Thomas Dowkes brought in one of the first grain seeders. Crude in design, it had a hoe drill of ten or twelve runs without any pressure springs, and it was drawn by two or three horses. When they became old enough, the older boys worked out to help pay for the first team of horses which their father had purchased. Joseph worked on Mr. Preston's farm and David at Mr. Grandy's. David did not like farming so went to Carnduff to learn the blacksmith business from Walter Stovin, after which he was Glen Ewen's first blacksmith. The girls also worked out. Elizabeth did the housework for Mrs. J. B. Preston, enabling Mrs. Preston to help out in the store. Mrs. Preston always examined the tablecloth to see if Elizabeth had made a good job of ironing it. Adelia worked for a Mrs. Follis who was sick.
Let us pause to pay tribute to Mrs. Dowkes as the pioneer wife and mother of twelve children. The never-ending work without the conveniences which we take for granted now, the care of babies and older children, in sickness and health, and breadmaking buttermaking, soapmaking, washing clothes on a scrub board, ironing, cleaning (which involved emptying ashes, cleaning lamp glasses, etc.), sewing garments, mending, knitting, cooking, we could go on and on. The water had to be carried in and wastes carried out. Only the love and devotion for her family gave her the strength to weather the battle of pioneering.
The mail service was an important part of pioneer life. How they looked forward to letters from loved ones back home in Ontario, England, or wherever! The first country post office was at Mr. William Galloway's at Boscurvis around 1887 and the mail was addressed, "Boscurvis, Assiniboia, N.W.T." Later, after Bide Jones took over the post office, it was called "Meridian." He had it for a few years, and the mail was brought out from Glen Ewen weekly. Tom Preston first carried the mail at this time and then Tom Ritchie for awhile. Later, Irving Jones kept the country post office until the rural mail route was established in 1914. Mr. Charlie Busby delivered the mail until 1926, from Glen Ewen. Then Mr. Jim Mitchell transported the mail, twice weekly. Besides mail, he willingly took cream cans, egg crates and at times a passenger or two. Following the death of her husband, Mrs. Mitchell carried on the job for years, with substitutes at times of inclement weather. Chas. Foster, Bill Neil, Art Cooney, Frank Branson and Ernest Porter were carriers at various times. Storie Cannon, postmaster in Glen Ewen for nearly thirty years, delivered the mail for twenty-one years. Harvey Buchanan is now the mailman.
Another great convenience which came to the district was the telephone, in 1910.