Charlotte Woolley, and her husband Andrew Newell moved to Alberta around 1908/09. They originally settled in the Medicine Hat area, now known as Newell County.
They followed their son, Louis and his wife Lillian, to Smith around 1919 and their homestead was on this piece of land. Charlotte loved to sit and watch the Athabasca River and it was her request to be buried here at a place she loved.
She is an example of the variety of people that came to this country looking for a future. She is related to British Royalty and four of her ancestors signed the Magna Carta in 1215.
There are other graves here and we are fairly certain that one of them belongs to Mrs. Knelsen and her 4 ½ year old son, Peter.
In 1940 the family was immigrating to LaCrete from South America when tragedy struck. When approaching the Athabasca River, they could see the hill and road on the opposite shore. The lay of the land made it impossible to see that there was a ferry crossing and not a bridge. This coupled with the fact that they could not read English set the stage for a horrible accident that took the lives of Mr. Knelsen’s wife and child.
The recording of this event in the LaCrete history book says that the mother and child were placed together in a coffin and buried in the Smith Cemetery. After reviewing records we feel that this may be the actual place of burial. It would be fitting for them to be buried next to royalty as they were making a hard journey, with very little money. This grave area is an example of how people from all walks of life came to this country to start a new future.