Good Fortune: Having Roots
My opponent and I share the good fortune of having deep roots in the success of Vulcan County.
Born in 1881 and arriving in Canada in 1903, my Great Grandfather, Charles James (C. J.) Northcott, homesteaded here in 1906.
He married Clara Fremstad in 1908, celebrating on her family’s homestead east of Carmangay before riding a horse and wagon north, across the Little Bow, and beginning their life together in the MD of Marquis. The construction of an irrigation reservoir was on the horizon, what would prove to be a significant driver of economic development and community growth in Southern Alberta.
The picture below is a map of Alberta from 1930.
C. J. Northcott ran the Lake McGregor Post Office which appears on the map.
I just recently bought a painting from a shop in High River that was painted by your Grandfather CJ Northcott…this is super cool info to read about regarding his life 😊. The back of the painting says it was bought in 1965 in Vulcan…It’s a lake scene with 2 people on a canoe and I love it. Very cool history, he sounds like he was one heck of a guy
Thank you, Tina. Very interesting! CJ Northcott is my great-grandfather. He was born in 1881 in London, England, and came to Canada in 1903. He homesteaded 7 miles southwest of where Milo is now located in 1906 and married in 1908. C.J. Northcott passed away in 1977, being nearly 96 years of age, with many paintings to his credit. This was despite falling on a pair of scissors when he was a boy, going through life with one working eye and a glass prosthetic. He lived in Vulcan from his late 70s until his death.