Pioneer Musical Memories

"In the early 1890's a Mounted Police post was established at the Rio Alto. Walter Ings bought a very good piano in Calgary and had it brought to the ranch.

It was probably the first piano in the district. Mrs. Ings was an accomplished pianist, and many a musical evening was enjoyed by those who came to the Ings' home."

- Leaves From The Medicine Tree

"(clergyman) Mr. Smith is an Oxford man ... The singing was really fair but the man played the harmonica shockingly."

- J.L. Douglas, 1886

"She (Alice Andrews) spoke many times of the good old house parties that lasted to the wee small hours. She met Charlie Shattuck, who was a violinist.

He, with Gladys McKeage at the piano, supplied dance music for miles around, playing in Harry Han's Hall, Gladys Ridge, Okotoks, Tongue Creek and as far as Calgary."

- Leaves From The Medicine Tree (1890s)

"As the family (Fisk) grew up they went to more dances, thinking nothing of driving ten or twenty miles in a sleigh with their feet kept warm by hot rocks.

They would dance all night to a fiddle or mouth organ and then drive home in the morning. The big event was the Bachelors' Ball held annually in Okotoks.

These were very formal affairs and the ladies wore evening gowns and gloves, and carried their fans and programs.

Some men even wore dress suits, white kid gloves and patent leather slippers.

The cowboys would carry their best clothes in gunny sacks slung over their saddles, and dress when they arrived."

- Leaves From The Medicine Tree (1900's)

"She (Mrs. Watt) attended the opening of the first real store in Okotoks. It was a great event, and people from miles around came to attend the opening dance.

The music was supplied by one fiddler who knew only four tunes, "The Irish Washerwoman", "The Soldier's Joy", "The Girl I Left Behind Me", and "Shamus O'Brien".

The grownups danced all night to those tunes."

- Leaves From the Medicine Tree (circa 1900's)

"We did not have much to amuse us, so we never missed the opportunity to visit or take in a dance if we could possibly get there."

- Ida Miller, Leaves From The Medicine Tree (1990s)