Alberta History 1913-1914

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1913

Gavrilo Princip, age 19, a Serbian nationalist, kills Archduke Franz Ferdinard and his wife Sophie Von Hohenberg, starting the first world war.

At this time Cardston erected the only Mormon Temple in Canada to serve the large Mormon settlers in the area despite the continuous objections of the Roman Catholic Church. The Church had violently objected to allowing these heathen people into Canada but they looked like Anglo-Saxon and are allowed to remain. This Anglo-Saxon Semblance Policy would remain in effect throughout this century.

Between 1889 and 1913 there was 1,203 oil wells drilled in Alberta. This year oil production was 1,405,786 barrels.

An interurban railway operated St. Albert to Calder in Edmonton but only lasted until 1914 when a fire destroyed their barn.

Some say the first automobile arrived in Grouard, Alberta this year.

"Get women back in the kitchen where they belong, women have no business running for office'. So says Alderman Stanley Ramsey, of Calgary, Alberta.

June 2: The completion of the High Level bridge in Edmonton finally puts John Walters ferry service out of business.



1914

Because the Roman Church had taken away the last of the dignity of being Metis, many Metis parents encouraged their children to marry outside the clan, if not for themselves, at least for the sake of the children. Metis who married outside the clan denied their own Indian ancestry as a duty to their spouses. These once proud people have lost their culture, pride and faith. Many of the Metis males turned back to the Indian culture as there is little hope for them in the white skinned world with the Church, Business and Government against them. Racial harassment is a daily ordeal at Church, School, Market Place and playground.

Racial discrimination against non-French speaking people in St. Paul de Metis began to intensify. The French, even to this day, place their language before their religion or country. The French, at this time, considered the Roman Catholic Faith inseparable from the French language at St. Paul de Metis. The speaking of English identified with Protestantism. The Anglo-Saxon settlers abused the Half-breed children for the color of their skin. The French settlers abused the Metis children for speaking English. The Metis children said the situation became an unending ordeal of daily combat. Pride in being Metis is slowly being replaced by being able to be passed off as being white, but surely not English White Protestant and surely not those not so white French dogs.

The real-estate boom in Edmonton bust. About 70% of Edmonton's real estate was found to have no real value. Seventy five thousand building lots were suddenly so worthless that men who deemed themselves wealthy on account of them could not finance the taxes on them, and they reverted to the city. Most of Edmonton's millionaires moved away.

The first World War almost destroyed Trochu, Alberta as most of the young men signed up for the war and few returned after the war.

"I certainly have never yet seen the woman who would be of any use on a police force'. so says Chief Alfred Cuddy of the Calgary police force.

May 14: A.W. Dingman, of Calgary Petroleum Products Limited (later Royalite Oil), struck oil and gas at Turner Valley, Alberta. Oil shares jumped from twelve dollars to two hundred dollars per share. August 14, 1914, Canada dutifully entered the Great War along side Britain. This project was financed by Stewart Herron, A.W. Dingman, James Lougheed, R.P. Bennet and others.

May 21: The ship Komagata Maru and 396 Sikh immigrants arrived Vancouver and are turned away under recently enacted Canadian Immigration laws. The ship was forced out of Vancouver July 23.

The Turner Valley Oilfield is opened this year near Calgary, marking the beginning of Alberta's Oil Industry.

Jasper Alberta's History