#HistoryWeek2016

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Canada History Week Day 7: Hylo and Venice

A gambling term from an old card game and the birth province of composer Antonio Vivaldi. What could the two possibly have in common for Alberta’s history? The answer lies within our region. These were the namesakes of two of our communities, Hylo and Venice. They were part of the first Italian colony in Western Canada, initiated in 1914 by the Italian Society of Edmonton.

Venice Picnic
Venice Picnic (Year Unknown)

The first group of settlers left Edmonton on July 27, 1914. The party of six men included president O.J. Biollo, Felice De Angelis, Pio Bonifacio, Antonio Piemonte, Theophile Piemonte, and Benjamino Maragno who scouted the land beside Hylo which was not yet accessible by train. In August, a double party of Northern and Southern Italians headed by Antonio Piemonte and Joseph Baldoni set out to homestead the land. Baldoni secured a lot in Hylo and Piemonte settled in Venice. The following years saw a large influx of immigrants from Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, and French backgrounds.

Hylo began as station on the Alberta and Great Waterways line in 1914.  The most popular origin story of its name mentions the A & GW Railway workers naming the land after a card game. The game itself gained popularity in North America following the flood of immigrants from Europe during the 20th century. The community was originally going to be called Trieste, after the birthplace of one of the settlers.

Venice, on the other hand, was named for the birth province of settler O.J. Biollo in the fall of 1916. Although for many the word Venice is associated with the city of gondolas and elaborate masks, our community has distinct visions of chicken cacciatore and baseball.

The famous Venice Picnic began in the summer of 1927 to celebrate the construction of their community hall. At the original picnic there were games, chicken, macaroni, seven barrels of beer, and a dance to round up the festivities. These traditions are still mostly kept to this day, uniting the surrounding communities in laughter and fellowship.

"Leaving For A Different Kind Of 'Front'", The Edmonton Capital, August 28, 1914
“Leaving For A Different Kind Of ‘Front'”, The Edmonton Capital, August 28, 1914
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Canada History Week Day 6: Al Kareem Mosque

Lac La Biche has the highest percentage of Lebanese people per capita in Canada (14%) and the Lebanese have greatly contributed towards the growth of Lac La Biche into the community it is today. Most Lebanese in our community are Islamic, but they did not have a mosque, or masjid (مسجد), for several decades after their arrival in the area.

Al Kareem Mosque, Lac La Biche
Al Kareem Mosque, Lac La Biche

The arrival of the Lebanese in Lac La Biche is said to have been started by Alexander Hamilton, also known as Ali Ahmed Abouchadi, in 1906, before briefly leaving to attempt homesteading in Saskatchewan and returning in 1912. By the late 1940s, there were about ten Lebanese families living in the area. Without a mosque, these families would meet in their homes for prayers and other gatherings. In the 1950s, the Lac La Biche Muslim Association was established, originally called the “Arabic Moslim Association” according to one article in the Lac La Biche Herald.

 

In 1958, construction began on a multi-function center. This center would be a place to pray, gather together, and educate their children. The building was completed in the fall. This building was only the second mosque in Canada and the third in North America. The first mosque in Canada was built in Edmonton in 1938, twenty years earlier. In 1960, an Imam arrived to serve the community.

"To Build Moslem School In Area", Lac La Biche Herald, June 11, 1958
“To Build Moslem School In Area”, Lac La Biche Herald, June 11, 1958

In 1966, the Lac La Biche School Division wished to build a high school behind the Islamic Center and needed the site that the center was on. An agreement was reached and the center was moved to a different location. After the move, additions were made. The top floor of the building was thereafter used as a mosque, and the basement was used for schooling and social gatherings.

 

The Al Kareem Mosque as we know it was constructed in 1986. The current Muslim community in Lac La Biche is well known for its hospitality and vibrancy.

 

*Note: This post was published on Eid al-Fitr 2016. Eid Mubarak (عيد مبارك‎‎)!

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Canada History Week Day 5: Fur Farming

Silver foxes raised by Ida and Henry Tatum displayed at the entrance to the Lac La Biche Inn, 1945
Silver foxes raised by Ida and Henry Tatum displayed at the entrance to the Lac La Biche Inn, 1945

Fur farming is the practice of raising animals in captivity for their fur. Furs from animals caught in the wild are known as “wild fur”, as opposed to “farmed fur”. After demand for beaver furs dropped in the mid-nineteenth century, fur farming became more profitable. Fancy furs, such as mink and marten, continued to provide profits for companies in place of beaver, a staple fur. The two most popular furbearing animals farmed in Canada were the mink, Neovison vison, and the silver fox, Vulpes vulpes.

 

Lac La Biche provided thousands of mink and fox pelts over the period in which fur farms were in operation. While mink were often the most valuable furbearing animals in Canada, as they are today, fox pelts were also extremely popular among women, especially during the 1920s, and their price reflected that. A fox scarf made from a single pelt could range in price from $350 to $1000. In 1945, over $500,000 of mink pelts were sold from Lac La Biche fur farms. This accounts for just over a third of the total value of mink pelts sold from Alberta of that year, $1,487,731. Adjusted for inflation, today’s value of that $500,000 would be several million dollars.

A fox in its pen, Lac La Biche
A fox in its pen, Lac La Biche

The last mink ranch in Lac La Biche closed in 2007, largely due to lack of fish the rancher, Otto Fyith, was able to procure for his mink. The mass closures of commercial fisheries in lakes surrounding Lac La Biche resulted in a lack of large quantities of fish available for purchase in the area. At the height of Fyith’s career, he was raising around 2500 mink.  Today, the Canadian fur trade has two-thirds of its furs produced from fur farms and one-third from trapping. There are many trapping families in Lac La Biche contributing to the number of trappers that gives Alberta one of the highest levels of trapping in the country. Over several hundred years of inclusion in the fur trade, Lac La Biche has managed to shift its fur trade focus from wild furs, to fur farming, and back to wild furs.

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Canada History Week Day 4: Notre Dame des Victoires

The Lac La Biche Mission, a national historic site and a provincial historic resource, was once known as Notre Dame des Victoires. Joseph Cardinal had invited priests from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to the area, which was visited on his invitation by Father J.B. Thibault in 1844. The mission was first established on the shores of Lac La Biche near the Hudson’s Bay Company trading post, but was moved to the bay at which it resides today in 1855. At the time the mission was built, it was the third mission in what would become northern Alberta.

Nuns and students posed outside the convent, 1924
Nuns and students posed outside the convent, 1924

The priests were joined in 1862 by the Grey Nuns and ran Alberta’s first residential school at Notre Dame des Victoires. The Grey Nuns left in 1898 when the residential school was moved to Saddle Lake, where it remained until 1931, when it was moved yet again to St. Paul. A new order of nuns, the Daughters of Jesus (les Filles de Jesus), arrived in 1905 and took up residence in the former rectory, the present day convent, which was built in 1894. After living for a time in the rectory built when they vacated the 1894 building, the priests built a new rectory in 1924, which burned down in 2009.

Residential school students in 1896
Residential school students in 1896. Provincial Archives of Alberta, OB4486.

The church currently situated on the mission grounds was built in 1922 to replace a church destroyed by a tornado the year prior. One of the only things to survive the church’s destruction was the altar, seen in the current church today. The mission was home to many of Alberta’s “firsts”, such as the first printing press (brought by Father Grouard in 1877) and the first water-powered sawmill (1871). The mission was closed in 1963. Visitors today can take tours of the remaining buildings and learn more about the community that lived there. Visit their website at www.laclabichemission.com/

 

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Canada History Week Day 3: Spanish Influenza

Near the end of World War I, a great epidemic spread. Between 1918 and 1920, Spanish flu, a strain of H1N1 influenza, infected around 500 million people worldwide, killing between 50-100 million. It was spread partially due to infected soldiers returning from the war. The flu reached the Lac La Biche region around the end of October and early November 1918. Newspaper articles from the Edmonton Bulletin reported that nearly every house had at least one report of influenza and half the Cree in north had been wiped out by December 20, 1918.

Edmonton Bulletin, December 20, 1918
Edmonton Bulletin, December 20, 1918

The following entries from the first week of November 1918 detachment diary of Constable Fred Moses of the Alberta Provincial Police show the quick spread of the disease. The epidemic occurred at the most inopportune time for the detachment, beginning right as they dealt with the recapture and subsequent investigation of Julien “Barboulier” Desjarlais and declining around the time of the Great Fire of 1919.

Frid; Nov; 1st.. Fine Day.. Spl Ladouceur & Cont Moses from Edmonton to Lac-la-Biche. Cont Moses sick, went to bed on arrival. Corpl McPherson sick.

Sat; 2nd..Fine Day.. Spl Ladouceur sick, off duty. Const Moses sick, off duty. 103.5 [degrees]. Corpl McPherson sick, off duty. 103.5 [degrees].

Sun; 3rd..All sick. Off duty.

Mon; 4th. Spl Ladouceur attending to sick families & town duty. Const Moses in bed with “Flu”. Corpl McPherson varying 101-105 [degrees].

Tues; 5th..Fine Day.. Spl Ladouceur around town helping sick families etc & trying to arrange for help for them. Const Moses in bed with “Flu” temperature unknown. Corpl McPherson 102-104-105

Wed; 6th. Spl Ladouceur hauled some water for sick family Nick Czerkas & around town assisting, Const Moses & family, around until late trying to get attendants for sick people. Const Moses in bed with “Flu”, temp unknown. Corpl McPherson 101, 104.5-105 very bad.

Thurs; 7th.. Fine Day.. Spl Ladouceur town duty & to Nick Czerkas & with team to sick returned soldier. Const Moses up out of bed first time as wife down. Corpl McPherson 102.5, improvement. News that Germany has surrendered.

Constable Fred Moses at Lac La Biche with his son, Rod. Circa 1920. Glenbow Archives NA-2928-12
Constable Fred Moses at Lac La Biche with his son, Rod. Circa 1920. Glenbow Archives NA-2928-12

Reports through the month included various deaths in the area by the 9th and the arrival of a doctor, Dr. Weeks, by train on November 29. At the end of the first month of influenza, Moses concludes the following:

November 1918 General Remarks. Dr. Weeks has arrived here and is energetically fighting the “Flu” the epidemic is taking dreadful toll here among the Indians and half-breeds and help is urgently needed as they will not help themselves, large families are down with it and total number of cases must run close to the 300 mark in this entire district. Many deaths are reported and no doubt a number are not reported & are unknown, such as trappers out in the bush.

The flu seemed to disappear around February 1919, only to return in April. However, this strain was not as harsh as the first. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Lac La Biche was burned down the month after on May 19.

 

 

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Canada History Week Day 2: Early Freemen

Portage La Biche was used as a transportation corridor by Cree middlemen and Métis fur traders for many years before the arrival of David Thompson in 1798. The route Thompson took to Lac La Biche was shown to him by Laderoote, a guide who met Thompson’s brigade by modern-day Briereville. Laderoote was extremely familiar with the route, suggesting that he had taken it several times.

Freemen, traders not employed by the North West Company (NWC) or Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) moving through the area would not have been living in permanent structures. Instead, according to HBC employee John Lee Lewes (in service 1807-1853), the freemen in the Athabasca region, “get completely attached to the Country and Indian way of living and are all like them constantly moving about living in leathern tents made of the skins of the Moose or Buffaloe [sic]”.

Sketch of Portage La Biche by Peter Fidler, 1800
Sketch of Portage La Biche by Peter Fidler, 1800

 

The first freemen confirmed to have settled permanently in the Lac La Biche region were Antoine Desjarlais (whose brother decided to settle nearby at Lesser Slave Lake) and a Cardinal (or Cardinalle), although it is unclear whether it was Jacques or Joseph Cardinal, as both were frequently reported in the area. While it is clear that the Desjarlais family had found a permanent home at Lac La Biche by 1805, we can also see that their family was in the area numerous times beforehand through records of events such as the birth of Antoine’s nephew, Baptiste “Nishecabo” Desjarlais, at Lac La Biche in 1787. Both families are mentioned several times in records by those passing through the region, such as George Simpson, Gabriel Franchère, David Douglas, and Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché.

Open: 9am-5pm

May-August: Seven Days a Week

September-April: Tuesday to Saturday

Jubilee Hall 9910 101 Ave. Lac La Biche, AB

780-623-1727 info@laclabichemuseum.com

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