HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF ALBERTA S^^^^ WHOOP-UP COUNTRY CHAPTER Number 1 Newsletter ISSN ,0382-9812 January, 1982 Membership in the Whoop-up Country Chapter, Historical Society of Alberta, including a siibscription to the quarterly ALBERTA HISTORY, newsletters, and notices of meetings, can be obtained for $6.00 per year. Send membership dues to: Mr. J.H. Carpenter, Treasurer, Whoop-up Country Chapter, Historical Society of Alberta, P.O. Box 974, Lethbridge, Alberta TIJ 4B1 SOCIETY OFFICERS FOR 1981-82 President Alex Johnston, Marquis Hotel TIJ 3Z4 Past President Frank A. Russell, Box 326 TIJ 3Y8 Vice-President Carlton R. Stewart, 1005 - 23 Street South TIH 3T2 Secretary D. J. (Doug) Card, 1051 - 13 Street South TIK 1S6 Treasurer J. H. Carpenter, 2117 - 14 Avenue South TIK 0V3 Council Member (1984) Andrew J. Staysko, Green Acres Lodge TIJ 0S9 Council Member (1984) Henry R. Anderson, 2226 - 18 Avenue South TIK 1C8 Council Member (1983) Mrs. Lucille Dalke, 638 - 9 Street South TIJ 2L4 Council Member (1983) Mrs. Donna Coulter, Box 1001, Fort Macleod TOL 2G0 Council Member (1982) Ralph L. Erdman, 1115 - 17 Street A South TIK 0S9 Council Member (1982) Clarence Geiger, 1265 - 5 Avenue A South TIJ 0Y3 MONTHLY MEETINGS capable of wiping out every white settler in the region. The Gaits were trying to build a narrow The regular monthly meeting of the Whoop-up gauge railway to Dunmore that year and it had to be Country Chapter of the Historical Society of done under armed guard. Two segments of the Field Alberta will be held in the Assembly Room of Force (the 9th Battalion Quebec City and the Rocky the Sir Alexander Gait Museum on Tuesday, Jan­ Mountain Rangers) helped to secure this region while, uary 26, 1982, at 8:00 p.m. The speaker will in turn, Mounties from Fort Macleod participated be Mr. Jack Dunn, 6404 Norfolk Drive N.W., directly in the northward advance. (These Mounties, Calgary, Alberta. Mr. Dunn has been working on incidentally, eventually covered a distance about a thesis on "The Alberta Field Force of 1885". equal to that from Paris to Moscow.) . .Mr. He has slides of the scenes of action and has Dunn's subject is not well known in this region and already presented his talk to the Calgary His­ we hope a large number of members will come to the torical Society. He will present the talk on meeting to hear and to learn. the Alberta Field Force of 1885 to the Leth­ bridge group on January 26 . Mr. Dunn On Tuesday, February 23, 1982, the regular monthly points out that the focus of the military cam­ meeting of the Society will have as guest speaker paign, undertaken because of the outbreak of Mr. Elza B. Tudor of Lethbridge. Mr. Tudor has long the Second Riel Rebellion in the Batoche-Frog been interested in the art of poetry and tends to Lake region of north-central Saskatchewan in select as his subject matter events of historical 1885, was on Calgary and the march north. But significance. He will read some of his poems and events in the Fort Macleod-Lethbridge region will explain what motivates him in the selection of remained critical. The Blackfoot were in a poetry as a means of self-expression. state of great excitement and were perfectly Editor, Newsletter: into disuse with the invention of the printing press and the story-tellers, with their rhym­ In your November issue, you carried an item ing verse, were no longer needed. Or so we regarding the Marquis of Lome writing "Unto thought! We said this once before in this news­ the hills . ." as a result of his 1881 trip letter. That mention turned out to be one of West and his view of the Rocky Mountains. the few items ever to generate reactive letters. Several correspondents said that they wrote First, yes, it is possible to see the Rocky poetry for their own pleasure and that of their Mountains from Blackfoot Crossing. In fact, friends and family. One lady sent us a book of the Rev. James MacGregor, a member of Lord her poems. All were adamant that just as many Lome's party, commented upon this after noting people wrote poetry as ever before although less the beauties of the Crossing. "But the charm of it was published in local and regional news­ of the picture," he added, "was that long and papers and in other outlets. magnificent line of gigantic peaks and mighty masses 120 miles away, on which the sun was While he was not a native of Alberta, even a going down in glory, throwing long bars of gold brief discussion of regional poets should include across the western sky. It was to many of us, Charles Mair, 1838-1927. Mair had two connections and among the rest to Lord Lome, our first with Lethbridge. First, his niece, Margaret Mair, view of the Rocky Mountains." (Alberta His- married Charles Alexander Magrath in 1888. The torioal Review, Spring 1964, p. 7.) Magraths had a son, Bolton, in about 1890 and a daughter a couple of years later. Margaret (Mair) The story of Lord Lome having written the words Magrath died of complications resulting from the to the hymn while on his 1881 trip is an oft- birth of her daughter in, we believe, 1893. The repeated tale. Usually, the site is credited baby girl was sent east temporarily to be raised to the Big Hill near Cochrane which the Marquis by Charles Magrath's parents but the youngster was of Lome visited when he went to look at the never well and lived only for about four months. Cochrane cattle. One supposes that Charles Mair was aware of all of this. Alas, however, as much as Alberta would like to take credit for the inspiration for the hymn, Mair's second connection with Lethbridge started this does not seem to be possible. You consulted about 1907. Like many Canadian artists — with the a United Church hyman book for your source, and oft-repeated exception of Pierre Berton in recent here you erred. After all. Lord Lome represen­ times — Mair was unable to make a living from his ted the British aristocracy, so you should have art. He became a Customs and Immigration officer gone to an Anglican hymn book. In consulting and was stationed in Lethbridge and Coutts from this source — or at least the edition which I about 1907-11. The Lethbridge Daily Herald was saw — you would find "Unto the hills ..." singularly unimpressed with the presence in the included as a general hymn. At the bottom of the community of a poet-writer of national stature and page, the author and date of writing are listed the few news items we have seen are along the lines as "The Marquis of Lome, 1877". If this is of: "Charles Mair, Customs Officer, has returned correct, then the piece was written fully four from a trip to Prince Albert. He reports crops in years before the Queen's son-in-law ever cast Southern Alberta are much better than those in his eyes upon the magnificent Rockies. north-central Saskatchewan." The biography of Charles Mair (by Norman Shrive) contains little Hugh A. Dempsey information on the Lethbridge years. Presumably, one of the reasons was that Mair was in his late (Dr. Dempsey, well-knoiM author and editor of 60s/early 70s while in this region and his produc­ "Alberta History", is Chief Curator of the tive years were far behind him. Glenbow Museum, Calgary.—Editor) Dr. Helen Hoy, Department of English, University ******* of Lethbridge, kindly provided us with information on Charles Mair. According to Dr. Hoy, there is a There are four billion people on the face of the good biography of Mair available, Norman Shrive's earth and not one of their stories will have a "Charles Mair: A Literary Naturalist". It is in happy ending. the University library. Mair's early poetry, "Dreamland and Other Poems", and his play "Tecumseh", ******* based on aspects of Canadian history, are also in the University library. Among his other writings SOME SOUTHERN ALBERTA POETS are "The Last Bison (1890)", "Collected Poems (1901)", and a prose account of his journey through the Atha­ The art of poetry has a long tradition in Southern basca and Peace River areas, called "Through the Alberta. Many people have found pleasure in Mackenzie Basin (1908)". Earlier, Mair was a found­ expressing their thoughts in poetic form. A few ing member of the "Canada First" movement and was have had their works published, usually privately. significantly involved in the Red River Rebellion and the subsequent hanging of Louis Riel. Poetry originated in the days when news items and other stories were carried from place to place Mair was imprisoned with Thomas Scott, who was by story-tellers. Recounting these news items or executed by Riel. It was the execution of the loud­ stories in rhyming form, and repeating certain mouthed Ontario Protestant bigot that enraged Orange parts, enabled the story-tellers better to re­ Ontario and ensured Riel's subsequent execution by member the tales they had to tell. Poetry fell hanging in Regina. This execution, which John Diefenbaker thought a miscarriage of justice by C, Frank Steele was a long-time reporter with the Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservatives and the Lethbridge Herald. His best-known work is probably imposition of conscription in the First World his biography of William A. Buchanan, publisher of War by Robert Borden's Union Party, ensured the Herald, called "Prairie Editor". We have never that the Conservatives would spend much of the seen a volume of poems by Mr.