The things you find at an auction sale. It might be something big, like a tractor, or something small, like a box of junk. In just such a box, from a southern Alberta auction, was something big and small – the former property of Charles Farrant of Waldron View farm.
His water-stained journal is for the year 1922. Issued by the Soldier Settlement Board of Canada, this Weekly Farm Record and Journal of Receipts and Expenses explains itself in the foreword: “Lack of commercial training and the general lack of time usually make it difficult for the ordinary farmer to handle a regular set of books …. The settler or his wife are generally able, at the end of the week, to sit down and record with sufficient accuracy the week’s happenings ….”
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Who was Charles Farrant? As I study his laconic pencil entries, I wonder about the man and his Waldron View farm.
Is it connected to Waldron Ranch, famous in cattle circles as one of the “big four” in southern Alberta in the late 1800s? Was Farrant’s farm within view of the once mighty Waldron? Or a former part of it? The journal doesn’t say. But Farrant’s entries speak volumes about farm life in the Cowley, Alta., region.
“12 Feb: Heifer died through calving, presented wrong way. Loss about $35,” he wrote.
“11 April: Black filly missing, presumed gone with Stauntonburgh horses.”
“Started seeding Tuesday, 2nd May. Finished the 14 acres Saturday.”
Farrant documented many rainstorms in June 1922. Like all farmers, he watched the weather closely.
“28 June: Severe hailstorm passed over my house, never touched the crop,” he wrote with evident satisfaction. “Afterward, it rained.”
Farrant was a frequent diarist until that summer. Maybe he was too busy to write. But maybe it was something more ominous. Hospital visits for him and his wife cost $238.50 on Aug. 22. Train fare was $2.60 per person. He spent $1 on tobacco.
The next entry had Farrant buying repeated lots of binder twine at $3.50 each, and he was busy binding at the end of August. Then came the bombshell.
“16 Sept: Wife died. Very sudden. Funeral on 19 Sept., 1922.” As Farrant later documented, the service cost $120.
Entries are sparse after that; one blank page follows another. A flurry of entries in December show threshing costs. Thus ended the year and the journal.
Charles Farrant didn’t know in 1922 that his journal would have so much to say today, especially for those who try to read between the lines. With treasures like that to be found, I’ll see you at the next auction.
