Charles Andrew Bush and Susannah Beatrice Klinck

Charles Andrew Bush (Andrew Hanford Bush¹) was born on 14 August 1862 in Jubilee Twp, Peoria, Illinois.

His mother died by the time he was twelve years old; and his father had predeceased her. Charles was suffering from rheumatic fever, so he went to live with his uncle George Washington Wakefield and aunt Martha. He was shifted among his relatives until he was about 16 years old, at which time he started out on his own. He traveled a Cleveland Bay stallion throughout the country for a few years. He ran into many tough characters during his travels, especially in Kansas. One of his early courtships was with a cousin of Jesse and Frank James, a Miss Dee Cole. He was acquainted with the Youngers, Coles and others associated with the James brothers. My grandmother told me that when she was a young girl, her father didn�t like to take the children into town because he had seen men gunned down in the streets.

He was living with his brother George Wilson Bush when he was 19.

Susanna Beatrice Klinck (known as Beatrice or Beatty) was born on 28 May 1870, the eldest daughter of Daniel and Jane Klinck of Princeville, Illinois.

Charles and Beatrice married on 19 November 1891 at Princeville Township, Peoria Co., Illinois. She was a teacher at the time of her marriage. The following spring they moved to Bedford, Iowa where Charles farmed. They then moved to a farm near Colony, Kansas. After a few years there he sold out and the family moved to Yellowgrass, Saskatchewan in the spring of 1906.

They had two freight cars of stock, machinery and household effects. Charles was with the freight cars and the family came by passenger train. The freight cars arrived a little ahead of the Passenger train. The family was taken by wagon and team to Daniel Klinck�s home, arriving late at night, the horses plunging through snow and slush up to their bellies.

When the furniture came, they moved to uncle James Klinck�s house nine miles out of Yellow Grass. He left the family in Yellowgrass, and went to the Key West District near Ogema and filed on a homestead on 14-8-23 in what was known as Dirt Hills, now known as Key West Rural Municipality. He filed on his pre-emption in 1908.

Charles hauled lumber from Yellow Grass to build his house, which was finished in 1906, except for the plastering which was done in 1907. They lived in a tent while it was being plastered. In 1907 a sod barn and wooden cow stable were built. In 1912 a barn was built.

There were no roads, just trails and nearly a quarter of the land seemed covered with water. Charles helped build the Key West School (formerly known as Strathlorne School) in 1908.

Batchelor neighbor's George Parry and Bert Smith lived in an upturned wagon box. A terrible snow storm hit, and Charles went to check on them. He had to dig them out as they were completely buried under the snow.

Every year there were school picnics, Sunday School picnics and Christmas concerts. At the picnics there were different types of races, tug-o-wars and ball games. Everyone took lunch, spread table cloths on the ground and sat on the ground to eat. Later, fowl suppers became popular, as well as pie socials and box socials.

Charles ploughed two sixteen foot guards to keep prairie fires out, then he would burn between the guards. You could see these fires coming for a couple of days, creating a very red sky and such a roar, through the tall grass. The men took barrels of water and jute sacks soaked to hammer out small flames.

The mosquitoes were so bad in those early years that Beatrice made mosquito nets over the kids hats to keep them from getting in their nostrils.

Their house caught fire from a bachelor stove in an upstairs wall. Neighbors came to help. Charles cut a hole in the upstairs ceiling and the men, Beatrice and Elizabeth carried water from a well one hundred feet to extinguish the blaze. There was a cyclone in 1916, taking the henhouse and cow stable. Charles started untying the cows as the stable started lifting and was caught between the cow's horns. As he untied her, the barn blew away.

In the early years, the children would go through the fields grain pulling weeds.

Six families, including Charles, bought. the Key West Syndicate steam threshing outfit. He bought a 4-90 Chevrolet car in 1917 At one time they also had a surrey with the fringe on top and lamps at the side, the top could be put up or left down. They had good gardens and lots of flowers.

Sometimes they played a ball game with the children called �One Old Cat� as there wasn't enough to play baseball. They attended church and Sunday school unless it stormed.

Milking cows was the girls job; Charles sometimes helped when they were in a hurry. Ethel, Velma and Violet watered the stock. They pulled water out of the well on a pulley which had two pails attached to the rope. They would draw one up while the other was filling. When Beatrice was ill with diabetes and heart problems, the people of the district felt they couldn�t do enough to repay her many acts of kindness in the past.

Charles belonged to the Woodsman, Oddfellows and the Masons in the USA. Beatrice belonged to the Eastern Star in the USA and Ogema. At the time of his death, he had a life membership in the Ogema Masonic Lodge. He belonged to the Grain Growers, the Pool and was a trustee at Key West. Beatrice belonged to the Ladies Aid and Homemakers. She made many quilts and rugs and also did fancy work and crocheting in her later years.

Beatrice passed away on 25 August 1939 at home on the farm at the age of 69 years. She is buried at the Ogema Cemetery.

Charles passed away at the Souris Valley Hospital at Weyburn on 08 November 1948 at the age of eighty-six years. He is buried next to his wife at the Ogema Cemetery.

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