52 Weeks – Week Six (Part Two)

Maps – Part Two

Here I continue to chart a course for the theme of this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge. In Part One, I wrote about a road trip to southwestern Saskatchewan, where my mother’s maternal ancestors had lived. Part Two is a brief side trip during a road trip in southern Alberta, where my maternal grandfather’s paternal grandfather had a homestead. His second attempt, to be precise.

In early 2019, I acquired a copy of a homestead application by Horace Burgess, my great great grandfather (the younger fellow’s great great great grandfather). Later that year, for Easter my family and I visited my folks in southern Alberta. Heading back towards Calgary, we took a brief detour east of High River to visit the location of the homestead, just north of Brant, Alberta.

Horace obtained entry for the land on June 19, 1905. He built his home on the land and began continuous occupation in April 1908. He applied for the homestead on June 10, 1908. According to Horace’s homestead application, on two occasions he spent several months working in British Columbia. While farming at this place, Horace had seven horses and ten head of cattle. The land was granted to him on August 22, 1912.

In his application, Horace reported that he had forfeited a previous application for a homestead in 1903, near Grassy Lake, Alberta, for the SW quarter of Section 6, Township 11, Range 14 of the 4th Meridian.

It does not appear that Horace stayed on this land for many years after he acquired the grant. According to an item in the Lethbridge Herald dated September 26, 1924, Horace had been in Utah and Idaho for several years, before relocating to Glenwood, Alberta, which is northwest of Cardston. It also appears that he divided his time between Glenwood and Cherry Grove, Alberta, east of Edmonton and very close to the Saskatchewan border. Horace lived out the last part of his life in Cherry Grove.