Hodgson Farm Story 

Memoir of a Chestermere Farm – by Joyce Hodgson (nee Gowdy), Chestermere,  August 2018

‘When you drive on Chestermere Boulevard towards Calgary, just at the city limits, something about the farm to the south seems different.  A closer look reveals that beautiful tall trees on the property have been cut down!

This is the site of the former Hodgson Farm and here is a brief history of that farm.

This farm was developed by Frances and Jack Hodgson.  They married in 1923.  Their tall two story home was moved from Victoria Square, a failed development east of Calgary.  In 1924, the big dairy barn was built from materials obtained from the jam factory, also from Victoria Square.

The Hodgsons also began a tree planting program that included caragana hedges, poplars, lilacs, a few evergreens and three special crab apple trees, which were France’s pride and joy.  She also had a large vegetable garden.  She loved to cook and entertain.  The Hodgson family was very social and community orientated.  Many meetings were held at their home in support of community endeavors.  They raised two children on the farm, Everett and Marilyn, who attended Janet and Rock Land schools.  Jack died at the early age of 60.  Farmers in the community came to the farm with their machinery and took off the crop for the Hodgsons that fall.  Frances and Everett carried on with the farming, with Everett restarting the dairy.

Everett and I married in 1954, and I moved to the farm that would be my home for the next 54 years.  We moved into a little house on the west side of the yard and raised our four children; Debra, Larry, Randy, and Michael.

We continued the tree planting program, which included a white lilac, honey suckle, mountain ash, evergreens, and a maple tree from my father’s farm.  I used to go to the one hundred year old orchard at Strathmore, where I picked apples, saved their seeds, and started seedlings.  Many of these grew well and were a welcome addition to our forest of trees.

We participated in community events, which include Conrich home and school, cubs and scouts, F.W.U.A., turkey dinners, etc.  Everett drove a school bus to Conrich for many years.  There were also local controversies to ponder and discuss.  For example, the proposal to build a jail and a power plant near Chestermere.  Those of us who lived along highway 1A tried to tap into the water line from Calgary that ran by our door steps.  We were turned down.  I tasted Calgary water for the first time, when I moved into Chestermere in 2008.

There was the intrusion of a gas well on the farm in 1967.  It included gas, pipe, and utility lines, as well as a water line to the cemetery.   In later years Chestermere pondered annexation to Calgary.

In 1956, Frances became the dietician at the Agricultural School in Olds, Alberta.  She taught for several years, but when her health failed, she moved into Calgary.  She died in 1968.

In 1972, the Department of Highways decided to widen Highway 1A, only on the south side of the road.  We lost a strip of land along our property, from the home site to the land at the lake.  We were obliged to move many of the trees we had planted on the north side of the property, including the three special apple trees of Frances Hodgson.  There was a lot of hauling water to sustain the trees and most survived.  Also, one condition of the Department of Highways, was that Frances Hodgson’s home had to be moved or demolished.

We built a new house and our little house was moved to an acreage east of Chestermere.  More trees were planted around the new house and extensive flower beds.  Everett and I parted in 1976 and he moved into Calgary.  We continued to farm together for many years, but finally divorced.  A quarter section of land had been sold and two hundred acres at the lake, which is now Lakeside Green Golf Course.  I was left with the home place, where my children and I continued to live.

Randy started a business on the farm, “Smokey Farm Meats”.  He built a home for his family which includes his wife Tracey and children, Tamara and Tristian.

These were busy years managing the farm, taking care of the buildings and farm site, as well as attending to community activities.  By 2007, I realized it was becoming too much.  Hauling tons of water to the trees began to take its toll.  I decided, with some misgivings, to sell the land and moved into Chestermere in 2008.  My house was moved to north of Strathmore and Randy’s house to the south of Strathmore.

The farm sat idle for many years.  Wildlife moved in, an eagle, an owl, pigeons, robins and other various wild animals.  It was sad to see the place deteriorate, but it was out of my hands.

Finally in May 2018, I heard something has happened. To my dismay, I learned that all the big tall trees on the farm had been cut down!

A visit to the farm confirmed it.  Everything was cut down with a Chain saw, including Frances Hodgson’s three special apple trees and the beautiful evergreens at Randy’s place.  All those years watering, nurturing, and planting was destroyed in one day.  So sad!

Soon, everything will be bull-dozed away and no one will ever know that a special farm site once stood there.  However, those of us who lived there will remember it and some of the old timers will remember when it was in its prime.  They will remember they gave directions to their farms by saying “Turn at Hodgson Corner.”

My hope is the new development that is built on this property will be a credit to the Chestermere Community. That the people who live there, will live, love, laugh and enjoy the land as much as those of us who lived on this land did for so many years.”