Remembering our Roots ~ Tom Daw

By John Godsman Times Contributor

The Daw family name originated in Cleckheaton, Yorkshire, England in the late 1800s. Four brothers were born there between 1867 and 1880, and all moved to Canada in their late teens or early twenties.
Tom’s grandfather Alf (Alfred) was born in 1877 and came to Gleichen in August 1902. Alf’s brother Frank was already here, having arrived in 1888. Frank and Alf worked with a Mr. Knudsen, putting up hay and harvesting their oat crop in the fall of 1902, then worked on different ranches along the Rosebud Creek.
In 1910, Alf took up land on the Bull Pound Creek, southeast of where Hanna is today, where he raised cattle, with the brand ZA on the left rib. He married Martha Kirstein in January 1911 and moved out to their homestead on the Bull Pound Creek where they raised five sons, cattle, Marquis wheat and oats.
One of the sons was Tom’s father Francis. In 1921, 1922 and 1924 the area suffered extreme drought conditions, so they purchased a farm from the C.P.R. near Gleichen.
Tom was born in Calgary on June 11, 1944, the son of Jessie and Francis Daw of Gleichen, and the first of three children. He attended school at Cluny through Grade 12, then farmed with his grandfather Tom Burne and uncle Jack for 12 years. In July 1974 he moved to the former Bill Prowse farm.
In 1978 he married Vickie Blair of Calgary and adopted her daughter Charlene, who works at The Country Farmhouse. Tom and Vickie were divorced in 1990.
In 2006, Tom purchased his grandfather Alfred’s farmstead, and now lives there raising livestock and hay. He spent 21 years working for Alberta Transportation until they privatized, with Carmacks and Volker Stevin taking over. His main job was driving the snowplow, but he also operated the Crowfoot Ferry on the Bow River. In 1998, he started raising goats, and has around 100 on the farm. Recently he added rabbits to raise for food, and keeps a few cows.
His hobbies are fishing, hunting and fixing fences. He is a third-generation hunter, his father and grandfather being hunters before him.
When I asked him what changes he had seen in this area over the years, he commented on the death of small towns and small family-owned farms. Everywhere you look there are huge grain farms which is driving up the cost of everything, especially feed. A year ago, feed cost $125 per ton, now its $250 per ton.