ALBERTA HISTORY 1918-1921

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1910

(I)-Martin Cohen aka Nordegg (1868-1948) a German-Jewish business man was invited to come to Canada and help develop our mineral deposits.
    1906 arrived Canada
    1907 arrived Alberta, Rocky Mountains
    1910 discovered coal near Brazeau River, he adopted the name Martin Nordegg meaning North Corner of Alberta's Big West Country and joint ventured with Canadian Northern Railway to create the Brazeau Collieries.
    1911 created the town of Nordegg, Alberta
    1914 deported from Canada for refusing to become a British subject, he drew a distinction between British Subject vs. Canadian Subject.
    1922 returned to Nordegg, Alberta and the collieries
    1923 sold his interest in Brazeau Collieries, the company he had built
    1955 Brazeau Collieries shut down and became a National Historic Site.

(IV)-Marion Elizabeth Salzl is born December 23, 1910 Edmonton, Alberta, died December 8, 2009 Edmonton,  daughter (III)-Mathias Salzl (1885-1962) and (IV)-Gerusha Anne McDougall (1889-1969).  
The Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway had reached the French Catholic town of Morinville.

1910-11 Alberta Penitentiary Staff in Edmonton

John A McDougall (1856 - 1918) with X above 1910-11
Mathew Salzl (1885 - 1962) with X far right of 1910-11

Photo donated to City of Edmonton Archives EA 10 - 2639 by Mr and Mrs Alf Garneau great grand son Lawrence Garneau (1840-1921).  Mrs Salzl Garneau (1910-2009) is the grand daughter John A. McDougall and daughter of Mathew Salzl. 

Mathew SALZL and Jerusha McDougall Salzl

Photo is on a postcard requiring a one cent stamp.

Mathias Salzl (1885 - 1962)

Jerusha Anna McDougall (1889 - 1969)
 
 Photo is taken 1910 in Edmonton, Alberta

 
Arthur Lewis Sifton, Liberal is elected Premier of Alberta 1910-1917.

1910 Michael Stanuslause Gauthier (1850-1934) family in Edmonton, Alberta .
Four children died before this picture was taken.  Rosina (1872-1872);Lianaise (1873-1874);Wilford (1877-1882); and Vitaline (1885-1890)
Back row from Left to Right: Horace Gauthier (1880 - 1955); Artem Joseph Gauthier (1883 - 1958); Odilon Gauthier (1875 - 1963); Marie Antionette (Nette) Gauthier (1892 - 1954); Dennie Gauthier (1891 -)
Front Row Left to Right: Marie Alexazina Gauthier (1888 - 1980); Lea Oumelt Gauthier (1850 - 1919); Michael Stanislaus Gauthier (1850 - 1934).  The date of photo and identification is deduced from other photos.  Marie Alexazina Gauthier (1888-1980) married, Edmonton, Alberta, John Marie Metis Garneau (1885-1949).

The Grand Trunk and Great Northern Railway was built 1910 to 1915 through the Yellowhead Pass towards the Pacific.  Babe Coteau smuggled liquor to the construction crews.

Some say the first automobile arrived in High River this year.

1910 Strathcona Garneau Brothers

The Strathcona Garneau thrashing machine is working either at the Garneau Estates in Edmonton or at their holding in and about Saint Paul des Metis, Alberta.  
Larry (Lawrence) Garneau Metis (1878-1918) appears to be the engineer of the operation, his brother Alexander Garneau Metis (1880-1918) is part of the crew as is Horce Gauthier (1880-1955) and Arman Goulette, the others are not known but likely include other Garneau brothers.  It looks like a thrashing crew is about 13 people.

1910 St. Paul des Metis

This year, in St. Paul de Metis, Alberta, Lawrence Garneau Metis (1840-1921) is listed as owning a General Store, Boarding House, Blacksmith shop, Lumber Yard and his son Alexander Garneau Metis (1880-1918) is running an Implement Dealership.  Their home was called the Garneau Village.  Some of the family however still resides in Edmonton which was called the Garneau Estates. Later it would be called the Garneau District.  

The Canadian Navy from 1910 to 1972 was given a daily tot of rum in the English Navy tradition.  A tot is a small child and evolved to mean a child's cup, hence a small portion of rum.

April 10:  The following Garneau's filed their homesteads in Saint Paul des Metis:  Laurence Garneau Metis (1878-1918), Louis Garneau Metis b-1872, Alexander Garneau Metis (1880-1918), Archange Garneau Metis (1876-1918) and John Garneau Metis (1885-1949).  It's interesting that three of five perished from the swine flue.. 

August: Construction began on the C.P.R. bridge over the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton at a cost of $1,500,000 later to be called the High Level Bridge.  The first train over the bridge was June 2, 1913.  The first streetcar over the bridge was August 11, 1913.  By September 13, 1913 the traffic deck and sidewalks opened for traffic.

1911 

  Robert and Leo Garneau

Leo Garneau Metis (1910-?) and Robert GarneauMetis (1909-1997) sons John Garneau Metis (1885-1949) and Alexazina Gauthier (1888-1980) 

Some time prior to 1911 William Stewart Herron (1870-1939) discovered natural gas seepage into the Sheep River of Turner Valley.  He quietly acquired 700 acres around the seepage.  Turner Valley was named after brothers James, Roberta and John Turner who settled here.  Calgary became aware of the gas seepage about this time and was disappointed to discover the Herron claim.  William Stewart Herron (1870-1939) went on to acquire some 7,000 acres of Turner Valley by 1912.

Jules Laboucane married 1911 Isabelle (Bella) Todd and are living NE 2-58-10 W4, S.W. of St. Paul des Metis, their daughter Blanche Laboucane married Louis Garneau Metis.

This year the present town site of Trochu, Alberta was first lain out.  Armand Trochu established Ranch Holy Anne near the present town of Trouchu in 1903.

(II)-Gladys Parker is born May 2, 1911 at Vancouver British Columbia, daughter of (I)-Harry Parker alias Hugh Pimlett and (I)-Margaret O'Neil and will marry, February 11, 1938, Louis Monroe born 1909. 

In 1911 the Saskatchewan legislature prohibited any Japanese, Chinese or other Oriental from employing any white woman or girl, and British Columbia and Ontario soon followed suit.  This year the act was repealed but it was replaced by an act which required Chinese businessmen to obtain a special license to hire a female.

The Kicking Horse Pass Tunnel, in the Canadian Rockies, on the continental divide, on the B.C. Alberta boarder, is completed this year, being first considered as a pass in 1858.  A spiral tunnel reduced the grade from 4.5% to 2.2%. 

The Edson Trail, through 200 miles of wilderness, to Grande Prairie, Alberta Trail was in operation 1911 to 1916.  It was constructed in the winter of 1910-1911 and allowed settlers to reach Edson via the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway which was completed this year then on to Grande Prairie.

S.S. City of Edmonton in 1911

The S.S. City of Edmonton, a steamboat, was first launched in 1904 with Capt Grant in command.  Abram Pearce who built steamboats only had mates papers but this year he finally received his masters certificate when he became Capt of the S.S. City of Edmonton.  The long delay in receiving command, he considered the greatest humiliation of his life.  He would retire in a few years.  This picture taken in 1911 and is loading at the wharf just below the Low Level Bridge in Edmonton, Alberta on the North Saskatchewan River.

Most of the Counts, Dukes, Sirs and Earls who came to Alberta to create their own empire failed.  Many underestimated the cost of creating their grandiose plans.  Others like Viscount Alphonse de Seyssel and M. Emile Janet planned to manufacture gruyere cheese.  They bought a large herd of cattle, built a factory, installed machinery, imported labor.  They failed to test the milk which was not suitable for this cheese.  Some tried raising sugar beets but failed to check government regulations which prohibited using beets for making alcohol.  Others raised big herds of swine but failed to plant sufficient grain for feed.

"In all the vast territory between Wetaskiwin, Alberta on the west and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on the east, a distance of 300 miles; and between Stettler, Alberta on the south and Vermillion, Alberta on the north there is not a single flour mill."  

Mintlaw, Alberta was a hamlet meaning a smooth and flat place along Burnt Trail located where the ACP Railway steel trestle crossed the Red Deer River just north of Springbank.

January 1: Fort Vermilion, Alberta set the record for the coldest day in Alberta at 61.1° C,  The coldest day I remember was 51° C. in Edmonton and a wind chill factor of -67° C    The world record is -89.9° C in Antarctica.

April 29:   The United Farmers of Alberta joined the Edmonton Board of Trade to ban settlement of Black people from Oklahoma in the Province.  Three thousand and four hundred righteous souls signed the petition.  The promise of free land had brought one hundred and twenty thousand United States settlers to the Canadian Prairies.  There is lots of room for Anglo-Saxon settlers but no room for Blacks, Jews, Chinese, Mormons, Metis, Indians or Russians.  The Anglo-Saxon Germans are not liked but tolerated for their agricultural skills.  The breaking of the Standard Oil Company (EXXON) monopoly, based on the Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890, occurred this year.

June 1:  The population of the west is:  Saskatchewan 492,432, Manitoba 461,000, B.C. 392,480, Alberta 374,295, NWT 8,512 and Yukon 8,512.

June 1:  Lawrence Garneau Metis (1840-1921) and Eleanor Thomas Garneau Metis (1852-1912) are in Victoria, B.C. 

   Lawrence and Eleanor Thomas Garneau at Niagara Falls

The visit to Niagara Falls by Lawrence Garneau Metis (1840-1921 and Eleanor Thomas Metis (1852-1912) was September 1911  just before the death of Eleanor.  Lawrence held a homestead in Edmonton and another at St. Paul de Metis.  Some suggest he held between 80 and 175 quarter sections of land in Alberta.

   Lawrence and Eleanor Thomas Garneau

Laurence Garneau Metis (1840-1921) and wife
Eleanor Thomas Metis (1852-1912).
This photo is likely taken at Niagara Falls, Ontario.  Look at Eleanor's hat, it looks the same.

September 27: A plebiscite was held on amalgamation of the City of Strathcona with the City of Edmonton.  Edmonton results was 667 for and 96 against.  Strathcona results was 518 for and 178 against amalgamation.  Those in Strathcona who voted no were proven right as the economy of Strathcona stalled.

October:  Louise McKinney (1868-1931) one of the infamous Alberta Five women brought the Women's Christian Temperance Union to Alberta.  They were devoted to protecting 'the Home' and strengthen 'Family Life' through eugenics and prohibition.  She advocated folks should act honorably yet they pushed for sterilization of visible minorities (Slavic peoples especially), the poor, the sick and those considered feeble-minded.    Louis McKinney, Emily Murphy (1868-1933), Nellie McClung (1873-1951) and Henrietta Edwards are criminals guilty of crimes against humanity.  The Nuremberg trials declared sterilization as a crime against humanity.

1912 
Frances Cruden writes:  I think I've finally cracked the Garneau mansion mystery.  (Supposedly this mansion was located at 11109 91 Avenue).  The larger house mentioned in the Will was built in or around 1912 and was immediately let out to a man called George Harcourt, who was the Deputy Minister of Agriculture at the time. He also served on the first U. of A. Senate.   He lived in the house for some time before moving to another part of the estate.

Frances Cruden also writes:  BTW, did you know that the University of Alberta has a handwritten note book by "Mrs L. Garneau" in its archives? This could be Eleanor or Mrs Louis, it's hard to tell. It includes a draft letter to the people who turned down a grant from the Carnegie Foundation for a public library. The letter suggests that the money could be spent on a better church. I came across the notebook purely by chance. One of the librarians remembers seeing it in a pile of stuff not yet catalogued!

(IV)-Eleanor Thomas at age 59 year's, wife Lawrence Garneau Metis (1840-1921), died St. Paul de Metis, Alberta, July 13, 1912.  Eleanor had been visiting Banff with friends and insisted they return to St. Paul where she died.  Her wish was for burial in Edmonton. Robert Garneau (1909-1997), a grandson, contends Eleanor was in Niagara Falls when she became ill. However, the essence of the story is the same.  The family, with horses a wagon and coffin, began the long journey to Edmonton. According to Marie Alexazina Gauthier, (1888-1980) the horses played out every few miles as though death's presence slowed them down.  The newspaper however suggest she traveled to Edmonton by train.  The funeral services were held July 16 in Edmonton and the (IV)-Eleanor Thomas-Garneau's grave is at the cemetery on 118th Street and 107 Avenue in Edmonton, Alberta.  St. Joachim Cemetry grave #45 Section 2.  Grave stone reads Elner Garneau born August 13, 1853, died July 13, 1912.  She is a descendant of some of the earliest European ancestors to arrive in western Canada.  Her family arrived at Hudson Bay in 1789. The Garneau side of the family also arrived western Canada 1789.  All other relatives settled in Eastern Canada or in the United States territory first. Lawrence Garneau is a Liberal in politics but followed the fractional split in the Liberal party that developed during the tenure in office of Premier (II)-A.C. Rutherford (1857-1941).  He became a dissident Liberal supporter of the group that adhered to the Late Honorable Frank Oliver.

 Guy Weadick proposed the first Calgary Stampede to be held this September.

St. Paul de Metis became the village of St. Paul de Metis.  It appears to have retained the de Metis title until the late 1920's.  This assumption has its basis in the reference material of the time.  

This is the year of the Edmonton land boom and bust.  Property on Jasper Avenue sold for two thousand a front foot, site unseen.  Six months later seventy-five thousand lots reverted to the city for taxes. The City of Edmonton absorbed Strathcona this year.

The Toonerville Trolley started up this year with one track and one car running along white avenue until 1947.  It had a colorful history.William 

In 1912 William Stewart Herron (1870-1939) formed the Calgary Petroleum Products Company with partners Archibald W. Dangman and R.P. Bennett.

The concept of picnic and Big Island is lost to future generations.  A picnic requires at least three hundred people.  It starts in the morning, and there must be a three-hour boat ride to get to the picnic ground.  There must be a barrel of beer in the woods, and the picnic dinner must last for two hours.  Then, in the evening, there must be a three hour boat ride home again, time for a full-fledged dance on board.  That was a picnic, the boat being supplied by (I)-John Walter (1849-1920), the location being Big Island, sixteen miles up river from Edmonton.  

The population of Edmonton is recorded as 53,611 but it was contested as hundreds of travelers were included in the count as were folks not part of Edmonton proper.  The census was the basis for the voters register.  Sons, Daughters living at home and domestics, servants or boarders were classed as occupants and could not vote nor could visitors, hotel porters, bellboys and potboys.  

The railway came to Trochu, Alberta in the form of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and much of the town site had to relocate to be closer to the railway.

The Cecil Inn, later called the Cecil Hotel was built this year at 3rd street and 4th avenue in downtown Calgary.  It would stand until February 27, 2009 when it was purchased to be demolished.

An add in 1912 in Ottawa reads; Western Canada, the New Eldorado, 160 acres free, farm land, wheat land, rich virgin soil, land for mixed farming, land for cattle raising, protected by the Government, nothing to fear.

February:  The Provincial legislature decided to extend the franchise to tenants.

February 1:  The city of Strathcona with a population of 3,579 was amalgamated into the city of Edmonton, Alberta with a population of 24,900.

May 13: Del Bonita Alberta was created at junction highway 62 & 501 2 miles north of USA border.  It was created as an outport of Canadian customs.  Some old buildings and artifacts were moved from Whiskey Gap to Del Bonita. 

June 30:   A tornado hit Regina, cutting a six block wide path of death and destruction.

July 15:  Tuesday;  The death of Mrs. Lawrence Garneau Metis (1852-1912) at St. Paul des Metis, on Sunday at one O'clock.  The remains will arrive here tomorrow over C.P.R. 

July 16: The Plaindealer Newspaper, Strathcona

DEATH TERMINATES THE LIFE OF ONE OF EARLIEST SETTLERS

"Mrs. Larry Garneau succumbed to sudden attack of heart trouble at St. Paul des Metis.
At St. Paul des Metis Sunday afternoon there occurred the death of Mrs. Lawrence Garneau, who with her husband had resided in this district for the past thirty five years.  The end was entirely unexpected, although Mrs. Garneau had not been in the best of health for some months.  She returned from Banff but a few days ago, and last Thursday was in this city while on her way to St. Paul des Metis and at that time appeared to be feeling fairly well.  Death is said to be due to heart failure.
Arrangements are being made to have the funeral held here at St. Anthony's church next Thursday afternoon, burial to be made in the Roman Catholic cemetery, south of town.
Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence Garneau came to this part of Alberta from Michigan about 36 years ago, there was nothing more than a wilderness here at the time surrounding the Hudson Bay Fort.  Mr. Garneau homesteaded on that portion of land on the south side of the river which has now become one of the choicest residential sections in Greater Edmonton, and is worth millions of dollars.  Two years ago Mr. Garneau built a palatial home on Saskatchewan Ave., but since that time has spent with his wife the greater part of time at St. Paul des Metis.  Mrs. Garneau was about 65 years of age.  A family of grown children survive."

July 16:  Advert in Plaindealer Newspaper, Strathcona
                    VIEW LOTS IN GARNEAU
2 lots, blk. 184, about 300 feet deep, facing on Saskatchewan Ave.  Terms 1/3 cash bal. 5 & 13.  Price  $8,000
                              GARNEAU
Blk. 157, single corner. Third terms $3,500
Blk. 157, single inside lot Third terms $2,000
Blk. 158, single inside lot. Half terms $1,900
Blk. 165, single inside lot. Half terms $2,000
Blk. 177, pair inside lots. Half terms $4,000
Blk. 154, double corner.. Half terms $3,000

July 17:  Building permits in Garneau (Edmonton, Alberta) include:

    N. Brown, lot 12, block 178  $4,000.00
    N. Brown, lot 13, block 178  $4,000.00
    Beaver Securities, lot 29, block 163  $2,000.00 
    Beaver Securities, lot 30, block 163  $2,000.00 

July 18:  Edmonton, Alberta, Mrs Garneau's Funeral; Eleanor Thomas, Metis, (1852-1912).

July 18:  Mrs. Garneau died St. Paul des Metis and the funeral was conducted July 18, 1912 at St. Anthony's Church, Edmonton, Alberta, where mass was held.

July 19: Advert in Plaindealer Newspaper, Strathcona
DOMINION Real Estate Co.
Garneau
Blk. 182, 4 lots, including corner. Price $10,300
Blk. 182, double corner $6,000
Blk. 182, double corner $6,000
Blk. 166, double corner, 87 feet frontage $6,000
Above lots are all corners, facing on a paved street on boulevard, cement sidewalk, sewer and water.  The terms are 1/2 cash, balance 6 and 12 months.

July 19: "Yesterday morning at 9:30 o'clock, the remains of the late Mrs. Lawrence Garneau brought from St. Paul des Metis for the last rites of the church and internment, were conveyed to St. Anthony's church, where service was held; and internment took place this morning in the cemetery on the north side, where the family grave is situated.  Many friends and acquaintances were present, and the members of the family included in addition to Mr. Lawrence Garneau, husband, six of the eight surviving children of the deceased, who came from their homes in St. Paul des Metis.  These were Archangel, daughter, with her husband, Mr. J. Brady; Milly, daughter, with her husband, Mr. O. Savard; and Louis, Edward, Alec and John, sons, with their respective wives.  Another daughter, Mrs. Poirier, was absent visiting east at the time of her mother's sudden death, and could not be located, while the internment was delayed untill to-day to admit of another son, Larry, of Ilo, Idaho, being present.
The late Mrs Garneau, who was married at the age of seventeen, was just sixty years of age."

July 19:  "Yesterday morning the funeral of Mrs. Garneau was held from Wainright's Undertaking Parlors to St. Anthony's Church where mass was held.  The body was returned to Wainright's Undertaking Parlors from whence the final funeral procession will proceed today to the Roman Catholic Cemetery on the 10th side.  A son is expected from a distance and the burial service is being held over till after his arrival.  In the procession of mourners yesterday morning there were a number of friends of the deceased lady.  Mr. and Mrs. Garneau (1840-1921) were old timers in the district having homesteaded what is now valuable Garneau subdivision."  

July 19: Calgary boasts sixteen millionaires that made their money in Calgary:  Pat Burns, R.B. Bennett, Dr. Blow, S.J. Clarke, O.G. Devenish, W.R. Hull, George Lane, Senitor Lougheed, John Lineham, Johns Karpiles, T.J. Skinner, A.J. Sayre, W.J. Tregillus, Henry Tompkiss, Thos Underwood and James Walker. 

July 23:  The village of North Edmonton joined Greater Edmonton with no fanfare.  The Greater Edmonton population is now 55,000.

July 23:  Garneau is still selling lots between $1500 to $2,000 in the Garneau sub-division of Edmonton.

July 26: Garneau 1 lot block 155 $1625, one third cash, balance 6-12 months.

July 26:  Alberta and Saskatchewan have 160,000 more men than women and this was thought to be young men from Ontario going west but Old Ontario has 40,000 more men than women.

August 2:  Alberta desperately needs 57,500 men in addition to those now on the ground to harvest the crop.  Wheat is forecast at 250,000,000 bushels and cutting should start August 10.

1913 

Gavrilo Princip, age 19, a Serbian nationalist, kills Archduke Franz Ferdinard and his wife Sophie Von Hohenberg, starting the first world war.

The Provincial election results for Saint Paul des Metis was;
    Mr. Prosper Lessard a Liberal - elected
    Mr. Garneau a Conservative - not elected  Some suggest this was M.G. Garneau but that is an obvious error this was Lawrence the Metis.

During the scandal-ridden and disputed Provincial elections of 1913, Lawrence Garneau Metis (1840-1921) contested the riding of St. Paul de Metis as an independent or Oliver Liberal.  He failed to achieve a seat.  Some suggest his defeat is because of his failure to stand up to the Roman Catholic Church for the Metis peoples.  Others question why he still held his land in the Metis Reservation.  Some said St. Paul de Metis is a heroic failure to create Father Lacombe's Vision of an ideal community for the Metis, a community where life would evolve in an idealistic Metis manner to be an example for Church, State and other Metis communities.  The Government however is insistent on assimilation or annihilation and the Roman Church ,not willing to risk their position, is focusing on the creation of a number of Western French Catholic communities.

Lawrence Garneau Metis (1840-1921), remembering his flight from Winnipeg, the Ontario English and his Vigilant stands in Edmonton, didn't feel he had to withdraw from St. Paul and the advancing French.  He became Post Master, Timber Limit Owner, Sash and Door Factory Owner, General store owner, trader and rancher.  He also retained his estate in Edmonton next to the university.  His grand children, however, would pay the price for his tenacity.  When the war began, Lawrence Garneau the Metis (1840-1921) had to shut down the Sash and Door Factory and store his Maxwell Touring car along with two Abbot Detroit cars.

The Garneau Clan

This is the 3rd generation Garneau Clan  in Alberta.

 This photo is the last major family gathering as the American flu of 1918  decimated the family.
 

At this time Cardston erected the only Mormon Temple in Canada to serve the large Mormon settlers in the area despite the continuous objections of the Roman Catholic Church.  The Church had violently objected to allowing these heathen people into Canada but they looked like Anglo-Saxon and are allowed to remain.  This Anglo-Saxon Semblance Policy would remain in effect throughout this century.

Between 1889 and 1913 there was 1,203 oil wells drilled in Alberta.  This year oil production was 1,405,786 barrels.

An interurban railway operated St. Albert to Calder in Edmonton but only lasted until 1914 when a fire destroyed their barn.

Some say the first automobile arrived in Grouard, Alberta this year.

"Get women back in the kitchen where they belong, women have no business running for office'.  So says Alderman Stanley Ramsey, of Calgary, Alberta. 

The CPR built a branch line parallel to the Red Coat Trail* or highway 61 in the Drumheller (Alberta) area.   Hamlets sprung up every 10 to 12 kilometers like mushrooms.  Jack Wilson an early settler named his hamlet Dorthy after his daughter in 1900, in 1913 Altorado aka El Dorado boasted 100 people, then there was Foremost, Legend, Bingham, Nemiskam aka Nemiscam meaning between two valleys, most like mushrooms faded into history.  *The Red Coat Trail is the trail the NWMP took to get to Alberta, in Saskatchewab it was highway 13, in Alberta it was highways 2,4,61,889,501.

June 2:  The completion of the High Level bridge in Edmonton finally puts (I)-John Walters (1849-1920) ferry service out of business.  The bridge claimed the lives of four people and eventually cost more than two million dollars.

June 2: The first C.P.R. train crossed the High Level Bridge in Edmonton.

August 13: the first streetcar crossed the High Level Bridge in Edmonton.  :From the streetcar, one looks down from a dizzy height into the murky waters of the Saskatchewan without as much as a handrail to break the gaze into the abysmal depths below".  What he failed to report is the car swayed back and forth even during calm days.  I really enjoyed this ride which eventually included a short river side walk to White Mud Creek, a popular picnicking site.

September 13: The traffic deck of the bridge and wide walks opened for business to crossed the High Level Bridge in Edmonton.

1914 

John Garneau Metis (1885-1949) made an important decision to leave St. Paul de Metis and move to Portland, Oregon.  John Garneau Metis 1885-1949) had witnessed the unending waves of Celtic-Anglo-Saxon settlers and the building resentment between Catholic and Protestant, French and English.  His sister Millicent Savard Metis b-1889 and her daughter Yvonne went with him to meet up with her husband who went out earlier to review job prospects.  This is ironic, the Catholic Church had spent countless resources encouraging United States and French to come to Canada but sustains a policy that drives out French Canadian Metis Catholics. 

Lawrence Garneau (1840-1921), the Ojibwa Metis, married his Metis Cree housekeeper and the family is quick to say it is to help in raising his youngest, Millicent Garneau.  This however couldn't be true as she is married to Oscar Savard and they have a child.  Oscar had moved to Portland, Oregon and Millicent is to follow with her brother, John Garneau, and his family later in the year.  This marriage is a strong message to the family that he is Metis and proud of his Native heritage.  His first wife (IV)-Eleanor Thomas had a strong Swampy Cree heritage despite family denial.  The September 16 and 17 exposition contained the following advertisements:  Lawrence Garneau (1840-1921) and Freres transport des Voyageurs en Auto de Saint Paul a Vegreville, (I)-James Brady (1875-1948)  and Savard frost and wood farm machinery: cockshutt plows etc farm lands for sale St. Paul des Metis, Laurence Garneau Mill see the Coureur de Bois of St. Paul (Moulin a scie et cour a bois St. Paul).

Lawrence Garneau Metis (1840-1921) related many first-hand stories of the Native and Metis struggles, early buffalo hunts, excursions and travels as one of those real plain's men who contributed to the real democratic opening of the West.  The dynamics are not only in an idealistic sense but also in the hardship and distress of pioneer life and the willingness to endure the sacrifice required of those who build solidly for the future.  Driven by greed and armed with a sense of their own innate superiority, the English marched across the sacred land of the Aboriginal peoples.  Lawrence Garneau Metis (1840-1821) devoted his life to resisting this un-accommodating advancement at the Minnesota-Dakota resistance movement of 1862, the Red River resistance movement of 1869, the Edmonton resistance movement of 1882, Metis resistance movement of 1885 and the St. Paul de Metis resistance movement of 1908.  He also related stories of his frustrations with Government and Church but he retained, throughout his life, an open pride in his heritage.  In his last years he lived close to the Metis and Native friends of his earlier years.  It is an end of an era in Metis history and the baton is being passed to a younger generation.

Because the Roman Church had taken away the last of the dignity of being Metis, many Metis parents encouraged their children to marry outside the clan, if not for themselves, at least for the sake of the children.  Metis who married outside the clan denied their own Indian ancestry as a duty to their spouses.  These once proud people have lost their culture, pride and faith.  Many of the Metis males turned back to the Indian culture as there is little hope for them in the white skinned world with the Church, Business and Government against them.  Racial harassment is a daily ordeal at Church, School, Market Place and playground.

Racial discrimination against non-French speaking people in St. Paul de Metis began to intensify.  The French, even to this day, place their language before their religion or country.  The French, at this time, considered the Roman Catholic Faith inseparable from the French language at St. Paul de Metis.  The speaking of English identified with Protestantism.  The Garneau clans' determination to master English had lost them their French by the third generation in Alberta.  The Anglo-Saxon settlers abused the Half-breed children for the color of their skin.  The French settlers abused the Metis children for speaking English.  The Metis children said the situation became an unending ordeal of daily combat.  Pride in being Metis is slowly being replaced by being able to be passed off as being white, but surely not English White Protestant and surely not those not so white French dogs.  The second generation of Alberta Garneau's became the limbo generation.

The real-estate boom in Edmonton bust.  About 70% of Edmonton's real estate was found to have no real value.  Seventy five thousand building lots were suddenly so worthless that men who deemed themselves wealthy on account of them could not finance the taxes on them, and they reverted to the city.  Most of Edmonton's millionaires moved away.

The first World War almost destroyed Trochu, Alberta as most of the young men signed up for the war and few returned after the war.

"I certainly have never yet seen the woman who would be of any use on a police force'. so says Chief Alfred Cuddy of the Calgary police force.

Bulwark, Alberta was first settled this year, located 20 km east of Castor, Alberta.  It population never exceeded 100 persons but it serviced the surrounding farming community.  Bert Ogilve operated the Ogilvie General Merchant Store from about 1922.  The village was laid out with a main street and a French avenue.  At its peak it had three lumberyards, two general stores, a post office, two churches, hardware store, a Bank of Commerce, garage, drug store, butcher shop, livery barn, dance hall, pool room, blacksmith shop, real estate office and five grain elevators.  Bulwark is a ghost town now.

Between 1896 and 1914 about one million people came to western Canada from Europe and North America.

The Grand Trunk Pacific Tailway bought the site of Fort Calgary and demolished all the structures.

May 14:  William Stewart Herron (1870-1939) formed the Calgary Petroleum Products Company with partners Archibald W. Dangman and R.P. Bennett.A.W.   Dingman, of Calgary Petroleum Products Limited (later Royalite Oil), struck oil and gas at Turner Valley, Alberta.  Oil shares jumped from twelve dollars to two hundred dollars per share.    This project was financed by Stewart Herron, A.W. Dingman, James Lougheed, R.P. Bennet and others.  The Turner Valley Oilfield is opened this year near Calgary, marking the beginning of Alberta's Oil Industry.

May 21:   The ship Komagata Maru and 396 Sikh immigrants arrived Vancouver and are turned away under recently enacted Canadian Immigration laws.  The ship was forced out of Vancouver July 23.

June 19: Hillcrest Mine, Crowsnest Pass, Alberta saw Canadia's worst coal mine disaster and the worlds 3rd worst at this time.  Methine gas is believed to have igniting cold dust killing 189 miners and only 46 men survived.  It left 130 widowed women with 400 children.

August 14, 1914, Canada dutifully entered the Great War along side Britain.

November 14:  Enemy aliens were required to register at special offices,  In the course of the war 8,579 male prisoners were interned along with 81 women and 156 children who voluntarily accompanied them.  Western internment stations included Fort Garry in Winnipeg, the Exhibition Buildings in Brandon and Lethridge, the Parks building at Banff, tents at Castle, Alberta and railway cars at Munson and Eaton, Alberta.

1915

William Garneau, of Munson, Alberta, registered an Alberta horse and cattle brand for the right shoulder consisting of a 'WG' with a bar over top.  He homesteaded NE 15-30-20-W4

Some time during 1912 and 1915 (III)-Mathias Salzl rented a horse and buggy to take a friend out and look at a homestead in the District of Sand Hills across the river from Leduc, Alberta.  The friend decided he didn't want the homestead. However Mathias decided to take it and spent a number of summers improving it by clearing land and building a log home.  It is during this period that Mathias shot a large bird and years later that he discovered that it had been a Whooping Crane.  The family believes he filed on this homestead in the Sand Hills District in 1915.  Some homesteaders however appear to have squatted for a number of years before applying for title.  This item needs more research in order to tie down the actual date.  It is also during this period that his wife (IV)-Jerusha Anna McDougall learned about all the wild Alberta plants that could be eaten.  In later years I would follow her about as she collected her cattail roots, wild mint, Canadian thistle or dandelion leaves as well as many other delicacies that I have long forgotten.  She would use these wild plants to garnish the wild rabbit, partridge, prairie chicken, duck or pheasant that we would bring to her.  We never did discover why she preferred rabbit to any other meat. Maybe it is because of the fur with which she trimmed her home made clothing.

The Edmonton Grads started  to dominate world basketball this year until 1940, when there was no one left to defeat, and they disbanded.  Percy Page, their coach, led them to win five hundred and two games of five hundred and twenty two played.  This year  the Alberta prohibition era began and lasted until 1923.

The manager of (I)-John Walters (1849-1920) Lumber Mill in what was to become Edmonton stole $50,000.00 and fled the area.  Walters had other mishaps that contributed into causing him to plunged from a millionaire into heavy debt, from which he never recovered. 

Some say the Alberta Railway aka. Great Waterways Line had so many washouts, so many times it took 5 days to go 60 miles.  There wasn't anything to eat.  The passengers complained and the conductor said;  Just you wait in a little while you will have all you want to eat.  In three miles the train stopped beside a blueberry patch.  The conductor said here we are, get out and help yourself.

Being old and unused, Fort Edmonton is dismantled this year to be preserved and later restored by the city.  However, this never happens.

June 26: The Great flood of the North Saskatchewan River was first detected at Rocky Mountain House and warnings were issued to Edmonton that a 30 foot rise was passing.  John Walters kept an eye on the river and said "It'll nae come o'er the banks". 

June 28:  The Saskatchewan River flooded Edmonton leaving two thousand people homeless.  The flood this year swept away fifty homes including the Edmonton Lumber Company, John Walter's Mill and the City Boilers.  Flooding also cut off the electrical supply to the city.  The loss of John Walter's Lumber Mill destroyed him financially and he never recovered. Walterdale Flats, Rosedale Flats, Cloverdale Flats, and Riverdale Flats were flooded.  Folks just refuse to learn, Fort Edmonton was flooded in 1825 and 1830 before they moved to higher ground.  The Indians had warned the HBC that the river flooded but they wouldn't listen.  In the past 150 years the river had flooded 20 times.

July 21: Alberta's all-male electorate voted 61% in favor of prohibition which was not abolished until 1924.  This was likely the result of the women's lobby movement against fathers and husbands.

1916

 Father Pere Lacombe, born 1827 Quebec, came west in 1849, died 1916 in Calgary, but is buried in Edmonton, Alberta. The Blackfoot called him the man with a good heart. His heart remains in the Blackfoot Country as it was sealed in a container and buried behind the Lacombe Nursing Home in Calgary, Alberta.

Father Lacombe, born 1827, died December 2, 1916 at a home for the aged in Midnapore, Alberta and John McDougall the Methodist died the following January 1917.  Emily Murphy, in Edmonton, became the first woman Magistrate in the British Empire.  A young lawyer challenged her judicial powers claiming under British law "women are persons in matters of pains and penalties but are not persons in matters of rights and privileges".  The young lawyer is absolutely correct according to British Common Law.  It should be noted that Canadian Aboriginal Common Law has included women's voting rights for centuries before the arrival of Europeans.

Prohibition was declared in Alberta from 1916 to 1923.  It is noteworthy that the scientist at this time believed that alcohol and smoking acted as a shield against infection.  When the 1918 flu hit Alberta, many believed the lack of alcohol, resulted in the high mortality rate in Alberta from the disease.

WWI after being rejected for military service in British Columbia, approximately 200 Japanese volunteers travel to Alberta to join Canadian battalions of the British army and are shipped to Europe. 54 are killed and 92 wounded.  

Only 15,328 inhabitants of the prairie provinces had been born in Germany, but 101,944 persons were recorded as having German as their mother tongue.  44% were from Russia, 18% from the United States, 6% from Romania, and only 12% from the German Empire.

March 14:   Women are allowed to vote in Saskatchewan.  On April 27, 1916, Alberta women regain the right to vote and this follows the Manitoba lead of January 27.  Red-necked British Columbia and Ontario finally follow to allow the female vote on April 4, 1917 and April 12 respectively. 

April:  The Peace River Oil Company hit a gusher of salt water with a minor amount of natural gas at 346 meters (1,136 feet).   The well was located 4-31-85-20W5 about 24 km NE of the town of Peace River on the east bank of the Peace River.   The well spewed 30,000 barrels of salt water and 340,000 cubic feet of natural gas each day, at its peak.  The company attempted to plug the well in June 1917, but they failed.  The well flowed into the Peace River until 1955 when it was finally plugged.   The well again was running wild in 1982.   The well ran wild until 2003 when it was finally capped.

April 19: Alberta women won the right to vote with support from the UFA (United Farmers of Alberta).

1917 

During the period  1916 to 1917, the prairies suffered a prolonged drought forcing many people from the lands into the growing cities and towns.  Many return to the United States from where they originated.  Farm abandonment reached 80% in some areas. This exceeded the Great Depression.  It is ironic that the region that was well known as the Prairie dry belt (southern Alberta/Saskatchewan) produced a mammoth harvest in 1915-1916.

Charles Stewart, Liberal, is elected Premier of Alberta 1917-1921.  He would be the last Liberal Premier elected in Alberta this century.

The Provincial election results for Saint Paul des Metis was;
    Mr. Prosper Lessard a Liberal - elected
    Mr. James Brady a conservative - mot elected.
    

Few Canadians realize that a war internment camp was created at Yoho National Park, about 30 kilometers west of Lake Louise, to hold Austro-Hungarian immigrants in Canada where they were forced to do hard labor.   My grandfather was a Austro-Hungarian but fortunately was not interned.  Not learning from this experience, we Canadians  repeated this practice in the second World War against the Japanese Canadians.

The Alberta Provincial Police were established this year and served until 1932.

The Saskatchewan Provincial Police were also formed this year and served until 1928.

(I)-James Brady (1875-1948) of St. Paul des Metis lobbied for the rights to vote of one born in the U.S.A. of Canadian parents.

June 2:  William Avery (Billy) Bishop (1894-1956 was awarded the Victory Cross.  He was the most successful Canadian airman, eventually shooting down 72 enemy aircraft.  He was described as a terrible pilot but a fantastic shot.

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ALBERTA HISTORY 1918-1921

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