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Alberta
History
I was born in Edmonton Alberta in 1960 and my great grandfather homesteaded
near Claresholm Alberta about 1906. Alberta had just become a province
in 1905 along with Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Before becoming provinces
they were part of Canada's North West Territories having been sold to the
Dominion of Canada in 1870 by the Hudson's Bay Company. That Company
had received the Land from the British Crown in 1670 and in the beginning
the fur trade was the dominate activity.
The Canadian government was eager to develop the new western provinces
so it granted free land to anyone who would develop it. This attracted
people from various parts of the world. There was a large influx of Mormons
from Utah and Idaho who settled in southern Alberta at this time.
Encyclopaedia of Mormonism, Vol.1, CANADA, THE CHURCH IN
"Taking full advantage of the Canadian government's "National
Policy," which encouraged immigration, several thousand skilled
and seasoned Latter-day Saints moved north, and soon several other Mormon
towns sprung up around Cardston: Raymond (1890), and Sterling
and McGrath (1898). The Alberta Stake was organized on June 9, 1895, the
first LDS stake outside the United States. Charles O. Card was its president.
Skilled in farming, particularly sugar beets, and in irrigating large land
acreages, LDS farmers soon earned the admiration of friend
and foe. By 1914, more than 10,000 Latter-day Saints were settled in a
score of communities in southern Alberta. In 1923 the Church
dedicated the Cardston Temple, the first temple outside the United States." |
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