Remembering our past – Stu Laycock

Times Contributor

 

In 1086, The Doomsday Book recorded a village in the County of Yorkshire, England with the name Laycock. Like others of British origin, it was first assumed by the original owner from a township descriptive of the name in Craven, Yorkshire and the possessor of that surname and property has been always esteemed the Chief of The Laycock Family in Britain.

I was privileged to be permitted to review the family autobiography of Stu Laycock, which provides a history of this remarkable pioneer family in the U.K., United States. and Canada. Stu’s grandfather William followed two younger brothers Thomas and Joe to Canada arriving in 1887. The two brothers had sent news of free homestead land in Western Canada – then the Northwest Territories – which persuaded them to take the giant step across The Atlantic. 

They arrived in Calgary just four years after CPR did. Initially, they stayed at The Grange farm, built by Joe, until they had built their own farm. I’m told the Grange still stands today in the vicinity of 4th St NW and 42nd Ave NW.

Between 1886 and 1890, they built houses in N.W. Calgary and Shepherd, for all the family. Laycock Park in the Thorncliffe Greenview Community includes a monument which reads: “Dedicated to the pioneers who built this great country of ours and in honour of the Laycock Family, who homesteaded here when Alberta was part of the Northwest Territories.”

As the Alberta climate appeared perfect for good quality dairy cattle, Thomas brought in the first registered purebred Holsteins, while Joseph brought several prize head from Toronto. Thomas and his sons became very involved in the dairy stock industry. Thomas later became a director of The Calgary Exhibition & Stampede. Distribution was somewhat primitive in 1900, and most milk was peddled from milk cans carried on a horse drawn wagon. 

The Laycock Dairy Co. was built in the Bridgeland District and opened for business in 1910. Five years later they sold this building to the Carlyle Dairy Co. and all moved to Shepherd, where the family-run Laycock Dairy continued in business. The milk was shipped to Calgary on the CNR passenger train from Janet Siding. At this time they had about 70 head of cattle and horses.

Stu Laycock arrived in 1923, the youngest of seven children. He had three brothers and three sisters. He was born at the old Holy Cross Hospital and lived in Shepherd until 1948 where he attended Janet Elementary School which taught Grades 1-9. 

After leaving school, he spent his first year working at the Renown Flour Mill in Ogden, (which was demolished last fall). Then he spent a year working for a seismic company, before going into partnership with his brother and buying a dairy farm in Strathmore. This farm was located at the present site of the Seed Mill on East Lake Blvd. They sold this after six years, and Stu went to work for James Richardson & Sons in Calgary, where he became a grain inspector.

In 1947, he married Merla Marshall, and they had two sons and a daughter, who have provided Stu with six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. 

In 1958 they had moved to Standard, where Stu became a Grain Buyer for the next 17 years. He returned to the oil patch in 1975 as an oil lease contractor, a job he enjoyed for the next 34 years. He retired in 2009 at the age of 86, and moved to Lambert Village in Strathmore. Merla passed away in 1979.

In his younger years he was a manager and hockey coach for teams in the Southern Alberta Junior Leagues. All of his children and grandchildren could skate, and the boys became very good hockey players.

The family autobiography, entitled “The Laycocks – Pioneers of Alberta, Their Descendants and Ancestors” is over 200 pages of photographs, family trees, rural directory maps, birth certificates, and records of marriages and deaths. It is a true detailed history of all members of this family. 

Items include the death of an ancestor while serving under Lord Nelson at The Battle of Trafalgar in 1859.

Amongst this man’s acquaintances were Butch Cassidy, The Sundance Kid and other members of The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. 

The neighbour – Charlie Russell who became a well known painter of the Old West.

And, many, many more.

(“Remembering our Past” is a bi-weekly special column to The Strathmore Times which features a local senior or couple, and their lives in and around Strathmore and Wheatland County. If you know someone who should be featured in this article, please call the Strathmore Times at (403) 934-5589 and leave your request.)