Remembering our roots ~ Gordon and Lorraine Stangness

John Godsman
Times Contributor

 

Gordon’s grandfather was born in Kvaernes, Norway in 1842. His father Nels was born there in 1899, and sailed to Ellis Island, New York in 1922, then traveled overland to join other family members who already lived in the Carseland area.
Initially, he stayed with his brother Ole and family at their farm. Nels married Leona Christensen in 1930, and started farming in the Cairnhill district, just south of Cairnhill School.
Gordon was born in 1944, at the family farm. The last born of five sons and one daughter, he attended school at Carseland from Grade 1 to Grade 12, then became a farm labourer for a couple of years, before moving to Fort McMurray as an apprentice electrician. Unfortunately, two of his brothers were killed by a train in dense fog near their farm, and Gordon had to come home to help his father run the farm.
His mother’s family emigrated from Denmark to Cedar Falls, Iowa in the late 1800’s. Leona was born there in 1909, the fourth eldest of twelve children. This family moved to the Carseland area in 1912, and began farming.
Lorraine’s paternal family originated in Holland. Her father Johannus Vermunt sailed from Hamburg, Germany to Halifax, N.S. on the Empress of Scotland in 1924. He crossed Canada by train to Castor, where he worked as a blacksmith and farm hand before working for The Calgary Brewing and Malting Company in Inglewood, South East Calgary. He married Madeleine Fortier, a teacher in a one-room school in Baintree, in 1942, the same year that he purchased the Rosebud Hotel. Six years later, they moved to Strathmore and bought the King Edward Hotel. After raising their children to school age, Madeleine returned to teaching for the next 23 years, at Samuel Crowther School. Her family has been traced back to the 1700’s, when they arrived in Quebec from France. Lorraine was born at the Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary, in 1949, the second of two children. She has an older brother Raymond, living in Calgary. Lorraine took all her schooling at Samuel Crowther through Grade 12, then worked at The Royal Bank of Canada in Calgary until she married Gordon in 1968. They had met at a dance in Cheadle the previous year. They have four sons – Greg (Anita) a draftsman in Calgary, who has provided them with grandchildren James (Taryn), Ryan, Zach, and great-grand daughter Addie; Brad, a Civil Engineer working in Calgary, with grandchildren Jacob and Katelyn (she was the first girl born to the Stangness family in 72 years);
Shawn (Deanna) a Civil Engineering Technologist employed at Cenovus, grandchildren Ryleigh and Grayden; and fourth son Tyler employed at Recall Calgary, a company that provides document management and data production services.
Gordon, Lorraine, and Gordon’s brother Bill, purchased the family farm from their father in 1969. Bill lived with them until 1977, when he moved to Strathmore to live with his parents, leaving Gordon and Lorraine to actively farm until 1992 when they rented out the land until 2013. In the early 1970’s, Lorraine joined the original Strathmore Farmer’s Market (started by Edie Groves) held in the Strathmore Armories which were located where the Marigold Library building now stands on Second Street. Between 1978 and 1995, they both worked off farm – Lorraine at the Royal Bank, then at Western Feedlots, while Gordon was busy building Brentwood School, the Carseland Water Tower, running a packer at the gas plant, and trucking for Western Feedlots.
In 1985, Lorraine started quilting, then in 1989 started her own company – Country Creations, designing and publishing books and patterns on quilting. For the next 15 years, she and Gordon traveled extensively in Canada and the United States, exhibiting at shows and teaching. They opened a quilt shop at their farm in 1996 that ran until August 2013 when they moved to Strathmore. Following their move into town, they became involved with volunteering at the Strathmore United Church Thrift Sales, the Christmas Hamper Society, other charitable organizations, and more recently the Alberta 55 Plus Senior Games.
When their family was growing up, they were both involved with everything the boys participated in, be it 4-H, hockey or whatever.
When I enquired what changes they had seen or remembered – they both remembered the day natural gas arrived, the CPR tracks and station, the elevators, and gravel streets with board walks. Now, almost all gone!
They recalled having to watch what mischief they were involved in, because with a population of only 700 people everybody soon knew what they’d been up to!