List of 150 Alberta Historical People
) Sam Steele- "Larger than life" Mountie with the NWMP
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- 128) Senator James Gladstone- Canadas First Indigenous Senator
- 129) Senator Sir James Lougheed- Albertas only Knighted Person
- 130) Senator Matthew Cochrane-Cochrane is named after this Rancher
127) Sam Steele- "Larger than life" Mountie with the NWMPSamuel Benfield Steele was born in Simcoe County, Ontario in 1849, the son of a naval officer. His mother died when he was eleven, and he was sent to boarding school. He spent his holidays with his cousins, who taught him to ride and shoot. His childhood experiences in the outdoors gave him a well-rounded, practical side that served him well in his careers with the military and the North West Mounted Police. When he was just 14, he joined the militia to fight against the Fenian Raids. In 1870, he served as a private in the Red River Expedition against Louis Riel. In 1873, Sergeant Major Steele became one of the original members of the North West Mounted Police, alongside two of his brothers. He was responsible for training the Mounties to ride before their March West across the prairies. He served at several posts, including Fort Saskatchewan and Calgary, before being put in charge of policing the construction of the railway. In 1884, he once again went to fight Riel, this time as the leader of Steele’s Scouts with the Canadian Militia. He returned to duties in BC, founding Fort Steele in 1897. From 1898 to 1899 he was in charge of the “B” Division at Dawson, NWT, during the gold rush. He introduced rules requiring gold prospectors to have enough food and better boats to take them to the goldfields. During the South African (Boer) War of 1899-1902, Steele commanded Lord Strathcona’s Horse, which included many Mounties on leave of absence. Steele stayed on after the war to help organize the South African Constabulary, returning to Canada in 1907. In 1915, he published a memoir, Forty Years in Canada, which helped establish the heroic reputation of the Mounties in the popular imagination. Steele again went overseas in WWI with the 2nd Canadian Division and rose to the rank of Major General. He was knighted for his service, and died in England in 1919. By Joan Lawrence
In 1918 he was appointed assistant stockman for the reserve and stockman the following year. In 1920, he began his own farm about five miles north of Cardston. Over the years be built one of the finest farms on the reserve and, in partnership with his sons, he ran about 500 head of cattle and had some 800 acres under cultivation. Gladstone attended one of the first meetings of the Indian Association of Alberta. He was elected president of the association in 1948 and served until 1954, and was re-elected president in 1956. During this time, he was a delegate to Ottawa on three occasions to discuss proposed changes in the Indian Act, and to voice the concerns of his people. As president of the association, he played a prominent part in the fight for better education, greater respect for treaty rights, and the participation of the Indians in their own administration. For this reason, on February 1st, 1958, he became the first Native to be appointed to the Senate. In his maiden speech, Senator Gladstone spoke a few sentences in the Blackfoot tongue "to place in the official Debates a few words in the language of my own people.” In the following year he was appointed co-chairman of a Joint committee of the Senate and the House of Commons was established to investigate Indian Affairs. In 1960 one of his dreams became a reality when the federal vote was extended to all First Nations of Canada. James Gladstone died on September 4, 1971. By Hugh Dempsey 129) Senator Sir James Lougheed- Alberta's only Knighted PersonSir James Lougheed was born in Brampton, Ontario in September 1854 to John Lougheed and Mary Ann Alexander. When James was a young child, his family moved to Toronto and there he grew up in Cabbagetown, which was considered to be the poor side of the city. James’ father was a carpenter and insisted that James also become a carpenter. While his father was happy with his job decision, his mother was not and wanted him to have a better job that she knew her son had the talent for. His mother insisted that he return to school to finish high school, which he did. He later went to law school in Toronto and he became a lawyer after he finished school. In January 1882 James and his brother, Sam, moved west to Winnipeg, then to Medicine Hat and finally on to Calgary. There James met and later married Belle Hardisty in 1884. The Canadian Pacific Railway, which at the time was building the rail line that would link eastern and western Canada, would become one of James’ biggest clients. At this time James also made good investments in the Calgary real estate market, which was growing with the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway. After James arrived in Western Canada, he wanted to make the region an important part of Canada. Even though he was born in Ontario, James saw himself as an Albertan first and foremost. He entered politics as a senator in 1889, becoming the youngest member of the Senate at age 35. At the time when James became a senator, Alberta was not yet a province, but was part of the North West Territories. James helped the Autonomy Bills pass in the Senate in 1905 that allowed Alberta to become a province. When the Conservatives won the 1911 federal election under Robert Borden, James was named as a cabinet minister, a position he held until 1921. In 1928, a mountain west of Calgary near Dead Man’s Flats was named after him. Sir James Lougheed passed away in Ottawa on November 2, 1925 at the age of 71. By Tom Elder
Cochrane was to admit in 1896 that he had taken the floor in the Senate only once or twice in nearly a quarter of a century. Prestigious though the position of senator was, his appointment would probably have had no historical significance if he had not been a moving force behind a large wave of investment in livestock breeding in western Canada. The establishment of the Cochrane Ranche Company Limited, which had been founded a few months earlier with Cochrane as president, marked the beginning of a process that would see western livestock ranching consolidated into some 50 large operations by about 1890. The Cochrane Ranche was Alberta's first large-scale cattle ranch. In 1881, Senator Matthew Cochrane acquired several huge leases to land along the Bow River, near the present town of Cochrane, Alberta. At its peak, Cochrane Ranche totaled about 144,000 ha of range land. In 1881 and 1882 Cochrane's company purchased thousands of head of cattle in Montana and drove them north to these leases, making Matthew Henry Cochrane the first of western Canada's great cattle ranchers. Many of these cattle died during the first two winters of operation, but in time the ranch became one of several successful large-scale cattle operations along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Despite its solid base, the empire built up by Matthew Henry Cochrane did not outlast its founder. A provincial historic site (designated in 1977) owned by the town of Cochrane, offers tours and other interpretive programs at Cochrane Ranche from mid-May to early September. It is open year-round. Part of original ranch is preserved in Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park (established in 2008). By Frances Picone Download 0.5 Mb. Share with your friends:
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