JAMES WALTER ACKROYD

JAMES WALTER ACKROYD: (1885 – 1934)

James is the eldest child of Walter Ackroyd & Isabelle Welker. He was born on the 20^th of November, 1885 at Bloomington, Bear Lake County, Idaho, USA. He received his early schooling in Bloomington. In 1899, he along with his family immigrated to Alberta, Canada, residing in the community of Magrath. In Canada James had little opportunity for schooling. He worked on the farm till harvesting was completed and had to stop school in the spring as soon as the weather would permit them to work on the land.

In 1906 James received a call from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to go on a mission to the Southern States. He laboured in Alabama and Florida from May 1906 till July in 1908. In the fall of 1909 James decided to attend school in Logan, Utah. In March when he had to return home he stopped in Bloomington to visit relatives. It was here that he met Sina Olsen. After a short courtship, carried on mostly by correspondence, he returned to Utah where he and Sina were married in Salt Lake on May 25, 1910. Their first few years of marriage were rather nomadic. They made their first home in Magrath, Alberta. In December of 1912 they moved to Moreland, Idaho, then to Dehlin, Idaho, Howell, Utah, Arco, Idaho, then back to Magrath, Alberta to look after his father Walter who had suffered a paralytic stroke. In 1928 moved to Hartleyville, Alberta where he would reside until his death in 1934 at the age of 48. He was stricken with appendicitis that ruptured before he was operated on, resulting in peritonitis. He died on 1 September 1934. He is buried in a family plot in the Magrath cemetery.

James and Sina are the parents of nine children: Esther, Marie, Walter, Max, Edith, Grant, Ammon, Clara, and Marjorie.