Samuel Schlaht

SCHLAHT, Samuel “Sam”

January 23, 1928 – February 22, 2022

Sam was born in Mendham, Saskatchewan on January 23, 1928 to Fred and Lydia Schlaht. The Schlaht family farmed in that area until 1937 when after being dried out for 3 years, Fred Schlaht and some friends who had relatives in the Claresholm area, came out to see if they should relocate to the Claresholm area. They returned to Mendham and packed up most of everything they owned and headed west in a covered wagon. They hearded their cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens were in wagons. Horses pulled these wagons and the Model T Ford was also pulled by horse as they had hardly any gas to drive it. In the evening Fred would start up the Ford and drive to the nearest farmer and if they could stay on their land overnight. Permission was always granted. They crossed rivers by way of a ferry. It took 13 days to arrive in Claresholm, Alberta in September 1937.

Fred Schlaht had made arrangements to rent land but could not move on it until Spring 1938. Alf McAllister was in charge of renting to them. However as they could not move there until Spring, they made arrangements to live with Fred Reyolds. His farm was 1 milewest of town and then south of Lenard Shearer.

Sam was in grade 3 and had to walk about 2 miles to Trout Creek School. It was at the corner south of them that he had met Joyce Carey (Burnham) coming from the south and they walked together west another mile to school.

Then in the spring when they moved to the McAllister  place which is owned by Stuart Derochie, Sam and Edwin went to town school on a bus. Sam attended Claresholm School until he was in grade 10, and due to his brother, Ted, going to war, Sam quit school to help farm.

Then 1946, Fred bought Ed Heyland’s place 1 ¼ miles west of Longs bridge (now called Harts bridge). Sam helped with the farming there and worked in town at the Crown Lumber part time.

November 5, 1951, Sam married Ila Schlaht and his parents moved to town and Sam & Ila lived on the farm, renting the land from his dad until September 1957. On April 6, 1953, Their daughter, Darlene, was born. Sam milked cows, sold the milk to the dairy, worked part time at the Crown as well as the farm. In August 1954, they got hailed out 100% and had to sell the crop for feed for their cattle. That is when they decided to move to town and Sam worked at the Crown Lumber, then at Soby & Smith grocery, L.E Smith service station. After he was finished working his shift at the garage, he would go out to Longs farm and drive tractor to help out until midnight (lots of nights).

Then in July 1956, they moved to Calgary and worked at Burns and Dutton Construction with his brother, Edwin. Then in March 1957, L.E Smith came and offered Sam more money to come back to Claresholm and work for him. As we did like small living better than the city and another child on the way, that is what he did. Our daughter, Cheryl, was born October 13, 1957. In 1960 Sam left L.E Smith to work or his brother, Alfred, at his service station.

Royal Lite Oil contacted us to run the Snack Stop so it was renamed Sammie’s Snack Stop and opened in October 1961 and stayed open all winter with Sam & Ila doing most of the work. He also was in partnership with Alan McKee on cattle.

Then after Christmas of 1965, Sam was offered a part-time position with the post office here in Claresholm.

Sam was finally able to get on full time with Canada Post and on Agust 1, 1978 got his own office in Bellevue, AB. He worked there for 6 years and then got the Coleman office. He was there for 6 ½ years and then retired September of 1991 and moved back to Claresholm.

Sam is lovingly remembered by his wife, Ila of 70 years; daughters, Darlene (Ben) Hoglund and Cheryl; grandchildren, Laurie (Rob) Miller, Angie (Ed) Hahn, Chad (Tarrah) Trotter and Clay (Tina); 3 great grandchildren and 1 great great grandchild.

He was admitted to the Willow Creek Continuing Care Centre in Claresholm on March 16, 2021 and passed away on Tuesday, February 22, 2022.