Born in Scotland, David Graham was the second youngest of 5 siblings. (Jim, Alex, Bill, Dave and Marion.) Their parents, James Weir Graham Sr. and Marion Ford Graham, were married in Scotland and were farmers. In 1927, the whole Graham family immigrated to Canada under the Land Settlement Scheme. Settling in Whitewood SK, they experienced 10 years of drought, and therefore moved up to Blueberry Mountain AB in the Peace Country. In April 1937, they loaded all their cattle and horses, feed, farm equipment and household belongings into rail boxcars. Dave and his brother Jim rode with the animals. When they reached Spirit River AB, they spent the night there, stabling the animal. They reloaded everything into wagons for a difficult trip to Blueberry Mt. Along the way, they lost their dog, yet surprisingly he showed up at the front step of the place they stayed overnight. There were no roads out to their farm. For the first year they lived in a 14 by 14 foot building, until a proper log house was built. They farmed in the summers. In the winters, they hauled grain by horse and wagons to Spirit River in temperatures to -45 F. The horses, wearing blankets, had 2 foot-long icicles on their noses! By 1940 much was freighted with trucks and tractors. In the winter of 1939-40 Dave (and a friend Pete Sandul) had a contract to cut ice blocks from Moonshine Lake, to supply the nurses house in Blueberry. More than once, he fell in the lake at -35 degrees! Packed in sawdust, the ice became drinking water in the summer. Dave joined the armed forces in 1940 with his brother Bill, both going overseas. In 1943, Dave married Daisy Burn of Winnipeg MB. Daisy and Dave settled in Vancouver, raising two sons, Bob and Doug.
Source: The Big Bend pp 51– 53 (David’s Recollections, and James Weir Sr family history); photo p. 53 “First Canadian Home in SK”
Grande Prairie Herald-Tribune Sept. 2, 1943 p. 3 c. 3
