1

Main street and Edison store
December, 1904
Edison, Westlock, Alberta, Canada

2

The Growth of Edison 1904-1910
For the next six years, Edison grew and added features that added stability and variety to the small community. Church and school were organized and built, the merchants expanded to include stores, stables and cartage service; and there was a local post office. Edison was a hub for the trails and rough roads which extended north from Morinville; east to Clyde and the Landing Trail; and to the West to the new settled areas around Hazel Bluff and Rossington.
The residents depended less upon the natural provisions of the land, and the landscape began to look like an agricultural region. More land was being broken for cultivation, and the products were harvested with improving equipment. For many, there was now time to mark community highlights with socials and celebrations; whether those were for marriages, births or deaths the community built its identity and hopes for the future.

3

Breaking 1920 at SE32 60 26 W 4 in preparation for growing grain
1910
Near Edison settlement, Alberta, Canada

4

Changes Loom for Edison
Several of the original pioneers had a change of heart and a change of location. In September 1905 the last annual picnic was held on the West place; Mr. Beatt was going back to Montreal, and Mrs. Houghton and her son, Warren, were moving to Edmonton. By 1908 several homesteaders had given up their property to others George Lambert (to Dieffenbaugh), Jim Knox, Claude Christie, and settlers were now headed west and north into Sunniebend country.

5

Edison Post Office built in 1904
1906
Edison, Westlock, Alberta, Canada

6

Edison Post Office
In 1904 Edison had two stores on the main street and no sidewalks, with a church being built (E-TWIW p. 14). In the spring of 1904 the Edison Post Office established at Joe Maloney's store. Joe Maloney was the post master and the mail was brought from Egg Lake by Jim Knox. No longer were mail shipments dependent upon the good graces of travelers between Morinville and Edison.

7

Edison School pupils
June, 1906
Edison, Westlock, Alberta, Canada

8

In June 1904 the first meeting of trustees of Edison School District #1029 decided to begin regular school for the children of the district and by that summer, school started under teacher Alex MacGregor. There being no building ready, the first classes were held in a tent across from the Stopping place on West's farm - 12 pupils.
From November 1904 to spring 1905, Charles Nelson built the permanent school on a piece of land purchased from the Wests. A frame school house built and it was ready the next year with first teacher Miss Mabel Tracy. Miss Tracy was the school teacher in the new Edison school from winter 1906 through until June the next year Kate George became the teacher in September 1906.
In 1906 the community bought a new organ for the school with box social money. This was also used for the church services which were held there.
School continued at a local site in the Edison district until the 1950s.

9

Edison school
1912
Edison, Westlock, Alberta, Canada

10

First teacher of Edison School
1905
Unknown

11

Alex, young, freckled and inexperienced was willing enough to leave after a month when, apparently the money gave out. Later, he was prominent in various football and baseball teams, at dances and wherever young folks met for fun. The popular MacGregor family came to Edison in 1905 and 1906. Besides Alex, there were two other sons, Murdoch, who married Sarah Beaton, and Simon who married Swann. The daughters were Bella (Mrs. Jack Taylor) Margaret (Mrs. Jack McRae) and Lizzie ( Mrs. Kelly Davis).

12

The Zaczkowski farm
1910
Edison, Westlock, Alberta, Canada

13

Farming advanced from the hand labor, through to animal powered to the beginning of the mechanized age. In the Edison district, the first thresher driven by horses on a treadmill was owned and shared by Omer Houle in about 1904. The first reports of a steam powered thresher were of an outfit owned by Parents of Clyde area in 1907. In 1908 or 1909 Johnny and Leo Zaczkowski threshed for their neighbors with a steam powered thresher and continued this for many years.

14

Oxen were important to settlers in many parts of Alberta. Here three oxen are hitched for breaking.
1910
Edison, Westlock, Alberta, Canada