James Gadsby
By B. Parlby

Pioneers are endowed by nature with very distinct qualities, great natural strength and virility, and an adventurous and a restless spirit, always keen to probe the unknown.  Conditions on our early Canadian and American frontiers seemed to nurture these qualities, and to beckon to the youth from many places to come, to explore, and to create a new way of living.  Consequently, our pioneers were almost invariably individuals who seemed to have grown too big for the conventional moulds into which they had been born; men who loved freedom and the untrammelled spaces of the western praries.  Of such an adventurous breed was Jim Gadsby.

James A. Gadsby was born in St. Catherine's, Ontario , on December 4th, 1847, the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Gadsby; according to some accounts his father was a blacksmith in that town.  While still in his mid-teens he left home and crossed over the border into the United States while the American Civil War was still in progress.  For some time he made his living offering himself as a substitute for any young American boy who suddenly found himself drafted into the Union Army, and all this for a fee of $500.00, the usual price.  A day or so later Jim would desert, and try again later at a different basr under another name.  But one officer recognized his as a former enlistee, and his military career was at an end.

After the Civil War ended Jim drifted westward, and fought under Custer in the historic battles with Sitting Bull and his braves.  Tired of army life he deserted again and worked at whatever job came his way.  He told his friend Rev. George Morgan, that about this time he was employed by a group of men to look after their horses.  It was some time later that he learned that his previous employers had been members of the Jesse James Gang.

Jim tried prospecting in the Deadwood Hills of North Dakota without much luck.   Then he gradually moved northward, and in the late '70's returned across the border to his native Canada, this time to Alberta.

Before the C.P.R. went through with its many chains of freight-bearing cars, Jim drove teams freighting from Winnipeg to Edmonton.  He used to say it took a full six weeks to make the trip.  He also said that if a team of oxen and a team of horses started at the same time the oxen would beat the horses in to Edmonton.  One should pause to realize how importasnt this business was in pioneer days.  All supplies of food, tools, everything a frontiersman might require, had to come by way of the Red River cart and teams of oxen or horses.

Jim rode as a cowhand on the Stimson Ranch west of High River at the time that George Lane was foreman there; and he landed in Calgary a year or two before the Canadian Pacific thundered in to that little cow town, there was soon to become the centre of distribution for most of Alberta.

In later years Jim delighted in spinning yarns of his early adventures.  One of his favorite stories was about the time in 1885 that he and his pal, Butlin, shipped in a barrell of whiskey from Manitoba without bothering to get a permit from the Lieutenant Governor at Regina.  Alberta was at this time still part of the North-West Territories, with Regina as the capital.  The police were suspicious of the contents of the barrell marked "salt" for a John Gallager, and they kept watch day and night.  Jim's partner talked to the Mountie while Jim crawled under the platform with a length of half-inch pipe and a length of rubber hose with a cork in the end.  Jim bored a hole up through the platform, inserted the pipe, and drained all the "tangle-foot" (liquor), fifty gallons of it, transporting it in a five gallon can to his waiting team and rig.  The next morning when the police sent their team and wagon to pick up the barrell it was entirely empty.

With the completion of the C.P.R. in 1885 the need for freighting from Winnipeg was past, and Jim Gadsby began freighting from Calgary to Edmonton.  It was during these years that he became acquainted with a young Englishman from Devonshire, Edward Parlby, who was also engaged in freighting.  Both men worked on the survey gang, Edward for only a few months.  Jim continued for much longer, and worked with the man who first mapped the country between Red Deer and the Athabaska Eivers.  Freighting from Calgary to Edmonton, at that time took in the neighborhood of ten days.  Fording the Red Deer River, especially at flood time, could be hazardous, and a driver ran the risk of a dunking or having his team and rig swept down to the nearest gravel bar or island.

The survey northward was the writing on the wall for the ranchers who depended on the open range for grass for their herds of cattle, and their eyes turned elsewhere for fresh pastures, this time eastward.  In 1888 Jim Gadsby and Edward Parlby made their first journey into the country just west of Buffalo Lake and on as far as the present town of Stettler.  As far as is known they were the first two white men to come into this part, definitely the first settlers.  This was an exploratory trip, and they returned westward for the winter to Wolf Creek, west of Ponoka, where Edward Parbly was ranching.

In 1890 Edward's brother Walter returned from tea planting in Assam(Northern India), and the two brothers went into partnership in the ranching business with Jim Gadsby as a frequent helper.  The railway bed had been surveyed from Calgary to Edmonton, and they knew it was time to move on.  They chose the valley of the creek some twenty-five miles east from where Lacombe is now.  Here, on the west side of a little lake, they built a log cabin with a sod roof, complete with tin chimney thrust through an empty oil can.  Thus Long Valley Ranch was first established.  This was a young man's world.  Jim at forty was the oldest of the three; Edward was twney-six, and Walter a few years older.

Jim Gadsby remained their close associate for a good many years.  He settled further north, west of Spotted Lake and close to a beautiful lake with winding bays to which he gave his name.  During the winter of 1888-89 Jim looked after the cattle at Long Valley, and Walter Parbly cared for those at Wolf Creek, while Edward returned to Devon, Engalnd for a visit to his parents.

Jim continued his freighting operations, but now travelled east from the new railway and the hamlet of Lacombe.  Supplies for the settlers moving eastward had to be freighted out to their new homes.  Jim's Red River cart and bull team were a familiar sight at the Lacombe Town Corral and along the old Buffalo Lake Trail.

It must have been about this time that Jim found his wife, a young Indian woman.   The story most commonly told (from "The Memoirs of a Parson" by Rev. George Morgan) runs like this.  One day while freighting along the trail neer where Tees was later located Jim caught up to an Indian buck sitting in a wagon which was stuck in a mud hole.  A pretty young squaw was wading in the mud, pushing hard on a wheel to try and free the wagon.  Jim got down off his load and helped her push the Indian's vehicle out of the muc hole.  After some altercation with the buck, Jim returned to his own wagon, only to discover the young squaw up on his load, along with a little girl papoose who had been placed in the bush for safety.  In spite of any of Jim's arguments to the contrary she refused to budge pretending to neither hear or understan.  Jim drove on into the Lamerton Trading Post and found that a priest from the Hills of Peace (Wetaskiwin) was there.  That night Jim and the Cree girl were married, and remained together until Jim's death almost forty years later.

Much of the information over the next few years was gleaned from the diaries of Walter Parbly.  Almost one hundred entries in all show how closely they were working together at that time.  Entries reffering to ranch work, herding cattle, fighting bush fires, visiting Jim when he was sick, etc.  One entry made on March 20th, 1892 is most interesting.  "Jim (Gadsby) and Jerry Potts came to dinner"; Jerry Potts, the half-breed scout who was the R.N.W.M.P.'s right hand man in many of their expeditions!  Was he on business for the Mounted Police who frequently dropped in?   Was he a friend from Jim's earlier days in SOuthern Alberta?  One can only Guess.

Jim evidently had something of a hot temper, for an entry June 20th, 1892 is very amusing.  "Jim Gadsby came overr, covered with war paint re NcGhee's cow".   The cow was a breachy one.

That October, 1892, Charlie Mott, McGhee, Barnett, Owen Cook and Jim Gadsby helped drive cattle to Wetaskiwin to be shipped.  The cattle drive took four days.

Jim Gadsby was one of the pioneers who helped built the little log church of St. Monica's near Lamerton, and on February 22nd, 1895 he stayed overnight with the Parlbys to be present for the service help by the Rev. H. Goodman the next day.  This church was dedicated two years later, on May 16th, 1897, by the pioneer missionary Bishop Pinkham, and is still in use seventy-six years later.

As the years moved on towards the twentieth century more settlers came in.   Jim Gadsby continued freighting from Lacombe to Lamerton, to the little trading post set up by Fletcher Bredin.  In addition he herded and wintered cattle for Alfred Inskip, at one time propieter of the Adelphi Hotel, Lacombe.  He also cared for steers belonging to the Parlby Brothers.

His home resposibilty began to increase as the first of his large family began to arrive.  Some insight into the primitive conditionds of the time may be gained from the fact that the third baby was born out in the country in what is today known as "Buelow's Pasture".  Both mother and baby daughter Mary, survived the ordeal without any apparent ill effects.

As his family grew up Jim became more and more withdrawn from his old assocaites.   Mrs. Gadsby was undoubtedly retiring by nature and seldom left home, nor did Jim encourage her to do so.  The Cree language was customarily used in the home.   Moreover, he did not have his family formally educated because he thought the white man's education spoiled the Indian, and tried to fit him for a life for which he was unsuited.

Eight children were born to the Gadsby's: Sarah, James Napoleon(Nappie), Mary (Mrs. Will Stevens), Anne (Jacko), Fanny (Patty), Jane (Mrs. Baptiste), Margaret (Maggie, Mrs. Jim Saskatchewan), and Johnny.  It was a great sorrow to the family that Sarah and Johnny died comparitively early in life.  When Jim's sister came from Hamilton, Ontario, to visit him she wanted to take come of the children back to the East to be educated, but Jim refused.  He thought that the difference in the life would be too great, and that it was a mistake to change the Indian in his ways.

Jim belonged to the Anglican church and became a friend of Canon George Moore Morgan, and Jim used to go visit him at Mirror.  Canon Morgan tells this story.

"One day I happened to be in the hardware store when Jim was there.  A smart Alec who did not go to church himself said, 'Why don't you get Jim to go to church?   Why don't you go Jim?'"

Jim replied, "I do not go because I think I have good reasons, but I'd like to tell you that I had all my children baptized in that little log church which I helped build, and never let a day pass without having prayers with my family".  Canon Morgan goes on to say, "I have seen the children's names in the parich register, and one daughter married there.  She married the ex-strong man Sandeau's valet".

Doris Stevens Albers, Jim's granddaughter, clearly remembers Jim conducting family prayers, and the family kneeling.  Another vivid memory is a quart sealer full of candies which Jim kept for his granchildren when they came to visit him.  Doris says that it was her older sister Mary's special job on Sunday's to take her to see their grandfather.

For many years Jim drove a team of shite horses by the names of Lucy and Topsey.   Later a horse called Charlie was driven in the team.  On the occasions when Jim stayed too long in Mirror and over-indulged, his faithful old team would always bring him home.  As the horses grew older and quieter, the grandchildren rode them to school at Gadsby Lake.

Jim Gadsby died in the Stettler Hospital on September 13th, 1932.  His wife, who had been with him so many years, did not long survive him.  Mrs. Gadsby died in 1935.

What was the mease of this man in the eyes of others?  One neighbor had this to say:  "A remarkable man with not much conventional education, but he was an avid reader.  He subscribed to several periodicals, and could talk on any subject".

A close neighbor and friend, Guy Pym, now of Edmonton, Alberta says:   "Jim Gadsby was a great part of the beginnings of this country.  Ronald (Pym) and I were both great fans of his.  He was smarter than he was usually given credit for.  A book could surely be written on the incidents of his life alone.   During World Was I his knowledge of world affairs, troop distributions, etc., etc., was fantastic, and with it he was ardently patriotic".

Guy's wife Octavia describes him as "A dear old man, so very nice and kind".

Perhaps one of the most significant comments was made by the Reverend George Moore Morgan, "Yes, I do know something about Jim Gadsby.  He was a friend of mine".

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Art for these graphics from:  Mr. Behlen's Gallery