WINDS OF THE NORTH
The gusts of wind that came from the north were harsh and brutal. Between the gusts were swirls and eddies that were also as harmful. They brought devastation in their wake. They blew away the little snow that had fallen at night, thus leaving the very ground that needed the moisture for the survival and growth of the plants that were sown in the earlier season. It in its turn it meant starvation for the people who homesteaded in the area.
Jim Dutton and his family was one of the many caught in the quagmire of the quandary of survival for him and his family. They eked out living from the land, and from some chickens that were kept in the coupe and occasional wildlife that lived in the area. The chickens were emaciated as they also did not have much to eat. Conditions were indeed harsh.
It was indeed under these conditions that he lived with four children besides his wife. He often pondered why he had left the safety and somewhat better conditions in Ontario, but the lure of a new land was there, and the Government of Alberta had advertized free land to homesteaders in the northern areas of the Province. It seemed alluring at the time. Hence the slow track had begun for the family in the thirty’s, to the Promised Land, as they say.
Disappointment was written on all the miserable faces that arrived in the land. It had no proper facilities for water, electricity, or the many essential requirements for the sustenance of life. However, they had managed to keep a brave face and a resolve to make a new life.
Looking back, the history of the Dunn family dated back to fifteenth century. They owned a small farm near Warrington, in Lancashire in the old country. The fortune got brighter when on of the Dunn's married a niece of Oliver Cromwell. He was given the title of the Earl of Eue. It was thus that the family were given a large area of luscious farmland. The family prospered, but over the years the family once again went down because of the very fact that nobility was despised and farm laborers were impossible to hire. Once again the land was fallow, and a difficult decision was made to emigrate to Canada. The family landed on Pier 21 in Halifax, and took the train to ontario. Once again life was difficult, and the family once again moved to Alberta and started to homestead in the area that was way north of Edmonton.