Fonds 178 Jim Somerville fonds

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1905-1968. — 13 cm of textual records. — 63 photographs. — 5 postcards.

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Biographical Sketch

James Somerville (Jim) was born in Hawksville, Ontario in 1882. In 1900 he moved west to Manitoba, and later continued on to Viking, a community in Southern Alberta. Here Jim homesteaded from 1904 to 1910. Jim worked for many survey crews in the Peace Country. In 1904 he came to Grande Prairie with surveyor J.B. St.Cyr. A year later, 1905, he was the packer in charge of the horse train for Henry Selby’s survey crew when they re-surveyed the sixth meridian from the 18th base line to Peace River. The crew came back via the Grande Prairie and Bezanson, and re-surveyed the eighteenth baseline from west of the sixth to Vallyview. From 1909 to 1911 Jim worked in Walter McFarlane’s crew which was surveying out sections and quarter sections in anticipation of settlement. In 1910 McFarlane’s crew surveyed the Rio Grande area, and in 1911 it surveyed the Pouce Coupe, Dawson Creek and Rolla districts. In 1911 Jim moved to Grande Prairie and settled on the south Buffalo Lake. He married Eva Woolston in 1927. Eva was born in Sandy, England in 1894, had done war service as a nurse for St. John’s Ambulance during World War I, and was visiting a friend (Mrs. Brebucks) in Canada when she met Jim. She had a lovely voice and sang for community events as well as for the soldiers during World War II. Eva and Jim had two children: Daniel and Rosemary (Smith). They lived on their Buffalo Lakes farm unitl Jim died in 1971. Eva passed away three years later in 1974.

Custodial History

Copies of the original photographs were deposited in South Pece Regional Archives by Dan Somerville, son of James Somerville, in 2005. An accrual of paper artefacts was deposited in 2009 and an accrual of diaries was donated in 2017.

Scope and Content

The Jim Somerville collection follows his career as a surveyor in the Peace region, and his life as a homesteader. The first series of photographs is from Henry Selby’s 1905 survey of the 20th base line west of the fifth meridian. The photographs show the environment of the area east of the Smoky River, the activities of his survey crew, and the life of a surveyor. There are also several photographs of buildings in Grouard and Stopping Places in the area. From 1909 to 1911 Jim Somerville worked as a packer in Walter McFarlane’s survey crew. The photographs from this series show the environment of the land which was surveyed and the life of the surveyors at work. The regions which were covered stretch from Edmonton to Fort St. John, B.C. The last series of photographs show Jim’s life as a homesteader in southern Alberta and the Peace Country.

An accrual of paper records include a Riley & McCormick cowboy equipment catalogue (1925); 6 small booklets recording activities and purchases (1912-1948), bank account (1926-1944), and a diary (1927); land tax documents(1920-1932),a notice of caveat (1949); gasoline ration coupons (1943), correspondence concerning the Buffalo Lakes Swine Improvement Association and a letter from J.B. Oliver; 4 personal cards, 2 pages of accounts with R.G. Maclean, assorted financial records (1913-1948), and a Buffalo Lakes newspaper article.

An accrual of diaries consists of five diaires kept by Jim during his farming years (1948 – 1956); two small diaries from 1970 – 1971; and one small pocket diary kept by Eva while living in London in 1925.

Notes

Accession 2005.027; 2009.050; 2017.015.