Remembering our roots ~ Don & Florence VanderVelde

John Godsman
Times Contributor

 

Vander Veldes have been traced back to 1811, in Friesland, Northern Holland. Don’s great-great-grandfather Martin Vander Velde came to North America in the early 1800’s, serving with the Wisconsin Volunteers in the American Civil War, and later settling in Sheldon, Iowa.
His great-grandfather, Andrew, was a farmer in Iowa, where Don’s grandfather Martin was born. In the early 1900’s, grandfather Martin and three brothers came to the Carseland/Dalemead area where they purchased land, as well as northwest of Strathmore (Ardenode). The Carseland/Dalemead land is presently farmed by Don/Florence Vander Velde, along with Neil/Bev Miller of Dalemead, Harley/Glenda Stewart of Dalemead, and Brian/Judy Bazant. One of the three original brothers sold his farm and returned to Iowa, and another brother died.
Don’s father, Gerald, was born in 1916, in the farmhouse grandad Martin had just completed building. This is the house Don and Florence live in. Gerald was well known throughout the area, as an excellent saxophone player with a local band.
On Don’s mother’s side, his grandfather Dan Fraser, born in Inverness, Scotland, came to Alberta in the early 1900’s, where he worked as a “horse rough string rider” whose job was to break two- and three-year-old colts for riding. Don’s grandmother Winnifred Morrison born in Edinburgh, Scotland came to Canada in 1912, sailing on the ship that followed the Titanic. On reaching the point where the Titanic had sank, they had to sail through a large field of debris! Dan and Winnifred met in Calgary, where she was a secretary to the late R.B. Bennet, who would become the 15th Prime Minister of Canada. They were married in 1914, and farmed a half section of land 12 miles southwest of Strathmore.
Don’s mother Janet Fraser was born in Calgary and married Gerald Vander Velde in 1937, living and farming one mile north of Martin Vander Velde’s farm, where they raised their two sons – Allan and Don.
Don had been born in 1945, and started his education in a one-room school in Strathmore, before moving to the newly built Sam Crowther School in 1951, then to Carseland High School, followed by Olds College. This is where he met his future wife Florence McBee.
They advised, there were 200 male students, and only 22 female students!
Florence’s family on her father’s side, came from Missouri and travelled to Springfield, Ore. in 1850, along with many others on the Oregon Trail Trek. There is said to be a grave marker at every milestone! Her grand-father Melvin McBee, born in Oregon in 1889, came to DeWinton in 1915. Bought a half section, to farm and build barns for local farmers, as well as a half section of treed land near Priddis, where he operated a sawmill. Her father, Wallace, was born in Calgary in 1916, and later bought and farmed the half section of his dad’s. This land needed to be cleared of trees, before crops could be grown. Florence’s mother Joan Smith, born in Somerset, England came to the Carstairs Area with her family, when she was three years old. She was the third of 13 children. She met and married Wallace McBee of DeWinton in 1936. Joan is now 93, still living on her own at the farm, with one of Florences sister’s living nearby.
Florence was born in Calgary in 1945, and had three sisters and one brother, and lived on the farm near DeWinton with her family. She started school at the one-room Alexander School, three miles away, and rode her horse to/from. For Grades 5 to 9, she was bused to Red Deer Lake School, then attended high school at Henry Wise Wood in Calgary, before going to Olds College.
Don and Florence were married in 1965, at the Millarville Christ Church – a unique upright log building, built in 1896. They have three sons – Shaun, Michael and Scott, who have given them eight grandchildren and two great-granddaughters. Shaun and his family are the fifth generation Vander Veldes living across the road from their parents. Michael lives in Strathmore, and Scott lives in Calgary. Scott’s daughter Maddison was the first female Vander Velde in 80 years, born in 2000.
Following their marriage, Don and Florence originally rented grandfather Martin’s farm, and used Gerald’s machinery. When they became a mixed farm with 50 head of cows and annual crops, they purchased Gerald’s farm machinery. Gerald bought Don’s first tractor, which was a Case L.A. and pulled a 12-foot cultivator, whilst burning 45 gallons of gas per day, and using one gallon of oil! In 1983, they had a farm auction and followed this by renting out the cropland, but kept the pasture, hay land and cattle. This gave them both more time to pursue other ventures. Don obtained his Real Estate license, and tried selling farm and residential land, but, it wasn’t for him, so he next obtained his Auctioneer License, which he still enjoys today.
His community activities include working with CPS as an Auxiliary Member for six years, Carseland Lions member, President of the Carseland AG Society, was a Security Specialist at the Athletes Village at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and is now the County Councillor for the Carseland Area.
Florence was a member of the Carseland Public Benefit Club which recently celebrated its 100th birthday, worked as the Activity Convenor at The Strathmore Hospital for 26 years, retiring when the Long Term Care portion of the hospital was shut down in 2013.
Changes they’ve seen in the area include: when Hwy 22X/901 was built in 1983, it divided their farmyard, and they had to move or rebuild the buildings that were now located on the north side. The loss of grain elevators that regally announced the location of small towns and communities, across the province, and the new farming practices, which give an entirely new meaning to kids “doing after school chores.”
Not like it was 70 years ago.