History
Lomond main street in 1921.
The Hanna side of the family came to Alberta from Nova Scotia 1906 and filed for a homestead in the Lomond district in 1907. The original Hanna farm in Nova Scotia is still operating to this day by Hanna descendants. The original Hanna farmstead near Lomond was in the 16-20 township.
Norris Hanna operated a taxi service in the summer of 1914 bringing homesteaders and supplies out from High River.
Norris Hanna was born in Halfway River, Nova Scotia on July 19, 1886. Alberta was born on September 8, 1894, in Methwin, Manitoba and was the daughter of Sara and Ward Badgley. The Badgley family moved from Manitoba to Red Pass, Alberta where Ward became a forest warden. Norris Hanna married Alberta Badgley on June 25, 1918 and had two girls, Ethel and Raalte. Norris lived in Lomond and farmed near Lake Mcgregor. Norris was a very busy man not satisfied with just farming he took on other responsibilities with imperial oil as an agent, being an active member with the Masonic Lodge and a serving as a warden with the Anglican church. He was also the mayor of Lomond for many years and an elevator agent for Terwilliger at first then for United Grain Growers for over 30 years until he retired in 1951.
The Hanna family in 1954, Norris in the middle back with Marie and Doug Bolduc in the front.
Ethel Hanna was born in Lomond on May 20, 1921. She attended the Lomond Consolidated School up until grade 11 and took her grade 12 at Crescent Heights School in Calgary. She then went on to the University of Alberta and graduated with a bachelors degree in home economics with honors. She then attended radio college and became a operator with the Royal Air force Transportation Command and was posted at Gander airbase until 1945.
Frank Bolduc harvest crew in the Barhill area during the 1908 season.
In 1907, the Bolduc side of the family moved to Alberta near Barhill from Todd county Minnesota. Frank and Celina Bolduc had three sons Frank, Medus, and William. Medus was born in Ishpeming, Michigan on April 29, 1887. In the summer of 1911 Medus Bolduc traveled back to Osakis, Minnesota and married Katie Harsh on August 1, 1911. Katie, the daughter of Florence and Sylvester Harsh of Osakis, was born on February 17, 1888. They moved to the Travers area around 1918. In 1926, they built the Sweet Valley Farm homestead north of Travers. Medus opened the IHC dealership in Travers in 1928 and purchased the first diesel tractor in the area. Medus and Katie had two sons, Floyd and Billie and farmed in the Travers area until 1954 when they sold their farm and retired.
Billie Bolduc was born April 4, 1917 at Barhill. In his early years he attended the Grand Springs, Prairie Queen, Sweet Valley and Travers schools. He also helped out on his father's farm along side his brother Floyd. In the mid 30's, he took a job as a lease rider when the first community pasture opened and was able to raise enough money to start buying some land and cattle of his own. In 1940, he bought some registered Herefords and put them under the name of Sweet Valley.
On October 23, 1948, at St. Augustine's Anglican church in
Lethbridge,
Billie and Ethel were married. They had two children, Marie
and
Doug. They farmed south of Lomond raising registered
Hereford
cattle and they also had a large Shetland pony herd.
They raised
herfords from
1940 through 1975 and became a member of the Quarter Century
Herford
Club. During this time they sold cattle into every
province
across Canada, some into the United States and even as far
away as
Russia. In 1971, they imported their first Limousin
cow and fell
in love with the breed. From this point on they
started to breed,
show, and sell their Limousin herd with great success right
up into the
mid 90's. In the early 1970's, they put up some of the
first central irrigation pivots in the area. In 1980,
they moved
from
their original farm to the Lake McGregor farm. Both
Billie and
Ethel were heavily involved with the 4-H program from being
leader to
hosting provincial events. Billie belonged to the
Lomond Lions
Club and Ethel belonged to the Lomond Community Club.
Both stayed
on as
members even after they retired to Lethbridge in 1996.
Marie Bolduc was born in the late 1940's. She
attended school
in
Lomond and later went on to attended the University of
Calgary where she
obtained her BSc. This is
were she met her future husband, Glenn Logan.
Glenn was born in
Outlook, Saskatchewan in the late 1940's to Charlie and
Kathleen
Logan. Charlie was in the Second World War and was a
Sergeant
with
the Royal Canadian Engineers. He was in stationed
Europe and was
part of the advanced division. Responsible for
building river
crossings and roads for the
advancing infantry and also being some of the first
into
concentration camps to deal with the aftermath. During
this time, he drove an armored cat tractor that was designed
to
clear roads and get through road blocks. He was
wounded
twice, shot at and dive bombed more than once. After
the war,
it took a long time (three years for Charlie) to get all the
troops out
of Europe and during this
period he opened a restaurant in Pairs. After the war
he settled
in Bounty, Saskatchewan, and went to work for the school
division and
worked his way up to superintendent of maintenance.
Kay was busy
with the clubs of Bounty and was the town administrator for
many years.
At the University of Calgary, Marie studied biology while
Glenn took engineering with a minor in the arts. In
1972, they
were married. They moved back to the Lomond area and
started
farming south east of Lomond. They grew many different
kinds of
crops including corn and raised Limosin cattle as
well. They had
two children, Douglas and Tamara. Both children
attended the
Lomond school and then went on to further education in
Lethbridge. In
1980, Glenn and Marie moved to Billie
and Ethel's farm south of Lomond. From this point on
the farm
began to grow and in 1988 it was decided to go into
pedigreed
seed. In the following years, a bulk storage site was
built
followed by a cleaning and drying facility.
Billie & Ethel Bolduc along with the Hanna and Bolduc
Sides of the
family in 1953.
After graduating from grade 12, Doug attended the University of Lethbridge were he majored in biological sciences with an interest in the arts and during this time he also took agricultural courses from the college. During the summers, he worked at the Lethbridge Research station where he worked full time for a few years as a lab technician after he was done his schooling. In his 2nd year at University he had the good fortune to meet Heather Van Keulen.
Heather was born in Edmonton in the mid 1970's to John and
Jenny
Van Keulen. Both John and Jenny were born in Holland
and John has
many memories from his childhood there. John was a
district
agriculturalist in Medicine Hat for many years and
eventually retired in
Lethbridge along with Jenny. Heather took her Bachelor
of
Nursing at the University and College and graduated with
honors as a
registered nurse.
Heather and Doug were married in 1995 and in 1996 moved to
Billie
and Ethel Bolduc's place over looking Lake McGregor.
Heather got
a
job with the Vulcan Public Health Unit and Doug returned to
the
farm. Over the next few years, they had four children,
Hannah,
Hailey, Samuel and Jaxon. Both Heather and Doug are
active in
farm operations.
Billie and Floyd Bolduc helping with the farm work in 1924
at the
Travers Farm.
Tamara Logan also attended the University of Lethbridge
were she
majored in biology. Upon her graduation she
moved to Calgary to work on her PhD in Microbiology &
Infectious
Diseases. During this period, she
was approached through a hobby of hers to teach a class at a
local store. Within the year, she was COO of the
company
overseeing the wholesale division (shipping orders globally
to
companies) and retail division of four Alberta stores. While
living in
Calgary she met her future husband, Shin.
Shin Okubo was born in Lethbridge in the mid 1970's to
Yoshinori and
Sumiko Okubo. Both parents were born and raised in
Japan.
After moving to Canada, they eventually settled on a farm in
the
Picture Butte area raising their seven children. The
children
attended school in Iron Springs, Picture Butte, and
Lethbridge.
Shin
went on to University of Lethbridge, Olds College, and SAIT
where he
received his ag diploma and a business diploma. Upon
graduation
he returned to the farm to manage operations.
Tamara and Shin were married on January 5th, 2005 and are
currently living on the Okubo farm site. Over the next
few years
they had three children, Ava, Maxton and Kale. Tarmara
and Shin are
active in both farming operations.