January 21, 2024

From the Presidents Saddle

Happy New Year members

That Polar Vortex was Amazing (also cold) 

My Personal condolences to all families who have lost loved ones since we last spoke.

Last fall Robbie, Charlie and I did some poetry and music for a documentary film crew from Toronto!!  They want to explore Cowboy Poetry and plan on returning for the summer months to follow up.  Thanks to all members for helping.  Keep up the writing stories and poetry. Let the Blessings truly descend. 

-- Lewis Peterson , President

Wild tales of the west 

ALBERTA Mar 10, 1907

A sleigh with two passengers and an oddball team is noticed proceeding down an unopened road near Millet. Normally not a big thing but the team consisted of a large magnificent black with a heavy neck and a small insignificant bay. A couple of hours later the sleigh returned, this time with only one passenger. Later on another person on the trail discovered a blood trail and a cut muskrat bloodstained cap. The cap was taken to the RNWMP in Wetaskawin. An investigation by Staff Segeart C Phillips lead to Leduc where an A. Schimdt had taken the sleigh to the local livery overnight and left early in the morning. An Oscar Koenig was questioned as he fit the description of A. Schimdt but nothing became of it.. The cap and a report was sent to the Detachment in Edmonton. After several months the cap began to have a rather horrible odor and the commanding officer ordered it destroyed. The constable however took in down to the basement and set it on a beam. Fast forward September 1908: A William Oscar King, imprisoned on a charge of fraud and horse theft sends for Detective Sgt Nickelson, {Nickelson was the officer who arrested him} claiming he had information on his two companions { still at large] Gus Borden and August Tyman, in exchange for leniency. King claimed Borden had murdered a man near Clover Bar Ridge and buried the body in a manure pile. He also claimed he could lead them to the place. A body was discovered but it had been burnt beyond all recognition. The remains were sent to a pathologist. in hopes of identification. King then claimed he knew of another body near Innisfail buried in a brush pile. After searching several bush piles King vanished.

Nickelson noticed however, while interviewing some of the locals around Innisfail a photo of King, a woman and two children. It was learned the woman was the wife of King, and thinking King may try to contact her set up watch. King was recaptured Aug 23 1909.

Fate now got into the game. Sgt Phillips happened to be at the Edmonton detachment and recognized King as Oscar Koenig, a man he had questioned two years earlier. He mentioned the bloodstained cap to Nickelson who saw a connection with the body at Clover Bar. Further investigation lead to the office who had disobeyed orders and placed the cap in the basement, it was recovered and sent to the pathologist also.

1909, King was given 7 years for fraud and horse theft. His estranged wife then began to talk. She said a Joesph Hindahl might be the man in question. Nickelson continued to probe and discovered the horses in question had been sold, but found new owner, Yes people in Innisfail said those were Hindahl horses . 1910. Nickelson and Mrs King returned to the manure pile near Millet and sifting through found the remains of a suit which Mrs. King identified as Hindahls. She also had a bank book and other personal belongs of Hindahl given to her by King to hold. King was charged with murder, convicted and hung Aug 2 1910. He proclaimed his innocence until the trap door opened.

Poetry Corner

 A Rose for Mother 04-06-2021

A lonely man on an empty street
Here time and years often meet
Passing the chapel as bells ring loud
A lonely old man, an empty crowd

On past the corner to a field of stone
Holding a rose, he walks alone
He kneels here by a stone of grey
Softly places the rose upon the clay

The words he spoke, no one to hear
While from his eyes, he brushed a tear
His mother’s grave, alone he grieves
As hours passed, he did not leave

A face of emotion, a silent prayer
Countless times, he’s been there
A son whose mother has long ben gone
A child’s love, continues on

I envision a mother with her baby boy
Her eyes her face, her greatest joy
Her son her boy, growing each day
A mothers love, lives on today

Today I witnessed, one more time
A mother’s love, gentle and kind
Her son’s love, in a bright red rose
A mother’s love, only a child know.

Copyright 2021 Eric Shaffer
Not to be published or used without author’s permission