(ANDY) ANDREW WILLIAM YAROMY

Andy was born near Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, in 1918. His family moved to Alberta in 1929 to a homestead north of Athabasca. In 1935, He moved to Turner Valley with his dad. Andy worked for Hector's Machine Shop, doing tool dressing and pipe line work. During 1936-37, he worked with Okalta Oil, with Bill and Harold Herron, rigging up a cable tool rig along the Highwood River. They drilled the first few thousand feet cable tool, then modernizing the rig to rotary. Under the management of Ernie Latham, it was completed.

In 1938, Andy started with Imperial Oil; did pipe line work with the Valley Pipe Line under manager Norman Tupper, Howard DeMille and Jack White. They used to get a fair amount of overtime, running casing, mostly at night, working under Earl Flanders, who sent extra men for these jobs on the steam rigs. Andy joined the drilling department in 1940, and stayed with them until 1952, when he left Imperial and went with Socony Vacuum on a drilling rig south of Camrose. The company changed their name to Mobil Oil of Canada.

They moved the rig to a well drilled by Reading and Bates in the Drayton Valley field; - Pembina No.1 it was the discovery well of Drayton Valley oil field. Andy worked with Mobil Oil, drilling several holes in Saskatchewan before coming back to Drayton Valley in 1954, where he looked after several wells west of the town. In 1957, he left Mobil Oil and went with Westcoast Transmission, a new company started up by Frank McMahon. This company transported natural gas by pipe line from area surrounding Ft. St. John, B.C., to the west coast and U.S.A.
In 1961, he moved to Coleman, and was field foreman in the Savanna Creek field, south and west of Turner Valley. After 17 years with Westcoast Transmission, he quit the company and went with Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas, and was employed at Fox Creek.

In 1942, he married Tim Redford's eldest daughter, June. They had four children, Leslie born in 1943, Ernie (Born 1945 - deceased in 1977), Lynda born in 1948. Their first three children were born at the Turner Valley Hospital, while their youngest, Timothy, was born in Blairmore in 1961. Leslie is married and had three children, Susan, Tracy and Jason. Lynda is married to Albert Iceton, and had two children, Derek and Shannon. Ernie had one child, Darren.

They spend quite a bit of time commuting to Turner Valley to Lynda and Albert's home there. Albert works for Imperial Oil at Quirk Creek west of Millarville.

During the years 1936 to 1941, work was hard to come by from late fall to late spring. All pipeline and construction closed down as long as the ground was frozen. During these periods Andy looked for anything that he could turn a hand to rather than sit around and wait. Those days they never had any unemployed insurance. He found work most of the time. He spent quite some time working for Mr. and Mrs. Harry Denning, who farmed and ranched three and one half miles south west of Turner Valley.


Andy also helped at threshing in the fall. The machine owned by the Denning family. They threshed their own and all the local farms nearby. He still often think of how good the hot coffee and lunch tasted, between breakfast and dinner and supper. They would all come in to the machine and sit and have coffee and sandwiches. Then a good hearty supper around seven pm. Seems, those days a person was busy and happy all day. On weekends he used to help stack hay at Archie Hitchells. He also worked for Mrs. Denning just two and one half miles west of Turner Valley. This was Harry Denning's mother, who farmed and ranched also. Mr. Denning had settled there in 1887. Mrs. Denning was a nurse, and she sort of looked after the whole area in the early days. Twice a year supplies were picked up in Calgary by wagon and horses, if anything was forgotten you went without for six months.

Andy helped there putting in the crop in the spring, when he had time, helped fence, put up hay, cut grain, all done by horses. Mrs. Denning had a heart of gold and was the most cheerful person you ever met. He doesn't ever remember seeing her any other way, rain or shine.

From, "IN THE LIGHT OF THE FLARES," pg 743-744
1979 published by The Sheep River Historical Society