Oscar and Elizabeth Head Blumel

For Magrath, Alberta's Diamond Jubilee (75th anniversary celebration), the Magrath and District History Association published two volumes entitled "Irrigation Builders". These books relate the early history of the Magrath area and its early settlers. On page 422 of Vol. 1, the short biography on Oscar Blumell reads as follows:


BLUMELL, OSCAR was born July 5, 1881 in Berlin, Germany. He immigrated with his folks to Utah and to Canada in 1899. He said, "I got into Cardston in the evening. Next morning my father had a team. He put the reins in my hands and said, "You will go to Kimball and go to work on the Canal." I had never seen the prairies and there was no fence, no house and even the trail was tough to see with untrained eyes. And there was no one else going that morning. I got there." He worked mostly on irrigation for years.

On February 26, 1908, he married Elizabeth Head and they had children: Russell Oscar born December 23, 1908, he married Frances Ackroyd. Emerson Richard married Lois Dudley. He is a School Inspector. Jasper Frederick, January 11, 1916, deceased. He was a school teacher. James Elton married Margaret Ririe. School teacher at present in Raymond. Elizabeth died with flu March 1919 and Oscar married 2nd Jean Baird Peebles. Children Mary Jean born May 28, 1921, Alice Margaret, born November 4, 1923 and Robert Gordon born April 4, 1925.

Much of Oscar's employment was in Magrath as Constable and water master, during the depression years. It was all prohibition time and bootlegging and whiskey running across the border. He therefore spent considerable time hunting stills and several were found. He also interpreted in court for Europeans who had no English, as most of them knew at least some German. He also spoke at their funerals. He died in Magrath Febrary 25, 1950.

I typed this exactly as it appears in the book and some of the writing is a bit choppy. Please comment on any errors you find. Although Mel's dad was always known as Russell, his name was Oscar Russell and not Russell Oscar as it appears in this biography.