Job Reed's Letters : Life in Lethbridge, 1886-1906

              Woodpecker Station [now BarnwellJ Alberta, NWT Canada.  March 25, 1886
My dear old friend,
I am again writing to tell you of my progress.  Coal of an excellent quality had been discovered [at Coal Banks, later Lethbridge] about one hundred and nine miles west of Dunmore, that is the next station west of Irvine, and a railroad had been con¬ tracted for and the first fifteen miles of grading done in the fall of 1884 ready to start in spring to finish the road to the Coal Banks.  [This was the narrow gauge line from Dunmore to Lethbridge, which was completed in August 1885.]  Spring came and the bookkeeper came back to take charge of the sawmill as manager, and I knew by his manner and a few hints which I got from men that he did not want anybody there in authority who had been there before him, so I gave a month's notice to leave and asked for a settlement.  I had taken no wages since September and had advanced some money twice during the winter so they were owing me over three hundred dollars.  However I had no difficulty in getting a settlement, and I moved to Dunmore and built a little house of two rooms to be ready to start work on the new railroad.  The coal mine where friend Barnes worked all winter closed down in spring and he also came to Dunmore.  As soon as the work started there was a scarcity of water; although there was a fine brook about a half mile away; and I went in to Medicine Hat and bought a cart that had been made especially for hauling water for those who were needing it [at 35<: per barrel] and in this way during the four months we lived at Dunmore they earned a hundred and thirty dollars.  I worked all summer for two dollars a day.  In June I bought a heifer and calf.  The heifer turned out to be the best for milk and butter that I ever saw.  We used a little milk and raised the calf, and sold the balance of the milk to a man who was selling hop beer.  He paid us fifty cents a gallon for it and sold it at ten cents a glass, and by the time we came up here in September we had made fifty three dollars off the milk.
Ft ^m Mrs. Job Reed with son George and daughter Annie,
i r The picture was taken at Woodpecker
(now Barnwell) where Annie was born.
A