1

The Samis Family arrived at the Sixth Siding ( now called Olds) in 1893.

2

Homesteaders and job seekers like the Samis family lived off the land in Olds
1893
Olds NWT Canada

3

Some of the 100 families that came in this year had a lasting influence on the town and district of Olds.

A large group was affectionately known as the New Braska colony.

According to the History of Olds, the following is the story of this migration.
The following is part of a letter published in the Farmers Advocate of March 20th 1893:
“ Having made a tour of the NWT, and while thanking you for courtesies to us, we desire to say that in the respective parts of the country we lived in, we have never seen such fine crops as we saw harvested in NWT (Alberta) during the last season. The Edmonton country is especially fine, but ourselves and friends prefer the part of the country between Calgary and Edmonton, about 58 miles north of Calgary, at Olds Station, where so many from our country are settling, The soil is rich black vegetable mould, and crops were enormous all along the road. Some farmers were complaining because oats were only yielding 65 bushels to the acre, wheat 25 bushels of no 1. The grass is excellent and cures on the ground.
We visited the farms of Murray and Batho, and Mitchell-Innes Bros., four miles from Olds station, and found their cattle rolling far, and were assured that the stock had never been fed hay.
From our city of Schuyler alone, our townsmen have entered and purchased 11,000 acres all in the vicinity of Olds station. There is plenty of land, of excellent quality to be entered or purchased.
Our party was composed of persons who helped to settle the state of Nebraska in 1869, and they do not consider they had one-half the advantages offered them as your country affords.
Coal and wood are abundant everywhere, while Nebraska is entirely destitute of both.”
“90 people and 20 settler cars arrived April 7 1893 to bright sunshine and 4 feet of snow the late Jack Smith remembered.”

We will hear more about the Samis family, Shackelton, Cloakley and Moore’s that all arrived in these early years, homesteaded, then started businesses in the town of Olds in later years.

4

Old's first building erected in 1890 was James Marshall's store.
1914
6th Siding (Olds) NWT Canada

5

1891:
A History of Olds states "Charlie Jamison, a squatter, built the first little store in 1891, and started a retail business."
He sells this later to O.S. Moore.

The homesteaders brought their religion and their desire to educate their children.

The early records comment that settlers held religious services wherever they could. In the forest groves, then moving to the largest home in the area, often to the home that had a pump organ.

The early church leaders were often the homesteaders themselves, Samis was a lay Baptist preacher that finally found his congregation on his move to the Olds district. He held services wherever he could. The first services held in James Marshal house. Cottage services were held thru the 1890's with union services held with the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Mennonites.
In 1903 an old school house was purchased for $300.00 and this became the first Baptist church

6

Herb Samis remembers the New Braska (sic) arrival at Olds Station.

"Perhaps a word or two more about our arrival. There was 2 feet of snow on the level and it did not go off until May. We had no spring, just went right into summer. ….
It was 4 P.M. when they side tracked our train, about a dozen emigrant cars and one passenger car. The passenger car was left on side track for our accommodation for several days.

Now we were for the most part in the car looking from the windows. It was a clear and quite mild day."

The Samis family had an impact on this new community. The father Reverend James Samis was a Baptist clergyman and a farmer. He married three times and fathered 10 children. Olds was where he got his life long wish to have his own congregation.

Herb and AJ (Adoniram Judson) 2 of his sons came as teenagers. They both made a serious impact on the community of Olds.
According to a letter by is son William Samis
…"On the migration from Nebraska to Alberta (NWT), which involved several families, A.J. and the other young men, brought the livestock, traveling part way overland, part by rail. A.J helped with the family farm for a time, and taught briefly at the McDougall school at Morley (he commuted by horseback)"

7

The first school in Olds.
1893
Olds NWT Canada

8

The First Schools at the Sixth Siding.

The following is from a speech given to the Home and School association by Herb Samis 1948
" It was back in the winter of 1891 that Mrs. James Marshall offered to teach 5 young children in her log cabin, on the bleak prairie, on their homestead, (Tp 33-R-1-W5M) ...
As far as we can learn, Mrs. Marshall, a kindly woman of about 30-55 years of age but almost perfectly white hair, taught these young folks without any regular remuneration. These first pupils were 2 Silverthorns, 3 Websters.
The next term the Emigration Hall was used as a school building. This building was a 2-story frame building, standing North & South on stilts some 4 ft off the ground, and painted a bright red.
New students were added, including the Frasier bros. The Frasiers lived in the C.P.R. Station which was being completed. There was no agent, yet. Dave Shannon was the section foreman for the construction co.
In 1892 the 1st school was built. It stood East and West just south of the south RR crossing on the east side of the RR between the rail road and Shackleton's residence...
I am not just sure when the new school opened, but must have been the fall term of 1892, as my 1st personal contact with the school set up, was the next spring that the "Nebraska Special" rattled to a stop in front of the now famous Olds Depot....
The thing that impressed me about these school children first, was they all had school bags under their arms, hung with straps over their shoulders. I had never seen this in any of the school I attended in the U.S.A...."

"The school was moved to the present school grounds, and another frame building was built..
When these were over crowded a large 2 story brick school was built, and the 2 small schools were disposed of..."
Yet the fire hall and the Masonic Lodge Hall had to be pressed into service to meet the demand of more school facilities."

9

Baseball comes to Olds.
1894
Olds NWT Canada

10

Baseball comes to Olds

The following is from a speech given to the home school association by Herb Samis 1948
The first baseball game was played at Innsifail, spring of 1893. I wanted to go but as we were trying to get our house finished, I had to watch the ball team go by our place in a lumber wagon. The result of the 1st encounter was - Innisfail 33, Olds ½ of 33 split perpendicular in other words take away one of the threes to see what "Olds" had.
This was the first encounter. Innisfail came to Olds, almost the same results. …
That was enough! My brother A.J. and the Bush Bros, who worked for us, vowed we could do better than that. Certainly no worse! So in March 1894 we sent out the call to the homesteaders in the district that we would organize a ball team. So on the day of the game, we trekked through the snow to (what is now known as highway 27) (the main trail west) that was just north of our place- the now Netook Landing field and picked a clean spot free of snow. You should have seen the homesteaders coming out of the brush from every direction till there were 20 to 30 would be Christy Matheson's and Babe Ruth's, Bill Dickie's- and the game was on- the result was far reaching. After the game, we picked a team, and challenged Innisfail. A week or so later we were headed north in a -Yes you guessed it- lumber wagon. We pushed our way through the mosquitoes, had a smudge in the wagon to keep some of the smallest ones away, we had our lunch along and feed for the horses.
The game was on- When the smoke cleared away the score was Innisfail 17, Olds 16- Well that was a lot better. This was the beginning of a lovely friendly rivalry, that lasted through the years; we played every year for many many years."

11

The ball team.
1899
Olds NWT Canada

12

The homesteaders had coyote hunts to protect their stock.
1897
Olds NWT Canada

13

Herb Samis;

The early diaries of Herb show he knew how to live off the land. There were a number of entries where it “was too cold to go to school” but he killed 17 coyotes.
Coyotes would kill the homesteader’s chickens, and attack sheep and calves.
There were hunts organized to reduce the numbers. The men in the neighborhood would grid an area and drive the coyotes to the center (very like a tiger drive in India) generally killing a dozen or 2 at a time

14

Early settlers lived off the land during a time of drought known as the 'Rabbit Years'.
1910
Olds NWT Canada