Article content This week we continue our look back into the homesteading history of southwestern Alberta. Such ranching and farming pursuits often were difficult due to the rough terrain and remote living conditions. THE SOUTHWESTERN ALBERTA FOOTHILLS Try refreshing your browser. Homesteading chronicles continued Back to video This week we continue our look back into the homesteading history of southwestern Alberta. Such ranching and farming pursuits often were difficult due to the rough terrain and remote living conditions. SCHOOL TEACHING AND HOMESTEADING One such homesteading couple was John and Isabella Skene who doubled as teachers at the Beauvais Lake School several miles upstream from the settlement of Pincher Creek. Their educational legacies were what most locals recalled them for. John Jassanine Skene was the first teacher there in 1896-97 when the school was called St. Agnes. In the early spring of 1909, he along with fellow frontiersmen Clarke Duthie and Ludger Gareau worked to establish its School Board. Skene’s wife, the former Isabella Marie Parsons, taught there for seven years starting in 1911. John faced the frontier surroundings renowned for one room country schools – this was only the second such venture with the Fishburn School being only two years older. Isabella taught during the turbulent First World War years. Both were remembered for their dedication to their students and community. They built on their previous teaching experiences back in the same Ontario settlement of Durnoch where they had taught together.