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LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION: Fonds
No.: PR0581
TITLE: Beth Sheehan fonds
CREATOR: Sheehan, Beth Flint
DATE RANGE: Copied 1972-1975
EXTENT: 0.01 m of textual records and other material
Also includes 6 photographs, 1 negative, 1 microfilm roll, and 3 audio reels.
ADMINISTRATIVE
HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Frances Elizabeth (Beth) Sheehan was born on January 1, 1920 in Beaverlodge, Alberta. Her father, Victor Carman Flint was born on September 10, 1889 in Ravenna, Ontario. He homesteaded in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan and traveled west to Beaverlodge, Alberta in 1909 with a Christian association made up of followers of Nelson Burns referred to as Burnsites or “the Bull Outfit”. Sheehan’s mother, Frances Mellissa Sills, was born on March 14, 1888 in Tweed Ontario. Flint married Frances Melissa Sills on February 11, 1915 and together they had three daughters, Laura, Madelon, and Beth. Beth Sheehan received her schooling at Lower Beaverlodge and Beaverlodge High School. After high school she went to secretarial college and then moved to Ontario in 1939, working in offices in Toronto and Muskoka. She returned to Alberta in 1943 and married Everett Axel Sheehan who was a farmer in the Clairmont area of Peace Country. Beth Sheehan was a secretary in Sexsmith and Grande Prairie and was very involved in historical and genealogical research. She was a member and board member of the Trumpeter Swan Society International and the Grande Prairie County Agricultural Society, as well as founder of the first Home and School Association in Harry Balfour School and member of the Alberta Historic Sites Board and the Grande Prairie Hot Air Balloon Association. Sheehan is co-author, along with her sister Madelon, of People of the Pass, and author of Turn Back the Pages, a history of Clairmont, Alberta.
SCOPE AND CONTENT: Fonds consists of records compiled and/or produced by Sheehan during the course of her personal activities and research regarding pioneers and homesteading in Grand Prairie and the Beaverlodge area of Alberta, and includes copied oral interviews of Hugh W. Allen, dated 1966, and Gordon Sherk, Marley Sherk, Lulu Sherk Allen, Victor Flint, and Frances Flint, dated 1963, conducted by Beth Sheehan, and of J.R. Oliver, dated 1965, and conducted by Jack Soars. Fonds also consists of transcripts of oral interviews of Gordon Sherk, Marley Sherk, Lulu Sherk Allen, Victor Flint, Frances Flint, Everett Sheehan, George Stone, and Cletus Aloysius Sheehan, dating 1955-1969, transcripts of personal reminiscences by F.C. Falk, Hugh W. Allen, and Lulu Sherk Allen dating 1955-1970, transcripts of diaries belonging to Mrs. Maud Truax (nee Sherk), I.E. Gaudin, and Elizabeth Jane Sills Shishler dating ca. 1909, and transcripts of correspondence of G.V. Flint dating ca. 1909. Fonds also includes manuscripts about the Bull Outfit written by Madelon Truax, dating 1967, and by Isabel Loggie, transcripts of North West Mounted Police (NWMP) patrol reports in the Beaverlodge, Alberta area, a manuscript of the history of the Brekken family, written by Thea Brekken and edited by Beth Sheehan, dating 1968, transcribed excerpts from the minute book of the Bower Beaver Lodge School District No. 2812, and a copy of a burial register, dating 1911-1932. Fonds also includes a blank receipt from Gaudin and Drake Real Estate Brokers, newspaper clippings, transcripts of funeral eulogies, microfilmed photographs of Beaverlodge pioneers, and other photographs depicting various people and views in Grande Prairie and Fort Vermilion.
LANGUAGE NOTE: The material is in English.
INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING ACCESSIONS: PR1972.0028
ASSOCIATED MATERIAL: Other records pertaining to Beth Sheehan can be found in the Beth Sheehan fonds at the Grande Prairie Regional Archives in Grande Prairie, Alberta, and the Peace River Country Research Project collection at the Glenbow Archives in Calgary, Alberta.
GENERAL NOTE: Two photographs from this fonds can be found in the A file under location numbers A.10,486-A.10,487.Some records from this fonds were donated at the same time and in the same accession as PR0584 Harry Coates fonds.Information for the biographical sketch was take from the Garnet Truax and "The Bull Outfit" of Beaverlodge, Alberta website located at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~truax/garnet.html, and from People of the Pass, written by Beth Sheehan, and located in the Provincial Archives of Alberta reference library under location number 971.231 M749 PAA.
RELATED ITEMS: A10486 (Fort Vermilion showing the driveway along the bank of the Peace River.)
A10487 (The North Land Sun steamer on the Athabasca River.)
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