The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2003, Síða 15

Vol. 58 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
13
My Old Home
An address by Rosa Stephansson Benediktson
edited by Stephan Benediktson
On looking back over my shoulder, so
as to speak, I can still see my childhood
home as it was in my earliest memories.
That picture is identical to the photograph
now in the Provincial Archives of Alberta,
taken in August 1907. My father chose the
location for the home when he picked the
land soon after his arrival in the
Markerville settlement in the spring of
1889. This land was actually taken as my
paternal grandmother's homestead. Being a
widow, she had the right to acquire a quar-
ter section of land as well. After her hus-
band died in North Dakota, Grandmother
lived with my parents for the rest of her
life.
Father chose hay land some three miles
to the northeast of grandmother’s land for
his homestead and built a log house there
where the family resided for a short period
of time in 1900. That house was later
moved down to the first location where it
served for years as a horse barn and then a
chicken house. The last vestiges of that
house were only recently demolished.
In all likelihood my father first built
the main log house with an upstairs, always
referred to as the "Big Room". It had a
front door and double windows facing
south. Along the east side, the kitchen,
with a small area pardoned off on the north
side to serve as a pantry, was added. The
kitchen had four windows to the east. A
bedroom for the girls, the boys slept
upstairs, was added south of the kitchen
with one window to the south. North of
the "Big Room" an addition was added
exclusively for my grandmother. Here was
her bedroom with a space partitioned off
for her to do her handicrafts. A square iron
heater kept those rooms warm. In grand-
mother’s quarters there were two win-
dows, one facing west and one north, and
two doors, one to the kitchen and one to
the "Big Room."
The last addition to the house was my
father's study or the "Small Room" as he
called it, although it was a good sized
room. It was built on the west side of the
"Big Room" with an area partioned off on
the north end which served as my parents
bedroom. The "Small Room" had double
windows to the west and a bay window
with three windows facing south. The
room was well lit and the view to the west
was a panorama of the Rocky Mountains
with the Medicine River just below the
house. In the ensuing years the forests have
grown so tall that the mountain peaks are
scarcely visible any longer from father's
study.
A veranda was added on the south side
over the front door and over the double
windows. Lattice work decorations were
installed on the top and the lower edge
extending around the bay window. Fret
work was installed on the posts for decora-
tion and a half moon was placed over the
upstairs window. No doubt my second
oldest brother, Mundi, helped father build-
ing the additions as Mundi became a very
skilled carpenter early in his life. The entire
house was built of logs with the exception
of father’s study which was built of lum-
ber. The interior was finished in the then
popular vee joint with the exception of the
kitchen and the "Big Room" which had
linoleum installed on the walls. The
linoleum is still there. The whole house was
finished on the outside with siding painted
off white with green trim.
Wild Alberta roses planted under the
bay window bloomed profusely for years.
One day mother brought home the root of