.X. Wright acquired the Benson Place, [now a part of the West Block of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park]. This was one of the spots in the Hills where many old time picnics and rodeos were held. W.X. later sold it to Frank Nuttall”. [The Saskatchewan government would acquire it from Frank in 1955.]

Added Notes: Several trails in the West Block of the Cypress Hills still are known by the Benson name – North Benson, West Benson, South Benson.

When the Frank and Ella Nuttall family moved to the Benson Place in 1943 “they lived in the old sod-roofed house there”⁴ until their new log house was built. It was located across Battle Creek and up the hill from present day [2016] location of the Boy Scout Camp. The log house was later moved to other Nuttall property when Frank traded the Benson Place to the Saskatchewan government.

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¹personal communication, Clay Yarshenko
2Clay Yarshenko
3Clay Yarshenko
⁴ From Sage to Timber,  (Altona, MB: Friesen Printers, 1989)  132.

Walter & Mary Boyd Ranch

Source:  Joyce Nuttall in From Sage to Timber history book

Walter was born in Morin Heights, Quebec, and moved west in 1906. Like the majority of arrivals in those years he took up ranch work. On November 25, 1916 Walter married Mary Fleming.

Mary was born in Maple Creek, grew up and received her education there. Walter and Mary made their first home on the old Dave Wood scrip, then later bought the Scotty McLaren Ranch in the Six Mile Coulee.

The Boyd Ranch always extended a hearty welcome to friend and stranger alike. It was seldom that Walter and Mary had the opportunity of dining alone; they nearly always had as their guest a weary wayfarer who had stopped to inquire the way over the Hills or some friend or neighbour who had stopped in to spend the day. Their friendly ways were in evidence whenever one called at their ranch.

Over the years Walter’s principle interest was centered on operating the ranch, but he found time to encourage the movement to breed Thoroughbred horses. He was an active member of the Light Horse Association, was president for several years, and raised a number of prize winners that appeared in the show rings.

The Boyds sold their ranch in 1949 to the partnership of Lorne Tansley and Howard Hassett and moved to Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. They opened the door of their new home to their friends and continued to extend true western hospitality.

Walter passed away on March 16th, 1951 at the age of 62.

Mary passed away November 19th, 1954 at the age of 61.

“Uncle” Tony Day and the “Turkey Track” Ranch

Source: excerpt from The Forgotten Corner history book

A.J. (Uncle Tony) Day, with his relatives, brought from Texas into this district, twenty-two thousand head of cattle and seven hundred head of horses.  He paid $40,000 import duty when he crossed the border into Canada (at that time the North West Territories.)  Always following the open range, the outfit crossed into Canada in 1902-1903.  Born in the southern area of Texas in 1849, he knew slavery, the Civil War and the chaos it left.  In 1902 they sold their American holdings and moved to Canada.  Those were the days of the cowboy, the big round-up and branding on the open prairie with irons heated in a pile of buffalo chips.

*Note:  There was evidence that some of these brandings occurred on the flats that is now the Spangler Irrigation Project.  The “Turkey Track” branding irons were found in the area.

Cecil Joseph Delves (1869-1933)

Source:  Merryflat and District History Book , 1968 (written by Grace Delves)

Cecil came to Canada from London, England, as a young man. He and his brother, Alfred, came to work on the farms and ranches owned by Sir John Lister Kaye, later known as the “76 Ranch”. I believe they called the farm at Balgonie the Belle Farm. My mother used to sing us a ditty, “Belle horses, Belle horses, what time of day? It is six by the clock, a bright morning in May.” It was at Balgonie that he met Letitia Molineux who was teaching school there. They were married in Qu’Appelle, July 8, 1893.

While working on the farms Cecil had gotten to Maple Creek and had chosen a homestead in the Cypress Hills at Four Mile Coulee. He started to build his house on February 3, 1892, and that spring he assisted Uncle Johnny English with his, so when he brought his bride, Letitia, in 1893 the house was ready for her.

They lived in the Four Mile Coulee until the early fall of 1900 when they moved to Maple Creek and he went into partnership with Fred King in the butcher business. Cecil Delves did most of the buying of beef. He rode and drove all over the country looking for fat beef.

In 1903 they decided to start a shop in Swift Current, so they moved the family there. There were three girls and one boy: Grace, Mollie, Alice and Bert.

In 1918 my mother and father and youngest sister, Alice, moved to BC. They lived on Vancouver Island a few years and then went to Seattle. My father died October 23, 1933; my mother died at Port Alberni, September 17, 1955.

When my folks first lived at Four Mile Coulee there was quite a settlement along the creek: Jack Cheeseman at what was Howard Hassetts, Sam Hungerford at Leslies; Uncle Johnny English on what is now Forest Reserve, Channels, Serible, Waldie, Billie Adams, and Ted Harris. “All were bachelors but for the latter. When Ted Harris brought his wife and family out from England, Mrs. Delves was thrilled to have another woman in the area.”¹

¹  Our Pioneers

Harry Dore (1880-1950)

Source: Laura Parsonage in From Sage to Timber history book

Harry Dore / Photo courtesy Nellie Guenther Collection

Harry Dore came to Manitoba from England. Graham Parsonage’s relatives, the Blackburns, brought him to this area. He built a little log house down Battle Creek about three miles from the Everett Parsonage Ranch.

I was only in his shack once. It looked so neat and clean I remember thinking to myself that as clean as the floor was he must have really used the scrub brush.

Harry had been secretary to a Conservative Party while still in England. After coming to this area he was secretary and trustee for the Merryflat School for many years.

Now and again he would walk up to Uncle Fred Parsonage’s log shack to visit. One never knew he was coming until he was right there as he made no noise when walking. In the summertime he wore running shoes.

It seems he was a great hand to cook up rice, but he washed it so many times there was no taste left in it. He never had a supply of wood on hand, but went up and down Battle Creek to gather up “squaw bush”. He used a lot of coal which Carl Spangler hauled in for him every fall.

Harry had a violent temper; his cattle and horses suffered from this. They were never used too well.

The neighbours helped Harry gather his beef to sell in the fall. Harry would get so worked up over the whole deal he would start grinding his teeth.

Harry brought his mother over from England in the year of 1905. She was a mental case. Uncle Fred Parsonage lived a mile up the creek from Harry, and now and again Mrs. Dore would walk up to Uncle’s to visit him. She always carried a .22 rifle or a butcher knife. Lots of times while visiting Uncle she would show him how she could shoot the knots in the logs of his house. Graham says Uncle Fred paid no attention to her.

When Graham was born Mrs. Dore walked up to visit Grandma Parsonage and gave Grandma a nice washcloth for the baby. Grandma kept the washcloth for many many years and then gave it to me.

Finally Mrs. Dore got out of hand altogether so Harry decided she’d best be taken back to England. Johnny White took her back.

Harry Dore died October 18, 1950 at the age of 70 from heart trouble. There was never an heir found for Harry’s estate; the government got it all.

Graham and I bought his place in 1951.

Louie Dumont (1895-1960)

Source: Bertha Parsonage Wakely in Merryflat and District History

A familiar sight in the Merryflat-Battle Creek District, on mail day particularly, used to be that of Louis (Louie) Dumont, on horseback, wending his way across the prairie. For many years Louie, his widowed sister, Mary LeBarge, and her daughter, Gladys, lived on the family homestead in a wide, pine-covered valley about four miles west of Fort Walsh.

The family originally came from the Milk River country to the southwest. Louie used to tell how as a young lad he would crawl into wolf dens along the Milk River and bring out the baby wolves. Someone would tie a rope around his leg before he went in to make certain he could exit hastily if necessary. Thus, at an early age he learned the rudiments of fur trapping which was to be his main source of income the rest of his life. He was a veteran of World War I and spent much of his time following the war years breaking horses for the neighbourhood ranchers, a job at which he earned a fine reputation. Louie caught the first raccoon ever known to be in the Cypress Hills in January 1958. It weighed 22 pounds and was caught in a mink trap.

Louie could play the violin and was a very agile tap dancer even in his late years. Many dances in the community were enjoyed thanks to the music supplied by Louie and Gladys.

Louie loved his horses, which were not always the most handsome, but he kept several; he occasionally drove a team. As children we liked to ride in his wagon where we would plague him with endless questions and beg to drive the team or shoot his old .22 rifle. He carried in his pocket a small, round tobacco tin which contained the well-preserved body of an unborn baby rabbit. I believe one of his parents had given him this many years ago as a good luck charm. At any rate it was a great curiosity piece and if he came to our house, as often as twice a week, we had to see the rabbit each time.

At one time Louie told me that he was a great nephew of the brilliant general and buffalo hunter, Gabriel Dumont, who, as Louis Riel’s right hand man during the famous Northwest Rebellion of 1885 helped change the history of our nation forever.

Louis passed away in the Maple Creek Hospital at the age of 65 in March 1960 and was buried in the Fort Walsh Civilian Cemetery.

W.C. Faulkner (1866-1942) and Ella (1874-1920)

Source: Fay Beierbach, From Sage to Timber history book

William Corbett Faulkner was born at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 7, 1866, and Ella Duncan Burns was born September 14, 1874 at Collingwood, Ontario. They were married at Walla Walla on September 20, 1892.

In 1902 the Faulkner family with their five children, Ora, Eva, Allie, Ray, and Lawrence, and Ella’s mother moved to the Cypress Hills to the spring west of Merryflat on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border. Two more children, Harry and Sylvia, were born to the Faulkners in the Cypress Hills.

After the death of Ella in 1920 William continued to ranch and spent a lot of time over the years with his married children. In the late 1920s he lived for a time in Medicine Hat with his daughter, Allie, and in the 1930s he spent some winters in Havre with Lawrence, and the rest of his time was spent at the ranch with Ora, Ray and Harry. About 1938 he moved to BC to be with his daughter, Eva, where he lived until his death in 1942.

William and Ella’s oldest surviving son, Ora, married Bessie Ristow from the Eastend area. Ora lived in the Cypress Hills all his life until his retirement to Maple Creek where he passed away in 1972.

Eva married Bert Baker and lived for a time just east of the Merryflat School. Their seven children attended Merryflat School until they moved to BC about 1930.

Allie married Fred Tompkins and they lived in the Graburn district where they had three children.

Ray married Myrtle Buchanan and had one daughter, Fay. He lived and worked all his early life in the Cypress Hills with most of his time spent in the successful operation of the original Faulkner Ranch. In 1952 he married Alice Ramsay and in 1965 they moved to Medicine Hat.

Lawrence married Lena Butts from the Wildhorse district. They lived in Havre, Montana, where they raised two children.

Harry married Maisie Kelly from Merryflat. They raised three children, Winnie, Gordon and Shirley, on their ranch just a couple of miles from where Harry was born.

Sylvia married Albert Noble from the Thelma district. They lived at various places in the Cypress Hills where they had three children.

The original Faulkner Ranch is still in the family, now owned and operated by the families of W.C Faulkner’s great-grandsons, Roger and Ross Beierbach.

Dennis Leo (Bub) Gaff

Source: Written by Joan Parsonage with information from From Sage to Timber  and Merryflat and District history books. All stories by Leo Gaff.

Dennis Leo (Bub) Gaff was born in Norton County, Kansas in 1876 to James A. (Dad) Gaff and Etta Gettys. He had two sisters, Carrie and Etta (1882-1980), also born in Kansas. When settlers began to get too close and began plowing the land, Bub’s dad moved his family to Nebraska where Bub’s mother died shortly thereafter; Bub was about seven years old. He went to live with his grandparents, the Grays, back in Kansas and he went to school there for quite a few years. When going to school Bub jumped off the schoolhouse in a dare and broke his leg which never healed for years. The Doc told him he would never live to be 20 as he had a siege of bleeding from the nose and ears for months at a time and was sick until he was about 15 years old.

Bub and Honey Gaff / Photo courtesy Gaff Collection

When Bub was 17 he was out herding cattle with his cousin when they spotted a yearling with a muzzle on and decided to take it off. He took down his rope and caught the yearling, but in doing so he caught his thumb and fingers in the rope. He lost his thumb then. It was about 10 miles from the ranch so he lit out for home. When passing a neighbour’s house the neighbour called to ask him what his hurry was. Bub just held up his bloody hand and kept on going. The neighbour jumped on a horse and followed him, thinking he would find him at the first gate, but Bub didn’t get off his horse to open gates. He kept on going until he got home where they fixed up his hand the best they could and took him to the doctor the next day. The doctor was 40 miles away. Bub was in the hospital a few weeks as they had to remove two of his fingers.

Bub’s dad married Myra Shafer and the family grew to include Myra (1886-1971), Frances (1887-1976), Alla (?-1941), Jimmy, Essie (1895-1982), nine month old Eva (1895-1976). The family’s cattle herd grew too large for the land they owned, and cattle and horse stealing was getting bad. About the same time Bub’s uncle, Walter Shafer, who was already in Canada, was telling them of the wonderful country in the Pincher Creek, Alberta area; the family decided they would move to Canada. Dad Gaff sold his ranch and his cattle for gold and he had an auction sale that fall.

In the spring of 1896 just before the family left for Canada, Dad Gaff sent 18 year old Bub, with his saddle horse, pack horse, bed and food to Salt Lake City, Utah, to get the horses he had left there with two of his friends. Bub was to meet the family at his Uncle Charlie Gettys’ place in Wyoming. Bub never lost one horse and arrived at Gettys just a few days after the rest of his family did.

Though they had planned on going to Pincher Creek, Alberta, when they arrived at Ten Mile Detachment on Battle Creek where there was good water, good grass and the Cypress Hills not far away, they decided to settle near there.

Unlike most of the other cowboys of that age Bub was given a good education.  He was not willing to let it drop when he came to this new country. He bought a typewriter, certainly the first one south of the main line of the CPR and took a correspondence typing and shorthand course. Much to the amazement and the amusement of his cowboy friends he learned to master both the machine and the “pot hook and hangers” of shorthand. Later he took a job at Vancouver with the newspaper, the old “Vancouver World”, but within a year he was back on the prairies again.¹

This country was still free range and the cattle they purchased increased in numbers quite fast. By the summer of 1906 they had two places, the home place on Battle Creek five miles east of the Ten Mile NWMP Detachment and Bub’s homestead three miles south of old Fort Walsh.

The family knew sadness. Bub lost his half-brother, Jimmy, age 8, when he was kicked behind the ear by a horse and died instantly; his step-mother, Myra, from shock, lost baby Ellis at birth. Then a year later, not yet over the shock she died when little Madge was born. Five year old Madge caught her clothes on fire and died from burns and shock in Maple Creek Hospital.

Bub and his dad built an irrigation project with teams and scrapers in 1897 and 1898. To build four miles of irrigation ditch and numerous dikes was truly a great undertaking. They secured Number One water right on Battle Creek and Bub’s grandson and great-grandson use the same project this year of 2016.

In 1921 Bub married Vienna May Pettyjohn who he always called Honey. That is how they became known to everyone, Bub and Honey. Bub’s partnership with his dad ended and in 1923 Bub and Honey moved up to the Flapjack Ranch from the ranch on Battle Creek. There they raised six children: Neva, Leo, Gale, Nile, Esme and Pal; all of whom called their mother, Honey.

In 1925 Bub purchased the Henry Marshall Place; that is where his son, Leo, would eventually live. They built up one of the finest herds of cattle in the country and anyone who knew Bub knew of his cattle-selling shrewdness. He made several trips to England with boat-loads of live cattle to test out the markets there. Many neighbors would send their cattle along to make up a load. He told about the big steers getting sea sick and not eating for five or six days, how they would vomit just like a human. These cattle had to be tied separately and fed and watered every day.

Many a trip he made to Chicago with cattle by train. On one trip he was gone for so long Honey figured some gangsters had rapped him on the head. Her fears were not groundless because an attempt had been made to rob him. Bub and his uncle sold the cattle for a good price and Bub took in all the sights. He decked himself out in a new suit known as a swallow-tail and, as was fitting to a man of his newly-acquired wealth, he returned on a First Class ticket. His uncle, being a man of more simple tastes, returned third class. Bub took in all the dances and concerts on the ship and in general was quite the life of the party. His uncle started up to visit him one time, but the steward turned him back. A few days later Bub saw his uncle who was still pretty sore about it. Just to make matters worse, Bub rubbed it in a little and said, “We don’t want you fellows bothering us up there.” Uncle, being a firm believer in everyone being equal, just about blew up. “You and your damned monkey suit, that’s all you got that I haven’t.”²

When you have cattle you must have horses and the old cowboys who used to ride with Bub on the roundups told that he had the finest string of horses in the country and was a superb rider. Some of his horses were trained to jump gates. One horse by the name of Kelly would squat down as you would start to throw the saddle on.

Getting their kids to school was always a problem for Bub and Honey as they lived seven miles from the nearest school at Merryflat and there were virtually no roads. The kids took correspondence courses up to grade eight. A girl was hired to teach them, however it was a chore to keep a teacher as it would not be long before the teacher would be married. The first was Muriel Howlett who later married Steve Schafer. Next her sister, Marjorie, who did not last long once Ernest Pettyjohn got his eye on her, and Agnes Kelly who later became Mrs. Bill Parr. Later, to get to school they rode, boarded out, lived in a little log shack, and stayed in Maple Creek.

When the old Maple Creek Hospital burned down in 1945, Bub, along with nine other patients, suffocated before they could be rescued. Honey continued to live at the Flapjack Place with her family close by. Years later she retired to Brooks, Alberta, where she died on May 26th, 1980 at the age of 75.

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¹Shepherd, T.L. Canadian Cattlemen, June 1946
²Ibid

Eva Gaff (1895-1976) – Battle Creek’s Lady Rancher

Source: Written by Joan Parsonage with information from From Sage to Timber and Dixie Black

Eva came to Canada with her family from Nebraska in 1896. In the party that traveled here were her half-sister, Etta, (Carrie did not come until later as she had married Harry Minor), half-brother Dennis (Bub); sisters Myra, Frances, Alla, Estys and Eva, brother Jimmy as well as her mother, Myra, and father J.A. (Dad) Gaff.

The family took up ranching along Battle Creek about five miles from the Ten Mile NWMP Detachment.
When her dad purchased the Govenlock Hotel, Eva worked there for a time; her niece, Meda Paterson, remembers staying there with her mother, Frances, so her two brothers could go to school and she says Eva was a big tease! When Meda was three Eva would always ask her how old she was and when Meda answered, “Three,” Eva would always say, “Oh you’re a flea are you? You’re a flea!” Meda says she was happy when she was not three anymore. When Alla and her dad took over the running of the hotel Eva went back to operate the Gaff JON Ranch.

Jack Shepherd knew Eva as she and her partner, Steve Schafer, were his neighbors. “She managed the Gaff Ranch for quite a few years, could work cattle in a corral, ride, or drive a team with anyone. …the biggest disappointment of her life was when she became somewhat crippled with arthritis and could not ride anymore. Eva was lots of fun to be around whether at a dance or in her home and she enjoyed pulling pranks. She was always happy to have someone drop in; it would be an excuse to pour a couple of drinks [a cigarette poised on her lip and smoke curling past her eye as she did so]. Eva was very witty, could talk on any subject and was a well-read, upright and honest person in every way.”

Frances (Ma Pat’s) granddaughter, Dixie Wilson Black, adds the following:

“Eva smoked those real long Benson and Hedges’ cigarettes; I remember when she talked her cigarette would bounce and we would hold our breath as the longest ash would just seem to hang on! She was engaged to a fellow who was killed overseas in WWI. About 1915  her dad (Dad Gaff) bought the Govenlock Hotel. Eva and her dad ran it first with the help of her sister, Frances (Ma Pat) whose boys, Jimmy and Roy, were going to school there. She was always the belle of the ball, had nice clothes, many boyfriends and a car. After supper in the hotel she would play the piano and all the travelers that came in on the train would have a singsong and a great time! Bill Patton was one of her boyfriends, but Eva said he was too short as she was taller than him. Prohibition was on at this time and there were rumors that the hotel had a stash on hand. A few years later, her sister Alla, who later married Andy McRae, took over the hotel and Eva and her Dad managed the ranch on Battle Creek. Eva was a good cattlewoman and could ride a horse along with the guys. A hired man/boyfriend was Charley Longley who got beat out by a handsome Scotsman named Scotty Balfour who worked there for a few years. Earlier he had worked for Lindners. It was known that Charley had gone to Jamaica and did very well for himself. Eva’s last hired man/partner was Steve Schafer.”

In 1962 Eva sold the ranch to four partners, Ernest Pettyjohn, John McLuhan, Paul Neitz and Roland Agar, and moved to Maple Creek. After she had the misfortune to fall and break her hip she was then confined to a wheelchair.

She died in Maple Creek Hospital in 1976 at the age of 81.