Square Butte Community Association
The wall restoration is progressing quite well with main wall cement poured and curried. The next step has been restoring the utilities and re-establishing stairs, floors, handicap ramp, back filling, concrete preparation and parking lot. This is a huge undertaking to get our hall into an operational state. Many hours of volunteering are going into making this all come together. We will not be able to undertake the landscaping until later in September.
Community and SBCA members are invited to a free Gourmet Breakfast on September 12th from 9:00 am to Noon. This will kick off the 2022 membership drive and a thank you to those who have given so much of their time through volunteering and financial help. The menu features omelette in a bag, fresh fruit, sausage and pancakes.
Square Butte Ladies Group
The ladies group has decided to cancel the annual Potluck and Games Sept. 19th due to not enough members available to host the event. The Quilt Raffle draw will still be held on that date. Please get your raffle tickets from any of the members or at the Millarville Fair. The last market for the Ladies Group will be on Sept. 11th. This small group of ladies still offer up some great pies and baking.
Stories and People from the Past
Fredrick William Wildman
Born in Innisfail, N.W.T. 1904 ,the third child of Marmaduke and Dinah Wildman. The reason I write about him is that he was my uncle who lived with us all our formative years and we called him Unc. He never did learn to drive a motorized vehicle so most of the hair raising stories involved horses. He truly had nine lives. The move to Square Butte took place in 1947 from Rimbey and having shipped the horses by rail they all contracted distemper at the Calgary yards. Haying that first summer with sick horses was a daunting task.
The hay was stacked using an overshot stacker. This piece of equipment required a team of horses to pull this A frame with hay on it to shoot skyward and drop onto the stack. Unc complained to my Mom that he needed the hay further back so Mother whipped up the team and it shot so far back that my dear Unc was thrown off, landing on his head incurring a broken jaw and several other broken bones.
Several run-a-ways occurred while raking hay as wasp nests were often in the ground. Unc did the racking with a dump rake and one memorable time the team got stung by wasps and they were off, unfortunately he fell off under the rake and was rolling there when fate saved him. The tongue broke and flipped the rake up and he was able to escape with minor scrapes.
One time Unc rode the appaloosa horse over to visit our neighbours Ivor and Elaine Lysters. On the way there he met up with Ivors horses and one mule that brayed and set them off for quite a run, through two wire gates leading to Ivor’s. Elaine saw them coming and yelled for Ivor to catch his ass and save Fred. The horse and Fred were both trembling by this time.
My brother, David had just finished erecting my Mom a lovely new clothes line, when not 2 weeks later my Mom heard some ungodly screeching. You guessed it, Unc with the hay wagon and a novice team got out of control and ran through the clothes line ripping it down. Unc was small of stature but very strong, he worked for Bill Kendall several winters limbing and choking and often used the work horse to haul logs out.
Fred never had an enemy in his life, being a kindly man, never liking to have trouble with family or neighbours.
Square Butte Hall Contract Information
Address: 290132 Hwy 762
squarebuttehall.com
facebook.com/Sqbuttecommunity Square Butte Community Hall Facebook Page
facebook.com/squarebutteladies Square Butte Ladies Group Facebook Page
