My father took this picture in 1953 at the railway crossing at grade in front of the Robin Hood flour mills. I am standing in the middle with my two older sisters Helen and Betty,. Behind me there is a lot going on the CPR’s West End coach engine is switching out some passenger coaches. This picture was taken before the city of Calgary built the 4th St. subway to alleviate this downtown traffic bottleneck. The Robin Hood mills are now long gone along with the CPR’s passenger trains. CPRs new corporate are now located at the Ogden Shops, whereas they were paying rent, a million dollars a year to Gulf Canada Square. The new CEO an American Hunter Harrison looked at the real estate that the CPR owned, and decided to use the closed Ogden Shops Complex, on the roof of the newer steel car shop that was built in the 1970s he had two new floors added to the building this was the new headquarters of the railway. Many of the other buildings were repurposed as headquarters for other departments of the railway. It now looks more like a university campus, with beautiful landscaped grounds, sculptures, statues, and waterfalls.
Little did I know at the time the significance of this picture would have on my future when I grew older.
On December 13th, 1878 in the parish of Fraserburgh, in the County of Aberdeen Scotland, my grandfather Frederick Stewart Buchan was born. My grandmother Hermine Keller who was of German descent, and was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1876, her father Charles had moved the family to Belgium as he didn’t want his sons conscripted in any wars. There he prospered owning a large hotel and dining room. My grandmother was working as a nanny in Scotland where she met my grandfather. They were married in Scotland on April 18, 1905. Frederick worked as a City Hall clerk in Elgin, where there was not much of a chance to prosper. My grandmother Hermine asked her parents that in lieu of her inheritance, would they pay for steamship passage, and train tickets across Canada in order to start a new life in a new world. They agreed and my grandfather left Elgin in the spring of 1911, my grandmother Hermine, my uncle Fred, and my father were to follow after visiting her family in Brussels. My grandfather Frederick rode the CPR across Canada and planed to go to Vancouver, he stopped overnight in Calgary and its new sandstone City Hall had just opened, and they needed clerks, so the family settled in Calgary. My grandfather Frederick started as an accountant, and was appointed as the Assistant City Treasurer in 1915, and when the City Treasurer passed away in 1925 he was appointed to that office. He remained in that position until 1940 when he passed away at age 62.
My mother Vivian Eve Brabant was born in Lebret, Saskatchewan on October 3,1912 my Grandfather Alexandre was born on February 1, 1870 in Saskatchewan although at that time it was just part of the Northwest Territories not becoming a province until 1905 like Alberta. My grandmother Philomene Alice Fisher was born on July 5, 1878 in Manitoba she married my grandfather in Lebret on February 5, 1898. Her father George Fisher was a fur trapper from Prairie du Chien Wisconsin at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers born July 25, 1830. As settlers came west my great-grandfather moved to Canada and settled in Manitoba at the Red River Settlement at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in the Red River Valley after the War of 1812 the Hudson’s Bay Company gave Lord Selkirk a grant of 116,000 acres to bring Scottish settlers to. The Métis opposed the settlers because they feared losing their lands, since they were squatters and held no legal title. Many Métis were working as fur traders, this included my Great-grandfather George Fisher, with both the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company. Métis the word stems from the French moite or “half” describe a people who stem from the French and Scottish fur traders and voyageurs of the fur trade days that married Indian women. The Canadian Government gave the Métis script to every father, wife, and children the choice of 220 acres of land away from the Red River Settlement, or $220. My great-grandfather chose the land and moved the family to Saskatchewan is, he founded the community of Willow Bunch, and opened for trading outposts at Fort Qu Applle and Batoche. I have my Métis card.
My name is Larry Buchan, I was born in Calgary at the Holy Cross Hospital on April 20, 1949. I have two older sisters Helen and Betty born in 1941, and in 1942, and one younger sister Kathy born in 1956. My father Herman Noble Buchan was born in Nairn, Scotland on November 30, 1908, he had an older brother Frederick born in 1907.