Young people are often astute observers and commentators. As teenagers, Dorothy and Maxine Macleay provided a rich account of early ranch life in the 1920s, writing about life on the Rocking P Ranch. The Rocking P Ranch was one of the most ambitious family ranches in southern Alberta. Founded in 1900 by Roderick Riddle Macleay, the Rocking P flourished during the Second Cattle Frontier as the open-range “Texas System” of ranching failed. Despite seemingly limitless acres of range, the abundance of rich Fescue grass that could provide sustenance beyond first frosts and the mild seasonal influence of eastern-slope Chinooks, grazing and winter feed supplies had to be managed. Inclimate weather doomed thousands of animals.

Beginning in 1923, Maxine and Dorothy Macleay edited, reported and published The Rocking P Gazette, a monthly newspaper grounded in the daily life of the Rocking P Ranch. With an audience of their parents and relatives, cowpunchers, teachers and cooks, the 12- and 14-yearold sisters set out to create a family newspaper that reflected as closely as possible the commercial publications of the time. With sections for local news, advertisements, riddles, poetry and contributions from Macleay ranch hands, The Rocking P Gazette brought the family ranch to life. Their drawings and handwritten notes filled lined school notebooks. Their teacher at the time, Ethel Watts, assisted the girls.

Dorothy Margaret Macleay and her younger sister Gertrude Maxine produced the paper, edited it, acted as its principle reporters, wrote many of its articles and stories and sketched and painted nearly all its art. This seems all the more remarkable as during the time when these two young ladies generated the 17 monthly editions of the paper between 1923 and 1925, they also attended school and regularly contributed their energy to both the Rocking P and Bar S ranches, which their father Roderick Riddle Macleay and mother Laura Margaret Macleay (née Sturtevant) were industriously attempting to put on a sound financial foundation.

University of Calgary Press published the Rocking P Ranch and the Second Cattle Frontier in Western Canada Jan. 31, 2019. Authors Clay Chattaway and Warren Elofson draw upon the remarkable resource of The Rocking P Gazette to tell the story of the Rocking P Ranch and explore the Second Cattle Frontier. Through the lens of The Rocking P Gazette, Chattaway and Elofson detail not only a system of agricultural production, but a way of life that continues to this day. When Dorothy and Maxine grew up and married, the newspapers went into boxes and eventually found their way to Chattaway’s library. Chattaway, son of Gertrude Maxine Macleay, is a cattle rancher and grandson of Roderick Riddle Macleay. With his wife, Avril, his three sons and their families, Clay operates the Bar S Ranch in the Porcupine Hills west of Nanton, AB.

Warren Elofson is head of the Department of History at the University of Calgary.

 

Article written by Dr. Ron Clarke

Image - Canada Archives