fe apy TERE ROE NEE STSens 2a

4 Terrace Review — Wednesday, June? 1989.

TED. JOHNSON: MEMORIES OF. AC

7 pare notes with his. son. and ‘they’ @

hn :
When Ted Johinson was. a ‘put together the story of what.

young lad of eight, he and his

. younger sister lived with their : oo,

white father and Native mother
on a pre-empted farm located at
what is now the southwest cor-
ner of the intersection of
Johnson Road and Woodland
Park Drive in the .Woodland

Park subdivision north of Ter-- |

race. They also kept a ‘summer’
- home” on a few acres of pre-
- empted land about two miles to

the northeast, located near

Spring Creek on what is now © ie

called Merkley Road.

by Tod Strachan

But in the summer of 1914
(“it was a nice summer’’) Ter-
race was much different than it
is now. It was more wilderness
than community, and in the area

of Johnson’s two homes there
“were no‘ roads — only trails
through the bush, It is with a
picture of this setting in mind
that 84-year-old Ted Johnson

tells the story of a summer when |

grizzlies roamed freely -in the
area.

The Johnsons had moved to

their ‘‘Merkley home’’ for a few
weeks during the summer to do

some berry picking. And: for ©

that part of their “holiday” it
was a success. ‘“‘It was a good
year: for them,” remembers
Johnson.. ‘‘There were lots of
huckleberries out there.”” But
this holiday wasn’t going to be
remembered for it’s good times.

Early one Saturday morning

his father, Albert, left the Merk-’
ley home to walk the two miles.

back to the farm in order to
meet a neighbor who would be
returning -a borrowed horse.
Johnson explains that there was

“~plenty of grass for the horse to
graze, but fences and water had
-to be checked to be sure the
animal would be okay. .

Even at 84, Johnson
remembers that day well, It was
between 9 and 9:30 when his.
father’ headed down the trail
while he did his best to cut down

trees with a hatchet. “‘I thought

I was clearing land for him,’’ he

says with a laugh. “With a little J

hatchet.”

A short time later, though, he
heard some noises in the dis-
> tance he had never heard before.

“T listened for a while, ‘‘ he says.

“But I just couldn’t make it

out." So he ran into the cabin

-for his mother and sister. : He

says his mother could hear the

noise too, but she wasn't sure of
its origin either. “She told us,

‘Don’t go away from the cabin.

It might be wolves’,’’ He re-

members. And adds, ‘‘We

didn’t go very far from that
cabin.”’

-. “Johnson says that he believes
his mother was suspicious of the
‘source of the noise but never
told the children. The next day
around noon, however, she told
them to get their pails. They
were. going to leave their Merk-
ley home and pick berries on
their way back to the farm. And
with that, they headed down the
same trail taken a day earlier by
their father. _

Ard they were a little over a
‘mile short of their destination

| when . ‘they found their father.

badly: mauled... “We. had our
pails - full, I was ahead, and I

TED JOHNSON: They saved
the foot... ha was lucky that
way.

heard something ahead of me — |

kind of a gutteral sound,” says
Johnson, ‘I didn’t know what it

was but my mother came up to

me and she recognized that it
was my dad.’? He had been
attacked by a grizzly, and al-
though still alive, he was unable
to move from the spot where he
had fallen, His back and hands

‘were badly gashed and his right

leg was nearly severed at the
ankle.

My mother told me to stay
there while she and my sister

went for help, he recalls. Fred

Hampton was their Merkley
neighbor living a short distance
to the north. Waiting alone
wasn’t easy for the eight-year-
old son.
behind every tree,’? he imag-
ined. But it was only a short

time before she returned with‘

Hampton and then headed for
the farm where there was a
phone to summon more help.

‘1 couldn’t believe he’d get
there so quick,”’ says Johnson.
“He must have run most of the

way.” And he arrived prepared

as well. He had with him some

‘baking powder biscuits and a
‘flask of brandy. He recalls that

his father couldn’t eat but
Hampton ran the quarter mile to
the “north fork” of Spring
Creek and ‘“‘mixed a little with
the brandy”’ and that, says
Johnson, is what he needed the

most: ‘‘He was dry. He hadn’t

had a drink in sometime.”
By this time, his mother had

contacted Dr. Traynor, and he ~

and three or four volunteers had
arrived on the scene with a
buckboard to transport Albert
Johnson to his farm. ‘‘He (Dr.
Traynor) couldn’t do much for
him. He had to go to Rupert
because that leg had to be fixed
up.”? Prince Rupert was the.
nearest hospital at the time and
that. meant an even longer wait
for Albert Johnson, who had
already suffered alone on the

trail for almost 18 hours. And,

‘We had to wait another day,”
he says.

The elder Johnson was in the
Prince Rupert hospital for sever-
al months and was crippled for
the rest of his life. Bone from
the leg that had been bitten by

-the bear had to be removed,

explains Johnson, and, ‘‘One
leg was two inches shorter than
the other by the time they had
finished with it. But they saved

the foot... he was lucky that
way.”
After his father had recovered

somewhat, he wag able to com-

“There was a bear:

-had happened to Albert John-

™ =6son on that’ Saturday. morning

iy

on the trail.
As he walked down the trail

that morning, he approached a

spot where a row of four hem-

‘ Jocks hid any.view of.a windfall .
behind. As he came abreast: of |
the four hemlock, he heard a.
“rustling noise’’ in the brush of
the windfall and turned to. see
what it was.

Johnson says. his father saw
nothing at the . time but: now

believes grizzly cubs were play- |

ing in the windfall while the
mother ate berries behind the
four liemlock. And, “As he

turned, she let a roar out of-

her,” says Johnson. ‘He goes on

to explain that as Albert. heard ~~
the sound, he jumped ahead and
-that probably saved his father’ s aa

life.

“She would have’ “mashed
him right on top of the head if
he hadn’t have,’’ says Johnson.
‘But she just caught him on top
of the back of the head and put
one clawmark right down the
back. It was the full length of his
back and it cut his shirt off.’’ He
goes on to describe how his
father turned to fight the bear

with his. bare fists and as a

result, “his hands were fairly
well chewed”’.

. He says that his father by this
time had decided that the bear
was “going to get him anyway”’
but she wasn’t going to win
without a fight. ‘“‘So he kicked
at the bear and the bear took his
leg right in her mouth,’’ says
Johnson. “She chewed the leg
right off just above the ankle...
there was just the cords holding
it. ?

Now seriously injured, the

father was down on his hands.

and knees, waiting for the final
crashing blow. But it never
came. Johnson says he believes
that the cubs had wandered off
by this time and the mother, no
longer interested in the intruder,

wandered a away y with them.. oe from:10 wm: Saturday morning "

_ Albert Johnson was seriously:
injured,. but alive. And he now .
had to survive until help arrived,
Johnson" says’ his’ father.’ was

“unable to move any distance but}
he did ‘manage to prop himself.
-up against a tree and found a

forked tree branch which - he:

place under the right knee —
propping: up ‘the leg and stop-
ping the bleeding. And he waited
in pain ‘until help” ‘arrived _—

until 4 ‘pam. the next day. Lo
Ted. Johnson, now a resident

of North ‘Kamloops, was- raised

‘and worked i in Terrace for many

years, ; In Terrace recently for a
visit, he recounted for the Ter-

race Review several anecdotes of
the lives of our pioneers, This is -

just one. of those stories and in
the. coming months,. we'll share
more of them with you.

‘Budget protesters -
to ride the rails. |

- Contributed by |

. Mary Bowering »
- Terrace Women’s.
Resource Centre

‘Finance Minister Michael
Wilson has said some things in
tabling the federal budget that
we. agree with, for example,
“Valued. social programs, high
standards of .living, economic
opportunity, sovereignty at
home, and respect abroad,
responsible and responsive
government — this is the
Canada we must leave to our
children.”

However, we disagree with his
methods of achieving this goal.
He chooses to: raise taxes which
affect low and middle wage
earners; allow tax write-offs for
large corporations; reduce

spending on foreign aid, social :
“advocacy groups, Crown Cor-

porations and regional economic
development; and reduce the
amount of money allocated to
social programs for - example,
unemployment insurance, na-
tional childcare’ programs and
federal contributions to provin-
cial health and education pro-
grams. We think these are poor
and damaging attempts at a
band-aid solution.

For long-term fundamental

- changes which would affect the 2 =
' quality of life in Canada as well
_asthe deficit, we support instead —
‘the reorganization of our.
"economic priorities to emphasize
meaningful employment. which |
cares for the environment, in-

come security, quality social ser-
vices; and a fair and progressive
tax system.

"The National Action Commit- |
tee on the Status of Women, the -
Pro-Canada Network, the Cana- —

dian Brotherhood of Railway
Workers and more than 30 other
national organizations are spon-
soring a national campaign to
“set the budget on track’.
Trains left from Vancouver on

- June 4 and will leave Halifax on —
' June 8, scheduled to meet in Ot-

tawa on June 12. They will be
stopping at major centers along
the route to collect messages

from Canadian people totaketo —

Ottawa. Canadian citizens are
encouraged to state their opposi-
tion to the budget in a strong
and unified voice.

In Terrace, since the train will
not be stopping here, readers are
encouraged to choose the aspect
of the budget which affects them
most and send their message by

June 12 to: Pro-Canada Net-
. work, 904-251 Laurier Ave.,

West, Ottawa, Ont. K1P 5J6.

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