The Frontier

Frontier Statesman of the Canadian Northwest
Frederick Haultain
Copyright 1985 Western Producer prairie books
198 pages,
ISBN 0-88833-147-9.

An added interest on the streets of Fort Macleod were those intensely English figures known as the remittance men, and the not-so-numerous titled gentlemen with expensive clothes and some hazy notions about "rawnching." The foothills had been particularly attractive to that larger group made up of wayward sons from well-to-do English families. For reasons of convenience, these well-educated fellows were shipped to the colonies, to be followed by monthly allowances sufficient to keep them eating and drinking well enough. They were gentlemanly characters with accents from the best schools; they made excellent bar companions and were generally improvident. Rarely did one month's allowance last until the next one came; borrowing became a necessity. They were a popular element in society, but far from practical.

No less entertaining to the struggling ranchers and settlers were the English aristocrats, more responsible than the remittance men and measurably more successful. Citizens at both Fort Macleod and Pincher Creek were, at the time of Haultain's coming, cultivating an acquaintanceship with two of those high-born Englishmen, "Lord" Lionel Brook and Lord Boyle. The former, whether the title was legitimate or not, was the charming eccentric whose garb and escapades had high and unfailing entertainment value. After arriving in 1882 with cook, butler, coachman, and other servants, he acquired a ranch and proceeded to operate it according to his own unconventional ideas. Having introduced polo to that south country, a contest would take precedence over a roundup. According to a local story, after"a bit of a celebration" in Vancouver "Lord" Brook realized that he was supposed to be at Pincher Creek. Entering a taxi he answered the usual question: "Where to?" by replying: "Pincher Creek, of course." The driver asked, "Where's that?" and Brook replied: "Alberta, you damned fool."

Of Lionel Brook, the authors of A History of the Early Days of Pincher Creek,said: "His picturesque appearance was always to be noted at race meets and sports.... He was invariably riding in belted Norfolk jacket, riding breeches and gaiters, wide felt hat and monocle; the Indians called him 'the Window Pane Chief.'"

His contemporary, Lord Boyle, who also took to ranching, became Fort Macleod's first elected representative in the council of the Territories, and Frederick Haultain's ,predecessor in office. Local people who subscribed to a common prejudice in hiring English helpers, had no hesitation in voting for one, "especially if he were the only candidate who could read and write." Anyway, Lord Boyle was the elected representative from 1885 to 1887 when the restless fellow resigned, making a by-election necessary.

All these people became Haultain's friends. They fascinated him and drew him to chuckle. He liked people with pronounced individuality. He enjoyed Chiefs Crowfoot and Red Crow who were leaders in signing Blackfoot Treaty Number Seven, just a few years before; enjoyed the former police commissioner, Col. James Farquharson Macleod, and the courageous people who were laying a foundation for the ranching industry.

It might be too soon to judge the prospects in the practice of law at this place, but on one point Haultain was assured: life at Fort Macleod would never be dull. The opposing forces of law and lawlessness were both strong enough to guarantee an evermoving scene. Hungry Indians were killing cattle; a few traders were still crossing the border with firewater, and now and then there would be an episode like the theft of the mules belonging to the North West Coal and Navigation Company. In this instance the two alleged rustlers, McDonald and Counestie, ran the stolen animals across the boundary and into Montana. There the brands were recognized and Sheriff Joe Kipp arrested the suspects. But while escorting the accused men to Fort Benton, the sheriff was stopped by a party of cowboys who rudely relieved him of his charges. With a minimum of ceremony, the culprits were taken to a nearby tree where they paid the customary vigilante penalty of hanging. The stolen mules were recovered and sent back to Fort Macleod.

Haultain noted with a good jurist's satisfaction that while Fort Macleod people had no sympathy for rustlers, most of them were outspoken in their pleasure that the Canadian side of the boundary was still fairly free of this self-serve type of law enforcement. It had to be admitted, however, that local people were not unanimous in their view. Some stockmen who suffered heavy losses which the police had failed to retrieve became vocal in demanding the right to organize to protect their herds in their own way. The call for vigilante committees was heard at Medicine Hat and Lethbridge in 1887. The Lethbridge Newsreported that people were "indignant over the number of horses being stolen. . . . They were clamouring for the appointment of a sheriff with authority to follow up and arrest the marauders, and threaten, if this is not done, to put the matter into the hands of a vigilante committee. . .. Should the people of Medicine Hat find it necessary to take the law into their own hands, they will have the sympathy of the whole Northwest."

The roundups of rustlers as conducted on the Montana side would have found some supporters on the Canadian grass, but most residents were pleased that the northern range escaped these. Frederick Haultain observed that Fort Macleod, even in the absence of unofficial hangings, was sufficiently like a fast-moving drama.

A new and foreboding excitement gripped the place and the people when the Northwest Rebellion threatened to spread from its epicenter south of Prince Albert in 1885, Haultain's second year in the country. Happily, the violence did not reach Fort Macleod but the close proximity of irritated Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan Indians made the sense of danger very real. Women and children were loaded on a stagecoach and two police wagons and driven to Calgary, where they could take a train to still safer parts.

Suddenly, police numbers were all too small and the Fort Macleod detachment was further reduced as men were delegated to duty elsewhere. Every able-bodied man remaining was given a gun and told what to do. Haultain's military training made him especially useful and his law practice was suspended. He did not have sufficient riding experience to join Major John Stewart's Rocky Mountain Rangers or Inspector Sam Steele's mounted unit known as Steele's Scouts, but he could perform less glamourously at home by conducting drilling exercises during the day and patrolling the town at night. He discovered how long those night watches could be and how eerie the feeling when the night silence was broken by the sudden bark from a coyote, a hoot from an owl, or a shriek from an Indian on a nearby hill. But the period of trouble was short and life at Fort Macleod soon returned to normal.

The place, of course, was not without its refinements and on his very first Sunday in the town Haultain attended the Anglican Church and made the acquaintance of clergyman S. Trivett. He promised to come again and did. Nor did he forget that he was at Fort Macleod to practice law, and to his pleasant surprise, his services were being sought faster than he would have expected. On his first Monday morning, a cowboy charged with stealing a horse and saddle came for advice, and almost at once his room in Taylor's hotel was assuming the character of an office. Within days, he was renting a one-room log building for use in his practice, a structure which managed to survive to become one of the community's most prized museum possessions.