Fonds 0048 - Albert O. Sproule, D.D.S. fonds.

James Albert Orr Sproule was born in Westbrooke, Nova Scotia in 1869. He passed his matriculation examinations in Nova Scotia on Sept. 23, 1896, went on to graduate from Boston Dental College in 1898, and was registered as a dentist in Nova Scotia on June 22, 1899. He practised in Westbrooke for 6 years, then moved to Edmonton in 1904 and on to the Peace River Country over the Long Trail in 1911. On August 6, 1911, Dr. Sproule and his wife, Dorothy, filed on the West half of Section 15 and the East half of Section 16, Township 72, Range 5, southeast of Clairmont Lake. At first, he practised dentistry only on demand, in a granary on his farm but in 1913, he began to offer a regular service 3 days a week. By then, he had built a caboose outfitted as a mobile dental clinic with which to cover the Peace River country from Peace River town to Dawson Creek, British Columbia. In 1915, he bought a car to replace the horses that had pulled the caboose. After proving up the homestead, now called the Sproule Ranch, Dr. Sproule rented out the ranch and set up a permanent practise in Grande Prairie, circa 1917. The Sproules left Grande Prairie in 1926, moving to Edmonton where the doctor again established a travelling practise, with his home office and residence listed as 11009-85th Avenue, Edmonton, and a practise on the corner of 101 St. and Jasper Avenue. Dr. Sproule was also somewhat of an inventor - with a three-horse hitch and a radiant gas furnace invention credited to his name. The Sproules had three children: Donald Orr Sproule, J. Campbell Sproule, and Dorothy A. Sproule. Mrs. Sproule died in Edmonton on April 21, 1933. Mr. Sproule passed away April 23, 1941.