Jack & Albena Dolen

DOLEN, KING, KINCH

Posted By: S. Ferrall (email)
Date: 10/17/2006 at 07:32:31

Jack and Albena Dolen
by Lloyd Dolen

Jack Dolen, born September 29, 1886, came from Fort Dodge, Iowa. He arrived in Okotoks in 1911, a good-looking fellow with lots of ambition. He started work with Tom Rimmer at the Big Rock. There Jack met and fell in love with Albena King. He married Albena in July, 1912. He then took his new bride and moved to the coast with the King family. He found a job at Kamloops, driving a dray wagon. Their first son James Wilber, was born in 1913. They then decided they would move back to Okotoks and run the King farm -- they moved in 1914. Their second son, Ernest John, was born in 1915, then Lloyd Patrick in 1917, Francis Richard in 1918, Joseph Owen in 1919, Albert Edward in 1921, and Mary Elizabeth in 1923. All were born on the King homestead.

In 1923 the King farm was sold to Doug Beattie. The Dolen family then moved to Okotoks to what was known as the Lineham lake. They were blessed with four more children, Agnes, Bob, Eugene, and Dorothy. They farmed there until 1930.

On June 15, 1928, Ernest John was drowned in the Sheep Creek and laid to rest beside his Aunt Margaret in the Okotoks cemetery.

In 1930 the Dolens moved to the Cochrane Ranch by the Millarville Church where their eleventh child, Thearesa, was born. In 1932, on the tenth of June, they packed up everything they owned and moved to Cochrane. Jack Dolen then bought a place of his own in the Bottrel area, where their last child Sheila was born.

Jack Dolen was laid to rest on December 13, 1963, leaving behind his wife Albena, who is still with us at eighty-seven years young. Jack and Albena's children, Lloyd and Mary (now Kinch), still live in the Bottrel area.

-source: A Century of Memories Okotoks and District; Calgary: Okotoks and District Historical Society, no date
pg. 190-191