Remembering our roots – Roger & Lois Hebbes

Times Contributor

 

Roger Hebbes’ father came to Canada at the age of 21. He sailed from Southampton, England to Quebec City, on the Empress of Ireland in 1911. Then, he crossed Canada on a CPR train to Brooks, where he spent two days searching, unsuccessfully, for his brother. He continued his train travel to Langdon where, as he got off, he noticed a very attractive girl on the platform, who he discovered later was 15 years of age. It was “love at first sight,” because 12 years later she became his wife. They were married in 1924, and had four children, one of whom was Roger, born in August 1928 in the original Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary. Some of you may not know that this hospital, founded in 1891, was originally run by the Grey Nuns Order, an order greatly respected for its work in what was basically a frontier town.

Roger’s father became a farm helper in what is now Carseland, then purchased his own quarter section in 1914 when the town came into existence, 100 years ago next year.

Roger attended the Carseland Consolidated School through Grade 12, then attended Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills for one term, before getting a job as an assistant warehouseman at Marshall Wells on 12th Avenue S.E. in Calgary. He graduated from Berean Bible College in 1953, and moved back to the family farm at Carseland to help his dad.

Following a job interview in Calgary, Roger was appointed as a social worker in High Prairie, Alta. This started his career with the provincial government that lasted eight years, before he moved back to Carseland, where he had purchased three teacherages as an investment. He moved into the one that would have provided lodging for a school principal. Now, he was close to business interests held by members of his family and friends, had work that he enjoyed, and had somewhere to live. How many of my readers remember that if you became a tenant farmer with the CPR, you were given a house to rent, but could not install any improvements, as they became available? For example – when electricity became available in this part of the country, Roger’s parents were not permitted to install it in their house.  Instead, they had to continue using gas or kerosene lamps for lighting. 

Lois Hebbes was born in 1939 in Waldheim, Sask., a very strong Mennonite community, which had first been settled in 1895 and established as a village in 1905. Waldheim means “Home in the Woods.” 

There were seven children in her family, and she was the second youngest. She attended school there through Grade 12, then attended Bethany Bible College in Hepburn, Sask., before going to nursing school in Winnipeg where she graduated as an R.N. in 1963. She spent the next 40 years working at the Calgary General Hospital.

Roger and Lois had two very close friends, Marilyn and Eric Dirks, and Lois was Marilyn’s bridesmaid when she and Eric married. Through this couple, Roger and Lois met, and in turn were married on May 27, 1978, at the Bethel Baptist Church in Calgary. They have no children. Roger and Lois have always been very involved with their church activities.

Roger’s community activities include serving as chairman of the Carseland Citizens Council, serving on the Ag Board and on the Wheatland Recreation Board.

Changes in the area include water now being piped into town from the Bow River, Bell Pole being sold to American Company Stella-Jones, two fertilizer plants built west of town and Western Canada Co-op Fuel Tank Farm nearing completion.