Former Sundial resident celebrates 100th birthday

Sunny South News Photo Submitted by Lennea Oseen. CENTENNIAL BIRTHDAY: Former Sundial resident Chester Oseen celebrated his 100th birthday on Dec. 30, 2025. The family takes this photo of Oseen every spring under a neighbour’s crabapple tree. Oseen now lives in Edmonton, and credits lucky genes for his longevity.

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

Chester Oseen has experienced something that not many people get to do – live a century of life. 

The former Sundial resident, who now resides in Edmonton, recently celebrated his 100th birthday on Dec. 30, 2025.  

“Sundial was where the Homestead was. Dad had two brothers come over here (from Sweden)  but he was the only one that got married,” said Chester Oseen, in a recent phone interview from Edmonton. “So all the (family’s) descendants in Canada are from Claus Oseen.” 

Chester’s father, Claus Oseen, emigrated from Askaremala, Sweden to the U.S. in 1894 at the age of 21. Claus married Minnie Ellen Anderson, a Swedish American, in 1903 and they had two sons by 1907. In December 1907, Claus headed to the Turin area, where his two brothers had already homesteaded, to look for land. Claus secured some land in early 1908 and brought Minnie and their two sons from North Dakota to live in Canada in July 1908.

In 1918, Claus donated five acres to the community to establish a school. After the school closed, it was converted to a community centre which continues to be used, periodically, to this day, noted daughter Lennea Oseen, who shared some of her father’s history. Minnie and Claus lived on that homestead for the next forty years. They had five more children, with Chester being the youngest child born on Dec 30, 1925.

The four sons, including Chester, became farmers in the community referred to as Sundial, located between Turin and Enchant, noted Lennea Oseen. 

Chester Oseen recalled the community school he attended for the first 10 years as “probably the best county school in my (area).”  

    “We had a good school because we had a ranch, a big ranch on the outskirts of Sundial called the ‘Bonny Ranch’ and it paid its taxes in cash cause their headquarters were down in the states. So Sundial had a little more money to run its school and the school was the center of the community,” he said, noting it opened in 1918. “So we had this good school for the basis of our community.” 

Sundial was also very prosperous as a farming community, as well and was a close community, noted Oseen, who also believed the village to be a very “progressive community.”

    Oseen purchased his father’s five quarters in 1947 and continued to farm until his retirement in 1991. He still owns the land through the family farm corporation, COKO Farms Ltd., which he incorporated in 1965. The land continues to be farmed by a neighbour to whom it is leased to and there are still a few Oseens who farm today. 

In 2008, Oseen received a special acknowledgment from the Province of Alberta for continuing to own the homesteaded land in the same family for over a 100 years. He received the Alberta Century Farm and Ranch Award.

“I was the last owner of my dad’s farm and still have it,” said Oseen, noting one of his favourite memories was receiving the award. 

In the early part of his farming days, Oseen had a mixed farm with livestock, including some dairy cows, pigs and a few beef cattle and after 1960 concentrated on dry land grain farming with a focus on wheat and barley. He also purchased some land for irrigation farming and spent about five years irrigation farming near Enchant. Oseen also served as a member of the Canadian Wheat Board. 

He married school teacher Harley Gillmore (now passed away) in 1950, with whom he had four daughters (Collette, Margaret Ann, Ardyth and Lennea). He has five grandchildren and one great-grandchild who resides in Seattle, Washington.

Over his many decades, he has enjoyed a variety of hobbies and today, still likes to garden (vegetables & herbs), ride his electric trike, enjoys a new hobby of cold-processed soap making, and making homemade kefir, both which he does with his daughter Lennea. He has also travelled the world, including to places like Russia, Poland, Ukraine, China, Costa Rica and much of Europe

His most notable hobby endeavour is videography. While attending Lethbridge College as an audit-student around 1974, Oseen completed the short silent film, “160 Acres More or Less”, a representation of his father’s experience as a homesteader. Most of the actors were relatives with a few lifelong friends contributing. 

“I think probably making 160 Acres More or Less, the movie, was something special,” said Oseen, noting he also interviewed and video recorded his siblings and their spouses when they were in their eighties. 

“I interviewed my dad when he was 94 – I had bought one of the first video recorders, reel to reel that I knew of. When 1967 came, that was 100 years of Canada so then I decided to go around and do interviews,” said Oseen. 

He is the last survivor of his siblings and only himself, his father Claus, and his brother Arvid, reached the 100-year milestone.

Oseen said he has tried to maintain a healthy diet, drink very little, not smoke, is not quick to prescription drugs and tries to exercise. Oseen’s daughter Lennea said “he also has tremendous resilience, which has been evident in his ability to bounce back quickly from the lows of his life.” He attributes most of his longevity to lucky genes – his mother lived to 89 and his father to almost 101. 

With all the changes over the past century, there are some things that Oseen has experienced in his 100 years of life that has made it so meaningful. 

“My family mostly and good health. I think that has helped me with everything,” said Oseen.