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“While we were looking at pictures, Hazel told the following story. I was inspired to write it down, and wish I had done more of that. I thought you would like this little piece of oral history. One year of her amazing life.”

-Miranda Hine, 2007

In 1922 there was a railroad strike in the United Sates and Albert Henry was out of a job. At the time Albert was communicating with Henry Raines, a minister friend who had moved up to Willow River, British Columbia, which is near Prince George. The minister made the area sound enticing, so much so Albert secured a train pass for his whole family and mother in law to travel there and find work. Once in Willow River he bought a team of horses, which enabled him to carry freshly cut logs of trees from thick forests, hauling them away, and helping to clear the roadway. Hazel loved having horses.

Henry Raines was an interesting fellow. Story has it when he got off the train he told the people waiting to greet them, “ I’ve come here to Christianize the heathen.” That didn’t go down well considering he had left his wife and had traveled up to British Columbia with another woman and her family. Mr. Golder, a resident of the town, told him he would come to church the day the minister preached about adultery! Raines never did. The Henry family’s stay in British Columbia was brief – less than a year. The deciding factor to return home was to secure education for their daughters, Hazel, Mildred and Bertie. In the town of British Columbia there was a one-room schoolhouse and that fall the teacher announced that the children would have to be in school for an extra year. At that Albert decided to return to the United States and to make sure his children had the education he wanted for them.

Hazel (Henry) Hine, Feb 2007