Material Type

Recording

Date Range

1985

Physical Condition

Excellent

History Biographical

Margaret Chapman - born 30th sept. 1914. Scooling, Westminster, Galbraith, Garbutt Coll. married Tom Chapman 1932.

Acquisition Source

Chapman, Mrs. Margaret

Scope and Content

90 minutes Dynarec Cassette. Approximately 30 minutess. Interviewee: Mrs. Margaret Heaton Chapman. Interviewer: Joyce Wilkinson. Date: 1 March 1985. Margaret's father, Thomas Heaton came to Lethbridge from Wigan, Lancashire, England in 1889 to work in #3 Mine and later at #6 Mine at Hardieville. In 1890 he was joined by his wife, Ruth. There were five children born, two boys and three girls, the youngest being Margaret who was born September 30th 1914 at 950 13th St. N. The children were educated at Westminster School which was then on 13th St. N. and then at Galbraith School. Margaret went to High School, but the building was badly damaged by fire, Hamilton Junior High School is now on the site. Due to the fire the Commercial Class in which Margaret was a student had to have their classes in the Pemmican Club, she then moved on to Garbutt Business College from which she graduated. Work was very scarce, but she managed to find work for two weeks, while the regular secretary was on holiday, and was paid $10 for her efforts. Margaret's brother first introduced her to Tom. Tom's car had broken down on the road and he came to the Heaton home to ask for assistance so while the horses were being readied to haul the car back to Chapman's house the young couple became acquainted. Tom became a frequent caller, but Mr. Heaton did not approve as Margaret was barely 17 and thought his -daughter was too young to have a boy friend. In fact Tom had the door closed in his face and Margaret's brother had to act as go-between for the young couple. However Margaret and Tom were married in June 1932 by the Rev. Kelly in the Presbyterian Manse with Tom's sister Anne and Jimmy DOW as witnesses, after the ceremony the party went to the Yale Cafe for the bridal supper and then to the picture show, and then home in the Model 'i1'. The home was a two roomed shack on the Chapman farm at Crystal Lake, now known as Sunnyside. This had been used as a granary, but it had been cleaned up, Mr. Chapman put some heavy blue building paper on the walls, the bedroom was papered and the kitchen painted and the day after the wedding Tom spent building the biffy. The first major purchase for the house was a coal stove which cost $25, second hand. A bridal shower for the bride provided pots, pans and other necessities. F.A. Kogers, Furniture and Hardware on 13th St. sold them a bed, dresser, mattress and coil spring and two rolls of linoleum for $75 and as a bonus gave them two feather pillows. They were presented with a kitchen table and four chairs so felt very comfortable. Tom was employed at #6 mine, but there was no work during the summer so he helped on his parents farm. The first pay cheque he brought from the mine was for $8.50. AS he was under twenty one he was on 'boy's wages' of $2.50 per day out of which was taken library fund, union dues and medical dues. Margaret and Tom like everyone at that time were short of money, but they had a cow and grew their own vegetables so grocery shopping was kept to a minimum. supina's Grocery Store were willing to give credit during the hard times and often hay, potatoes or 'whatever1 was used as trade. Margaret's biggest problem was water, the house had no running water so any drinking water was carried from her in-laws house, half-a-mile away or from neighbours. This meant carrying buckets over rough ground and through fences of barbed wire. Water for washing was carried from the lake on the property. Naturally every drop was precious and washing water was used for more than just washing clothes. Margaret recalls once when Tom had been working at his parents house deciding to carry some water home, he did very well until he reached the front doorstep when he tripped and the air was blue for quite some distance around him. There was lots of companionship in the area, people visited back and forth, there were dances and card parties and there was always help for friends and neighbours. The telephone party line was one way of 'keeping in touch'. Eventhough it was not supposed to happen people listened in on each others conversations, but if someone needed the line in a hurry people would willingly hang up. Margaret's first child Tom, was born in 1933 in the Gait Hospital, he was quite a sickly child and Margaret and Tom walked the floor with him for six weeks. The shack was home for five years and then Mr. and Mrs. Chapman Snr. moved into the town for the winter so the young couple took over the bigger house which had a water pump and other facilities so to Margaret this must have seemed like heaven. When #6 mine at Hardieville was closing and #8 was being sunk Mr. Chapman had to be closer to the work site as he was the engineer in the hoisting area so Margaret and Tom moved into the big house on a permanent basis. At this time Tom's sister Anne who had trained at the Gait School of Nursing and been the Gold wedalist for her year died at the age of 22 due to peritonitis. walking into Lethbridge from bunnyside was the accepted thing, unless someone was driving in and then one could hitch a ride, shopping was arranged so that aupina's was at the end of the list and then Tom would come from work in the model 'T' to pick up the family and the parcels, washing day on the farm was always a major chore, two or three boilers of water were put on the stove the night before and then in the morning a board was used to rub the clothes and then they were hung outside summer or winter. Tom's family came over to Canada from Scotland. His Father arrived in Ontario in 1908 in company with Jimmy and a Mr. Johnson. The three men worked on the railway when they arrived, but after a while decided to move on. Shortly after leaving an epidemic of typhoid swept the camp causing the death of many men. Mr. Chapman and his companions had been told of work at an isolated bush camp so they walked in to the area and spent one winter in a one roomed shack, once again they decided to move on, but between the three of them they only had enough money for one to travel by train so Mr. Johnson took the luggage and the other two found their way as best they could and eventually all arrived in Lethbridge and settled in Hardieville. The High Level Bridge was under construction so they worked there before working at #3 mine, when Mr. Chapman was settled he sent for his bride-to-be who came out from Scotland chaperoned by Mr. Dow's wife and family. The two young couples built houses next to each other and were life long friends, if ever they needed each other the lagans signal was to bang on the wall with the lid from the stove to there were quite a few marks on the wall. Mr. Chapman bought 20 acres of land at Hardieville so that he could move his family out of town. The house is still standing and is where Tom was born in 1911. This land cost $100 per acre and the 'V joists for the house were $18 per thousand and they claimed they were able to make a trip back to Scotland with the money they saved on the house. Tom had two brothers, Frank and Jim and one sister Anne. A quarter section of land was also bought at Crystal jjake where the uow's also had land. Tom was working both areas of land with his Father and also working at the mine. if he needed extra time for farming Mr. Chapman would do a double shift at the mine so that no work was neglected, another 1100 acres were bought in the Turin district at $11 per acre so now farming was a big operation and with very little equipment and only one old truck the 40 pigs that were being raised were traded towards a combine, more land to the east was added and Tom built a small shed where if necessary he would stay when farming was in full swing, margaret was always busy in the kitchen at this time seeing there was plenty of food for all the men helping in the farming operation. unfortunately Tom Jr. suffered with hay fever so farming was not for him, js.eith was always anxious to be with his Dad helping and was very upset if he was left behind, ixmald went into the navy for a period of time and had other interests, but is now in charge of the whole operation. Anne is an RN living at Picture Butte with her family and working at the hospital there. During Tom's years at #8 Mine he often walked to work if the roads were bad, his route took him over the railway crossing on #3 highwayand then he would follow the tracks across the High Level Bridge to the mine and then walk home at night, if the weather was too bad he would have to stay overnight at his Parents home. Tom was one of the top paid men at the mine earning $12 per day. Tom's outside interest was his concern for the handicapped. As a member of Kiwanis he became a member of the Board for the Rehabilitation Society of Southern Alberta and eventually was President. In the early days the Rehab, was supervised by Frances Gardner in a small building on 2nd Ave. N from there it moved to 1st Ave.S, and is now housed on the Industrial Reserve in North Lethbridge. The new building was dedicated to Tom when it was officially opened in the early 1980's. Tom dedicated so many years of his life to the handicapped seeing that machinery was safe for the disabled to use and that the building were in good shape. He never retired from work, Tom passed away on August 28th 1984 at the age of 73. After living on the farm from 1932 to 1972 Margaret and Tom moved into Lethbridge and in 1974 moved to 422 Normandy Rd. where Margaret now lives. She and Tom were married 52 years and celebrated their Golden Anniversary with family and friends at Sunnyside School on June 8th 1982. Margaret is an active member of the Womens Federation at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. The ladies raise church funds by making meat pies which sell as quickly as they come out of the oven and now they are known as the Holy Rollers.

Access Restrictions

Public Access

Accession No.

19921041000

Collection

Archive

Less detail