Material Type

Artifact

Other Name

“UNION MADE GWG”

Date Range From

1960

Date Range To

2000

Materials

COTTON

No. Pieces

1

Height

2

Length

160

Width

58

Description

GREEN CANVAS FULL-BODY COVERALLS, WITH METAL ZIPPER AT CENTRE OF CHEST. SIX POCKETS AT BREAST, HIP, AND SEAT. WHITE SQUARE LABEL ON LEFT BREAST POCKET READS “UNION MADE GWG RED STRAP” IN BLACK AND RED EMBROIDERED THREAD. BRASS COLOURED SNAPS WITH “GWG” LETTERING ON RIGHT BREAST AND HIP POCKETS. GENERAL WEAR OVERALL, WITH STREAKS AND SPLASHES OF BLACK, GREEN AND ORANGE PAINT INTERMITTENT ON LEGS, CHEST, WRISTS AND ARMS.

Subjects

CLOTHING-OUTERWEAR

Historical Association

PERSONAL CARE

History

THE COLLECTION OF OBJECTS BELONGING TO THE MEISSER FAMILY WAS DONATED BY JUDY WRIGHT, NIECE OF LOWELL MEISSER, WHO OPERATED A FARM OUTSIDE WARNER WITH HIS BROTHER ROME AS THE ‘MEISSER BROS’ FROM 1929 TO 1946. JUDY’S MOTHER WAS THE SISTER OF LOWELL’S WIFE ELINOR, AND SHE SPENT MUCH OF HER CHILDHOOD LIVING WITH THEM AND ROME MEISSER, DUE TO HER MOTHER BEING UNWELL. IN HER LATER ADULT LIFE, JUDY TOOK CARE OF “UNC” ROME AT HIS WATERTON RESIDENCE, AND BECAUSE ROME AND HIS BROTHER LOWELL DID NOT HAVE ANY LIVING DIRECT DESCENDANTS, JUDY WAS LEFT THE FAMILY BELONGINGS WHEN ROME DIED IN 2004. THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ABOUT THIS ARTIFACT WAS EXTRACTED FROM AN INTERVIEW CONDUCTED WITH THE DONOR BY COLLECTIONS TECHNICIAN KEVIN MACLEAN ON NOVEMBER 14, 2013, AS WELL AS FROM A DOCUMENT WRITTEN BY HER AT THE TIME OF THE DONATION. WRIGHT SAID: “I CANNOT SPECIFICALLY REMEMBER [ROME] WEARING THESE COVERALLS BUT I JUST KNOW HE ALWAYS DID. HE WORKED IN THE SHOP; HE WORKED IN THE FIELD; HE WENT LOOKING AT HIS CROPS. HE ALWAYS WORE HIS COVERALLS. HIS CLOTHES WERE KEPT CLEAN, RIGHT UP UNTIL THE VERY END… HE WORKED. I CAME HOME WHEN HE WAS 96 OR SO AND HE WAS PAINTING THE HOUSE IN WATERTON HIS COVERALLS…HE WORE THEM AS HE STAINED THE COTTAGE AND THE GARAGE, AND PAINTED THE WINDOW AND DOOR FRAMES BRIGHT FIRE ENGINE RED. I WASN’T AROUND, BUT I’M SURE HE WAS IN HIS COVERALLS WHEN HE CUT THE GARAGE INTO TWO PARTS, MOVED ONE END BACK AND RE-BUILT THE MISSING SECTION SO THAT HIS NEW GOLD 1966 CADILLAC WOULD FIT… HE BARBECUED, MOSTLY, SOMETIMES IN HIS COVERALLS. HE WORKED AROUND THE YARD, AROUND WATERTON, HE PUT HIS COVERALLS ON IF HE MIGHT GET DIRTY. AND I JUST PICTURE HIM WORKING… YOU DIDN’T THROW ANYTHING AWAY, YOU FIXED IT. THERE WERE APPLIANCES THAT WERE RE-WIRED AND TAPED. EVERYTHING WAS FIXED BY HIM. YOU DIDN’T THROW ANYTHING AWAY AND IT WENT RIGHT TO WELDING AND EVERYTHING ELSE. HE COULD DO ANYTHING.” THE FOLLOWING BRIEF FAMILY HISTORY WAS DEVELOPED WITH INFORMATION FROM ROME MEISSER’S MANUSCRIPT ‘THE MEISSER’S AND OTHER RAMBLINGS’ AND DONATIONS OF FAMILY PAPERS MADE BY WRIGHT TO THE GALT ARCHIVES. THE MEISSER FAMILY PATRIARCH, MICHAEL MEISSER, WAS BORN IN SWITZERLAND IN 1830 AND IMMIGRATED TO ALMA, WISCONSIN IN 1846. HIS SON, JOHN LUTZI MEISSER MARRIED MARIE KINDSCHI ON APRIL 30, 1898 AND THEY MOVED TO WARNER, ALBERTA TO FARM IN 1910, LOOKING FOR A DRIER CLIMATE FOR MARIE, WHO SUFFERED FROM TUBERCULOSIS. THE COUPLE HAD FIVE CHILDREN: ORMA, LOWELL, JOHN (WHO DIED AT AGE TWO OF PNEUMONIA), ROME, AND MARIE. IN 1912, MOTHER MARIE DIED IN A TUBERCULOSIS CLINIC IN SALT LAKE CITY, AND FIVE YEARS LATER FATHER JOHN DIED FROM HEAD TRAUMA SUSTAINED IN A GRAIN ELEVATOR ACCIDENT. ONE OF THE CHILDREN’S PATERNAL AUNTS, FRENA, CAME TO WARNER TO HELP THEM WITH SCHOOLING AND RUNNING THE FARM. IN 1920, ORMA MARRIED LEE TENNEY AND IN 1926 LOWELL MARRIED ELINOR TENNEY, AND THE TWO COUPLES LOOKED AFTER THE TWO YOUNGER SIBLINGS UNTIL ORMA AND LEE MOVED TO CALIFORNIA IN 1931. THE YOUNGEST SISTER, MARIE, LATER JOINED THEM WITH HER SON JIM. LOWELL AND ROME FARMED TOGETHER FROM THE SEASON FOLLOWING THEIR FATHER’S DEATH (WHEN THEY WERE 17 AND 13 YEARS OLD, RESPECTIVELY) UNTIL 1945 WHEN THEIR LAND WAS DIVIDED FOR TAX BENEFIT. ROME NEVER MARRIED, AND IN 1928 HAD A SHORT STINT IN PILOT’S TRAINING BEFORE RETURNING TO FARMING PERMANENTLY. LOWELL AND ELINOR’S SON JERALD WAS BORN IN 1929. BY 1957 THE MEISSERS RETIRED FROM FARMING AND LEASED OUT THEIR LAND, AND IN 1958 THE FAMILY BOUGHT A CABIN IN WATERTON PARK, WHERE THEY SPENT ALL FOLLOWING SUMMERS. LOWELL AND ELINOR’S SON JERALD SPLIT HIS TIME BETWEEN FARMING IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA AND VARIOUS PROJECTS IN THE UNITED STATES. HE ENROLLED IN THE CATHOLIC SEMINARY IN SPOKANE, WASHINGTON, BUT PASSED AWAY IN 1990 BEFORE HE COULD BE ORDAINED. LOWELL DIED IN 1988, ELINOR FOLLOWED IN 1992, AND ROME PASSED AWAY IN 2004. THE FOLLOWING REMEMBRANCES OF ROME ‘UNC’ MEISSER WERE EXCERPTED FROM THE NOVEMBER 14, 2013 INTERVIEW WITH THE DONOR. WRIGHT SAID: “I LIVED WITH THEM AND WENT OUT TO THE FARM ALL SUMMER LONG EVERY YEAR FROM THE TIME I WAS FIVE OR SIX YEARS OLD… I JUST HONESTLY THINK THAT I AM WHO I AM TODAY BECAUSE OF MY UNCLE ROME. MY DAD WAS A STAUNCH OLD ENGLISHMAN AND HE COULDN’T RELATE TO ME. HE WAS 45 YEARS OLD WHEN I WAS BORN BUT HE COULDN’T RELATE TO ME. SO, MY UNCLE COULD… HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MARRIED WITH AT LEAST A DOZEN CHILDREN. IN HIS EARLY NINETIES, WHEN I FIRST GOT THERE [TO WATERTON] WE’D GO GROCERY SHOPPING. I’D HAVE TO WAIT WHILE HE STOPPED AND CHATTED WITH ALL THE CHILDREN HE’D COME ACROSS. HE SHOULD HAVE HAD LOTS OF KIDS. HE JUST LOVED KIDS AND I WAS A LITTLE KID… I WAS THERE FROM PRACTICALLY BIRTH AND LIVED MONTHS AT A TIME WITH HIM… HE COULD AFFORD TO LOOK AFTER THE COMMUNITY AS WELL… HE GAVE GENEROUSLY TO [COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS]. HE GAVE TO THE MILK RIVER HOSPITAL. HE DONATED $200,000 FOR THE HOCKEY GIRLS’ RESIDENCE. THEY HAD NO MONEY AND THAT’S WHY WE NOW HAVE A HOCKEY GIRLS’ RESIDENCE THAT HAS A HUGE KITCHEN AND HOUSES UP TO 25 GIRLS, AND KEEPS OUR WARNER SCHOOL OPEN. SO THAT IS A VERY BIG GIFT, HIS DONATIONS. THEY ALSO STARTED A MEISSER SCHOLARSHIP IN 1967 AND TWO WEEKS AGO I WENT OUT AND GAVE THE TROPHY AND THE MONEY TO THE LAST GIRL THAT WON IT. AND IT WILL GO ON INDEFINITELY AS LONG AS THERE’S A SCHOOL…HE WAS VERY SUPPORTIVE OF CHILDREN AND EDUCATION. THE SCHOLARSHIP, THE HOCKEY GIRLS, KEEPING THE WARNER SCHOOL OPEN - BIG FOCUS FOR HIM – WAS EDUCATION AND CHILDREN… HE WAS ONE OF THOSE KIND OF PRACTICALLY ANONYMOUS DONORS IN THE PAST. HOWEVER, AS HE GOT A LITTLE OLDER, I THINK HE ENJOYED THE ATTENTION. THEY MADE A BIG DEAL ABOUT THE HOCKEY SCHOOL. THE RESIDENCE HAS GOT, HUGE, IT HAS HIS NAME ON IT BUT I DON’T THINK HE SAW THAT. AND THEY HAD HIM RIDE IN THE PARADE ONE YEAR, THE COMMUNITY RECOGNIZED HIM AS MUCH AS HE’D LET THEM RECOGNIZE HIM.” SEE PERMANENT FILE FOR A FULL TRANSCIPT OF THE INTERVIEW, WRITTEN DOCUMENTATION ON THE MEISSER FAMILY BY JUDY WRIGHT AND ROME MEISSER, OBITUARIES AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF FAMILY MEMBERS, AND FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT EACH ARTIFACT COMPRISING THE DONATION.

Catalogue Number

P20130004001

Acquisition Date

2013-03

Collection

Museum

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