For many pioneer women, life on the Prairies was an endless landscape
of hard work tending to children and farm chores.
There was little cash available to pay bills, much less to spend on
frivolous things to please a woman.
With that in mind, Cochrane, Alta., area sculptors Don and Shirley Begg
created Egg Money, a life-sized bronze statue of a pioneer farm woman
in long skirts and tightly bound hair. She and her children are feeding
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the chickens. Later they will gather the eggs and sell them for pin
money.
Part of the inspiration for the work came from Shirley Begg’s
grandmother, Mabel Cargo, who often spoke of her life as a pioneer near
Water Valley, west of Cochrane.
“Don and I shared Grandma’s determination that a statue honouring these
courageous, ordinary women needed to be made before their lives and
their names were forgotten,” she said.
The statue is dedicated to the contribution women made to the
development of the Prairies. Along the base are 52 names of southern
Alberta pioneer women whose families contributed to the cost of the
artwork.
“For me, Egg Money is a powerful symbol of the struggle women faced to
retain some independence after marriage and motherhood,” said Alberta’s
lieutenant-governor Lois Hole who unveiled the statue on Mother’s Day.
Hole is a farm woman from St. Albert and recalled selling cucumbers for
$3 a pail to earn extra money in the early days of her marriage.
The statue is on the original Bow Valley Ranche site in Calgary’s Fish
Creek Provincial Park, Canada’s largest urban park. The ranch, located
on the edge of the park, was founded by pioneer William Roper Hull.
Along with other prominent men, Roper Hull was instrumental in
developing farming, ranching, meat processing and irrigation in
southern Alberta more than 100 years ago.
