By Grace Meger in 2014
When the Railroad was to come to this area, the need, for a Grain Elevator went into the plan and two nice tall elevators sprouted, like mushrooms...so by 1930 the phone exchange service records, found in THE LAND OF THE RED AND WHITE, show that the Federal Grain Ltd, and the United Grain Growers were already serving the area north of the river... but in 1943 the Federal changed the name to Alberta Pacific Grain Co 1943 Ltd. The earliest Elevator agents name I can find is Eric Thorn from 1944/45, when U.G.G. was taken over by Bob Maxwell, who in 1955, built the house that still stands, on the corner lot of, ”Railroad avenue-1st Street East,” if you are looking for it, now in 2013...
Thelma and Exie Sharkey resided in this house for many years, till their passing, and their son, Lawrence, lived there with his wife Olga until he passed away in 1994...
Throughout some stories I’m encountering, Bob Maxwells name, comes up time after time...Bob got a lot of fun out of teasing the school kids who came passed the door of his office for many years, and he had many words of wisdom for the older ones... Bob died in 1958, and was really missed, by the whole town
Babe, has stories if he gets in the mood, like the time when Ed Resler was coming down “SUICIDE HILL” with a load of grain for the Elevator... He thinks Ed had about 150 bushels on his old truck and when he got to the hill and applied the brakes, they gave out and nobody could imagine him getting that load down all in one piece, but I guess he did...
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Like a big tree, that grew fast and fell hard, the Elevator’s came down. (Pictures, of this terrible day, taken by Bertha Botting)
Bertha Botting was there, with her camera, on this very life changing day, as our big giants gave way, like Goliath to David...
The town was watching helplessly on MARCH 20TH 1980, when the crew rolled in to town... proceeding to drive another, nail into the coffin, of our home town of Heinsburg...
THE END
