Remembering our roots ~ Roy & Karen Clark

John Godsman
Times Contributor

 

There is a farm near Campbelltown, in the County of Argyll, called Pute-chan, which can be traced back to the1600’s and still exists today, now since 1954 in private hands. This is the ancestral home of Roy Clark’s fore-fathers, who were tenant farmers of the Duke of Argyll who lived in
Inveraray Castle. Word of land that could be owned in Canada prompted the decision to leave Scotland. John Sr. and Katherine Clark, and their six children sailed from Campbelltown to Glasgow, where they boarded the Allan Line ship ‘Canadian.’
They arrived 13 days later in Quebec, on June 8, 1875 and this family set-tled in Lachute, where Katherine had relatives. While living here, Roy’s grandfather John Jr. worked for the veterinarian Dr. Duncan McCeachran, who became well know for his involvement with the Cochrane Ranch and the Waldron Ranch. In the spring of 1883, John Sr. and his three sons James, Duncan and John Jr. headed west to their homesteads on Crowfoot Creek. Katherine, and her two younger daughters came in the fall. Their eldest daughter had married and lived in Montreal.
John Jr. married Catherine Emily Wills in 1903, at the Shouldice Farm at Namaka, with Rev. G.W. Kerby (Kerby Centre in Calgary) in attendance. Their son John Roy (Johnny) was born in Gleichen in 1909. Catherine had been born in England, but following her father’s death had been sent to Canada with her twin sister at the age of nine years. Her mother had been left with little option to care for her children. She was taken in by the James Shouldice family, and when that family came west, she came with them.
Johnny and Violet Beatrice Leonard (Bea) were married in 1935. She had
been born in Lipton, Sask. in 1907, trained as a nurse and met Johnny when he visited a sick uncle in Bassano Hospital. They lived on the farm with Johnny’s mother Catherine, and after John Jr. passed away in 1929, mother and son continued farming and ranching together. Johnny and Bea raised a family of four children of which Roy was the youngest. He was born in Bassano Hospital on May 31, 1943, and along with his two sisters and brother, was raised in the house built in 1918 by grandfather John Jr. and Catherine, which is still lived in today by Roy and Karen. Roy attended school in Bassano through Grade 9, then Cluny until the end of Grade 11. He then attended PITA (The Provincial Institute of Technology), now known as SAIT.
Karen’s Dad, Olie Boesen, was born in Denmark in 1907, and he immi-grated to Montreal in 1927, then came west to Calgary by train. The fare was one cent per mile!
He first worked at Trochu, before moving to Bassano in the fall, where he spent the rest of his life. Karen’s mother, Peggy Lothrop, was born in Sas-katoon in 1922, and came to Bassano at the age of 20 to work. Olie and Peggy were married in 1943. Karen was born in the Bassano Hospital on March 12,1945 and was raised on a farm, near the Hamlet of Crowfoot. She was an only child, as her mother passed away when she was three years old. She attended school in Cluny through Grade 11, before taking the rest of her education in Calgary, at Mount Royal. Roy and Karen’s fami-lies were friends and neighbours, so the couple knew each other from a young age. They were married in 1968, and raised two daughters and a son, and have now been blessed with a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and five wonderful grandchildren.
Following their marriage, they moved to the farm, Sec. 2-23-20-W4. This is a mixed operation of grain and now Angus cattle. Roy’s grandfather raised Shorthorn cattle, and was one of the first to import Hereford bulls into the area in 1894.
Roy and Karen have long been staunch supporters of 4-H, being members themselves, along with their children and two of their grandchildren. Both have been club leaders. Hockey has always been a big part of their lives as Roy played and coached hockey for many years, and now their son and grandsons play. He is a past Kinsman, a past county councilor, founding member of the Crowfoot Creek Watershed Group, past president of South-ern Alberta Pioneers and their Descendants, past president, governor, and lifetime director of the Western Stock Growers Association. He was the driving force behind the Centennial Cattle Drive that went from Buffalo to Medicine Hat in 1996.
Some of the changes they’ve seen in the area include the arrival of power, telephone, and natural gas to rural residents, road improvements and great strides forward with improved farming practices and technology. The very dramatic change in the cattle herd, with new genetics and improved feeding methods. A long way from a huge 850-pound steer on 4-H show day!
It gives Roy and Karen great peace of mind and satisfaction to know their Crowfoot Creek Ranch is in the capable hands of generations five and six.