As an historical society, it is very important that we showcase what it was like to survive and thrive in the area now known as Didsbury. Our Agriculture Room upstairs features farming implements, ranching tools, and some of the stories the families of local settlers wanted to share with our visitors.

Emigrating from a technologically advanced 1890s society in the east to virgin land in the west left many settlers confused and afraid, yet somehow incredibly determined. How were they going to tame this unsettled wilderness they were being led to?

The beauty is that the pioneers of the Alberta prairies and foothills came in such numbers, and brought so much with them, that it wasn't long before these virtual strangers became friends, neighbours - and a community.

When you first step into the largest exhibit room at the Museum, our Agriculture Room, you will likely just stand there for a moment and marvel at our latest exhibit, "The Democrat", a buggy from the early 1900s, featuring large wooden wheels, a tufted leather seat, and memories from those families who owned this carriage over the past 100+ years!

The 2-seater, horse-drawn carriage was first brought to the Didsbury area by W.C.H. (Charlie) Caush. Charlie and his family drove to the Zella School on Sundays to attend church services, with a team and his "Democrat", made by the McLaughlin Carriage Company in Ontario.

Later on, the buggy was owned by Dave Shoemaker, then passed on to Scott Whiteside, and by 1984, it came to the Gary Russell family of Didsbury. Gary and his daughter, Mackenzie, spent two years restoring it to its original beauty as a 4-H project. The Russell family donated it to the Didsbury and District Historical Society in May, 2025.

You will be greeted by our favourite "carriage rider", Rose (named by a regular visitor to the Museum, Luna. Rose is being courted by our "Charlie" (named after the carriage's first owner, Charlie Caush, of course), proudly standing by.

But there's more to our Agriculture Room! You'll find yourself drinking in all the tools used by farmers and ranchers in the "good ol' days".

The first settlers in the Didsbury area were predominantly Mennonite Brethren in Christ, led west by Jacob Y. Shantz in 1894. Their first concern was to build a church, and the primary task of the settlers was to create farmsteads.

Locating their homesteads was not always easy. Each quarter section was marked at its four corners by iron survey stakes which often became hidden in the prairie grass. Using the circumference of the wheels of their wagons, and counting each turn of the wheel, they measured off the distance to their own homestead grants. Without the help of a compass, often several attempts were required.

There is a "barn full" of tools here. In the early 1900s, levels were made of wood, not plastic. Harry Penner gifted a level that was made in Germany out of teak wood. This one was great for levelling logs and squaring the timbers. Settlers definitely wanted the window frames and hanging doors on their new cabins, straight!

We even have a Fairbanks balance scale, donated by Florence Cawsey, and Elsie Archer gifted the museum a classic Yankee Push Drill - these were once found in every shop and every job site tool bag!

Lots more tools on display, including several brace and bits, a cattle dehorner, hay saws for cutting bales of hay, and hip saws, a scythe, tap and die set, welding tank keys, a spark plug wrench, steel wedge, bearing scraper, a whole pile of S wrenches, wire stretchers, hay forks, and a Cotter key puller.

It was a time when bread was spread with butter or jam, but not both; when an inexpensive molasses cake was reserved for company; when people believed hard work would yield an abundant future, even though poverty became the norm.

We could go on and on, but a visit to the Didsbury Museum is the best way to immerse yourself in the agriculture industry and the early settlers who called Didsbury and Mountain View County, home.

We couldn't possibly capture all the historical stories on exhibit in our Agriculture Room.
Please watch our video, and visit us as soon as you can - and as often!

A handmade double oxen's yoke, circa 1800s. Two oxen could be haltered to pull a plow using this yoke.

A team of horses would pull the sweep of this hay stacker around the field and where the hay stack was to be formed. Men on the ground with pitchforks would help form the stack.

Farmers raising chickens for their own use used an incubator, which was a vast improvement over the hen sitting on their eggs for three weeks! Eggs did have to be turned every day though.

Did you know that on December 1, 1979, residents in Didsbury, Carstairs, and Crossfield would no longer have the luxury of home milk delivery? George Wilkins, distributor for the Alpha Milk Company, said the decision was simple economics - the rising cost of fuel, labour, repair bills of refrigeration equipped trucks - all helped him make the decision after 33 years.

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