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John and Mary Deans arrive at the 6th Siding in 1890.
1890
6th Siding (Olds) NWT Canada

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Like many other Southern Alberta Pioneers, John Gardner Deans and Mary Anna Mier, had arrived into what was to be named Alberta, years before they settled in around the 6th siding. Memories of their youngest daughter, Victoria Alberta Deans, retell some of her mother’s stories about the journey which brought her parents to the Calgary area in October of 1879.
John and Mary were married in December of 1882 and their eldest daughter, Louise Anna, was born in December of 1883. The bank of the Elbow River offered a favorable location to establish The Alberta Laundry in 1882. An editorial to The Calgary Herald, dated 3 September 1884, reveals the staunch “Glasgow Scotchman” character that his future neighbor, H. B. Adshead, would later describe in “Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories.” According to land records it was in July 1885 when application number 217 was made for a homestead in the NW 1/4 of section 12, township 23, range 1 west of the 5th meridian. In October of 1890 a patent was issued, to John Gardner Deans and his heirs, for 110 acres described as “to the east and west of the Bow River.” Many years later this parcel of land would contain the site of the Holy Cross Hospital where at least one of their many GG grandchildren would be born. However, soon after this patent was issued, the Deans’ family (now totaling 6) had moved northward.
By 1892 survey crews had documented land marks in the vicinity of township 33 range 2 west of the 5th at least twice, and the location of the newest Deans’ household was recorded on the NE 1/4 of section 14, about 4 ½ miles northwest of the 6th siding. In November of 1896, patent was granted. With four more children by the year 1900, the Deans’ family had taken root beside Sleepy Creek, and marriage would weave other family names such as Shannon, Wolford, Neilson, Kearney and Mcleod into this community memory.

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The New Arrival, part 1: A short story from 'Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories'
1 August 1899
Olds NWT Canada

Credits:
H.B. Adshead

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The New Arrival Part 1
A short story from “Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories”
By H.B. Adshead
Read by Rhianne Weghnar great great grand daughter of Mrs.Deans
Books have been written on the pioneers of the west. Empire builders they have been called, and recognition of the hardships they endured has been accorded and praise given, and justly so, but little has been said or written of the part that the women, wives of pioneers, and mothers of the men of today, played in the conquest of this last best west.
Women, who not only shared the hardships and discomforts of pioneer life, not only did the housework, but in many cases helped with the chores, and often times driving a team a disc or a hayrake, and helping to stack the hay and grain, and last but not least, faced childbirth bravely and unflinchingly; faced possible death, knowing in many cases that medical aid was impossible, and from this cause more than one mother has passed to the beyond.
The year 1899 was the beginning of the wet years. Sleepy Creek was narrow in places and had small lakes, swimming holes here and there, but it’s banks, like the banks of all creeks where there was deep soil, were perpendicular and crossing places had to be made or found where possible, and the trails led to these few crossing places. We didn’t travel on the road allowances; we often did not know where the road allowances were. We followed the old high land trails across country. There was a crossing place below my sod shack where I could get to John Deans with a team when necessary.

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The New Arrival, part 2: A short story from 'Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories'
2 August 1899
Olds NWT Canada

Credits:
H.B. Adshead

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The New Arrival
A short story from "Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories"
By H.B. Adshead
Part 2
The year 1899 was the beginning of the wet years. Sleepy Creek was narrow in places and had small lakes, swimming holes here and there, but it's banks, like the banks of all creeks where there was deep soil, were perpendicular and crossing places had to be made or found where possible, and the trails led to these few crossing places. We didn't travel on the road allowances; we often did not know where the road allowances were. We followed the old high land trails across country. There was a crossing place below my sod shack where I could get to John Deans with a team when necessary.
There were no telephones, but nevertheless interesting local news, especially the coming of the stork anywhere, managed to get around somehow, and it became known that the stork was expected at the teacher's shack sometime in August, and offers of help from kind neighbors were not slow in coming, and among them friend John's wife across the creek.

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The New Arrival, part 3: A short story from 'Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories'
3 August 1900
Olds NWT Canada

Credits:
H.B. Adshead

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The New Arrival
A short story from "Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories"
By H.B. Adshead
Part 3

There were no doctors nearer than Innisfail or Calgary, but fortunately there lived on a homestead some few miles east of Olds a man, who, though having no "papers"from Regina, had practiced in Michigan, and what the old settlers owe to good old Doc. Kay has not been made known. The Doc. Promised me to come if I went after him.
During August it rained continuously. It seemed as if the clouds were so heavy and full that they trailed along the ground, driven by the north-east winds, and the rain came through the sod roof until the only dry spot was beneath the big center ridge pole. And they told us it only rained a few days in June!
When it did come a fine day and we saw the sun for a little while, I knew John was alive and he knew we were okay because we could see each other hanging out the clothes, etc. , to dry, and we could signal though we were not scouts. As it rained inside the shack a day or so after it stopped raining outside, we both moved outside for a while on a fine day.

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The New Arrival, part 4: A short story from 'Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories'
4 August 1899
Olds NWT Canada

Credits:
H.B. Adshead

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The New Arrival
A short story from "Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories"
By H.B. Adshead
Part 4
As August drew on we both hoped and prayed for fine weather, but about the fifteenth it closed in and rained in torrents. The prairie was like a sponge, the trails mud, and Sleepy Creek's original banks were nowhere to be seen. The shack was almost an island and our crossing place nearly a quarter of a mile wide.
The barnyard was a foot deep in mud and manure, but we kept the horses in every night.
We now determined to make one dry spot in the shack even if the water did run down the walls inside from the roof. We picked up every available board from the barn and every stable door we could get and placed them on one corner of the roof. This helped greatly, the water only dripping in two or three places. The head of the bed was placed under the ridge pole and an umbrella over the head with a rubber rug over the rest. This completed our arrangements.

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The New Arrival, part 5: A short story from 'Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories'
5 August 1899
Olds NWT Canada

Credits:
H.B. Adshead

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The New Arrival
A short story from "Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories"
By H.B. Adshead
Part 5
We kept the woodpile full up even if we had to commandeer a dry fence pole or two. But it still rained persistently and exasperatingly, and the creek rose higher.
About 3 o'clock in the morning of August 22nd, my wife called me and told me to go for Mrs. Deans across the creek. I lit the lamp and the lantern, called my daughter and the boys. I told my daughter to stay by her mother and said to the boys: "Boys, you keep the stove full of wood--though it's wet we can keep warm, anyway--and take a tomato can and dip the water out of the pond on the floor into a pail and throw it out of doors." In my second story I told you that the floor had sagged because some sleepers had given away, and that this was not an unmixed evil because when it rained through the roof it made a pond about five feet across and three inches deep. It was this pond that the boys were dipping out. Later I wondered why the boys were not dipping, and I found that one of the boys had got tired of dipping and found an easier way. He got an inch bit and bored a hole in the lowest spot and all the water ran through the hole into the dugout we called the cellar. That disposed of the water on the floor.

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The New Arrival, part 6: A short story from 'Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories'
6 August 1899
Olds NWT Canada

Credits:
H.B. Adshead

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The New Arrival
A short story from "Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories"
By H.B. Adshead
Part 6
Putting on my sheep skin and mitts, I took the lantern and waded to the stable, put the wet harness on wet horses, hitched them to the old buggy and started to find the trail that ran across the creek.
We found it and I turned the horses towards the wide stretch of water. The crossing wasn't very wide but fortunately the width of water made the current not so swift in the center. Splash, splash, splash, splash went the horses' feet. Higher and higher came the water. It was now up to the horses' shoulders and into the bottom of the buggy. I put my feet up on the seat and held the lines firm. "Steady girls, steady girls. Easy girls, feel your way." I always talked to my horses, especially when we got in a tight spot. They seemed to know what was said. "Steady girls, we must be somewhere near the crossing." Kerplunk, splash. Bell, the off mare, had disappeared, but Colie held the trail and Bell got her feet on the trail again as we swung to the left, but the buggy's right wheel went kerplunk too but we did not upset. "Close call that, girls. Easy now were out of the channel and on the flat