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First Births: Charles and William Sheran
Nicholas Sheran began to mine coal here in 1874, his first customers the North-West Mounted PoUce in their new post at Fort Macleod. His sister, MarceUa Sheran, kept house for him in 1877-78 but left in July 1878 to get married.
On a trip to Fort Macleod in fall 1878, Sheran met a Peigan Indian woman, 20-year-oId Mary Brown. Her Indian name was A-wa-toy-akew, or White-TaUed Deer Woman. By October, Sheran and Mary Brown were Uving together in a cabin at the Coal Banks, as Lethbridge was then caUed. A. baby boy caUed Charles was born to the couple on February 24, 1880, the first chUd to be born in what is now the City of Lethbridge, In November 1882, another son was born and was named WiUiam. Unfortunately, Nicholas Sheran drowmed in May 1882 and never saw the second boy.
Marcella Sheran, by now married to Joseph McFarland of Fort Macleod, was appointed administrator of the Sheran Estate. Also, Mary Brown turned over to her custody of the two children, reasoning that this might give them a better chance in Ufe. Marcella McFarland arranged first for the two youngsters to be baptized in the Roman CathoUc Church and, on 18 May 1884, brought Father Leonard Van Tighem from Fort Macleod to Lethbridge to perform the ceremony. These were the first recorded baptisms on the Lethbridge townsite. Afterwards, the two boys were enroUed in the Mission School at St. Albert, where they were taught by the Sisters of Charity, better known as the Gray Nuns of Alberta. The boys attended school untU at least 1898 and must have been very weU educated for the time. In 1900, both were living in Fort Macleod and both appUed for, and received, halfbreed scrip, which entitled each of them to a 160-acre homestead of their choice. Neither seems to have homesteaded in Alberta and likely the scrip was sold to white speculators. We know nothing about the Uves of these two young men, the first persons to be born in Lethbridge, after October 1900.
The NWC&NCo initially applied for five leases at various locations in southern Alberta and ordered Captain Bryant to choose the best of these. On 2 May 1882, Bryant and WilUam Stafford, of the Acadia Coal Company in Nova Scotia, and several others went on a five-week western journey by train, Missouri River steamer, and horse to the far reaches of the prairies. Throughout the summer, the Nova Scotians explored the Bow, BeUy and South Saskatchewan rivers as far east as Medicine Hat. They quickly eliminated three locations because of poor coal quaUty and narrowed their choice to two sites, one at Coal Banks on the Belly and the other at Blackfoot Crossing on the Bow River. Later that summer. Sir Alexander and EUiott Gait visited both places and after lengthy discussions chose Coal Banks. Although Blackfoot Crossing was located on the CPR main line, its coal was inferior to that of Coal Banks and its surrounding lands were unsuitable for the large colonization scheme the Gaits, even then, associated with the mining venture. It was a momentous decision: it determined the location of the City of Lethbridge.
The Coal Banks site had a serious drawback. It was situated 109 miles (175 km) from the proposed CPR main line, a disadvantage which dictated a substantial investment in some efficient means of transportation. From October 1882, when the Nova Scotians opened a drift mine at Coal Banks, they produced only 22,000 tons (20 000 tormes) of coal because the only accessible consumers were at Fort Macleod. To reach a substantiaUy larger market, the Gaits chose a relatively inexpensive transportation technique. In the summer of 1883 they buUt a 173-foot (53-m) sternwheel river steamer, the Baroness, and a smaU fleet of barges. Owing to the lateness of the season, the boat made only one trip that summer and deUvered a paltry 200 tons (180 tonnes) of coal to Medicine Hat. During the winter. Sir Alexander tried but failed to gather financial and government support for a private railway to the CPR line. Because they wanted to demonstrate the value of their coal, the Gaits constructed one more steamer, the 120-foot (37-m) Alberta, and shipped the much smaUer tugboat Minnow in from Wmnipeg. Low water foUed their plans again and the entire fleet deUvered only a negUgible quantity of coal during the summer of 1884.
With the inefficiency of the steamers clearly proven. Sir Alexander redoubled his efforts to win a government subsidy for a narrow gauge raUway to Dunmore on the CPR main line near Medicine Hat. He found federal administrators anxious to secure
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Object Description
| Title | Lethbridge : A Centennial History |
| Local Subject(s) |
Lethbridge (Alta.) -- History Lethbridge Historical Society -- Monographs |
| Description | A publication authored by Alex Johnston and Andy A. den Otter on the centennial history of Lethbridge, Alberta. |
| Creator | Johnston, Alex ; den Otter, Andy A. |
| Publisher | City of Lethbridge and The Whoop-up Country Chapter, Historical Society of Alberta |
| Date.Original | 1985-06-18 |
| Type | text |
| Source | Lethbridge Historical Society |
| Language | eng |
| Relation | University of Lethbridge Library Digital Collections |
| Rights | Copyright - Lethbridge Historical Society |
| Resource Type | monograph |
| Date.Digital | 2009-06-01 |
| Date.Last.Modified | 2009-06-01 |