Chapter 7:
Botha, Alberta, Canada (1913 - 1960)
Johann Heinrich Drewes and Family
By the winter of 1912 – 1913 it became apparent that the settlement at Mercedes could not support the entire clan. Somebody had to go. The project had been promoted by J. Heinrich and Wilhelm. At this point the two of them still had the most resources. One would have to go and one could stay.
Of the two, J.Heinrich and his sons still had land in Alberta at Botha as well as a residue at Ellerslie. Of the family members, J. Heinrich’s family also had the best acceptance of living through Alberta’s winter. Since their arrival at Ellerslie in 1894 they had experienced 15 winters.
When J.Heinrich and his son Henry returned to Botha in the spring of 1913 the clan family was now reduced to three. To survive in that era they would have to replace family members with neighbors and friends.
Henry had been intimately involved in the creating of Carl Stettler’s “Swiss German Community”. Henry had a monopoly on threshing from 1906 to 1910 and as a result was well known in the community. The closest neighbors included the families of George Stack, Robert Zimmerman, Richard Gerlach, Rudolph Eisentraut, Ulrich Stauffer, Jacob Kempf, Christian Zurfluh and Emil Holtz.
During the three year interval in Texas, new families had moved into the community. They included the families of John Garrels, Fred Bruning, Louis Kerl, Fritz Reineberg, Henry Bauer and Charlie Bauer.
At the same time that the Drewes migration to Texas took place (1910), the Bauer family was moving from Ontario. Charlie Bauer, who had originally homesteaded south of Botha on NE 36-37-18 W4, bought the SW 36-38-19 W4 next to Robert Zimmerman. Henry Bauer purchased SE 1-39-19 W4 north across the road from George Stack.
George Stack was a close friend of Henry’s, and he had been part of the Drewes family as they homesteaded Section 30-38-18 W4 at Botha in 1904. In the intervening years he had purchased the West half of 31-38-18 W4 from the CPR. He had also purchased Fred Wuest’s homestead, the NE 36-38-19 W4. He had moved there so that his daughters would have a shorter walk to Blumenau school, 1 ½ miles instead of 3 ½.
Prior to the return of the Drewes family in the spring of 1913, many of the above named families had joined together to form Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Congregation at Botha. This Church had no building but met at members’ homes, and occasionally at the Botha Methodist Church or the Botha Hall. The minister, the Reverend August Herman Scheffler lived in Castor, but would share the ministry, spending half of his time at Botha, travelling by train.
Upon returning to Botha the Drewes Family would immediately join this congregation and become important members of it. In 1916 Henry would become an Elder, a position he held continuously until the church was ended in 1931. For more of the church relationship, read Lutheran Pioneers in the Stettler Area.
Upon their return, J. Heinrich built a two-story frame house adjoining Henry’s original log house of 1905. Henry continued to live in his log house. J. Heinrich continued a tradition of the Lunenburg Heide, raising sheep and bees. Henry, on the other hand, was a grain farmer like his neighbors.
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Left: Drewes family at Botha (1915-1916)
Right: Anna and J. Heinrich Drewes with their house at Botha (1914-1916)
Below: Anna and J. Heinrich with their sheep at Botha (1914-1916)
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William and Dorothea Drewes in Florida
While J. Heinrich and Henry returned to Botha, during the summer of 1913 the younger son William and his wife Dorothea would make one more attempt to stay in the southern USA. They moved to Plant City, Florida, purchasing a farm on the north end of the Everglades. In leaving Texas, they would leave behind the unmarked grave of their first son Walter, who had died at the age of 9 months due to malnutrition. William’s and Dorothea’s daughter Martha was born at Plant city in 1914.
As part of the German migration Friedrich (Fred) Wischhoff and his wife Sophie (nee Proehl) had originally planned to go to Mercedes, Texas. Instead they would meet William at Plant City, Florida. The family ties: Fred and William were 1st cousins as their mothers were Westerman Sisters. Fred and Dorothea were also half siblings as they shared a common father, Jacob Wischhoff.
When Fred Wischhoff arrived in Florida, his first two children Sophie and Fred came as part of the family. During the three years in Florida their second son Herman was born. After their arrival in Botha daughters Annie and Martha were born as well as their last son Albert.
By 1916, after 3 years of farming in the Everglades, it became apparent that farming in Florida wasn’t going too well, and that the USA might enter World War I. The decision was made to go back to Botha, Alberta. William Drewes moved back to his homestead on the NW 30. Fred Wischhoff would buy George Stack’s original homestead on the NE of 30.
The Drewes family increased with sons George (born in 1916) and Martin (born in 1918). In 1918 a flu epidemic passed through the area. Dorothea caught the flu shortly after Martin was born, and was unable to sufficiently feed the baby. Robert and Christina Zimmerman had a newly freshened cow that they sent to the Drewes for the winter to help nourish the baby.
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The William and Dorothea Drewes family (1918)
Right: William Drewes, George Drewes, Martha Drewes, and Dorothea Drewes (holding Martin Drewes) (1918 or 1919)
Below: The William and Dorothea Drewes family and their house
The last of the Texas migrants that came back to Canada was Karl Kruse and his wife Emilie, and their son Edmond. Karl and Emilie were employed by Charlie Bauer as farm hand and housekeeper.
Henry Drewes had looked after farming the Drewes land, together with his friend and neighbor George Stack. With George moving a mile north and Henry’s brother William and cousin Fred taking over the north half of Section 30, Henry’s farm had taken a shrink. Another problem was that J. Heinrich still acted as a dominant patriarch. As a result he and Henry were often in disagreement. Henry purchased a half section of land at Warden, and would then commute the 12 miles between the two farms on foot or by horse and buggy.
The majority of homesteaders coming to Carl Stettler’s Swiss German Community were in their twenties. One of the exceptions was J.Heinrich who was 48 years old when he homesteaded at Botha. The other oldster was Ulrich Stauffer who was 54 when he took out his homestead. Ulrich became seriously ill before Christmas in 1914. His sons Werner and Ernst took him by sleigh to Stettler where he passed away at the age of 64.
In 1920, J. Heinrich suffered a stroke. He passed away August 8, 1921 at the age of 65. With his passing Pastor Scheffler would bury the second and last of the old patriarchs.
Pastor Scheffler had presided over the funeral of Carl Stettler in February 1920. Carl had never been a member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Botha, but was very important to the Swiss-German community.
The passing of J. Heinrich resulted in Henry’s permanent move back to the homestead in 1920 to look after it and his mother Anna. The farm at Warden was rented out to Fred Treichel, one of his neighbors from Ellerslie. The rental partnership with Treichel ended in 1937 with Treichel’s death. Henry then sold the farm to Edwin Bauer, the eldest son of Henry Bauer, who up to that time had been renting the homestead of William Drewes.
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William and Dorothea Drewes' farmhouse (1916-1917)
William Drewes' farm (c. 1920)
William Drewes was a people person, and the isolation of the farm paled on him. In the summer of 1920 he made a decision to change careers and become a flour miller. He decided to learn the trade working at a flour mill in Spokane, Washington. William moved his family to Spokane in 1920, and daughter Elsie was born just before Christmas in 1920. William’s uncle Wilhelm Drewes had moved to the Spokane area, and it is unknown if that had influenced William’s decision to train at Spokane.
Wilhelm Drewes and his family in Spokane, Washington
In 1921 the family returned to live on the homestead while William remodeled a previous boarding house on the northeast corner of 49th Street and 51st Avenue (Railway) in Stettler. This building would house a single flour mill unit, and provide living quarters.
Martha had started school at Blumenau in 1921. An early snowstorm that fall caused Martha to become disoriented and lost on her way home from school. Dorothea had been in the habit of walking out to meet Martha. She was able to locate her daughter by hearing her crying. It was Martha’s last day at Blumenau School. The family moved to Stettler later that winter and Martha would resume school there. As a student Martha would experience the class distinction that existed between families that originated from Great Britain and those of a Swiss German (European) origin. Her closest friends were Vera Hansen and Frieda Reineberg. From its inception in 1905-06 Stettler was a Victorian English town and would stay that way until the end of World War II.
The following spring (1922) Karl and Emilie Kruse moved to William’s homestead, and rented the land. William sold his farming assets. Some of the livestock and machinery were purchased by Karl Kruse. The Northwest steam engine and thresher went to Fred Wischhoff. Fred would supply the tractor and separator to thresh his farm, as well as Henry Drewes and Karl Kruse. This arrangement continued through 1932, ending when Fred Wischhoff sold his farm and the family moved to Abbotsford, British Columbia.
The last of William’s children, a son Alfred, was born in June of 1922. In the summer of 1922 William had a new house built in east Stettler. It was a large two-storied house with four bedrooms upstairs. The house also had a full basement, although the furnace was put in later. He and the family moved to that house in the fall.
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Dorothea Drewes with her garden in Stettler (1930's)
The yard included a large garden, a garage for the car, and a barn for a milk cow and chickens. The house originally had a cistern for town water that was delivered. At the time he owned all the land east of 46th street between the Canadian Pacific railroad and the Canadian National railroad.
Later, in 1925 a disaster befell Dorothea Drewes. She had a large tub of boiling water on the floor. The toddler Alfred fell into it and was badly scalded. He died just before Christmas.
To go back in time to Germany: Jacob’s first wife Marie Westerman, was a sister of Anna (Westerman) Drewes, the wife of J.Heinrich Drewes. Jacob Wischhoff and Marie (Westerman) had two sons. Marie died while the two boys were youngsters, and he married Dorothea Beneke to help raise his sons Jacob and Friedrich. Jacob’s marriage to Dorothea would result in daughters Dorothea and Sophie. Jacob was a military man, and as a veteran of the Franco Prussian wars had adopted a Prussian Nationalist stance. He was not interested in leaving Germany.
As an adult the son Jacob stayed in Germany with his father, and the younger brother Friedrich (Fred) came to Canada via Florida. Dorothea (the daughter) had come to Ellerslie to marry William Drewes. The result was a complicated relationship. William and Dorothea were first cousins as the result of Jacob being an uncle (by marriage) to William, and a father to Dorothea. But they were free to marry as there was no genetic relationship.
Jacob Wischhoff passed away in 1920 at the age of 75, leaving his wife Dorothea, and an unmarried daughter Sophie. The post war period after WWI in the German Weimar Republic was very stressful and to escape to Canada was a blessing.
With family support from Canada, 1923 would see the arrival of Dorothea Wischhoff and her daughter Sophie from Germany. Henry Proehl, his wife Marie and their daughter Dora would come with them. Initially Dorothea and Sophie lived with the William Drewes family in Stettler, as their house was quite large, with two stories.
Dorothea Wischoff with the Drewes children
After her arrival Sophie was employed as a housekeeper/maid for various families. During 1924-27 she worked for Anna Drewes. Following Henry Bauer’s divorce she worked for him from 1927 to 1929. She had previously worked for John Garrels. In the summer of 1929 Sophie and William Richter were married by Pastor Manz in St. Peter Lutheran Church. They moved to a farm of William Richter’s at Handel, Saskatchewan.
The Proehls moved to the Fred Wischhoff farm to stay with their daughter Sophie and her husband, and lived in the log house that George Stack and Henry Drewes had built in 1905. The Wischhoff family was living in a 2-story house that had been built in Mayvrille for Fred Wuest in 1908/09. When Mayvrille was being moved to Botha in 1909 George Stack had purchased this house. He and Henry Drewes had used Henry’s Sawyer Massey steam engine to drag this house to George’s homestead.
In July 1925 Julius Stack married Dora Proehl at St. Peter Lutheran Church, with Pastor Manz presiding. Julius had purchased his brother George’s farm in 1918. George had moved back to the Nisku/Leduc area, living on a farm at Nisku. He later sold his land to the Edmonton International Airport. Julius and Dora had 2 sons. Arthur was baptized by Pastor Manz in December 1927 and Walter was baptized in May of 1933. After Fred Wischhoff sold his farm in 1932, Henry and Marie Proehl would move to a small house in the yard of their daughter Dora and her husband Julius Stack.
In 1926 William Drewes started construction of a new flour mill south of 49th avenue on the west side of the CNR tracks. The railroad ran a spur to the west of the mill, and then the sacks of flour could be loaded and shipped in boxcars. In late 1927 William fell off a scaffold and broke his hip. He spent months in a hospital in Calgary. The mill and elevator was finished and started milling in 1928.
By 1927 William had persuaded the fellow members of Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Botha to purchase the old Swedish Lutheran Church in Stettler, and move it to Main Street, thus becoming St. Peter Lutheran church. The rest of that story can be read in “Lutheran Pioneers in the Stettler Area and Their Churches.”
Among the people who had moved to this area in 1912 were Carl and Anna Truelsen. Carl had been born in the Schleswig-Holstein area of Germany in 1882. He had emigrated with his brother to Payette, Idaho. When they came to Botha, they were to work on the Prudden farm, SE 12-38-18W4, northeast of Botha. In 1920 they purchased and moved to a farm in the Pilot Knob area north of Stettler SE 4-40-19W4.
During a visit the Truelsens made to Germany in 1927, the stories of Canada convinced Carl’s nephew Klaus Erichsen to come to Canada to join them. Klaus worked for various farmers during 1928, Don Lee at Donalda, Louis Rock and Ed Mott at Stettler. He spent the winter of 1928-29 at Emil Reske’s (NW 20-38-18W4) doing chores for his room and board. Klaus went to work for Henry Bauer in 1929.
Karl and Emilie Kruse bought a farm west of Stettler in 1928, and left the William Drewes homestead. The Drewes farm was then rented to Edwin Bauer, son of Henry Bauer.
In 1930 Klaus Erichsen started work as a mill hand for William Drewes. That same fall Martha Drewes enrolled in a bookkeeping course at Alberta College in Edmonton. Upon completion of the course she returned home and worked at the flour mill as a bookkeeper.
The Drewes household seemed to attract a lot of young men. (When Frieda Reineberg was asked why she also wanted to spend time there, she replied “because that’s where the boys are”.) In recognition of Klaus Erichsen’s interest, Martha informed him that if he was serious “he’d better learn English if he wanted to talk.”
Klaus had been raised along “the Schlei,” a fjord in Germany. As a result he had some experience in boating. George Drewes, Art Rock and Klaus would build a small sailing boat at Rochon Sands, and spent a lot of the summer at the lake boating.
The financial crash of 1929 and the resulting lower grain and cattle prices had a devastating effect on the farming community. The Fred Wischhoff family was particularly hard hit. To stave off disaster Fred borrowed $100 from Henry Drewes. But the end was inevitable, and in 1932 the Wischhoffs had a farm sale and moved to Abbotsford, British Columbia. The Wischhoff farm was purchased by Herman Somer.
With the help of hired girls, Anna Drewes continued to live on the homestead. Starting in about 1928 Anna hired young girls to help cook for her and Henry, and help with the household chores. However Anna would often lose her girls through courtship by the local boys. Sophie Wischhoff had married Bill Richter. Ida Mogck married Fred Gerlach.
An early helper was Beate St. Oerrle, a young Jewish girl who had escaped from Russia. Her family had been relocated to Crimea but during a pogrom in 1929-30 her family tried to smuggle Beate and her sister out. Only Beate escaped. She had been brought to Canada on March 1, 1930. She commenced work for Henry Drewes and his mother on March 31, 1930 at $15.00 per month. Beate became a friend of Anna and all her life a friend of the Drewes family. She was courted by Fred Reske, son of Emil Reske who lived a mile away. The rest is their history.
Another of Henry’s housekeepers was Martha Epp, a young Mennonite girl from Saskatchewan. She ended up marrying Herman Somers, who was living on the Wischhoff farm. They would stay as close neighbors of the Drewes and Erichsen families. Their farm was sold in 1975 to Alfred Erichsen. Alfred and their youngest son David were the same age, and in the same grade at school. They spent a lot of time playing and growing up together.
In 1932 William and Sophie Richter left Saskatchewan because of the drought conditions. They moved to a small farm near the railroad tracks at Leahurst (north of Stettler). Their daughter Trudy had been born in Saskatchewan in 1930, and their daughter Margaret was born in 1933 in Alberta.
In May of 1933 Dorothea Wischhoff visited at the Richter farm to be with her youngest daughter. Dorothea at this time was possibly experiencing dementia. She wandered off and could not be found. A search by neighbors was started. William Drewes sent two of his mill hands to join in the search for his mother-in-law. Klaus Erichsen and Christian Anderson walked to Leahurst along the CN Railroad track. They found her deceased near the tracks. Klaus carried her back to Stettler. When asked about carrying her, Klaus’ comment was that she wasn’t very heavy. Dorothea passed away May 17, 1933 at the age of 79.
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As the last of the original family resident in Canada, Anna Drewes passed away in her home June 5, 1935 at the age of 80 years. Anna’s Christian faith never wavered. She had been involved in starting St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at Ellerslie and Ebenezer Lutheran Church at Mercedes, Texas. In her 70’s she was one of the most dedicated financial supporters of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Stettler.
The courtship of Klaus and Martha was opposed by William and Dorothea Drewes as they felt a mill hand was below the status of a miller’s daughter. In 1937 Klaus and Martha eloped, and were married April 2 in Edmonton. A church service in Stettler would close that chapter. They worked that summer for her Uncle Henry on the farm. That fall they rented a small house across the alley to the west of St. Peter Lutheran Church. Klaus would go back to work at the Flour Mill driving the delivery truck.
Prior to the development of polio vaccines in the 1950’s polio outbreaks would periodically occur, killing many and crippling others. We suspect that Henry probably was the victim of an earlier outbreak. He survived but was left crippled and needed a cane to walk. He relied on hired men and some custom operators in order to farm. In November of 1937 Henry had either post-polio syndrome or was ill from another cause, but as a result spent over a month in the hospital in Stettler.
Ministers of that era usually had a special relationship with those members of the congregation who they knew they could count on to see that they would be paid. In this case Pastor Mensch repaid the favor. On the 18th of January, 1938 Pastor Mensch accompanied Henry on the train to Edmonton, and the next day put Henry into a hospital there. The prognosis must have been dire as to Henry’s future, for on his return he started ending his affairs.
His old friend Treichel from Ellerslie who had been farming the Warden farm had died in 1937. At this time Edwin and Marie Bauer were renting Henry’s brother’s farm. Henry offered to sell them the Warden farm, the S½ of 34-37-20W4, including livestock, horses and machinery. To help Edwin get started the down payment in the sales agreement stated “Edwin Bauer and Henry Drewes do both agree that certain payments have been made”. The contract then goes on to outline the future payments.
As a result of the Bauers leaving the William Drewes farm, a deal was made between William and Klaus Erichsen to rent the farm. They also made a deal to jointly raise pigs using flour mill waste as feed.
Henry’s deteriorating health resulted in another move. In February 1941 Henry sold his three quarters at Botha to his niece Martha and her husband Klaus. Martha and Klaus would live in the frame house built by Martha’s grandfather J. Heinrich. Henry continued to live in the log house which he had built in 1905, and joined the Erichsens for meals. Martha often commented that “Henry had given them and Edwin Bauer favorable deals.”
Klaus had purchased a Twin City Tractor in 1939 that was, to put it mildly, worn out. After some dispute, that tractor was taken back by the John Deere dealer, and he obtained a 1931 John Deere D. Later in 1942 he acquired his favorite tractor, a Ford 9N, with a three point hitch 2-bottom plow and 7-foot cultivator. At the time of Henry’s sale he sold by auction all of his horses. Klaus had already purchased four young roan Percheron mares, named Pat, Bess, Irish and Florrie. Horses would remain an important part of Klaus’s farm power until the late 1950’s.
Henry’s last pilgrimage was to attend a Lutheran Church synod meeting in Regina, Saskatchewan in July 1941. He was driven to Sabine where he caught the CN passenger train. A further comment is in “Lutheran Pioneers.”
After Klaus and Martha bought Henry Drewes’ farm, William Drewes rented his farm in March 1941 to Henry and Molly Schiffner and their five children. When Schiffners left in 1943, William sold the farm to Herman Somer on a rent-to-purchase agreement.
Herman’s brother-in-law Jake Epp rode from Saskatchewan on a bicycle to join his sister and help farm. In 1947 they would be joined by his brother Abe Epp and their staunch German Mennonite mother. I can’t remember her ever saying a word in English, nor being without a prayer cap. Abe, a WWII veteran obtained a veteran’s loan to buy the farm.
In 1939 Klaus’ Uncle Carl and Aunt Anna Truelsen went to Germany for a family visit. Carl had previously sold his farm north of Stettler. The trip turned out to be a bad decision as shortly after Carl and Anna had arrived in Germany, Hitler declared war. As a result, the Truelsens could not return to Canada.
The war also had an impact on Klaus as he had been born in Germany. He had received Canadian citizenship in 1935, but that would be set aside. He had to turn in his guns, a 22 rifle and a 12 gauge single-shot shotgun. He would also have to report to the police on a monthly basis.
Sophie Richter passed away January 5, 1940 after a battle with cancer. This would leave William Richter to raise two young girls, seven and ten years old. The little girls became closely attached to Martha Erichsen, their older cousin. They spent time with her both in Stettler and at Klaus and Martha’s farm.
After the girls grew up, Trudy married Howard Zander and farmed in the Erskine area. They spent a couple of years on the farm, then sold out and moved to Summerland, B.C. where they would spend the rest of their lives. Margaret married Arthur Honeywell of Big Valley. They moved to Fort St. James, B.C. where Art had a job as a mill mechanic at a lumber mill. They remained at Fort St. James.
Klaus and Martha’s family started with Alfred, December 1942, and the twins David and Donald in November 1944. Gary Erichsen was born in March 1953. Martha dearly wanted a daughter, and a companion for Gary. They adopted Margaret who was born in October 1956, and she couldn’t have been closer if she had been a birth daughter
School taxes were paid to Blumenau and Kindergarten, but in the end Alfred went to Botha school. The Somers family paid taxes to Blumenau, but also rented NW 29-38-18, which was in the Botha school division. By the time Alfred started school, Botha had a school bus picking up the Somers family and a stop for Alfred was only ¼ mile away.
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Alfred Erichsen (1943)
David, Alfred, and Don Erichsen (c. 1947-1948)
In 1952 Blumenau was closed and the children were all initially bussed to Botha. In 1954 Kindergarten was also closed and those students bussed to Botha.
Another addition to the family occurred in 1948 when Carl and Anna Truelsen rejoined the family. The Truelsens had spent the War years at Zittau, in Germany. Anna was born there and she still had family there. Zittau is in the extreme southeast of Germany, next to the Czech border. It was under Russian occupation after the War.
On July 19, 1947 the Russians gave Carl permission to go to Berlin and meet the Canadian military mission. Carl and Anna wanted to return to Canada. They were advised that to go back to Canada they or someone in Canada would have to pay their return fare, and secondly guarantee to support them upon their return to Canada. Their children refused to do that.
In 1947 Klaus got $900.00 for selling 8 steers. He had mentioned that in a letter to his mother, and she sent a reply that it must be a gold mine. Klaus had, up until this time, been paying for Red Cross “Care” packages which were sent to family in Germany. Shortly after that he had a letter from his mother informing him that Carl’s children would not help Carl and Anna return to Canada, and now that he was rich would he help.
In January of 1948 Klaus sent two Treasury Branch drafts – one for $170.24 to cover the cost for the Canadian Military to get Carl and Anna to London, England. And the second for $701.81 to the White Starline to cover the ocean transport and the train ticket to Stettler. Klaus had to sign an agreement with the Government of Canada to support Carl and Anna for the rest of their lives.
Carl and Anna lived in Henry’s log house and Carl helped Klaus with chores, particularly with milking cows. The Truelsens decided to move to White Rock, B.C. in 1952. In 1951 the Canadian government established the Old Age Security Act, and when it began payments in 1952 this allowed the Truelsens to be financially independent of Klaus. In 1962 the Truelsens moved back to Stettler, taking up residence in Heart Haven Lodge.
1946 had been a devastating year for Klaus and Martha due to family deaths. Henry passed away in May, after spending a week in the Stettler hospital. The Red Cross provided a belated notice that Klaus’ brother Otto had been killed in Russia in January 1943. Klaus’ sister Thea would write that his father had fallen off a wagon loaded with hay and had died in August of 1944.
In 1947 Klaus had the opportunity to have electricity brought to the farm. With the electricity, not only would come lights in the house and barn buildings, but a milking machine, cream separator, and water pumps.
In 1948 Klaus enlarged the basement and installed a hot air furnace. During 1948-49 he enlarged the house, adding a bedroom and a bathroom with modern plumbing on the main floor, and another bedroom upstairs.
Martha’s mother, Dorothea Drewes passed away in the hospital on March 9, 1953 at White Rock, B.C. She was brought back for a funeral in Stettler, and interment at Botha.
In 1954 William Drewes married Rose Dunn, the widow of William’s truck driver who had been killed in a vehicle accident in 1934.
William Drewes passed away in April 1960 after a fatal heart attack. His funeral was held in Stettler with interment at Botha.
The rest of William and Dorothea’s children:
George attended University in Saskatoon. There he met Joyce Bell, and they were married April 29,1944 in Saskatoon. Their children are Louise and Lorraine.
Martin joined the Canadian Air Force in 1942. He and Leila Cash were married in February 1943. After completion of his military service, he ran the Stettler Flour Mill from 1945-1947. They had 5 daughters and 7 sons: Kay Ellen, Barbara, Lillian, Margaret, Vera, Marvin, George, Dewey, Marty, Lorne, Jim, and Ken.
Elsie married Alfred Michelau in June 1943. Their children are Douglas, Roy and Dale.
Farming at Botha
The history of farming at Botha starts with the use of the Sawyer Massey Steam Tractor to plow sod or stubble, and to drive the threshing machine. Horses provided the horsepower for everything else. In the case of doing dirt farming, they would pull walking plows, discs, harrows and seed drills. At harvest the horses would pull grain binders, wagons to haul bundles of grain to the threshing machine, and to haul the grain to the elevator in town. Even when the steam engine was running they had to haul water from a nearby slough or well, and coal from the coal sheds at the railroad.
Sawyer Massey steam engine at Stettler
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Henry Drewes and Fred Wischoff (well driller) and Emil Reske
At haying time the horses would pull the mower, the rake, and the buck rake to pile the hay. In fall or winter they would haul the hay home on a wagon or sled. They would also pull the buggy or wagon to town, to church or to visit the neighbors. They were also ridden by the men, or the boys and girls going to school.
The average farm would have from 4 to 10 horses. Of the grain or hay raised on the farm, over half would go to feed the horses.
While J. Heinrich and Henry kept sheep and bees, they were an exception. Most farmers had one or more milk cows for the family. Excess milk was separated and the cream either taken to a creamery to earn cash, or churned at home to make butter for the family’s own use.
Most farmers also kept one or two sows, butchering some of the offspring and shipping/selling the rest. The bacon and ham would be farm cured/smoked and the balance cooked and canned or made into sausage.
Most early farms had no beef cows but would butcher some of the calves for their own use or else sell the balance to raise cash.
The most common grain crops were wheat, oats and occasionally flax. Most of the wheat was taken to an elevator to raise cash, but some might be milled into flour for their own use. The oats was mainly for horse feed, but the milk cows might receive small amounts.
The use of gasoline or kerosene tractors didn’t become common until the 1920’s. The tractor would gradually replace the horses in the 1940’s. Post WWII would see the tractor nearly totally replacing the horse. Horses would reach their lowest level in the 1960’s. They would grow in numbers after that as a pet love affair.
Pull-type combines started to show up in the 1930’s and would grow to the 1940’s, and virtually obsolete the threshing machine by 1960. Self-propelled combines became available in 1950 and would gradually eliminate the pull-types.