Essie was born on May 26, 1917 at the family farm in Dry Fork, Alberta.  She was the fifth of six children.

 

	Essie in carriage, and Bill Circa 1918

Gilbert Edward Born July 5, 1906 Dry Fork, Alberta
Edward (Ed) married Edith Davis.  They had two daughters, Elsie and unknown, the youngest one died at birth.  They also had three sons, James, Robert and Stephen.
Ed died and is buried in Creston, B.C.  Edith died in Cranbrook, B.C.

James Logan Born March 28, 1908, Dry Fork, Alberta
James (Jim) married Frances Dennis.  They had two daughters, Joanne and Pamela.
Jim and Frances both died in Victoria, B.C.

Margaret Elizabeth Born October 25, 1910, Athol, Idaho
Margaret (Margie) married Malcolm (Mac) McLeod. They had a son Malcolm and daughter Elizabeth (Betty). Mac and Margie both died in Cranbrook, B.C
Margie’s ashes are buried between her parents' graves in the Marysville cemetery.

William Ross Born July 29, 1914, Dry Fork, Alberta
William (Bill) married Frances (Reviere) Cox.  Frances had previously been married to Melvin Cox, and she had three daughters with Melvin; Nellie, May, Margaretta and a daughter Marlene with Bill.  Bill died and is buried in Marysville, B.C.  Frances lived in Kimberley, B.C.until her death in December 2010.

Essie Pearl Born May 26, 1917, Dry Fork, Alberta
Essie married Orville Cox and they had two sons, John Logan and Orville Gary and a daughter Trudy Maureen.  Orville died in Creston, B.C., and Essie lived in Langley, B.C., until she passed away February 27, 2012.

Ina Jean, Born June 22, 1922
Jean married Norman Lawrence.  They had three sons, Stewart, Robert and William and a daughter Kathy. Norm and Jean live in Edmonton, Alberta.

 

		All the McWhirter children - at Brant and Trudy's wedding in Creston, 1973
		Ed and Jim singing and playing at Trudy and Brant's wedding in 1973.

Essie's sister Margie died in 1998.  Here is a letter written by Essie about her life, growing up with Margie in southern Alberta.

I REMEMBER MARGIE

By Essie McWhirter Cox

Margie and the rest of us grew up on the homestead in Dry Fork, Alberta.  I was born in Dry Fork in 1917, but Margie was born six years earlier in Athol, Idaho.  Mom and Dad were spending a year down there while Dad worked with Mom’s brother, Uncle Harley.

How hard did the wind blow in Dry Fork?  In the fall when the wind started to blow, we would go way back in the west end of the field and hold our coats out like wings and the wind would start to blow, we’d start to run and before long you were taking steps that were about ten feet long, but it was fun. 

Margie and I would ride double deck when we went to Cyr’s school, which was about 3 miles from home on the road, but if you cut across the fields it was only two.  You had to open five gates if you were going to cut across the fields.  Margie got to open the gates because she rode in front.  We rode old Daisy most of the time.  Margie always had a great sense of humour and was never stuck for a comeback.

One time we were racing with Bill on the way home from school and our horse stepped in a hole and fell and threw us under the fence.  We gave up on the race, got back on our horse and rode home a lot slower.

Margie was a good seamstress, and during the Depression when nobody had any cash and you had to make due with what you had, she learned to make dresses and lots of other things out of flour sacks, especially when the flour companies started using patterned material to make the sacks.

A little later in the Depression, Orville and Jim decided that they could make some money by getting some beaver skins and selling them.  Of course they didn’t have a trapping license, but that didn’t stop them, so we had some illegal beaver pelts that needed to be taken to Calgary to be sold.  Jim and Orville and Margie and I and our Uncle Ed all got into Orville’s father’s car and set off for Calgary.  The trunk was loaded with muskrat and beaver hides.  The police stopped us, looking for a couple of guys that had robbed a store in Crowsnest Pass.  Jim jumped out and started talking to the policemen, and since there were two girls with these three men, and the two criminals were alone, it couldn’t be us.  If they had searched the car, we would have been in trouble for sure, but we made it to Calgary without further incident.

Cars were a bit of a problem for Margie it seemed.  Margie, Jim, Orville and I went down to Big Sandy, Montana, where I was going to stay to look after my sick cousins while my aunt was in the hospital.  Orville, Margie and Jim started back to Alberta.  They stopped at a store to get some tobacco, and while they were there, Margie got out to go to the bathroom.   When she came out, there was no car, no Jim or Orville.  She hoped they would come back and pick her up.  When Orville and Jim got a few miles down the road, they decided that Margie had been quiet for a bit too long, and they were going to wake her up in the backseat of the car.  She wasn’t there.  They got excited and tore back to the store and there she was, still waiting for them.

Gary loved to tease Aunt Marg.  He worked with heavy equipment, and often ended up pretty dirty by the end of the day.  Gary told Margie that when he got dirt under his fingernails, he liked to wash dishes to get rid of the dirt.  She told him that when she got dirt under her fingernails, she preferred to make bread.

Margie always had a comeback for every line that was tossed at her.  Her quiet manner concealed a wry sense of humour and a love of the ridiculous.  She enjoyed playing cards, and could give anybody a run for their money in a crib game.  She was an excellent cook – much of her skill was learned from our mother, and her daughter Betty in turn inherited those skills from Marg.

She was a loving mother and grandmother with a real appreciation of farm life. Marg liked nothing better than to spend her day looking after the chickens and the garden.  She was not only my sister….but my best friend too. 

 

	Essie, John, Cody, Anne and Kaylee 2008		Eating blueberries and ice cream August 2011 with Mandi, Anne and John in Langley
	Brant, Trudy, Essie, Darryl, Carly, Shannon, Nathan and Gary on Essie's 93rd birthday, May 2010		Essie with Jean and Norm, June 2011

 

		Cruise In 2007 - Essie sits beside a car built in 1917, the year she was born
		Portrait on Gulf Island ferry 2004
		Rest in Peace.