Postscript
A Road Trip into Haverfield Country
Enroute to the site of Percy and Pluma’s Rock Creek farm. Photo by Gary Ball.
The following article was written by Starla Haverfield Anderson and published in The Times of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, September 26, 2014.
The East Block of the Grasslands National Park has special meaning for four cousins who traveled from far distances to learn about their Haverfield family heritage in the region. Judy Limbaugh and husband Gary came from San Jose, California; Karen Dening and husband Dave came from Stokesdale, North Carolina; Kathleen Wolff came from Anacortes, Washington; and Starla Anderson came from Victoria, British Columbia to learn about the Lonesome Butte area near Killdeer.
It was a very cold, windy, and rainy day on Sept. 9, 2014, when Brenda Peterson, the Interpretation Coordinator at the McGowan Visitor Reception Center, welcomed these descendents of early homesteaders. Brenda pointed out Percy’s name on a list of the region’s early homesteaders, and she informed the group that the cellar of the McGowan House where they were standing was dug out by their Grandpa Percy. From inside the Center, she pointed to the section of land across Rock Creek where Percy had broken the land in 1917.
Thelma and Emile Poirier were the travelers’ guides, helping them to navigate some slippery roads from North Portal to the McGowan Center. After a bountiful lunch prepared by Thelma, the visitors were presented with gifts that included her book, Rock Creek, appliquéd wall hangings with the hills, trees, and Percy’s original home at the head of Rock Creek where he and Pluma raised five children. They also received copies of their grandfather’s original homesteading documents. Then their tour continued past the caragana trees that their great-grandparents, Alexander and Elizabeth Haverfield had planted around their homestead yard almost a hundred years ago. Before leaving this area, they visited the Killdeer Cemetery where Alexander Haverfield’s remains were buried in 1933.
As the day began to close, the travelers arrived at Camille and Carl Anderson’s place south of Fir Mountain—the place where these cousins’ parents had been raised for twelve years. The musical instruments came out and while Kathleen joined Camille and Carl with her ukulele, others visited and made themselves at home while keeping an eye on the roast chicken and vegetables in the oven. Miles and Sherry Anderson later came across the road from their place and joined the party that went late into the night. The Haverfield cousins slept well on the land that had once belonged to their grandparents.
Before leaving the area, sisters Karen and Judy visited Lila (Dolly) Mitchell in LaFleche. Lila had been their mother Lela’s good friend when they were young children over eighty years ago— they rode horseback a mile and a half back and forth along Rock Creek between Leonard and Acquina Anderson’s place and Percy and Pluma’s. Lila said that she and Lela would squabble and Lela would tell her to go home and then chase after her telling her to come back. She also told of how her very first trip to the city (Regina) was with Percy and Pluma and Lela when they needed to go to the city to get a passport for Lela when Percy finally had to give up his homestead because of drought and head south to the States looking for work.
Margaret and Aubrey Ellis, relations of the Andersons who farm south of LaFleche, provided the final meal for the group before they dispersed to return to their faraway homes. It was an abundant harvest meal of barbequed steaks, corn on the cob, tomatoes ripened on the vine, pickled beets, salad, and apple crisp. Though the Haverfield ancestors had to leave their homesteads in the late 1930s because of the drought and the Depression, the spirit of their time has survived in the Killdeer-Glentworth-Fir Mountain-LaFleche communities. The Haverfield cousins left feeling overwhelmed with appreciation.
It was a very cold, windy, and rainy day on Sept. 9, 2014, when Brenda Peterson, the Interpretation Coordinator at the McGowan Visitor Reception Center, welcomed these descendents of early homesteaders. Brenda pointed out Percy’s name on a list of the region’s early homesteaders, and she informed the group that the cellar of the McGowan House where they were standing was dug out by their Grandpa Percy. From inside the Center, she pointed to the section of land across Rock Creek where Percy had broken the land in 1917.
Thelma and Emile Poirier were the travelers’ guides, helping them to navigate some slippery roads from North Portal to the McGowan Center. After a bountiful lunch prepared by Thelma, the visitors were presented with gifts that included her book, Rock Creek, appliquéd wall hangings with the hills, trees, and Percy’s original home at the head of Rock Creek where he and Pluma raised five children. They also received copies of their grandfather’s original homesteading documents. Then their tour continued past the caragana trees that their great-grandparents, Alexander and Elizabeth Haverfield had planted around their homestead yard almost a hundred years ago. Before leaving this area, they visited the Killdeer Cemetery where Alexander Haverfield’s remains were buried in 1933.
As the day began to close, the travelers arrived at Camille and Carl Anderson’s place south of Fir Mountain—the place where these cousins’ parents had been raised for twelve years. The musical instruments came out and while Kathleen joined Camille and Carl with her ukulele, others visited and made themselves at home while keeping an eye on the roast chicken and vegetables in the oven. Miles and Sherry Anderson later came across the road from their place and joined the party that went late into the night. The Haverfield cousins slept well on the land that had once belonged to their grandparents.
Before leaving the area, sisters Karen and Judy visited Lila (Dolly) Mitchell in LaFleche. Lila had been their mother Lela’s good friend when they were young children over eighty years ago— they rode horseback a mile and a half back and forth along Rock Creek between Leonard and Acquina Anderson’s place and Percy and Pluma’s. Lila said that she and Lela would squabble and Lela would tell her to go home and then chase after her telling her to come back. She also told of how her very first trip to the city (Regina) was with Percy and Pluma and Lela when they needed to go to the city to get a passport for Lela when Percy finally had to give up his homestead because of drought and head south to the States looking for work.
Margaret and Aubrey Ellis, relations of the Andersons who farm south of LaFleche, provided the final meal for the group before they dispersed to return to their faraway homes. It was an abundant harvest meal of barbequed steaks, corn on the cob, tomatoes ripened on the vine, pickled beets, salad, and apple crisp. Though the Haverfield ancestors had to leave their homesteads in the late 1930s because of the drought and the Depression, the spirit of their time has survived in the Killdeer-Glentworth-Fir Mountain-LaFleche communities. The Haverfield cousins left feeling overwhelmed with appreciation.
The four cousins who made the pilgrimage to learn more about their grandparents’ and parents’ lives. Kathleen Wolff, Judy Ball, Karen Denning, and Starla Anderson (l. to r.) started their journey in Minot, North Dakota, where Pluma and Joseph Arthur had lived. They ventured east to visit the River Side Cemetery near Dunseith, where they honored ancestors they never knew, and then west to visit Lyman and Bob’s high school in Hinsdale, Montana, and the now-empty building in Glasgow where Edna Fern once worked at Penney’s department store. In a cemetery in Glasgow, shown in this photo, they found the graves of Ruth and Nathan Goodrich. They then headed north through Opheim into Canada to visit the farmland where their parents grew up. Photo by Gary Ball.
Thelma and Emile Poirier met up with the pilgrims at the West Poplar Border Crossing north of Opheim and showed the way to where Percy had his homestead, now part of the East Block of Grasslands National Park. Thelma is the youngest sister of Edna Fern’s husband, Ernest Anderson. Clockwise from front left: Emile Poirier, Karen and Dave Dening, Starla Anderson, Kathleen Wolff, Judy Ball, Thelma Poirier, and Brenda Peterson (Brenda is a niece of Thelma and Emile and a cousin of Starla). Photo by Gary Ball.
Sharing a meal at Camille and Carl Anderson’s dinner table on the property where Percy and Pluma Haverfield had raised their young family. Clockwise from left: Gary Ball (seldom in a picture because he was the official photographer), Starla, Carl, Camille, Karen, Dave, Kathleen, and Judy. Photo by Miles Anderson.
Carl and Camille welcomed the pilgrims for an overnight stay at their farm home. Their love of music was infectious, and Kathleen needed no persuasion to join in with her ukulele and strong singing voice. Karen and Judy weren’t far behind, and Judy even took up Camille’s offer of a fiddle lesson. Photo by Gary Ball.
Judy and Karen’s Great-Great-Grandmother Search
The great-great-grandmother search began in June 2019. Judy and Karen conspired to create this tour. It started as a search to locate their great-great-grandmother’s gravesite with a side trip to Niagara Falls. After picking up Judy at the Syracuse airport, we drove to Lockport, N.Y., and checked into a hotel. That afternoon we drove to the North Ridge Cemetery for a quick survey.
The word was DISMAYED as we drove into the cemetery as illustrated by the cemetery map. We parked by the veteran’s monument (the little triangle roughly in the center of the cemetery) and got out to look. I walked south down the road to talk to a lady working on a gravesite to see what the rules were for planting flowers. Karen started searching to the west of the car and Judy started north. Almost before I reached the lady, Karen and Judy waved that Judy had found her great-great-grandmother’s gravesite. She had apparently walked straight to it. I think the plot is number 134.
We purchased flowers and a shovel at Home Depot and stopped the next day on the way back from Niagara Falls. Lucretia is buried in the Woods family plot with her daughter Eva and son-in-law Lester. We cleaned the accumulated moss and lichen off the headstones and planted flowers. The sisters then posed for a photograph commemorating the event.
Dave Dening
The word was DISMAYED as we drove into the cemetery as illustrated by the cemetery map. We parked by the veteran’s monument (the little triangle roughly in the center of the cemetery) and got out to look. I walked south down the road to talk to a lady working on a gravesite to see what the rules were for planting flowers. Karen started searching to the west of the car and Judy started north. Almost before I reached the lady, Karen and Judy waved that Judy had found her great-great-grandmother’s gravesite. She had apparently walked straight to it. I think the plot is number 134.
We purchased flowers and a shovel at Home Depot and stopped the next day on the way back from Niagara Falls. Lucretia is buried in the Woods family plot with her daughter Eva and son-in-law Lester. We cleaned the accumulated moss and lichen off the headstones and planted flowers. The sisters then posed for a photograph commemorating the event.
Dave Dening
While Judy and Gary were in New York City visiting their son Nevin, Judy and Karen instigated a trip to that place (where the Niagara river goes over a cliff), the Corning Museum, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That journey took place from October 30th to November 4th, 2021.
Nevin came along with Judy, Karen, and me to learn some family history. Our first stop was at the North Ridge Cemetery in Lockport, New York, to visit the burial site of Nevin’s great-great-great-grandmother Lucretia, which we had found in June 2019.
(Words and photo by Dave Dening.)
Nevin came along with Judy, Karen, and me to learn some family history. Our first stop was at the North Ridge Cemetery in Lockport, New York, to visit the burial site of Nevin’s great-great-great-grandmother Lucretia, which we had found in June 2019.
(Words and photo by Dave Dening.)
Nevin is a history buff, so he knew that his great-great-grandfather Benjamin Anderson had fought in the Civil War as part of the Pennsylvania troops. He found a photograph taken on July 3, 1915, of Benjamin Anderson pointing to his name on the monument in Gettysburg that lists all the Pennsylvania troops that took part in the battle of Gettysburg. The photo shows Judy and Nevin pointing to Benjamin Anderson’s name on that monument and a print of the real Benjamin Anderson pointing to his name 52 years after the battle.
(Words and photo by Dave Dening.)
(Words and photo by Dave Dening.)