Legacies Shared

"[Marshall's] work in responding to the challenge of exploring a little-known life should be an inspiration to other students of history … people across Canada will find it a pleasant way to become better acquainted with an attractive, interesting and unfamiliar contributor to our history." - Desmond Morton, McGill University Give Your Other Vote to the Sister tells the story of Roberta MacAdams, the first woman elected to the Alberta legislature. In fact, she was one of the first two women elected to a legislature anywhere in the British Empire. Her triumph was extraordinary for many reasons. Not only did she run while serving as a nursing sister overseas during the Great War, but over 90 per cent of her electors were men - Alberta soldiers stationed in England and in the muddy trenches of the Western Front. Give Your Other Vote to the Sister describes MacAdams' journey overseas, her work at a large military hospital in London, and the personal sacrifices she endured during the war. It also chronicles Debbie Marshall's own journey to reclaim MacAdams' life, one that took her across Canada and to the places where MacAdams lived and worked in England and France. It was a search that would change her own perceptions about how and why so may women willingly participated in the world's first "great war."

More than any other book that I can think of, Bronze Inside and Out puts a human face on Western art - indeed, all art. It invites us to ponder the very nature of the creative process.
From the foreword by Brian W. Dippie, University of Victoria

Bronze Inside and Out is a literary biography of sculptor Bob Scriver, written by his wife, Mary Strachan Scriver. Bob Scriver is best known for his work in bronze and for his pivotal role in the rise of "cowboy art." Living and working on the Montana Blackfeet Reservation, Scriver created a bronze foundry, a museum, and a studio - an atelier based on classical methods, but with local Blackfeet artisans. His importance in the still-developing genre of "western art" cannot be overstated.

Mary Strachan Scriver lived and worked with Boba Scriver for over a decade and was instrumental in his rise to international acclaim. Working alongside her husband, she became intimately familiar with the man, his work, and his process. Her frank, uncensored, and highly entertaining biography reveals details that give the reader a unique picture of Scriver both as man and as artist. Bronze Inside and Out also provides a fascinating look into the practice of bronze casting, cleverly structuring the story of Bob Scriver's life according to the steps in this complicated and temperamental process.

Using valuable primary source material, most of which is previously unpublished, and some of which has been translated from the Flemish-Dutch and French, editors Mary Eggermont-Molenaar and Paul Callens introduce the Van Tighem brothers to today's reader. Missionaries Among Miners, Migrants, and Blackfoot : The Vantighem Brothers Diaries, Alberta 1875-1917, contains the transcribed diaries of brothers Leonard and Victor Van Tighem, Belgian Catholic missionaries in Alberta between 1874 and 1917. Leonard, an Oblate priest, served in a number of parishes in southern Alberta, some of which he helped establish. Victor, a member of the Belgian Van Dale congregation, served on the Peigan and Blood reserves, in the southern part of the province. Their diaries are interspersed with letters from family and friends and letters and articles by contemporary bishops and fellow priests and lay-brothers. The Van Tighems' diaries offer a fascinating glimpse of life during Alberta's early settlement and growth -- the immigration boom, the development of Lethbridge and the Peigan reserve, railroads, the mining industry, and the impact of World War I are all part of the historical backdrop of the brothers' diaries.

"The story of the individual always grips us - it is why biography remains so popular. But in Medicine and Duty we receive a double serving: the story of Medical Officer Captain Harold W. McGill coupled with the story of the many men who served in the 31st Battalion and what they together managed to achieve against such long odds." - Patrick Brennan, Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary Medicine and Duty is the World War I memoir of Harold McGill, a medical officer in the 31st (Alberta) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. McGill attempted to have his memoir published by Macmillan of Canada in 1935, but, unfortunately, due to financial constraints, the company was not able to complete the publication. Decades later, editor Marjorie Norris came upon a draft of the manuscript in the Glenbow Archives and took it upon herself to resurrect McGill's story. Norris's painstaking archival research and careful editing skills have brought back to light a gripping first-hand account of the 31st Battalion and, on a larger scale, of Canada's participation in World War I. A wealth of additional information, including extensive notes and excerpts from letters written "from the trenches," lends a new sense of immediacy and realism to the original memoir and provides a fascinating, harrowing glimpse into the day-to-day life of Canadian soldiers during the Great War.

"Her story adds to the growing literature related to individual life stories of Holocaust survivors. There is much we can learn from her book." - Benjamin Schlesinger, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto Until age seven, Olga Barsony Verrall lived an idyllic life in Szarvas, a small town in Hungary, surrounded by her doting, observant Jewish family. After the Nazi invasion in 1944, Olga found herself, along with most of her family, interned in the Auspitz (Hustopece) labour camp. Eventually reunited after the war, the family returned to Szarvas, only to face a different kind of oppression at the hands of the new Communist government. After immigrating to Winnipeg in 1957, Olga met and married Orland Verrall, the cantor at Rosh Pina synagogue. Together they built a new life in Canada and soon welcomed two daughters, Judy and Lesley. Yet Olga continued to be haunted by her past. Though she was very young during her time in the camp, Olga had vivid and painful memories of the horrifying things she had seen and experienced there. A nagging sense of emptiness and anger stayed with her all her life. After her beloved husband Orland passed away, her emotional state became increasingly fragile, and she became dependent on prescription drugs to numb her pain. A long journey of physical and mental healing, along with the support of her family, helped Olga piece her life back together. For Olga, writing her memoir was a catharsis. For her readers, it will be an inspiration.

A Voice of Her Own profiles fifty-two ranch women from Western Canada. With this book, the editors have brought to light a little-discussed aspect of ranching: the valuable contributions of women in an industry traditionally thought of as the domain of men.

These women range in age from their teens to their nineties, and across three provinces, but they have in common a deep commitment to the land, to their families and communities, and to the ranching way of life. To them, the ranch means many things; it is a business, a home, and a place to raise their children.

In their own words, they share their experiences, their successes, and their hardships and clearly demonstrate the important role women have played, and continue to play, in the history and economy of the ranching industry in Canada.

The plea was advertised in the British Medical Journal in February 1929: seeking "strong energetic Medical Women with post-graduate experience in Midwifery" for "country work" in western Canada. A young Dr. Mary Percy was intrigued. After graduating with degrees in medicine and surgery from the University of Birmingham in 1927, she had been searching for the kind of opportunity which would offer both adventure and practical experience. She answered the advertisement and set off for the Peace River region of Northern Alberta in June of 1929. Little did she know that her "adventure" in the Canadian north was to last more than seventy years. Suitable for the Wilds : Letters from Northern Alberta, 1929-1931, is a collection of Dr. Mary Percy Jackson's letters written to family and friends in the early years of her practice, from 1929-1931. The letters offer a fascinating glimpse at life in northern Alberta at the beginning of the Depression, when the area was being farmed and settled by new European immigrants. These homesteaders, along with the area's Aboriginal and Métis population, were Dr. Percy's patients, scattered throughout a territory covering nearly 400 square miles. Vigilant about vaccination, nutrition, and preventive medicine, she quickly proved to be a talented physician who was truly ahead of her time, particularly in the area of tuberculosis treatment and prevention. Dr. Percy's dedication, good nature, and unfailing sense of humour shine through in her letters. This delightful and captivating collection is a tribute to her indomitable spirit.

Translated from Dutch to English, this collection of letters offers a unique perspective on the early pioneer years of the Dutch community in southeastern Alberta. The letters provide first-hand accounts of the preparations to immigrate, the hardships of the pioneer years, and the transformation from the most basic homesteading conditions to progressive rural communities, including the towns of Granum, Monarch, and Nobleford. In fact, within just a decade, new railroads, towns, churches, schools, and even telephone service had been established. Based on extensive research, the book also includes maps, archival photographs, and an appendix listing all the Dutch settlers in the region between the years of 1903 and 1914. The First Dutch Settlement in Alberta :Letters from the Pioneer Years, 1903-14,is an invaluable and fascinating collection of primary source material that offers a wealth of information for genealogists and historians, and celebrates the pioneering spirit of Alberta's early Dutch community.

“Now what shall I tell you first? The days . . . have been so full of interests and fresh things that I know not where to begin. Suppose I say right here that I believe I shall be very happy here and also that it seems a post I can fit and having said that I’ll just write consecutively to give you as good an idea as possible of how we are placed.” – Margaret Butcher, September 4, 1916

From 1916 to 1919, Margaret Butcher served as a missionary nurse and teacher at the Elizabeth Long Memorial Home, a residential school in Kitamaat, British Columbia. This collection of letters, written to family and friends, offers a compelling glimpse at her experiences among the Haisla people. Butcher’s correspondence reflects the conventional wisdom of the day about racial hierarchy, native culture, and the need for assimilation. Nevertheless, the letters are an invaluable source of first-hand information on missionary work, residential schools, and the Haisla way of life in the early twentieth century.

Editor Mary-Ellen Kelm bookends the collection with an introduction and conclusion that provide historical and historiographical context, exploring the concepts of race, gender, and cultural conflict as they played out on the north Pacific coast.

Translated from personal memoirs and diaries, this is a compelling story of Anthony Hlynka, the only sitting Member of Parliament of Ukrainian origin from 1940 to 1945. Representing the constituency of Vegreville, Alberta, for the Social Credit party, Hlynka was a high-profile Member of Parliament who garnered much attention from the English-language press. He was instrumental in raising awareness of human rights issues and the plight of displaced persons following the Second World War and was a major supporter of the so-called third wave of Ukrainian immigrants to Canada. When he died unexpectedly at the age of fifty, Hlynka had begun work on his memoirs. Now, fifty years later, with the materials provided by his widow, Stephanie Hlynka, the editors of The Honourable Member for Vegreville: The Memoirs and Diary of Anthony Hlynka, M.P. (1940-49) have crafted a unique and significant contribution to the historical memory of Ukrainian Canadians.

An Alberta Bestiary is a collection of the beasts of the rolling hills. Rancher Zahava Hanan draws on her intimate knowledge of the landscape to describe the animals of Southern Alberta, weaving together poetry and prose in an stirring, intimate glimpse into the worlds of bears and butterflies, cows and coyotes. These animals in turn teach lessons about land and landscape, self and selfhood, spirituality and humanity.

This book illuminates in prose the rhythms of the land and the aspects of a life close to nature that are at once stirring and ephemeral. The practical needs of every day, the spiritual sweep of the human experience, and the grand wisdom of the natural world are woven together as Haan blends poetry, quotations, observations, and more .

Betrayal is an insider’s account of the hardscrabble and often heartless prairie farm politics of the 1950s. The son of a CCF member, Herbert Schulz was an early organizer for the Manitoba Federation of Agriculture and later an executive in the Grandview Pool Elevator Association. This compelling memoir weaves together humorous and poignant anecdotes with stories of bitter betrayal.

Speaking from his intimate, and frequently controversial, involvement in farm politics during a critical decade for prairie agriculture, Schulz argues that the demise of the family farm has not been an inevitable side–effect of technology. Rather, many farm families watched their dreams crumble as expected support from trusted politicians failed to materialize. During these years, numerous family farms faded into history, their memory serving as a quaint reminder of what was once a proud tradition.

Betrayal is an insider’s account of the hardscrabble and often heartless prairie farm politics of the 1950s. The son of a CCF member, Herbert Schulz was an early organizer for the Manitoba Federation of Agriculture and later an executive in the Grandview Pool Elevator Association. This compelling memoir weaves together humorous and poignant anecdotes with stories of bitter betrayal.

Speaking from his intimate, and frequently controversial, involvement in farm politics during a critical decade for prairie agriculture, Schulz argues that the demise of the family farm has not been an inevitable side–effect of technology. Rather, many farm families watched their dreams crumble as expected support from trusted politicians failed to materialize. During these years, numerous family farms faded into history, their memory serving as a quaint reminder of what was once a proud tradition.

During a time of two world wars and a sluggish world economy, many Northern Europeans left their homelands to build the American and Canadian West with dreams of abundance and new life. Spanning a period from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, To Be a Cowboy : Oliver Christensen's Story recounts the dreams and realities of a father and a son. Otto Christensen came to North America in the early 1900s as an indentured farm worker from Denmark with a dream of becoming a successful farmer in Alberta. His son, Oliver, grew up on his father's farm during the Dirty Thirties and soon realized his dream of becoming a cowboy in the mid-1940s. As a rider at the Bar U Ranch -- the largest, most successful ranch in Canada at the time - Oliver discovered life as a cowboy could not be his for long. Based on oral history interviews and a treasure trove of family papers, To Be A Cowboy is a compelling memoir that paints a portrait of a dying way of life.

Jeffery Williams offers a vivid retelling of his childhood in Calgary during the depression, followed by the outbreak of war and his enthusiastic enrolment in the Canadian Army. First sent to England in 1939, eager and untrained, Williams went on to a thirty-three year career, experiencing wars in Europe and Korea, and serving inCanada, Germany, the United States, and England.

With an uncanny memory, William recounts his fascinating history with remarkable people both famous and unknown, including the Royal Family, John, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Jeffery Williams’ transition from "the most untrained officer in the army" to a man equally at home on the field or in the houses of government, and the bumps and shocks of growing from a simple upbringing to the sophisticated life of an international officer is told with great humour and rare interest. Far From Home is a rare insight into the rarely seen human side of military life.

Alequiers is the story of a one–hundred–year–old log house on the banks of the Highwood River in Southern Alberta, with particular emphasis on the time that author Mike Schintz and his family spent there. The book details what little is known about Alexander McQueen Weir, the original settler on the site and goes on to describe the changes in structure that took place under succeeding occupants, the Royle and Schintz families. The book is also a tribute to the author's talented parents, both of whom produced outstanding works of art while living and raising a family under conditions reminiscent of earlier, pioneer times.

Schintz imparts the flavour of the foothills with vivid and often humorous notes about neighbours, Bar U Riders, and the Stoney people, as well as describing the wildlife that has always contributed to the magic of Alequiers. A welcome addition to homesteading literature and social history, Alequiers will draw readers into the orbit of the daily life of a pioneering family who resided in one of Alberta's most prominent ranching districts with its whimsical and nostalgic journey into a recent, yet distant, past.

Originally written in the early 1970s, As I Remember Them is based on Jeanne-Elise Olsen's extraordinary recall of her childhood and youth spent in an isolated part of the Laurentians in the Lièvre River Valley in the early twentieth century.

Jeanne was the daughter of a Roman Catholic priest who was excommunicated from the Church because he married a woman in his parish. She recounts how the Church lifted the ban, but only on specific conditions, one of which was for the family to leave Quebec. The Olsen family moved to Ditton Park in east-central Saskatchewan, where they became engaged in agricultural pursuits.

This memoir eloquently tells a personal story-and social history-that reveals strength of character, family bonds, religious devotion, and childhood memories that are truly reflective of life in Quebec and the Canadian West. Sensuous and rich in detail, As I Remember Them will leave you with lasting images of the unforgettable personalities, the strength of clerical control in one family's destiny, and the vast and varied Canadian landscape.

Situating the wolf in the history of Canadian national parks, Karen Jones considers changing ideas of nature and wilderness and competing visions of the North American West. Wolf Mountains: A History of Wolves along the Great Divide is essentially a work of environmental history, treating the land as an actor in the historical process. This controversial study examines the tumultuous relationship between humans and wolves in four Rocky Mountain parks. By comparing the distinctive lupine histories of specific national parks with anecdotes and narratives of wolves from Aboriginals and early Europeans from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, important shifts in attitude and policy are clearly shown. Drawing on published scholarly research, archived newspapers, records from environmental groups, U.S. and Canadian park records, first-hand accounts from explorers and trappers, and scientific interviews with park staff and biologists, this book contributes enormously to our understanding of the relationship between wolves and humans.

Alberta farmers and ranchers know that, in the frustrating business of agriculture, years of bounty inexplicably turn into years of despair. Looking back over the past half century, Jaques recounts the tumultuous history of the Alberta farm organization Unifarm. Unifarm: A Story of Conflict and Change documents Alberta farmers' quest to increase control over the forces that have had such an impact on their lives and describes how it led them to form organizations that have afforded them measures of stability and security throughout the past century. Unifarm, one of the most enduring of these organizations, is chronicled from its development in the 1970s to its reorganization as the Wild Rose Agricultural Producers in 1995. In discussing the relationship of Unifarm to the business of agriculture, Jaques addresses issues of co-operative philosophy, marketing boards, surface rights, commodity groups, and the importance of education and training for members of the rural community. Unifarm is an important book that sheds new light on the many facets of Alberta's rich agricultural history.

Here is the riveting account of two orphaned brothers whose unshakeable courage enable them to survive the still rarely told horrors of the Holocaust in Romania. As Jews were expelled from Bukovina and Bessarabia to Transnistria, young Joil and Avrum witnessed the cruel destruction of their own parents and many others. But underlying the author's unflinching account of the unthinkable brutality of the Holocaust is the inspiration and passion Joil and his little brother had to live. No One Awaiting Me: Two Brothers Defy Death During the Holocaust in Romania is a story both triumphant and poignant. Readers will never forget the powerful and loving bond which existed between these two brothers. Their fight to endure the nightmare was waged with unmistakable optimism. Joil Alpern's indefatigable will to survive, and to protect his younger brother, enabled the boys to live through the most oppressive existence mankind has ever devised. Progressively, the memoir becomes a remarkably inspiring and thoughtful experience for any reader who is willing to consider the never-ending conflict between the finest and most constructive drives of humankind and the murderously destructive capacities of our species.

Kathryn Chase Merrett celebrates 100 years of the Edmonton City Market in this groundbreaking local history.

Richly textured with archival photographs, drawings, maps, and anecdotes by vendors and customers of the city market, this book reveals how the market managed to thrive in the heart of a city that grew from a frontier outpost to a high–rise metropolis.

In this original study, Merrett sheds light on the turbulent relationship between a city's cultural and agricultural values and the civic aspirations of the city's officials.

A History of the Edmonton City Market brings a comprehensive study of a long–lived and much–loved institution to life by seamlessly integrating details of the city market with wider contexts of urban, economic, and cultural studies.

With Heart and Soul: Calgary's Italian Community goes beyond the normal treatment of causes and consequences of immigration and focuses on the ways in which 'Old World' cultural traits were transformed and altered as immigrants encountered an urban, industrial (and, at times, hostile) new environment. Based on forty-eight in-depth interviews with first-generation Italian immigrants, the story Fanella tells is compelling and informative, not only for Italian-Canadian readers, but also those interested in more general ethnic or immigration studies. With Heart and Soul is a sensitive testament to those whose lives were defined by the social and cultural upheaval that is immigration.

Until now, information about Dutch immigration to Canada has been scarce as much was lost during the German occupation of Holland during World War II. However, Herman Ganzevoort was able to unearth and translate rare letters and articles written by Dutch immigrants during the 1920s, which offer new insight into the struggles the Dutch faced to fit into their new country. The letters opened up the inner dimensions of the immigrants: the reasons for their emigration, their hopes, their fears, and, best of all, their experiences in Canada. These images are not reminiscences screened and filtered by the passage of time but are immediate and compelling. The writers of The Last Illusion: Letters from Dutch Immigrants in the "Land of Opportunity" 1924-1930 shared their feelings and showed an openness that was uncommon in their culture and time. Their words describe the pain caused by separation and loss, and the sense of shared joy and exhilaration when goals were reached.

"Looking for Country" refers to the thought process of animals bent on escape. A stampeding herd, or a spooked horse running away with its rider, may be described as "looking for country." It could also be applied to this memoir in another sense -- immigrants were looking for land, a piece of new country, and, perhaps, an escape from their old country.

Looking for Country: A Norwegian Immigrant's Alberta Memoir documents the experiences of a young woman growing up as a pioneer in Alberta. Although, for many people, immigration brought great sadness, Ellenor loved Alberta and took tremendous pride in the years spent there. She did not deny the struggles, as shown in her writing, but was amply rewarded by "the satisfaction of knowing that I have had a part in the making of a great country."