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Introduction
I am inspired by the pioneer spirit and very proud of my ancestors achievements, that is my motivation in creating this site.
At the moment nearly all the content here concerns the Bock family from which I'm descended, but I'm very eager to expand the site and include information about other Ladder Valley pioneer settlers.
These are some of the family names of Ladder Valley residents: Archibald, Aston, Balfour, Bogner, Bond, Burnell, Brown, Boville, Butterfield, Borreson, Batanoff, Baskott, Crombie, Clark, Crashley, Choinski, Dundas, Dowbysh, Diakow, Eddy, Fraser, Friedli, Gilbert, Gallagher, Gibson, Gamage, Hashlabauer, Hendrickson, Huxted, Homenuik, Hill, Holt, Hughes, Hiltz, Isaacson, Kazmiruk, Kennedy, Lindsay, Lane, Landry, Lamotte, Marks, Moore, Marton, Mueller, Parker, Straub, Sweet, Staple, Radchenko, Wright, Wicinski, Woroly, Wood, Young, and Yur.
So if you have info and/or photographs about your Ladder Valley ancestors please consider sharing it with the world via this site, I'm only an
away!
About Ladder Valley
Ladder Valley was settled by homesteaders in the early 1920's, many of the first arrivals were Ukrainian. They would pay $10 for 160 acres of bush which needed clearing and planting. It was a hard, difficult existence and many could not persevere with it for varying reasons.
But the community survived reasonably well for a number of years, a school was constructed as well as a church and the obligatory general store/post office.
Many families continue to farm in the area while others have moved into Big River or elsewhere. Read more...
Where is Ladder Valley?
Ladder Valley is approx. 6 miles SE of the town of Big River in northern Saskatchewan, Canada.
My connection with Ladder Valley
My mother, Beryl Bock spent part of her childhood on a homestead in Ladder Valley, her parents Al and Anne Bock arrived there in 1932 from southern Saskatchewan and left in 1939 at the beginning of WW2 to join the war effort.
At one time there were three Bock-related families living on adjoining quarter sections. Al and Anne Bock had one, Al's sister Era (and husband Wilbur) Eddy had a second and the third was occupied by Al's parents, George and Alberta Bock.
From what I know the Eddy's didn't stay too long. After Al and Anne left in 1939 I think George and Alberta may have carried on farming until George passed away in 1943. Alberta then moved to Regina, Sask where she too passed away a year later in 1944.
Al and Anne Bock maintained contact
with some friends from Ladder Valley in later years. Art and May Aston visited often while they lived in Edmonton and I think other friends like the Ferguson's and Stegner's were from Ladder Valley also but I'll need to check on that for sure.
Al and Beryl
both wrote in their memoirs about Ladder Valley and took many photos which are reproduced here. Their stories made rivetting reading for me and I hope you'll enjoy them too!
Andrew McPhee
Wodonga, Victoria, Australia.
Site designed and maintained by Andrew
McPhee © 2000-2008