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Lyle and Mary James celebrate 72 years of marriage

Lyle and Mary James celebrated their 72 wedding anniversary over the Christmas holidays surrounded by family and friends.
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Surrounded by some of their many children

Lyle and Mary James celebrated their 72 wedding anniversary over the Christmas holidays surrounded by family and friends.

Both from farming families, Lyle and Mary (McCrory) were high school sweethearts. After graduation Lyle stayed on the family farm while Mary went to the Valley City Teachers College then taught in Temvik, North Dakota.

They were married Dec. 27,1944 at her grandparents home in Linton, North Dakota.

After their marriage Mary finished her year of teaching at Temvik while Lyle continued to work on his family’s farm.

The next fall the couple spent a winter in the Big Hole country of Montana where Lyle enjoyed feeding cattle with a team and sleigh.

The Second World War was on and Lyle expected that he would soon be called to service in the army.

Thinking they needed a place to call their own after the war the couple decided to purchase a small ranch near Bellevue Idaho where their eldest daughter was born.

As luck would have it Lyle wasn’t called to serve so after the war they sold the Idaho ranch and purchased a small ranch near  Hot Springs, Montana.

They established the Garden Creek Angus Ranch where they milked cows, raised pigs, chickens and started a purebred Angus cattle herd.

As their family grew to include seven more children so did the ranch with Lyle and Mary purchasing a number of other small ranches in the area.

In 1971 while on vacation in B.C. they discovered the Circle S Ranch at Dog Creek.

They sold their Montana ranch in 1972, purchased the Circle S Ranch and moved to B.C. during the cold, snowy winter of 1972/73.

Mary says she was reluctant to make the move to Canada at first, but Lyle wanted the opportunity to run a large ranch and their younger children were excited about the move.

At the time their two eldest daughters and son were already married and decided to stay in the U.S. while their five younger children moved with them to the Circle S Ranch.

“We really had to work to make a go of it,” Mary says. “But I was never sorry that we came to Canada.”

The family made the 1,000 kilometre trip between Hot Springs, Montana and Dog Creek many times before all of their cattle, the family and household belongings were delivered and transplanted to their new ranch in the Cariboo.

The early years at the Circle S Ranch were anything but easy.

The roads in to Dog Creek at that time were fairly undeveloped, making trips to Williams Lake for supplies demanding on both vehicles and passengers.

The journey had to be well planned for and organized and the shopping list was usually very lengthy.

For many years Mary cooked three meals a day for all the hired help and fed the men at their family table.

Lyle and Mary owned and operated the Circle S Ranch at Dog Creek for 40 years.

Of the secrets for a long and happy married life Mary says: “We had our ups and downs but we worked them out. Things went pretty well and we are both happy with our family life.”

After retiring, Mary and Lyle lived on a small acreage on the Dog Creek Road, eventually selling the Circle S Ranch to the Douglas Lake Cattle Company in 2012.

Now both age 91, Lyle and Mary have made their home at the Williams Lake Seniors Village for the past four years where they enjoyed celebrating their anniversary with some of their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends.

They lost their son Daryl in an accident some years ago, but continue to love visits from friends and their extended family which includes children Linda, Janet, Don, Helen, Susan, Dale and Marilyn, and their families.

They now have 21 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren. They were pretty happy to be able to celebrate 72 years of marriage together, say family members.