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 | The Homme Family (Tomahawk Trails, 1974, page 258-264)
Homme Family
Lars Homme came to Alberta from Poplar, Minnesota in 1906 and took up homesteading at Burtonsville that same spring. There was no post office at Burtonsville at that time so his mail came to Mewassin. Heavy supply wagons brought supplies to logging camps. There was some logging being done in this area as well as farther west. He built himself a dug out in the hillside, covered it with tamarack poles with birch bark and sod on top and lived there until he built his house. That summer, after he moved out he used it for his pig house and it was still in use in 1915 when the birch bark rotted and the shed began to leak. He was handy with carpenter tools and made his own furniture. His home-made rocker is still in the family, along with many other articles he made. He built himself a blacksmith shop and was known far around as "Old Louie the Blacksmith." His broad axe and anvil shown in the picture is still a relic in the family possessions.
In 1909 his nephew Axel Homme joined him. Axel was a rivetter who worked at the ship yards at Fevik, Norway since he was 15 years old. Now he was 21 and like his uncle, a handyman all around. They spent many long evenings by coal oil lamps whittling birch picture frames and other articles used in their carpenter work.
Axel then took up a homestead. His first choice was in the Tomahawk area. He built a shack of logs and lived there one winter. However it was too far to walk back and forth to see Uncle Louie. Since he had learned a bit of English, he went working in the logging camps. He then filed on a homestead one mile north of his Uncle Louie's, built a log shack again and lived there when he was not on the river drive or in the camp.
As small as wages were, he saved money for a trip home to Norway by 1912. So on October 4, 1912 he left the drive at the Holborn ferry site. During the night a snow fall of four inches came so he went home and prepared for his leave to Norway.
In August 1913 he arrived back in Alberta and again he went on river drives and worked in logging camps until 1933. He knew many men who would come up river in the summer and try their luck rolling logs. Among them was a man named Bill Powers. He was a church-going man who believed in prayer before work. He went out to roll logs one morning and some of the men saw him standing with a long face. So they asked Bill what was wrong. "Ah!" he says, "I forgot to say my Geesly prayers this morning." After that he went by the name of "Geesly Bill."
This picture enclosed shows Axel on a log out in the river stream crossing to the wannigan for dinner. Boatsmen picked him off the log before he got all the way across.
Then there was the time in 1912 when, during the night, the cook and sleeping quarters wannigan hit a drift or peer and sunk, sending everything into the swollen torrent. Fortunately no lives were lost. Some of the men from this area had gone home for the night and missed the disaster. Some old timers might remember how long it was before the driving resumed. However, it was quite some time; many articles of clothing, bedding, pots, pans, etc. were picked out of the drift piles. The cook's little dog was rescued days later after being stranded in a drift; miles down river from the accident.
Axel came home from the drive that summer to find his Uncle Louie had been injured by a pet steer. He had climbed a wood pile to get away from the animal and finally managed to get inside the house; he sat for three days in his rocker without food or drink.
In those early days in winter the Indians used a trail crossing Old Louie's land, mostly by pack horse. There was a spot near the south west corner where they would camp; here many arrow heads and scrapers were found. The Indians built contraptions (I don't know what they were called) but they were straight willow poles approximately 2½ inches at the butt and 6 to 8 feet long. It seems to me as I saw two old broken-down ones where the big end had been forced into the ground about a foot apart, deep enough to hold it firm and placed to form a circle. The tops were pulled down to the centre resembling a rounded basket up-side down. In the centre were large stones which were heated and the poles covered with skins; then water was poured over the hot stones. That was the way they made their steam bath. The information as to what these were used for was obtained from Stanley MacDougall.
The Indians had a trail through here, (I am not sure just where) but the half-breeds used it in later years. They would take a team, sleighs and pack horses; go toward Rocky Mountain House and trap for a month or more at a time. I have seen lynx that they were thawing to skin.
A half-breed family, the father a one-armed man; (his name was Louie Toyie) his arm was torn off by a bear. However, he had five sons and lived on a homestead in this area. One son died young, leaving a wife and family. Before moving from the Lac. Ste. Anne area, a son, Martin at the age of 15 got lost while hunting and froze both feet. In order to save his life the mother sawed both his feet off with a hand saw. Talk about courage! One story goes that they filled Martin with moonshine so he couldn't feel the pain — but what an ordeal for a mother!
This Louie was a great trapper, even though he was very old. Martin lived with his parents; his mother made him soft pads for his legs of rabbit fur and covered them with deer skin. He would often be seen beside the wagon trail part way between his home and one of his brothers, always carrying a knife and whittling when he stopped to rest. Old Louie and Axel thought it would be a real interesting thing to make Martin a pair of wooden legs. I don't know if he walked much with them, however, he could put them on and get on and off his horse; it made riding much easier.
The half-breeds all sold out in 1917. Some went to St. Albert and most of them went to Wabamun where Martin and his father made their home for awhile. Louie was known as "Old Wha Wha," or the "One Arm Man." The children we went to school with said Wha Wha meant "my goodness." Sometimes when we children would meet him on our way home from school he would act as though he hadn't seen us and as he passed us he would jump and yell "Wha Wha," which frightened us; then he would laugh.
Around 1910 or so there were three wagon loads of these people who went west, crossing the Tomahawk Creek here on the river flat south of John Scheideman's building site. The banks were very high and the creek wide, a long, flimsy pole bridge was the only crossing. That morning they had gone on top of the hill west of the now Shoal Lake School site and picked blueberries which would be dried for winter. They would melt lard to coat them and sprinkled with sugar they were quite good. However, two wagons crossed this bridge on the way home and the third wagon broke through throwing Martin's mother into the creek where she hit her head on a boulder and was killed instantly. So they went to Old Louie and Axel Homme to build her a coffin. They then took the body to Lac. Ste. Anne.
No one knew exactly how old Louie really was; some said at least 106 years. His birthday was New Year's Day and mom knit him a woollen mitt for his 95th birthday the winter of 1913. He lived to see the 20's. Each birthday until 1917 mom would make him a mitt!
Once in a great while some of the boys we went to school with us stopped in to say hello which was a joy. The men would make snares and catch rabbits; the women would skin them, cut them into long, narrow strips, tack them to a long pole and fasten that to a building or a solid post and raise it high in the air where the wind would whip and the frost would help make these skins soft and pliable. There were frames about 55 by 55 inches which the skins could be fastened to; they then were woven into robes. These robes were sold for a high price.
In 1919, my dad, D. H. Walker bought the land when all the half-breeds moved away.
Axel rented the land in 1919; there was a small log shack on the river bank and inside Axel noticed a pole. Nailed on one end right in the centre was a long, narrow box. He investigated and found Martin's two feet, all dried of course, but complete and sawed off just above the ankles. The hardships they went through only eternity will tell.
But they were surely good neighbors and ready to help when whites refused.
This has been written by memory from conversation of Axel and his Uncle Louis Homme. Although I did not know Old Wha Wha, I know that even his grandson did not know his name was Louie; they called him Wha Wha. However, I did know Martin and also saw his feet when Axel opened the box. We replaced the box and were sorry later as the renters destroyed them.
Old Louie Homme never did get married; he passed away on December 6, 1937.
Axel married Emma Walker on November 30, 1916. We were married in Edmonton in the parsonage beside the big MacDougall Church by Pastor Armstrong. We left Edmonton at 3 p.m. the same day by heavy lumber wagon.
We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in 1966 with all our children present. There are now 28 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. Axel passed away on August 20, 1970. |
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