Mabel Christine Hendrisckson was born in the States in 1896 and came with her family to Canada in 1901.
She went to Thordenskjold School and was active in the youth work of Scandia Church. Mabel met her future
husband, John while taking a winter course at Camrose Lutheran College and they were married in 1922 in a
double wedding ceremony. Mary, her sister was also married to Hellick Rustand. Since Scandia Church was
undergoing renovations - the wedding as held at the home of G.O. Hendrickson.
John Walker came to Canada with his Scottish parents and they had a farm near Balenstein School. Two years
later, John worked for Nils Lyseng where he learned to do chores, drive horses and learned a few sentences in
Norwegian.
He later worked for Carl Lyseng and Knut K Lyseng starting at $75.00 dollars a year and in his last
year, $100.00.
After Mabel and John were married, they ran a store at Ferintosh for K.W. Taneer. After about a year, the
General Store in
Armena burned down and Mabel's folks came to see if they would be interested in building
a new store there.
With financial help from Knut K. Lyseng, and building help from relatives, the new store became a reality. In
September 1923, they were open for business. They were granted a Post Office and received mail from the CN
trains passing through daily. Soon grain elevators were also built and the hamlet of Armena began to take shape.
In May, 1928, John and Mabel were blessed with a daughter, Mae. In the years prior to 1947 - Mabel's health
began to fail - suffering from arthritis and bouts of pneumonia. In 1947, they sold the store and moved to
Vancouver.
In 1967, Mabel passed away.
