A richly illustrated chronicle that captures more than a century of life on a landmark Fraser Valley farm. This fascinating account details farming methods of a bygone era and all the toil, triumph and tragedy behind the establishment of a championship dairy herd.

When Allen Casey Wells passed through the valley of the Chilliwack River en route to the Cariboo goldfields in the spring of 1862, he observed some lush natural meadows on the prairie. Several years later, he returned to take up land here for himself and his young family, establishing a farm on Luckakuck Creek that would come to be known as Edenbank--home to the Wells family for the next four generations.

A.C.'s grandson, the late Oliver N. Wells, tells of the days when teamsters rode horses and cows were milked by hand. He relates how several generations of his family, with extraordinary determination and vision, pioneered farming techniques and developed an award-winning herd of Ayrshire cattle that they exhibited across the country. His account also provides insight into the life of a contented man who loved the land and his birthplace and left an important legacy.

Oliver N. Wells (1907-1970), a farmer and stock breeder, was also a naturalist, writer, ethnographer and historian. Before conservation became fashionable, he established a bird sanctuary on his family's land. He helped to revive Salish weaving techniques and documented the Halkomelem language and native myths in a number of publications.

Oliver N. Wells' profile page

Marie Weeden, the youngest daughter of Oliver Wells, grew up on Edenbank Farm. Like her father, she has a keen interest in history, particularly that of the Chilliwack area. She co-edited and researched The Chilliwacks and Their Neighbors, a collection of interviews by her father. In 1970 Marie and her husband, Richard Weeden, took over the management of Edenbank Farm and subsequently tried in vain to have it preserved as a provincial heritage site.

Marie Weeden's profile page

Richard Weeden and his wife, Marie, took over the management of Edenbank Farm in 1970 and subsequently tried in vain to have it preserved as a provincial heritage site. He and Marie co-edited Edenbank: The History of a Canadian Pioneer Farm in 2003.

Richard Weeden's profile page

ALLAN FOTHERINGHAM has been writing a column for 33 of his 47 years in journalism, first with the Vancouver Sun and later with Southam News, The Financial Post and Sun Media.
He is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, where he was the editor of The Ubyssey. Fotheringham claims to have previously worked as a steelworker and in a food-processing plant, spreading frozen peas.
He has lived in Hearne, Saskatchewan, where he was born and started out in a one-room schoolhouse; in London, England where he dabbled in Fleet Street (with little visible impact); in Ottawa (where he did leave a visible impact); and Toronto, where he did post-graduate work and consumed a lot of sherry. His musings have appeared in the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong, the Christian Science Monitor and the Chilliwack Progress.
He has travelled widely in some 86 countries, has reported from the Soviet Union and China and has been in Africa five times over 20 years. Attempting to avoid work, he now lives, more or less permanently, in Toronto counting the days until he can retire to Positano, Italy.
Fotheringham was a columnist in Washington for five years, covering the Reagan and Bush administrations and has travelled extensively in the United States, missing only four states.
At present, Fotheringham is a columnist for Maclean’s magazine (where he has written on the last page for 26 years) and has also, just recently joined The Globe And Mail. He was a ten-year panelist on the famous Canadian television show, Front Page Challenge.
Fotheringham was the 1964 winner of the Southam Fellowship in Journalism, the 1980 winner of the National Magazine Award for Humour, and the first winner of the National Newspaper Award for column-writing. In 1999, he was inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame along with Conrad Black.
A letter to the editor once said, “He is the greatest cobweb-blower and guff-remover in Canadian journalism.” Time magazine has described him as “Canada’s most consistently controversial newspaper columnist…a tangier critic of complacency has rarely appeared in a Canadian newspaper.”
Fotheringham feels the smartest thing he has ever done is his 1998 marriage to Toronto Art Dealer, Anne Libby and the two of them crowned the Millennium with a six week tour of South America and spent Christmas Day in Antarctica holding hands with a penguin.
He has published six books, the latest being, FOTHERINGHAM’S FICTIONARY OF FACTS AND FOLLIES. Published by Key Porter Books.

Allan Fotheringham's profile page

"Anyone who likes farms, or likes farming will like this book."
-Ron MacIsaac, Island News

Island News

"The pages of Edenbank will do much to keep the legacy of this remarkable pioneer farming family alive."
-Mark Forsythe, Bookworld

Bookworld

"The fascinating account describes the farming methods of a bygone era while describing the satisfaction to be found in family, nature and the rhyme of the seasons."
-Edgar Dunning, Delta Optimist

Delta Optimist