PIONEERS

 

Calgary Herald

12 July 1935

nidp0217         

 

Early Surveyors Recall West Before Railway.

 

Renew Friendships after many years at Reunion.

 

Gathering round the table in the Old-timer’s shack at Victoria Park, Thursday evening, twelve of the real old-timers of the west, men who came out in the vanguard of pioneers, showed just exactly what ought to be done to a well-cooked meal.

 

Sponsored by the Southern Alberta Pioneers and Old-timer’s association the dinner was staged for the men of “74”, and the old log cabin lent just the right touch to carry the veterans back to the old days.

 

In some cases, old acquaintances that had grown dim with passage of many years were renewed most unexpectedly. Charles Shaw, of  Keremoes, B.C. who conducted the C.P.R. survey party into the mountains seeking a practicable route for the through line, was able to meet again a man he hadn’t seen for 52 years, in the person of T.J.S. Skinner of Calgary. The two men had met in 1883 at Howe’s Pass, in the Rockies and both recalled being snowed in that winter before managing to get out of the pass.

 

Harold W. Riley, secretary of the Old-timer’s association in the absence of President Alfred McKay. He recalled that the shack had been the scene in 1925 of a similar dinner and expressed the hope that it might again, be repeated in future years, with the same visitors present.

 

NWMP veterans present with dates of arrival in the west were;

 

	Fed	Bagley	Banff	1874
	W.	Dean	Gadsby	1889
	S.	Garnham	Vancouver *	1884
	William	Grain	Kerrobert Sask.	1874
	John	Herron	Pincher Creek	1874
	Robert	Patterson	Macleod	1876
Col.	James	Walker	Calgary	1874

* President of R.N.W.M.P. veteran’s association Vancouver

 

Other old-timers not connected with the police were

 

P. Turner	Bone	Calgary	1883
George F.	Guernsey	Penticton	1880
Charles	Jackson	Calgary	1882
Alfred S.	McKay	Calgary	1882
Charles	Shaw	Keremeos	1882
Mrs. Charles	Shaw
T.J.S.	Skinner	Calgary	1883
Ven Archdeacon T.W.	Tims	Calgary	1883

 

Ladies assisting at the dinner were

 

Mrs. W.R. Hull

Mrs. J.A. Cotton

Mrs. A.P. McNeill

Mrs. J.E. Eckersley

 

H.W. Bright and L. McNeill assisted Mr. Riley in the arrangements.

 

 

E. Howard 2005-01-07