More on My Grandfather Ralph Elmer Smith

Am disrupting the flow of this story here to add in Grandpa's obituary, keeping the data and photos and other material organized has been a problem for me even with the help of computers and genealogy software. The page below is from a history of Donalda Alberta called Fifty Years On The Coulee Rim. I also came across a fragment of a photo that shows grandpa playing his fiddle. Grandpa seated in the baseball photo. Also posted here is a page from Donalda's Roots and Branches showing Grandpa breaking up some land with a bunch of horses and a plow. The other photo is of Dad's brother Charlie looking along the barrel of a hunting rifle in the background are some of Grandpa's hunting dogs. You may recognize a greyhound. The photo of the successful hunt comes from As The Wheels Turn a history at http://www.ourroots.ca another one of my favorite sites to search for information on. As The Wheels Turn has more on the coal mining along the Battle River and the "Gopher Hole" style mines like the one that Grandpa operated for a few years. The last two photos are of Grandpa goofing around...could be Dad got his sense of humour from his father.

 

 

Grandma Olga, Grandpa Ralph holding Charlie, Hazel and Bud on either side.