LETHBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY T:HE LETHBRIDGE CHAPTER Of the Historical Society of Alberta • .^%i* r-ij^* ^*^^ P.O. BOX 974 LETHBRIDGE. ALBERTA. TIJ 4A2 ©O0DvnQhl1996 Number 1 NEWSLETTER ISSN 0838-7249 ^ January 1996 Membership in the Historical Society of Alberta, including a subscription to the quarterly ALBERTA HISTORY: $25.00 per year single $30.CX) a couple or family. Those members residirig from Nanton south are also registered with the Lethbridge Historical Society and receive newsletters and notices. (Your mailing label expiratbn date will be highlighted when it is time to renew.) Please send your dues to the treasurer. LETHBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS President Wm. (Bill) (Jaunita) Lingard Past President George F. (Josephine) Kush Vice-President Carlton R. (Barbara) Stewart Secretary/Newsletter Editor Irma (Jake) Dogterom Treasurer David J. (Gerry) Dowey Council Member (1996) Douglas J. (Claudia) Card Council Member (1996) Gordon (Rose) Toiton Council Member (1997) Greg (Maria) Ellis Council Member (1997) Richard Shockley (Leslie) Council Member (1998) Jayne (Keith) Mauthe Council Member (1998) Robert (Emerice) Shore Regular meetings are held in the Theatre Gallery of the Lethbridge Public Library at 7:15 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of the month. Greetings! May 1996 bring you happiness and Officers for die year are listed above. The annual financial report prosperity. finds the Society in good shape. Two notices of motion had been made for the expenditure of funds: one for the republishing Meetings & Notices of Boats and Barges on the Belly, an early publication, the other for a donation of funds to the City of Lethbridge Archives for There was a misprint in the heading of our November issue. The equipment. Both were passed. Dcmations made in 1995 included subscription rates printed in November were incorrect, as they did an amount of $3000.00 for tiie Senator Buchanan room of tiie not reflect the increase passed at the 1995 annual general meeting Lethbridge Public Library. The following report was received of the Historical Society of Alberta. The rates above are correct. from George Hall, Assistant Chief Librarian. *************** "Re: UPDATE ON FURNISHING THE The next regular meeting of the LHS will be held on SENATOR BUCHANAN ROOM January 23 at the Letiibridge Public Library. The speaker will On behalf of tiie Letiibridge Public Library Board, I would like to be Albert Alsop, a local veteran of World War II. tiiank the Lethbridge Historical Society for die generous, and Our newest publication "Boats and Barges on the BeUy", much appreciated, donation of $3,000 to fumish die Senator is now off the press, and will be available for purchase at this Buchanan Room in honor of Alex Johnston. meeting. "For King and Country" a publication of Reidmore Progress has been made on this project over the last six months Books, will be also be for sale at a greatiy reduced price ($10.00 and the library will be in a position over the next several months to members and $ 11 .(X) for non-members). to complete the project. I have been able to hire a new The February 27th meeting will have Greg Ellis showing views Maintenance Supervisor, Rick Poulin, in September. Rick has of early Lethbridge from photographs taken by Arthur Rafton an extensive background in the field of carpentry. Rick will be Canning and the British Colonial Photographic Co. able to take over the detail of the project, i.e. furniture design, floor layout, evaluating vendor proposals, and perhaps constructing the fumiture in-house. Spring Tour: The tour destination for 1996 has not yet been Summary of activity: set. Where would you like to go and what would you like to see? Contact Gordon Toiton at 345-2624 with your suggestions. Purchased two used map file cabinets for storage of large format documents from the Oldman Regional Plaiming Commission - total cost $600. The annual meeting of the Lethbridge Historical Society was Received proposals from one local vendor (Cypress Business held in die Royal Canadian Legion on November 30, 1995. Equipment) in order to get a feel for what's available commercially and at what cost, it was found that tables The Expansion of the Methodist Church in would be very expensive; chairs are more reasonable. Southern Alberta by Stephen Wilk Provided information to a local cabinet maker, however, have The following article with footnotes was one of two published received no response. in the Historic Sites and Archives Journal of the United Church of Canada. The text is reprinted here by permission. Set up a woodworking shop in the back of Chinook Arch Library headquarters at 2902 - 7th Avenue North. Many I: The establishment of Methodism in Soutiiem Alberta hours were spent cleaning up in order to provide an was part of die total Christian movement in tiie west as the new appropriate shop space. frontier was opening up to investment, exploration and the enterprise of eastem Canadian and European interests. Generally For the past month, Rick Poulin has been searching for a speaking, the missionaries followed in the wake of the Hudson's used table saw to purchase (used table saws are rather rare). Bay Company which had absorbed its chief rival, tiie Northwest Rick and myself have sat down with Linda McEhravy (Adult Fur Company, in 1821. They were sent out from Britain as Services) to plan out the needs of the Sen. Buchanan Room. chaplains serving primarily the company's outposts and gradually ministering to the natives. For instance, the Anglican, Rev. I hope that this information has been useful. Once the workshop John West, arrived in the Red River settiement and held his first is in working order, we can start on the 40 plus projects in the services in 1820. His ministty not only provided a chaplaincy to backlog. I hope that by Spring the project can be completed." the whites, but he also began to teach the local native children. It was in the interest of the Hudson's Bay company to help finance the Anglican and Roman Catholic missionaries in the Marie & Jacob Van Haarlem (Selected for die Gait Northwest Museum's Family Gallery in 1996), In southem Alberta, Archdeacon Tims was the first to This article was written by Wim Vonkeman, based on the minister to the Blackfoot bands and is considered the father of nomination he submitted to the Sir Alexander Gait Museum. Please Anglicanism in Alberta. The Roman Catiiolics were the second contact him at 732-4067 if you have historic information regarding the vanHaarlems and/or their hospital. church to minister to the area and were best represented by Father Albert Lacombe who founded the St. Albert Mission just north The first Dutch settiements, in what a few years later of Edmonton in 1852. By 1897, tiie church had established ai became the Province of Alberta, took place in the industrial school at the confluence of the Bow and Highwood Monarch/Granum area. Among these settiers were Jacob and Rivers in southem Alberta. Marie VanHaarlem (nee Reyse). and their children Ralph and John. Methodism first appeared in southem Alberta in the perscm of Robert Terrill Rundle who was sent out from England by the They came from Amsterdam and though they were not really Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society early in 1840 and farmers, in June 1906 they homesteaded near Keho Lake. Soon arrived at Fort Edmonton in October. His missionary work took diey found that farming was not their best option. In 1909, him from Fort Edmonton to Rocky Mountain House and as far Marie moved to Lethbridge with her children, to start private soudi as the Banff corridor and the Piocher Creek area in the musing. Their house on ninth street became the first Crow's Nest Pass ministering to both Crees and Stonies. He "VanHaarlem Hospital". Later they moved it to sixtii and finally was part of the missionary contingent which included James to sevendi avenue. By 1929 it had been enlarged to a 29 patient Evans, William Mason, George Bamley and the native peacte hospital, and was 'bought out' by die Sisters of St. Martha. The Peter Jacobs. In 1854, the Canadian Wesleyan Methodist Church sisters renamed it St Michael Hospital, and used it until they assumed jurisdiction over the British Wesleyan operations had built die first wing of tiie present St. Michael's". They sold throughout the Northwest and appointed Henry Bird Steioliauer the seventh avenue building, which today still exists as a as missionary to the northem Cree in 1855. He joined Thomas boarding house. In the twenty years of its existence, the Woolsey, Benjamin Sinclair and Peter Erasmus in laying a solid VanHaarlem hospital had evolved from a maternity to a general foundation for future Methodist work in the region. hospital. However, since during this period 2,000 babies were dehvered, many families still refer to it as a maternity hospital. The most important Methodist missionaries, however, were George McDougall and his son John who came to Alberta in the When Marie left Holland, she was trained in midwifery but early 1860's. Arriving at Norway House in Manitoba in 1862. had not finished her nurse's training. However, here she became they moved to the Victoria Mission about 40 miles northeast of highly regarded, especially by Lethbridge's first doctor Frank Fort Edmonton the following summer. From there, they began Mewbum. He was her "devoted faitiiful friend and she his ever to rebuild the mission at Pigeon Lake where the Rundle Mission ready and trusty nurse", and for her great contribution to nursing now stands as one of the landmarks of Methodism in westem in Southem Alberta, the Nursing Association bestowed on her Canada.