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Note: The following notes were copied from the book "From Danaview to Standard", written by the Standard Historical Society and published in 1979 by the Standard Historical Society, Standard, Alberta, Canada. ISBN No. 0-88925-105-3:
"Mr. and Mrs. Jens R. H. Myrthu by Mrs. Alfred (Edna) Petersen [a daughter and Jens and Signe Myrthu]
My father, Jens Myrthu, was born in Varde, Denmark June 2, 1875. He left Denmark the Spring of 1893. The ocean voyage took thirty-two days on a boat named Iceland. It was a very stormy trip. Most of the passengers were ill all the way.
Jens arrived in Elk Horn, Iowa, a large Danish settlement, where he found work on a farm. He was paid $18. a month. Some years later he bought a farm there for $30. an acre. He married Signe Jensen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lars Jensen of Elk Horn on May 25, 1898. She was born in Elk Horn July 23, 1877.
They had five daughters; Edel, Edna, Agnes, Viola and Celia. Four other children died in infancy, one in Iowa, three in Standard.
My father became interested in obtaining land in Alberta and made his first trip to Dickson in 1908 to visit an old friend living there, and purchased land. He didn't like the idea of clearing land before it could be cultivated and preferred the prairies.
Early in the spring of 1909, he together with Ole Larsen and Jens Rasmussen and a C.P.R. land agent from Council Bluffs, Iowa came to the area, now the Standard district. He bought land and brought the family here the Spring of 1911, together with Jens Rasmussen's and Ole Larsen's families. They arrived in Gleichen March 11, 1911. My dad was a C.P.R. representative in Standard for several years.
My father and his brother Willie, Ole Larsen, Arnold, Thorvald and Sigurd Rasmussen had come earlier with the freight cars, bringing all the household goods, horses, cattle, and machinery, etc.
Emelie, John and Henry and their father Hans P. Larsen were here in 1910. My mother and father visited them that summer. Jens Jensen's, Niels Jensens, Peter Nelsons and, I think, Thorvald Andersens, were living here in 1910, and likely others.
Life wasn't easy for the early pioneers; the nearest doctor was Dr. Rose of Gleichen. My mother gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, in the summer of 1911. They died a few days after birth. My mother always felt if she and they had had proper .medlcal attention they would have lived.
My father built the house now owned by Stanley Rasmussen in 1911. It was built by Anton Sorensen and a Mr. Thompsen. They built a number of buildings in Standard in the first years.
He brought an old car along from Iowa, a "Jackson". It was not very reliable. It seemed like it was always in need of repairs. We seldom went for a drive without having a flat tire that had to be repaired by the roadside and inflated with a hand pump. We didn't have a spare. Later he bought a second hand Cadillac. He started tours to Banff and arranged for lodging and meals at the Homestead Hotel. He made many trips and always had a full load. Trixie Day and I went along on one of the trips, enjoying the mountains and hot springs; a never-to-beforgotten experience.
In the early years Henry Larsen and my dad had a small business - it was in the office of the Standard Coal and Development Co. Ltd. They were agents for the Canadian National Fire In-surance Co., Central Canada Insurance Co., Canadian Phoenix Fire Insurance Co., and C.P.R. land agents. They also sold woollen goods imported from Denmark - mostly men's and women's underwear, also children's clothing. For a short time they sold farm machinery. In 1916 he sold his farm to Henry Larsen (it is now owned by Stanley Rasmussen) and moved to California in October of that year. He returned with the family in June, 1917 and bought the farm six miles south of Standard. He died suddenly of a heart attack while driving his car near Sand ?oint, Idaho, on November 7, 1921.
I decided very early in life that I wanted to be a teacher, and' my sister, Edel, wanted to be a nurse. It wasn't easy at that time to get an education. There wasn't a high school in Standard. We even had to go to Calgary to write the grade eight exams or "Public School Leaving" exams as they were called.
I got a job working for my board and room with Dr. and Mrs. F. H. Mayhood through high school and normal school and graduated in the Spring of 1922. My sister Edel trained at the General Hospital in Calgary and graduated in the summer of 1923. She nursed at the Golden, B.C. Hospital until August, 1927, when she married Cecil Parson of Golden. They have three children; Gordon, Norman and Diane.
She continued nursing partime or when needed for many years. The later years she worked for the medical clinic in Golden. She passed away November 12, 1964.
I graduated from the Calgary Normal School the Spring of 1922. I taught north east of Hussar at the Crammond School (later renamed Indian Springs) until December, 1922. I taught at Standard from January, 1923 to December, 1923. On February 14, 1924, I married Alfred Petersen. He bought my mother's farm. We lived there till 1963, then retired to Penticton, B.C.
We have four children; Mrs. Vic (Marian) Colson of Prince George, B.C., Glenn of Penticton, Vernon of Edmonton, and Mrs. Gene (Joan) Schoonveld of Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Agnes married Willard McDowell on September 15, 1922. They farmed in the Standard district until 1932, when they moved to Delburne. There they bought a farm, and farmed there until they sold it and retired to Red Deer. They have four children; Frances, Doreen, Bernice and Jack.
Viola married Cecil Devitt on March 30,1926.
They farmed in Standard until 1968 and retired to live in Calgary. They have three sons; Norman, Darryl and Ronnie.
Celia was telephone operator for many years in Standard. Later she worked in the office of the Medical Clinic on 6th Ave. in Calgary. She married Budge (F. C.) Schultz, January 18, 1958. They lived on the family farm northeast of Standard. My mother passed away January 6, 1938.
Celia passed away January 7, 1978."
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In 1913 & 1914 Jens Myrthu took various people to Banff on tours, to augment his income. He has a "Jackson" automobile. We have pictures of the car, with his daughter Edel and others. This is the "Jackson" that they later drove to California.
Colma, California, 1916: Having settled in Standard, Alberta, Jens Myrthu decided to take the entire family to California in 1916 in his 1913 or 14 Jackson car as he thought the climate would be better for his ailing heart. He worked for a while in a garage in Colma and when that didn't work out he decided they should go to San Francisco where they operated a small hotel that had a small number of rooms that were rented on a weekly or monthly basis. When that didn't work out too well he decided to move back to Standard in 1917and he bought the farm that was later sold to Edna and Alfred Petersen, after Jens died. The trip to and from California was definitely an adventure, as the roads were narrow and unpaved all the way. In the mountains the roads were so narrow that when they came to a sharp curve they had to stop and blow the horn and if they didn't hear another horn, they proceded, according to what my mother told us. We have a picture taken at the Colma School that Edel and Edna attended when the family was in California.
On the trip, the girls had to take turns sitting on a big trunk between the front and rear seats, as there was not enough seat room for all of them.
They returned to Canada in 1917. We have a picture of lunch time on the road on the return trip from California to Alberta, in the same "Jackson" car. The California license plate hung on the garage wall on the farm for as long as Vernon Petersen can remember. He wrote: "I wish I had remembered to take it with me when my folks left the farm, but during the rush to get everything packed, which Mom, Marg and I did, I forgot to take one last look in the garage, so it was left behind."
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