Person:Martha Robertson (20)

As told to Margaret by Russell Williams: Jesse and Martha took a homestead at Grassy Lake (Southern Alberta), but they never lived on it, but stayed with Martha's father at Fort McLeod, Alberta, near Martha's cousins George and Donald Robertson from 1911 to 1913. They then moved to Oyen where they lived until 1934. When they left Oyen in 1934 during the depression, they moved to Peers, 100 miles west of Edmonton. There they were able to grow gardens and hunt. They lived there until Jesse passed away in 1942, at which time Martha moved to Edmonton until her death in 1979. Most of their children still reside in and around Edmonton. Jesse: From daughter-in-law Margaret, July 1994: Jesse's father, Paul, was Welsch, his mother was English. His mother and younger sister died of Yellow Fever when Jesse was very young. Jesse's father was killed by a Mexican raiding party. Jesse saved himself by hiding. The raid was to chase them from their farm which was on Mexican land. John Stevens took Jesse to Jerico Springs, Missouri, when he was 11 years old. Seven or eight years later Jesse moved to Nebraska in a car load of livestock and machinery with the veterinary doctor Taylor. He worked for Miers Lange until about 1908, and then he farmed for a few years on rented land at Callaway, Nebraska. In 1911 he emmigrated to a homestead near Grassy Lake, Alberta.