Edwin and Enard Sandback
John Edwin Sandback was born at Britannia Mines, 5 January 1918. His father was John Erick Sandback, of Finnish background, and his mother Sara Maria Lindkuist who was Swedish. His father had come out from Finland at the age of 18 in order to settle in Quebec. They were married in Vancouver, BC in 1914. In addition to John Edwin there were three brothers and a sister born to the family.
Vital Event Marriage Registration
Groom Name: John Erick Sandback
Bride Name: Sara Maria Lindkuist
Event Date: 1914 9 29 (Yr/Mo/Day)
Event Place: Vancouver
Reg. Number: 1914-09-076456
B.C. Archives Microfilm Number: B11378
GSU Microfilm Number: 1983706
John Sandback took a homestead in Forest Grove before 1918 but continued to work at Britannia Mines until June of 1918 when the family moved permanently to their new home in Forest Grove. The only building on the property was a small log cabin and they were given 5 years to make improvements to the property before they could assume full title. The family arrived by train in Ashcroft and then came by wagon to Forest Grove. The trip from Ashcroft took three days and was particularly difficult on hills often necessitating that the team of horses be doubled.
The land was covered with pine stumps left over from the first efforts to clear the forest. Each stump had to be burned out. To begin with there was the usual ¼ section but an additional 160 acres was later added followed by another 80 acres which was later sold. The land was not all contiguous. All of the buildings on the homestead were built in the winter, one by one, year after year. The barn was built in 1923 over a period of two winters. John Sandback cut all the logs himself and they were pulled into place by a team of horses. The shakes were made of fir and very thin. They were all split by hand. The ice house was built in 1925 and was later changed to a granary and then a machine shed. Ice was cut in the creek in February and hauled up by horse to the ice house where it was stored in sawdust. It took a week to fill the ice house. Most of it was used for the creamery. The main house was built about 1918 not long after the family arrived. It was built on the site of the current house. In 1938 the family bought a pump and established running water by putting two barrels upstairs thereby using a gravity feed system. They also bought a 32 volt light plant in 1938 which they ran for 4 hours every two or three days. A radio was purchased in 1938 but there was no TV until the power came in about 1958. They bought a 1929 Chev in 1938 or 1936 and took a big trip to Spokane and Vancouver.
It must be assumed that John Edwin came to be called Edwin to avoid confusion with his father who was also John. Edwin began school in Forest Grove when he was 5 ½ years old in 1923 or 1924. There were only 5 other children attending school at that time and 6 was the requirement to keep the school open. He walked the 1 ¾ miles to the log school building which was located near the site of the present school. He can’t recall his first teacher other than he seemed to be an old man. Every year or so the teachers would change and in general the school didn’t amount to much. He recalls learning a little geography and some English grammar. In grade 8 he quit school as there was too much work to be done on the farm. the school was a focus for community activities such as dances and picnics, there being no community hall at this time. The log school burned down in 1925 or 26 and a proper community hall was constructed.
Work on the farm involved bringing in the cows morning and night so that they could be milked. The cows were often difficult to find as there were no fences and they tended to wander. The farm produced 31 gallons of cream a week. This was cooled in a hollowed out fir log, approximately 18” deep, filled with ice and water. The ice would float on the water between the cream cans. Two gallon pails were used to fill the cans which had a capacity of 8 to 10 gallons. The trick was to keep the cream from spoiling until it could be hauled out by wagon to the train. Each local farmer took a turn with this delivery task. Late trains were a serious problem as the cream could not be cooled on the wagon or at the station.
The Sandback family were the biggest shippers and regularly milked 35 cows. A 5 gallon can of cream would bring about $2. Butter fat was .23 cents a pound and a 5 gallon can of cream yielded approximately 40% or 21 lbs of butter.
The same process was repeated each day when cows were milked at 8 am and again at 8 pm. The cream was then separated from the milk with 2 ½ gallons of milk producing 1 pint of cream. Edwin recalls that 23 cows would produce about 2 gallons of cream. The cream that was separated from the milk had to be allowed to cool before it could be added to the other cool cream. Morning cream was mixed with evening cream as it required about 8 hours of cooling before it could be added. Cream separators were hand turned and it took ¾ of an hour to separate the cream from milk produced by 23 cows. They had only one separator but it had an 8 gallon bowel which sat on legs. The remaining milk was fed to the pigs or dumped as it was not worth anything although they used what they could in the home. It was all hard work.
There were approximately 10 dairy farms in the Forest Grove area but some were very small producing 5 gallons of cream or less a week. The cream went by train either to Vancouver or to Quesnel. Number 1 cream was made into butter and No 2 into butter and some sour cream. It was regularly tested usually in Vancouver and every month a cheque would arrive in the mail. It was, for the most part, a very successful family business and they were able to avoid going on relief during the Depression years. After the war the dairy farm was shut down. There was an attempt in 1925 by the Farmers’ Institute to start a creamery in 100 Mile but nothing came of it. Edwin still believes that dairy cattle were the best agricultural investment for the area. Beef cattle were no good because most of the land was in small parcels and grazing was difficult.
Two of the Sandback boys had gone off to war and John Erick Sandback died in 1943.
Vital Event Death Registration
Name: John Erick Sandback
Event Date: 1943 4 2 (Yr/Mo/Day)
Age: 62
Gender: male
Event Place: Forest Grove
Reg. Number: 1943-09-623300
B.C. Archives Microfilm Number: B13179
GSU Microfilm Number: 1953639
Vital Event Death Registration
Name: Svea Marie Sandback
Event Date: 1957 3 19 (Yr/Mo/Day)
Age: 66
Gender: female
Event Place: Haney
Reg. Number: 1957-09-003991
B.C. Archives Microfilm Number: B13231
GSU Microfilm Number: 2033147
By 1947 all of the milk cows were gone and a switch had been made to beef cattle. They tried to break into the sawmill business but were not successful.
Edwin Sandback recalls his growing up years as very dreary. The chores on the farm never went away. In the summer he would fish a little in the creek and in the winter he would trap or shoot a few squirrels. A squirrel would bring about .8 cents, a weasel 63 or 70 cents and a muskrat as much as $1.10. It wasn’t a great business and the most he might make over the course of a winter would be $100. The trapping was all done on family property and it took about 2 ½ hours to walk the trap line. The hides were skinned out and stretched on a wooden form.
The family kept a big garden and would sometimes put a ton of potatoes in the root cellar. They also butchered their own animals. In the fall there was always some hunting mostly for deer. It would take a maximum of 2 days to shoot a deer and usually less than a mile and a half from home. The Great Depression of the 1930s didn’t hurt them very badly but many local families were on relief. They certainly never had any money but people were generally happy and always willing to chat along the road.
There was not a great deal of recreation other than local dances to which most people truned out. At midnight there would be coffee, sandwiches and cake.
When the war came Edwin joined the army in March of 1942. He spet time overseas in England, Europe and Alaska and was released from service in 1946. Things were never the same after the war. He thinks that he saw too much while he was away. They tried to find a new way to make a living and got rid of their cows. The four brothers went into the sawmilling business with Hank Rudosky for about three years – until 1948. It was always a bit of a crap shoot with little money left over after machinery was purchased. Two of the Sandback brothers got out of this arrangement and worked partly on the farm and partly for the other two brothers in the mill. The mill was finally shut down in 1964. One brother died and the other went logging near Vanderhoof. The brothers all got along and each tended to always have his own job on the farm or in the mill.
Vital Event Death Registration
Name: Enard Nels Sandback
Event Date: 1979 10 22 (Yr/Mo/Day)
Age: 58
Gender: male
Event Place: 100 Mile House
Reg. Number: 1979-09-016099
B.C. Archives Microfilm Number: B13599
GSU Microfilm Number: 2051383
Vital Event Death Registration
Name: Engar Robert Sandback
Event Date: 1961 5 3 (Yr/Mo/Day)
Age: 33
Gender: male
Event Place: Hope
Reg. Number: 1961-09-007476
B.C. Archives Microfilm Number: B13252
GSU Microfilm Number: 2033373
After the war the farm was a different place. They grew some hay which was bailed and they got rid of their horses after they bought an old tractor.
Enard and Engar established movie shows in Forest Grove as well as in Lone Bute, Bridge Lake and Clinton. Every night they would show a movie in a different place. The films came from Vancouver and they were picked up in 100 Mile. There wasn’t a lot of choice. And even running the films 5 nights a week did not prove to be profitable. The Amusement Tax took 10 cents on every 50 cents and there was the cost of gas to go from place to place plus the cost of generating electricity to run the projector. Sometimes in the summer there would be an open air show on the Sandback farm. They might draw as many as 75 or 100 people and admission was 50 cents with children allowed in free. These movies were well received by the local people and in particularly by the Indians who would turn up with their wagons and horses. After 2 years in this business they sold the projector and light plant to the community.