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Authority record
Athabasca Archives Person

Backstrom, Shirley

  • ATH 08.26
  • Person
  • 1934 - Present

Shirley Backstrom (neé Coleman) was born in Amber Valley, Alberta on July 7, 1934 and her parents were Isaiah and Velma Coleman (neé Adams).
Shirley’s great, great grandmother was Jane Bowen, born February 18, 1844 in Alabama, USA. She was half Black and half Cherokee. Her maiden name was thought to have been Thigpin, but discovery of her marriage license shows that her family name was actually Gregory.
The family myth is that great, great grandmother was the daughter of a chief; however, the most likely scenario is that great, great grandmother’s father had enslaved her mother, as the Cherokee Nation is known to have kept Black slaves at that time.
Great grandfather Columbus Bowen’s parents were “Big Daddy” and Jane Bowen. Descendants of this family have been unable to establish Big Daddy’s actual name. This is understandable given the fact that Big Daddy was most likely a freed slave. Slaves were sold from one owner to the next and took on the names given them by their respective owners.
Columbus was the first of eight children born to Big Daddy and Jane in 1870 in Pine Flats, Butler County, Alabama. The remaining children were twins Martha and Mary, Lulu, Silas, Ollie (known as Aunt Miss), Frank and Nellie.
Columbus’ wife, Martha Watts, was born in 1872 in Butler Springs, Alabama and he and and Martha were married in 1887 in Butler Springs. They moved to Montgomery, Alabama where four of their eight children were born: Minnie, Etheline (Ethel), Forest and Columbus (Lummie).
They left Alabama via Lee County, Texas for Guthrie, Oklahoma. They had four more children:
Willa, Ilean, Herman and Lovetta. It appears they remained in Guthrie for approximately 11 years from 1899 to 1910. Their second daughter, Ethel, born in 1888, received her teaching certificate from the State of Oklahoma in 1910. They moved yet again to Chandler in Choctaw County, Oklahoma to join a group who were immigrating to Canada.

The family arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1911 where Martha unfortunately passed away in 1912. Columbus moved his family to Pine Creek, Alberta, Canada (NE 15-66-20-W4) in 1912 where he and his cousin Willis Bowen would eventually settle. Pine Creek later became known as Amber Valley. Ethel taught school in Amber Valley at the Toles School, District #2895.

Ethel Bowen married Percy Adams in Vancouver, BC. Percy was from Cape Town, Africa, born in 1894. They moved to Amber Valley. They had two children, Shirley’s mother Velma Adams, born in 1916 in Amber Valley, and uncle Chris Adams, born in 1918, also in Amber Valley. Percy Adams was a porter on the Northern Alberta Railway from Edmonton to Fort McMurray for many years.

Velma Adams married Isaiah Coleman (born 1910) in 1932. They had six children: Corene, Shirley, both born in Amber Valley, and Ronald, Rodney, Jeanette and Carol, born in Edmonton, Alberta.
The family lived in Edmonton from 1935 to 1946 and then moved back to Amber Valley, the children attending Toles School until 1951. When the family moved to Edmonton, Isaiah Coleman got a job as a porter on the Canadian National Railway going from Edmonton to Prince Rupert.

Shirley married Sylvester Hinton of Amber Valley on April 30, 1951 and they lived in Edmonton. They had four children: Nadine, Terry, Randolf and Leon. September 7, 1957, Shirley and the children moved to Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.

Shirley lived in Fort Smith for 11 years, moved to Pine Point for 12 years, then Hay River for 11 years for a total of 34 years in the Northwest Territories. She was the Supervisor at the Information Centre at the Alberta-Northwest Territories border for six years. While living in Hay River, she worked as a highway transport officer at the weigh scale from 1982 – 1991. Shirley was Secretary for the Union of Northern Workers Public Service of Canada, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis Workers from 1983 – 1990.

While in Fort Smith, two foster children were added to the family. Wilbert Boucher was two years old when Social Services asked if she could keep him until they found a place for him. He was born on June 03, 1963. In 1966, Shirley got Shawnee Mary Ruth when she was six weeks old. She didn’t find out until Shawnee was six months old that she was Wilbert’s biological sister.

When Shirley lived in Pine Point, NWT, she was the Secretary for the Mothers for Minor Hockey Club, Secretary for the Legion, and Craft Teacher for the Sanavisik Guild, teaching knitting, crochet and ceramics.

Shirley joined the Royal Purple in Pine Point on February 1, 1968 and held dual membership in Pine Point and Hay River until 1988 when Pine Point closed down. She received her 25-year-pin in 1992 from the Hay River Lodge. She received her 30-year-pin form the Athabasca Lodge. She received her Life Membership Pin from the Athabasca Lodge on April 15, 2000 and her 35-year-pin from the Barrhead Lodge in 2002. She received her 40-year-pin from the Lac La Biche Lodge in 2007.

Shirley moved from Hay River, NWT to Colinton, Alberta in July, 1991. She was a member of the Athabasca Native Friendship Centre (ANFC) since March 1991 and was elected to the Board of Directors in June 2007. She became Vice-President in 2008 and Board President in 2010. In 2010, Shirley represented the ANFC at meetings held in Edmonton, and youth and Elders gatherings in Jasper. She attended an Elders retreat at MacEwan University in 2011.

Shirley started the Drug and Alcohol Program at Athabasca’s Landing Trail Intermediate School, the Hutterite Colony School, and Rochester School in September 1993 for the Elks and Royal Purple of Canada. She ran the program until June 2010. The last year of the program she had 273 entries from participating students. Shirley also worked with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Program in the Athabasca and area schools. The Elks and Royal Purple donated education kits on teasing and bullying as unacceptable behaviours to Smith School, Rochester School, the Hutterite Colony School, Whispering Hills Primary School, Landing Trail Intermediate School and the Athabasca Native Friendship Centre.

Barrett, Rose Laura

  • Ath 85.301
  • Person
  • 1915 - 1991

Rose Laura Barrett (Koerner) was the eighth of thirteen children born to William Edward Koerner and Wilhelmina Carolina Becker. She attended school at the Parkhurst School, northeast of Athabasca, AB. In 1932, she married Albert Barrett. They farmed and raised their five children in the Athabasca area. Rosie wrote her autobiography which was completed i 1981 and she was interviewed by Frank Falconer in 1983. They discussed the Parkhurst District, Chautauquas, teachers, Hugo Carlson, Dr. George Meyer, Dr. Edwin Wright, Alfred Barrett, the Anglican Church, wild game, homesteaders, cutting ice and fairs.

Bazalgette, Charles and Trish

  • AATH 24.01
  • Person
  • 2010

Charles and Trish Bazalgette moved to the Town of Athabasca in 1999 and bought a business, Two Hens Framing and Gifts. They changed the name to Old Crow Antiques and Framing, and Trish ran the business. The store was situated in the back of the Veritas Center on 49th Street, owned by Fritz Prufer. In 2002 they bought the building and expanded their store to the front, keeping the back for workshop and office space. In 2003 they started the Tizzie Bazalcat Shelter for Homeless Cats, a spin-off from the Second Chance Animal Rescue Society.
In 2005 the Bazalgettes made overtures to the Town of Athabasca to buy the CNR train station which had recently been vacated by the Athabasca Senior Citizen’s Society; however, the Town of Athabasca wasn’t willing to sell the station. In August 2006, the Bazalgettes bought the old Anglican Church Rectory from the Lewis family and began preserving and restoring the house. They moved Old Crow to the rectory and rented out their old space in the Veritas Centre to DataWest Computers. They closed the doors to the cat shelter that year but kept the remaining cats in their care.
In 2008 they sold the Veritas Center to accountant Glen Martin.
In 2009 and 2010, they were instrumental in starting the Friends of the Athabasca Train Station (FATS) society for the purpose of researching, restoring, and promoting the 1912 train station. They created public interest in the station and succeeded in obtaining a 25-year lease for the station with the Town of Athabasca and Athabasca Heritage Society for the purpose of conserving the building and creating community space. Charles was Chair of Heritage Society at that time.
In 2010, Trish wrote and published a print and online newsletter, “Women Mean Business: Athabasca’s Small Small-Business Community.”
In 2013 they closed Old Crow and relocated to Salmo, BC where they opened Tara Books, which operated until 2022 when Trish retired.

Brewer, Fred Everet

  • Ath 20.21
  • Person
  • 1884 - 1951

Fred Evert Brewer was born in Toronto, Canada on February 12, 1884 and died in California on April 1, 1951. He married Violet Mary Corbett on March 4, 1914 in Chicago, IL. He worked as a carpenter, building the family home in Chicago. He retired from Ovaltine Chocolate and moved to California in 1949. Their daughter Doria Elaine Brewer married Robert W. Payne on March 2, 1946 and then moved to California.

Brian Loxam and Robert Lines

  • ath
  • Person
  • [1970s]

Brian Loxam and Robert Lines appear to have interviewed and recorded four people as part of a school project for Edwin Parr High School in Athabasca, AB.

Brown, Jared E.

  • ath 17.07
  • Person

Jared E. Brown was born in St. Mary’s, Ontario on April 16th, 1888. His father was Elisha Brown and his mother, Margaret (nee Crone) farmed there raising five girls and four boys; two other children died from diphtheria. Jared came west in 1906 on a harvest train as far as Humboldt, SK and then went back east for the winter. In 1907, he came west again to the Cummings district, 23 miles south of Vermilion, where he homesteaded. He broke 60 acres with oxen and walking plough for himself and neighbours in one year. For several years during the winter months he worked in Edmonton hauling coal from the river flats to homes and businesses. The first homestead was a sod house; he then built a wood-frame building in 1916-1917. He married Phoebe Dorey on September 10, 1913. Phoebe was daughter of Richard and Caroline (nee Dairyman) Dorey, born March 8, 1881 in Dorset, England. Three of Phoebe’s brothers, a sister and the sister’s husband homesteaded in the Clandonald district, about 30 miles north of Vermilion. Phoebe kept house for her brothers and worked at a stopping house until her marriage to Jared. Jared and Phoebe owned and farmed a quarter and leased another quarter in the Cummings district where their two sons, Eric and Nelson, were born. In 1923, they sold everything and spent the summer in Oregon; coming back to Alberta that fall. Jared visited the Land Titles Office where there were two quarters of land available; one in Sangudo and one in the George Lake district. He went to the railway station and caught the first train which happened to be going to Athabasca and that is how the family came to the area. They moved in October, 1923. Jared bought a stationary engine and did custom wood sawing and grain grinding throughout the district for many years. Working for $1.00/hour, he supplied the engine, crusher, saw and labour with a team of horses and a bob sleigh. The family moved to Meanook, Alberta in 1925 where he farmed with his sons raising purebred shorthorn cattle until Jared’s death in 1975. Jared also took out a dealership for the Oliver Farm Machinery Company in 1937 and ran it until 1963. Adapted from “Colinton & Districts: Yesterday and Today,” c. 1980. A note from Jared’s obituary in the Athabasca Echo indicates that he was one of the original signers of the Alberta Wheat Pool.

Byrtus, Elizabeth

  • ath
  • Person
  • 1902-1995

Elizabeth Byrtus (1902-1995) was born in Istebna, Austria (Poland) to Joseph and Anna Sikora. She immigrated to Canada in 1924 to marry Michael Byrtus (1886-1969). They farmed in the Fair Haven area until 1955 when they retired to Athabasca. They raised eight children: Mary, Alex, Anne, Gertude, Roselyn, Rudolf, Agnes and George.

Conquest, Mary

  • Ath 20.17
  • Person
  • 1873 - 1955

Mary Hagen Conquest (nee Owen) was born in Stirling, Scotland in 1873 to George and Rachel Owen, the youngest of six children. She obtained the degree of L.L.A. (Licentiate of Literature and Art) from the University of St. Andrews, one of the few universities granting degrees to women at that time. She met her husband William Conquest in London, England and they were married on July 3, 1897. They immigrated to Canada with their six children in 1913. William’s work as a printer took the family to several places in Alberta where Mary volunteered and then worked in various capacities for the Red Cross Society. In 1922, William took a job as printer at the Winnipeg Free Press and Mary got a job as director publicity at the Red Cross Headquarters in Calgary. In the early days of Canadian radio, which at the time was broadcast over CNR or CPR telegraph lines, she read children’s stories as Aunt Mary on the CNR network. She dreamed of combining her Red Cross work with the outreach that radio could provide and she pitched the idea of the Red Cross Radio Lady to the station manager at CFCN in Calgary. She began broadcasting sometime after 1922. She and William moved to Edmonton in 1924 and she continued to broadcast her hour-long radio program from their home at 8416 – 104 Street. William was out of work in 1929 and he answered an advertisement from the Board of Trade in Athabasca, Alberta to re-establish their newspaper and so moved north to found and publish the Athabasca Echo. Mary joining him in 1930. Her work with the Red Cross continued as did her weekly radio program. She had hoped to broadcast from Athabasca but this was not possible so she took train or bus to Edmonton on Thursdays, often accompanied by children in need of care in the city. Mary was diagnosed with Renaud’s disease after pain in the little finger of her right hand became unbearable. In 1932, her right arm was amputated about three inches above the elbow. She returned to radio after convalescence. She became ill again while on vacation in Vancouver and this resulted in the amputation of her left leg. She convalesced in Edmonton but became homesick for Athabasca and returned there in 1937. Her radio broadcasts had ceased with the second amputation; she was only able to get around in a wheelchair. William’s health had deteriorated in the late 1930s and he was diagnosed with cancer in 1937. It was decided he and Mary would return to Edmonton to obtain proper medical care. His son Charles had become the Echo’s publisher until duty in WWII took him overseas in 1941. With Charles overseas, William carried on with the Echo for a few more years until his death on May 16, 1942. After he passed, a chance outing in Edmonton took Mary to CFRN Radio station where she visited with the owner, a long-time friend. The current radio program was interrupted and the “Red Cross Lady” made a surprise broadcast. There was great response from fans and this resulted in Mary broadcasting three 15-minutes programs each week from her home at 10420 – 126 Street. She was very happy to be working again and made a real contribution to the war effort. Her patriotic and philanthropic work was honoured when she was awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honour List in June 1942. After the war, Mary broadcast once a week. She volunteered for the Red Cross Cancer Society, Salivation Army, Victorian Order of Nurses and The YMCA. She facilitated the creation of the Rehabilitation Society for the Handicapped and for inspirational purposes, often invited handicapped people to take part in her radio shows. Mary wrote an article on the history of the Red Cross in Alberta for Alberta’s Golden Jubilee Anthology in 1955. Mary Conquest died on April 20, 1955.

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