Remembering our roots ~ June Stewart

John Godsman
Times Contributor

 

June Stewart’s ancestors originated in England, and came to Canada in 1907. Joseph ‘Harold’ Payne was born in 1897 in Ontario, and came west with his family to Calgary in 1907, then moved to Cheadle in 1909.
Edith ‘May’ Grimshaw was born in 1905 on the family farm, which was located in the vicinity of Eagle Lake Hill, where her parents homesteaded. Her father Harold was a ditch rider on the CPR irrigation system, which meant they moved home quite frequently.
June was born in Lyalta in 1931, the youngest of three. She attended Turner School, south of Lyalta through Grade 8, followed by Kathryn High School through Grade 11. From 1945 to 1962, her parents owned and ran the Lyalta Store, which was also a Post Office.
Robert Stewart was born at Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary, which was the closest hospital to the family farm at Dalemead. He was the eighth of nine children. Robert attended Cheadle Butte School, then Turner School. Following his father’s illness in 1945, Robert took over Dad’s general trucking business and managed the farm.
Robert was a frequent visitor to the Lyalta Store, as it was his job to pick up the mail, and it was only natural for him to meet June there. They were married in 1949, and have two daughters, seven grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren. Before they started dairy farming in spring 1959, Robert had spent the previous 10 years working in the oil patch, and was a repairman for Lyalta Mutual Telephone Company.
Robert purchased 10 dairy cows, thereby starting their dairy farming which lasted for the next 29 years, followed by nine years farming with beef cows. He was a school bus driver for Wheatland County (Lyalta run) for 14 years. In 1967, they bought the family farm from Robert’s mother. June and Robert worked together on the farm, and there was nothing she wouldn’t try. Did you ever hear of a small town girl operating a tractor while pulling a binder? June was that girl, and 29 years later she was still doing the baling. It took a lot of patience, but perseverance won out in the end. One day June was seeding wheat with the tiller, until the John Deere started to slow down, and looking back, she found to her amazement that the tire had fallen off the tiller. Needless to say, they harvested the best wheat crop they ever had that year!
Dairying had its ups and downs, especially when the power went off, and you had 35 cows to milk, or you got 100 per cent hailed out in September. In those hard times, you found you had good neighbours who would help with the milking and brought oats by the truckload.
In 2007, Robert passed away at the age of 82. June spent 15 years working in accounting for her daughter Linda Murray.
Their community activities included teaching Sunday School; Robert played softball for the Lyalta Team, and for seven years June was the secretary for the Lyalta Community Club. June loves quilting – and has made quilts for all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as ‘Quiet Books’. She attends the Hope Community Church in Strathmore.
Recent changes in Lyalta include the new Muirfield Housing Development and the paving of the Lyalta Road.
Since moving to Strathmore in 2005, June has seen the following changes – growth in the number of schools including new ones, housing developments, reduction in postal services, all the new stores along the highway, closure of many stores downtown and the advance of computer technology.