A former Peace Region resident has shared some vintage Christmas cards on social media, posting to a local B.C. and Alberta Peace history page, with the cards gifted to her grandfather for his roadwork.
The artist of the cards was Robert David Symons, who was born in 1898 in England and came to Canada in 1914 at the age of 16 to become a cowboy, explained Elizabeth Hunter in her post.
Symons first came to Saskatchewan, but later ranched by the Peace River near Fort St. John, and was known for his nature writings, paintings and illustrations.
“You know she is a land you feel you cannot leave for long; she will call you back - back to the hiss of the ground blizzard, back to the starlit nights, back to the scent of willow and ground sage, back to the uplands of yellow grass where the horses gallop," wrote Symons of his time in Saskatchewan's wilderness.
Hunter's grandfather, George Spangler, was also a pioneer like Symons, and arrived in 1913 from Iowa to homestead in Rolla after travelling the Edson trail.
Spangler was a road foreman from 1934 to 1953, putting up the telegraph lines from Grande Prairie to Hudson Hope, and received the Christmas cards from the government over the holidays.
"I wish I had memories, he is one person I would have loved to hear his stories, but he passed away a year before I was born," wrote Hunter of her grandfather.
"But my sister remembers him and he loved to play with kids. My older cousins remember him fondly as well," she added, noting much of her family still lives in the Peace Region.
