Fonds jas-2636 - Ishbel Cochrane fonds

Sophia May MacLean Hargreaves was born October 10, 1892, near Port Hastings, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. All her great - grandparents had emigrated from Scotland in the 1820's. Sophia attended normal school in Truro and taught high school for several years in Nova Scotia before coming west. In 1919, she and several other teachers made the trip on a "harvester train". The fare was very low, the coaches leather seated colonist type, no dining car, but a kitchen of sorts at one end of the coach. Almost from the first the ladies kept to one coach where they cooked the food that they had brought with them. There were some "rowdy" harvesters on the train so the ladies were glad to have a couple of male teachers with them. Sophia's first school was at Comet, near Stony Plain, AB. She met future Jasperites there. Anne McKinlay, who later married Don Guild, and Jack and Bill Pugh. In 1919, she was offered the job of principal of the two - cottage schools in Jasper, grades seven to ten. The other teacher was Margaret McFarlane, another Cape Bretoner, who became Mrs. Pat Donnelly. Sophia boarded at Fred Smith's who lived next door to the Ed Cottam family. At Mount Robson, they built the ranch house and two cabins in 1922. They built four cabins for the CNR at Berg Lake, put in a new trail and two bridges from the trail head to Kinney Lake, then built the Berg Lake chalet in 1927. Some of the staff employed that summer of 1924 were Ted Abram, Miss M. E. Burns, J. William and Esther Freeman, Don Guild, Dick and Bessie Hargreaves, Ole Lebec, Joe MacDonald, Dean and Jim Swift, Pearl Simonson, Frank Kitchen, Evelyn (Hargreaves) Thorson and Sophia Hargreaves. Anne McKinlay, from Stony Plain visited Sophia it Mount Robson, so that is how she married Don Guild, just one of the many romances that began at Mount Robson. September 26, 1927, Marguerite Bess (Margie) arrived on the scene before Sophia could catch the train to Jasper and before a freight train was available to bring Dr. O'Hagan to Mount Robson. Grandpa Hargreaves and Mrs. Fairman lent a hand Sophia had moved to a very different life style at Mount Robson. Running water during the summer months but none in the winter and no electricity for the 35 years she lived at the ranch. Ishbel spent grades one and four in Jasper with her Aunt Myrtle McCready and family. Grade nine in Victoria with Grandpa Hargreaves, Sophie and Margie. All other schooling was by Sophia or teachers she employed and correspondence. Margie took her grade ten in Jasper staying with the McCreadys. Does anyone remember when her dog attended church? One year she was in Edmonton staying with cousin Myrtle Lamoureux, taking grade eleven then back to correspondence. Having no sons, Roy taught his wife and daughters to ride, chase 100 horses, saddle and pack them, cook on the trail and all in addition to the girl type jobs of waitressing, cleaning cabins, etc., that Sophia supervised. School was out before end of May so that Sophia, Ishbel and Margie could accompany Roy and Chuck Chesser on the range trip. The range was 90 miles by trail to Berg Lake and down the Smoky River to about twelve miles from Grande Cache. It was a trip four days each way, with some dangerous river crossings, sometimes using a rubber boat. The horses were corralled as they were found and in a day or two the drive home would start, 95-100 horses out and away in every direction. You have to live it to believe it. Ishbel and Margie had their first trip at ages twelve and eight. Later they cooked on camping and hunting trips, at the ranch and at Berg Lake Chalet. Margie had a Jasper National Park Guide license. Roy died in 1971 and Sophia came back to Valemount when Golden Years Lodge was built. She passed away July 24, 1991 just short of her 99th birthday. Myrtle Mae Ishbel Hargreaves (McLean) was born February 18, 1924 to Roy and Sophia Hargreaves (McLean). Ishbel married Murray Cochrane of Croydon, B.C, June 5, 1946 at Mount Robson. They lived at Croydon, farming and logging until 1959 when they moved back to Mount Robson to manage the ranch for Miss Alice Wright who had bought it. Ishbel and Murray had six children: Margie, Art, Les, Malcom, Louise, and Russell.