Isabel Irene (Wallace) (Bell) Cooper
Isabel Irene Bell was born March 14, 1881 at Mount Forest,
Ontario. She delighted in telling us that she
didn't know who she really was. She was the one surviving
child of twins born to the Bell family. Her twin sister,
Katherine Marie, died in infancy. Apparently they were identical
twins and, since no one was really sure which of the two died, she said she was
not sure if she was alive or dead.
In 1899 Irene came west by train (according to my mother) with her
spinster Aunt, Maria. The had apparently left Ontario to go to the West Coast,
where she was to recover from disease. I think we were told it was
tuberculosis. However, Irene never got any further west than
Moosomin, Sask. There she was met at the station by Lew Wallace
(her cousin?) They travelled by wagon to the community of
Wordsworth and were married on August 22, 1899. Their daughter,
Isabel, was born on May 31, 1900, and on August 6, 1901 a son Norman
was born. Six weeks after Norman's birth (on November 2, 1901),
Lew died of pneumonia, leaving Irene a young widow with two infant children.
Alone on the sparsely inhabited prairie with neighbors few and far
between, a less determined person might have been tempted to return to
the relative safety and comfort of an Ontario home among friends and
family. Irene chose to stay on the homestead. With help
from her father-in-law, her uncle, and men she was able to hire, she continued to
live on the homestead. No doubt there were suitors coming to her
door, but it was not until January 1, 1908 that she married Charles
Cooper (pictured below).
Charles was a young school teacher
who had come west to homestead and teach in the
Wordsworth district. He taught for several years as he worked
his homestead and began the life of a farmer. From the time
of
his marriage to Irene Wallace until 1910 he lived and worked the land
he homesteaded near Wordsworth.. In 1910 he rented, and later
bought, a
section of land about 10 miles south of their homesteads.
(click here for more about Charles Cooper)
Charles and Irene had three daughters. Elda Kathleen, Born
February 1910, Tannis, born in 1912, and Margaret, born in 1914.
Charles died in 1934 at the age of 67, and is buried in Alameda
cemetery. His toombstone says he was born in 1867. Irene
died in 1971 and is buried in Moose Creek United Church cemetery.
Kathleen was the eldest daughter
of Charles Cooper and Irene (Wallace) Cooper. Kathleen grew
up on the farm in the Green Hill School
District, and 
attended High school in Alameda.
In 1932 on December 31 she was married in the family home on the
farm to Robert Wesley Doty who grew up in the Moose Creek District, a
few miles to the north. Kathleen (Katy) and Wesley had a family
of 10 children. Dale Wesley died in 1948 at the age of 2 years 6
months . All the others are still living, and are scattered over
North America.
Picture left is Charles Cooper holding Katy probably about 1912.
Pictured below is Katy holding Bob, her first born, picture taken in September, 1934.
Pictured to the right is Irene Wallace surrounded by her family. Irene
is standing second from the left. Her daughter, Isabel, is standing in front of
her, and her
son, Norman, is seated in the middle foreground.
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