Famous and Infamous Albertans - P
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If you have a mini biography you would like to add please email Annette Bame Peebles with the information.
| PARLBY, Irene (Marryat) | Irene Parlby, an accomplished pianist who had studied in England &
Germany, was born in England in 1868 of an upper-middle class family. In
1896 she arrived at the Westhead Ranch near Buffalo Lake to visit a friend.
she met Walter Parlby and they were married the following year. Their first
home was a sod shack. In 1913 she joined the Women's Club in Alix, this
later became the United Farm Women of Alberta Local #1, where she served
as president until 1919. For the next two years she was on the Board of
Governors of the University of Alberta. In 1921 she was nominated as a
candidate in the Lacombe constituency and won the seat becoming the second
woman in the history of the British Commonwealth to have such a position.
She became one of the 'Famous Five' who, in 1929, fought to have women
delcared as persons by the Supreme Court. In 1930 she was part of the Canadian
delegation to the League of Nations. Mrs Parlby died in 1965.
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| PHILLIPS, Donald 'Curly' | Curly Phillips, born in 1884, came west from Ontario in 1908 and worked
as a packer for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. The following year he
climbed Mt. Robson with Rev. George Kinney, although this climb was never
officially recognized as the first successful climb as they missed the
summit by a few yards. Phillips had never climbed a mountain before this
time. Curly, and the Metis he hired, guided tourist and hunters into the
remote areas of Jasper Park. In the 1930's he built a boathouse at Maligne
Lake and remained there until he was killed by an avalanche in Elysium
Pass in 1938. Mt. Phillips if named for Donald 'Curly' Phillips.
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| PICARIELLO, Emilio | In about 1911, Emilio Picariello, a Sicilian who immigrated to Canada at
the turn of the Century, moved to the Crowsnest Pass area. The hotel he
owned in Blairmore became a front for the largest rum running operation
in southern Alberta when the province was 'dry' from 1916 to 1923. Picariello's
son was shot and wounded when he tried to run after being stopped at an
Alberta Provincial Police roadblock. Hearing that his son had been shot,
Picariello who was in a separate vehicle at the roadblock shot and killed
an unarmed constable, Steve Lawson. He and his accomplice, Mrs Florence
Lassandro, were arrested for murder, convicted and hanged at the Fort Saskatchewan
prison in May of 1923. This case, highly publicized, was instrumental in
bringing an end to the eight years of prohibition in Alberta.
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| POND, Peter | Peter Pond was born in Conneticutt in 1740 and came to Canada about 1775
after serving in the British Colonial army, the French and Indian Wars,
and having various adventures abroad. He was the first white man to cross
the 12 mile Methy Portage and go down the Clearwater and Athabasca Rivers.
Pond established the first trading post in what is now Alberta about 30
miles from Lake Athabasca on the Athabasca River. Peter Pond sold his interest
in the North West Company and left Canada forever in 1790. He spent the
rest of his years adventuring along the Mississippi, then returned to Connecticutt
where he died in 1807.
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| POTTS, Jeremy 'Jerry' | Jerry Potts was born in about 1840 to a Scottish and Blood Indian ancestry.
He was a Metis guide and plainsman, with an uncanny sense of direction,
who led the Northwest Mounted Police to Fort Whoop-Up from Fort Benton,
Montana. He also picked the location for the first NWMP post, called Fort
Macleod. Potts was buried at Fort Macleod with full honors in 1896 having
served with the NWMP for 22 years and being given the rank of special constable.
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