Candles to Kilowatts The Story of Edmonton’s Power Company Chapter 1 final 2/7/02 10:07 PM Page 1 lick a light switch, turn on a televi- Fsion, use a microwave – we take many electrical conveniences for granted. But Milestones Chapter 1 before the turn of the twentieth century, electricity was just a flickering novelty for most people. Since then, it has 1891 become central to our daily lives, a driv- Alex Taylor starts the first Edmonton ing force of modern industry, and a electric plant in Edmonton. multi-billion dollar enterprise. And for Electric Lighting people in Edmonton, a home-grown The C&E Railway between Calgary utility has made electricity a reality for and South Edmonton is completed. and Power more than a century. Company Limited Edmonton’s Early 1892 Growth Edmonton is incorporated as a town. • • • • • Edmonton Electric Lighting and Power Company Limited has its roots in the 1895 1891 – 1901 early history of the City of Edmonton. John Walter’s sawmill business is Like other cities in western Canada, operational in Edmonton. Edmonton began as a fur trading post. After relocating several times, Fort 1896 Edmonton was situated in the Edmonton Marconi applies for a patent on area in 1802, when it was erected on the wireless telegraphy. north bank of the North Saskatchewan River. In 1829, the fort was moved to The Klondike Gold higher ground near the present location Rush begins. It is a fact – or have I dreamt it – that, of Alberta’s legislature building. by means of electricity, the world of Fort Edmonton experienced two sepa- The first long-distance, high-voltage rate waves of newcomers. The first and matter has become a great nerve, transmission line (11 kV) carries smaller group were fur traders. These vibrating thousands of miles in a power from St. Narcisse to Trois- rugged individuals traded with Native Rivières, Québec, a distance of 29 km. breathless point of time. peoples at the fort and transported furs –Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1851 along the North Saskatchewan in 1898 Edmonton-built York boats. The Edmonton Golf and Country This way of life was not to continue Club is established. for long. Demand for furs in North America and Europe diminished. In the 1870s, the rich agricultural land of the 1899 West attracted those who saw opportu- South Edmonton is nities for farming and commerce. A new incorporated as a town and wave of newcomers began to arrive in renamed Strathcona. what is now central Alberta, eager to homestead on the land that had been The North Saskatchewan River opened up by the traders. floods Edmonton’s river valley. 1 Chapter 1: Edmonton Electric Lighting and Power Co. Ltd. Chapter 1 final 2/7/02 10:08 PM Page 2 Out of the Past, Into As businesses were established to pro- capital benefitted from the increasing the Future vide goods and services for the numbers of settlers arriving at the sta- homesteaders, a town grew up around tion on the south side. It was in 1267 AD that Roger Bacon Fort Edmonton. By 1890, the commer- Edmonton’s population grew steadily. first published his theories on the cial core of this riverside community was During the summer of 1891, over 300 polar attraction of magnetite. Almost well established along a thoroughfare homesteading entries were filed. In 600 years would pass before Michael known as Jasper Avenue (see map, page 1892, Edmonton was incorporated as a Faraday demonstrated in 1891 that 5). This main street was lined with two- town. Edmontonians were optimistic electricity could be generated by pass- storey wood-frame stores selling jewelry, that the growth of their community ing a wire through a magnetic field ... shoes, and hardware. There were hotels, would be sustained. This growing he went on to build the world’s first a Masonic Hall, and the Hudson’s Bay market several hundred kilometers from dynamo in 1831. Once the power of Company store. One general store other major centres, combined with the electricity was harnessed, it swept the would later serve as the print shop for development of electrical technologies, world like wildfire. Frank Oliver’s Edmonton Bulletin, one of made a homegrown electrical utility a Within a few short years we had the city’s early newspapers. plausible investment. the telegraph (1846), the telephone The trickle of second-wave settlers (1876), incandescent lights (1879), became a torrent when the C&E Railway The Lights Come On in streetcars (1883), the electric oven reached the south side of the North Edmonton! (1892), electric cars (1893), movies Saskatchewan in 1891. Edmonton had Edmonton had much to offer an electri- (1896), radio (1900), and a myriad of been clamoring for a rail line since 1882, cal utility besides an isolated other inventions. when the Canadian Pacific Railway first concentration of consumers. Many of the From The Electric Century: reached Calgary. Although a railway ingredients necessary for electrical The Canadian Electricity Association bridge across the North Saskatchewan generation were in the community’s 1891-1991, 19 9 0 to Edmonton would not be built until backyard. The North Saskatchewan was after the new century began, the future available to supply water to boilers, and the Edmonton area was rich in coal deposits. In fact, many small coal mines operated in the river valley not far from Jasper Avenue. In 1891, a small group of frontier entrepreneurs recognized how far a local electrical utility could go in Edmonton. In that year, they became the original shareholders of Edmonton Electric Lighting and Power Company Limited. Those who were willing to take that first risk in bringing electricity to Edmonton came from many walks of life. Many names that remain familiar to Edmontonians today appeared in an Edmonton Bulletin article about the utili- ty on October 8, 1891. Donald Ross LE F T : The board of Edmonton Electric Light- ing and Power Company Limited. 2 Candles to Kilowatts Chapter 1 final 2/7/02 10:08 PM Page 3 John Alexander McDougall John A. McDougall’s is one of the sig- general merchants, wholesale and natures most often found on early retail; buyers and exporters of raw Edmonton Electric Lighting and furs; dealers in land scrip and north- Power Company records. Elected as west lands; outfitters for survey the first president of the company, he parties, traders, trappers, miners and remained in that position until the others for the north; and suppliers for utility was sold to the Town of country stores. Edmonton in May 1902. John A. McDougall played a leading role in Later, in 1907, this enterprise was the development of the civic enter- sold and the two men set up a finan- prises and businesses of Edmonton. cial business that would grow into the Originally from Oakwood, Ontario, $2,500,000 Empire Building. McDougall first made his way west at John A. McDougall’s contributions 19 years of age by working as a trader to the Edmonton scene were impres- and freighter. He first reached sive. He was a charter member of the Edmonton in 18 7 7 , but remained only Edmonton Board of Trade, and chair- br i e f l y . He returned from Ontario in man of the Edmonton Public School 18 7 9 with a new bride, Lovisa. He Board. He was also a patron of the entered into a business partnership arts and benefactor of many welfare McDougall spent the later years of with local businessman Richard and youth organizations. McDougall his life traveling throughout the Secord; together, they established sev- was a member of the first senate of world. He died in Edmonton at the eral of Edmonton’s founding the University of Alberta. Politically, age of 74. businesses. he was elected mayor of the Town, Sources: Their first firm was known as then City, of Edmonton starting in The Edmonton Bulletin, 1918, McDougall and Secord; they 1897, and was elected to the legisla- The Edmonton Journal, 1963, 1959, described themselves as ture in 1909. and City of Edmonton Archives material owned the Edmonton Hotel. Frank Oliver, a politician and forceful advocate for settler’s land rights, operated The Edmonton Bulletin. Daniel R. Fraser was the proprietor of a flourmill as well as a sawmill that milled 50,000 feet of lumber daily and employed as many as 70 people. John Walter, operator of a ferry, sawmill, and coal mine, may have supplied his own coal to the power plant. John A. McDougall was elected president of Edmonton Electric Light- RIGHT: Looking east down Jasper Avenue in 1896. Signs of innovation, including streetlights and telephone lines, are visible. 3 Chapter 1: Edmonton Electric Lighting and Power Co. Ltd. Chapter 1 final 2/7/02 10:08 PM Page 4 Alex Taylor When the Dominion Telegraph Ser- encouraged the Dominion Tel e g r a p h vice line was extended from Hay Service to build a telephone link Lakes to Edmonton in 1879, Alex between his telegraph office and St. Taylor came with it as its first opera- Albert, a community a short distance tor. He set up an office in John north of Edmonton. This, Alberta’s Walter’s old log house across the river first telephone line, began operation in from Fort Edmonton. That winter, he January 1885. Soon after, Alex estab- arranged for weekly news bulletins to lished telephone connections between be wired to him from Winnipeg. He his office and Fort Edmonton, then to wrote out these bulletins and left various businesses around the commu- them in Frank Oliver’s store, where ni t y . Edmonton’s first telephone customers eagerly read them.