Grandma Bess was quite an adventuress. She went to Business School and was one of the very first lady secretaries. She went to work for Samuel Kinsey in the office for the mines he owned. She eventually fell in love with the boss's son, William Howard Kinsey and married in 1905. They had their first child, Zona Mae Kinsey in 1907, and saw an advertisement about 1910 that appeared about homesteading in Northwest Canada. William and Bess decided to leave their familiar world and have an adventure - probably neither one had any idea what was involved in going to an undeveloped country. There were several other couples and all traveled by train to Edmonton, Alberta. In Edmonton they bought a wagon and some supplies; a stove, a bed, perhaps a table and of course some provisions like flour, etc. They also bought a yoke of oxen and took off to drive some 50 miles northwest of Edmonton where the open land was situated. They staked out their 160 acres, cleared space for their house and then, with the help of the groups they had traveled with, a home of sorts was constructed. All the men helped one another but all of them had to travel from their own 160 acres to arrive at one another's sites so it must have taken time and energy. A garden was also planted and grandma claimed that since it was virgin ground, things grew huge - tomatoes, potatoes, carrots were all larger than any they had ever seen - a head of cabbage was so large it was difficult to cut it in half and beans grew in profusion. When things had settled down one thing became obvious - they had to have an income. So William went to the Hudson Bay Company. He took up the life of trapping and a successful horse trader. My mother remembers that Grandma Bess was so sad in the lonely little cabin, with no decorations that she opened a trunk and took out a gingham dress with yards and yards of red and white gingham checks. She dismantled this dress and decorated the cabin with curtains, quilts and table decorations. After that the cabin was very cheery. They never finished the homestead, and moved to Edmonton where their 3rd daughter was born (Alice Alberta Kinsey). They eventually returned to Wheeling, where they started and William went back to managing his father's mines. He eventually contracted TB and died. Grandma Bess did a variety of things to bring her income, including being a very successful seamstress. She eventually went to live with her oldest daughter, Zona Mae and her husband, Tom Hopkins in Honolulu, Hawaii before they retired to Sun City, Arizona where they all passed away and are buried.