Sam Livingston and Jane Howse-Livingston family story
By 1897, the year that Sam Livingston died and Jane moved, only a stone gateway remained to show where Fort Garry once stood. The city of Winnipeg had grown up around the forts an dmany of the old buildings that Sam knew from his trading trips had been torn down. The Hudson's Bay headquarters, Hudson's Bay House, was still there......on the site of the old Fort Garry.
The Red River Valley was the first real home of the Metis people. There were different kinds of Metis. Most of the French Metis worked for the North West Company. Most of the British Metis worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. Some Metis didn't work for either company. Instead, they preferred to hunt and trap for themselves and sell or trade what they caught for what they needed from the fur companies. These Metis were known as Free Men. Sam Livingston, Flatboat Mclean and James Gibbons met at Fort Steele, BC, it was then called Wild Horse Creek. McLean told Gibbons about the gold in the river in Edmonton. A party of fifteen prospectors left Edmonton. They travelled by way of the Kicking Horse Pass to where Banff is now. They intended to follow an Indian trail to Mountain House Fort, but they became lost in the snow and had to return to Banff. They followed the Bow River down to where Calgary is now and thence to Mountain House. A Blackfoot raiding party took their horses and they arrived at Mountain House on foot. That party consisted of Jim Gibbons, Sam Livingston, Tom Smith and Big Tex. Richard Hardisty was in charge of the Fort and the men stayed there until spring and then came to Edmonton. Jim Gibbons went down to the Methodist Mission at Pakan, about seventy miles down the Saskatchewan River. With him were Sandy Anderson, Sam Livingston and Mike Shannon. The Reverend George McDougall was in charge. His wife and children were also there. In the spring of 1866, they mined gold on the Saskatchewan River and made about sixteen dollars a day. The work could only be done when the river was low enough to work the sand bars. Jim Gibbons stayed at Pakan that winter. In the Fall on 1867, Gibbons went with the Indians to hunt buffalo, South of where Vegreville is now. The plains were alive with buffalo. Gibbons spent the winter of 1867-68 with the Indians. In the summer of 1869, James Gibbons, with two partners, went to live at Miner's Flats (now Laurier Park).
The rest of the story is a insert from the book "Tell Me, Grandmother" as told by Dennis Dowler.
Grandfather Sam lived with his family in Wisconsin for a number of years. He was happy because he was free. Cousin Walter showed me some of the letters Grandfather Sam wrote to his parents back in Ireland. He called America the "Garden of Eden," a "Land of Promise flowing Bounteously with Food for Man." As Grandmother Jane always said, he had a way with words. But they weren't enough to persuade his parents and younger brothers and sisters to come to a strange country even when he told them that "for $1.25 an acre you can get ground and you won't have to manure it either." He finally convinced his brothers William and Richard to join him in America, but Grandfather Sam couldn't understand why the rest of the family stayed in Ireland, a land he said was full of "hunger, thirst, wickedness, wars, envy and distress."
He was so happy to be living in America that in 1850 he decided to put up with the dangers and hardships of the Oregon and California trails and go to California to seek his fortune digging gold. Grandfather Sam reached California in good spirits but he didn't find enough gold to return to Ireland a rich man, as he hoped. He found just enough to keep him looking for more. Still, he loved travelling and as a Forty-Niner, he covered a lot of country south across the Rio Grande River to Mexico, north through California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, still further north to British Columbia and the North West Territories. He never struck it rich but he enjoyed himself; he was free and made a lot of friends.
In 1857 he heard of gold on the Fraser and Thompson river in New Caledonia, as British Columbia was then called. While Grandfather Sam was looking for gold in the Kootenay region of the Rocky Mountains, he met his friend James Gibbons. Mr. Gibbons had come from Fort Edmonton with some other prospectors and they were excited about the fine gold to be found on the North Saskatchewan River. But it was so fine that most of the prospectors didn't know how to extract the gold grains from the sand. Grandfather Sam though he could do it, so a party of fourteen prospectors, his friend Mr. Gibbons included, set off with him to try and find this fine gold.
They had to first find the North Saskatchewan River. There was no trail and they had no map. They had to fight their way through thick forests, over high mountains, along rushing rivers. Grandmother Jane said they used the Kicking Horse Pass to get to what we now call Banff. That was 1864 and nobody lived at Banff then. They tried to go across country to Rocky Mountain House but they still couldn't find the North Saskatchewan River. They found rivers but they didn't know which ones they were or where they went. Finally the prospectors split into three parties: one gave up and went south to Montana; the second wandered east along the Bow; and the third, consisting of Grandfather Sam and James Gibbons, rode north on horseback.
They followed game trails, Indian trails, creeks and rivers. They drifted about all summer, lost a lot of time and used up all their food. Summer passed into fall and still they hadn't found the North Saskatchewan River. By October they had used up all their ammunition and were forced to eat their horses. Eventually they were down to one horse, and they even lost that .... to a party of Blackfoot Indians.
Desperate, lost, weak from hunger and shivering from cold, they saw the trail of a travois in the snow and followed it. They had no idea where it led, but they stumbled along it until, more dead than alive, they collapsed at Rocky Mountain House.
Chief Factor Hardisty saved them from starvation. He welcomed them into the fort and gave them all the food he had .... rabbit stew .... and a bunk to sleep on. There wasn't much else because the Blackfoot Indians, angry that they were told to take their furs down river to Fort Edmonton, had burned the fort at Rocky Mountain House. It had been closed since the year before. There were very few people left .... just the Factor, a few Hudson's Bay workers and the famous missionary, Father Lacombe, who had his shack across the river. Chief Factor Hardisty let Sam and James rest for a week, them he gave them snowshoes and pointed the way to Fort Edmonton further down the North Saskatchewan River.
It was the middle of December 1864 when the two prospectors reached Fort Edmonton. By this time, so heartily sick of rabbit stew. They didn't want to stay at Fort Edmonton because at the time it was very small and the few workers living there spoke mostly French, Gaelic and Cree. Grandfather Sam asked if there was any other place he and his friend could stay for the winter until it was time to pan gold again, a place where people spoke English. Chief Factor Christie and Malcolm Groat, another Hudson's Bay Company man, pointed the two adventures down river to Fort Victoria, a good couple of days snowshoeing away. And that was where he met Grandmother Jane. Sam and James Gibbons stayed in Fort Victoria all winter. When the ice went in the spring, Mr. Gibbons decided to seek adventure somewhere else and he went away to Fort Edmonton. He has his name on the map too .... the town of Gibbons, near Edmonton, Alberta, is named after him.
Sam Livingston's funeral was supposed to be simple but it turned out to be the largest one in Calgary for many years. Over forty carriages joined in the procession. The N
The Red River Valley was the first real home of the Metis people. There were different kinds of Metis. Most of the French Metis worked for the North West Company. Most of the British Metis worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. Some Metis didn't work for either company. Instead, they preferred to hunt and trap for themselves and sell or trade what they caught for what they needed from the fur companies. These Metis were known as Free Men. Sam Livingston, Flatboat Mclean and James Gibbons met at Fort Steele, BC, it was then called Wild Horse Creek. McLean told Gibbons about the gold in the river in Edmonton. A party of fifteen prospectors left Edmonton. They travelled by way of the Kicking Horse Pass to where Banff is now. They intended to follow an Indian trail to Mountain House Fort, but they became lost in the snow and had to return to Banff. They followed the Bow River down to where Calgary is now and thence to Mountain House. A Blackfoot raiding party took their horses and they arrived at Mountain House on foot. That party consisted of Jim Gibbons, Sam Livingston, Tom Smith and Big Tex. Richard Hardisty was in charge of the Fort and the men stayed there until spring and then came to Edmonton. Jim Gibbons went down to the Methodist Mission at Pakan, about seventy miles down the Saskatchewan River. With him were Sandy Anderson, Sam Livingston and Mike Shannon. The Reverend George McDougall was in charge. His wife and children were also there. In the spring of 1866, they mined gold on the Saskatchewan River and made about sixteen dollars a day. The work could only be done when the river was low enough to work the sand bars. Jim Gibbons stayed at Pakan that winter. In the Fall on 1867, Gibbons went with the Indians to hunt buffalo, South of where Vegreville is now. The plains were alive with buffalo. Gibbons spent the winter of 1867-68 with the Indians. In the summer of 1869, James Gibbons, with two partners, went to live at Miner's Flats (now Laurier Park).
The rest of the story is a insert from the book "Tell Me, Grandmother" as told by Dennis Dowler.
Grandfather Sam lived with his family in Wisconsin for a number of years. He was happy because he was free. Cousin Walter showed me some of the letters Grandfather Sam wrote to his parents back in Ireland. He called America the "Garden of Eden," a "Land of Promise flowing Bounteously with Food for Man." As Grandmother Jane always said, he had a way with words. But they weren't enough to persuade his parents and younger brothers and sisters to come to a strange country even when he told them that "for $1.25 an acre you can get ground and you won't have to manure it either." He finally convinced his brothers William and Richard to join him in America, but Grandfather Sam couldn't understand why the rest of the family stayed in Ireland, a land he said was full of "hunger, thirst, wickedness, wars, envy and distress."
He was so happy to be living in America that in 1850 he decided to put up with the dangers and hardships of the Oregon and California trails and go to California to seek his fortune digging gold. Grandfather Sam reached California in good spirits but he didn't find enough gold to return to Ireland a rich man, as he hoped. He found just enough to keep him looking for more. Still, he loved travelling and as a Forty-Niner, he covered a lot of country south across the Rio Grande River to Mexico, north through California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, still further north to British Columbia and the North West Territories. He never struck it rich but he enjoyed himself; he was free and made a lot of friends.
In 1857 he heard of gold on the Fraser and Thompson river in New Caledonia, as British Columbia was then called. While Grandfather Sam was looking for gold in the Kootenay region of the Rocky Mountains, he met his friend James Gibbons. Mr. Gibbons had come from Fort Edmonton with some other prospectors and they were excited about the fine gold to be found on the North Saskatchewan River. But it was so fine that most of the prospectors didn't know how to extract the gold grains from the sand. Grandfather Sam though he could do it, so a party of fourteen prospectors, his friend Mr. Gibbons included, set off with him to try and find this fine gold.
They had to first find the North Saskatchewan River. There was no trail and they had no map. They had to fight their way through thick forests, over high mountains, along rushing rivers. Grandmother Jane said they used the Kicking Horse Pass to get to what we now call Banff. That was 1864 and nobody lived at Banff then. They tried to go across country to Rocky Mountain House but they still couldn't find the North Saskatchewan River. They found rivers but they didn't know which ones they were or where they went. Finally the prospectors split into three parties: one gave up and went south to Montana; the second wandered east along the Bow; and the third, consisting of Grandfather Sam and James Gibbons, rode north on horseback.
They followed game trails, Indian trails, creeks and rivers. They drifted about all summer, lost a lot of time and used up all their food. Summer passed into fall and still they hadn't found the North Saskatchewan River. By October they had used up all their ammunition and were forced to eat their horses. Eventually they were down to one horse, and they even lost that .... to a party of Blackfoot Indians.
Desperate, lost, weak from hunger and shivering from cold, they saw the trail of a travois in the snow and followed it. They had no idea where it led, but they stumbled along it until, more dead than alive, they collapsed at Rocky Mountain House.
Chief Factor Hardisty saved them from starvation. He welcomed them into the fort and gave them all the food he had .... rabbit stew .... and a bunk to sleep on. There wasn't much else because the Blackfoot Indians, angry that they were told to take their furs down river to Fort Edmonton, had burned the fort at Rocky Mountain House. It had been closed since the year before. There were very few people left .... just the Factor, a few Hudson's Bay workers and the famous missionary, Father Lacombe, who had his shack across the river. Chief Factor Hardisty let Sam and James rest for a week, them he gave them snowshoes and pointed the way to Fort Edmonton further down the North Saskatchewan River.
It was the middle of December 1864 when the two prospectors reached Fort Edmonton. By this time, so heartily sick of rabbit stew. They didn't want to stay at Fort Edmonton because at the time it was very small and the few workers living there spoke mostly French, Gaelic and Cree. Grandfather Sam asked if there was any other place he and his friend could stay for the winter until it was time to pan gold again, a place where people spoke English. Chief Factor Christie and Malcolm Groat, another Hudson's Bay Company man, pointed the two adventures down river to Fort Victoria, a good couple of days snowshoeing away. And that was where he met Grandmother Jane. Sam and James Gibbons stayed in Fort Victoria all winter. When the ice went in the spring, Mr. Gibbons decided to seek adventure somewhere else and he went away to Fort Edmonton. He has his name on the map too .... the town of Gibbons, near Edmonton, Alberta, is named after him.
Sam Livingston's funeral was supposed to be simple but it turned out to be the largest one in Calgary for many years. Over forty carriages joined in the procession. The N
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