​​​​​​​​Garriott Family Genealogy

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FRANCIS MARION GARRIOTT

       BIOGRAPHY:  [This biography is from "The Ancestry and Descendants of Francis Marion Garriott and Mary Emily Taylor," compiled by Gregory L Robbins, July 1977]

     The following is by Harry Garriott and Olive Gablehouse in the Trails to Little Corner. 
     Simeon Francis Garriott was born in Washington County, state of Indiana, USA, in 1880, the third son in a family of seven boys and two girls.  His father was a farmer, and it followed that he also bought land and farmed. 
     However, the conditions of farming there were such that he was not completely satisfied. Land holdings were small, the possibility of increasing farm areas was costly, and most of the better land was taken up. To further disrupt the normal conditions of life for him at the time, his wife passed away shortly after the birth of their third child. So it was that he decided to look for something better and a place to make a new start.  Many advertisements and posters were conspicuous around that time, telling of large quantities of land in Canada for sale by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and he decided to investigate some of these.
     He arrived in the town of Strathmore in the spring of 1909. Following discussions with land officials there, he was ready to look.  He had shipped one of his horses from the States for this purpose, so he set out on horseback, with a few blankets and food supplies, to scout the country. With only the sun to guide him and the stars to sleep under, he thoroughly covered all the country from Strathmore to Gleichen. After many days, he settled on three hundred and twenty acres of land, ten miles east and two and a half miles north of Strathmore. The legal description of the land was SW 1/4 of 28-24-23 W4 and the SE 1/4 of 29-24-23 W4.
     This land was bought from the CPR for twenty-five dollars per acre. It was classified as irrigated land, for which there was a levy of fifty cents an acre charged each year for water rights, whether the land was irrigated or not.
     Mr Garriott also contracted with the CPR to have ninety acres of land broken up to be ready for crop the next year. Also during that summer he built a four-room two-story house, a barn, and had a water well drilled. Then he returned to Indiana to prepare for the move to Canada.
     The following March, 1910, he arrived in Canada with his new bride, Mae, and the three children, Clarence, Eileen, and Harry, of his deceased first wife. Also his brother Delwin and his wife traveled with them to settle in Canada. Together they shipped two freight cars of baggage, farm machinery, two wagons, four horses and a cow. After their effects were moved to the farm and settled it was seeding time. The ninety acres, broken the year before, were prepared and seeded to wheat.
     The two brothers had bought a twenty HP tractor and engine gang plow while still in the States. They used it there for some time before moving so it could be brought into Canada as settlers effects and at a lower tax rate. With this machine they now set about breaking more land for future crops. (They also used it to do custom breaking for neighbors who were now moving in).
     The year of 1910 a fair crop was raised from the ninety acres of tilled land.
     The year of 1911, Mr Garriott planted most of his crop to oats, as it would mature earlier than wheat. Some wheat was planted, which ripened and was harvested this year.
     The summer months were occupied in breaking more of their land. Along with the tractor and helpers they broke land for the neighbors. Funds from this work were not great, but helped keep the family in groceries and clothing.
     The oat crop this year was cut in the early stages of ripening (greenfeed, as it was called) and it made very good feed for his stock. He also found a market for the surplus oat sheaves in Strathmore, making the twenty-four mile trip every other day with team and sleigh. The in-between days were used to load up and to do any extra chores that were necessary. Blizzard conditions were sometimes encountered, and often temperatures of -30F or lower. This made the trip somewhat hazardous as most of the country was open prairie, with no fences to guide one. Sometimes it was left to the horses to find their way home.
     During the year of 1911, Mr Garriott, along with Mr WR Harvey and Mr HG Scheer got together and organized the school district of "Crowfoot."  It was so named, as the head waters the Crowfoot Creek started within this district.  Further details of this may be found under the heading of "The Crowfoot School." (or Crowfoot Community).
     Mention might be made here that it was about this time that Mr S Garriott turned his interest in the tractor and plow, owned jointly with his brother Delwin, over to Delwin. Then Delwin, or DR as he was affectionately known, bought a threshing machine in the fall of 1912. This was the first threshing outfit owned in the district. DR threshed for the two Garriott farms and also many of the neighbors until other machines appeared.
     The year 1915 was well remembered by Mr Garriott as he harvested one field of wheat that made sixty-one bushels per acre.  Probably others enjoyed like yields that year also.  But it was many years before those yields were met or surpassed, likely not until fertilizers were used.
     In 1917, Mr Garriott bought another quarter of land, being the SW 1/4 of 28-24-23 W4.  In 1918, he bought another quarter, NW 1/4 of 28-24-23 W4. This made a full six hundred and forty acres of land at the home place.
     In 1919 Mr Garriott built a new and larger house, as the family was increasing and more room was needed. This was a two-story, nine-room, fully modern for the times, having an electric light plant and running water, including of course an inside bath and other accompanying amenities. The old outside four foot by four foot structure, with the Eaton's catalogue used as reading material and other purposes as well, was easily and soon forgotten.
     Mr Garriott was a meticulous farmer, working his land to the best of his ability to keep the weeds in control and conserve moisture. Seeding and harvesting were done as nearly the best times of each year dictated. He thus produced and sold several thousand bushels of good grade wheat in his years of farming.
     He liked to keep the place clean and neat, and he also liked trees. He planted several groves of trees around his residence and garden, and a hedge at the front. These made a good windbreak for the buildings when they grew to maturity, and vastly improved appearance of the place.
     Here it must be said that Mrs Garriott also played a very important part in pioneer life. She accepted the responsibility of three children who had immediately come into her life upon her marriage, and raised them and her own five children. In addition to her housekeeping duties she raised a large garden every year, kept poultry, and also churned butter, selling the surplus each week-- these activities all the normal role of the pioneer housewife.
     In 1927 another one hundred and sixty acres of land was purchased by Mr Garriott, being the  SW 1/4 of 20-24-23 W4.  Approximately eighty acres of this quarter were broken and put to crop. However, this quarter section of land supplied the only road into neighbor WR Harvey's residence and farm buildings, so it was decided by Mr Garriott and Mr Harvey to trade quarters of land. Mr Harvey owned the SE 1/4 of 19-24-23 W4, west and across the road from Mr Garriott's land. There are many stories about horse trading, but trading land was different, at least at that time. However the trade was made with but a few dollars going one way or the other, making amicable settlement. Both parties seemed satisfied and the problem of the road had been solved.
     In 1927, after much thought and investigation, Mr Garriott bought a sixteen-foot Hold Combine, as did two other neighbors at that time. One or two had been tried out in Alberta the year before, one being in the Crowfoot district. This brought in a new method of harvesting grain. It was cheaper than the old method of cutting with a binder, stoking, and later threshing, so it seemed the proper move. This method proved very good and is now almost universally used on the prairies.
     Along came the winds and dust storms of the dirty thirties, with the low yields and depression of grain prices. Records show in the winter of 1931-32, a carload of wheat, fourteen hundred and twenty bushels, was sold by Mr Garriott. In addition to the price the grain sold for, an additional sixty-three dollars and twenty-three cents was needed to pay the freight charges. Although this was probably the financially hardest year for him, the following years in the thirties were very lean.
     Financial resources were strained to the utmost, and as interest on land payments and water rent were going on all the time, it was impossible to make payment on them. Also these unpaid debts kept climbing to a point where no prospect of ever paying for the land was possible. Payment on interest and water rates had by this time far exceeded the purchase price of the land. Mr Garriott was therefore able to have his contracts rewritten. Consideration was taken of the money paid, and water rights were taken off certain acreages which could not be irrigated, this leaving an amount whereby he could see his way to finally own the land. No doubt other farmers in the district were similarly dealt with.
     Near the end of the 1940's, Mr Garriott sold his land to his fourth son, Mitchell, and retired to Calgary. He kept his interest in the farm however, and for a few years he went out particularly in the fall to help with the machinery and harvesting.
     Five children were born to Mr and Mrs Garriott after moving to Canada; Harold- 1911, Ruby- 1912, Mitchell- 1914, Olive- 1923, and Simeon Jr.-1927. The new house Mr Garriott built in 1919 was put to good use in raising his family of eight, and was much appreciated by all. It was nearing the 1930's before any of the children were permanently away from home. He raised his children and kept the farm going through many financial adversities.
     Mr Garriott served many years in different capacities on the school board and church board of the community. He was also an early member of the United Farmers of Alberta, and also of the Alberta Wheat Pool, and served as delegate to different conventions and meetings in support of these organizations.
     Mrs Garriott too was interested and active in church and Sunday school, having been a Sunday school teacher for many years.  She was a member of the United Farm Women of Alberta and had acted as a delegate to their meetings. She also attended a Farm Women's Week at the Olds School of Agricultures. Mrs Garriott's health was not too good after moving to Calgary, and she passed away in 1956.
     Mr Garriott lived to attend the Sixtieth Anniversary celebration of the Crowfoot School in 1972.  He passed away in Calgary the following January at ninety-two years, seven months, and was deeply mourned by his seven surviving children and twenty-eight grandchildren.

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