LIFE OF MY FATHER - 4

HOMESTEADING IN FORT SASKATCHEWAN

My grandfather, Albert Darimont, had served with the Belgian army in the Congo for two years when, in 1905, he was invalided home with sun stroke after spending too long in the sun at the funeral of a friend who died of snakebite. The funeral had to be held immediately because of the intense heat.

He visited the family in Fort Saskatchewan and, according to his daughter Jacqueline, fell in love with Canada, the prairies and farming. He returned to Belgium, married Therese Gustenhoven in 1909, and then joined the family at Fort Saskatchewan. The first and third photos are of my grandfather in his army uniform; the middle photo shows the family's home in Fort Saskatchewan in 1911.

LIFE OF MY FATHER, JOHN DARIMONT - 3

EMIGRATION TO CANADA

Details about the family's emigration to Canada were provided by my aunt Jacqueline and my mother. My great-grandfather, Jean Gaspard III Darimont, pictured in the photo, was the first family member to come to North America. As a Brussels businessman who was importing Waverley bicycles and hardware from America, he visited that country early in the 20th Century. He was impressed by how easy it was to acquire land for farming there compared with Europe. Consequently, in 1905, he and three of his married children and their spouses left Belgium for Canada where they settled on a homestead at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta near Edmonton.

The first photo is of Jean Gaspard Darimont II, my great great grandfather. The second photo is an advertisement for Waverley bicycles, and the third is of my great grandfather, Jean Garspard Darimont III.