HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF ALBERTA • WHOOP-UP COUNTRY. CHAPTER Number 1 NEWSLETTER February, 1972 Membership in the Whoop-up Country Chapter, Historical Society of Alberta, which includes a subscription to the quarterly Alberta Historical Review, newsletters, and notice of meetings, can be obtained for $4.00 per year. Send membership dues to: Mrs. Lucille Dalke, Treasurer, Whoop-up Country Chapter, P. 0. Box 974, Lethbridge, Alberta SOCIETY OFFICERS FOR 1971-1972 President Alex Johnston, Marquis Hotel Past president Frank A. Russell, P.O. Box 326 Vice-president George Watson, 1409 - 9 Avenue So. Second vice-president Carlton Stewart, 1005 - 23 Street N. Secretary Mrs. Janet Girvan, 1126 - 13 St. So. Treasurer Mrs. Lucille Dalke, 638 - 9 St. So. Council Member (1974) A.L.H. Somerville, 1312 - 15 Av. So. Council Member (1974) George McKillop, 1219 - 6 Av. So. Council Member (1973) Clarence Geiger, 1265 - 5 Av. A So. Council Member (1973) Ray Schuler, 2630 - 22 Av. So. Council Member (1972) R. I. Baker, Box 14, Coaldale. Council Member (1972) Andrew Staysko, 1409 - 9 Av. A So. Social Convenor Mrs. Nora Everson, 1408 - 9 Av. A. So. February Meeting Postponed to March 7th.—The regular February meeting of the Society has been postponed until March 7th to suit guest speakers. It will be held on March 7th, then, at 8:00 p. m. in the Assembly Room of the Sir Alexander Gait Museum. Speakers for the occasion will be Wilbur P. Werner, Cut Bank, Montana, and Pat Sanderson, Sunburst. These men will speak on "Lewis and Clark", famed explorers of the early 19th century. They recommend that members who will be at the meeting read that part of the Lewis and Clark Journals that deals with the period from July 21 to July 26, 1806. This is the period during which Lewis came up Cut Bank Creek to Camp Disappointment and when a fight between Peigans and Lewis' men took place on the Two Medicine Creek. The Journals may be found in the Lethbridge Public Library. (Lewis was looking for the height of land between the Missouri and Saskatchewan River water­ sheds on this trip but didn't come quite far enough north. He describes the Sweetgrass Hills, which he could see clearly from the location. During the fight on the Two Medicines, two young Peigan warriors were killed, the start of a long-lasting enmity between the Americans and the Blackfoot Confederacy. All in all, the story is a south Alberta, as well as a north Montana, one.) The Guest Speakers.—Both speakers are active in a variety of ways in their communities. Pat Sanderson—Was born in Joliet, Montana (near Deer Lodge), in 1907 and worked as a coal miner in that area until 1935. Then he moved to Oilmont, in Toole County, and now resides at Sunburst. He married Mayme Irvine in 1929 and they have three daughters and one son; another daughter died in an accident in 1955. Mr. Sanderson has been very active in community affairs, having served as a member of the Oilmont School Board for 12 years. He is a past chairman of Toole County Democratic Central Committee, past governor of the Shelby Moose Lodge, past president of the Coutts-Sweetgrass Lions Club (the only truly International Lions Club), and chairman of the Salvation Army for the Sunburst area. He is presently serving as Camping and Activities Chairman of the.Nu-ooh-oka District of the Boy Scouts of America, is holder of the Silver Beaver Award in scouting, and is a 21-year scouter veteran. Wilbur P. Werner—Was educated in country schools, at Sacred Heart Academy, University of Omaha, and at Creighton University in Nebraska. In 1937 he hitch-hiked to Montana, stopped at Cut Bank, and has been practicing law there since that date. He has served as County Attorney of Glacier County for the past 7h years; as City Attorney for Cut Bank for 2 years; as City Attorney for the town of Browning for 2 years; and is presently a United States Magistrate. Mr. Werner has served his community outside his profession. He is a Past Exalted Ruler of BPOE 1632 at Cut Bank; Past Grand Knight and District Deputy of the Knights of Columbus; Past District Chairman of Nu-ooh-ska District, Boy Scouts of America and is presently on the North Central Council of Boy Scouts of America and Advancement Chairman for the Nu-ooh-ska District. Mr. Werner is a Vice President of the Montana Historical Society. Mr. Werner is married with five children. He proudly reports eight American grandchildren and three Canadian grandchildren. ******* THE STAFFORD FAMILY /The account that follows was taken mostly from a Golden Jubilee issue of the Lethbridge Herald of July 11th, 1935. At that time there were gathered together by the Old-Timers' Association a collection of photographs and stories of men, women, and families who came to Lethbridge from 1882 to 1885. One of the earliest of these was William Stafford and his family. The subdivision known as Staffordville, now part of the North Side, commemorates him, as does the present Stafford Drive. W. S. Russell, Q. C, and J. C. Peat, both of Lethbridge, are grandsons while Mr. George Watson was connected with the family, his grandmother having been a half-sister of William Stafford. The Stafford ranch home in the riverbottom, remodeled by removal of the upper story, is the home of the Dick Gra^^ family, Mr. Gray being a prominent Lethbridge businessman and operator of Valley Feeders Ltd_^/ William Stafford was the first Mines Superintendant for the North Western Coal and Navigation Company. He opened the Drift Mines at the riverbottom and Nos. 1, 2, and 3 shafts of the Gait Mines. He was bom at Patna, Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1842. His father, an English mining engineer and geologist, had come to Scotland earlier and, being widowed, remarried there. William Stafford was the only son of this union and, after a Scottish education, he followed his father's calling. He married Jane Gibb, who was born in Auchinlech, Ayrshire, Scotland, on December 31st, 1863. Four years later he emigrated to Westville, Nova Scotia, to become manager of coal mines in that area and resided there with his wife and three child­ ren until 1882. In that year William Stafford was engaged by Sir Alexander Gait to come west as the first manager and superintendant of the North Western Coal and Navigation Company. (The westward trip was made with a party consisting of his son, William, and a group of hand- picked associates—miners known to him—over the Whoop-up Trail to Fort Macleod.) Mr. Stafford immediately embarked on a thorough reconnaissance along the Bow, Belly, and Saskatchewan Rivers, eventually selecting a site on the Belly River, at a point then known as The Coal Banks, for the first mine. He began work, tunnelling directly into the face of the seam, at a point now directly under the CPR Bridge._ By December, 1882, coal was being taken from the mine, the beginning of the Gait Coal Co. ^More Important, this activity fixed the eventual location of the City of Lethbridge because miners homes and other businesses were built in the riverbottom area, moving _to the upper level after the building of a narrow gauge railway to Medicine Hat in 1885_^/ Markets were found as far afield as Fort Benton and Medicine Hat with river barges supplying the first transport. In 1883 Mr. Stafford returned to Nova Scotia, bringing back with him to Coal Banks his wife, the remainder of his family, and another group of selected miners. Two additional mines were opened along the river north of tlie original diggings and the family settled at the Coal Banks. In 1894 Mr. Stafford became Inspector of Mines and was succeeded as Mines Superintendant by W. D. L. Hardie. By this time also he had become Interested in ranching and resigned from the company to follow that pursuit. A spacious ranch house, which was to become a community and social centre, was built in the riverbottom north of the present traffic bridge. And to provide accommodation for the increasing number of miners, he purchased and sub-divided as lots for miners houses, the area that became known as Staffordville. Real estate, as well as ranching, occupied much of Mr. Stafford's time after his resignation from the coal company and, at the time of his death on May 12, 1907, he was operating a private coal mine north of Lethbridge near Carmangay. Mr. Stafford was the first chairman of the School Board in Lethbridge in 1886 and was one of the first managers of the First Presbyterian Church in 1885. He is buried in the family plot in Mountain View Cemetery, Lethbridge. Tribute by Rev. John McLean.—"William Stafford was a man of brains and energy, cool, clear­ headed, and sympathetic. He never had an accident from fire damp in any mine he had charge of, and was so careful of the lives and welfare of the miners and their families that he erected a powder magazine a mile from the mine and worked there several times daily for the necessary 'charge', never entrusting that bit of work to anyone lest there might be a mishap and an explosion." As mentioned above, Mrs. Stafford and the remainder of the family came west with Mr. Stafford in 1883. A home was built at 'Coal Banks' for the family, where they resided until 1888, moving to the large house north of the traffic bridge known as the Stafford Ranch. After the death of Mr.