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THE FRED SCHMIDT FAMILY
In 1913 Fred's father, Joseph Schmidt, and
Joseph's son from his first marriage, August, came to Canada and
took up homesteads in the Marron District. Previously Joseph had
been a foreman of a bricklaying building company in Germany. For
a time, before moving to Canada, he and his group of workers,
including August, had worked in England.
Fred's mother, Augusta Schindel, and her two daughters from her
first marriage, Wanda and Hilda, arrived in Canada in 1925 and
settled in the Biggar district where Wanda soon married.
Three years later, Joseph, being an eligible widower, heard about
eligible widow, Augusta, through Glenbush blacksmith, Carl Selent,
who was married to Wandas sister-in-law. Deciding he needed a
wife, he brought her home to his homestead.
In 1929 Fred was born in the little house which is still standing
on the homestead quarter, NW 22-49-15. The house was built partly
of logs and one side was woven with small willows, then plastered
over. Of course, Joseph built the brick chimney on it and probably
several chimneys in the area.
On July 8, 1931 at the age of sixty-one, after a short 3 year
marriage, when Fred was only two years old, Joseph died of cancer
in the Rabbit Lake Hospital. He was buried in the Rabbit Lake
cemetery.
August, in the meantime, worked at various places in the area,
among them Speers, Battleford, Maidstone and Midnight Lake. Then
he settled into farming his quarter of land across the road from
Marron School. He also farmed the quarter that Joseph had owned
until Fred was old enough to farm. August remained a bachelor
and continued to live in his little one room house on his little
farm which eventually grew to a half section.he farmed until his
death in 1974 at the age of seventy-seven.
Hilda, for a time, lived in the Robinhood district working for
Mrs. Elmer Hagen. She married and later moved to Payton, Saskatchewan.
In 1935 Augusta and son, Fred, moved to Valleyview, Alberta, where
a sister of hers lived. It was here Fred remembers two terrifying
experiences with water. Once when he went under water twice before
getting a footing when playing in a dugout. The second was when
he and a friend had to cross a river to take lunch to his uncle
and others working in a field across the river. The current pushed
them farther than they had intended to go downstream, where the
water was much deeper. Unable to swim, but with his taller friend
holding his hand, Fred remembers the terrifying feeling of rushing
water being up to his neck before they finally made it to shallower
water.
When Fred was twelve, having lived in Alberta for six years, Fred
and his mother moved back to Saskatchewan where his mother worked
as a housekeeper on a farm at Landis, then at Biggar and at Denholm.
At the age of fourteen, while at Denholm, to keep bread and butter
on the table, Fred quit school and went to work hauling bundles
for a threshing crew. The work was hard and the days were long
but he was determined to keep up with the men on the crew. In
late fall (1943) the two of them moved back to the Medstead homestead
and in the spring Fred went back to work at Denholm leaving his
mother here. His wages were $45.00 a month. In the mid-summer
he came home to Medstead and that fall hauled bundles for Noble
Egeland. In the spring of 1945 he worked for Carl Carlson just
outside of Medstead, picking stones, driving horses, harrowing,
etc. In 1945, at sixteen, Fred bought his first three horses and
also his first cow, which was bought from Elmer Hagen. He was
still working for Carl Carlson but had graduated to slightly higher
wages. At seventeen, according to his father's will, Fred was
allowed to begin farming his own quarter which was left to him
by his father. He spent his spare time clearing new land by ax
and harvesting with various farmers in the area. He got his first
car, a Model A Ford in 1952. Freds mother moved to Payton in 1956
to live near Hilda.
By 1957 Fred grew tired of batching. He worked for Ole Swenson
at seeding time and then in summer decided to go south job hunting
near Swift Current, Regina, etc. unsuccessful, he went to work
for a farmer at Payton, then at a lumber camp in Rocky Mountain
House, Alberta during the winter, returning to Payton in the spring.
It was here that he met Dorothy Peterson, a Payton farm girl,
his future wife.
Back at Medstead for the winter, and returning to Payton in spring,
Fred bought a small well-boreing machine in partnership with his
future brother-in-law and spent the summer drilling wells in the
Payton and North Battleford areas.
About this time Fred's mother moved to Biggar.
Dorothy went to Teachers College in the fall of 1959 so Fred thought
he would move a little closer and got a harvesting job at Biggar.
Following their engagement in December he went back to the sawmill
in Alberta for the winter. In August of 1960, after Dorothy's
graduation from Teachers College, and after two summer school
classes in Edmonton, Fred and Dorothy were married. During that
summer Fred's mother passed away in Biggar.
When Dorothy began her first teaching job at Netherhill, Saskatchewan,
Fred had to harvest his crop at Medstead but got a job as a arena
caretaker at Netherhill for the next 2 winters and worked for
a Netherhill farmer during the farming seasons.
In 1962 they moved back to Medstead, living in a house in town.
Dorothy taught grades one and two at Glenbush. Mr. Klippenstein
who was the principal there at the time had taught Dorothy while
she was a student at Paynton. Also teaching there at the time
were Mrs. Klippenstein, Clare Booth and Agnes Grant.
The next summer Fred and Dorothy moved to the farm and into the
house which had once been Woodridge School and later the teacherage
for Woodridge School. (We were told the contractor had built it
in the 30s for a total wage of $35.00.)
In the school year 1963-64 Dorothy taught grade one at Medstead
until shortly before Glenn was born on May 24, 1964.
In the spring of 1966 Fred decided additional income was needed
and went to work as the fuel truck driver for Esso agent Ernie
Thompson. That summer on July 2, 1966 their second son, Garry
was born.
In April 1967 Fred got the job of driving the Co-op Cream truck
picking up cream in the Leoville, Spiritwood, Medstead, Mullingar,
Rabbit Lake, Glaslyn, and Jackpine areas hauling it to North Battleford.
At the end of July, Fred quit this job finding farming and working
out a bit too much. Instead he took up baby-sitting during the
day with three year old Glenn and one year old Garry as Dorothy
went back teaching grades one, two and three at Glenbush in the
fall.
The following year she began teaching at Medstead School.
Glenn and Garry both became involved in hockey in their earlier
years at school. Garry was also involved in 4-H woodworking.
Glenn is now married to Karen Long and together they have 4 children,
18 year old Steven, 14 year old Curtis, 9 year old Dylan and 8
year old Teri.
Garry is married to Bonnie, as of now they have no children but
they have one beagle dog named Festus.