Book number five for 94 year-old author: features the southwest corner
If one imagines what it would be like to be the age of 94, one wouldn’t think being an author is one of the activities to stay busy. However, for Bessie Vroom Ellis, this is just the way it is.
Ellis just released her fifth in the series of books, which features real life memories blended with the songs of the cowboys and homesteaders.
With some help from her daughter and co-author on the fifth book, Edith Annand Smithies, Ellis explains how excited she was for the fifth in the series.
“The motivation for all five of my books is the same – to preserve old photos and the stories they tell for future generations,” explains Ellis. “As I say in the Acknowledgements of my new book, ‘In the twenty years since I began writing my series The Vrooms of the Foothills, I have had the privilege of interviewing dozens of old-timers and their families, viewing hundreds of their photos and recording pages of their precious memories. So it is with gratitude that I acknowledge the gracious help and valuable contribution made to this, my fifth book, by those who have shared photos and memories which might otherwise go unrecorded.’”
The official descripton of the fifth book contains over 300 photos and five maps which illustrate the stories of ‘Nichemoos’, wife of famous Alberta prospector and frontiersman Kootenai Brown, oil prospectors and oil wells, miners and mines, trails and mountain passes, sweethearts and brides, churches, musicians and fun. The photos celebrate those who lived near Beaver Mines, Cowley, Fishburn, Lundbreck, Mountain View, Pincher Creek, Twin Butte and Waterton Park.”
“This book harkens back to an era when singing, dancing and playing music were an integral part of life. Early settlers had made their own fun. Pianos and portable instruments were a ready form of entertainment,” explains Ellis. “There were many popular old Western songs which were commonly sung and played into the 1950s in Southern Alberta. They are no longer heard. So that the songs are not forgotten, each chapter in “Singing a Cowboy Song” references one of these old songs in photos and stories. For example, when I was a child, the foothills of Southern Alberta were dotted with coal mines, large and small. The chapter titled “My Darling Clementine” recounts the stories of many old mines and the people who mined them.
“Women and children often go unremembered in stories of the settling of Southern Alberta. “Red River Valley” was the favourite song of Kootenai Brown, who spearheaded establishing Waterton Lakes National Park. This chapter tells not only of Kootenai but of his second wife “Nichemoos” who had a storied, but unrecorded, life of her own.”
Ellis’s first book “Adventures of My Childhood” is the story of her adventures up to age 10. It tells of her family and their ranching neighbours who lived in the Beaver Mines district in the 1930s. On each quarter section of land lived a different family, from different countries. Neighbours made a big effort to support one. The second book “Cowboys and Homesteaders” tells more detailed stories of some of these ranching families from 1905-1940. Each chapter of the third, fourth and fifth book is organized by subject, rather than family. Her most recent book required more research because it gives, in words and maps, the locations and history of mines and oil wells, for example, rather than just their stories.
Ellis has a lot to be proud of besides being an accomplished author.
Aside from raising a family of four, she says her most satisfying accomplishment was spearheading the movement within the Saskatchewan NDP to establish a fund to financially assist women running for nomination in provincial elections.
“By 1987, I had concluded that the reason more women did not run for political office was a lack of money for child care, suitable wardrobe, and marketing materials.
So, at a NDP convention, I proposed a motion to establish a fund to assist in covering such expenses,” explains Ellis. “In 1992, I was awarded a Commemorative Medal for the 125th anniversary of Canada. The medal was given ‘in recognition of a significant contribution to compatriots, community and to Canada’”, which included my pioneering work in establishing the Bessie Ellis Fund. I received a letter from Roy Romanow, NDP Leader, which in part says, ‘The Saskatchewan New Democratic Women, and indeed, all women of our province, have benefitted from your efforts in areas of special importance and interest to them. The Bessie Ellis Fund is a very significant tool in the promotion and support of women candidates, and you are to be commended for this most significant contribution.’”
In 1998 the fund was re-named the Bessie Ellis Fund in her honour. The tax deductible fund still continues today.
The Vrooms of the Foothills series of titles should be available in the gift shop of Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village (Pincher Creek), the Fort Museum of the NWMP (Fort Macleod), Galt Museum & Archives (Lethbridge) and the Cardston Book Shop. Order online from the Trafford Bookstore at: https://www.trafford.com/en/bookstore