Three Hills
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Introduction
Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
Headlines of the history of Three Hills are in brown.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Contextual history is in purple.
The Farndales of Three
Hills
George Farndale (FAR00588) was a
farmer at Three Hills, Alberta
Catherine Jane
Farndale (“Kate”), later Kinsey (FAR00601)
was the maternal ancestor of the Kinsey Family who farm at Three Hills,
Alberta.
Three Hills
Three
Hills is a town located in the southern part of the province of Alberta, Canada. It takes its
name from the three highly visible hills that are situated to its north.
Three Hills Timeline
1911
George Farndale (FAR00588) went
to Canada about 1911
and lived at Three Hills, Alberta. He never married.
He is
shown on the passenger list of the SS Halifax (Dominion Line)
sailing from Liverpool to Halifax on 1 April 1911, with James Farndale who
wrote a diary of the
journey.
George took a homestead near Three Hills, not far from Trochu and lived
there all his life until he retired, when he went to live in Calgary. He
lived alone all his life, remaining reserved and shy.
There are
many stories about him. Once he came to help his younger brother, Alfred, to
drill corn. He arrived and started and then, with the job only half done, he
drove himself and the drill home. Something said had annoyed him; so he left.
He was known as a very upright and honest man. His bank manager used to say he
was one hundred per cent reliable. There is also a story that he cared for
a local girl, a nurse, who also liked him. She knew he was shy and tried
to help him propose. He thought she was trying to pressurise him, so he
never spoke to her again! (Family
knowledge).
It is perhaps all these stories which describe this big, shy man best.
Certainly he was alone most of his life. He had many Farndale qualities, but
his was an extreme version of them.
1912
Three Hills was
incorporated as a village in 1912, the year it was moved to its current
location on the Canadian Northern Railway. With ranchers and farmers
constituting its first residents, it soon became a centre for the
surrounding wheat-growing
area.
1917
When Kate Farndale (FAR00601)
arrived to look after Martin and George, a hard life after the farm in
Yorkshire, she met the Kinsey family of Cheshire, already friends of her
brothers. Then, on 28 June 1917, she married William Henry Kinsey at
Stettler. Catherine Jane Farndale married William Henry Kinsey at
Stettler, Alberta in 1917.
Bill Kinsey had homesteaded 16
miles north west of Three Hills and extended an existing
prairie shack. They had three children, George, Dorothy and
Alfred. They lived at Three Hills, Alberta in
Alberta, near Trochu where
Kate’s brothers Martin, George and Alfred also lived (Family knowledge).
William Kinsey was born on 13
February 1874 in Cheshire. For a number of years he lived on a dairy farm
in the United States. In 1904 he homesteaded 16 miles northwest of Three
Hills. His brother John and he bashed in a 12 foot by 14 foot shack. Later they
built a main room onto it. In June 1917 William married Catherine Jane
Farndale. They had three children. George later farmed 15 miles northwest of
Three Hills, Dorothy Goodbrand lived southeast of Lake Am, and Alfred farmed 13
miles northwest of Three Hills. William Kinsey was a trustee of Curlew School.
He joined the Council after Bill Hazel's death in 1938 and remained on until
amalgamation, a period of about 5 ˝ years. His brother George Frederick Kinsey
was on the council in 1912 and resided on his farm. William Kinsey died in
February 1959 aged 83.
Kate is always remembered as very strict. She would not tolerate smoking or
drinking alcohol. She was deeply religious and set high
standards of behaviour for her own family. There are many stories of going
out to the barn for a drink or a smoke to avoid her displeasure!
Bill Kinsey’s threshing
set in about 1917 in Alberta, Canada
1922
In
1922, Prairie College (originally founded as Prairie Bible Institute)
was established in Three Hills with L. E. Maxwell as its first
principal. This occurrence helped to increase the population of the town proper
and its adjacent settlements.
1954
The Maxwell
Tabernacle was Canada's largest religious auditorium before it was demolished
in 2005. It operated from 1954 to 2005 as a local church, concert hall, and
graduation auditorium of Prairie Christian Academy and Three Hills School high
school classes.
1959
When her husband
died in 1959, Kate moved to a house at Three Hills, where she was close to her
family.
George Kinsey
married and moved onto his parents' farm.
Alfred William
Kinsey was born on 11 January 1921 to William Henry Kinsey and Catherine Jane
(Farndale) Kinsey. While growing up on the farm west of Trochu, Alfred along
with his brother George and sister Dorothy attended Curlew School. He worked on
the farm after school with his parents and alongside his brother as well as for
various neighbours and relatives in the local farming community. Alfred
attended bible college at Prairie Bible Institute and graduated in 1952.
In 1958 he married Oneta Davis and they moved
to the farm where he had grown up.
In 1960 they
moved to Three Hills where they joined Prairie staff for 5 years. Alfred worked
there on the farm and in the milk pasteurising plant.
1966
Kate died on 9
September 1966, aged 82 years, at Three Hills. She is buried not far from her
brother, Martin, in Trochu graveyard.
1980s
In the mid 1980s, the 130-acre Prairie College campus and the
nearby hamlets of Grantville and Ruarkville were
annexed to the town.
1998
Although a
relatively small community, Three Hills had the distinction of hosting the
Alberta Seniors Games in the summer of 1998. The town was chosen to host
this event because of its ability to utilize large and well equipped facilities
at the college. This included the opening and closing ceremonies which took
place in the 4,300 seat Maxwell Memorial Tabernacle, located on Prairie
College's campus.
Because of
development of the nearby methane fields, the food and lodging industries in
Three Hills have grown considerably over the past few years.
Bibliography