Alberta?s first Premier, Alexander Cameron Rutherford, had two children. The eldest was a son named Cecil, who was born in 1890 while the family was still in Ontario. The second child was a daughter. Hazel Elizabeth Rutherford was born in 1893. As historian Lisa Mort Putland explains, the children helped their parents make the transition from the nineteenth into the twentieth century:

The children of the Rutherford family are the people who changed the dynamics of the family very much so, in the sense that because Mrs. Rutherford had been brought up a strict Victorian lady, and Dr. Rutherford had his own work and his own ideals. Cecil and Hazel became the new generation of Rutherfords. For example, the Rutherfords were Baptist and Methodist. And they strongly disapproved of the new modern dancing music that was out and about. However, Cecil and Hazel, when they moved into Rutherford House, were in their teenage years. And when they went to university, Dr. Rutherford felt it socially important that they attend the university dances. And so it was Cecil who actually brought home the wondrous Victrola, or record player. And Dr. Rutherford strongly disapproved. However, it made good sense for the Rutherfords to be seen dancing at the university dances, so he was allowed to keep the Victrola in the house.

Their father had helped establish the University of Alberta while he was still Premier. And the nearby brick mansion they moved into in 1911 quickly became a hub of social activity. And Hazel found her early life at Rutherford House an exciting time. She would be one of the helping hands in what they called the Founder?s Day Tea. And that was a party where all of the university graduates, after planting a tree in honour of their convocation, would come to Rutherford House for afternoon tea. And it was called the Founder?s Day Party. The first one was held in May of 1912, and they went right up until 1938. And in the early years, Hazel remembered hanging out of a window counting just a few heads. And towards the later part of the Thirties, there would be hundreds of students. And so rather than a formal coming-out party, she was involved in social activities like that that placed her in the center of a social scene.

Even when Hazel married, she stayed close to her parents, moving her house near the university and just behind Rutherford House.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.