David Sexsmith

David Sexsmith (* Lennox County, Ontario , 1871; † Sexsmith 1942) is the namesake of the place Sexsmith in Alberta . He and his wife Cliffe were among the first to settle in the region. They ran a shop, a kind of hotel and an extensive fish camp with around 20 log cabins.

Life

Sexsmith's parents were from the United States, a country they had to leave as pro-British loyalists after the War of Independence ended. Sexsmith went to Manitoba in 1890 . From there he moved to Edmonton , Alberta, then to the Peace River District , where he was trapping, prospecting for gold and transporting goods from 1898 to 1901. In 1901 he went back to Edmonton, where he was temporarily employed by French fur traders, the Revillon Frères .

On June 16, 1909, he married Cliffe Hinkley, who had also immigrated from the USA in 1888. She was from Ashland , Nebraska . Sixteen years old, she and her family had moved to Ponoka , Alberta, and later to Edmonton, that year . The couple married there, and Cliffe gave birth to daughter Ruth in March 1910. In November the three of them pulled north on a sledge. They carried a barrel of rum with them on frozen rivers and winter trails . So they drove first to Athabaska Landing , then to the Little Slave River and over the Lesser Slave Lake and on to Peace River Crossing. We continued over the frozen Peace River to Allie Brick's Place. Mother and daughter camped there for a month while David Sexsmith drove to Edmonton to fetch more equipment. Meanwhile, his wife met an Indian woman with a child on her back. Such a child is called a papoose , regardless of tribe . Ms. Sexsmith first came into contact with Native American customs, because she found that the child was not wrapped in diapers, but that it was wrapped in moss , which the mother changed regularly.

David Sexsmith, who in the face of melting rivers decided to drive in an open car and then take the ferry across the Peace River at Dunvegan , drove with his wife and daughter to Lake Saskatoon , where the two looked for land. They decided on an area that is now the site of Sexsmith. Every year David traveled to Edmonton for shopping. Meanwhile, his wife often went hunting to support her family.

In September 1911, their son George was born. To get the help of midwife Baird, David Sexsmith rode to Grande Prairie , which was about 20 km away. There were no doctors. When their second son Walter was born in 1913, Dr. Higbee from Grande Prairie to them.

Around 1914 the Edmonton, Dunvegan, and British Columbia Railway (ED and BC) was built from Edmonton to Grande Prairie. The Sexsmiths took advantage of the fact that more settlers came to the area to open a shop in Beaver Dam, between Spirit River and what would later become the Town of Sexsmith. In addition to a barn to accommodate and feed the horses, a sleeping barrack was built for men traveling alone, as well as a larger building for families. They also sold edibles and served meals.

Six pigs served the meat supply, with one of the children using a pig named Jimmy as a sled dog. It wasn't slaughtered and was sold when it moved to Sexsmith in 1915.

In Bennville , which was named after the settler JB “Benny” Foster, who arrived in 1911, and which soon became Sexsmith , the two of them built and maintained a general store and a warehouse where all the goods were found that the farmers could not produce themselves. like sugar, flour or tools and machines. The railroad was now bringing the goods from Edmonton, even oranges and toys for Christmas. Meanwhile, the family lived in a back room of the house and slept in a tent. They later bought a small hotel and lived there.

Since there was no school, the Sexsmiths hired the wife of postmaster Howard as a teacher, who also taught Raymond Foster, Ben Foster's son, part-time. A school was not established until later, when there were enough children in the village.

In 1928 the family moved to Kelowna and bought 10 acres of land there. The road leading there is still called Sexsmith Road today . The children went to the Rutland School.

In the 1930s, the two set up a fish camp on Dee Lake . There was also a hut on Beaver Lake , from where goods had to be transported by ship because there were no roads. At first two log huts were built at the fish warehouse, the number of which grew to twenty. For this purpose, everything from the ovens to beds, from tables to chairs was transported from Beaver Lake to Dee Lake, which was 10 km away. The camp was open from May to October. American tourists in particular came to fish.

David Sexsmith died in 1942 and his wife continued to run the camp. Her son Walter took over after the Second World War . Cliffe continued to keep books and reservations until it was sold in 1967.

Web links

• Brief biography of David and Cliffe Sexsmith ( August 28, 2011 memento on the Internet Archive ) on Sexsmith's Alberta website, archive.org, August 28, 2011